MATT: Hello everyone, and welcome to tonight's
episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us
nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play
Dungeons & Dragons. ALL: (hollering)
We play Dungeons & Dragons! MATT: Just like that. It is our first show
back for the new year. Let's hope 2022
is a better one. But we start with our first
sponsor of the evening, NordVPN. Travis. TRAVIS: (pants) Let me
process this data. A malware bot has somehow
hacked Robbie's brain and sliced his synapses, controlling him like
a cyber sock puppet. ROBBIE: Oh, you salty much,
you filthy casual? You got the basics, but you
still don't know who I am.
TRAVIS: I'll run
a diagnostic. Just got to boot up
my Connect Four, and Yahtzee
the Qwirkle protocol. ROBBIE: (laughs) Nice try,
you dairy farmer, but I eat Qwirkle
for bleep bloop, which hacker code
for breakfast! Why don't you try and guess
my identity, you boomer. TRAVIS: Boomer? A Russian
credit card scammer? ROBBIE: Ha, so cringe. TRAVIS: A teenage anarchist
in his mother's basement? ROBBIE: (laughs) RFLOL, no. TALIESIN: Number Two, wait. Let's recompute this. What happened immediately
before Robbie was infected? TRAVIS: Well, he plugged
his generic tablet into the set, and– (gasp) into the set! You mean…. you're a rootkit virus inside our brand new
Critical Role set? ROBBIE: Oh, ho, ho!
Ding, ding, ding! Leet answer. You can call me Setty, and check it out,
I'm not just a virus, baby. I'm shareware. This whole new set
is my domain! (evil cackling) ASHLEY: What's up, trolls? It's me, Assley Dongson, and I hate
oversized sweatshirts. LIAM: Oh my god!
LAURA: No! LIAM: That's not Ashley,
you monster! ASHLEY: (light growl) LIAM: (powering up) Oh, hi dorks in Dorkland! Role playing is stupid!
Actors are dumb! Eh.
Shakespeare was as useless
as a traffic light in GTA! TALIESIN: Now Liam's
got the bug! How do we wipe the
very set we shoot on? LAURA: (groans) That's the leetest part,
doge monkeys. You can't! (laughs) TRAVIS: This set can't be
invaded by a virus! It's got NordVPN, providers
of highest quality encryption for your internet traffic
and hides your IP and physical location. With 5400 servers
in 59 countries, it is easy to get
better internet speed and protection with
one simple click, and it's available on
every major platform, including Windows, iOS,
Android, and Linux. Marisha had NordVPN
installed on the set. There's no way you
could have infected it. You did install NordVPN,
right, Marisha? MARISHA: Well, you know, I mean. TALIESIN: But it's
so affordable! Especially if you go to
nordvpn.com/criticalrole to get a two year plan
plus a bonus gift with a huge discount. MARISHA: I know, I know it's
been a lot going on, okay? And either it was about
subscribing to NordVPN or renewing our subscription to Matt's Vest of
the Month club, so um, I chose my husband.
MATT: What?
These vests are cool. ALL: (noises of agreement) MATT: Thank you. TRAVIS: Negatory! Setty,
you're saying– LAURA: Affirmation. (laughs) No.
(laughter) Affirmitron. ROBBIE: Oh ho ho ho! LAURA: You're stuck with me
all campaign long. (maniacal laugh) (evil cackling) (evil cackling) MARISHA: Okay, don't worry. I caused this,
so I'll fix it. I'll find a solution, the next time NordVPN
sponsors our show. ASHLEY, LAURA, and LIAM:
Matt, vest to you. (laughter) (laughter) MATT: Thanks, NordVPN. What is happening? MARISHA: I inhaled my spit. (laughter) MATT: This episode is
also sponsored by our friends
at Ghostfire Gaming and their new episodic
subscription service, Fables. Each fables consists of
six episodes released monthly, and in each of the episodes
are four chapters, with each episode
about 80 pages, and also comes with digital
maps, digital tokens, making this the perfect
all in one adventure and out now is
the first episode, Grim Hollow Adventure:
Citadel of the Unseen Sun.
An adventure set
within a world where the sun has
vanished from the sky and vampires rule the
land with an iron fist. SAM: Oh! MATT: That's right, Sam. Check it out now at ghostfiregaming.com/fables-criticalrole for a very reasonable
$14.99 a month. Travis, you've got
something to shout about? TRAVIS: Oh, I do! (pants) Get out of the Nordverse. In case you missed it, right
before the holiday break, we announced a
brand new launch date for our upcoming series
on Amazon Prime Video, The Legend of Vox Machina. (cheering) If you missed it, our series
will be making its debut an entire week early
on Friday, January 28th. One week early,
so don't miss it! We're so pumped. MATT: Fantastic. Laura,
you got announcements. LAURA: I do. We got merchandise. TRAVIS: We do! LAURA: Ta-da! It's a beanie! MATT: That's actually awesome!
ALL: (noises of agreement) This is an Eiselcross beanie. It says, "Even we don't
know what's here." (laughter) In addition to our
beautiful beanie, we got a beautiful scarf. Now you can wear both things
since it's still cold outside. MARISHA: So cute! LAURA: Look at that.
MARISHA: Oh my god,
I love it. LAURA: That looks
really cute on you. MATT: It actually does, yeah. TALIESIN: Working really well. SAM: It's Harvard colors.
TRAVIS: It's adorable! LAURA: That's all I
got to say about that. MATT: Awesome,
thank you so much. LAURA: It's in our stores! (laughter) SAM: I thought that was
all you had to say! MATT: Thank you, Laura.
