MATT: Hello everybody,
and welcome to tonight's episode
of Critical Role, where a bunch of us
nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play
Dungeons & Dragons. ALL: (hollering)
We play Dungeons & Dragons! MATT: Yeah. Before we jump into
our episode for tonight, we do have some
announcements to get through, beginning with
our first sponsor, our only sponsor
for the night, NordVPN. Travis. TRAVIS: Not now, Matt,
we're in the middle of a level 69 phase swap
to delete Setty once and for all. TALIESIN: Setty, of course,
being the skeevy virus who's infected
the Critical Role set. TRAVIS: Almost in,
just need to deets the otho. TALIESIN: Showtime
the sandworm. TRAVIS: Juice the
beetle and-- Ugh, debooted! Again? This cipher's unhackable,
if only... MARISHA: I know, I know, if only I had installed
NordVPN on the set. Look, I realize that
they're the providers of the highest
quality encryption for your internet traffic and hide your IP
and physical location. With 5,400-plus servers
in 59 countries, it's easy to get
better internet speed and protection with
one simple click, and it is available
on every major platform, including Windows, iOS,
Android, and Linux. Just why didn't I? ROBBIE: Not to mention
that if you go to nordvpn.com/criticalrole right now to get
a two-year plan, you'll get a bonus gift
with a huge discount. MARISHA: Okay, I got it. ROBBIE: Do I get
a hacker name? MARISHA: No.
TALIESIN: No! TRAVIS: No. TALIESIN: Hold on, Number Two.
TRAVIS: Mm. TALIESIN: I know
you're frustrated, but remember,
what do I always tell you? TRAVIS: Stop sticking
my body parts into scuzzy drives?
TALIESIN: Not that, not that. TRAVIS: Binary is the
language of lovemaking? TALIESIN: No, the other thing. TRAVIS: You mean, if you
can't hack it, jack it? TALIESIN: Positronic. TRAVIS: Of course,
a vigorous hand jacking will zero out the memcache. MARISHA: Uh, translation?
TRAVIS: We can unplug it. MARISHA: W-wait,
unplug the set? My beautiful baby, the thing
I spent months building? TRAVIS: I'm sorry, Marisha, this is for the good
of the interwebs. (grunts)
Okay, here I go. Watch me nae-nae.
(electrocution sounds) MARISHA: Travis!
ROBBIE: Travis? TALIESIN: Don't give up,
Number Two. Remember how leet you are. TRAVIS: Right, Morpheus.
I just need to hack with love. (electrocution noises)
Ow, fuck me. Ow, no, this did not
work at all. MARISHA: Okay w-wait,
maybe if there's two of us, here let me help. TRAVIS: Ready? (electrocution noises) TRAVIS: Why did I think that
was going to be any different? ASHLEY: (Cockney accent)
Hey, oy, oy! Number Two and Morpheus. Why you need some help, mate? LIAM: Sometimes hacking is the friends you've
made along the way. LAURA: If we daisy chain
our cyber bodies together, we'll create
a P-Funk psi channel that could defrizz Setty,
and reset the set. TRAVIS: That's brilliant,
Cryptonic Override. LAURA: I learned it
from Blackwillow69. (laughter) ASHLEY: Who's that? LAURA: (laughing)
The only man I ever loved. MATT: Affirmative,
Cryptonic Override. 'Tis I, the Ultra Kodex,
and I have traveled through dimensions
to correct your timeline from the consequences
of my devious plan. MARISHA: Okay, yeah,
Ultra Kodex is back. It's great, just shut up
and help us, please. MATT: Okay. MARISHA: Daisy chain,
daisy chain. TRAVIS: Okay, ready?
Three, two, one, slice! (yelling, electrocution noises) (groaning) ROBBIE: Ouch. TALIESIN: Oh.
TRAVIS: We failed! If only Blackwillow69
were here, he'd know what to do. TALIESIN: Wait, what if there
was a way to get Blackwillow back? TRAVIS: How? TALIESIN: I'll tell you next time NordVPN
sponsors the show, Matt, hack to you. (grunts) MATT: Totally, cool, thanks.
That fucking helmet. (laughter) LAURA: That was so long! MATT: That was so long.
Sam, you need to be stopped. ASHLEY: So long.
(laughter) SAM: There's a lot of you.
I had to write you all in or else some of you get mad
that you're not in the bit. MATT: Never been
mad about that! TALIESIN: No one gets mad. SAM: I think that you're mad.
(laughter) Maybe it's me projecting. Maybe it's me, I'm being mad
for not being in the bit. (laughter) TALIESIN: That felt very intentional.
TRAVIS: I loved it. MATT: Thank you, NordVPN, for
this continued ridiculous-- TRAVIS: Blackwidow69. Blackwidow.
LAURA: Blackwidow. MATT: We also have the Tal'Dorei
Campaign Setting Reborn, coming out next week,
on January 18th. (cheering) This tome is lovingly crafted to reflect the updated
continent of Tal'Dorei with rich new art pieces,
lore, tons of content to use in your games,
including such fun things like the
College of Tragedy Bard. We've talked about it before. It's in there and it's fun. It's likely fucked up. But it digs deeper
into their existing lore for all of you Exandrian
historians out there. It serves as
a perfect introduction for those exploring Tal'Dorei
for the very first time. So look for it at
Critical Role's shops and Darrington Press
Guild stores next week, and other friendly local game
stores soon thereafter. Go to Darringtonpress.com
to learn more about it. Sam. SAM: Y'all, we are
just 15 days away from the debut of
our amazing animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina, which drops on
the 28th of January. (whooping) SAM: I know, it's exciting. But next Thursday, the 20th, FanologyPV will
be spotlighting the Legend of Vox Machina,
our show, during their Fanimation Week, dedicated to celebrating all
the amazing adult animation available on
Amazon Prime Video. Keep an eye on
Fanology socials for more info about their
Vox Day Celebration to come, and set your DVRs
for January 28th. TRAVIS: Yeah!
(cheering) MATT: I'm excited. All right, well, I guess
that brings us-- LAURA: That was so good,
that was so salesman-y. MARISHA: That was really good. Half of that wasn't
even on a prompter. You just rattled that off. SAM: Yeah.
LAURA: Top notch. (laughter) SAM: I don't like
how you said that. (laughter) MATT: Well, I believe
that does bring us to a close to
our announcements. Let's go ahead and jump
into tonight's episode of Critical Role. ♪ Critical ♪ ♪ Critical ♪ ♪ It's Thursday ♪ ♪ It's Thursday night ♪ ASHLEY: ♪ One by one ♪ ♪ We climb until ♪
we reach the top ♪ ♪ Two by two, we fall ♪ LAURA: ♪ Will we meet end
or meet our destiny? ♪ ♪ Hold your breath and roll ♪ MATT: How do you
want to do this? ALL: ♪ It's Thursday night ♪ ♪ All ye Critters ♪
come join us ♪ ♪ It's time to ♪
continue our plight ♪ ♪ There is ♪
magic and mystery ♪ ♪ Who knows what ♪
will happen? ♪ ♪ He might ♪ ♪ But one thing's for sure ♪ ♪ We never give up ♪
on the fight ♪ TRAVIS: ♪ From the healer ♪ LIAM: ♪ To the renegade ♪ MATT: ♪ We all share
the same goal ♪ MATT and TALIESIN:
♪ Adding more allies ♪ ♪ Taking more chances ♪ SAM: ♪ Hold your
breath and roll ♪ MARISHA: You can
certainly try. ALL: ♪ It's Thursday night ♪ ♪ All ye Critters ♪
come join us ♪ ♪ It's time to ♪
continue our plight ♪ ♪ It's Thursday night ♪ ♪ There is magic ♪
and mystery ♪ ♪ From darkness ♪
our friendship will rise ♪ ♪ But one thing's for sure ♪ ♪ We never give up ♪
on the fight ♪ ♪ Oh, get ready ♪ ♪ It's Thursday night ♪ MATT: And we begin. Last we left off,
this group of heroes, after solving one mystery,
gaining an ally, and following their path
as this newcomer to this troop for the time being,
known as Chetney Pock O'Pea was in search of a person
that they were meeting with here in Marquet,
in the Oderan Wilds, the wild man Gurge,
who vanished in violence. (laughter) After finding he was
captured by the local wardens and interrogating them,
more or less, you discovered that actually he was taken by
a bounty hunter. Finding this bounty hunter,
discovered the person that hired them to
acquire this individual and went and found them
within the Moon Tower at the top of the Core Spire. After walking your way in and trying to talk your way
into their office, you were told they were
out for the evening, but as you were distracting the one person
who was keeping tabs on the entry to the tower, the invisible Chetney
snuck into the office as the door was closed. There, while the rest of
you were leaving the tower to be escorted out
for the evening, the rain pattering outside
in the night sky, the early evening
now coming to bear upon the city of Jrusar, you inspected the
contents of this office, and amongst them
found a button that shifted the bookcase and revealed a stairway
that delved below. There you heard
some conversation and some
approaching footsteps. Scrambling about, you couldn't find a way
out of this room and hid in the corner,
invisible. However, some of the things that were now missing at the
desk where it was once left, the individual
whose office it was, Vali, began to search around, saber in hand,
of who might be responsible, poking and prodding
and swiping in the corners of
the chamber. As it began to bear upon you, you lept onto the
arm and shoulder and back of Vali
jumped onto the desk and through the
stained glass window, landing into the wet grass
of the courtyard outside. And that was
where we left off. The rest of you,
who at this moment have been forced
out of the tower, closed behind you,
you take a moment to talk amongst yourselves
before you hear (glass shatters) to the left side of
where you're standing around the eastern side
of this tower. What do you do? LIAM: Oh, that can't be good. TALIESIN: Nope. MARISHA: Shall we? LIAM: We got to get
eyes on that. SAM: Just hurry, hurry,
and get out of here. LAURA: Can we see him at all? MATT: You are-- it's around
the edge, you hear the sound. LAURA: Can we run over
to that direction without like
running backwards, just like, so we
can see the angle? MATT: Okay, got it. Chetney? TRAVIS: Yes? MATT: (laughs) Rolling on the slick grass,
you feel the impact of the shoulder. You glance over and can see
there in the stained glass, Vali there, saber in hand,
going, "Who are you? "Show yourself!" MARISHA: Back up, back up. Shh, back up. MATT: All right.
Roll a stealth check. You are invisible,
so you have advantage on it. But the rain is--
LAURA: Oh no! MATT: -- making it a little
easier for them, perhaps. TRAVIS: 19. MATT: 19. TRAVIS: Oh, that's
not a good face. MATT: As they're standing
there at the window, saber in hand and
glancing out, "There," and they
jump from the window and begin giving
chase after you. TRAVIS: Oh fuck. MARISHA: I send-- Oh, can I
send a message to Chetney? MATT: Do you have
to see the figure? What does it say on the spell?
MARISHA: I don't know. LAURA: I think it's
just within a hundred-- SAM: You just point
in the direction. MARISHA: You don't
have to see, "You point your finger
towards a creature "within range." SAM: 120 feet,
are we that far? MATT: You are-- At this point, as you
just begin to rush around, after hearing the shouting, and shortly after,
the glass impact. You can see a figure running
away from the window. That's all you can see. MARISHA: I say: Oh, Chetney, you should run to
your nine o'clock. We're towards the
front of the building. Where the fuck are you going? TRAVIS: Can I reply to this? MARISHA: You can. You can reply to this message.
TRAVIS: I'm in hot pursuit! (laughter) TRAVIS: <i>They're</i>
in hot pursuit. ASHLEY: Oh no. MARISHA: He's in hot pursuit. MATT: So as you all turn
around and see this happening, the figure is giving chase,
and what's your speed? TRAVIS: It's not great. 25. MATT: The figure is
gaining on you. In front of you, you can see there is a hedge
approaching quickly and probably a heavy bench just past and poking
out the side of it. You're not sure what's
beyond the hedge. What are you doing? TRAVIS: I'm running, but I'm
just going to start gauging in a serpentine style
running pattern to try and shake them loose! LAURA: H-H-How far away is
the man chasing Chetney now? MATT: From where you guys are?
LAURA and LIAM: Yeah. MATT: I'd say about--
LIAM: I can't see him. MATT: You can't see him,
but you see the man running and he's like, from
where your position is it's not an open field, you can see he crosses
by some of the hedges and you lose sight
for a second and then becomes
visible for a moment. Is about, I'd say about
a hundred or so feet from where you are. LAURA: Okay. (exhales) MARISHA: He's just out, he's running away.
LAURA: I'm going to talk to Chetney. TRAVIS: You can't see me,
though, right? MATT: No.
TRAVIS: Okay. LAURA: I don't know if
can talk to you, I think I need to see you to start the connection, shit.
MATT: Yeah, then you can't. MARISHA: I can do
another message. LAURA: Just ask him
if he's close by because I don't
want to hit him. MARISHA: Um, Chetney?
(creepy whispering) MARISHA: Are you close by? Imogen doesn't want to
blast you out of the sky. (creepy whispering) TRAVIS: Holy shit! I don't think I'm that far! I'm running the
way we came in; just fucking lay it on me! LAURA: I'm going to--
MARISHA: Do it. He's running this way. LAURA: Okay. MATT: You don't
respond mentally. TRAVIS: I say it out loud?
MATT: Yes, to Message. TRAVIS: I still say it anyway.
MATT: Okay. MARISHA: He knows
where you are. MATT: As you start
saying this, you watch as the eyes
are following, and then, "Ha ha!"
you hear the chuckle and begins to
push even faster. You have one round of actions
before he gains to you. What are you going to do? LAURA: Can I try something? MATT: You can see
him at this point, but you're about
to lose sight between-- past another hedge. MARISHA: -- chase--
person chasing? MATT: Yes.
MARISHA: Okay. LIAM: I don't want
to kill anybody. LAURA: No, no, no, no, no. I'm going to pull out
a handful of my ball bearings that I have.
MATT: Okay. LAURA: I want to use Catapult to shoot them out. I want to aim it low so
we can get under his feet. I'm going to try to
trip him from a distance. MATT: Okay.
MARISHA: ♪ From a distance ♪ MATT: Okay, this'll
be difficult, just so you know, because it is in the
middle of the rain, and he is running between
stone and dirt ground. In which case,
the ball bearings, depending on where
they hit, might not. LAURA: I want it to
be on the stone. When he gets to the stone--
MATT: Right. So it's possible, it's just a difficult roll. LAURA: Okay.
MATT: So go ahead and roll an attack. LAURA: Is he within 60 feet
of me, at this point? Or would he be--? MATT: No, he's
running parallel. So you'd have to
actually approach. LAURA: Okay,
then I'm going to use-- Oh god. I'm going to use
a sorcery point-- MATT: Okay. LAURA: -- to double
my distance. MATT: You can indeed do that.
LAURA: Okay. TALIESIN: F.C.G.! SAM: I'll just stare her
in the eye and just say: Come on, you got to
make this work. And I'll cast
Guidance on you. MATT: Okay. LAURA: All right,
so I'm just rolling? MATT: You're just
rolling a d20, then add your spell attack
modifier, I believe. LAURA: Okay, it's actually
a dexterity save, so I don't know--
MATT: Oh, it's a dexterity save their part?
Never mind, then. SAM: Block out the world.
Just focus on this. MATT: It's a dexterity save
on his part. LAURA: Oh, so I don't have
to roll, thank god. MATT: You don't have to
roll for that one. LIAM: Because that was a one.
LAURA: That was a one. You know what,
it didn't count, it didn't count,
it didn't matter. It didn't mean anything. TALIESIN: Burn one.
TRAVIS: (laughs) LIAM: Got it out of the way. MATT: (sizzles)
You release it. (whooshes) You see a clump of dirt (poofs) to his side,
unfortunately. MARISHA: That was
such a cool idea. MATT: It was fucking cool. Anybody else have
anything they want to do before it gets
back to Chetney? SAM: I'm changing
my hand out. MATT: You did Guidance for
her, so that's your thing. SAM: Forget it. MARISHA: I crack my neck and take my Form of Dread. MATT: Okay. All right, Form of Dread is
clicked in, veil falls over. Who else? TALIESIN: They're coming
straight towards us right now? MATT: They're running
parallel across from where you guys
are looking, and heading, giving chase. TALIESIN: How close could we
get if we were moving towards the situation? MATT: I'd say they are
about 90 to 80 feet from you right now. So, even at a move
and then an action, you would close
the distance mostly, but still not get up to them. TALIESIN: Okay. I'm not going
to rage or anything. I'm just going to start
walking towards, put the hood up, walking towards--
LAURA: No-- TALIESIN: Are we? LAURA: I don't
want to engage. I don't want him
to know it's us. TALIESIN: I'm just walking. I'm not running. ROBBIE: I'm on
Ashton's heels. I'll be right behind. TALIESIN: I'm not engaging. Not even looking. MATT: Okay. All right. Anybody else? ASHLEY: Yeah,
I'm going along. MATT: Okay, so we now
have a trio walking at a brisk pace
in that direction, but not closely quickly
closing the distance. LIAM: You said it's
like bushes and shrubs and everything.
MATT: Correct. LIAM: Breaking up the view, and they're going like this--
MATT: Correct. LIAM: -- in comparison to us?
MATT: Yeah. You see them and then they
vanish behind the hedge, then appear, and then vanish. Right now, they're in sight. Or, he's in sight,
you do not see Chetney. LIAM: I'm going to get really
low and scuttle, this way, if they're coming this way,
and try to get close so that I know they're
going to run past me, and crouch low behind a bush. I'm going to pull
a little burlap sack out of my bag.
MATT: Okay. Go ahead and roll
a stealth check, as you dart around to try and
cut them off along the way. LIAM: Good. That is 23. MATT: 23, okay. Darting off through the rain, the cold and wetness sinking into all of your various
suits and armor. MARISHA: I'm also
going to move, not the direction
that Orym is going, but back and up
against the hedge. MATT: Okay.
MARISHA: To let them get past me.
MATT: You got it. Okay. As you all are
moving forward. TRAVIS: If I could look
over my shoulder, is he getting within
striking range? MATT: He will be
here in a moment. You have one more
thing you can do before he gets up to you. TRAVIS: Okay, I'll save
that one thing. MATT: Okay. So what
are you going to do? TRAVIS: I'm going to use
my action to dodge. MATT: Okay.
TRAVIS: So whenever he gets close,
I'll turn on my heel and stare down my attacker. MATT: Okay. As you get to the edge
and you can see, you come upon
where that hedge is and there's a bench
off to the side. You have to dart
right or left to even get in there or
try and leap over it. But instead,
you dig your heels into the wet dirt
and spin around. And there,
you prepare yourself in a defensive stance. As you see, bearing towards
you, saber in hand, "(yells)" a large swipe
in your direction. "Burglar!" TRAVIS: So you have to
roll with disadvantage. MATT: He does.
That'd be a 12 to hit. TRAVIS: It misses! MATT: (whooshes) "(groans)" That's his turn.
TRAVIS: Eat middle fingers! SAM: He's a one-hit guy. MATT: All right. So what
are the rest of you doing? LAURA: I got an idea, but I don't know
if everybody else is-- SAM: Can you mind fuck him? LAURA: Yeah, that's the idea. SAM: Maybe that's a thing. LAURA: Can I step out and go: (gasps) Oh, Mister-- What's his name, Vole-y? MARISHA: Vali. SAM: We think.
LAURA: Mr. Dertrana! MARISHA: There, yeah, yeah.
MATT: "(noise of exertion)" LAURA: Mr. Dertrana. MATT: "What?"
LAURA: Oh, thank goodness. MATT: "No, I'm handling--"
LAURA: I'm going to start running towards him. MATT: "No, stay back!"
LAURA: I'm so glad you're here, you know, I've been searching
everywhere for you. MATT: Are you doing anything? TRAVIS: Well, I used my turn,
that was my turn. MATT: Right, we're
coming back to, with all this happening and they're
slowly approaching-- LAURA: As I'm approaching,
I'm going to cast Calm Emotions on him. ROBBIE: Mm-hmm!
MATT: Okay. What's the DC on that? ASHLEY: Come on. SAM: 15 for you? LAURA: Charisma. SAM: But what number?
