transcript
Speaker 1:
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Speaker 2:
[01:23] This is Lenny Time, non-refundable fee, product purchase required, terms and service restrictions apply.
Speaker 3:
[01:27] Details at lowes.com/terms, subject to change.
Speaker 4:
[01:31] Hello again, it's Brennan Lee Mulligan, and you're listening to part two of this episode of Critical Role. Thanks for watching. If you haven't watched part one yet, pause this now and head over there first. What are you doing? Otherwise, let's jump right back into this adventure and the world of Aramand. Liam said, whack in it. Folks, we are back, we are back here in the sewers underneath Caravan Hill, the city of Dol-Makjar. What an eventful combat it has been. Crowkeepers were sent off on a wild goose chase and chased that goose right back to our heroes. Azune Nayar just tanked a surround sound rogue quad strike only to be joined by the rescued Demetus Blix. Halandil Fang dropped into the darkness, healing worded the young grad student illusionist and with an upside down bat swing, Murray Mag'Nesson got her wayward pupil back up on his feet and out the door. Bolaire, we just ended on Bolaire's turn as he dropped down post-shatter spell to find Laumi, who had dissolved the body of the Crowkeeper Captain Zaggy and delivered a Dissonant Whispers, banishing this entity down deeper into the darkness. On a nat 20 intimidation and a failed wisdom save against Dissonant Whispers, Laumi has exited combat, leaving all of you with a room with four Crowkeepers. And Azune, that is going to be your turn. Murray and Davinos have entered the room and there is an illusory knight made of light that is helping you in combat. Murray's color spray has blinded two of the Crowkeepers beside you. It will only last for a turn, but you do have advantage against those Crowkeepers.
Speaker 5:
[03:28] I have advantage on everybody because my innate sorcery is still active. As that Vortex spins around me, I turn my attention to the two that are not blinded and I do the following things. First thing I do is I convert a first level spell slot into a sorcery point because I was down one and I need two for the following thing. I'm going to first, for my action, attack one of those with Booming Blade. Again, the sparks of fire and electricity are absorbent to my Warhammer as I strike at this guy with advantage. And that's gonna be a 20 to hit.
Speaker 4:
[04:01] That's a hit.
Speaker 5:
[04:02] He's gonna do Magnet. Four points of bludgeoning damage as he gets pushed with my weapon mastery 10 feet away from me and is now ensheathed in booming energy.
Speaker 4:
[04:17] Cool, and he gets pushed 10 feet away from you?
Speaker 5:
[04:20] 10 feet away.
Speaker 4:
[04:21] With Booming Blade, sick, very, very cool, amazing.
Speaker 5:
[04:24] And I'm not done because now I'm going to quicken spell with that sorcery point that I have. Bonus action, I'm gonna move into the other one that is not blinded, and I'm gonna repeat the same thing.
Speaker 4:
[04:33] Yo!
Speaker 5:
[04:34] Booming Blade on that guy.
Speaker 4:
[04:35] Hell yes, let's do it.
Speaker 6:
[04:37] Sorcerers, baby!
Speaker 5:
[04:39] And that is gonna be a 17.
Speaker 4:
[04:40] 17 hits.
Speaker 5:
[04:41] Great, that guy takes eight points of bludgeoning damage, gets pushed 10 feet, and he also is sheathed in booming energy.
Speaker 4:
[04:51] Bam, you guys watch Azune just clear half the battle for you, boom, as these two thieves go flying ass over tea kettle back into the chamber. Incredible Azune.
Speaker 5:
[05:04] Where is the exit?
Speaker 4:
[05:06] The exit is this door ahead of you.
Speaker 5:
[05:08] Okay, I'm gonna stay where I am, so that people can get around me towards the exit.
Speaker 4:
[05:14] Awesome. That is going to go and be the Crowkeeper's turn. As these two that you've knocked backwards are going to reengage with you, I believe booming blade.
Speaker 5:
[05:23] Activates, poof, poof. Hell yes. The first one who took four now takes six points of thunder damage, poof.
Speaker 4:
[05:30] Unbelievable.
Speaker 5:
[05:31] And the second one who took eight earlier takes four, so 12 total on that guy.
Speaker 4:
[05:37] You see one of them does not manage to get up as he poof just rides, stays down as that sort of electric and thundering power resonates. The other one looking on death door rushes, mostly to just give his blind allies flanking to cancel out their blinded status. He's gonna take a swing with advantage. Does a 22 hit?
Speaker 5:
[06:06] Reaction shield.
Speaker 4:
[06:07] Again.
Speaker 1:
[06:07] Oh my god.
Speaker 7:
[06:09] Come with me if you want to live.
Speaker 4:
[06:11] These guys can't stop rolling useless 19s. They are rolling so hot and it doesn't matter.
Speaker 5:
[06:20] I am out of first level spell slots now with that reaction.
Speaker 4:
[06:23] Unbelievable. That is the enemy's turn. We come back to Halandil Fang.
Speaker 7:
[06:28] Okay, I see Bolaire, did you just pull back up from the hole at the end of the thing? All right, I see something. I see the mask morphing back.
Speaker 3:
[06:35] Oh, it's already back.
Speaker 7:
[06:36] It's already back? Long way from Salon Nights, and I rip Thiazzi's blade off of my belt and brush past you into the entrance and size up the group I see that Azune is surrounded. Yes. And I'm hoping I remember how to sword fight, and I'm gonna swing around. Do I have enough movement to get here?
Speaker 4:
[06:58] Yes, you can get to flanking on that other row.
Speaker 7:
[07:05] Yep, that is two 18s, so that'll be 21 to hit.
Speaker 4:
[07:15] 21.
Speaker 7:
[07:17] Yep, 21 to hit.
Speaker 4:
[07:19] 21 is a hit. On that hit, go ahead and roll damage.
Speaker 7:
[07:24] Big D6, rolling, here we go. Two plus three is five points of damage from the Liar's Blade.
Speaker 4:
[07:32] Rushing in, Azune, who has been shielded now two rounds straight, gleaming armor. This is a veteran of the Falconer's Rebellion and an arcane marshal of the city. This is a guy who comes down into dark holes to find people doing shit all the time. Standing here, you look and watch how. All of you see the guy that Fiazi spent his life keeping away from this. You circle around, first time the sword is in your hands. How do you want to do this? Woo!
Speaker 7:
[08:02] I just rush up. I'm thinking about Azune, who is family now. I took him in, hit my brother, sent him to me. I took him in like he was a nephew or a cousin, and he became family, and I don't have time to size up the situation. I just see that he's in danger. I have put this life behind me. It is back, and I just slide the blade right through this guy's gut right here, all the way through, and I'm looking over his shoulder at you, and then pull the liar's blade out and watch as the guy crumples to the ground, and this is all happening in seconds, but you watch as I just let the sword hang at my side and stare at it. And that's the end of my turn.
Speaker 8:
[08:42] Whoopsies, you did a murder.
Speaker 4:
[08:44] Here we go. We have this life, it has found you. Demidus, looking at the image of the knight here, see Demidus gets up, still badly injured, hops out of your arms, Murray, and stands, you see, casts only like an half of a disguise self spell, but sees that the other two are blinded. And you see, yeah, Demidus stands up and is going to roll a deception check with advantage with a plus six to this roll, the roll of advantage, but he's looking for a DC 20, so one of these needs to be a 14 or higher. 19 and 16 on the die. You see Demidus jumps to the side and goes wha! As an illusion just covers his throat and speaks perfectly in Thieves' Camp. Can I need you to speak Thieves' Camp?
Speaker 6:
[09:50] Oh! No, I don't think so.
Speaker 4:
[09:54] You just hear like, hand your stickers! In Zoggy's voice perfectly. Wow. And you see both of the blinded ones toss their weapons to their guild master. As their weapons go flying out of their hands. Apparently he said something in Thieves' Camp that registered as Zoggy asking for their weapons.
Speaker 9:
[10:16] I look at Demidus and I go, two college credits for that.
Speaker 4:
[10:23] Murry, that is your turn.
Speaker 9:
[10:27] Okay, so they are disarmed.
Speaker 4:
[10:29] And blind.
Speaker 9:
[10:29] And blind. Are we trying to kill these guys or just get GTFO?
Speaker 10:
[10:37] Honestly, we have, I think we have time to, not that I'm in there. We have time to actually do a search of this place. And I'd love one for questioning.
Speaker 9:
[10:45] We only need one. One for questioning. All right. Well, only need one. I'm going to pull out, let's see how this works. They updated the spell in 2024 to actually be useful. So we're going to try it. So Murray is going to once again go to those daggers that she has on the back of her belt. And this time she is going to actually physically pull one out. And I'm going to cast True Strike as I go for the jugular of the guy who is directly in front of me.
Speaker 4:
[11:25] Go ahead and roll with advantage.
Speaker 9:
[11:27] So basically...
Speaker 5:
[11:27] Is it a bonus action now or is it...?
Speaker 9:
[11:29] It's not a bonus action, but it's not... You do the attack in the same...
Speaker 7:
[11:34] As a part of it?