LAURA: You're welcome. MATT: I believe with that,
our announcements are over. 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 our end
or meet our destiny ♪ ♪ Hold your breath and roll ♪ MATT: How do you
want to do this? ALL: ♪ It's Thursday night ♪ ♪ All ye Critters, ♪
come join us ♪ ♪ It's time to ♪
continue our plight ♪ ♪ There is magic ♪
and mystery ♪ ♪ Who knows what ♪
will happen ♪ ♪ He might ♪ ♪ But one thing's for sure, ♪ ♪ We never give up ♪
on the fight ♪ 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 ♪ ♪ Get ready ♪ ♪ It's Thursday night ♪ MATT: And welcome back. Last we left off,
our heroes here, who have been traversing
the city of Jrusar, had been on the trail
of a few disappearances that have been happening in
recent weeks at a theater. They managed to find out
what was responsible and destroy this creature that
had taken these creatures– these people's lives. Sorry, very distracting to
have myself on the screens. Thank you.
(laughter) MATT: But upon finishing
this mystery, a figure nearby overheard
that you had completed this appointed risky endeavor
to find these missing people. An individual named Pock O'Pea,
Chetney Pock O'Pea. Upon coming along
with your band and asking for their help
in finding a missing person that they themself
are seeking, you began to search
throughout the city, follow the path to where
this individual, this Gurge, was currently
staying temporarily within the city of Jrusar.
Upon inspecting
the temporary abode, the hovel in which
he was living, you found signs
of a struggle. Apparently, some sort
of attack had transpired, and you watch marks of
being dragged away, while also hearing of a
terrible dire wolf attack in the city. Fearing
that this individual may have fallen
to the same dire wolf, you spoke for information with the person who had
rented them the space and followed the assumed intent
that he had been arrested by the local wardens. You'd gone over to
the nearby factory and spoke with these wardens
to see where he may have been. Upon them, awkwardly,
nervously almost, walking into the factory and
locking the gates behind them, Fearne decided to go ahead and inspect secretly
in the form of a rat. Sneaking through
the interior tunnels and heading into one
of the side chambers, where it seemed the warden
with more authority, amongst the two
you spoke with, were having a conversation. Bit shifty of them. Already in
a place of mistrust with these wardens
assigned to this factory, they turned to leave just as
you were there wading out from underneath the door
in the tight space.
Attempting to turn from
where their footfall was, you failed to do so and took
just enough damage to pop you out of your rat form. We come in just as Fearne has
emerged full bodied in the middle of this
small office chamber within the factory, staring
now at these three wardens that look at you with
surprise, confusion, and a slight shift
towards whatever arms they have at their side. With that being said,
what do you do, Fearne? ASHLEY: Oh my goodness. I… Okay! I was trying to
come in to get to you, but you ran in so fast. There's a whole pack of dire wolves out there. It's bad. I was trying to come
in to tell you. You didn't hear me
knocking on the door, so I slipped right under. Here we are. (laughter) ASHLEY: Let's go!
I go to open the door.
(laughter) MATT: Okay.
Roll a deception check. MARISHA: Come on! LAURA: Oh god, please! ROBBIE: How many? TRAVIS: There's three
of them, right? MATT: There's three
of them, yes. ASHLEY: Okay, okay, okay.
SAM: Just natural 20 it. SAM: It's easy.
LAURA: Easy, easy peasy. LIAM: Roll like Robbie. ASHLEY: Okay, okay,
let's go with this guy. Uh oh. (laughter) ASHLEY: 11. MATT: 11.
ASHLEY: Yeah. MATT: The one in front
that initially had stepped and had his foot
pressed back, as he watched you come into
your rat form before his eyes blinks for a second, his hand instinctively
going to the blade that's sheathed at the
side of him, he goes– ASHLEY: (yelps) MATT: "What do you
mean dire wolves? "Now?" ASHLEY: Yes! They're the ones
that were killing people.
There's blood all
over their mouths. MATT: They all glance
to each other. ASHLEY: We need to go
outside right now. MATT: Looks back towards–
ASHLEY: Immediately! MATT: The one in the desk,
who's still sitting there, looking forward. "Miss…" ASHLEY: Fearne, and
what's your name? MATT: As you put
your hand forward, the one in front, begins
to pull the blade from the sheath. ASHLEY: It's just a hand. MATT: "Why are you
in my office?" ASHLEY: I told you.
I was trying to run after the two
that came inside that we were
asking a question, we were out there
for two seconds. This whole pack of dire wolves
came out and I was like, "Oh shit!" I ran in to get you guys because this is bad. MATT: "Right."
ASHLEY: This is very bad.
MATT: He glances to
the other two. Says, "Could you describe the
coloration of these dire wolves?" ASHLEY: Yes.
MATT: "There are many different "types in the jungle. It would
be important for us to know "what we're up against." ASHLEY: They were so
many different types. (laughter) ASHLEY: There were… there was a white,
fluffy one. There was a… brownish one. There was one– MATT: As you're saying this,
the two other wardens are beginning to slowly
flank to get between you and the door. LAURA: Oh my god. ASHLEY: Okay, okay. In my head, I'm going to say, Oh… Imogen. I am not a rat anymore. We have a problem– LAURA: Oh no.
ASHLEY: — inside. Are you okay? ASHLEY: I think so, but maybe
just be on alert just in case. LAURA: Okay! What's going on?
Where are you? ASHLEY: I'm in an office. MATT: At this point,
the two guards, one grabs your wrist
on the left side and the other grabs
your right wrist. ASHLEY: Whoa, whoa, whoa.
I'd like to cast Charm Person on… the head honcho. MATT: Okay. The guy you're
looking at across the way. Is there a somatic
component to the spell? TALIESIN and LAURA: Oh no. ASHLEY: Oh, that's right. SAM: V S M? V M? V S M. ASHLEY: V S. MATT: Okay, verbal, somatic. You don't need
a material component, but you do need to speak
the spell as you cast it. You do need to
use your hands to do the somatic
components of the spell.
So yes, you can do it. Your hands are currently
held by two guards. You'll have to break
one of the hands free in order to finish the spell. Which guard do you choose? ASHLEY: Okay,
the one on the left. MATT: One on the left, okay. ASHLEY: Hey, whoa! MATT: Roll a strength check. LAURA: Oh god.