LAURA: 14. MATT: 14, got it. TALIESIN: Is it a roll? MATT: It is a charisma saving
throw on their side. TALIESIN: Okay. ASHLEY: Charisma saving roll? SAM: A Christmas saving roll. LAURA: A Christmas
saving roll. SAM: It's a
Christmas miracle. MATT: That is a 13. (cheering) Exactly. LAURA: So I can make
the target indifferent about creatures of my choice
that it is hostile towards. MATT: Mm-hmm.
MARISHA: Yes! LAURA: So I'm just going to
try to calm him down and make him feel
like he's not, he doesn't need to go
after anyone right now. MATT: Okay. "(groans, pants) "Miss, I'm dealing with a... "burglar of some kind." LAURA: Oh, I'm so sorry
to hear that. MATT: "I'm very confused. "I'm missing things from my-- "Who was in there?
Who are you? "Step out."
LAURA: Who are you talking-- Sir, I don't mean to-- I don't see anyone. MATT: Make a deception check. TRAVIS: I just lay prone
on the ground. Very close to the
ground, invisible. LAURA: What was that?
That was terrible. Eight. Oh, but
I have Guidance still. TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.
MATT: You do, d4. SAM: It's not going to
help that much. LAURA: Nine. (laughter) MATT: He goes, "Right." Looks past you at the-- TALIESIN: I'm walking over. MATT: -- The rather intense
looking individuals that are now
rolling up behind. TALIESIN: You all right,
weird guy? What was that about? MATT: "I'm fine." TALIESIN: All right. Walking away now. MARISHA: I look and try to
make eye contact with Orym. (mouthed) And back away. MATT: You see, there's gears
turning in the head. You have definitely
halted the assault and calmed him to
a point of conversation, but there's still
a look of intense mistrust, and putting the pieces
together in his head as he's looking about. LAURA: In my head, I'm just
going to tell Laudna: Stay back, make sure
nobody comes up. He's aggravated. TRAVIS: You hear a small
whisper from the ground go: I died in that room.
Let me be free! I'll start running towards
the rest of them-- MARISHA: Oh my god! (laughter) SAM: Like you're a spirit?
MATT: Okay. TRAVIS: I'm invisible!
MATT: Okay. Make a stealth check and
a deception check. (laughter) ROBBIE: Does he
believe in ghosts? TALIESIN: I mean,
they're real. LAURA: I'm going to
instantly go: (gasps) Did you hear that? MARISHA: I am going
to hit him with, not hit him--
MATT: With a knife! (laughter) MARISHA: Just stab him! LIAM: "Laudna, what
do you have?" "A knife!" MATT and LAURA: No! MARISHA: What's it
fucking called? TRAVIS: 19 for stealth, but only a 16 for deception. MATT: Okay. MARISHA: And I do
Unsettling Presence to him to just aid to that feeling, like maybe it
is a fucking ghost. MATT: Okay, what is the range
on Unsettling Presence? MARISHA: 15 feet.
LAURA: Ooh. MATT: So you are,
you backed away. You're very far.
MARISHA: Okay. Does that not work? MATT: Not yet. You can get closer to
try and do it, though. MARISHA: How far away--
I'm hidden behind a bush. MATT: Right, but you're
about 60 plus feet away. SAM: Oh, that's going
to take a while. MARISHA: That's far,
that's far. TRAVIS: Just run at him
in your scary-ass state. SAM: Ahh! MATT: But you can begin
to work that way. MARISHA: I'll begin to
work that way just in case it's needed, but stealthily.
TRAVIS: ♪ Makin' my way! ♪ MATT: Okay, roll
a stealth check. MARISHA: Yep. MATT: Going carefully
and stealthily is slower so it'll take a couple
rounds to get there. MARISHA: I know. I-- ooh! Uh-oh. Six? MATT: Okay. LAURA: So, he
should be indifferent unless he's attacked
or harmed by a spell. MATT: Right. LAURA: Just so we know. MATT: Indifferent, yes. They're still a person
with their own. LAURA: Fully, I'm just saying,
please don't attack him or else it might get-- LIAM: About 15 feet
back behind Vali, you see from a bush,
a little head go like-- (laughter) MATT: As you dart by, pulls the blade back
and goes, "(startled noise)" LAURA: (gasps)
Did you hear that? TRAVIS: (whispers) Free.
LAURA: (scared noise) MARISHA: Fucking Chetney! MATT: "What is going on?" LAURA: Is this place haunted? MATT: "Is it?" LAURA: I don't know!
MATT: "I don't think so. "Who are you? What are
you doing out here?" LAURA: Oh, ah, me? MATT: "All of you!" ASHLEY: Fearne just
has her mouth open, drinking the water. (laughter)
(applause) LAURA: Well, I-I came here. You can ask your assistant. We came here just
a little while ago to leave a message with you. We were hoping to
have a meeting, actually. MATT: "Well, I've been busy. "I believe I
notified him of that." LAURA: Yeah. MATT: At this point,
looks past and sees the
dark veiled creature, stepping through the shadows. He goes, "(screams) What?! "This place is haunted!" He starts backing away,
blade in front, like, "Go, you will
need to go now." LAURA: Ah, all right. I guess we'll meet later. MATT: Make an
intimidation check. MARISHA: Oh, yeah,
that works, that's cooler. MATT: You just keep walking
forward as he does this. MARISHA: Uh-huh.
MATT: Okay. MARISHA: But I'm not
working at him. I'm still, I'm behind
the bushes where he is. So he is also just
seeing me from the bushes. MATT: Eyes are just
locked on Laudna, like-- LAURA: What do you see? MARISHA: The rain is
making my veil wet. So it's sticking to my--
TRAVIS: Nope! MARISHA: -- skeletal face
in a very unnatural way, adding to the
ghost-like presence. ROBBIE: I'm going to cast
Levitate on Laudna as well. MARISHA: 23, 23,
I rolled an 18. ROBBIE: So I see the acts
and I cast Levitate, and I now put Laudna about
just three feet in the air. TALIESIN: Get a little
foot drag? MARISHA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. MATT: What do you do
to intimidate him, beyond just the presence? MARISHA: Ah, am I
not doing it? (laughter) MATT: I'm just saying,
if there's anything more you want to add to it,
or is that just it? MARISHA: I just,
I full, you know, haunted house Marisha,
just roll my head a little. MATT: "(screams)" Throws the saber and
just goes running off towards the front
of the courtyard. TALIESIN: Shit. LAURA: We should
get out of here. SAM: Let's go. ASHLEY: He dropped
this, but-- TALIESIN: We should save
that for later. We'll bring it back.
ASHLEY: Of course. SAM: Chetney,
if you're out there, we're going to leave. TRAVIS: (whispers) Free. TALIESIN: Well, we've
lost Chetney. (laughter) SAM: Orym, we're also
going to leave. LIAM: (rustling) Shit! MARISHA: Transforming
into the Form of Dread gave me a crick in my neck. SAM: Drop her down
so she can go. ROBBIE: I lower her
down to the ground. ASHLEY: Can I take the saber?
MARISHA: Thank you. ROBBIE: You were excellent. MATT: You can try
and look for it. Go ahead and make
an investigation check or a perception check,
your choice. ASHLEY: 12. MATT: 12, yeah.
It's not too difficult. It takes you
a moment to find it if you're looking,
but you do find it. It is definitely ceremonial. It looks like it probably
would hurt somebody if you hit them with it. But it's not fully sharpened. It's definitely
a decorative saber. ASHLEY: We'll make
sure to definitely give this back to him
when we come back. TALIESIN: Absolutely.
ASHLEY: Yeah. MATT: All right.
So now you are in the courtyard,
rain pouring. SAM: Let's get out of here! MATT: The broken window is
open to the lit office. The wall is off to
your right surround, and the person who is
in there is now screaming and running towards
the entrance. What are you doing?
LAURA: We should leave. LIAM: We should
leave right away. TALIESIN: Beer, beer, beer?
Yeah, let's go get a drink. SAM: It's nighttime, yeah. LIAM: Aren't we dropping
you guys off to meet-- TALIESIN: Yeah!
LAURA and MARISHA: (gasps) SAM: There's a date!
MARISHA: Our date! ASHLEY: Oh my god!
MARISHA: Oh my goodness! LIAM: Yeah, walk and talk. ASHLEY: Walk and talk,
walk and talk. TRAVIS: I'm here. LAURA: Oh, good.
LIAM: (startled noise) TRAVIS: Keep walking,
heads up, eyes forward. MATT: All right.
Where are you? Are you just heading back
towards the entrance? LAURA: Really, I don't know
what else to do. MATT: There are two wardens
that are approaching, and you can see them
looking a bit confused and a little spooked. LAURA: I'm going to
look scared. Oh shit, Laudna, hide. They shouldn't see you. (laughter) MATT: How do you
hide, Laudna? MARISHA: I don't
fucking know! (laughter) ASHLEY: I'm going to
stand in front. MARISHA: Yeah,
get behind Fearne. ASHLEY: Fearne just like--
Floof up, if I can. MATT: Okay.
TALIESIN: If Levitate was working, just-- MATT: Like a finch in
the rain, just-- (laughter) Perfect. One of the ones says, "Um. "Have any of you
seen a ghost?" LAURA: We heard there
was a ghost. I heard a ghost. ASHLEY: Did you see it?
LIAM: Have you seen a ghost? MATT: You see one on
the right goes, like, "There's no such thing--" (Warden 1) "No, I've seen
some shit around here. "Just be careful. "You should go."
SAM: A ghost can be a manifestation of other
stresses in your life or anxieties.
TRAVIS: Oh my god. SAM: Is there something
going on at home, maybe with your family that
sort of is manifesting? TALIESIN: Goddamn it. MATT: "Well, you know. "Me and my lady have been
having some--" and the other guy
smacks him in the shoulder. "Right, right, uh." (laughter) MATT: "How'd a ghost
break the window?" TALIESIN: Ghosts, man. LAURA: They can do
all sorts of-- TALIESIN: They do crazy shit. LAURA: All sorts of things.
TRAVIS: (whispers) Crazy shit. LAURA: (gasps) I heard-- I think I heard it! MATT: "You all should leave." LAURA: Yeah. MATT: "We can't get that
fixed until the morning. "All right. Please
go, go, go, go." ASHLEY: Please be safe. TALIESIN: Good luck
with your lady. MATT: Make a-- SAM: Don't go to bed mad.
MATT: -- stealth check. Behind Fearne. You are helping, so you would
have advantage on this as you are carefully statue
blocking her as you go. MARISHA: Okay. Mm-hmm. 17.
SAM: Ooh! MATT: With advantage? MARISHA: Oh, it's
with advantage? MATT: Because she's
helping, technically. MARISHA and SAM: Cocked. MARISHA: Nope,
I'll take that 17. MATT: Okay. MATT: Okay. You carefully begin
to maneuver your way through the courtyard garden. The guards are-- one's watching,
pressing you back. The other one has now
pulled out his sword and is holding it
in front of him. You can see him shaking as he is moving through
the courtyard. MARISHA: As we passed the one
who was the non-believer, Unsettling Presence. SAM: Oh jesus.
ASHLEY: Oh my god. MATT: You see where the armor
and elements of scale and tunic are, this little
shiver begin up the back that carries up the spine
to the shoulders as he (shudders)
(breathes heavily) "We got to go!
We got to go!" The guy's like, "Fine, fine!" They both begin
looping around to the other side
of the tower, getting as far away from
that corner as possible where you guys begin
to move aside. MARISHA: I can't believe
that worked! TRAVIS: Oh, you guys,
you guys. Are we out of
earshot of anybody? LAURA: Yeah, let's get
a little further, yeah. TRAVIS: I got into
his room, I found a map and a bunch of coin. Oh fuck, we're rich. But also, there was
a hidden staircase and I heard him
and someone else speaking in
a subterranean room. I think maybe
Gurge was down there, but he came up quickly and I had to break
the fuck out, so we have to get
back down there. SAM: You think it was Gurge? Did you recognize his voice? TRAVIS: No, I didn't
hear his voice, but he was talking
to somebody else. Something about...
I was panicking. I'll have to watch it back...
in my head. (laughter) TRAVIS: He was talking about waiting 'til something
was finished. Then, I don't know why,
it felt dastardly. Dastardly! LIAM: It's so weird
watching the raindrops just slide down nothing. TRAVIS: They collect at
the tip of my nose. (laughter) TALIESIN: Is that
what that is? TRAVIS: Well, yeah. SAM: That's great intel,
Chetney, good job. Were you hurt at all? TRAVIS: No, no. SAM: You jumped through
a plate glass window and you weren't hurt at all? TRAVIS: (scoffs)
As old as I am, please. That's just a day
of the week that I can't remember offhand. SAM: I think Matt has named these days of the week, yes. TRAVIS: I was going
to say Tuesday, but that's not real. (laughter) Shit. We should know
one of these days. LAURA: Well, they said
they wouldn't be able to fix that window
'til morning, so-- SAM: So we can sneak back in. LAURA: We can sneak back in. TRAVIS: I know you
have a date, I was thinking, I could do it until the invisibility
wears off, but I want to keep
an eye just in case they freak out and try and
move him or relocate him or maybe take him
out of this place. At least we would know
that he was moved. SAM: Oh, you mean stay
here and keep an eye on the outside
of the building? TRAVIS: Yeah. We might
not see anything, but I just want to
cover our bases. I don't expect anyone
to stay with me. I know you have
a date and everything and I could meet up after.
LIAM: That's not a bad point because we don't want to
go back in right now, that's ridiculous.
TRAVIS: Oh yeah. LIAM: You guys have to
go on this date. Clearly. LAURA: Yeah. (laughs) SAM: As important as
that date is because we don't want to
leave this poor gentlemen out in the rain without a-- TRAVIS: What was his name? ASHLEY and TALIESIN: Pretty. TRAVIS: Seems like
a sweet guy. MARISHA: It is raining. Just think of how tragic it
would be if he got stood up. It's just so melodramatic. ROBBIE: You couldn't tell what
was the rain or his teardrops. TALIESIN: They're going to
up security anyway tonight. It's not like we're
going to get back in. LAURA: That office is going
to be full of security. TRAVIS: I mean, the secret
door is still secret. I don't think he knew
that I was down there. Just that things off
his desk were missing. So as long as they don't
move him out of the facility. LIAM: Which they might
do after tonight. TRAVIS: They might.
But if they do, then I can follow
them and we'll know. But if they keep him inside, we'll at least
know that much. It'll narrow our search. LAURA: Did you see
him down there? TRAVIS: No. I only heard voices from
the top of the stairs. LAURA: So you heard
him talking. TRAVIS: Gurge? No, no, no.
(sings gibberish) ASHLEY: Ira?
TRAVIS: Yep. And then some other voice. SAM: I don't think it's
a terrible idea, Chetney. However, if you said that
there was a subterranean room, there's also nothing
to say that there aren't subterranean
tunnels of some sort that they could be
whisking him around in. TRAVIS: True. LAURA: There are definitely
tunnels in this city. TALIESIN: Did you hear
anything else down there, names, places,
things they're trying to-- SAM: Something about
nightmares or kings. TRAVIS: I was totally
taking fucking notes when I was standing up there, but the rain washed
them off my hand but I got a mind
like a trap. They said the name
Nightmare King. There was other stuff. MATT: Nightmare King was
written on a note in the desk. TRAVIS: Yep!
It was on a note! MATT: But you heard
a name Ira. TRAVIS: Ira! ASHLEY: Something about--
LAURA: They were talking about-- ASHLEY: -- killing a child?
LAURA: -- killing a kid, looking for more people,
reading a-- TRAVIS: Just listen
to Imogen, she's up in my fucking
head unwarranted again. (laughter) LIAM: Sneak into a tower,
act two. (laughter) TRAVIS: Can I relay all
this stuff that I heard? MATT: Do a history
check for us. TRAVIS: Oh boy.
LAURA: Oh, because you would've heard of
the Nightmare King, maybe. ASHLEY: (gasps) LAURA: That was so crazy.
MARISHA: Fuck that dice. LIAM: That was quite a roll.
LAURA: Fuck you, dice. ASHLEY: 20. Dirty 20. MATT: Dirty 20? ASHLEY: 19 and then plus one. MATT: That's a
pretty decent roll. TRAVIS: Fucking good roll. MATT: Your caretaker
had mentioned to the various stories that
she told you over the years of certain myths and
tales of intrigue and shadow and mischief
throughout the Feywild. One of these tales
centered around an entity that if you recall correctly, had something to do with
the Nightmare King, almost. ASHLEY: You know something. I have heard
that name before. The Nightmare King. My grandmother told
me many stories about the Nightmare King. LAURA: Is he as bad
as he sounds? ASHLEY: Oh, terrible.
Just terrifying. Just an absolute nightmare. SAM: Someone who is
local to the fey realm or wherever you're from? ASHLEY: No, it's just
stories I've heard. So I don't know if
he's from the fey or, you know, around.
I've heard stories. ROBBIE: Like a
children's story, or--? LAURA: You took that book
with you, right, Chetney? You took that book with you? TRAVIS: Yeah. I pull it out
and I got a bunch of-- well, there's platinum in
here and there's a fucking-- LAURA: Well, let's wait until
we're not in the rain anymore and we can look
at those words. TRAVIS: I also got a map. MATT: The best you
can recall, because you did roll a 20,
which is decent, is tales of a figure that bent and twisted
nature for fun. that bent and twisted
nature for fun. Beings that that
exist within nature, just didn't care for them. ASHLEY: It was very scary.
I also heard that, at least what
my grandmother told me, that when you were asleep
and laying on your pillow, he would give you
a wet willy in your ear and crawl through and
give you nightmares and stand there above
your bed, over you, giving you absolute
terrifying dreams. Sometimes, sometimes
you might not wake up. SAM: Your grandma told you
these stories as a child? ASHLEY: Well, this is
the story, you know, that I've heard over time. LIAM: Wet willies on their
own are pretty bad, yeah? ASHLEY: I don't know about
the wet willy part. I was just trying to
make it not as scary. But I do know he gets
into your, you know. MARISHA: Sounds like he
had to lubricate, you know, to slide through. MATT: By this point, I'd say
you have exited the courtyard and a number of
other individuals have been escorted out and it looks like
they're closing it down for the evening. LIAM: Anybody eyeballing
us from behind? MATT: Roll a
perception check. LIAM: A natural 20
and a one, a 20. 20 plus four, so 24 total. MATT: Gotcha. I mean,
every person that leaves is generally given
an odd glance. Yeah. I mean,
there's an intense look, but you don't see anybody
following you at the moment, but you're all definitely
being remembered. SAM: Chetney, how much longer
can your invisibility hold? It can't be too
much longer, can it? TRAVIS: 15 more minutes. MATT: 15, 20, I'd say
at this point. SAM: Are you going to
stay here for 15 minutes or should we just go? TRAVIS: No, no. We could
walk a little ways away and then I could hide behind
Dorian's sweet, sweet calves and then drop it. Then I could just be there. SAM: Oh, okay. LAURA: Oh, okay, so you're
not going to try to sneak back in tonight. TALIESIN: Ooh. SAM: No, that sounds-- TRAVIS: That sounds
like a great idea. No, I can't do that, no. LAURA: Okay. TRAVIS: It's a lead!
This is more than I had before I met you so this is, I'm getting my wood's worth! LAURA: At least half a toy. SAM: Your wood's worth? TRAVIS: Yeah, the toys.
SAM: Oh, the toys? TRAVIS: Commissioned. TALIESIN: That took me,
yeah, me too. LAURA: Well... MARISHA: What? You look pensive. ASHLEY: No. I just... What if the
Nightmare King is real? MARISHA: Well, of course
he's real. Look, I've been called the
Nightmare Queen, you know. So. It just depends on where
you go from town to town. ASHLEY: She's very
much a queen. MARISHA: Maybe he's just
misunderstood, honestly. ASHLEY: Maybe. LAURA: Do you know what kind
of nightmares he gives? ASHLEY: I don't remember.
Every time my grandmother would tell me this
as a bedtime story, it was all kinds of
different dreams and just terrible,
terrible things. I would always, you know, I would never sleep well
after she would tell me this, but it's kind of fun, though. ROBBIE: Very often
children's stories are based in reality,
cautionary tales. ASHLEY: Yes. Very true. ROBBIE: Wolves in the night. ASHLEY: Yes. ROBBIE: It's a way to
keep children safe from the real things
in the world. ASHLEY: Yes.