Speaker 9:
[11:35] In the same...
Speaker 7:
[11:37] Rounds.
Speaker 9:
[11:37] Yes, instead of waiting a whole turn and wasting your attack. So basically the new thing is that, guided by a flash of magical insight, you can make an attack with the weapon used in the spell's casting and I can use my spell casting ability for the attack damage rolls instead of using strength or dexterity.
Speaker 1:
[11:53] Oh, that's really good.
Speaker 9:
[11:54] That's way better. And then if the attack deals damage, I can choose for it to be radiant damage.
Speaker 4:
[12:00] Or the weapon's damage.
Speaker 9:
[12:01] Or the weapon's damage.
Speaker 4:
[12:02] I love that.
Speaker 9:
[12:02] They made that really good. They made it better, because before it was kind of useless. Yeah, you didn't want to waste a turn. A turn, yeah.
Speaker 4:
[12:09] I love that.
Speaker 9:
[12:12] So let's see what happens.
Speaker 4:
[12:14] Rolling with advantage because they are blinded.
Speaker 9:
[12:15] Oh my god, that's right. Let's go, let's go, let's go. Baby, that's a natural 19, so that's gonna put my attack at 25 to this guy.
Speaker 4:
[12:26] 25, hell yes. Let me just make sure that the blinded condition, till the end of your next turn, yeah, you got it. So, great, so at the end of this turn, they will come out of blinded. You hit.
Speaker 9:
[12:36] Okay, let's see, it's just a d4, but hey, that's one damage, baby.
Speaker 4:
[12:40] Plus your intelligence modifier.
Speaker 9:
[12:42] Plus my intelligence modifier. Oh, wait, really? That is seven damage.
Speaker 7:
[12:50] That's all magic, that is.
Speaker 9:
[12:51] That's all magic.
Speaker 4:
[12:55] Murray, reaching out into that divinatory sense, the same thing that allows you to cast augury, the same thing that allowed you to see into the Stone of Night song. Hell yes. In that way, you know when you rub your eyes and there's a lot of people's multiply and they kind of zoom into one? You do that with, yes, butterfly theory, there's infinite possible futures, but the closer you get to the present moment, it's way less than infinite. So you're like, in the next half a second, there's like 12 possible futures. Let's boil that down to one. Blam! And watch as sort of rippling through that next little fraction of time. Your dagger reaches out and you slash for seven points of damage. One of them is badly injured. There are now, only one is at full health. The other is badly injured. We are going to move on to Bolaire's turn here.
Speaker 9:
[13:47] I am, and then I will just use my movement. I still want to make sure that this student that I am rolling in the sewers with, I'm going to kind of once again grab him. And I just want to kind of shift a little just so we're not base to base with this guy. If we're able to.
Speaker 4:
[14:02] You grab Demetis and hoist him away. Because these guys are blinded, they will not get an attack of opportunity on you as you move away from them. Okay. And you scooch off with Demetis away from the living opponents. You grab Demetis and Demetis in Zagie's voice goes, Ananmica!
Speaker 1:
[14:20] Like, stop.
Speaker 11:
[14:21] Cast a yin character.
Speaker 4:
[14:22] Um, and, uh... He, he... Uh, uh, you grab Demetis and pull him away. Bolaire, that is you.
Speaker 10:
[14:29] Okay, I'm going to walk into the room and assess the situation.
Speaker 4:
[14:34] Wounded. These two are no longer blinded. The color spray leaves them. You and Azune Nayar are acting on the same initiative. This one right in front of Murray's badly injured. The other one is uninjured.
Speaker 10:
[14:45] Which one has the more appetizing body size and stature?
Speaker 7:
[14:51] That is subjective.
Speaker 10:
[14:53] It really isn't.
Speaker 4:
[14:54] This guy right here.
Speaker 10:
[14:55] The one who's uninjured?
Speaker 4:
[14:57] The one who's uninjured is one that is one that would not arouse any suspicion. Cool, cool.
Speaker 10:
[15:05] All right, I'm going to wander in and I'm going to... I'm going to wander right by the one who's badly injured and just pull my sword, give it a little shake, and use my bonus action to let it shatter down into a very, very fine...
Speaker 3:
[15:31] It's a scalpel, but slightly longer and heavier. It's a dagger, basically, of glass that's just left over.
Speaker 10:
[15:38] And I'm just going to go for a straight stab and cut. I'm just going to try and end this with that one.
Speaker 4:
[15:43] Oh, with the wounded one.
Speaker 10:
[15:44] Yeah. Cool.
Speaker 4:
[15:44] Give me an attack roll.
Speaker 10:
[15:47] I haven't done this yet. I'm so excited. It's dagger attack, straight d20. Oh, not great. Oh, I have advantage because we're flanking.
Speaker 4:
[15:59] Yes, you do.
Speaker 10:
[16:00] Thank god. It's the same. 13.
Speaker 4:
[16:05] 13 is a hit. Oh, thank god.
Speaker 10:
[16:07] That would have been really embarrassing. And then.
Speaker 4:
[16:11] I know.
Speaker 10:
[16:13] Let's just say eight points of necrotic damage.
Speaker 4:
[16:18] Incredible. This slit opens up with glass and it looks like the cut grows into the rest of the neck, just and falls to the ground dead. There is one crow keeper left, Azune. Bonus action here.
Speaker 10:
[16:36] That was, bonus was summoning. Just asleep, we're gonna need him for questioning.
Speaker 5:
[16:42] And I'm gonna clobber him.
Speaker 4:
[16:43] Oh yeah, give me attack, crow.
Speaker 5:
[16:45] I am gonna, I am gonna booming blade. Cool. Oh, I'm flanking.
Speaker 4:
[16:48] Flanking him, yep.
Speaker 5:
[16:49] I don't need to. Nope, straight attack. At advantage, because I'm flanking. And, oh.
Speaker 10:
[17:00] Going for a knockout?
Speaker 5:
[17:01] Yes, non-lethal, but I am, that's not gonna do it. So, it's gonna be a nine to hit. So I'm gonna consume another, a second level spell slot.
Speaker 12:
[17:14] Okay.
Speaker 5:
[17:15] To quicken spell, booming blade.
Speaker 12:
[17:17] Great, let's do it.
Speaker 5:
[17:21] Do I keep the one that rolled off? Or do I reroll it?
Speaker 4:
[17:24] Whatever you apply now is the rule forever.
Speaker 5:
[17:27] If you reroll it, it would have hit.
Speaker 7:
[17:28] Keep it in the octagon.
Speaker 5:
[17:29] 19.
Speaker 12:
[17:30] Cool.
Speaker 4:
[17:30] 19 hits.
Speaker 5:
[17:31] Into the octagon.
Speaker 12:
[17:32] Great.
Speaker 5:
[17:33] I'm doing non-lethal damage. Hopefully knocking him out. That is, well, I don't think he's been touched. So that's nine points of damage.
Speaker 4:
[17:43] Nine points of damage is not gonna knock him unconscious, but he is badly injured. As this.
Speaker 5:
[17:49] And I will push him.
Speaker 4:
[17:52] Okay, great.
Speaker 5:
[17:53] 10 feet.
Speaker 4:
[17:53] 10 feet. He slams into the wall here. No longer blind if he can see that Zagie is not in this room.
Speaker 5:
[18:00] I will tell him, you move, you die.
Speaker 4:
[18:04] And Booming Blade makes that. Go ahead and give me persuasion. Okay.
Speaker 5:
[18:12] 19 on the die. 25.
Speaker 4:
[18:15] The Booming Blade crackles over him and he becomes aware, looking at his friends who died where they fell under the might of this spell, that he does not move, drops his weapon, puts his hands up. And we are going to exit out of combat as this last crowkeeper surrenders. Well fought, Schemers.
Speaker 12:
[18:38] First battle!
Speaker 4:
[18:39] First battle! I love it.
Speaker 8:
[18:43] These pencil pushers can still fight.
Speaker 4:
[18:48] You look and see this glowing, radiant knight turns and extends this like seven foot broadsword at the crowkeeper and says, You have wronged us, the friends of justice. That is our name and what we are known by.
Speaker 12:
[19:06] You will leave this place.
Speaker 4:
[19:08] You will get a real job. You will apologize to those you have wronged.
Speaker 13:
[19:15] You will make amends.
Speaker 4:
[19:16] It is the first step. You will, you will.
Speaker 9:
[19:20] He's just looking at them and is, are you trying to scare him straight? What are you doing? Yes, but he's a, this, what, this is, these are not the.
Speaker 4:
[19:27] These guys beat me up.
Speaker 10:
[19:29] Well, we're going to need, we're going to need this one unconscious, unconscious, my, my god friend.
Speaker 4:
[19:36] Okay, the glowing illusory knight goes, fall asleep, now! 10, nine.
Speaker 5:
[19:47] Can I choke him out?
Speaker 4:
[19:49] Yeah, absolutely, yeah. I think that's no sweat, dude. You just go over, put him in his sleeper hold.
Speaker 10:
[19:54] Eight, seven, six, five.