TRAVIS: Let's go! SAM: You're strong! ROBBIE: Yeah, you're strong. TRAVIS: You're strong. MARISHA: So strong. ASHLEY: (laughs)
TRAVIS: What is it? ASHLEY: That's a natural one. (groaning)
MATT: No fuck– ASHLEY: Minus two! TRAVIS: Natural one. SAM: But she has minus two.
MATT: You have minus two?
He's going to beat you. (groaning) ASHLEY: Okay, okay! MATT: Dueling natural ones!
I was like, this is– Nope. Nope. You go to move your arm.
It's held in place. You do not have the means to
cast a spell at the moment. The guy across the table
now stands up from his desk and goes, "Miss." ASHLEY: Yes? MATT: "We should have
a conversation. "Sit." ASHLEY: Absolutely. MATT: The two guards
carry you along and forcedly holding your
wrists and sitting you on. ASHLEY: Calm down! I'm
not going to do anything. Jeez louise! MATT: They sit you down, but
they stay holding your wrists to your side.
They're keeping you in place. ASHLEY: Phew, it's hot. (laughter) LAURA: You just hear
in your head: This connection is
going to break soon. Fearne, is there
anything we can do? ASHLEY: Yes. I think they might try to kill me. Maybe somebody come in? LAURA: (whimpers) MATT: The man at the desk,
before we get over to you, just says, "Strange that you
are asking around about this "Gurge fellow." ASHLEY: Oh yes, we didn't even
get into that with you yet.
I just wanted to make
sure you guys were all safe. MATT: "Why are you
looking for him?" ASHLEY: Well, I didn't really
want to disclose this, but… we were in a relationship and, he just took off on me. And now we're just
sort of trying to put the pieces together of
getting my life back. So I think we're just
trying to find him, because he's he stole
a bunch of stuff from me and he's just,
he's not, I just, (voice breaking)
it's been really hard.
MATT: Roll a deception check. MARISHA: Oh god. LAURA: Oh my god.
ASHLEY: Come the fuck on. Goddamn it! Okay. Nine. MATT: "You were in
a relationship with "the wild man. "The hermit on the
outskirts of the city." ASHLEY: Well,
he was a wild man. MATT: "Right." ASHLEY: Yeah. MATT: At this moment, coming back to you
guys on the outside. (laughter) What are you doing? LIAM: Are you all right?
You look stressed. Why are you stressed?
Are you all right? LAURA: She's-she's-she's–
They know she's in there. MARISHA: Do we kill everybody? LAURA: She said they
might kill her! TALIESIN: Oh, thank god,
let's go. LAURA: What do we do?
SAM: Wait, wait, wait! We can't just barge in,
this is a police department.
ROBBIE: Yes, we can. TALIESIN: I'm heading towards
the door already. SAM: I've always been taught that slow and steady
wins the rake. LAURA: What? SAM: If you want–
Some people need rakes. MARISHA: It's "race." TALIESIN: Is the door locked?
SAM: Nope. MARISHA: It's– all right. MATT: Yes, there is a crossbar
door at the front that she had slipped
through before that is locked, as you go and try
and pull on it. TALIESIN: I'm going to– LAURA: Get their
attention. Go. TALIESIN: I'm going to start banging on the door
with the hammer, I'm going to break
it fucking down. TRAVIS: I'm really
good with locks.
TALIESIN: I– Ah, too late,
I hit it with a hammer. MATT: Okay. Roll, go ahead
and roll an attack. TALIESIN: I should make that
go away so I can see my stats. Stats! That's 17. MATT: Definitely
hits the door. Go ahead and roll damage. TALIESIN: These are
so complicated. Barbarians are
so complicated. LIAM: That's some
reverse math. TALIESIN: 13. MATT: 13, (whooshes)
You hit the door, and the door (poof)
budges slightly. ASHLEY: Dire wolves! MATT: There is a
heavy impact sound, as you hit the door
and it echoes, the sound of metal
on heavy, heavy weapons (echoing crash) echoes through the
factory halls behind you, and you say, "Dire wolves." You see him kind of– "What was that noise?" ASHLEY: How am
I supposed to know? MATT: You doing it again? TALIESIN: No, I– TRAVIS: Could I try mine now?
TALIESIN: Fine.
TRAVIS: Shit,
age before beauty. And I get up there and start. TALIESIN: Thank you. TRAVIS: (clicks) MATT: Okay,
go ahead and roll. TRAVIS: Is this
sleight of hand? MATT: This would be adding
your proficiency modifier and your dex save,
this is the thieves' tools. TRAVIS: Great. 12. MATT: 12. You know, this might've
been an easier lock if it hadn't already
been somewhat wedged by a heavy impact the previous round
by a weapon. You can see there's a slight
gap where it is now pushed slightly out of
its normal socket there where the door
is flush normally, but it has definitely fucked
up the locking mechanism for the time being. MARISHA: You know, I
actually might be able to just pop the hinges
off over here. TALIESIN: Go for it. MARISHA: Let me see. I'm going to take
my rock chisel.
Can I? Pop the hinges? MATT: Roll an
intelligence check. MARISHA: ♪ Fucking doors. ♪ That's bad. It's real bad. Five. MATT: Yeah, you got
this, real fast. MARISHA: Dink.
MATT: Like the Terrible Trivium, Marisha just begins
slowly working– sorry, Laudna begins slowly working on the outside of the hinge. LIAM: Stop making that motion. TRAVIS: If it helps, DM,
I did my math wrong. MATT: Okay. TRAVIS: It's actually 17.
SAM: Oh shit! MATT: Still not enough. ROBBIE: Whoa!
TALIESIN: Really? Wow. ASHLEY: Listen, I
just, I really– I need you to give me
some information. I can give you
something as well, if that's how you like
most transactions.
MATT: "Certainly." He looks over to
one of the guards, who releases your
right hand and pulls his blade out and
begins looking over to inspect the sound that just echoed
through the hall behind. LIAM: Dorian?