MARISHA: (giggles) ROBBIE: Case in point. TRAVIS: Wolves in the night? ROBBIE: Sure. TALIESIN: Great way to prop up
your rep too, moving around. Making sure people are
worried when they find out that you're in town. LAURA: That's true. That's true. LIAM: Why does he have this
King's name in a book? SAM: It sounded like someone involved in this conversation
was starting... was sending--
was kidnapping people? TRAVIS: Seemed like a quest
by the Nightmare King, right? SAM: To create ruckuses,
to create chaos? TRAVIS: Uh. MARISHA and LAURA: (laugh) TRAVIS: Anybody was taking
notes better than me? LIAM: (as Chetney) You got
that Keen Mind feature handy there? ASHLEY: "-- by Nightmare King.
Bring alive," is all I wrote down. MARISHA: Yeah. They were
talking to someone named Ira. They were talking about
how they had a patron and how they had to
pass legislation in a very quickened manner and that they were trying to
make patterns across the city. Then Ira was like, "Bring me
riffraff from the streets "or a Mahaan child.
That would be fun. "That would spice things up."
He said something like that. Then Vali was like, "Mah,
what? I don't want to." He was like,
"Finish your work!" That's what I wrote. SAM: So Ira's the boss. LAURA: Well. Yes. Once Ira's
work is done, yeah. LAURA: Well. Yes. Once Ira's
work is done, yeah. SAM: So Vali works for Ira. Ira works for
the Nightmare King. Is that right?
MARISHA: Maybe? But it seems like
Vali was like, "Oh, I'm unsure about
this. I don't want to." ROBBIE: Ira had more of
a mad scientist vibe. MARISHA: At least from
what Chetney told us. (laughter) ROBBIE: Is this table talk
or is this role playing? I don't know
what's happening. (laughter) TRAVIS: Yes. MARISHA: (coos)
Fucking pigeons here. TALIESIN and LAURA:
So many pigeons. LAURA: I didn't know they
flew around in the rain. ASHLEY: Ah! SAM: (as Chetney)
Well, I like them. TALIESIN: It's been a while. Haven't seen that many
pigeons in a long time. (laughter) MARISHA: So many pigeons! TALIESIN: So many pigeons! MATT: All right. TRAVIS: You should go. Go
on your date. I'll stay. LAURA: Yeah. We'll head over. SAM: For your date,
you got to go all the way to Smolder Spire. Are we coming with you, or are you going
to go on your own? I guess you don't need a
chaperone or anything, right? LAURA: I mean, yeah,
it's up to you. SAM: No, I don't... You're fine. MARISHA: Do you want
to be our chaperone? SAM: I've just never
seen a date before. I would love to know
what happens, but-- TALIESIN: You should
check it out. LAURA: Sure!
Yeah, come with us! SAM: Dancer would, you know.
Dancer hooked up a lot, but didn't really date a lot. So I was sort of curious. LIAM: Pretty didn't strike me
as the type that would mind for you guys to
bring a friend. LAURA: Pretty-- it
could be a double date! MARISHA: We could do
the bottle trick. LAURA: Yeah. MARISHA: All night. SAM: Only if it's-- I don't
want to be a fourth wheel, TRAVIS: You got there. SAM, ASHLEY, and LAURA:
Fifth wheel. SAM: Thank you. But y'all, do we need
to go talk or anything, or reconnoiter, or? LAURA: Maybe let's go
to that tavern. We can sit down
and talk and then-- MARISHA: Wait until Pretty
gets off of his shift and then we'll
take it from there. ASHLEY: I think
that's a great idea. TRAVIS: Ashton,
here's four platinum. SAM: Four platinum? TRAVIS: Yeah. I think
I owe you three, right? TALIESIN: That'll do very
nicely. ROBBIE: It's up to you. TRAVIS: Yeah. Take it.
It's fucking heavy. TALIESIN: Four platinum. LAURA: Do you owe
any of us anything? TRAVIS: You opted
for the toys. They're works in progress. I'll have to take a percentage
off of the deposit, I mean, I can't just... ASHLEY: When can we
make our requests? LAURA: Yeah, we haven't even
told you what we want yet. TRAVIS: Oh, I was
basing them off of your general
outward personalities. SAM: You're going
to surprise us? LAURA: Oh! TRAVIS: Yeah.
But I also take requests. MARISHA: I want a rat puppet. TRAVIS: Rat puppet.
MARISHA: For Pâté. That was
a genuine request. Yes. TRAVIS: Got it. SAM: For... Pâté? LAURA and SAM:
Like a smaller rat? LAURA: Pâté will
hold the other-- ASHLEY: Pâté needs a--
MARISHA: He needs a companion. TALIESIN: It's Pâtés
all the way down. MARISHA: So at least-- TRAVIS: Oh, a rat puppet. I
wrote down something else, but I think we're talking
about the same thing. MARISHA: Mm-hmm. TRAVIS: Mine started
with an F, but go ahead. (laughter) ASHLEY: May I have a very long pipe? TRAVIS: Oh shit, like a
big, long, meerschaum pipe? All ornate and stuff? ASHLEY: No, so I can put some lavender and little things
in there that I can smoke. TRAVIS: Yeah. Oh, we can
get down like that. Yeah. ASHLEY: It's really great.
It's good for you. TRAVIS: Fearne, I didn't know.
Long-ass pipe. ASHLEY: It helps me think. MATT: Everyone mark
off a silver if you're all making your way to the Smolder Spire,
by the way. ASHLEY: Oh, that's right. TRAVIS: Bye, guys! LIAM: You're staying
behind, right? TRAVIS: Yep. LIAM: I am, too. TALIESIN: I actually, this
platinum, I may have a lead, but I have to do
it by myself. This platinum may give
me exactly what I need. Where can I meet you all? Where are we meeting
up after this date? TRAVIS: Oh yeah.
Where do we sleep? Wait, where are we staying? SAM: A lead? What's the lead?
LAURA: Spire by Fire? TALIESIN: If it works out,
I'll let you know. SAM: Do you want me
to join you? TALIESIN: Oh, no, I got this. This is way more important. SAM: The date is? TALIESIN: You got
to see this. SAM: I know, but I don't
want you to be in danger. TALIESIN: I know in danger. This is a friend who
I owe money to. It will be fine. SAM: A friend? TALIESIN: It will be a friend
again, once I pay them back. SAM: Okay.
LIAM: You do seem to be a study of all
the interactions of life and that's really a central. SAM: For sure.
I would love to. Also don't want Ashton
to do anything Ashton-y. TALIESIN: I'm easy.
This is good. ROBBIE: As much as I'd like to
witness this act of romance, I don't feel right leaving
Chetney behind either. If you're all right, Orym, I'd
like to stay with you both. TRAVIS: You got some trauma
with leaving somebody behind? What's the deal here? SAM: (laughs) ROBBIE: I feel like you're
one of us now. When you're one of us, we
take care of each other. TRAVIS: (tearfully)
Excellent. I appreciate that. ROBBIE: What's that
sound in your voice? ASHLEY: His lip is quivering. SAM: We got to get this
stuff out of the rain. LIAM: Are you crying
invisibly? TRAVIS: It's raining
fucking cats and balls! SAM: Cats and balls? (laughter) TRAVIS: Yeah, what's the
expression where you're from? LIAM: Yeah, it's
cats and balls. ROBBIE: Yeah, that's fine. TALIESIN: It's raining water,
is what I usually hear. Just water. SAM: All right. We'll
split off three ways, then? LAURA: I guess so. ROBBIE: Should we rendezvous
at a certain time? LAURA: I can't imagine
this date will take longer than a couple hours. ASHLEY: What if we're
having a good time? MARISHA: It could go late.
You never know. TALIESIN: Let us know if it's
going well. Just check in. Just check in with everybody. LIAM: Are we coming
back here? LAURA: We would need
one of the stones. Who has the other
sending stone? LIAM: I got one and
Dorian's got the other one. LAURA: Oh, Dorian,
can you pass over one of the sending stones
and then we can... ROBBIE: Ah, it's
a funny story. I... gave it to my brother. ASHLEY: (laughs) LAURA: That's funny. (laughter) TALIESIN: Oh my god,
he fucking did. LIAM: That makes sense. ASHLEY: That's funny,
though, because-- The reason it's funny is
because now it doesn't work. (laughter) ROBBIE: I'm sorry. (laughter) MARISHA: Why are
you apologizing? ROBBIE: Oh! MARISHA: It was
equally yours. We can just trade it. It's like the Sisterhood
of the Traveling... Rock. ROBBIE: Thank you.
I appreciate that. MARISHA: Plus, your
brother could die. ROBBIE: Okay. ASHLEY: Yeah. It's
good that he has it. LAURA: All right. So we won't
know when anybody else is done with their shit. We'll meet back at the
Spire by Fire whenever. TALIESIN: Spire by Fire. TRAVIS: I might be
a little late. I want to make sure
that there's no movement. Clandestine operations
usually happen deep in the middle
of the night. LIAM: Are we at least
casing this place later to strike while
the iron is hot? Or are we just letting it go? LAURA: Well, we won't be
able to get back in tonight. TRAVIS: Yeah, but maybe
Orym has a point. We can look for entrances and things to exploit
in a casual way. LIAM: Yeah, the three of
us will take a stroll around the place.
Keep an eye on it. LAURA: Chetney, you should
get rid of anything that you stole
from the office so that if they do find
you and they stop you, they won't check
your pockets. TALIESIN: That's
a very good idea. TRAVIS: Is anybody looking? MATT: You've all walked
far enough away. Go ahead and make a
perception check for me. TRAVIS: Eww, nine! MATT: It looks pretty
safe at the moment. LAURA: Maybe we can do
it when we get on the-- you can ride in
the car with us. Because that's a
nice private place. Then you can pay.
TRAVIS: Why would I give away a silver just to
ride in the car? LAURA: Because you got
a lot of money. I thought you said
you were rich now. TRAVIS: Well, I am, but I handle my
finances responsibly. I'll ride the car. (laughter) MATT: All right. LIAM: Dorian and I'll stay here
and keep an eye on the tower. Come back when you've
unloaded the money. TRAVIS: Okay. SAM: Dorian, do you
need any help being a little bit more
stealthy, or are you okay? ROBBIE: Despite my appearance,
I am surprisingly stealthy. SAM: Well, it is raining so
maybe you blend in more. ROBBIE: Well, my cloak inside
is the brightest part, I'll wrap it around me. SAM: How about you, Orym? Do you need some
stealth help or anything? LIAM: I mean, I'm pretty
wee, but I'll take it. SAM: Oh, okay. LIAM: Does it last long? SAM: An hour. LIAM: I'll take it. SAM: I'll
Enhance Ability on-- I think it's dexterity
for stealth? Yeah. LIAM: Viper armed. SAM: Cat's Grace. ROBBIE: What's it called? SAM: Cat's Grace. He has
advantage on dexterity checks. MATT: Indeed. All right-- TALIESIN: I'm just going to
walk by Dorian on my way over. I'm not disappointed.
I'm just angry. I'm going to keep going. (laughter) LAURA: It's really all right,
Dorian. We understand. ASHLEY: I think it was
actually a very good idea. LAURA: Yeah.
ROBBIE: Thank you for that. ASHLEY: You're welcome. MATT: All right. So you two are staying
behind at the moment? You're going to ride the
gondola back and up-- TRAVIS: Yeah.
MATT: -- to trade off? All right, so you
all step in. You can hear
the rain tapping on the top of the
enclosed gondolas. You all step on it, it
swings slightly before-- LAURA: Don't do it,
Fearne, don't do it. Don't do it, Fearne. Stop!
ASHLEY: (playfully) Oh no! (laughter) ASHLEY: I shake really hard
and all the water comes off. MATT: It sprays. There is one well-dressed
pachydan, a little older. He's wearing a suit
that maybe like fit him better when
he was younger. It's a massive suit, but it's already a
little, little tight. As you shake, it scatters
across the back as he's facing away
from all of you. Like he was one of those
people in the elevator that doesn't want
to make eye contact. You watch him go. (deep sigh) (awws, laughter) TRAVIS: Prestidigitize
that guy. LAURA: I will, I will when
we're about to get off. I don't want him to know we
can do anything fun in here. MATT: You can pass off
whatever you'd like to them. LAURA: Yeah. I'm going
to stay in your head. Don't say anything. Just hand it over and we'll pretend
like nothing's going on. TRAVIS: Hand what over? LAURA: Exactly. MARISHA: I keep an eye out for any eyes that
might be watching. Is it just us
and the pachydan? MATT: It's just the-- yeah. MARISHA: I'd be drilling
in the back of his head. LAURA: We'll keep talking,
keep having a conversation about boring shit. TRAVIS: I take out
the trade map, which is really
big in my hands, but probably not
so large in yours. It says Oderan Wilds. LAURA: This is all
in my head. Thank you. TRAVIS: Wilds. LAURA: So wild. TRAVIS: Then I hand each
of them a platinum. One, two, three, four-- eight, nine left. Okay. LAURA: Didn't you
steal a book? You said you stole a book and a chest of platinum
and a bag of something? TRAVIS: Yeah, I did. LAURA: You want to keep
it on your person? TRAVIS: I don't know. What
are you going to trade for it? LAURA: I'm trying to keep
you out of jail, Chetney. I'll give it back. ASHLEY: Give her the
rest of it, Chetney. LAURA: I like that it's
all been in our heads and then it's just,
"Give it to her." (laughter) MATT: To be fair, if
anybody could just poke in there for a second-- LAURA: As we're boring
into each other's eyes like, "Give it." TRAVIS: Yeah, I hand it over. ASHLEY: I keep forgetting
that's inside your heads. LAURA: A bag and a book. MATT: (grinding sound) You
reach the bottom of the ride and step out into
the Smolder Spire. Is there anything else
you want to give to Chetney before he heads back? Chetney is going to go ahead
and return to the previous. TRAVIS: Guess I'm striking
out on my own again. Hopefully, I see you
when the sun comes up. Anything you want
to leave me with? Perhaps a kiss for luck? MARISHA: I lean in.
TRAVIS: (shrieks) (laughter) LAURA: One on each side. TRAVIS: Laudna, I thought
we were cool! Aw, shit. SAM: Is this dating? MARISHA: Kind of. TRAVIS: Oh shit. ASHLEY: Should we at
least have a plan in case something goes awry? Like, you know, meeting somewhere
at midnight or something. What time is it? MATT: At this point,
I'd say, yeah, since sunset was
around 6:00, 6:30, it's close to 7:30, 8:00. LAURA: Sure. At midnight-ish. MARISHA and LAURA:
Spire by Fire. ASHLEY: Spire by Fire. TRAVIS: Spire by Fire.
Spire by-- Oh. Spire by Fire. LAURA: Oh. Prestidigitation
the pachydan. MATT: You catch him
just as he's leaving. He shivers, huffs a bit, and then heads back out into
the rain and gets soaked. LAURA: I guess that
makes sense. MATT: All right. Well, as
you separate, you return. TRAVIS: I get back on. LIAM: Before he gets back, we're probably sitting
on a street corner watching the tower.
You know, I'm not mad. There's no reason to be.
That makes sense. ROBBIE: Thank you. LIAM: But I mean, they
like you. You could have-- It's your brother. ROBBIE: I didn't fib. That was my
inclination at first, to say I dropped
it or something, but I trust them. LIAM: How are you
feeling about it? About your brother, I mean? ROBBIE: It still
makes me feel better to know that if he's in
trouble and still capable, he can reach out
to one of us. LIAM: Speaking of which,
it makes more sense for you to have that. Oh, sorry-- that. ROBBIE: I went up,
too. Thank you. (laughter)
TRAVIS: I will meet you. ROBBIE: I suppose, thank you. So, Chetney, am I right?
What a weird little guy. LIAM: Skillful little
bastard, though. ROBBIE: Yeah, amazing. LIAM: So short.
(laughter) ROBBIE: What? LIAM: I think he's
taller than me. He's just, you know, age
catches up to you. ROBBIE: Yeah, but those little
boots have a heel on them. LIAM: Oh, you got
a sharp eye. ROBBIE: For fashion,
certainly. LIAM: He's always running
on his toes, though. ROBBIE: It's better for
your knees, you know. LIAM: They say that's
the best way to run as you continually
fall forward. ROBBIE: If you want
to be that spry when you're 200-something, run on your tippy toes.
LIAM: I'm not going to make it that long. Anything going on at all
with the tower window? MATT: Roll a perception check.
LIAM: Yeah, okay. That is a 17. MATT: 17. Glancing over
the wall a bit and having to
climb up slightly to glance at a distance,
still a decent roll, you can see there is light
moving from the inside and are you guy's on the
far back of the wall, closest to it? Make a stealth check
just to make sure you don't get seen prying towards the back
of the wall. LIAM: 23 for me. ROBBIE: 23 for me. MATT: Nice! Dual 23s. Slickly, you both vanish
into the rain and the dark, making an arc towards
the back wall where it meets
the Spire itself. You glance, helping
Orym up a bit, you can manage to leap up and
grab the edge of the wall. Look over the edge
into the courtyard. There you can see
within the window, there are two
wardens at least that are inside
investigating and looking throughout
the office. There's a third one
you can see, who's trying to
put some sort of wooden pole and sheets
over the broken window, so it doesn't
rain into it. It doesn't look
necessarily great, but enough to at least
keep the water from soaking, probably the interior carpet
and wood of the office for the night. But
that's what you see. LIAM: Okay. Grabbing
the top of the wall, I scrunch my legs in and then flip and land on
the ground next to Dorian. All right. Well, let's go
where Chetney left us. ROBBIE: All right. He should be coming
back up the gondola, right? LIAM: Yeah, he's
coming to us. So he should probably be,
unless he's invisible. Are you here right now? ROBBIE: Chetney? MATT: You do not hear anything
Chetney-related at all. LIAM: Doesn't mean anything.
Could be right there. ROBBIE: I don't trust him. MATT: Okay. You do eventually
return to the meeting spot and see the two
of them barely as they're trying
not to be seen. TRAVIS: The gondola doors open
and I'm laying there dead. (laughter) LIAM: Wait, are we
at the gondola? You walked away
to the gondola, my man. TRAVIS: It came back up. MATT: There's nobody there
to greet you at the gondola and you play
dead for a second before the doors look like
they're about to close again. TRAVIS: Oh shit! Wait,
wait, wait, no! (laughter) SAM: Another dead
guy on the gondola. MATT: It's been a rough
week on these spires. TALIESIN: Probably more
common than you'd think. MATT: Yeah. (laughs) You rush out into the rain and catch up to the
two that are waiting. TRAVIS: Oi, I mean--
LIAM: Are you visible? TRAVIS: Yes.
LIAM: Nope. ROBBIE: Oh yeah, yes. TRAVIS: So，anything happen？ LIAM: Movement, but
nothing too fishy. TRAVIS: Can you see the window or the tower
from where we are？ LIAM: Yeah, there's
lights up in there and somebody's
poking around, but not much to tell from that. Do you want to give the
place a walk around? I mean, we can't go all the
way around, but side to side. TRAVIS: Yeah, let's do it. LIAM: Okay. TRAVIS: One of us should
watch the front entrance, right, though,
while we're doing that? ROBBIE: I don't know.
What's more casual? A lookout and two strollers
or three strollers? I don't know. TRAVIS: I can just sit
and watch the front, if y'all want to roll, or one of us can
switch for the front. LIAM: I'll watch because I've got
a pretty keen eye. ROBBIE: You and me.
TRAVIS: Let's do it. TRAVIS and ROBBIE: Okay. LIAM: I'll still keep low key at that spot. MATT: Okay. The two of you
are now heading to the other side
of the the wall, is that what you're doing? ROBBIE: We're going
to look for any alternate entrances, other ways to access it
besides that one window. TRAVIS: Do you ever
think about death? (muffled laughter) ROBBIE: My death, or in like
the grand scheme of things? TRAVIS: Just in general. ROBBIE: Well, I think
everyone does sometimes. TRAVIS: Because Laudna's
fucking terrifying. ROBBIE: Oh, I don't know. You sort of get used
to it after a while. TRAVIS: Really? ROBBIE: Yeah, it
becomes like a... You ever have a friend that
tells the same bad joke over and over again? TRAVIS: A friend... ROBBIE: Oh. You have a friend, right? Like a group of friends? TRAVIS: I do now. ROBBIE: Oh, yes, you do. Yes, you do. (laughter) ROBBIE: Yes, everyone thinks
about death, I think, Chetney. TRAVIS: Okay. ROBBIE: Yeah, why?