Speaker 5:
[20:00] And I think that.
Speaker 10:
[20:00] That did it, yeah.
Speaker 5:
[20:02] And I just let him slump onto the ground.
Speaker 9:
[20:03] Can you do that to him, too, as I'm holding Thimidus?
Speaker 5:
[20:07] Is that what you want me to do?
Speaker 1:
[20:09] No, no, no, no.
Speaker 12:
[20:10] No, I, I, I.
Speaker 4:
[20:12] Professor, oh my, oh my gosh, hi.
Speaker 9:
[20:16] The crow keepers, really? What were you thinking? Kind of poked you.
Speaker 4:
[20:23] Ow, ow.
Speaker 12:
[20:25] I, I'm sorry, I, I.
Speaker 4:
[20:31] I owe, I owe the crow keepers money from a long time ago. That wasn't even, that wasn't even to do with all this mess. That was like, I had been trying, I'd been trying to, I went and found them and told them that I was gonna be able to pay them back because things have been going good in the marketplace.
Speaker 12:
[20:45] And then they outlawed performing in the marketplace.
Speaker 4:
[20:48] And then they, and then that was like back on their, their like field of vision.
Speaker 12:
[20:52] They were like, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 9:
[20:59] I know you've been in a tough spot. You're a scrappy kid. You've always been very resourceful and innovative. But I've always been in your corner, Deminus. You could have come to me. You wouldn't have gotten in trouble if you needed help. We could have figured something out. You know that, right? I know you don't. I understand more than most that it doesn't always feel good to have to always ask for help. I know when people stand on your own two feet, and I love that about you. But my boy, this was a dumb mistake. You are a smart kid, but that don't necessarily mean you streetwise.
Speaker 12:
[21:55] You can be, a pattern can be dumb when every instance of the pattern made sense.
Speaker 4:
[22:03] I never, I didn't ever make any, like, I can look at the sequence of choices and see that it was stupid, but every... You're in a bad situation, so you make the best choice you can, and you don't get...
Speaker 9:
[22:22] I just kind of grab him in for, like, a hug. It's not like, it's a Murray hug. It's not super intimate or necessarily comforting. It's a little bit of a tough love hug. As she puts one of her arms kind of around his shoulders and squeezes him tight.
Speaker 12:
[22:49] It's all right. Maybe she left me in the hole. I think I did something terrible.
Speaker 10:
[22:55] I assure you, you did not.
Speaker 9:
[22:58] Hey. You don't have to explain anything to us. One, because we kind of already know pretty much everything, at least enough. That wasn't stupid. You saw a gig, you saw an opportunity, and you took it.
Speaker 4:
[23:19] It came through the school.
Speaker 9:
[23:20] I know. I know. They exploited a very valuable resource. You know, a program that we... I mean, how many times have we said at the Pentebro? Best training is going to be on the drop, Jane, right? I'm not mad at you for that. I truly am not. I'm glad you're alive, kid. Truly.
Speaker 12:
[23:52] Well, I... Me too. I think that I'm really grateful, and I'm really sorry, and I'm really scared. You see that giant illusory knight looks over and goes, there, there, I may not be real, but I think you did a great job.
Speaker 9:
[24:15] Can you kill the Guidance Counselor?
Speaker 4:
[24:17] You see that the Midas goes, thanks for saying what I wanted you to say in my mind. And you see that he pulls the illusion back into his hand.
Speaker 12:
[24:31] He just looks at it and goes.
Speaker 4:
[24:38] Professor, are we, he looks and says, were you here for the Crow Keepers, Lieutenant, or were you here for me? Well, we were here for you, to help you.
Speaker 12:
[24:52] Okay.
Speaker 5:
[24:53] You're not in any trouble. I'd like to know.
Speaker 4:
[24:58] Beg to differ.
Speaker 12:
[25:00] Not from us.
Speaker 5:
[25:01] Not from us, but you are in trouble. You had a plan to leave.
Speaker 12:
[25:07] Yeah, I don't know what happened.
Speaker 4:
[25:10] I think something bad might have happened to Pimley. He was supposed to get me out of town in a wagon, and the next thing I knew, I was open and the crowkeepers were there.
Speaker 9:
[25:18] You're so sweet. You're very... You give people the benefit of the doubt, and that is a quality. That's a quality. But unfortunately, one that people will exploit. I need you to understand that, okay? I need you to... We're going to have to teach you to, like, you know...
Speaker 5:
[25:49] Be less trusting?
Speaker 9:
[25:50] Yes. God, are we that jaded and cynical? We are, aren't we? It's smart, though. You know what? We'll talk about that later.
Speaker 5:
[26:02] What do you want to do with this guy?
Speaker 10:
[26:05] I don't want to keep him for now.
Speaker 5:
[26:07] Are we taking him with us, or are you going to do whatever you want to do to him here?
Speaker 10:
[26:12] That depends on how we want to play this. We could take him with us.
Speaker 9:
[26:17] Are those manacles still on Demetus?
Speaker 4:
[26:20] Yes, it hasn't stopped his spell casting at all, but it just connected his wrists.
Speaker 10:
[26:24] Oh, we won't be needing that.
Speaker 3:
[26:26] Well, for now.
Speaker 9:
[26:28] For this guy?
Speaker 10:
[26:28] For now, anyway.
Speaker 4:
[26:29] These also probably wouldn't fit the human. Ah, okay. You see that Demetus is over and says, Hi, Master Lathalia.
Speaker 10:
[26:39] Mr. Blinks?
Speaker 4:
[26:40] Did you, are you, god, you really all came looking just for me?
Speaker 10:
[26:48] Well, it does take a village.
Speaker 4:
[26:52] Hi, I'm Demetus. Nice to meet you. Oh, do you work with Mr. Undragore?
Speaker 7:
[27:02] For how many years, huh?
Speaker 12:
[27:04] Oh, he's great.
Speaker 4:
[27:08] I talked to him, I don't know, I don't know how long I've been down here for. A day ago, a week ago?
Speaker 9:
[27:15] I didn't say it hasn't been that long, it just feels like it.
Speaker 6:
[27:18] He did right by you.
Speaker 7:
[27:20] You've got a lot of people looking for you. He should do it right by you.
Speaker 9:
[27:27] Um, it is worth noting, though, Demetis, that the Crowkeepers were honestly just a pawn. If you think these guys were bad. The Tachonises are not a good family. To be on their shit list.
Speaker 5:
[27:56] You're on their shit list. You knew that though, right?
Speaker 12:
[27:59] I thought, I swear, it was awful. What did you see? It was awful.
Speaker 4:
[28:11] Okay, so the morning that I found out about the job, the, you know, I left my dorm. I headed out for school and I stopped by the bulletin board with job listings and I saw there was this new thing. It was like allusion work. And I went and I talked to Dean Cora and Dean Cora introduced me to this lady who was like really, really nice and friendly. Her name was Trimus. And she basically, you know, she basically said, hey, like this is the money. They were offering 250 gold pieces.
Speaker 7:
[29:08] Is it? Is it like an exorbitant number to you?
Speaker 4:
[29:12] Is it Trimus? Is it not an exorbitant number? That's less, that's more money than I've ever had in my whole life.
Speaker 10:
[29:18] Oh no, I think I want this job now.
Speaker 4:
[29:21] Oh. Yeah, hey, I'd be happy to make a referral. Just watch after the first step. It's a doozy. So I met her, Dean Cora introduced me to her. I talked to her in her office. She was like, hey, we have a job. We're looking for an illusionist to come in and create something really special for the Royce family. We want to do like Emory Music, and we want to do Sylvan writing, and what is other stuff. And they had a big list of stuff they wanted to do. And she said, you're going to be working with this woman, Ophelia Saromai, who's going to be there managing everything for the party. And the first thing I noticed when I got there was I was doing the Sylvan writing as like a goodbye note, and in the construction of the note, it was like we're off to Ferry. That was the first thing I noticed was I was like, if this is a gift for the Royces, why am I writing in the, I was like, at first I thought it was like a practical joke. And then I was like, I don't know that, the house of Tachonis feel like practical joke people. This lady, Ophelia Saramai was, she was awful. I mean, she was barking at everybody.
Speaker 12:
[30:40] There were a lot of soldiers there.
Speaker 4:
[30:43] She was screaming at some of the soldiers. And we got to the Davinos, the big Davinos house, and it was just like empty and there was nobody there. And there were other Tachonis people that I could just smell abjurative magic on. And they'd been there for a while already. Like they were going in and there was, they're like, you've been in an abjuration hall when they were doing counter-spelling and stuff like that. Like it has that smell that's kind of that like-
Speaker 9:
[31:11] Burnt ozone.