ROBBIE: Yes? LIAM: Think you can blast
that thing off his hinges? ROBBIE: I don't know, maybe! Am I the blasting guy?
I suppose. LIAM: Sometimes. SAM: Like with a spell? MARISHA: 10 more minutes. (laughter) MATT: Meanwhile– ASHLEY: All I ask, if you
could just come out and talk to my friends and I. I don't mean anybody any harm. I just– we really need
to know where my love is, has gone. MATT: "Why are you
looking for him? "Be honest for once. "It might adjust
your sentence." ASHLEY: (sighs) MATT: The guy who has
released your hand and has his weapon
out is now starting to put his hand up
against the door, and is inspecting
past the bars into the hall behind you.
ASHLEY: I'm worried
about his safety. I went to go see him and he wasn't there and it looks
like he might've been hurt. And I– I'm really not trying to
cause trouble, sir, I just– we just need some help. MATT: Roll a persuasion
check with disadvantage. LAURA: (groans) Oh my
god, disadvantage. ASHLEY: 12. MATT: He seems unmoved
and frustrated with the fact that
you're wasting his time. You do have a hand
free, though. TALIESIN: Oh.
LAURA: Oh! ASHLEY: I'm going to
cast Charm Person. MATT: (chuckles) Okay. He's about to speak
up towards you. What's the DC
on the spell? TRAVIS: Oh boy.
ASHLEY: 15. SAM: Ooh, that's good!
LAURA: That is really good.
MATT: That is very close,
but he does not succeed. SAM: Ooh!
ROBBIE: Oh, okay. MATT: 14 total on his point.
He like just missed it. He goes forward to
give you a stern finger for talking to him and goes, "Hmm, my apologies. This was
a major understanding." ASHLEY: It's really okay. It's really okay, I
accept your apology. MATT: "What are you doing?
Release her, it is fine." The guy goes, "Um, sir?" "I said release her!" ASHLEY: Wait, but
before I leave, did you happen to
know where Gurge is? MATT: The other guard
behind is like, "What's happening? We're
just letting her go now? "What's the noise
coming from?" ASHLEY: Can you guys–
who's in charge here? (laughter) MATT: They both look
at you incredulously, then look back at the
main guy, he says, "She has a point.
"Look. "We were given a donation "from an old friend. "Do you know of Artana Voe?" ASHLEY: Artana Voe, that
sure sounds familiar. Would you refresh
my memory, maybe? MATT: "She's a female
bounty hunter." ASHLEY: Oh, yes, yes, yes.
MATT: "She works all throughout the mines." ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
MATT: "Anyway. "I know her from
way back and she, "on behalf of her employer,
whoever it might've been, "offered us a bit of coin
to help her with a hunt. "This Gurge individual,
she was apparently hunting." SAM: I'm going to try to saw
through the door, by the way.
MATT: Okay, go for it.
Roll a strength check. TRAVIS: The metal saw
through the metal door? SAM: Uh huh. 19. MATT: She loosened
it for you, but– (high-pitched saw whirring) It cuts through one of the
hinges and you can see now, the door is like
one good hit away from giving in on one side. LAURA: Don't worry, Fearne,
we're coming for you. We're through the door. We're
going to be there any second.
ASHLEY: Oh, oh, oh, okay! MATT: At this point, as
this heavy sound hits, the guy talking to you
goes, "What was that? Go look for it." And the two guards
pulled their blades and start walking
up the hallway to the sound.
TRAVIS: Maintenance, don't mind us! ASHLEY: I'll come help or–
well, finish your story. I'm going to just sit
on the side of the desk. MATT: "We need to make sure
that everything is safe. "There's lot of commotion–"
ASHLEY: It's fine. This is a factory. You guys are so loud here. MATT: "Fair enough. "So suppose that–" And
he keeps talking and, and while this is going,
the two other guys leaving the chamber. "We knew from reputation
that Gurge was some sort of "strange wild man
from what she said, "but we were not prepared
for what we encountered. "He became a terrifying
beast when assaulted. "A violent melee ensued
in the broad daylight, "and it took him–
took me, Artana, "and those two guards
to subdue him "and Artana left with
the beast unconscious "and we assured the neighborhood
of a wild dire wolf attack.
"In best of just keeping
a smoke screen. "Minimize interest, but he's
not dead, he's taken care of. "He's fine." ASHLEY: Okay. MATT: "He is in
Artana's custody "and whatever business
he's gotten– "wherever she may be, he's
being taken to whatever debts "he may have accrued." ASHLEY: My, a monster, that
certainly would explain some of our wild nights. MATT: "You are an
interesting one." ASHLEY: Who?
MATT: "You." ASHLEY: Sometimes. MATT: "Explain how wild some of
these nights could have been." ASHLEY: Oh, just, I don't
know if it's appropriate. MATT: "We're just friends
here in a room." ASHLEY: Oh boy, it was lots
of things that involved– MATT: Right there, we
come back to you guys. (laughter) SAM: Ashton, give it a whack!
Come on, knock this thing down! LIAM: Orym is slashing the hinges that Laudna had
been working on. TALIESIN: Is everyone
going on it? LAURA: Yeah, are we just– LIAM: I mean, we're
just working on it.
ROBBIE: I'm trying to
pull at the top hinge, trying to just pull on it. MATT: Let's just go ahead
and– I think at this point, it's more about making
a combined strength check between those who are
working on it right now. So if you're pulling on it and you're helping out
with the hinges.
TRAVIS: I'm still working
on the lock. ASHLEY: Listen– ROBBIE: 22 for strength.
TALIESIN: Oh wow. MATT: Great, yeah. (clinks) The door pulls away. TRAVIS: Natural 20– Oh. (laughter) MARISHA: Oh my god! TALIESIN: The door
held lock just– (laughter) ROBBIE: Holding the
door over my head. TRAVIS: Teamwork! LIAM: Like, once it's
off the hinges. MATT: Yep.