Do you think about death? TRAVIS: No, Laudna's just
fucking terrifying. ROBBIE: That was it? TRAVIS: If that's what death looks like, I don't know. I've got a whole other-- ROBBIE: I don't think that's normal.
TRAVIS: -- perspective. Are you sure? ROBBIE: No, no one's sure what
happens after we die, Chetney. TRAVIS: Hmm. ROBBIE: Yeah. TRAVIS: Nice night. ROBBIE: It is
a nice night, Chetney. Talk about anything else? TRAVIS: No... friend. (laughter) ROBBIE: I'm going to reach
down, down, down and put my hand on his
shoulder as we stroll. TRAVIS: I'll put my tiny,
tiny little hand on his. (laughter)
(awwing) ROBBIE: Continue to stroll a little.
MATT: All right. So, perception checks from each of you.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (laughter) MATT: It's fucking cute. ROBBIE: That's a six.
TRAVIS: 17. MATT: Okay. ROBBIE: Distracted by the leathery little
hand on my fingers. MATT: It's rougher
than you expected! It's definitely the palm
of a craftsman. TRAVIS: Callouses on
callouses on callouses. MATT: Oh yeah,
a few splinters that never quite
made their way out. TRAVIS: That's right. It's called traction. (laughter) MATT: More of a wood
shaper than a carver. You keep a close eye across
the wall's construction. Any other sort of patches or sewer grates,
or anything that would lead you to believe
it's a secondary entrance, but it seems pretty
self-contained, at least as far as
the towers themselves, anything within
the courtyard. You don't see
anything that is an overt secondary
entrance or exit or any system that
could run through it. This is the best
you can glean. ROBBIE: What do you think? Notice anything? TRAVIS: Not really. I guess we can go back
and sync up with Orym. ROBBIE: All right. TRAVIS: I'm sorry
about your brother. ROBBIE: Nothing to be
sorry about yet. A little scary. TRAVIS: You know Orym from--
seems longer than the rest. ROBBIE: Yes, Orym and Fearne. They were sort of
my first friends. Not to say that we're
your first friends, but we are
your current friends. TRAVIS: Right. How did you guys-- It's
okay. I don't want to pry. ROBBIE: You're not
prying at all. We've got a second. TRAVIS: You've just got a
great dynamic. I don't know. ROBBIE: Well, that happens
when you bond with someone. You spend more
time with them. You learn about
the intricacies of each other's personalities
and how you mesh or don't. After time, it just feels like
you're part of the group. TRAVIS: How often
do y'all fight? ROBBIE: Fight?
TRAVIS: Yeah. ROBBIE: Each other? TRAVIS: Yeah, like slug it
out, or test each other, or get on each
other's nerves. ROBBIE: I don't know that
I've ever fought any of them. TRAVIS: Oh. You know, you
don't truly know someone until you fight them. ROBBIE: Hmm, I would say you
don't truly know someone until you fight
alongside them. TRAVIS: Oh shit.
That's so deep. ROBBIE: It's a little cliché.
I know. TRAVIS: My world's
upside down. Let's go find Orym. (laughter) MATT: As you move to
connect with Orym, we go to the other crew here, who is heading towards
the Soot and Swill. What preparation do you
have in the short time before your arrival? LAURA: Well, we're walking
up in the rain, so... ASHLEY: Okay, well,
did we want to change? Did we want to, I mean, I feel like we all
look pretty great. LAURA: Yeah, and he liked us
just the way we were. I think. Why change it?
ASHLEY: That's true. Okay. SAM: Normally, though, do
you gussy up or anything? LAURA: I imagine so, yeah. ASHLEY: Sometimes. SAM: "I imagine so," because you haven't been
on a date before? LAURA: No, I mean,
so there was a boy. SAM: Oh! LAURA: In... SAM: In what? LAURA: He was also-- he
worked in the stables, so-- SAM: Did you work
in the stables? LAURA: Yeah, yeah.
SAM: Oh! Was there a romantic
interest between you? LAURA: Well, you know,
we flirted. It was young. It was sweet. We didn't go on any
dates, per se, but-- SAM: But you made
eyes at each other? LAURA: Made eyes. ASHLEY: You would have
romantic stable trysts? LAURA: (laughs)
Nothing quite so... MARISHA: Did you ever reach
out to the rein of a horse, and then he was also reaching
out for the same rein and you just lightly
touched each other's hands? ASHLEY: He's like, I've
wrote you letters. LAURA: No, none of that, but man, I wish it
would've happened. MARISHA: Sounds so romantic. LAURA: It really does. SAM: What was his name? LAURA: Sam. Samuel. SAM: What a stupid name. (laughter) SAM: I'm just kidding. No, that sounds great. What happened to Samuel? I hope he had
a wonderful end. LAURA: A wonderful end? Did he die? SAM: No, I mean.
What happened to him? LAURA: He's quite happy. He's fine. MARISHA: Did he
marry someone else? Should we kill her? LAURA: I don't think he's... No, he wasn't married. At least not when we left. MARISHA: Okay. ASHLEY: Well,
he better not be! LAURA: I didn't talk to
him for a long time. He was fine. He seemed happy. SAM: Sam, the only man
you've ever loved. Got it. (laughter) MARISHA: Just like Andy. LAURA: Just like Andy. SAM: Sam and Andy. (laughter) MATT: So...
what are we doing? (laughter) ASHLEY: I mean, we basically
already had a bath. LAURA: Yeah, we feel great,
I feel great. SAM: Do you need
to plan this date? Will you go somewhere? I heard that dates-- LAURA: Oh,
we had talked about going to the theater. LAURA: Should we make sure that there's
tickets available? MARISHA: Pick up
our member passes. ASHLEY: Oh, yes,
our member passes. Yeah, we're good. SAM: To the Soot and Swill. LAURA: Yeah. MATT: Okay. MARISHA: Should we
bring him flowers? ASHLEY: Oh, that's
a great idea！Yes! MARISHA: Are there
any flowers nearby? MATT: Glancing about around
the immediate area, no. I mean, the Smolder Spire
is not known for its vast gardens
and beautiful spaces. It is very much an industrial
portion of the city. MARISHA: What about
any trash? MATT: Plenty of that! MARISHA: I start
picking up trash. MATT: Okay. (laughter) You pick up some wayward tattered
pieces of linen that's probably been left--
MARISHA: Perfect. MATT: -- to gather oils
and dirt in the street. You find a heavily
dented tankard that just got tossed
on the edge of the road. A thrown horseshoe. Yeah. MARISHA: All right.
As we walk, I craft. I walk and craft. LAURA: You can mend. I'm going
to Prestidigitation and clean some of
that shit up. MARISHA: Oh right. All right.
LAURA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's going to have a nice, clean tankard. MARISHA: Yes.
MATT: Yeah. MARISHA: Over the walk
I mend the tankard. I pop it back in shape. I take some of
the extra linen and I take some of the extra
chicken bones that I had from the ribs and
I take the linen and I take some of
my red string and I make little
fake flowers. MATT: Okay, go ahead
and roll either an intelligence or dexterity
check, your choice. MARISHA: Intelligence or
dexterity. Let's do dexterity. (laughs) I rolled a one. MATT: Okay.
LAURA: You know. It's raining. MARISHA: Fuck.
LAURA: Not anymore. MATT: Well no, you feel
it's been a little tough, but you think you
can figure it out. As you approach the exterior
of the Soot and Swill, it's that time of night
where it's loud. It is crowded. There are
people in there coming in from their day long shifts. It is raining out
in the streets, but it is warm and dry
on the inside. As you hit the threshold
within, you're immediately hit with the smell of
a lot of people who've been working
hard through the day, as well as many
drinks, some food, and the sounds
of laughter and a few odd turns as you enter. There at one of the tables, right in the center of the
room, sitting down, is Pretty. No one's sitting at
the table around. He has the
tiniest of bow ties (awwing) that is tied around his wide ogre neck. It looks to be extended
with multiple ribbons to make it all
the way around, that don't match the
coloration of the pale blue. On the table, you see
three small boxes. (awwing) MATT: As you enter,
he looks up, "Hi." ASHLEY: Hello, Pretty. MATT: "Told you." You see, around the room, about seven or eight
other figures go-- and they pull out coin and set it on the table. He's like, "Hmph!" "Hi." MARISHA: Hello, Pretty. MATT: "You actually came." ASHLEY: Of course.
LAURA: Of course, yeah. MATT: Smiles with this
big, toothy grin, and he pushes
the boxes forward. They skim and topples
forward a little bit. They're a little damp. MATT: "It's hard to buy
presents when I don't know "much about you, but here." LAURA: Thank you, Pretty. MARISHA: You did not have to do that!
ASHLEY: Thank you so much. MATT: "I know." ASHLEY: Should we
open them now? MATT: "Okay." ASHLEY: Okay. MATT: Two of you roll
a d6 for me, please. SAM: Rollies. ASHLEY: Rollies. LAURA: Six.
MARISHA: Five. MATT: Okay. So you open yours and the first thing
you see is an incredible, fractal
spiral of tiny little points that spiral
within themselves. This is an incredible
craft, whatever it is. You reach down and touch it, and it's a little give to it. You pull it out and realize: Oh, it's a cauliflower. It's a very beautiful
spiral cauliflower. MARISHA: It's lovely. LAURA: This is so
wonderful, Pretty. MATT: "Well, wasn't a
lot of notice so I just "looked what I could find." LAURA: I love it. MATT: You open yours
and you find probably the most perfect
artichoke you've ever seen. Well kept, well washed, still
a little damp in some places, probably wasn't dried properly,
but it looks pretty solid. MARISHA: Pretty! She's absolutely gorgeous! I take it and I-- LAURA: I know. I'm trying
to figure out do we put it in our jacket, or do
I put it in maybe our hair? Oh, will you put mine in my-- MARISHA: Yes, absolutely.
ASHLEY: Oh that's a great idea. MARISHA: I just pin it. LAURA: Thank you. MARISHA: I take mine and I
wrap it around my wrist, like a corsage.
LAURA: I'll tie it. I'll tie it for you. MARISHA: Thank you so much.
ASHLEY: That's lovely. MARISHA: What did you get? MATT: You open yours and you pull out two pumpkins stacked on each other. Like small, tiny
pumpkins, but you realize that they're actually
two pumpkins merged. One grew out of the other and it has this double
pumpkin appearance to it. An oddity in nature. ASHLEY: Oh! This is remarkable. Where did you find this? MATT: "My kitchen. "Are you hungry?" MARISHA: I am. Goodness. LAURA: Yeah, we could eat. Did you want to eat here? Did you want to go
somewhere more quiet? MATT: "Is there somewhere
more quiet to eat?" LAURA: I'm sure we could
find somewhere. ASHLEY: I'm going to stick it
on the end of one of my horns. (laughter) MATT: Perfect. "That looks very nice." ASHLEY: Thank you. MARISHA: We got you
something as well. I pull out the tankard
filled with trash. MATT: It's real rough, guys. I'm going to be honest. As you set it down, there's a moment where even
just holding together, you're like: Oh, oh honey. Then it falls apart. The tankard,
while you did mend it, it looks like the chicken
bones have somehow... You rolled a one. I don't
know how this works, but-- (laughter) ROBBIE: How did the
chicken bones get worse? MATT: You watch as a series
of previously unseen... TALIESIN: No, no, I heard
it in your head. MATT: Tiny maggots, (plunks)
out of the bones onto the table. They're moving
under the linen. He's like, "Okay. Thank you." MARISHA: It was dark
outside. I couldn't-- LAURA: In the dark,
it was a lot better. MATT: "It's the thought
that counts." ASHLEY: I grab one
of the maggots. MATT: "Protein. "I'm going to put
this on display." He takes the several pieces
that have fallen apart and gathers them,
and stands up, and people move out of
the way as he goes over and sets it up on the mantle where the rest of the
alcohol bottles are. You see Preio's like, "Pretty, we're
not going to--" MARISHA: It looks
so beautiful! Perfect location. MATT: "It's your
big night, buddy. "We're going to support you, "but that's not
going to stay long. "We'll find another place. "Yay," and everyone
in the room, now you now notice
at this point, that everyone is watching. It is just a room
of eyes who are... Some that were waiting for
the possible spectacle, and others that are
now enraptured by it. Many with a look of disbelief,
but mildly entertained. Some people genuinely
invested in this. You've become a
Soot and Swill reality show. Comes back. Sits. "We can eat here."
(claps) "Charles!" The night shift
cook comes out and coming around the corner this older half-elven man. We're talking Ichabod Crane from the classic Disney
Headless Horseman. Just this scrawny,
big Adam's apple, the whole nose comes
to a point like mine, He just scoops through, "Right, righty."
(tings, clanks) "Oh, hold on, hold on!" Comes out with four
different plates precariously balanced
on his hands, sets them onto
the wheeling cart, and begins to wheel them out and he's like, "Here? Or..." LAURA: Is it still
raining outside? MATT: It is still raining. LAURA: Shit. Do you have a table
that's more private? MATT: "Yeah." Stands up. As the food's
being wheeled behind them, the other chef is trying to
figure out where he's going and is just following behind. Walks over to this
table in the corner with about seven ruffians
who are sitting there watching them approach. As his shadow begins
to barrel over them, "Get out." They all stand up. Their chairs scoot
back and fall back. They grab their
drinks and leave. He turns around and goes,
"Get out!" Everyone stands up,
and grabs their stuff, and finishes their drinks,
and grabs their food, and starts collecting. The room is suddenly,
within a few moments, empty except for
the three of you, the people who run
the Soot and Swill, and Pretty. And you. (laughter) LAURA: You're just watching. SAM: Just watching. MATT: Sits back down. "Private." LAURA: Thank you, Pretty. ASHLEY: Much better. MATT: (as Charles)
"Your meals for the night." ASHLEY: Thank you. MATT: They are just the standard meals
they serve here. More of the same. LAURA: Did you make
this, or did he? MATT: "I made them
a while ago. "He's been
keeping them warm." LAURA: Oh, great. ASHLEY: Oh, I'm so glad
to have this again today. (laughter) ASHLEY: It was delicious
the first time. LAURA: So, Pretty,
how long have you been here at the tavern? (laughter) MATT: "Five years." LAURA: That's a long time. MARISHA: What was your
previous place of employment? MATT: "I hit people
for a living." MARISHA: That's kind of
what we do. We have so much in
common. Oh my goodness. MATT: "I like this better." LAURA: Yeah. MATT: "People
treat me nicer." LAURA: Where did
you hit people? MATT: "In the head, mostly." LAURA: Oh, no, I meant, no, that wasn't--
MATT: "Sometimes the sternum, "or like "if I got the drop first, "maybe a cold cock in
the back of their head. "Take care of things
immediately." LAURA: Oh yeah. MATT: "Yeah."
ASHLEY: Just kill them outright? MATT: "Oh, hopefully
not kill them." ASHLEY: Oh, oh-- I misunderstood, I'm sorry.
MATT: "Not on purpose. "Some people are
just so fragile." LAURA: Did you fight for
spectators or did you fight LAURA: Did you fight for
spectators or did you fight for a reason? Did people hire you to take-- Were you a bounty hunter? I hear there's a lot of
bounty hunters around here. MATT: "No, I just
watched the door." He points up front and you've walked
past a couple of times and perched there
there is a human fellow who looks like he has
some arms at the side, is just sitting and keeping
a watch on the door, who's actively been the
peacekeeper of the chamber. As he points over
in that direction, he looks back at rest of you, gives a two fingers
over towards Pretty. "But I worked my way
up the ladder." ASHLEY: By the way, we brought
our friend, Fresh Cut Grass, because he's never
witnessed a date. We figured this would
be the perfect time to let him see
how that goes. SAM: Smiley day to ya. MATT: "Smiley day
to you, too. "I didn't make another meal.
I'm sorry." SAM: Oh, I don't eat.
It's fine. Just continue. I'm
a bot on the wall. You just continue. MATT: "All right."
ASHLEY: Would you also like something to drink? MATT: "Yeah. "Drink!" You watch as, in the back, Preio grabs a
bottle off the top. "Is this for
everyone, or just-- "Anyone want
anything in particular? "Wine or--" ASHLEY: What would you
like to have, Pretty? MATT: "Drink." The bottle in their hands, "I know what he likes," ASHLEY: Okay.
MATT: And brings it by. It's this, it would definitely be a party
sized, dark green, glass jug it would definitely be a party
sized, dark green, glass jug about that big with
a big cork on top and (groans) onto the table. "Thank you." (bottle opening) (gulps) You can smell
it from here. That is strong. MARISHA: (interested noise) Fills your cups with it,
if you want it. "So," looks over towards the bar. ASHLEY: That's such an
interesting taste. What is that? MATT: "I don't know.
I just call it drink." ASHLEY: I like drink. MATT: "Mm-hmm." LAURA: Have you ever been
on a date before, Pretty? MATT: "Not in a long time." MARISHA: When was
your last date? Who was she? MATT: "Well, when I
first came to Marquet..." During this time period. (laughter) I'm going to sit here and
role-play this entire date for the next two hours, y'all. ASHLEY: We haven't gone to the theater yet.
LAURA: Anyway. MATT: What about you? TALIESIN: I'm going to
the Lucent Spire. MATT: Okay. Knock off a silver.
SAM: Have we been there yet? TALIESIN: Mm-hmm. TRAVIS: Which one?
SAM: Lucent. ROBBIE: Lucent, yeah. TALIESIN: Where's my stuff? There it is. Kill a silver. TRAVIS: Have you
guys been there? TALIESIN: Nope.
MARISHA: I don't think so. TALIESIN: Nope, no you have not. I'm going to Hexum Manor. MATT: Okay. Arriving on this largely
residential Spire, Arriving on this largely
residential Spire, there are a number of
neighborhoods that cluster the central portions of it. As you climb higher and higher
up the spiraling streets, they get narrower. The stonework is
more well kept. You can see decorative
walls and greenery that has been manicured to
definitely carry an air of wealth and station. What is neighborhoods begin
to give way to estates, to manors, to where a number
of the Mahaan houses and other guild masters and
elite of the city of Jrusar, some of which anonymously
within their midst, guide the political
future of the city and the Oderan Wilds
as a whole. You come to a standout estate of
black and green wood framed in non-indigenous
leafless trees. This gorgeous, if
ominous, household, you've been to before, is the home of Jiana Hexum. Jiana Hexum. TALIESIN: Jiana.
MATT: Jiana. LIAM: With an M on
the end, Hexum? MATT: Hexum.
LIAM: Hexum. TALIESIN: I forget.
Is there a little call, or is there-- I go up
to the door just to knock and let them know? MATT: Well, as is your
previous experience, as you step up
to the front gate, the gate pushes open. There is no lock on it. The steps descend towards
the front of the manner and you can see
the hooked trees, their different
branches and boughs twisting amongst each other, and two of the sentry
statutes on the side of featureless
humanoid shapes that just stand at
the ready, the heads (whooshing) watch you as you pass. You give a nod. You approach the front door. The large, heavy, dark
doors with metallic oiled bronze rings that
knock across the exterior. TALIESIN: I knock. Nobody's here. MATT: A moment later, the door opens. There, standing
in the doorway, a female elf who,
uncertain of her true age, gives the appearance of the equivalent of a
human in their 60s. She has very short
auburn brown hair She has very short
auburn brown hair and a smooth tan complexion
with a whole matter and a smooth tan complexion
with a whole matter of fine necklaces with
a high collar. The sleeves billow a bit and then tighten
right above the elbow. Her arms just folded
across her front. A singular broach set in gold
with a gem in the center that looks jet black
is sitting. "Well, took you long enough." TALIESIN: I apologize.
I have been weirdly busy. I'll let you in
on it in a minute. Can I come in?
It's freezing out here. MATT: "Certainly.
Come, come." Stepping inside, the door
closes behind. We're going to go to break. (shouting) LIAM: Nice, nice, nice!
Got us on the hook. MATT: Yep. TALIESIN: Boom. MATT: We'll pick up
from there in a moment. ROBBIE: Oh, it's nobody.
Don't worry about it. SAM: It was on the thing
that the automaton was-- or the golem was stolen from?
LAURA: Yeah. SAM: Was it on the caravan? Was it on the cart?
LAURA: It was on the chest. SAM: On the chest. There was a chest
that a robot was in? MATT: Well, it was
a large storage crate with the initials on it. SAM: That took up
the whole cart? MATT: Yes.