Speaker 4:
[31:12] Yeah. So that was everywhere. The like dispelling smell and the, the, it's a Trimus, you know, she's like, she was like really pretty, she had like a black gown, but like was truly really, really nice. And then Ophelia, she was like, she had like a long, she had like this birthmark, I don't know if it was a tattoo or a birthmark, but it was like these rings around her neck that were like red and yellow and black. And she was working with a soldier there. His name was Lieutenant Gineas. They talked about, I mean, they talked about so much stuff. I was there, I was there for like hours working my ass off. There was just like so many things to do. And like they added a bunch of stuff at the last minute. So like I ended up not having, being that well-researched, like they wanted a bunch of candles to look, so I just ended up doing, I just ended up doing blue candles, which is not even one of the Royce colors, but I just didn't know, I just didn't know if it would get the right shade, because the illusion has to track the candle all the way down while it's burning, and it's the movement of light as it goes down. It's just a trickier spell. So I just wanted to do something that I knew would work, even if it wasn't quite the right color. There were soldiers packing everything up. This Lieutenant Junaus yelled at some of the soldiers that were packing things like clothes and jewelry and things like that. Junaus said, if so much as a signet ring turns up at a pawnbroker, there will be harsh disciplinary measures for the entire unit. Which, yeah, you don't want your soldiers stealing, but it just felt, it just, again, it all felt so weird. This was like a party. What's the stuff going? They were moving those crates out to the gardens while I was in there. I was hungry at one point, and one of the soldiers were laughing while they were looking at me, and one of them offered me a slice of cake and said I could eat three quarters of it, and then he would take it, and I took a couple bites, and then they went and placed it somewhere to look like... A party. It was getting close to when the party was supposed to start. There was, Gineas ordered four of her soldiers, said, do one last sweep of the grounds. The last thing we eat is some scullery made hiding in a cupboard somewhere, and I went, this is fucking wrong, and I went, I was really, really hungry, and I just was getting yelled at so much that I just, actually I got some real food and went and just like hid in a closet for a second, because I've been working way longer than they said I was supposed to work, and I was also just like almost running out of spell energy, you know, like, and Gineas walked in with the Lady Ophelia, and she was like making a report, she was talking about, she was like, she said, she said, my lady, the falcon has just been delivered to Obermus Manor, does that mean anything to you? And Lady Ophelia was like, yes, it does. Your soldiers, are they sweeping the grounds? And Gineas said, yes. And then there was a like weird long pause, and I was like, I had a mouthful of food, and I stayed really still in the closet. And then Gineas said, they're loose ends, aren't they? And then the Lady Ophelia said, so are you. And I looked through the door, and this soldier who was really tough was crying. And I saw Lady Ophelia who's very tall, walk up and put her hand like really nicely on Gineas' face and say, they're going to give you the scar for this. You don't have anything to worry about. And Gineas said, it's been an honor to serve you. And then some guy barked outside. Lady Ophelia said, that'll be Lord Etherend. Come with me. They left. And I ran. I just fucking ran. I said, oh, I was like, I was like, look, I'm kind of a fool, but I'm not an idiot. And someone's, to be honest, even if I hadn't heard the loose end stuff, watching someone touch someone's face and be like, they're gonna give you the scarf, it's already so bad, right? Someone saying, it's already so bad. They could have said all normal stuff and the way she touched her face, I would have ran. So I don't know what I did, but I know that I helped them do something. You know, the Lady Ophelia was like really exacting about how everything needed to look and how the music needed to sound and everything like that. And I don't know what happened to the other soldiers. It didn't seem good. But, I mean, like I heard a bunch, there's a bunch of other conversations I heard that day, but like there was shit I heard earlier in the day that I wasn't thinking to pay close attention to and now I'm trying to like remember it now and I'm like having a hard time. But like, you know what I mean? Like when you're just like, oh, it's not my bit, like, not my circus, not my monkeys. I'm just here getting paid to do these illusions. And then you're thinking back, like, what did they say about this houndsport something? I don't know, like, a lot of stuff.
Speaker 5:
[37:50] More might come back to you as time passes. You were just unconscious not long ago.
Speaker 4:
[37:55] Yeah.
Speaker 9:
[37:57] Did you see any blood, any?
Speaker 4:
[38:04] Blood? No. No, no, no.
Speaker 9:
[38:08] No trace of that, nothing like that.
Speaker 4:
[38:10] Well, here's the thing. Like, I was sitting here, you know, you're a wizard getting paid by sorcerers to do magic. Sorcerers don't have any problem doing lots of magic. They just have their kind of magic they can do. So, like, if they're, like, killing people, I don't know what the happened. Like, I don't know what happened there, but I know it was really bad. And, like, if they were cleaning up, like, dead bodies, they wouldn't need my help, right? Like, dealing with dead bodies is, like, 100% of what those guys know how to do.
Speaker 5:
[39:00] I don't think we, especially you, you don't need to worry about any of that stuff. I think we need to figure out how to get you out of here. Where were you going to go?
Speaker 4:
[39:11] I don't know.
Speaker 5:
[39:12] You were just going to leave?
Speaker 12:
[39:12] I really don't know.
Speaker 7:
[39:16] The boy's not safe.
Speaker 5:
[39:17] He's not safe.
Speaker 1:
[39:18] I don't want to leave the Bed-Temperil.
Speaker 12:
[39:20] I don't want to leave. I don't have anywhere else to go.
Speaker 4:
[39:24] I literally don't have anywhere else to go.
Speaker 10:
[39:26] You certainly do.
Speaker 12:
[39:27] Wait. Where, where, where, where?
Speaker 10:
[39:30] We can hide him in my apartment if we have to. No one's going to come looking for him there.
Speaker 5:
[39:36] I think we send him with King Gus.
Speaker 10:
[39:39] That's a lot of faith to put in. King Gus, and that also means making sure that he knows what's happening, that he believes us. That's a lot.
Speaker 5:
[39:49] Well, hiding in your apartment for how long?
Speaker 10:
[39:52] Honestly, I don't think this is going to be very long. This is moving at great speed.
Speaker 5:
[39:56] Well, if you're comfortable with that.
Speaker 12:
[40:00] Why are you bringing...
Speaker 4:
[40:03] Is King Gus King Augustus?
Speaker 5:
[40:06] Yes.
Speaker 4:
[40:07] They talked about him while I was there.
Speaker 5:
[40:09] They did.
Speaker 4:
[40:09] Did they?
Speaker 5:
[40:10] What did they say?
Speaker 12:
[40:13] Earlier in the day, they were like, Oh, there's a...
Speaker 4:
[40:17] One, the Lady Ophelia was... Trimus only just brought me there. She didn't stay for very long at all. She said, and she was like, I have to head to a place in the city. It was some Halvarian word, I forget. Because the Arcoesian delegation has just arrived. And Lady Ophelia said, Oh, they're going to be paying King Augustus a visit. And she was like, sooner rather than later. And I don't know, it just sounded like delegations of people visiting.
Speaker 10:
[40:50] Did they have any particular disposition about it? Irritated?
Speaker 4:
[40:54] They were laughing.
Speaker 10:
[40:56] Interesting.
Speaker 4:
[40:57] They were, it seemed like, I don't know, rich people laugh when like they didn't do, they haven't said anything funny. Sorry to, I don't know if you, I don't mean to offend. You're like the richest guy I know.
Speaker 10:
[41:09] That's very fair. No, I'm not offended.
Speaker 12:
[41:12] You know, it's like, I thought I was, I haven't seen you in that gown since the last gala. You're like, what the was that?
Speaker 4:
[41:22] It wasn't even a joke.
Speaker 10:
[41:23] Okay, now I feel a bit offended.
Speaker 12:
[41:25] No, no, no.
Speaker 4:
[41:29] I'm really, I know I should have, I know I should have come to you and I'm really sorry I didn't.
Speaker 12:
[41:33] I just was really, I really thought that the people who have taken care of me a lot would be really proud if I could do it on my own.
Speaker 9:
[41:47] We're still proud of you.
Speaker 12:
[41:50] Well, you did do it.
Speaker 9:
[41:51] You did.
Speaker 5:
[41:52] And you got out of there, so we just want to make sure you're safe.
Speaker 10:
[41:59] You have no idea how and what you did might save an enormous number of people.
Speaker 12:
[42:12] What?
Speaker 10:
[42:12] This is good news. And no one is born with wisdom. You earn it the hard way. Everyone with it earns it the hard way, and this was a very, very difficult collection of wisdom that you just had.
Speaker 7:
[42:32] Son, I think you did very well after what life threw at you today.
Speaker 10:
[42:37] I agree. No one stands on their own two feet. If they look like they do, it's because they're standing on top of people you cannot see.
Speaker 4:
[42:51] Uh, Lieutenant, I'd like to lodge a complaint against House Tachonis.
Speaker 5:
[42:58] Take out my notes.
Speaker 12:
[43:01] I think they're killing a lot of people.
Speaker 4:
[43:04] Also, they owe me 250 gold pieces, and I don't know how to get it from them.
Speaker 5:
[43:10] Writing it all down.
Speaker 4:
[43:12] I heard Dandycar last, so.
Speaker 12:
[43:14] Yeah, it's the best.
Speaker 3:
[43:17] You're really hitting it, isn't it? Just fear that you're in the far distance.
Speaker 4:
[43:21] Yes.
Speaker 5:
[43:21] I'll see what I can do.