LIAM: (like Chutney) I got it! TRAVIS: One for one! MATT: The dust kicks up
around it and soot just fills the air.
You
can't help but find yourself cough through instinct. And as it begins to clear
back again you see, there are a number of
lights further down the hall and the stairways lead
down to the chamber. Looks like some individuals
with headlamp circumstances are glancing over
in your direction as two armed guards, the two that you had
originally encountered come around the corner, weapons drawn and
look towards you as the fallen door's
dust begins to settle. LAURA: Someone needs to
fix those hinges. We just knocked on the door
and it fell right on down. ASHLEY: Did you guys get
all the dire wolves outside? A whole pack of them.
MATT: As Fearne comes
rushing around the corner– ASHLEY: Oh, this whole time
I thought they were at the office door. MATT: They were further
down the hallway. If you want to leave the
office and call over them– ASHLEY: No, no, no, no, no,
it's okay, I'll wait. MATT: Okay, so roll a deception check
with disadvantage, girl. LAURA: Yep. TRAVIS: Whoa. LAURA: Whoa,
that's really good! LAURA: I know, it's
a double dice. LIAM: Oh, is it?
ASHLEY: That thing is so cool.
LAURA: So that's a
20 with disadvantage. MATT: Very nice. The two guards
standing there, the wardens glance
at each other. "Hold on, just need
to get our… "Don't move, don't move. "We'll get this squared away. "It's been really
confusing here." Real quickly, he looks at the
other guards and he's like, "Yeah, we just need to, um– "Boss? "Boss!" And as you both– he's
leaned into the table. Hearing this in the
background and goes, "(sighs) My apologies." ASHLEY: I mean, that's why I
just love maple syrup, so. Here's the thing, though. I got to go! MATT: "I need to figure out what
my ridiculous men are up to, "so I'll walk you out."
ASHLEY: I can figure it out. MATT: "I'll walk you."
ASHLEY: Oh, okay! MATT: And he stands and walks
along with you on the side.
You see both come
around the corner– ASHLEY: Oh, here! This is an oleander. Put it in a glass of milk. MATT: "Oh my goodness, "thank you so much."
ASHLEY: It would just be lovely on your desk.
MATT: "Aww." MATT: "I will do that
and think of you later." ASHLEY: Wait, what was your name? MATT: "Oh, my name
was Keledon." ASHLEY: Keledon.
MATT: "I am the head Warden
here in the factory." ASHLEY: God, you're such a dear. MATT: "I try. Not as
much of a deer as you, "because, you know." ASHLEY: Oh, well, I know.
That was a cute joke. MATT: "Thank you." (laughs) "What is up?" He shouts over to his men. (laughter) MATT: "Sir, these people, "the people we were talking about, "they went through the door. "They said it was broken." LAURA: Yeah.
MATT: "Is it broken? "Do we need to fix it?" And he's like, "Wait,
are these your friends?" ASHLEY: Yes, did you
get the dire wolves? The pack of dire wolves
that was outside that were just ravenous.
ALL: Yes! ASHLEY: Woo! Okay, okay, okay. LAURA: We sent them
off of the side. They fell down the
side of the spire. ASHLEY: All right, let's go. MATT: One of the guards goes,
"But there wasn't any–" and the boss is like, "Shh! "Well, we thank you
for your service "but you are on private
property. I need you to leave." ASHLEY: We're going,
we're going, we're going. MATT: "All right.
Hopefully see you again?" ASHLEY: I think this
was really fun.
MATT: "I think so, too." ASHLEY: Okay. Next
time, next time. Okay. LIAM: You want to get that
door up for the dire wolves. MATT: "Yes." (laughter) MATT: As you all walk
out, there's silence and awkward (coughs), a
cough in the distance. It's just a super tense exit as you all scuffle out
into the main street and take a breath and exhale. LAURA: You said we
were going to die! ASHLEY: Well, I thought
for a second, but then he changed
his mind, I guess. I just, you know, did
a little, you know, "I'm not the one you're
looking for" type of a thing. LAURA: I didn't know you could do that!
SAM: Did you invent that? ASHLEY: Yeah. (laughter) ASHLEY: This is not the
faun you're looking for. TRAVIS: That was very well
handled, I have to say. I mean, the door, it's
a little concerning given how many
of you there are, but the three
guards, no violence. LIAM: Well, you know,
maybe in the future, we'll start with
you on doors.
TRAVIS: I don't want
to presume, but it could be, you
know, a good idea. TALIESIN: It would have
been nice to know. I feel like it would have been
nice to know, just saying. LIAM: I didn't really know
your skill set beyond toys. TRAVIS: Oh, sorry. I should be
more vocal with that. Yeah. I'm real good with locks
and I got quick hands and sometimes people
don't see me very much. LAURA: That makes sense. TRAVIS: Yeah. I remain undetected. SAM: What about his friend
Gurn? Was he in there? LAURA: Gurge?
SAM: Gurge.
ASHLEY: We got some
information on Gurge. TRAVIS: Gurge was in there? ASHLEY: Gurge was not in there. Gurge was not in there. He is currently being held at the tar–? LAURA: Artana Voe.
ASHLEY: Artana Voe. SAM: What are you
reading off of? LAURA: I was in her head. SAM: Oh, okay.
ASHLEY: She was in my head. I was just really
tuned in to Keledon. TALIESIN: Mind, notepad. SAM: But Gurge is elsewhere. ASHLEY: Gurge is elsewhere and
he seems to be alive and well. SAM: Oh! ASHLEY: But also turns
into things. LAURA: What do you
mean? Like you? What do you mean
turns into things? ASHLEY: Yeah, he was
just saying that he was turning into a
beast of some sort. LAURA: Oh, well maybe
he's like you. Like a druid or something. ASHLEY: He could be. ROBBIE: What kind of beast? ASHLEY: He didn't say. SAM: But he said periodically, not just one
transformation, right? ASHLEY: He did, didn't he? SAM: I'm asking. No, I
really don't remember. ASHLEY: He did. It was
not all the time, but I think just
when he needs to. SAM: So he's unlike the
creatures that we saw or the other guy that
we found in the wall who had slowly turned into a
monster? It's not him, right? It's not that kind of
transformation, right? MARISHA: Well, in his house
we saw the claw marks and they looked quite big.