SAM: Okay. MARISHA: That was
the one that his brother was protecting? LIAM: Yes.
SAM: But it was an inside job? ASHLEY: The team that his
brother was working with-- LAURA: Were the people
that stole it. ASHLEY: Were the people
that stole it, but they-- LAURA: So they were hired
to be security. SAM: But they also
stole it from J.H. LIAM: And Ashton just
walked between two stone statues.
MARISHA: Golem-y things. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SAM: Got it. MARISHA: Very Castlevania,
right? MATT: Yeah,
more or less, yeah. We'll pick up from
there in a few minutes. We'll see you
in a little bit. (shouting) (gentle music) Man: We don't have
the strength alone. Lizard Woman: It's the truth. If we try to storm the gates
again, we will be killed. Girl: By what though? Man: How long has she
been in the ditches? Lizard Woman: Just a
week, she'll learn. Girl: I could help. Man: You've never seen
the gates of the sun. I have, I know what lurks there. Girl: But to explore the
Astory in Acropolis beyond, it's a scholar's dream. Man: This is no dream. Lizard Woman: It's not
even a nightmare. Nightmares end, our imprisonment
in the ditches is eternal. Girl: But if we can pass
through the gates-- Man: Horrors unimaginable
await beyond the gates. Girl: But you have
magic, weapons. Together we could survive
the necropolis, make it through to the
surface, be free there. Lizard Woman: Free? The sun itself is
forsaken Astoria. There is no freedom
in the dark. And what would you be
willing to sacrifice to get to the surface? Would you give your blood
for it, your friends, your soul? Man: When you stand in the
court of the blood drinkers, haunted by what you've seen, well, you would be
a brave hero indeed if you still thought of
saving anyone but yourself. Girl: Well, I have to try. Someone has to. Lizard Woman: All of us here, you think we have not tried? Those whose bones hold
up these very walls, you think they did not try? Girl: If you've given up, I will wait here for others. There must be more like me. (heart beats) I just hope they get here soon. (gentle music) (raven cawing) Narrator: Evil rises. Our only hope lies in
these brave warriors. (dramatic music) (dwarf grunting) - What the fuck? Narrator: Right. Who else have we got? Crowd: Chug, chug, chug! (Trinket moans) (Grog burps) - I'm sorry, who the
hell are you? - We're Vox Machina,
we fuck shit up. (upbeat music) - Let's go. (gun fires) - Come on, come on, work. ♪ Scanlan's hand ♪ Man: You can't be
seriously considering them for such a task. Vex: Our reputation is
less than stellar. (upbeat music) - If killing for gold
isn't getting us anywhere, maybe we try doing
some good this time. Group: Nah.
Grog: Boring. (upbeat music) Woman: Kill Vox Machina! (upbeat music) Vax: If this evil persists, the kingdom will starve to death. (upbeat music) - Oh, oh yeah, oh, oh. - Shh. - Light 'em up. (upbeat music) - I suggest we run right now. - Fuck that, we fight! (Grog roars) (dramatic music) (Pike screams) (upbeat music) - Grog, you're hurt. - No big. Question, is this normal? - Oh no.
- Holy shit. (upbeat music) MATT: From Darrington Press, experience the
dawning of a new age with Tal'Dorei Campaign
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20 years later. The future of Tal'Dorei
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you would head over to the Critical Role
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teeth up my-- (calm music) Subscribe. (calm music) MATT: And welcome back. So. While the date
is transpiring, and you are off scoping
the space at night, you have come into the abode of Jiana Hexum. Entering the foyer, which is about as far
as you ever get, glancing into
the immediate entryway, you can see two more of the
stone sentries that are placed at the base of the
large pinching staircase, that ascends to the
second floor of this manor. Both still always
trained on you. She steps a bit in. Takes a piece of cheese
off of a platter that she has set
on a small side table. Takes a bite and
turns around again, her arms still crossed. "So, "Mr. Nobody, "I had "an idea "as you get close to
closing your debt. "If this goes well, "I might even consider
wiping the remainder. "I am "currently in a deep wager, "with a rival of mine, "A Mr. Evon Hytroga, "owner and proprietor of
the Twilight Mirror Museum "in the town of
Heartmoor Hamlet. "After the failed
burglary of my home, "of which you are very aware, "everyone has continuously
teased me, "and lauded his impenetrable
security that he's developed "with tinkerers and engineers "from across the
Wilds and beyond. "Now I've made
a bet with him. "For one of his prized items, "should the right people under
my employ be able to bypass, "and prove its acquisition. "He accepted "and decreed that he will "choose a proxy of his own "chosen item "that he may grant
to me to keep. "Otherwise, I had to give up something personally
of my own. "I'd like not to. "You, um... "You've been running with the
troop recently, have you not?" TALIESIN: Got a new crew.
I'm with a new crew. MATT: "Do you feel confident
in their abilities? "Or should we hire outside?" TALIESIN: I'm getting
confident. I don't think outside's
going to be necessary. There are some complications. This is not what
I was expecting. You got-- Well, maybe you
were part of it. I know that something of
yours, a crate of yours, got pulled out by
some sort of golem. Recently, I thought
that's what this was going to be about. MATT: "How do you
know about that?" TALIESIN: Other jobs,
bringing me closer to it. I know you
appreciate discretion. I haven't mentioned you, but I will admit, I would like to,
with this crowd. It would make things
less complicated, but you're the boss. Honestly, that's
what I thought you were calling about. That's why I took time. I wanted to get
a better perspective. MATT: "To be honest, I'd
already looked into hiring-- "and I say this with
a modicum of respect-- "more skilled and
experienced independents "to handle that
particular job. "But if you're
feeling arrogant." TALIESIN: No, just kind of
close to it, at the moment. I think it may be more
complicated than it looks. I know who you suspect. I think you're probably
wrong about that, but I know that there's not
much I can do about that, nor can I change your mind. MATT: "If they are innocent, "perhaps they'll
have something "that will lead us to
those who are not. "At the very least,
I'm in a vengeful mood, "when such "inspirational investments
go missing." TALIESIN: Well, if
I can find something to put you on what I think
might be the right path, I will happily
bring it to you. No charge, just because we are
old friends of a kind. MATT: "Perhaps." TALIESIN: I'll need
some time, and whatever information
you have about this. This sounds complicated. Very complicated. MATT: "I can provide "the pricing for food and
travel expenses, of course. "The Heartmoor is not
right around the corner. "Means of travel
are up to you. "So it's up to you to
decide what can be done. "But, "if the wager is accepted, "and our a sponsored troops
are decided upon, "'tis a race." TALIESIN: Do I have some
time to figure it out? I've got some business
to clean up here. It's-- having a crew
complicates things. MATT: "Understood." TALIESIN: I appreciate it. MATT: "Don't take too long. "These, um, "sort of wagers of passion "tend to wane with
time and forethought. "I would hate to think that, "Evon would be, "I don't know, "given enough time to second
guess his foolhardy offer." TALIESIN: Do you want me to
not mention you to the rest or can I tell them that I have
previous engagements? MATT: "There's nothing "under the table about
this particular arrangement. "It's merely a way to
pass the time amongst "those who are bored and "have too many means. "I will say the ante-- "the ante has been expanded. "It seems
Mistress Isha Sabanis "will be the one who is "going to be sponsoring
this other troop." TALIESIN: Hmm. MATT: "Let me know soon "when you would
feel comfortable "undertaking this wager." TALIESIN: I will.
MATT: "It would include "travel from Jrusar
to the Heartmoor, "and infiltration
and gathering. "There is a pre-chosen item "that will be revealed at
the time of the wager." TALIESIN: I don't know if my
new friends will accept debt. They'll probably need
some payment of some kind. MATT: "Oh, they will be paid. "You will not be." TALIESIN: That's fair. Before I go, and I know you won't tell me
what was in that crate, what do you know about
the Nightmare King? MATT: "I'm actually
unfamiliar with that." TALIESIN: There's some weird
shit going down in this town. MATT: "That you
are not wrong. "I have my own "suspicions and curiosities. "Many "late night conversation
amongst friends "and rivals "in this neighborhood
trying to conjecture "why it's all
going to shit, but." TALIESIN: Just had a
big thing happened at the Dreamscape Theater. If you hear
anything about that, that's the new crew. Things coming alive, objects. We had a showdown with some fucker named Vali over at the Moon Tower. MATT: "You tussled
with Vali?" TALIESIN: It's complicated. It sounds more-- MATT: "Now I have to ask "is this-- "Vali is a business broker. "You did not physically
shake them down, did you?" TALIESIN: No, not physically. We may have raided his office. MATT: "Why, if I might ask?" TALIESIN: Oh, trying
to help a friend find another friend, and Vali's into some
dark, weird fucking shit. I would be very careful
with that fucker. MATT: "I would say
the same to you. "They are very well-connected "within the Quorum. "If they are indeed involved
in some dark stuff, "I would be very curious to
know what this dark stuff is." TALIESIN: Well, I'm always happy
to tell you what's going on, so long as it's
not a client's name. I protect them the
same way I protect you. MATT: "You're a
good boy, Ashton. "It's a shame you're
not as good a burglar "as you are a brawler, but "I'd be lying if I said I
wasn't enjoying our arrangement." TALIESIN: Could be worse. MATT: "Could be better." TALIESIN: I wish I could
bring something back to them about Nightmare King, but I understand. If you hear anything, I'd love to know. MATT: "I'll ask around. "While it may not
jog my memory, "I'm certain there are
scholars who are a bit more "well-read in such
dark scenarios than I was. "But I should know. "But, "like I said, "don't take too long." TALIESIN: Don't take
anything too personally on what may go
down with your hunt. I think you guys are
on the wrong track. MATT: "I appreciate
your candor. "Good night, Ashton." TALIESIN: Night, Miss Hexum. I'm going to take off. Put the hood back up. MATT: Okay. The door opens on its own. When you step out it closes behind. As you step back out
into the rain of the evening, the two stone sentry
statues watch you as you step through
an exit back into the night. (low laughter) All right. You three, what are you doing now? LIAM: So did you get into-- what came first,
woodworking or B&E? TRAVIS: Well, well,
B&E was more of a hobby after the fact. Woodworking is something
I've had a passion for for decades, maybe longer. But I learned from
some of the best. LIAM: For the wood. TRAVIS: Yeah, yeah. The wood. The wood speaks to you. You just have to be
ready to listen. ROBBIE: So admirable. After all these years, you still have a passion
for your craft. TRAVIS: Well, of course. I don't have as
much free time or, you know, ample wood to choose from. ROBBIE: Hmm.
MATT: About now, you hear the
front gates open. As you glance over, you can see the
two station wardens, the immediate front,
step aside as three wardens, one of which is wearing a short cloak over
both shoulders that covers the left arm and has visually an air of station and
importance about them. Themselves, a hood up as
the rain scatters past and to the right of them, you see Vali
accompanying them and they exit
from the courtyard. What are you--? TRAVIS: We got to turn away and do the, like, you know. (whistles) We're not doing--
(humming) Don't look over here. ROBBIE: What should we do?
Should we--? TRAVIS: (mumbling)
So this is my fucking forte. Okay? We give them some space and then we divide up. Just in case they make
any surprise turns. ROBBIE: And then we follow. LIAM: You want to
take off right now? TRAVIS: Well, yeah.
I mean, that's Vali. ROBBIE: We follow them, not go back to the chamber? TRAVIS: How the hell
do we get in? ROBBIE: That's a good point. Not my thing. TRAVIS: Well, I mean. Look, you're fucking
all over the place. Can you get through there, aside from the gate
that we went through? LIAM: I think I can get
over the wall, just me. TRAVIS: Oh shit! Yeah? LIAM: Yeah. But I don't know
if we do that right now. TRAVIS: No. Okay, listen. Oh my god. This is the fucking moment. Oh, you're going to shine! Okay. Look, here's the deal. You go in through the window. MATT: They start walking by. LIAM: Yeah. MATT: On the corner where
you guys are hiding you can faintly overhear
some conversation. Vali's like, (sighs) "I've always felt
uncomfortable in there. "It's just a confirmation
of something "I've been worried
about for years. "So I'm going to be
moving offices shortly. "Just, you know, "keep a couple of people
stationed in the vicinity. "We'll come by. "I'll have to move a lot of
things out of the office "in the morning, so--" That's about the
last bit you hear as they pass by and continue
on down the street through the rain. LIAM: Okay. All right. That moves the timetable up a little bit. TRAVIS: So here's
what I'm thinking. You go in, brave warrior. You go in through the window because it's still open. ROBBIE: But didn't
he just say that there were guards
all over the place? TRAVIS: What, you can't
handle a couple of guards? ROBBIE: I think he can,
but I-- there's-- LIAM: I probably can, but I don't want
to kill guards, Chetney. TRAVIS: I leave
the method up to you. ROBBIE: What about
your original idea? Sneak behind those two? They seem to know
what's going on. Maybe they have
more information. It's a gamble either way. If your friend's
not down there and we risk
breaking in, then-- TRAVIS: He's down there! I can feel it. LIAM: He mentioned
moving some stuff out. TRAVIS: That's right. It feels like
he's down there. LIAM: Why don't we
wait a little longer for the others to get back and then get in? TRAVIS: All right. Okay. MATT: At this point, we transition over
to the exterior of the Dreamscape Theater. ALL: Ooh! MATT: The crowd is
just letting out from the evening's
performance, and you see a bunch of
individuals in warmer coats prepared for the
cold rainy night. Some of them are holding up leather, spread umbrellas. A couple of more
magic-oriented figures, you can see a a cascade of wind that
separates it off to the sides, spraying some of
the other individuals on the right and left without
really giving a shit, and exiting amongst
the crowd, a bowtied ogre and
his four companions. (laughter) How do you guys look
as you exit? MARISHA: I'm draped over
Pretty's right arm. ASHLEY: I'm just-- I'm dangling on
him, too, somewhere. LAURA: Off of his left arm? ASHLEY: Yeah. (laughs) LAURA: I'll be walking
in front of them, holding onto F.C.G.'s hand. MATT: Okay. SAM: I'm holding
the playbill, trying to figure out if
that was an understudy or-- (laughter) MATT: "I'm not going to lie, "it was an amazing
display of acrobatics, "and singing in
the midst of it "was unexpected. "An odd artistic choice."
ASHLEY: Just incredible. Flying through the air and then singing the song
at the same time. LAURA: It went longer
than the previous time. It was nice. SAM: Still no otters, though. MARISHA: Still no otters.
LAURA: No. MATT: "I tend to be
more of a purveyor "of narrative stage theater, "but I can appreciate
the interpretive dance "and acrobatic aspects
of the Lauders. "Not my favorite, but." ASHLEY: You are a
patron of the arts. MARISHA: You're so cultured. MATT: "Well, thank you." MARISHA: So intelligent. LAURA: Pretty. MATT: Looks up and the rain
hits his face a bit and he just exhales deeply. "Yes?" LAURA: This has been a
wonderful, wonderful night. MATT: "I agree." MARISHA: Thank you for dinner.
It was fantastic. MATT: "Well, it's quite
literally all I do." (laughter) "I must say, "this has been "an unexpected pleasure. "I enjoy your company "and friendship deeply. "But "I just think
we're different--" (laughter)
MATT: "-- kinds of people. "Please,
do not misunderstand." (laughter) MATT: "I just--" (laughs) Goddamn it. TRAVIS: Let 'em down easy. MATT: "I just think you
three have a lot "of the world before
you to see. "I don't know." MARISHA: Oh, we can
still be friends. MATT: "Of course.
Please come visit." ASHLEY: Is there any advice
that you would have for me? Maybe I-- something
was off that, you know, for the
next time around I could-- MATT: He kneels down, his knee splashing
into a puddle, and it scatters off
to the side. Puts his right hand
onto your left shoulder and gets down to eye level and looks at you with
a big grin and goes, "You're a wonderful "just how you are. "Just not meant to be." ASHLEY: It's okay. It's just hard when
you feel something and the other person doesn't. It just happens every time. MATT: "Is that right?" ASHLEY: Always
the bridesmaid. (laughter) ASHLEY: That's okay. That's okay. MATT: "I am compelled
by each of your "adventurous spirits. "But my search continues." (laughter) LAURA: You'll find them. You'll find them, Pretty. MARISHA: You're so good. You're such
a good-hearted ogre. Don't settle, all right? ASHLEY: Yeah. MATT: "I won't." (laughter) "I won't." MARISHA: I pull out Pâté. (as Pâté) Could I have a hug? MATT: "Okay, Pâté. He goes and you hear a crack. "Oh, sorry." Reaches forward, and goes to grab your hand, scoops it up with your hand,
scoops it up with your hand and pulls together. Gives a little (kisses). "Now, "I'm going to go "read the next chapter
of my favorite novel "and go to sleep." LAURA: Good night, Pretty. ASHLEY: Good night.
MATT: "You too. And--" LAURA: Sweet prince. MATT: "You'll find
your special someone. "One day. "And when you do, "bring them by "and I'll make
you all a meal." MARISHA: Well, we have
to have your approval, right? MATT: "Of course, "I'm invested in
your happiness now." ASHLEY: As we are with you. MARISHA: Go, Pretty, into the rain. MATT: He turns. As it spatters onto
his shoulders, he throws his scarf with a wet (splash). It scatters all
across your faces with a whip, and continues
lumbering onward to the cable to return
him to his homestead in the Smolder Spire. ASHLEY: ♪ Goodbye, my love ♪ (laughter) MARISHA: Who guessed we would be the ones
left standing in the rain? LAURA: I could've,
I could've guessed. ASHLEY: You could've?
LAURA: Yeah. ASHLEY: Well, how come? LAURA: Well, because
throughout the show, he was, you know, thinking about how
good the show was and how much he wanted to get back to the tavern. He didn't once have a thought. You know what I mean? ASHLEY: Oh, you
couldn't hear him? LAURA: Well, no, no, no. I mean, well, he
had some thoughts, but none of<i>
those</i> thoughts. ASHLEY: Oh,
he wasn't having any of those thoughts
about any of us. LAURA: Yeah.
ASHLEY: Well, okay. SAM: You could hear
his thoughts? LAURA: Well, yeah. I mean, sometimes. It's not like I did
it all the time. MARISHA: Did he ever
have like a, "Ugh, this is awkward"? Like, "Oh, she's
getting real clingy"? LAURA: No, no, no. He enjoyed everyone a lot.
MARISHA: Okay. LAURA: He never
thought that about you. MARISHA: Oh, thank you. LAURA: You're not clingy.
You're wonderful. MARISHA: Just a little,
you know. In the back of my head.
LAURA: No, don't be nervous. MARISHA: Insecurity. ASHLEY: What did you think
of your first date? SAM: Well, it was
a little boring. ASHLEY: Oh. LAURA: Did you think
there'd be more--? SAM: You know, the end
of it was probably the most interesting part. LAURA: Yeah. SAM: But, you know, there was food,
there was drink, there was small talk
about work. There was--
LAURA: I thought dates were supposed to
have sparks, you know? SAM: It was really fun seeing
y'all be on your best behavior and be really charming
and delightful and caring towards
him, and... But I think, yeah,
I think I agree with him. It's just, something
wasn't clicking, right? LAURA: Yeah.
SAM: I mean... Yeah, yeah, I mean,
Dancer always said that love equals
friendship plus alcohol, but I think there's
more to it than that. I feel like there's-- I think that there
needs to be something. A feeling, you know?
MARISHA: Yeah. TRAVIS: Oh my god.
MARISHA: Sparks. SAM: But it was so-- Thank you for bringing me
along for the ride, and I hope I wasn't
a fifth wheel. LAURA: You didn't say
anything the whole night. SAM: I was just listening. Is it close to midnight? MATT: Yes, it's--
LAURA: Mm-hm, I think it is. SAM: We should
probably get back. LAURA: Yeah, we'll
start walking. SAM: But I would recommend that you all
journal about this, just to sort of--
MARISHA: Get it out. ASHLEY: Absolutely.
LAURA: Thank you. SAM: Yeah, just to
get it all out. Any insecurities that
you might have. MARISHA: Sure, sure. LAURA: You should maybe
journal about it, too. SAM: All right, sure. LIAM: My favorite
John Hughes movie. MARISHA: I just link arms
with my fellow witches. LAURA: You know what? You three were the best part
of the night, in my opinion. MARISHA: I agree.