Speaker 13:
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Speaker 2:
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Speaker 9:
[46:52] Well, we actually might be able to make good on some of that right now. And I'm going to head back.
Speaker 10:
[46:59] Me too.
Speaker 9:
[47:00] And let's turn this place. Let's toss it.
Speaker 10:
[47:04] Let's toss it. Do we plan on taking a short rest in here at some point or not?
Speaker 6:
[47:07] I don't think we should take a short rest in here when there's a moss monster.
Speaker 9:
[47:10] Well, it's very...
Speaker 5:
[47:11] Yes, taking a short rest right now, wherever it went.
Speaker 9:
[47:16] How about we turn this place upside down and then we get the hell out of the sewers and then we definitely take a rest?
Speaker 5:
[47:23] And we got this guy with us.
Speaker 9:
[47:25] And we got him with us.
Speaker 10:
[47:26] Does it make... Well, I was going to say, I know we haven't nailed the mechanics down, but if someone's unconscious, does it take an attunement for me to attach to them, or do you think I could do it? I think you can just do it. Okay, good to know. All right. So I'll help for a minute and then I'll go change into something more comfortable. Okay.
Speaker 9:
[47:46] And this guy who is unconscious, do we have him bound and secured?
Speaker 8:
[47:53] So in case he rouses.
Speaker 4:
[47:54] You have manacles for your work. You know, like you can just truly... Yeah, you can just truly manacle him and then... Already done. Already done. Okay. He is up front. You guys head back down into this filthy area of the sewers down here. That was crazy. Go ahead, anyone, let me know if you're casting any magic about it, but otherwise, give me any check you want to make down here.
Speaker 5:
[48:18] Yeah, now that Iposs is breathing down my neck, I'm gonna go into my normal investigator mode and I'm gonna focus, guidance myself, as I investigate this place.
Speaker 4:
[48:29] Cool.
Speaker 9:
[48:30] Are you doing detect magic or do you want me to do it?
Speaker 5:
[48:33] I am not doing detect magic.
Speaker 9:
[48:35] I will, can I do it ritually?
Speaker 5:
[48:37] You can.
Speaker 4:
[48:38] Yeah.
Speaker 9:
[48:38] I can ritually do a detect magic, which I will do. Just give me a quick minute.
Speaker 4:
[48:44] Yeah, that 10 minute casting to cast detect magic, I think honestly you're casting it as you're pouring over, just like literally piece by piece examining. So arcana investigation, are there any other skill checks we wanna make?
Speaker 10:
[48:57] I was gonna go straight investigation as well.
Speaker 4:
[48:59] Straight investigation, great, go straight investigation.
Speaker 7:
[49:01] Well, I'm gonna do two things, one, how's Demetus looking, is he all right?
Speaker 4:
[49:09] He's in a state of deep emotional peak, he's in a euphoria that he's alive. Like as soon as you're in the hands of crow keepers and you're being beaten and asked for information and then you're like going into unconsciousness as they're like, who are we gonna sell him to, as soon as you're in that world, you're like, I'm dead. You're like, oh, I can't believe I'm one of the people whose lives are gonna end in the most frightening, sad way. And now there's a euphoria of a life he already had spent some time saying goodbye to, but also he thinks his life is over. Like he did every part of himself he gave to this school that now he can't stay at. So I think that you're looking at a weird mixture of grief and euphoria that is just sort of in a kid with a bloody nose just swaying on his feet, you know? It's like looking at some broken, like, he's like, oh man, my eye drops are broken. Like.
Speaker 7:
[50:04] Maybe he's not nursing some greater wound at this point.
Speaker 4:
[50:07] No, no, with six hit points, he's okay.
Speaker 7:
[50:09] All right.
Speaker 4:
[50:10] I mean, he's still, he's badly beaten up, but he doesn't know, he's got a lot, he's not a lot of strength in him right now.
Speaker 7:
[50:16] I think that in that state, Hal goes over and takes a knee and then just like, kind of grabs him by the head and like opens up his eye and looks at him, sort of claps on the cheek and then stands up. Hal is still a little bit listless and a little out of it, but I think he's gonna go sit down just on a dry spot and he begins to recite fragments, syllables to himself and just under his breath, you can't even really hear what he's saying. And he just does that for several minutes and after the end of 10 minutes, that equates to a ritual casting of Comprehend Language.
Speaker 4:
[50:53] Awesome. Comprehend Languages and Detect Magic are cast. Let's go ahead and give me these rolls here. We'll get Investigation here, Arcana here. If there's any skill you want to roll here, you may do so as well with Comprehend Language.
Speaker 7:
[51:09] Yeah, I'm gonna look for any thieves that have carved into any language or any language.
Speaker 4:
[51:15] Gotcha.
Speaker 9:
[51:16] I'm going to use a Luck Point. Fuck it.
Speaker 4:
[51:19] Great.
Speaker 9:
[51:21] Hopefully we get a long rest soon.
Speaker 12:
[51:22] Azune, what did we get here?
Speaker 5:
[51:24] I got a one and I think...
Speaker 1:
[51:30] I'm back, you guys.
Speaker 5:
[51:33] I think I started to... Seeing Demidus start to get more and more vulnerable, I'm like, I don't know how to handle that. Yeah. And so I try to go into work mode, I start searching, but then as I focus on the corner of my eye, from the corner of my eye, I see Hal approaching Demidus, and I'm distracted. I'm saying, the father that I never got to have being everything I never got to this kid. And I find myself frozen and out of sorts. And I don't even know how to do my job anymore.
Speaker 4:
[52:21] You find yourself gazing at what should normally be speaking to you in a language of clues here, that's just filth and muck in the darkness. I hate this place.
Speaker 5:
[52:30] I can't see. I can't see anything. And I'm gonna control flames to brighten those torches.
Speaker 4:
[52:38] Bright light helps illuminate this room. And you can see the walls are caked in... Any seam of masonry is just a river of sludge of where in between the dark crannies of the masonry have just become choked with the mycelium network of this fungal creature. What do we get for investigation here? 16. 16 here. What do we get for our kind here? 25. 25, hell yeah.
Speaker 7:
[53:08] And I investigated for writing of any kind, 19.
Speaker 4:
[53:10] 19. What is your focus in your investigation, your Bolaire?
Speaker 10:
[53:17] I'm looking for objects of note, anything that looks not magical necessarily, but like something that somebody was using. If there's a desk in here, I'm looking for where they might be hiding paperwork.
Speaker 4:
[53:32] Yeah. There is a table in here, but no desk. This looks much more like a way station and meeting place than it looks. This looks like a place where long, very criminal conversations can be had in potentially large groups, right? Rather than a place where you would come and work privately. It's too uncomfortable. Additionally, it is clearly a place used by the Crowkeepers, but also at the behest or with the permission of this creature who was here. You can see there's food that's already rotten in a corner. You do, however, I think on a 16 investigation, find three potions of healing in a corner that our rogue allies just did not live long enough to get a chance to use.
Speaker 10:
[54:22] I also, I will say, as I said it, I thought of one other thing that I would check that had just occurred to me. Are there any hideaway spaces, a loose stone in the walls? These are criminals. They must keep secrets from each other. Is there anything? I'm just going to sort of walk the walls and...
Speaker 4:
[54:43] Hold out for like one of these like areas to sort of showcase a secret chamber or hiding place here.
Speaker 10:
[54:51] Honestly, even a loose stone where you might hide some gold.
Speaker 4:
[54:55] You find a couple different loose stones and I do think you actually find a, going along the walls, you actually feel your foot brush against a tile that kind of buckles under your foot a little bit more. Lifting that up, there is not a full treasure chest, but a small sort of hand chest that has about 60 gold pieces in it.
Speaker 10:
[55:18] Oh.
Speaker 9:
[55:20] Should give it to the kid.
Speaker 3:
[55:21] We will be giving it to the kid.
Speaker 7:
[55:24] It's due in law and forgiveness.
Speaker 4:
[55:26] Yes, due in law and forgiveness. On a 19 investigation looking for writing, there are thieves' cant symbols on the wall that are done in glyphs that would be sort of invisible to a normal passerby, but point this place out in Crowkeeper Cant of this way to the meeting place. So the Crowkeepers are sort of a city-wide guild. It's possible that this meeting place would have been only known to Zaggy, only known to one or two sub-bosses, and so there would be a place to find it for those that were looking for it here. On a 19 investigation under the collapsed wood and everything else like that here, I think you would see Zaggy's body was destroyed, but back over here, your Comprehend Languages passes over a table that doesn't contain any writing. But you know that trick where detectives will scan graphite over a page to see what the page was on before it?
Speaker 1:
[56:29] Oh, yeah. Love that.