TRAVIS: And they're sure that
he turned into this creature or someone turned
him into a creature? TALIESIN: That's an
excellent point. ASHLEY: That is an
excellent point. ROBBIE: Where is he now? ASHLEY: There was
a woman involved. LAURA: Artana Voe. ASHLEY: Artana Voe
was her name. That wasn't the place
that he was at. SAM: Do we recognize that name? MATT: For those who've
been in the city for more than a year, which I think is just you,
roll a history check.
TRAVIS: Here we go, baby. LAURA: Come on, baby. TALIESIN: 13. MATT: 13. You have heard
the name before. You know that
Artana is a name that's hushed by those that
work in criminal circles as almost like a
boogeyman in places. Kind of a mercenary for hire who is known for hunting
those that are hard to find and bringing them back in one
piece, if wanted in one piece. That's best that you can recall.
TALIESIN: From what I know,
Artana Voe's a bounty hunter, mercenary, expensive, way above my fucking pay grade. I don't think I've
ever met anyone who hasn't just heard a
story from somebody else. It's never crossed my path. LIAM: So your Gurge was a bounty for one of the most badass
hunters in the city. TALIESIN: When you put it
like that, that's really– TRAVIS: I mean, he did
say that, you know, people, you know, always
keeping tabs on him, but I thought he might've
just been paranoid.
But you know, did they
say that they took him to Artana Voe and now
he's in custody or what? ASHLEY: No, I think– MATT: (laughs) To clarify– (laughter) ASHLEY: I got who Gurge
was, but not much else. (laughter) LIAM: Oh, just vibing. ASHLEY: Honestly, we were having
such a good conversation, I forgot it all. MATT: Artana Voe tossed
them some coin to help her in apprehending
him, which they did, and then she left
with him unconscious. LAURA: So she's a bounty hunter. So she's obviously taken
him to someone else, someone with a lot of money. ROBBIE: Do we find out
who put out the bounty? LAURA: We could try that. Do you know where we
would find Artana? TALIESIN: No, but if you want
to find out what sort of shit rich people are up to, you talk to rich people
and we have one. TRAVIS: We do? LAURA: Oh, we do.
TALIESIN: We do.
ASHLEY: Oh, that's right. LAURA: We should
introduce you, for sure. TRAVIS: I know you're fancy.
Are you the rich one? ROBBIE: No, no, no. We
have a patron of sorts that we work with
on occasion. Yes. TRAVIS: Oh shit.
You're sponsored. LAURA: Is that what
it– sponsored? ROBBIE: That's nice. LIAM: It's been a bit
since we checked in, too. He might have learned
a little bit more. LAURA: How long has it
been since we checked in? LIAM: One or two days, hasn't it? MATT: It's been a couple of days. LAURA: Yeah. We should
check in with him. MARISHA: Perhaps we
can find the root of who has a bounty
out on your brother. What? What's wrong? Why do
you keep looking at him? ROBBIE: Ah– TRAVIS: Because it's so
fucking pretty over here. ROBBIE: It is, it is very–
Yes, you are very handsome. TRAVIS: (trills)
ROBBIE: Hmm. That's a noise. I was wondering, how
are your manners? How would you feel
about meeting a lord with a short temper? Do you feel like you could be
on your best behavior or–? TRAVIS: (laughs) No.
But I'm
all for it. This is great. You can't tell me that
one's on his best behavior. ROBBIE: He's not as bad as he looks.
TRAVIS: Did you see them rush the door? Oh man. ROBBIE: All right. Let's
go. You've convinced me. TRAVIS: I could also
remain out of sight if it's compromising
to your relationship. I don't want to put you
out of any more coin. SAM: We're still exploring
the relationship, too. This is the first I've
heard that we're sponsored. LAURA: I mean, he did give
us money to do things. SAM: I guess that's true. Although when you
accept sponsorships, isn't that sort of
selling out a little bit? TRAVIS: I don't know.
It kind of depends. Are you a group of individuals or do you have, like, a thing? LAURA: What do you
mean, "like a thing"? TRAVIS: I don't know. Eh,
you'll figure it out. I don't have time to put you
through business school. Fuck. (laughter) LIAM: Let's hit the road.
SAM: Eshteross? Esterosh-hosh? LAURA: Esteros.
LIAM: Worcestershire. MARISHA: Worcestershire sauce?
LAURA: Eshteross. MATT: This is my
vengeance for Purvan and every other time you've
fucked with an NPC before. SAM: I don't know where
the S-H sound goes. Eshterosh? MATT: Eshteross. ALL: Eshteross. TRAVIS: Are you sure it's Esteros? MATT: Goddamn it. LIAM: It's not full clownery
it's just half clownery. MATT: Dick.
ALL: (mispronouncing Eshteross) MATT: That's okay. Okay. So yes. You will be taking
a cable car back. So do mark off one silver each. MARISHA: Do they have passes
for this, like a fast pass? TALIESIN: It was fast
at some point. MATT: No. Take it up
with the Quorum, guys. TALIESIN: Man. TRAVIS: Yeah, we'll bring it up at the next city council meeting.
TALIESIN: I would roleplay
the fuck out of that. LIAM: New direction for the campaign.
MATT: It's your story, man. Tell me where you want to go. TALIESIN: Roll for city council.
TRAVIS: We've got an idea for some changes around here. ASHLEY: Oh no! LAURA: Was there anything
else we needed to do in the Smolder Spire? SAM: Imogen? Imogen? Hey,
Imogen, do me a favor. Do me a favor. Close your eyes. Close your eyes and just tell
me what your happy place is. That way you won't think
about what's around you. Just say it out loud.