ASHLEY: Me, too, or three, and four. SAM: Who needs an ogre to
make you feel good, right? (laughter) ASHLEY: These witches
be bitches. MARISHA: These witches
be bitches. MATT: You all
decided to reconvene at the Spire by Fire, yes? SAM and LAURA: Yes.
MATT: Okay. After a short time,
one by one by two by three, you all begin to
gather at a familiar table within the Spire by Fire. At this hour,
a lot of the clientele have either passed out
and are in the process of groggily finding
their way out, or are the
definitely night owls that keep to themselves. It's not incredibly busy,
but, you know, it's definitely winding
down for the night. But you all reconvene
to share your intent. MARISHA: Do we
see the others? MATT: Yes, you've all
gathered at this point. For the sake of brevity, you have all gathered
at this point. LIAM: How did it go? MARISHA: He was so charming,
and we laughed so much, and the Lauders-Not-Otters were
so much better this go around, LAURA: They really were.
They didn't fall. MARISHA: I don't know.
LIAM: Depends on the audience. SAM: You don't have
to kiss and tell. MARISHA: He...
turned us down. (laughs) TRAVIS and ROBBIE: What? TALIESIN: Holy shit.
LAURA: He wasn't into it. MARISHA: Well, it's not that
he didn't like us, but he was like, you know... He ended the night by saying, "I respect you, "you all are beautiful and
the most captivating women "I've ever had
in my life, but I--" LAURA: I know, all right?
ROBBIE: Yes! MARISHA: He was
very insistent. ROBBIE: Of course, of course. Definitely not. TRAVIS: You talked about
your adventurous spirit. ROBBIE: Oh, sure. How's it go?
It's not you, it's me. Ah, yes, yes. Was that
something like how it went? ASHLEY: Well, he didn't
say that, he just... He just wasn't interested
in us, I guess. TRAVIS: Wow.
LAURA: Yeah. ROBBIE: And to think,
between the three of you, you've got so many
different types. Not a single one of you.
MARISHA: I know. ROBBIE: Wow, all
those choices, not one. SAM: Well, okay, Dorian. ROBBIE: I'm just teasing,
I'm teasing. Everyone teases me, I get to tease every
once in a while, right? All right. LIAM: At least he
didn't string you along. ROBBIE: I'm glad you had fun.
LAURA: He was quite the gentleman. ASHLEY: We did have fun,
and we got to see the full show,
which is something else. LAURA: And a delicious
meal out of it. How about y'all? LIAM: Well, the place is
probably emptier right now, if you all
wanted to continue. I leave that to you guys. TRAVIS: Now's the
time to strike. He's underplaying
the situation. LIAM: Vali's gone. Well, it seems like Vali left with some
higher level security. There's still people
left behind, but he walked off past us and mentioned moving things. MARISHA: Moving things?
LIAM: So. TRAVIS: In the morning, but I know that's
when our meeting was, but I mean,
it could be disposed. I mean, besides,
now's the time. ROBBIE: I can't believe
I'm saying this, but I agree with Chetney. If we have an opportunity
to see what's there before they take it away,
it's now or never. MARISHA: Well?
LAURA: Oh, man. MARISHA: I could go for a bit
of nightcap to this date. LAURA: You'd have to find a
way to get through the gates. TRAVIS: Or over the gates. Orym said there's
ways of doing that. I can tell you exactly
what you need to do. MATT: The wall altogether
is about, let's see, close to nine feet.
LIAM: Nine feet? MATT: Eight to nine feet,
depending. LIAM: I can leap over that,
tie a rope around my waist, and then if I can
get over there-- TRAVIS: Really?
LIAM: Yeah. TRAVIS: Oh, shit.
That's outstanding. LIAM: But we still
got to get in. We still got to get through
without hurting anybody. MARISHA: Why without hurting
anybody? I don't understand. LAURA: Well, I don't
want to make enemies of all of the
Wardens in the city. TRAVIS: You'll only make
enemies if you get caught. LAURA: Exactly. TRAVIS: Don't you leave
anyone to tell. TALIESIN: I will say, I
poked a couple of sources, and this guy is
serious business. We want to be careful-- MARISHA: How do you know?
What did you do? TALIESIN: I shook some trees
and saw what came out. Not a lot on what we're on right now.
MARISHA: Apples. TALIESIN: Do apples
come out of trees? ASHLEY: Yeah, if
you shake them. TALIESIN: Or leaves, or
all sorts of things. MARISHA: Bananas. TALIESIN: Do they grow on
trees? I guess they do. LIAM: Sure do.
ASHLEY: Pickles. TRAVIS: What'd you learn
from your person? SAM: (laughs) TALIESIN: I know who
your brother pissed off. MARISHA: What? TALIESIN: That's a thing
we got to deal with. So that's a problem. I didn't learn much about
where we are right now other than the people
that we're-- The guy we're about
to rob is bad news. MARISHA: Proper nouns,
Ashton. TALIESIN: I have them written
down. They're hard to read. MARISHA: What? TALIESIN: Because my
notes are really iffy. Vali, Vali is bad news.
That's what I wrote there. LAURA: Yeah, he's
an important guy. TALIESIN: Best be careful
is what I was told. Might have lined up
a gig later, if everybody wants
to make some cash. We'll see how this goes. SAM: What kind of gig? TALIESIN: Kind of similar
to what we're doing now. If it goes well, it
might be a nice thing. SAM: For whom? TALIESIN: All of us,
me in particular. SAM: No, I mean,
who would hire us? TALIESIN: (discontented sigh) TRAVIS: Is this
another Eshteross? TALIESIN: Sort of. I have a regular client that I do work for
on the side. It's complicated.
That's a whole story. ROBBIE: Ashton, I'm sorry. You said you knew who
held my brother's bounty? TALIESIN: Yeah.
ROBBIE: Who was it? TALIESIN: Well,
that's my client. LAURA: Well, if it's a job--
TALIESIN: Jiana Hexum. LAURA: Jiana Hexum?
TALIESIN: Yeah. ROBBIE: Who is that? TALIESIN: She's
a collector of sorts. I don't want to say harmless, necessarily, but... she's good for her word. She gets things done. She likes people not
to ask questions. Once she gets pissed
off about something, there's really nothing
to be done about it. LIAM: Did you talk
about Dorian with her? TALIESIN: Gently. She doesn't know anything other than she's putting the
money and wants it solved, what people assume, she doesn't bother
with particulars. She's just the money
everyone's trying to collect. LIAM: Is there an angle
to free the family up? ROBBIE: You said
they're a client. Can't you just tell
them the truth, that my brother had
nothing to do with them? TALIESIN: It's not the kind
of thing she's interested in. Honestly, once she's got
an idea in her head, it's hard to move that train unless
you can prove something. ROBBIE: Prove.
TALIESIN: Yeah. LAURA: So we prove it. TALIESIN: If you can pull it
off, that's a way to go, but-- SAM: She's hired
you before, though. TALIESIN: Many times. SAM: Just you? TALIESIN: I have a debt
to pay off. SAM: What does that mean? Is this part of
your old friends? TALIESIN: Yeah, since it looks
like you're sticking around... My old crew, the Nobodies, they-- We had a job to
rob her place. We didn't know who she
was. It hardly mattered. It was just grab something.
Get out. Simple stuff. Didn't go well. It really, really
didn't go well. Long story short, and
I'm sure at some point if you want to hear the
whole fucking tale, you can buy more liquor. Everyone had to skip town.
I got hurt. She figured out who I was, what I did, and instead of turning me
in to the authorities, let me pay it off, and I've been
doing that for a while. Honestly, it's a good gig. It's fair. She's not rough to work for. The stuff I've done is
nothing I'm not proud of. So, like you would say. LIAM: How much do you
have to work off? TALIESIN: Well, if I
can get a bunch of you to agree to do something,
that might be the end of it. LAURA: How can we just walk
in and take a job from her with Dorian, who looks
just like his brother? TALIESIN: I don't think she actually knows
the particulars. I think she just
went out and said: Find who's responsible
and delight me. It's very her. SAM: But maybe doing
a job for her could ingratiate us with her. LAURA: Yeah. SAM: This group that you used
to work with, the Nobodies, did they... If I might ask... Do you resent them
for all leaving you? TALIESIN: Absolutely fucking
not. I would've done the same. MARISHA: I thought
you said they died. TALIESIN: No. MARISHA: Maybe I just
assume that, always. TALIESIN: No, they
very smartly took off, and I very happily
took the debt. It's what you do for family, is you fucking
take care of them. SAM: Do you know if
they're still together? TALIESIN: I do not. LIAM: So that was the last
you ever saw or heard? TALIESIN: Yep. They did the right thing. SAM: You don't blame
them just a little bit? TALIESIN: You know what you
get into when you do this. Sometimes the
best thing to do is save whoever you can. MARISHA: So, you
were the fall guy. TALIESIN: I took it.
Again, family. MARISHA: Fall guy saving
a fall guy. I like it. TALIESIN: But I did
rob her place. MARISHA: What'd you get? TALIESIN: You know,
I don't know. MARISHA: What? TALIESIN: It was in a box.
Never saw it. I actually, technically,
I was on lookout. I wasn't really watching. MARISHA: Just like
your brother! The similarities!
ASHLEY: You were hired to break into her house and take something.
TALIESIN: Yeah. TRAVIS: Did that hurt? SAM: Is that this thing? TALIESIN: Yes, it is. LAURA: (gasps)
SAM: Ooh. LAURA: Oh no! TRAVIS: How did...
Who... What? TALIESIN: Well, oh boy. More drink. SAM: Aren't we
on the street? No, we're in the-- TALIESIN: No, we're in the-- It's very comfortable. MARISHA: We order
another round. MATT: All right. LIAM: The rain outside
the window, though. MARISHA: So cozy. TALIESIN: Oh boy. Back in Bassuras, I had a bunch of people
I came up with in a state home called the
Greymoore State Home. A bunch of kids, we took
off when we were younger. Said fuck off to that
place. Formed a gang. Made a little money
doing this and that. A lot of it from Milo,
who you've met. This job, was just like most
of them until it wasn't. She has a very,
very big house, and we were high up on practically the top floor, and... She walked in on us
trashing her office. And I don't know what happened after that, because I got hit with some
sort of magic force bolt right in the back, went through the window,
and dropped. LAURA: On your head? TALIESIN: I don't know. I would assume, because
the next thing I know, they have dragged my pretty much fucked body back to my house. Milo had done their best, putting me back together without knowing any healing spells or fuck all.
MARISHA: They fixed you? TALIESIN: Basically,
with some sort of weird chaos fairy magic
bullshit. Who knows? Whatever it did, it worked. It was whatever
they had around, and I'm basically fine. LAURA: Is that what
this gold is? TALIESIN: Oh yeah, that was
actually very specifically, this is what I was supposed to
get paid with for that gig. It got melted down, and
this is just glass. So, worked out all right. TRAVIS: Yeah. I mean, it's
a fucking bitching look. TALIESIN: Thank you.
I like it. ASHLEY: I think you're
sort of beautiful. TALIESIN: Me too. Any other questions? SAM: I'm so sorry that
happened to you, Ashton. TALIESIN: Shit happens.
Worse things have happened. SAM: You didn't
deserve it, though. TALIESIN: No one
deserves anything. TRAVIS: I don't know if
trust is the right word, but you expect her not
to screw you, right? TALIESIN: We have had
a relationship for a very long time, and... she's never told me anything that
I found out wasn't true, and never sent me to do something
she thought I couldn't do, and has been pretty
upfront with everything. I mean, she's not a
nice person, but-- LIAM: If you had to guess, the
bounty on Dorian's brother, is that principle, or is that monetary? TALIESIN: With her,
probably monetary, but a bit of both. Money doesn't matter to her. She has moods. LIAM: You think there's
a chance that if we band together
and do this thing that you're talking about, pro bono, it could wipe
the slate clean? TALIESIN: (sharply inhales) (exhales) I think she'd want more. I think she'd want her
property back, too. I think she'd... She's not somebody who
likes to make deals unless she really feels
like she's getting her money's worth,
her peoples' worth. Again, she's honest. She's trustworthy. She's just not very nice. MARISHA: She sounds rich. Is she a part of
these Mahaan houses? TALIESIN: I don't think so.
I don't really ask. That's not our relationship.
But I don't think so. She feels like, I've
always got the assumption that she is her. And that's probably
as far as it goes. She didn't have
anything to say about anything that we've
been doing other than, wow, you're fucking
with crazy people and dangerous people. And if she says that... LAURA: So you told
her that we were messing with Vali? TALIESIN: Yep. LAURA: And that's safe?
TALIESIN: Yeah. Absolutely. ASHLEY: You trust her. LIAM: That's a pretty
big trust fall, Ash. TALIESIN: She trusts me. I probably know enough to certainly make her
life complicated, and she trusts that I'm
not going to do that. TRAVIS: Mutual leverage. TALIESIN: She knows that I was going to tell
you all about this. She's usually very private. TRAVIS: I think
this is great. I mean, it's a chance for
you to get out of your debt. We have a chance
to make some money. TALIESIN: I will say-- SAM: Maybe help
Dorian's brother. TALIESIN: At the very least, I
will say that if your brother is taken off the table,
one way or another, I think they'll just
find someone else to pin it on and move on. It's a good possibility. ROBBIE: So you're saying he may be on
the run indefinitely? TALIESIN: For a while.
Further is better, probably. ROBBIE: You told them
almost everything, but not the details of my
situation or my brother's? TALIESIN: I told her
that I had information that would lead me to believe that who her people think
did this is probably wrong. She said that's interesting
and useless, basically, unless I can back it up. ROBBIE: Thank you for
that, nonetheless. TALIESIN: I do not lie
to this person. ASHLEY: What if
we try to find whatever was lost, and that could absolve your brother, maybe? LAURA: Yeah, or at least find the people
who actually did it. ROBBIE: I appreciate
your concern, but I would rather... I would rather leave than any
of you endanger yourselves on my brother's behest. Thank you. Thank you. But if it comes to that, I could not live with myself if something happened to any
of you doing something for me. MARISHA: If it comes to that.
Let's not jump to conclusions. ROBBIE: How can you
make something so nice still sound so creepy? MARISHA: (laughs)
You're cute. SAM: That sounds very
interesting, Ashton, and we should
definitely pursue it. That's not a tonight
thing, though? TALIESIN: That is definitely
not a tonight thing. LIAM: No, clock's ticking
for tonight. TALIESIN: I had to double
check that I could say things before I told you all
what was going on. TRAVIS: Do you think you'll
run into any more of these... What was the group? Nobodies? TALIESIN: No,
they've been gone... It's been years.
It's been years. It was a good crew.
They did well. SAM: I know you say you're
not traumatized by the event or resentful of
them or anything, but I can just
speak for myself and say that if
anything like that ever goes down with
us, I won't run away. I don't think any of
these folks will, either. ASHLEY: I probably will.
SAM: Okay. LIAM: No, Letters is right,
and that goes for both of you. You're not going to
Prestidigitate us off like mud, friend. SAM: It's a cantrip.
LIAM: Yeah... You need 9th-level, at least. LAURA: That'd be a big one. ROBBIE: Are you talking?
SAM: No. TALIESIN: Yeah, I don't know. This is the
first time I've worked with a group of people
since, I will admit, and if I ever see them again, there'll probably be
a couple punches and then we'll
be done with it. That's how you resolve
shit with family. TRAVIS: Oh, okay. LAURA: Thank you for
trusting us, Ashton. TALIESIN: It was time. This fucker, jeez. SAM: Sorry.
MARISHA: He loves you so much. TALIESIN: Despite everything.
SAM: I'm lovable. ROBBIE: That's a lot
of big questions. LAURA: That's a lot
on the table. MARISHA: Are you
all right, Orym? You've looked a little queasy
throughout this conversation. LIAM: I'm just concerned
for everyone at the table. I want everyone to find the
things they're looking for. I don't want my friend's
brother to die. TALIESIN: One thing at a time.
LAURA: One thing at a time. TALIESIN: Are we going to do
a little B&E tonight? LAURA: Oh my gosh. SAM: Going back into
the ghost-y place? LAURA: Going to find Gurge? TRAVIS: You just see
what's down there. If he's not down there,
we can fucking skedaddle. TALIESIN: I think it's a
terrible fucking idea, but-- SAM: You love those.
TALIESIN: I'll do... I like hitting things. It's been days, and I want to hit something
really bad right now. ROBBIE: It has been
stressful, hasn't it? TALIESIN: I'd feel so much
better if I hit something. ROBBIE: Let's go do
some crime. Fuck it. TRAVIS: Wait, this job that
she was talking about, would it be here in Jrusar? TALIESIN: No. TRAVIS: Well, that's not
nice. If we fuck this up... SAM: We get out of town. LAURA: Take the job
right away. TRAVIS: Yeah?
Nobody will get hurt. It's important to
leave people alive. MARISHA: Safety third. TALIESIN: I've taken
a few jobs from her that have left town. It's a nice break. Think of it as a very
complicated vacation. ASHLEY: Oh boy. LAURA: All right. We're going to have to
be so careful, though, because we just barely
made it out of there. TALIESIN: I can't be...
TRAVIS: Really? TALIESIN: I'm not sneaky for
the re-- I need to-- Yeah, I'm too tired to pull
that shit off, so. ASHLEY: Thank you for
telling us all that. TALIESIN: I don't know.
This feels like a thing. LIAM: Talk it out with
me a little bit, though. I don't want to go in
and start stabbing. TALIESIN: Do we have a plan? LIAM: Once we all get
in, what are we doing with any opposition
that we run into? MARISHA: You said we want
to try to not murder? LIAM: Correct. MARISHA: All right. ASHLEY: Okay, okay,
okay, okay. MARISHA: But also,
leave no one alive? This feels a
little conflicting. LIAM: No, that's incorrect.
TRAVIS: No, you would leave them alive. Alive. MARISHA: Alive. TALIESIN: Unconscious. TRAVIS: I would offer that the drawer has
to be unlocked. It's the upper
right-hand drawer. The button is inside. TALIESIN: I don't know
what you talking about. TRAVIS: This is how you get
in once you're in the room. TALIESIN: You're in the room when you have to
get to the desk, I don't understand what the
fuck you're talking about. ROBBIE: Aren't you
coming with us? TRAVIS: I mean, I don't know, I don't want to assume
anything, but yeah. I didn't know if you wanted
me to be on crowd control or something.
LAURA: What are you talking about, Chet? TRAVIS: What? We're going
after Gurge, right? LAURA: Yeah. ROBBIE: This is your thing. You're part of the thing. TRAVIS: Oh, okay. Well, I was just checking. MARISHA: I don't think we
just got clear details on how you got where
you got. That's all. TRAVIS: Oh, I shared this with
Orym a little bit earlier. Because the window's broken, I don't think we need to go
inside the old fashioned way. Just get into his office, open the door,
press the button, the bookcase moves, we make
our way down the steps, we kill-- we subdue
anyone downstairs, and then see if
Gurge is down there. LAURA: All right.
MARISHA: Okay. ASHLEY and LIAM: Okay. LAURA: So maybe we can
get over the fences close to the Moon Tower,
so there's less courtyard we have to run through in order to get to it.
LIAM: All the way up on the side. LAURA and SAM: Yeah.
TRAVIS: Yeah. SAM: Any sort of
distraction or anything, or are we going to just try
to do it all stealthy like? TALIESIN: I think distraction if something goes wrong.
LIAM: Distraction is good. ROBBIE: What if we
just kick the door in? SAM: I'm sorry,
the front gate? ROBBIE: No, to the room,
to the office. LAURA: Well, I mean,
the window's open, so why don't we just
crawl through the window? ASHLEY: How do we know they
didn't board it up yet? LIAM: Well, let's find out. It wasn't when we were there a couple hours ago. MARISHA: Well, it sounds like
what Chetney is talking about is an office and then an office
inside an office, right? TRAVIS: Yeah, if you can
get over the wall, we can make it to that
window unseen, if we're careful, through a window, unlock
a drawer, touch a button, bookcase moves, and a
staircase that goes down. LAURA: Secret room. TRAVIS: Secret room! ROBBIE: All of us are going
to sneak in the window? TRAVIS: I think a minimum
number of personnel. LAURA: Yeah, why not? TRAVIS: Well, I only
left a gnome-size hole. But that big fuck came after
me, right, so he must've-- MATT: Well, when you
came through as a gnome, (laughter) a larger portion
of the window then fell from
the shattering. TRAVIS: ♪ Things are
looking up. ♪ (laughter) MARISHA: That was beautiful. ROBBIE: You have a lovely
singing voice, Chetney. TALIESIN: Do we
have anything, there's probably going to
be guards at the window. Do we have any way of... Can we make them not see us? Or pretend that they're--
SAM: Yeah, Dorian do you have any sort of
distract-y things, or--? TALIESIN: Psychic ring.