Speaker 4:
[56:31] You see bits and pieces of like 100 names have been written on scraps of paper on this table before. It's a mess of like where they were written. They just sort of come back to you over and over again. But you think that this is a place where people have defaulted on their loans, people who have made one too many bad choices, or people that are just a little bit too wanted have been in this chamber before. You think Laumi is maybe a connector point. Like, Crowkeepers know how to fence their own stolen goods. They know how to fence their own like, you know, ill-gotten goods and stuff like that. But for trafficking in like a magical person or like a certain type of entity or something like that, that's foul shit. And you think that this Laumi figure, that this may have been a way station for them when they came in to that kind of thing. You also know, by the way, that the reputation of Crowkeepers, like some that lived in the Rookery, would never have done something like this. Like when you were a kid, the Crowkeepers lived by like a thieves' code or something like that. So I think that there's an, you wonder almost if there's some degree of what goes on in here, where some Crowkeepers know about it and others don't. On a 25 arcana, with Detect Magic running, Laumi is fey. Laumi is a fey entity of the fey realm of Harrow. Most fairies that you encounter will be, of the various fey realms, are Hallow, Harrow and Hearth. Hallow being a place of natural beauty and wonder and splendor. And Hearth actually being what wizards consider to be the closest to the world of Armon, to the material world, are fairies of domestic life. Those that help tend to gardens and mend broken things and all the legends of fairies that sweep the Hearth if there is some small propitiation made to them. The fairies of Harrow are few and far between. And they're quite a bit rarer, but they're things like hags or kelpies or those kind of dark and sinister fey. You, correctly clocking at 25, Arkana, like going deep into the lore, that Laumi is a Raoul Granath, which is a basically a mold entity, a kind of putrescent-like rot creature. However, that means that Laumi is someone who got trapped on the wrong side of the doors when they closed, right? You know, in recent history. And I think, too, on a 25 arcana, as you're moving around, how and... You guys, I think how on your Comprehend Languages, you find a piece of Sylvan writing in the floor that is a small piece of actual fairy poetry that you recognize.
Speaker 6:
[60:04] That I do speak.
Speaker 4:
[60:05] You do speak Sylvan.
Speaker 6:
[60:06] I speak, yeah.
Speaker 4:
[60:07] With the tech magic, you find that as well. And I think that you can see that there is a little bit of fairy poetry that's written on the ground here. And you find, ta ta ta ta, one second. Also, with the bright light on in this room, I think you can see, Azune, that the filth is starting to retreat from the brighter light. That the light appears to be partially like, Recoils from the light. Recoils from the light, yeah. There is a bit of fairy poetry at the end that, on 25 Arcana, I think you speak Sylvan, right? There is the beginning of a stanza, but not the end of it. And this is written in a script so fine that you wouldn't have even spotted it, I think, without, you wouldn't even have spotted it. But I think Hal and Murray, you both know that the final line of the stanza is, to love the world is to weep.
Speaker 5:
[61:38] That's the part that's missing.
Speaker 4:
[61:39] That's the part that's missing. But you would both know the Silden poem that speaks that, so you know that's the missing phrase.
Speaker 7:
[61:49] Carved into the ground?
Speaker 4:
[61:51] Everything leading up to that final line is carved into the ground.
Speaker 7:
[61:54] It's carved, though.
Speaker 4:
[61:55] Is carved into the ground. In an extremely fine, hard to read print. But you can see it through your detect magic, you can see it through your Comprehend Languages, because you realize that covering the carving is this sort of mold or rot. But on the script, the mold changes color ever so slightly. Goes from this sort of darker black mold into sort of a light, fuzzier gray that traces the script.
Speaker 9:
[62:23] And is it giving off magical essence?
Speaker 4:
[62:25] Yes, you're detecting magic from it.
Speaker 9:
[62:29] Do I happen to sense what kind of magic?
Speaker 4:
[62:35] Oh, the magic that you are sensing here, I believe, is transmutation.
Speaker 10:
[62:49] Are you saying any of this out loud, or no?
Speaker 4:
[62:51] Sure, yeah.
Speaker 10:
[62:52] So do you actually say the final line of the stanza?
Speaker 6:
[62:55] Yes.
Speaker 10:
[62:55] Out loud?
Speaker 7:
[62:56] Yeah.
Speaker 4:
[62:56] Do you say it in Rungyani, or do you say it in Sylvan?
Speaker 7:
[63:01] Well, I don't speak Sylvan, I don't think.
Speaker 6:
[63:05] I do not.
Speaker 9:
[63:05] Right, you have a comprehensive understanding.
Speaker 7:
[63:07] But it just makes sense to me, so I will say it in common.
Speaker 4:
[63:10] Cool.
Speaker 6:
[63:11] And then I'll echo it in Sylvan, and see what happens.
Speaker 4:
[63:15] As you say it in Sylvan, hmm, the panel in the floor opens, revealing several small silver capped bottles, a bright silvery necklace jangling with charms. How clean it is in this chamber is the transmutation magic. It has been, it's like, it's created like a sealed pocket. There are hanging from small like silvery cup hooks. There are seven little velvet bags containing small, something clacking like stones or gems in there.
Speaker 7:
[64:08] How much of this stuff is glowing under her Detect Magic?
Speaker 4:
[64:11] Oh, it's all glowing. And all of it pales in comparison to beautifully stacked, crisp, 40 blank spell cards. Yes!
Speaker 12:
[64:24] That's what I wanted!
Speaker 9:
[64:30] I'm glad I used my last one point. I rolled that, I rolled a natural 17 with my eight arcana, and I call it my Padman die, because they're a little wizard, they're a little, it's frogs with little wizard hats. So thanks, Padman.
Speaker 4:
[64:46] Padman, Padman.
Speaker 5:
[64:47] Yeah.
Speaker 4:
[64:48] We love it.
Speaker 5:
[64:51] I, like, just grab Murray and squeeze you, brilliant, brilliant person.
Speaker 9:
[65:01] Oh, goodness gracious, oh my god.
Speaker 10:
[65:04] I'm going to quietly, as this is happening, walk over to Hal.
Speaker 9:
[65:08] Thank you, shapers. Okay.
Speaker 7:
[65:11] You know, I think that Hal has been a little on guard with Bolaire since learning this news all this time, but in this moment, after everything that's happened in the last half hour, he just sort of gives and leans into him and even rests his head on your shoulder, which I assume is 5'11. Ha, ha, like, everyone's right there. For my taller head to lie. And I just stare at this pile of clay disks and think about all this shit.
Speaker 10:
[65:46] You give a little bit of your soul, but in return you get the boy.
Speaker 7:
[65:57] I haven't taken a man's life in almost 30 years.
Speaker 10:
[66:00] I cannot relate. I haven't been in this situation in many years. It hasn't felt like war in many years. Just survival. This is war. It is exhausting. We saved the boy.
Speaker 7:
[66:40] Saved the boy?
Speaker 10:
[66:42] And in a moment, I'm going to have to do something uncomfortable. I'm gonna need a bit of help.
Speaker 7:
[66:51] With that, I raise my head and turn to you.
Speaker 10:
[66:54] And it doesn't have to be you, but it is an imperative that I ask you first, because I owe it to you. I don't think, I don't think it's healthy and I don't think you like it. But, it is not a secret I am, it's not a secret I can keep from you. If you want to see the worst of me, you can wait.
Speaker 7:
[67:32] In for a copper, in for a pound.
Speaker 10:
[67:35] This is somewhat terrifying for me as well.
Speaker 8:
[67:41] I'll take this, thank you very much.
Speaker 9:
[67:47] We can always sort this out and see what all these spoils are, but I am cleaning this full thing out.
Speaker 5:
[67:56] I'm there helping you.
Speaker 8:
[67:56] Oh my goodness, I'm more excited than a blink dog at a barbecue.
Speaker 9:
[68:02] Okay, we can gather everything.
Speaker 7:
[68:06] Yeah, knocking over everything up here.
Speaker 10:
[68:09] We'll be back in a minute. I'm going to start setting something up. How?
Speaker 9:
[68:13] And I'm guessing, is there anything else here that I may be missing, anything on the, any lingering bits of gold pieces, magic jewelry on the thieves?
Speaker 4:
[68:23] Oh, on the thieves? Yeah, unfortunately most of the thieves remains are like, honestly, a lot of the gold they had on them is corroded. Like anything that was not, you know, it's like, it's pretty.
Speaker 5:
[68:33] You have the ones in the other room.
Speaker 4:
[68:34] Yeah. The ones in the other room, those ones that you defeated upstairs without Sludge Monster's help, you could probably get another 12 gold pieces off of them.
Speaker 8:
[68:42] Okay.
Speaker 9:
[68:43] Great. Anything I grab, I'm just going to literally toss to Demidus. Any type of gold.
Speaker 8:
[68:51] Oh, great.
Speaker 12:
[68:51] Then I won't write that down.
Speaker 9:
[68:53] Gold I toss to Demidus. I'm keeping whatever this nice necklace is, though. This looks lovely. We'll see if it makes sense from now on, but.
Speaker 5:
[69:01] While we're doing this, these two, did you step into the other room?
Speaker 12:
[69:05] Yeah.
Speaker 4:
[69:06] Demidus goes, Mr. Bolaire, do you need space to do what you're going to do?
Speaker 10:
[69:10] Uh, I was just going to do it up in the other room.
Speaker 12:
[69:13] Okay.
Speaker 10:
[69:15] And stay with these two for a moment.
Speaker 12:
[69:17] Got it.