Where do you think of when you think of
a happy place? LAURA: A big field
full of flowers and my horse standing
next to me.
SAM: Your horse. What's
the horse's name? LAURA: Flora. SAM: Is it a big mare
or a stallion? I don't know anything about LAURA: She's a mare. SAM: Okay. And look,
we're there! LAURA: Oh! MATT: (heavy crashing) With a heavy impact
and a mild swing, you do come to base. MARISHA: Fillies.
They're called fillies. SAM: Sure. LAURA: She's a filly. She's
a fucking filly. (laughter) I know this. SAM: Being a horse girl. LAURA: Being a horse girl. Just like I hear some
people named Fjord knew everything about sailing–
TRAVIS: Oh yeah? LAURA: I know everything about horses.
ASHLEY: Oh, I've heard of that sailor. TRAVIS: Your backstory, 100%– LAURA: He was a famous sailor, Fjord.
TRAVIS: — download of real world education. (laughter) SAM: If only we knew someone
knew a lot about horses that you could ask. LIAM: One or three people. (laughter) MATT: As you travel to a familiar
space in the Core Spire, you come to the exterior of (silly emphasis)
Sir Eshtoresh's– (laughter)
MATT: — estate.
ALL: (mispronouncing Eshteross) There, Evelyn greets you and
leads you into his study, where he is currently set partially facing
towards the fire, which is in a low rumble
at this point and is in the process
of going through a book before you hear
him slam it closed, stand up and set it over on
one of the nearby desks and turn around. You see for the first time, this imposing figure of a broad-shouldered,
older orc man, in his later years, but carrying with him
a sense of purpose and honor and intensity.
As he turns, you can
see the spectacles at the end of his nose as he removes them and places
them in a small pocket. "Welcome.
And who is this one?" LIAM: New friend.
Just made him. TRAVIS: Do I speak? I
don't want to be rude. LAURA: This is Chetney. SAM: Chetney Pock O'Pea. MATT: "Chetney. I am
Ariks Eshteross." TRAVIS: Ariks Esteross. MATT: "Eshteross." TRAVIS: Esteross. MATT: "That is fine." SAM: Chetney came to us with a request to
help find his friend who has the ridiculous
name of Gurge. (laughter) MARISHA: It is quite
ridiculous, isn't it? SAM: And we set about to do that and discovered that Gurge
has been taken hostage by– TALIESIN: Artana Vas. SAM: Yeah. TALIESIN: And we don't have
a way of figuring out where that came from. We thought you might know
a way of figuring out where that might've come from, because that's a lot of money.
LIAM: Yeah, we're trying
to follow a lot of threads and we're starting to feel
a little out of sorts. LAURA: Tangled. A little tangled. MATT: "It is the nature
of cities such as this." SAM: Did we also update Lord
Eshteross on what happened with like the wall and all that? Have we been back here? MATT: You have not.
LIAM: No, no. SAM: Okay, so there was also
a wall and stuff happened. TALIESIN: More inanimate objects. Fucking thing. I'm just saying.
SAM: And the theater and– LAURA: Yeah. Oh my gosh,
the wall came to life.
It was this big monster
with like tentacles that came out of it.
We almost died. SAM: But that was the source
of the disappearing folk that you had us go investigate.
So mission accomplished. LAURA: And we found out they
were connected to this family. MARISHA: The Treshis. LAURA: Yeah. And! And I pull
out the little thing that I took from the side of it, the little orb-y thing. This is part of the thing
that brought it to life. I don't know. MATT: "(hums thoughtfully) "I do not know what this device "specifically is purposed for.
"The Treshis are one
of the more influential "Mahaan houses of the city." He clasps it in his hand
for a second and thinks. "So the Chandei Quorum, "it is responsible for the
governance of this city, "has eight anonymous members "amongst the multitude
of Mahaan houses "and guild masters
and other individuals "that may be on this council. "But their membership is
unknown, aside from one, "who speaks as their mouthpiece. "It has been long assumed,
at least on my part, "that the Treshis have
at least one member "within those midst. "If you believe in strong proof "that they are
involved with these, "I would be careful about
spreading this information "before we have some means of
a path of taking them to task." ROBBIE: How likely would it
be that one guild or faction within the Treshi house
could operate autonomously from the rest? Would you assume that they would
all be in bed together? Could this just be one outlier or would you imagine
it's the whole family? MATT: "Both are very
viable options.
"Obviously, I do not
have a lot of face time "with the other
families of the city, "but now that I have a place
to begin asking around about, "but now that I have a place
to begin asking around about, "I'll see what I can muster. "There is a ball of some
kind in the near future. "There is a ball of some
kind in the near future. "I do believe I
have an invitation "though I cautiously
turn it down every year.
"Maybe it's time to make a
fashionable appearance." MARISHA: Can we go!? MATT: His eyes narrow,
intensely looking at you. MARISHA: It just sounds fun,
never been to a ball. MATT: "I can ask." TRAVIS: Why do you turn
it down every year, your Lordship? ROBBIE: You're doing great. TRAVIS: Thank you. MATT: (heavy footsteps) He walks over towards you,
stands lording over you. Arms crossed, looking down. "(laughs) Get up." TRAVIS: Get, uh, get
up? Yup. (grunts) MATT: "No need to grovel
at my feet, please. "It makes me uncomfortable." TRAVIS: Sorry. LAURA: He's normally
a lot more– LIAM: Opinionated. LAURA: — than this. Yeah.
That's a good word for it.
TRAVIS: We just met. That's
pretty presumptuous. I think. ROBBIE: You were doing so good. TRAVIS: I'm trying to do
my best for my boy here. ROBBIE: You're doing great!
You're doing great. TRAVIS: Thank you. SAM: What kind of ball is it? Is it a celebration
of some sort of day, holiday or remembrance
or something? MATT: "Not a
specific holiday. "It is meant to be
an annual social greet "for the uppercrust
of the city. "It is a place for
business guilds "to meet those who
have come into power, "to talk of those who
have vanished from power, "and to consolidate the
interests of the coming year." SAM: Wow. TRAVIS: Pretty highfalutin. MARISHA: Sounds
like a racket. MATT: "I hate such events, "but this is too curious
a threat not to target. "By the way, I have heard
back from the Lumas house.