ROBBIE: I could make some noise for certain. MARISHA: I can make
some images. SAM: All right. MARISHA: Not an Imogen,
but an images. SAM: Sure, sure, sure. MARISHA: But they are quiet. LIAM: There may be
people on the ground. There probably will be
people on the ground. Maybe we could
lure them away. SAM: Sounds or something. TALIESIN: Or even just make
them think nothing happened. Can we do that? MARISHA: Word on the street is
that tower is haunted as fuck. LAURA: That's true. We do
have that on our side. Maybe we can just
creepy it up and-- MARISHA: Ghosts are
on the loose. TALIESIN: It's dark and rainy.
ROBBIE: Some more play acting? I do like that.
I do like that. LAURA: Drama school. TALIESIN: All right. ROBBIE: Do we scare them out? LIAM: Theater is trouble. ROBBIE: All right.
MARISHA: Oh! TALIESIN: I've been
part of stupider plans. MARISHA: Which reminds me!
I start passing out everyone's memberships
to the theater that I picked up
when I was there. Everyone has one now. LAURA: Don't lose that. They said if
you don't have it, they don't
remember your name. It's just the card.
MARISHA: Yes, they don't keep a record. It's just such bullshit!
LAURA: Yeah. MATT: All right. What is the plan? LAURA: Oh yeah, okay,
we're going to-- SAM: Just going to up
there, and scout it out! LIAM: Something near the
front to draw people there, on the inside. No? LAURA: Well, let's get
over to the side and see what guards
there are first. How about that? LIAM: Sure. LAURA: Then we'll
come up with our-- LIAM: Sure.
MATT: Okay. LAURA: Just in case. TRAVIS: (raspy)
I'll just offer this because it's been a long day. I could see some apprehension
on your faces. We do have an appointment
tomorrow morning. We could show up early. Make our way in through
the front gate with the letter as
we presented it. Then we get fucking
stealthy with it. LAURA: That's true. TRAVIS: Break off. LIAM: You're not
worried about losing your man in the middle of the night?
TRAVIS: Well, remember we overheard have to move things
in the morning. I know it's risky. I just
think talking it out. MARISHA: Why don't we use
that as plan B? You all right? TRAVIS: (raspy) Yep.
MARISHA: Do you need some water? TRAVIS: No.
MARISHA: All right. TRAVIS: Do you have any? LIAM: I do have a little
bit because I-- TRAVIS: Does wonders
for the old muscles. SAM: All right,
we'll walk and talk. We're going up. TALIESIN: Holy shit.
MATT: Okay. SAM: Second B&E of the day. MATT: Yeah! You're racking them up.
LAURA: This is so dumb. MATT: Okay. TRAVIS: Is it? SAM: We're going to be fine. MATT: Returning upward
on the Core Spire to the exterior
of the Mirror Tower, as you return to
the familiar wall that surrounds
the interior courtyard. Are you approaching
from where? From where you guys
previously checked? LIAM: The idea, right, is to
skirt around along the wall so that we're nearest
we can be to the tower? MATT: Yeah, okay.
LIAM: Moon Tower. MATT: All right. I would like, first off,
everyone roll a stealth check just to-- LAURA: Does somebody have
Pass Without A Trace? TALIESIN: Nope. LAURA: Nobody has it? TALIESIN: I burned mine
already. I think. It's still today, right? MATT: Yes.
LAURA: You did? ROBBIE: Mama mia. TRAVIS: Mama mia. MATT: I think the only person
that can cast it in this group, I think, is Fearne if she
has it prepared but-- TALIESIN: I just rolled
a one, so. MATT: I don't know if
you do, yeah. LAURA: I just rolled
a one as well. LIAM: Oh, come on,
I rolled a natural 20. MATT: Okay, that offsets one. TRAVIS: 21.
MATT: 21. ROBBIE: 11.
MATT: 11. MARISHA: 10.
MATT: Okay. SAM: 11.
LIAM: (painfully groans) ASHLEY: 10. ROBBIE: Jeez, we suck. TALIESIN: We must know
we suck now. We might as well turn around, at this point.
MATT: Here's what you do. You all quietly begin
to head along the outside of the
exterior wall. One of the wardens that's just doing an
outer perimeter of the space-- and begins walking over
in your direction. MARISHA: Yeah,
he's coming our way. Fuck!
SAM: It's just one guy? MATT: One guy.
LIAM: On the outside, inside? MATT: On the outside. He's just walking
the street perimeter and notices a large group
of people clustering over towards the edge of
the wall and just goes, "Hmm," and starts walking
your direction. LAURA and MARISHA:
(nervous humming) MATT: Well?
LAURA: Walk away? Do we just walk away now? SAM: Someone say
something to him? Someone talk? LAURA: How close is he? MATT: He's about 150 feet
away and is getting closer. ASHLEY: (slurs) That
was such a fun night! SAM: Okay, we're doing that. MARISHA: Is he by bushes? MATT: No, you are outside--
ASHLEY: We don't have to talk to him! We can just act
MATT: -- of the walls. ASHLEY: Like we're drunk. Woo. LAURA: (slurs) I swear, y'all,
there were ghosts around here. I heard a ghost. MATT: "All right,
what is your business?" LAURA: (whispers) There
were ghosts over here. ASHLEY: We heard
it's haunted. MATT: Both of you
make deception checks. Or you can make
it with advantage, because she's helping you. Your choice.
MARISHA: Ghost hunters. SAM: Come on. Not good? LAURA: 16? MATT: 16's not bad. He goes,
"Yes, there are rumors. "However, it is late. "You should get
back to your homes." LAURA: Sure.
TALIESIN: Have you seen anything? LAURA: Yeah. MATT: "I've heard voices
whispering in the night "fog."
LAURA: You did? MATT: "For many weeks." LAURA: Over here? MATT: "I've heard "that 35 years before,
there was a massacre "within the Mirror Towers." ASHLEY and LAURA: (gasping) MATT: "And those spirits
still remain chained to here, "begging for release." LIAM: How do you
even work here? I couldn't handle it. MATT: "I'm brave." ASHLEY: I heard that if you die in these walls, your spirit can't leave
and you're there forever. Are you sure you're safe? MATT: "I'm safe.
I can take it. "You should all get home."
LAURA: You're so brave. SAM: Thank you, Fearne. TRAVIS: (laughs) TALIESIN: That was worth it. SAM: Thank you. Good night. MATT: "Good night."
LAURA: Could I insight check and see if
he was telling the truth, or making up a story? MATT: Sure, make
an insight check. LAURA: All my dice are
betraying me tonight. LIAM: Yep. (laughter) LAURA: Six. MATT: Hard to tell. LAURA: Yep! I believe him. SAM: Is he watching us,
though? MATT: You seem to have
dissuaded him to the point where he's not
watching you intently, but you may want to step
away for a little bit-- LAURA: Rethink this plan. LIAM: Laudna, Laudna. MARISHA: Yes? LIAM: Maybe you should whisper
in his brain right now. MARISHA: I was thinking the same thing.
LAURA: Maybe we should just, y'all. Maybe we should not do this tonight.
MARISHA: Where is he looking? MATT: He's walking along
the edge of the wall, getting back towards
the front of the gate, occasionally looking
over his shoulder, just to like-- MARISHA: As he's walking
right ahead of his path, I do Silent Image. I make it look
like a ghost face is peering out of the wall and does
a haunted house reach. MATT: Okay. TALIESIN: You're a beast. MATT: That is a natural one.
MARISHA: I don't know to what end, by the way, either. Let's see what happens. MATT: Okay. So as this ghostly face
pushes throughout the stone, you watch him
just freeze in place. MARISHA: I cast Message. (creepy whispering) MARISHA: Let me free. (creepy whispering) MATT: He just runs. He just runs away
from the wall, drops his spear, and goes.
Leaves the district, He is out of sight. MARISHA: (cackles) (shushing) LAURA: Were there other
guards around here? MATT: This is the only
one you've seen, but you've also only
spent your time on this side of the wall. He rolled a natural one
on trying to look through that
illusion and nope. SAM: Get over, Orym!
Get over now. ASHLEY: Take a peek and
see if anybody's up there. LIAM: I run straight at Dorian
and I spring off of his hand. With a running jump,
I can get-- My high jump with a running
start is nine feet in the air. I will cast Gust under
myself to go another inch. MATT: Yeah. You get up onto
the top. There are these large iron pikes that
sit at the top of the wall that you just grasp to
catch yourself at the top. Glancing over, you now have
a view of the courtyard. Most of the torch
lights are out, except for the different
intersections that walk around the arches that are
scattered throughout. You do see where
the window is, but there's nothing
lit to let you know what state it's
in at the moment. You do see a few... They would be torchlight, but
they're carrying essentially waterproof magical globes that give a similar
flicker for light. But you do count at
immediate glance out there-- actually, roll a perception
check for me. LIAM: That would be a 17. MATT: 17. You count
six of those lights throughout the entire
courtyard at the moment. LIAM: What's the closest? How far off is
the closest one? MATT: From you, about
30, 40 feet or so. But it's moving slowly away. LIAM: All right,
so I just lower so I'm like this watching. (whispers) We have somebody
who's not too far off, but they're heading away. Someone throw
a rope up to me. LAURA: Somebody got a rope? ROBBIE: Oh, I actually
think I do. Hold on one second. TALIESIN: Who the fuck carries rope with them.
LAURA: I think I've got rope. TALIESIN: That's
the stupidest thing. ROBBIE: I've got
50 feet of rope. MATT: There you go. TRAVIS: We didn't
even check first. ROBBIE: I had to check. LIAM: I put the end of it
in my mouth, and then I just grasp
and I roll up and over so that I'm hanging
on the other side, and then I take this and drop.
MATT: Okay, you feel the rope go taut and now you
have a climbing means of getting over the tower. TRAVIS: See you on
the other side. (laughter) MATT: One by one, you each
begin to climb over the tower. LAURA: ♪ One by one ♪ ALL: ♪ We climb until
we reach the top ♪ SAM: Hey! We just did that. (laughter) TRAVIS: ♪ Two by two we ♪
TALIESIN: We fall. TRAVIS and LAURA: ♪ Jump ♪
SAM: Jump, Travis. MARISHA: Ow! Ow god, ow. LIAM: Chetney-- MARISHA: I fell!
LIAM: -- the next person's going to be heavier. Help me. TRAVIS: Oh, yeah. Come on. MATT: Eventually, you're all
within the courtyard, keeping low. There are two large
hedges to the right, and there is a path
that leads across. It's not directly in view, but down this straight
path between all these various clumps of bush,
small tree and such, you know where that window
is just beyond sight. But it's almost a straight
shot across this part of the courtyard
to where the tower base is. LAURA: Is it hiding? Can we hide underneath
hedges and stuff? MATT: You can dart
between them as you go, but it is a straight shot to the tower, so if
anybody crosses that path, they'll have a view. Unless you want to dart
in between and carefully... LIAM: Roughly how high
is the broken window? MATT: The base of it
is about four feet up. LIAM: Oh! MATT: It's not super high. You were on the base floor
when he jumped through. TRAVIS: It was real dramatic. LIAM: Okay. TALIESIN: Just a four-foot-- ROBBIE: It was a long fall for you, though.
TRAVIS: (yells) MATT: Yeah, this is no
fast Briarwood's plummet. ASHLEY: Your body cut out in the glass. (laughter) LIAM: He's a third the size,
so for him it was a big drop. Oh, that's four feet, three feet, two feet, oh.
TRAVIS: Everest. (laughter) SAM: We need to get across
a clearing. We'll be exposed? LAURA: We can dart
from bush to bush. That's what he said. LIAM: This is just like
jumping through someone's broken living
room window. Let's do it. (laughter) MATT: All right. So keeping an eye out there,
from this perspective you cannot see all the torch
lights that are out there. You're going to have
to attempt as you go. Who is being the point man
for this stealth journey? LIAM: I can. MATT: Okay. SAM: I will give you
Guidance. LIAM: Okay. MATT: All right. ASHLEY: I'll give you
a high five. MATT: I would like first for
you to roll a perception check. LIAM: With a d4 for Guidance. SAM: If you need it. LIAM: Natural 20 plus four. MATT: Actually for this, I would say you have...
It would be disadvantage because of the rain that's
preventing you from able to hear and it's blocking
the view a bit, so you would have
just a straight roll. LIAM: Well, the
other one was 18, so then that gets us
down to 25. MATT: Okay. (laughs) At the moment, you
hear faint footsteps in the shifting
pattering of rain against a form of some kind, like hitting a leather
spatter sound variation, in the direction of where
you saw that light. It's not getting
closer at the moment. So time is of the essence. I need everybody to roll a stealth check for me. TRAVIS: Let's go! MARISHA: Don't. SAM: Can I Guide myself? LAURA: Yeah, you can. TALIESIN: Yeah, yes, you can.
LIAM: Yes. SAM: I will Guide myself
for this one. MATT: All right.
TRAVIS: Damn it, Marisha, what? MATT: Okay.
MARISHA: It's real bad. TRAVIS: 22. MATT: 22. ROBBIE: 21.
MATT: 21. MARISHA: Natural one. MATT: Okay, cancels that. SAM: Seven. ASHLEY: 14. MATT: Okay. LAURA: 13. LIAM: 17. TALIESIN: 17. MATT: Okay.
SAM: Not great. LAURA: But it is balanced. TRAVIS: That's
a Scantron, baby. LAURA: We're all over average except for her.
LIAM: It's a solid 14. MATT: You dart through the
first cluster of hedges, making the straightaway,
thinking, okay, if we can make
this across in one go, this should be fine. As you begin to dart forth, most of you make it. You guiding them over,
glance over, and suddenly that light
is getting a lot closer. You all carefully get down, and you watch as
a figure comes by, holding this small iron
rod that contains a cage at the top of it. In this cage, there
is a little spark of faint reddish
orange that just occasionally sputters and
sparks, like a torch light, but it's a magical source. Looking around. Did not see any of you,
but is seemingly on alert. SAM: DC is higher. MATT: "Whose footprints
are these?" (laughter) TRAVIS: Still raining, right? MATT: Still raining. MARISHA: It must have
been my imagination. (laughter) ROBBIE: I find
a cardboard box. MATT: If only. What do you do? LAURA: How far away
is he now? MATT: Oh, he's
10 feet from you. LAURA: Oh god. SAM: Create a distraction. MATT: He heard you guys, came to check, and you're out
of sight for the time being, but he is definitely
searching in this space. TRAVIS: Can't you lure him
to sleep? Knock him out? MARISHA: Which direction
is he looking? MATT: He's not looking
directly at you at the moment. MARISHA: He's 10 feet
from us? ROBBIE: How far away is he? LAURA: I got it! I got it! I got an idea. MARISHA: Just being vocal,
vocal shit, be mindful. LAURA: No, no, no.
MARISHA: But you don't have to. LAURA: I'm going to Mage
Hand far away from us, so I'm going to use one
of my sorcery points to double the distance. So 60 feet away from us. I'm going to pick up a rock
and throw it as far as I can. MATT: Easy enough to do
and the Mage Hand itself is-- LAURA: Invisible,
everything's invisible because it's telekinetic. MATT: Right. Throws it.
(rock clatters) Puts a hand on the side, begins walking
towards the sound. He's about 20 feet
from you right now, still on alert, still nearby. But he's faced away from you
for the time being, at least. What are you doing? SAM: Maybe now?
Maybe now's the time? LAURA: 20 feet. MARISHA: 20 feet is not
that fucking far. MATT: It's not that far. SAM: It's now or never. ASHLEY: Maybe he needs to
get a little further away. LAURA: Can you Silent Image? Can you Silent Image
far away? MARISHA: Uh-huh, uh-huh. But my fear is Silent Image takes
vocal shit. SAM: What's Orym doing? MARISHA: But it's also
raining, so I don't know-- MATT: It is raining. MARISHA: -- if that
would help cover it. LAURA: Yeah. Yeah, that'd be pretty loud. SAM: Wait for thunder. LAURA: Can you whisper?
Vocal, can it be a whisper or does it have
to be full voice? MATT: It's not like-- No, you can whisper it
and it'll be like, I'll say just roll a d20. MARISHA: All right,
all right. Another Silent Image. SAM: Silent Image. MARISHA: d20 plus anything? MATT: No, just roll for me. MARISHA: 18. MATT: 18, yeah, essentially
you don't roll super poorly. So yeah, you go ahead and whisper underneath the rain. The smattering of it hitting
the stone slabs around you where the walkway is on
this portion of the garden, definitely gives
cover for the whisper. What are you doing? MARISHA: I want just
out of his periphery, to where he has to turn, he sees a young
flower girl with-- SAM: That's nice. TRAVIS: That's fucking awful.
MARISHA: -- a white... with a white cloak
and she's barefoot, and her hair is in her face. Almost like Laudna. She's holding a basket of flowers. LAURA: Oh, and
she's drenched. MARISHA: And she's drenched. She looks up and
her eyes are hollow and her jaw is missing,
and it's just a black void as she reaches out. TRAVIS: Those creepy
girls are the worst. MATT: The guy turns with the
torch and stands there frozen. MARISHA: I make the image
go, (yells) and rush him. MATT: He passes out. (laughter) MATT: He just fucking... That was so much at once. That was so much at once
and he rolled so low to try and look
through that illusion that he just had an immediate
panic attack and he's down. SAM: Go! Go! TRAVIS: Good thing he
wore the brown pants. MATT: Everyone rolls stealth
checks again, please. SAM: Oh, Guidance. LAURA: Oh! Good! MARISHA: Okay. LAURA: That's good. SAM: Oh, fucking awesome.
TRAVIS: 21. ROBBIE: 11.
MATT: 11. MARISHA: 15. MARISHA: 15, okay. SAM: 19 on disadvantage! MATT: Nice. ASHLEY: 18.
LAURA: 20. LIAM: 19. TALIESIN: 12. MATT: Okay. Now finally you got your
shit a little more together, you all brave
the straightaway. As you glance through, there
are the hedges to the side, and occasionally it breaks and
you can see another pathway. Of course, Orym at the
front, you're keeping an eye, as you go by each one. To the left,
you do see a light, but it is far off and you're
like, we got the momentum, go, go, go, and with
that you all continue past the straightaway,
reaching the far end of where the tower is, gather
yourselves and look around. No sign of any
immediate eye lines, any existing torchlight. No one seemed to notice. You are now up against
the Moon Tower. LAURA: Can I have everybody
back up a little bit so I can--
I want to open up my mind and see if I hear any thoughts
on the inside of the tower. MARISHA: Good idea. MATT: Okay, what's
the range on that? LAURA: 30. LIAM: Infinity. LAURA: It's infinity. I think it's within 30 feet. MATT: 30 feet, okay. Are you using your ability,
or are you using-- LAURA: I would be
using my ability, but I want to be away
from everybody else, so it's not as hard. MATT: Okay, so everyone
pulls back a bit from you. If everyone pulls
away from you, it's going to spread out
some space in this area, as most of you guys keeping
up against the edge of it. So I'm just saying you
have to choose here. ASHLEY: I'm going to keep
my brain very quiet. No thoughts.
MARISHA: That's a good point. What if we think
about nothing? ASHLEY: Easy to do.
MARISHA: Does that help? LAURA: I don't think it does. MATT: We can say, for all
intents and purposes, Fearne does not add
to that modifier. LAURA: Okay. (laughter) LIAM: Tiki music playing. LAURA: ♪ I am stuck on
Band-Aid brand-- ♪ ASHLEY and LAURA: ♪ -- 'cause
Band-Aid's stuck on me! ♪ TALIESIN: We could get you
in there first and then that would
give you some-- LAURA: Yeah, maybe
I can get up quicker, so that I'm ahead
of everybody else and just think. MATT: Now you get up to where
the base of the window is, and as the wind's blowing,
you can hear (wind flaps). Some sort of tarp-like
material is just flapping with the small gusts of wind
that are coming through from the rain. Just glancing over, you
can see there are slats. It's not completely
boarded up. It looks like they just grabbed what
materials were ready and they're going to do a more
thorough job in the morning. But it's a series
of cross-beams that have been
temporarily placed, and a tarp nailed to it, to keep it for
the time being. LAURA: Okay. I open up my mind. MATT: Okay. 30 feet. Nothing. LAURA: I don't think
anyone's in there. SAM: Would we have to
remove a plank to get in? There's not-- TRAVIS: It's just tarp. SAM: There's tarp and slats.