Speaker 4:
[69:17] If you need help, like, covering our tracks, I can try to help out.
Speaker 5:
[69:21] I think that would be great.
Speaker 10:
[69:23] Yeah. I'm going to start setting up something that looks... I'm going to start setting up something that makes it so we can blame someone else for some of this.
Speaker 5:
[69:33] That would be perfect.
Speaker 4:
[69:36] Okay, blame someone else. Let's tag team it.
Speaker 10:
[69:40] You start in here and we'll go upstairs.
Speaker 4:
[69:42] So staying down in the sludge chamber here, see, Demetis looks at you and says, want to see something I've been working on for grad classes?
Speaker 9:
[69:52] Show me what you got, kid.
Speaker 4:
[69:53] This is my thesis. All right. Blixes, bungling, blitz! And you see that the walls become filled with blasts from spells that were not cast. Multiple signature, like a rival thieves guild signature pops up along with a glimmering emblem of House Tachonis. There is a sort of broken pennant in the corner of the Falconer's Rebellion alongside over here, like a flag of the Derridae. There's some gold pieces of the Derridae Consortium. It's just like anyone who would come here and get an investigation check would find... One of these. It would probably find all of them and go, I don't know what the... It's the classic like in fairy folklore of the farmer who like finds the leprechaun and it shows him the one stock of corn where the gold is buried and he ties a red ribbon around it. And the next morning comes and every stock of corn has a red ribbon around it. Where you're like, oh, it's all of it. I don't know.
Speaker 10:
[70:56] Do we just want to hit Tachonis?
Speaker 7:
[70:59] You're not gonna take that ribbon, will ya?
Speaker 4:
[71:01] I'm not going to touch it.
Speaker 5:
[71:01] Do you want it to be confusing or do you want it to be specific?
Speaker 8:
[71:05] I don't know, I think. I think it's already done.
Speaker 10:
[71:07] Yep, that's fair.
Speaker 5:
[71:07] Do we have the impression that Tachonis, that they were going to meet Tachonis down here or that they were gonna do the handoff here or was that gonna happen somewhere else? I guess we can find out when we interrogate our friend.
Speaker 9:
[71:22] I, and Wally, if you guys step to the other room.
Speaker 10:
[71:26] Yep.
Speaker 6:
[71:27] I'm gonna, and I kind of, while Diminis is doing his thing, I'm gonna turn to Azune, kind of under my breath.
Speaker 9:
[71:39] I can't help but have the question rolling around in the back of my head if Dean Cora knew exactly what she was sending Diminis to do.
Speaker 5:
[71:54] What's your gut tell you?
Speaker 9:
[72:00] She was very adamant about painting Diminis in a bad light, selling his name, making him out to be a slacker, not showing up to class. So specifically when we were talking with Bolaire about having an internship program, and of course I was thinking about Diminis, he's one of our star students, and she made a very concerted point to steer me away from him or plant doubt in my head. It didn't work, I know better, I've known him far longer than her, but if a kid goes missing and just 48 hours earlier, you sent him away with the Tachonises, with a sundered house. You're not going to go and immediately ask the adults that you sent him off with? If a bunch of kids went out on a field trip to the mountains, you're not going to ask the chaperones first? It doesn't sit well with me. It's foolish and ignorant at best, or sinister at worst.
Speaker 5:
[73:28] I think it's probably sinister. I think that there are some people here that are willing to use people up, to throw them away. And your instincts, Murray, I think are pretty, I've just seen in the last couple days, I've seen them, prove them, how you're very good at what you do. And I don't think your gut or your heart will ever steer you wrong. And what happened to you the other day, earlier today, at the mural? There's something that happened to you, your eyes got really weird, and I think something's happening to you.
Speaker 9:
[74:28] I think it was just the overwhelming realization that as fucked up as everything is in this city right now, that us, you, me, Bolaire Hal, are exactly where we're supposed to be in this crashing, overwhelming force and sense of responsibility. And that somehow, somehow the Aussie knew, help Murray. He told Hal, help Murray is one of the last things that he said.
Speaker 8:
[75:21] He took his last breath to say, help Murray.
Speaker 9:
[75:30] And I think it's just because he believes in me. I'm a shit person, but that's not what Theazi thinks, thought, and I don't think I ever fully knew that. I don't know how else to interpret it, but even if I didn't know it, he knew that I would want to do the right thing. And I think that theater is going to be important. I think that theater is going to be where we stand our ground. I can't put my finger on it, but it's just this overwhelming sense. I could feel the vibrations and the pulsings through the atmosphere, and it was like the clapping of all, every molecule that makes up the atmosphere, clapping its hands around my head. What did the Aussie know?
Speaker 5:
[77:06] He seems to have known a lot. I think, I think maybe he suspected that you can see things differently, feel things differently, than other people. Do you?
Speaker 8:
[77:24] He's a kid, Azune. Jiménez is a kid. Do we have a dean in my school that's willing to take these kids and throw them on the fire?
Speaker 9:
[77:49] I thought that demon Korra was just a dummy plant, just someone who would maybe do the biddings, or at least not even ask questions against the Cerned Houses and standing up to the people in power. I thought that maybe they just thought, put someone there that's malleable, but if this is true, it's so much more malicious. I don't know, I think I'm just... This might be the first time I've been truly scared.
Speaker 6:
[78:39] In a long time.
Speaker 5:
[78:45] What's it make you want to do to her?
Speaker 9:
[78:53] Beat the ever-lovin shit out of her the way they did to Demetis. Fair play, bitch.
Speaker 5:
[79:05] Let me know if you need any help. I like this, Murray, I like. Sometimes you look at me, and I think that you put on me a little bit of the disdain that you have for the institution that I work for, and it makes me feel like I might be losing you because of the position I'm in, but moments like this remind me that that's probably just in my head, and I really, uh...
Speaker 9:
[79:42] That's absolutely in your head. I could never hate you, Azune.
Speaker 6:
[79:49] You're a good egg.
Speaker 5:
[79:52] Thank you, that means a lot. I will kill somebody for you.
Speaker 9:
[80:01] Same for you, my friend.
Speaker 12:
[80:06] Help Murray.
Speaker 6:
[80:10] Help Azune.
Speaker 12:
[80:19] I'm happy to help.
Speaker 9:
[80:21] Let's go see what fucked up shit Bolaire is about to do.
Speaker 5:
[80:25] Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 9:
[80:26] Might be a good show.
Speaker 4:
[80:28] Bolaire, retreating from Demetas as he begins to cast his illusion spell, you head up the ladder.
Speaker 7:
[80:37] Hal Fangs.
Speaker 12:
[80:38] Hal Fangs.
Speaker 10:
[80:40] The first thing I begin doing as I enter the room is I start taking off my shirt, jacket and cloak, and folding them in the corner, somewhere as clean as I can find it.
Speaker 7:
[80:50] Do you need anything from me?
Speaker 10:
[80:52] Um, if you're up to it. If you're not, um, I understand. I can make it work one way or the other. Um, I'm... You can undo the manacles on our friend over there, and forgive the brashness, but I'm going to have to change clothing, and I'm taking off my clothes and folding them in the corner, if you're willing to unmanacle.
Speaker 7:
[81:23] Sure.
Speaker 10:
[81:24] Or unconscious.
Speaker 7:
[81:25] I'm not excellent at it, but I assume if I rifle through his person, I can find...
Speaker 12:
[81:30] Yeah...
Speaker 7:
[81:31] .a way to get him off.
Speaker 4:
[81:34] The manacles can come off.
Speaker 10:
[81:37] And I'm going to need the clothing. So I at least start taking the shirt and the clothing off of our friend.
Speaker 7:
[81:44] Off of the same one?
Speaker 10:
[81:46] Off of the man on the floor, yes. And so I'm putting it on.
Speaker 7:
[81:49] At this point, Hal just backs up to a wall in the room and just witnesses.
Speaker 10:
[81:56] Checking to see, to make sure I'm leaving anything that would identify him as a member of the group. Just want to look somewhat typical. Oh, and I have the other half of the seal in my pocket. Yes, you do. I go back into the pocket of my clothing and put it in my new pocket. Right.
Speaker 12:
[82:18] Let's see.
Speaker 10:
[82:20] Do any of our dead friends have swords or is it just knives?
Speaker 12:
[82:23] You got some short swords here, yeah.
Speaker 10:
[82:26] I pick one up. Do you want to do the honors?
Speaker 7:
[82:32] Excuse me?
Speaker 10:
[82:33] I'm gonna need to die. And then I'm going to need you to take my face and put it on a friend over there. But we're going to have to make this body look like it died in a battle. They won't recognize him.
Speaker 7:
[82:55] You know, in that moment, I think of how everything in this city and in my life has flipped upside down in two weeks. I wonder where my children are in this city and abroad, and Elodie. I wonder where Tisha is and if she's all right. I think of my brother, his body, waiting to be interred somewhere in the city. But that all takes place in just a second or two. And I stare at this mask back in its face and take the blade from your hand.
Speaker 10:
[83:41] Whatever you do, end with a stab to the chest so that I can fall into the corner. If you decide not to put me on that body for any reason, just don't leave me here to be found. My life is in your hands. I don't know what else I could do.
Speaker 7:
[84:04] Back up a step or two. And I'm not much of a fighter anymore. I do flourish the blade after years of practice. And then just stab forward.
Speaker 10:
[84:18] I grab with my hands and let them cut into the blade to break them.
Speaker 7:
[84:25] And I start to actually wedge hammer down to make it a messier wound.
Speaker 10:
[84:29] I take as many of my fingers off as humanly possible. Oh my gosh. The face doesn't, doesn't wince.
Speaker 7:
[84:37] I shove my foot against his chest and kick him off and widen the wound even further to leave him a gory mess on the ground.
Speaker 4:
[84:46] Coup de grace, Bolaire, you die again.
Speaker 7:
[84:58] Blade drops from my hand, clatters on the stone. And I tentatively step closer and look into the holes of the mask. Is there anything?
Speaker 10:
[85:22] They're no longer deep. They're like a blind mask, if you've ever seen one, where the pockets that are normally those giant fathom, those giant endless pits with the light deep inside them are now a trick of the light. It's just been painted with a slight concave round and just tiny holes punctured in them so that whoever's underneath it can see out. It's just a theater mask.
Speaker 7:
[85:59] I'll test it, the edges of it, with the tips of my fingers. Does it come away?
Speaker 10:
[86:06] It's like it was just lying there.
Speaker 4:
[86:10] It's actually somewhat strange. There's not even ribbons on the back or any way to fix it. Comes off so easily.
Speaker 7:
[86:18] I really carefully spin it in my hands to see the other side. What is on the other surface of this thing?
Speaker 10:
[86:32] There's a slight opalescent sheen. Just as if the glue that put it together, the paper mache just managed to capture a moment of this pearlescent oil slick, and then right beneath the eyes, there is gentle handwriting. This is beautiful cursive handwriting that is too light and too delicate to truly be seen. Like, you would have to get...
Speaker 7:
[87:13] Is that true with Comprehend Languages still?
Speaker 3:
[87:16] Oh, it's readable.
Speaker 10:
[87:18] It's just very light and small, and you would have to get a lot closer to the mask to read it.
Speaker 12:
[87:28] Do you look more closely at the writing?
Speaker 7:
[87:32] I will bring it to about here.
Speaker 8:
[87:35] Whoop.
Speaker 12:
[87:37] Whoop.
Speaker 4:
[87:40] I will say, at this moment, Murray and Azune enter the room as you see Hal bringing the mask closer to his face, to read it.
Speaker 5:
[87:56] And we just see a dead Bolaire?
Speaker 8:
[87:58] Have we seen a Bolaire in his body?
Speaker 4:
[87:59] Well, what you see is one of the crowkeepers that you don't remember fighting is dead on the ground. Azune, give me a history check with advantage.
Speaker 5:
[88:09] Okay. Natural 20.
Speaker 4:
[88:14] There was something on your desk the other day. Aubris Drime, who was an informant for an Arcane Martial case had gone missing and missed an appointment with one of the inspectors.
Speaker 12:
[88:23] Uh-huh.
Speaker 4:
[88:24] Aubris Drime is dead, but he had an informant. But Aubris, yeah, he was like a fence. He's like a cult fence, but he, you had no idea that he was affiliated with the crowkeepers. You don't even remember fighting him in this room.
Speaker 12:
[88:38] No.
Speaker 9:
[88:41] What is going on?
Speaker 8:
[88:43] Can I read it?
Speaker 4:
[88:45] Hal, go ahead and give me a wisdom saving throw, if you'd be so kind.
Speaker 12:
[88:48] Oh, no.
Speaker 9:
[88:52] Come on.
Speaker 8:
[88:55] Please, for the love of god, be something good. 19.
Speaker 4:
[88:58] 19. You read the words. Your thoughts unravel. And you hear a plause so uproarious that it might also be the noise of the world cracking apart at the core. And on a 19, what does Murray say as she sees Hal holding the mask?
Speaker 9:
[89:38] I don't think she said a shit.
Speaker 6:
[89:40] I think she's just gonna wait in a watch and see what kind of show she was in.
Speaker 4:
[89:44] On a 19, Sorry. Look at this. On a 19, I think you read that, but there might be another code at the end. So on a 19 wisdom, I think you successfully save and have to ask if you want to move in the direction of that applause or if your curiosity is sated.
Speaker 7:
[90:08] I think that's intoxicating. I think it feels pretty irresistible, but having just spent a moment of time thinking of Tisha and Aligarh and Shadia and Hero and Elodie and everyone at the Hallowed Round, I think that he squeezes his eyes shut and presses the mask away from his body. And spins it over in his hands.
Speaker 12:
[90:47] How?
Speaker 7:
[90:50] He doesn't answer, he just walks over to the new home.
Speaker 4:
[90:56] The unconscious crow keeper, you place mask on his face.
Speaker 12:
[91:05] Bolaire, you open your eyes, looking up at your friend Hal.
Speaker 10:
[91:24] I start to get dressed.
Speaker 4:
[91:26] You feel groggy.
Speaker 10:
[91:27] I don't say much. And also, there's a healing potion over here, right?
Speaker 4:
[91:31] Correct.
Speaker 3:
[91:32] Fucking take it.
Speaker 4:
[91:33] You take it because you're in a body that moments ago was choked into unconsciousness by Azune Nayar.
Speaker 10:
[91:38] Yep, so I'm at, I'm at very low hit points.
Speaker 7:
[91:47] I think even before you get the clothes on, I reach out a hand and help you to your feet. And Hal says, very theatrical, which echoes through your consciousness. And I cast Healing Word. Oh. And heal you further.
Speaker 10:
[92:06] You are the first person who's been, anything like this has happened. It's never occurred to me to ask.
Speaker 7:
[92:11] For a big two.
Speaker 4:
[92:16] There is a box somewhere in a space that only you can see with the mind of a man who's been in jail, but never one like this. Beating against the bars.
Speaker 12:
[92:34] Screaming, I'll tell you, I'll tell you what I know! I'll tell you what I know!
Speaker 10:
[92:42] While my face is uncharacteristically blank, as I look at everyone, somewhere in that box, sitting in the audience, a mask floating by itself just says, of course you will, but we'll get to you. And then comes back out, my hair, and I walk over and pull the wig that had been attached to the previous body and put it on, and then very quickly pull out a blade and cut just enough out of the old face that they can't make it talk with any necromancy.
Speaker 7:
[93:25] Last thing to this is, I think that Hal wants to just stay shell shocked. He wants to navel gaze and think, how could this happen? All of this, everything. But there's just too much at fucking stake. So he just draws himself to his full height, turns around, walks towards his other friends, passes Murray, squeezes his shoulder with a smile, walks up to Azune and his hand grasps the back of your head and does a little squeeze massage and he smiles. And he might not feel it, but he's a very good actor. Get dressed and let's get out of here. And I walk past them all out that door. I need a drink.
Speaker 12:
[94:23] You all head out.
Speaker 4:
[94:26] Demetus comes up, having missed this entire display and walks up and goes, everything go good covering your tracks up here?
Speaker 10:
[94:36] It couldn't have been better.
Speaker 12:
[94:37] Awesome. Yes.
Speaker 4:
[94:39] And you guys head out of the sewers.
Speaker 12:
[94:41] Let's get the out. Yeah.
Speaker 4:
[94:43] Into the night?
Speaker 9:
[94:44] I tell Demetus, give yourself a little. Something else.
Speaker 4:
[94:51] You see he goes, oh, got it. And you see that he reaches in, some shattered bottle, he's got bits of glass, he does it and rubs a little on his face, it helps his sort of beard grow in, a little bit of stubble. And he, a loser, he gets rid of his swollen up eye.
Speaker 11:
[95:08] Okay. Nice.
Speaker 4:
[95:11] Saved my life. Things have gotten really crazy lately. And that's all for this episode of Critical Role.
Speaker 3:
[95:22] That was fun!
Speaker 12:
[95:23] That was fun!
Speaker 13:
[95:24] At the back of the mask, you crazy person. Sorry, I'm good.
Speaker 8:
[95:27] My kingdom for a long rest.
Speaker 3:
[95:31] I'm at two hit points.
Speaker 4:
[95:32] This day is, I think, maybe the craziest adventuring day. I'm looking at, I'll put it this way, in the timeline that our lore keepers are keeping, this day has a different font size. Let's see if our schemers can take a fucking day off next week on another episode of Critical Role. And as always, is it Thursday yet? Thanks for listening to this episode of Critical Role. If you're enjoying this story, consider leaving a review on your podcast platform of choice. We're always looking for new critters to share our adventures with, and your review may help a new batch of wayward souls find their way to Ahriman, Exandria, and beyond! If you want to see the cast discussed after the episode, head to beacon.tv and check out our exclusive show Critical Role Cooldown. You'll be right there at the table immediately after we say, is it Thursday yet? And experience our cast's post-show reactions. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 11:
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