MATT: The gap is about that wide, which means most of you could
be able to get through. TRAVIS: That's my shit. Push me up. (acrobatic flipping sounds) (laughter) Half quarter turn. MATT: Okay. LAURA: Is anyone in there? Is somebody dead in there? MATT: Going inside, a lot
of the space has been checked. Some of the
furniture's been moved. Looks like there's
been an investigation gone through here, looking
for points of entry, for any other signs
of damage or... It's definitely been
given a once-over by whoever was in here
post your initial break-in, but most everything with the
desks have been put back. It is now clear. Any of the papers that
were left on there, it is just a clear desktop. TRAVIS: Bookshelf
is in place? MATT: Bookshelf is in place. TRAVIS: No living bodies? MATT: No. None that you see there, no. TRAVIS: It's clear. I get my lock picks out, and
I start going to the drawer. MATT: Okay. The two people, I'm going
to have to ask them to roll an acrobatics check to squeeze through
the space there, is going to be Fearne
and Fresh Cut Grass. SAM: Oh, okay, all right. Athletics check? MATT: Yes. MARISHA: You said acrobatics. Is it picksies? SAM: Acro or-- MATT: Acrobatics.
LAURA: You can Guide yourself. MATT: Athletics would be bruising your way through.
SAM: I will Guide myself. MATT: This is trying to
maneuver through the space, and even though
you are short, you are relatively broad. SAM: Sure. MATT: Fearne's just overall-- Fearne. TALIESIN: Yeah, this
is a good use of a d4. SAM: I will Guide myself.
TALIESIN: It's an intentional move. Guidance is very
intentional, yeah. ASHLEY: 18. SAM: 15. LAURA: Ooh!
MATT: Okay! Fearne, you pull through
and your horn catches on the edge of where
the slat's corner is. (laughter) You carefully pull away, just in time to not
begin to peel it away from the rest of
the structure, tumble, and catch yourself
inside the office. You, watching her, take her
by the arms and pull through. The wheel skids on the rain
that's slicked across where the sill is. You catch a part of the
glass, and you hear a (glass cracks).
It breaks a bit, but you do not catch the
actual wooden frame, and you all manage to climb
into the office with no issue. SAM: Okay, okay, okay.
ASHLEY: Okay, we did it. MATT: The rest of you can now
take in the space inside, and you can see all the-- SAM: Is it light in here? MATT: It is not lit, so those of you
who have darkvision, you can see
more of the details. The rest of you have
just the faint bit of-- LAURA: No, I don't want
to light them, I have a hooded lantern. MATT: That could
help tremendously. LAURA: So I'm going to use the
hooded lantern so we can just-- MATT: Okay.
Imogen lights it up and carries it
across the room, and you can see all the... This is very much like that every now and then you go to somebody's
grandparents' house, and they have that one room with all the furniture
under plastic that's like, "Why do you have this?
Nobody ever uses it." It's very nice
and unutilized. It's an office
of that furniture. Floral patterns on very
well-carved furniture. You, actually, it is decent craftsmanship
for what you see before you, if the upholstery is
an unnecessary choice. TRAVIS: Yeah. MATT: You can see,
once again, the delightful cottage paintings. MARISHA: Tom Kinkade. MATT: Kinkahday. LAURA: Kinkahday! (laughter) MARISHA: The famous
elven painter. LAURA: Kinkahday! TRAVIS: I look at the desk and see if there
are any new traps, as Ashton suggested. MATT: Make an
investigation check. TRAVIS: 19. MATT: 19. There is a trap that
was not previously set. TRAVIS: Son of a bitch. MATT: Underneath, where
you first checked, where there was no button, there is a cable that is affixed very, very, gently
between multiple drawers. All the drawers have now
been connected to where if one of them is opened, it would pull some very
difficult to see cable that's in the shadow
underneath the desk. TRAVIS: These are
wooden drawers, right? MATT: Yeah. TRAVIS: That won't stop
a man like me. I reach back and
pull out a wood drill, small, hand-crank, and I put it on the
front of the drawer and start working a hole
through the front of it. (laughter) TALIESIN: I'm going to
quietly scan the bookcases to see if there's
anything interesting, anything that
looks expensive. MATT: Roll
a perception check. TALIESIN: All right. SAM: I'm going to look for
something metal in the room that I can maybe balance
against the door, so that if anyone were
to open the door, it would maybe clang
and alert us if we're not in the room. MATT: Interesting. Yes, in the far back corner, where you were originally
hiding before you darted out, there is a hollow metallic, an odd, welded sculpture
of a seahorse, but it's not very well made. It definitely makes for an
odd corner of the chamber. As you reach out and grab it, you can hear the
(metal clanging) sound against it. It has that
hollow ring to it, to where even just the
slight bump against it is going to make some noise, let alone if it
were to fall over. SAM: I'll put it right
in front of the door. MATT: Okay, you set it there. LIAM: Orym will stay as
a lookout at the window. MATT: Okay, roll
a perception check. LIAM: 21. MATT: 21, okay. Are you still maintaining your
silent illusion out there? It lasts for 10 minutes. MARISHA: Oh. TRAVIS: Oh my god. MARISHA: I mean... LAURA: I feel like
it'll draw people. MARISHA: Yeah. TRAVIS: It's silent, though, unless they actually
go over to it, right? MARISHA: Can I just have her walking into the distance? LAURA: Oh, yeah, that's good. MATT: It has to be
within 60 feet of you. That's the only issue with it.
MARISHA: Right, right. How about this--
MATT: So it would be-- LIAM: They could
patrol the tower. MARISHA: Yeah, I'll bring
her to the base of where we brought in, we
jumped in at the base of the-- (general protesting hmms) MATT: That's beyond 60 feet
from where you are, but you-- SAM: Oh, you mean the wall. MARISHA: Yeah, yeah. LAURA: I thought you meant
right next to the window. MARISHA: No, no. MATT: You can't quite
get it that far, because that's over 60
feet from where you are. You would either
have to remove it, or keep it where it is, or closer. TALIESIN: She could just float
in a 60-foot radius around us through walls-- Well, no, that might
alert people inside. MARISHA: I could
just bring her up here.
SAM: Just lose her. MARISHA: She could just hang
out with us for a moment. SAM: Sure.
LAURA: Yeah, bring her inside. SAM: Put her right
in front of the door. MARISHA: Psst!
I bring her inside. MATT: Suddenly,
a terrifying-- LIAM: Oh, jeez! MATT: -- ghostly flower
girl with vacant eyes, a missing void jaw, is just there in the
room next to you. ASHLEY: Hello, dear. TALIESIN: That was really good. LAURA: This is one of your
best ones, Laudna. MARISHA: You think so? MATT: Is this your interpretation
of a disarm traps? TRAVIS: Why'd you talk about
the jaw, man? Why you got to-- MATT: Because that's
one of the best parts! TALIESIN: Let's leave
her by the door, so if anyone opens it, they get a nice surprise.
TRAVIS: Yes. MATT: Okay, so if
you can go ahead and roll proficiency
plus dexterity. TALIESIN: There would be
a clang and then... LAURA: Oh my god, that would
scare him so fucking much. TRAVIS: 18, 19, 20, 21. MATT: 21. Carefully going through
and using your wood drill, you manage to
find the placement where each of these
cables is currently set and where the tension is set to a spring
mechanism on the inside that you had missed
the first time you were inspecting
the interior of it. After drilling to that point, you get one of
your tools out, and you find where that
spring tension is set, and offset it to where now it's disabled. TRAVIS: Amazing. I'll take one of
my refining chisels and slide it in
through the hole and, using the bottom
as a fulcrum, I'll (clicks) hit the switch
inside the drawer. MATT: Okay. (lock clicks) All of you hear (heavy grinding) The bookcase that's
behind the desk shifts out of the way, revealing an open walkway
into a lightless space. You can barely see, from the little bit of
light of your hooded lantern and those of you
who have darkvision, steps that descend below. TRAVIS: Wait just a moment. I'll move to the
top of the stairs. Do I hear or smell anything? MATT: Roll a
perception check. TRAVIS: Natural 20. SAM: Ooh!
LAURA: Yeah! TRAVIS: 21. MATT: You hear humming. (cheerily hums) You hear (crackles) some sort of arcing energy. Occasional pulses. (crackles) (cheerily hums) (crackles) You hear, "Don't worry, my pets. "As much as I'm loathed
to leave my setup, "let's see how much I can get
done before we're forced to "uproot our operation. "I do hate packing." TRAVIS: Very quiet,
I'm just going to move down the stairs to get-- Shut up! I start moving with my
boots down the steps, silently, until I can
get any kind of a 60-foot darkvision
visual on anything. Even, as I'm coming down,
feet appearing, I'll stop. MATT: Go ahead
and roll stealth, which, with your boots,
does advantage? TRAVIS: Yes. SAM: Boots. TRAVIS: 19. MATT: Okay. Slowly you descend about 30, 40 feet before you begin to
see a bit of light, a pulsing, blue,
spark-like light. It gets brighter, then not,
then brighter, then not. The sound, that (pulsing crackles) matching it. TRAVIS: What the fuck? ASHLEY: Who's there? MATT: Then it stops. As you begin to peek down, more light comes
to your attention. There are lanterns
set against walls that give a soft warm
glow to a stone chamber. It looks almost
like a prison, or some sort of
a holding chamber. As you begin
to glance downward into the very beginning
stages of your descent, revealing what's below,
beyond the staircase, you can see some boxes
to the side, some storage or containers used
for transference. To the right, you see some
sort of odd contraption that, from just what
you can see so far, can't be any smaller
than 10 feet tall. Metallic, with odd, glowing,
blue-ish lines and tubes, Metallic, with odd, glowing,
blue-ish lines and tubes, giving a faint glow
and a pulse to it. You look across the way,
and you can see bars that connotate side chambers where these holding cells
would be. You hear the humming. Just beyond your vision, you
see a figure stepping back, to a central table, covered in all manner
of odd alchemical and arcane implements, spread
across it in a cluster. The figure you see from
behind appears to be human. Tall. Maybe, I don't know, quick glance, seven, eight feet tall. Very thin. Long, lithe arms and legs, and a black coat with tails. TRAVIS: What? MATT: Their head is hairless. Their skin almost a pale, gray, jaundiced yellow. Long ears. Long ears that curve
just slightly backward, far longer than any
elf you've seen. As they continue to hum, they pull up a stool
and sit in it. This stool is far lower than
a person of their stature, and as they sit, the way that
their knees now bend upward, and their arms extend outward in a very
Jack Skellington figure, they look like a spider in the way that they then
curl forward on the table and begin pulling
implements in. You hear a voice somewhere
else in the chamber, "And what are you doing, huh? "What the fuck
are you planning?" Echoing in the chamber. TRAVIS: Do I recognize
that voice? MATT: You do. The figure goes, "Oh, do not worry, friend. "You've a gift. "A gift that you
hoard so selfishly. "I want to see it
shared with the people. "After all, "why not share your gifts
with the world, my friend. "why not share your gifts
with the world, my friend. "(menacingly cackles)" You hear something else shift and bang against bars
in another area, and goes, "Oh, don't worry,
your time is soon. "But for now, we have
more pressing matters." They stand up and
start walking back towards the contraption
in the corner, carrying this odd blue stone. What do you do? TRAVIS: (whispering)
Come down. All of us? ASHLEY: Dad? (laughter) TRAVIS: By the way, the
person that's on the table, are they in a slanted
gurney, or are they flat? MATT: Oh, the person's
not on the table; you just heard a voice.
TRAVIS: Just heard a voice. Okay. I only saw him
sitting in that crazy spider position.
MATT: Facing away from you. Yeah. You haven't seen this
person's face yet. TRAVIS: Any sort of tables
or anything like that? Desks? MATT: You'd have to get lower into the stairs.
TRAVIS: I'll do it. MATT: Okay, you get lower?
TRAVIS: I'll do it. MATT: He's walking back
in your direction. TRAVIS: I'll go back up. MATT: Heading back
towards the contraption to your immediate right.
So you back up a bit. TRAVIS: Yeah, I'll hug
that wall, too. MATT: Okay.
LAURA: In your head, you hear: Chet, is he
looking your way? TRAVIS: Yeah, there seems
to be just one. MATT: (crackles) You hear that sparking and
there's flashing again. Takes a moment
and inspects it, walks back to the table. TRAVIS: I think
we can take him. LAURA: What is he? TRAVIS: I don't know. He's
enormously tall, skinny, very long ears,
more long than elven ears, and very, very pale skin. I don't know what he is. LAURA: I tell everybody
that I'm talking with Chet. SAM: He said tall? TRAVIS: If he's come and
he's turned around again, are the arcs throwing shadows that intermittently show
where he is in the room? LAURA: Mm, that's cool. MATT: Little bits
here and there. Then once the arcs,
steps away from it, it's not like
it instantly stops. TRAVIS: Yeah. MATT: You can hear
the sparking going and this winding sensation. (buzzing) Finishes with the
stone in the middle, and you can't get out the
details off to the side. You can just see the
edge of the contraption and see the sparks
coming off of it and the flashes of energy. When he steps away,
it winds down. As it does, it still (crackles) sparks again. You can occasionally see
long streaks of shadow across the room. TRAVIS: On the wind down, I'll come down
with the boots, come down and
I'll slice the pie so I'm just putting
one eye around the edge, keeping my profile around
the edge as thin as possible to see what I can
see in the room. MATT: Roll a perception
check for it. TRAVIS: (hyperventilating)
LAURA: Should we stay up here, Chet? TRAVIS: 16. MATT: 16. Coming down a bit
and glancing inside, you can see that large
table in the center where he's sitting,
with all the materials and contraptions upon it. Beyond that, you can see on the opposite end
of the chamber, there is another cell,
and there, arm held against it, on
the ground, on both knees, looking haggard, is Gurge. Within the room you can see
a desk on the far back left that is also covered
in odd contraptions and books and scrawlings. Can't really make out any more
details about what's on there, but it definitely looks busy. You can-- No, that's all you can
see with that roll. LAURA: Should we come
down or stay up? TRAVIS: Come down. LAURA: Quietly? TRAVIS: As you can. LAURA: All right, we'll
head down the stairs. TRAVIS: I will draw
my wood chisel and hold it in
a reverse grip, and I'll keep an eye, as
thin as I can, on him, and keep an ear
to the stairs. MATT: All right.
TRAVIS: <i>If</i> a loud noise is made,
it's on. MATT: Okay.
LAURA: I'm going to cast Mage Armor on myself before I head down.
MATT: You got it. Any other preparation
anyone's doing here? LIAM: (sword unsheathes) TALIESIN: I'm ready. MARISHA: I guess
I'll go ahead-- MATT: If you got any of your
spells you don't want to-- in case things
go into a combat, you want to not spend a
round getting ready for, now's the time to do
it before you decide. ASHLEY: I'm going to
whisper into my staff. The little snakies,
get them ready. MATT: Okay, do you want
to bring out Mister? Or you want to wait on that?
ASHLEY: Yes. God, I have one
Wild Shape left, so I don't know if I want
to bring out Mister. MATT: It's your call. ASHLEY: Mister? MATT: (excited grunting) ASHLEY: Do you want to play? MATT: (panting) ASHLEY: Be very, very quiet. MATT: Gives a little (farts). (excited panting) ASHLEY: Oh, you're
getting ready, huh? You're brewing it up! Okay. MARISHA: Back to back
with my flower girl, I once again crack, yank
my arm a little bit, got a little stuck. SAM: Ooh, that was
a real one. TALIESIN: Wow,
that was a sound. MARISHA: I'm going to
take my Form of Dread. MATT: Okay, this is your last use--
TRAVIS: Real question. MATT: -- of that this day.
TRAVIS: Who's got the longest speed, I'm just curious. Who's got a north of 30? ASHLEY: I'm 35. TALIESIN: Ooh. TRAVIS: Everybody else
that or under? TALIESIN: Yep.
TRAVIS: Okay. Anybody got anything ranged?
MATT: You can do Form of Dread twice per day? Yep, proficiency, right?
LAURA: I got lots of ranged stuff. TALIESIN: These are
the ranged kids. ASHLEY: I got some range.
SAM: I will-- MATT: Not bad. Yes? SAM: Does anyone need any
temporary hit points? MARISHA: I just got some. LAURA: Yes. SAM: You do?
LAURA: I've got very shit hit points. SAM: Okay, I will do my
Sympathetic Binding with-- LAURA: Oh!
MATT: Okay. SAM: You don't want that? LAURA: Well, I don't want
you to get hurt trying to protect me.
SAM: Oh, don't you worry. I'll bind with Imogen and who else needs some? You're a healer. Dorian. ROBBIE: Okay. SAM: It's an action,
and as a bonus action, I can grant them four
temporary hit points. MATT: Yep, so you both get
four temporary hit points. Now I'd like everybody
to make a stealth check except for Chetney. SAM: I'm not going
to go down. MATT: Okay, you're not? SAM: Not right away. I just don't trust
my stealth. MATT: Okay, all right,
so you hang back. It's about 40 feet from
the top of the staircase to the bottom, so just
keep that in mind. All right. ROBBIE: Nine.
MATT: Okay. MARISHA: Natural 20. MATT: Okay, good.
LIAM: She's a ghost. ASHLEY: 12.
MARISHA: One with the walls. LAURA: 15. LIAM: 22.
TALIESIN: 14. MATT: Okay. You all carefully
descend the stairs, and you all can
begin to hear that (cheery humming) TRAVIS: That's terrible.
MATT: (cheery humming) TRAVIS: Some BioShock shit. LIAM: It's just Matt
in the map room. MATT: (humming) LAURA: (groans) MATT: You see a spark
come from the table. A smaller iteration of what's
been coming from that machine. You all slowly begin to come
to the bottom of the stairs. You all check in,
see the same things that Chetney's been seeing. The figure's sitting there
humming at the table, its knees knocked
up and high, its arms over and bent out
of sight, facing around. (sighs) Lifts up over its
shoulder a blue gem, about the size of someone's
clenched fist, up, the fingers long
and clutching it. "Very well, I think
that'll do, don't you?" Glances back towards
you all at the stairs. Spins around on the stool. "Well, "I wasn't expecting
guests, but "well, the night
seems to be getting "more and more interesting, "doesn't it?" You now get a glance at
the figure as it spins. The face, eyebrowless. The eyes themselves these dark, green, full-sclera eyes. Almost alien in their elf-like
points and their size. No nose, and the mouth itself
doesn't appear to have lips more than it's like a
Jack-O-Lantern jagged grin that curves up where
the ears begin. LAURA: Oh, jeez!
TRAVIS: What?! LAURA: I don't like it.
MARISHA: I love him. MATT: And that's where we're
going to end the episode. ALL: No! ASHLEY: No, Matt!
LAURA: Oh no, oh no. TALIESIN: Fuck yes. MATT: Pick up there next week. LAURA: (groans) Oh my god. ASHLEY: Let's fight him
right now, it's okay. Let's just do it!
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah! MATT: You guys almost
had the drop, you almost had the drop. TRAVIS: Holy shit. LIAM: Antici... MATT: We'll pick up
there (laughs) in a week.
TALIESIN: Not yet. LAURA: Not yet?! TALIESIN: Gotta hold the
"pation" till next week. TRAVIS: (babbling) MATT: (laughs) All right, well, thank you, guys.
TRAVIS: Holy-- what the fuck is that? MATT: Maybe we'll find out. MARISHA: It's Alex Ward.
MATT: We'll see. (laughter)
MATT: I mean, kind of, yeah. I'm wearing this
shirt he gave me MARISHA: Alex, spooky boy! MATT: Love you, buddy. All right, so pick up
there next week. We'll see you guys then. Remember, we love you
very much, and is it Thursday yet? Good night. (cackles)
LAURA: Oh my god.