"With a bit of a day or
two of lead time upon it, "The Anger will
meet with you." LIAM: Oh, excellent. I appreciate you making
the effort for me. MATT: "Now, you said
Artana, yes?" TALIESIN: Yeah. MATT: He turns around
and walks up to one of the
separate shelves on the other side
of the room. He begins to pick through
before pulling a book down and begins flipping
through pages. "I keep tabs on persons
of interest in this city. "Your Gurge is
not unknown to me." LAURA: (gasps)
TRAVIS: Oh! MATT: "It is hard not to
be aware of an individual "that walks with such
superstition surrounding him." TRAVIS: Superstitions? MATT: "Wild man hunter that sleeps
on the outskirts of the city "by himself, known to be
a great hunter of beasts "and comes into town to
trade his wares often. "The people in the Steps
below think highly of him. "Those in the city
itself stay wary.
"This Artana, while I do
not know where they stay, "they have a sister. "Her name is Preio Madali." LAURA: Say that again? MATT: "Preio Madali." TRAVIS: P-R-E-Y-O? MATT: P-R-E-I-O. MARISHA: Preio Madodda? MATT: Madali.
MARISHA: Madali. SAM: Preio Madali. MATT: "She is one of
the partial owners "and common purveyor "and manager of the
Soot and Swill Tavern." SAM: Ooh! The Soot and Swill. We heard about that. That's in the Smolder Spire. MATT: "That is correct." LAURA: Oh, we were
just there. MARISHA: We got to pay
another damn toll. LAURA: It cost so much
money to get around. TALIESIN: I said we
should go there. MARISHA: You should tell
the Chandei Quorum to have, like, a fast pass
type of situation or some sort of like,
you know, locals pass.
SAM: At least a 10-pack.
LAURA: Yeah, like a totem. Some sort of token you
can put on your shirt that shows that
you're good to go without having to–
ROBBIE: A turnstile, maybe. LAURA: Yeah, or that. ROBBIE: I saw that,
with the hands. LAURA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. ROBBIE: (beeps) MATT: "If this upcoming event "manages to transpire "and I'm able to "get any of you
in as a compatriot, "maybe you can
present it yourself." ASHLEY: (gasps) That could be
our business presentation. LAURA: Oh yeah, that's good.
MARISHA: That's a good idea. LIAM: Do we have to think
about attire for this event? MATT: "Wait until I have
any confirmation." SAM: He probably only
gets like a plus one, so. LAURA: Yeah. Doubt he can
bring everyone, right? ROBBIE: Yeah, I doubt it. You probably couldn't
swing that, huh? LAURA: That'd probably
be really difficult to get a whole group in.
ROBBIE: Yeah. MATT: "I have not been,
I can try." LAURA: Just bring a whole
entourage with you. We can all do
something for you. We can pretend that
we're working for you in different ways, you know? MARISHA: I think it's
a good idea.
All dress in a uniform. LIAM: Entourage.
SAM: Or Imogen, you could wear, like, a– No, Fearne could wear
a big, hoopy-type skirt, and me and Chetney and Orym could all fit
underneath probably. LAURA: That's true!
ASHLEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah. ROBBIE: You could stack on
each other's shoulders and wear a big coat. MARISHA: You're just
describing the Nutcracker. (laughter) ASHLEY: I mean, I did get
that dress from the theater. LAURA: Oh, that's true.
MATT: "(heavy sigh)" TRAVIS: Do you trust the
people at this ball? I mean, are there
any associates of yours that you put faith in? MATT: "I have allies
in the city, yes. "There are good people
at the top. "I just do not make a habit
of being seen in public." TRAVIS: Well, if you know,
if it was of interest, too, doesn't have to be
entirely a favor. I mean, some of us
could sneak around, maybe eavesdrop for you, see what's being said.
MATT: "It is going to be
a challenge to get approval "for eight people who have
been unseen, unintroduced, "and do not have much
to bring to this event." TRAVIS: I wouldn't
need approval. I'd just need your say so. MATT: "What is your skillset,
if I might ask, small sir?" TRAVIS: I like to skirt in here and there
without detection. And you know, I just– hear what I can hear. Sometimes people don't pay
attention to the little folk. SAM: You know what? I think he's selling
himself a little short.
He's also
a master woodworker. And around here at
this establishment of yours, you might have
some projects for him that you might want
him to take a look at. LAURA: That is true. MATT: "That is good to know." TRAVIS: I do love
working with wood. MATT: "Well. "I shall keep this in mind "the next time I
require furniture. "When it comes to this event, "I will do my best. "In the meantime, "I wish I had more information "on this Artana individual, "but as you said, they
do carry a high price, so.
"My curiosity is
certainly piqued." LAURA: Do you have any
idea what they look like? MATT: He looks back at the
tome and glances a bit. "They are "uniya, elf-orc. "'Piercing light brown eyes'
is the only note I have here." LAURA: Beautiful. SAM: At the Sit and Swill. LAURA: The Soot and Swill. MATT: "The sister is at
the Soot and Swill." MARISHA: Oh, I thought it
was Sit and Swill. SAM: I thought it
was Sit and Swill, it's not Sit and Swill? MATT: Soot and Swill. SAM: Soot and Swill.
ASHLEY: Soot and Swill. I apologize. MARISHA: It's a town where
everything's– MATT: Uniya is the term for
the half-orc/half-elf.
TALIESIN: She works the bar.
ROBBIE: Oh, that's a– okay. Half-orc, half-elf.
SAM: Okay. MARISHA: You eat,
and you can sit. And then you drink. Swill. LIAM: DM, sorry, just
to back a bit. MATT: Yes. LIAM: Did Ariks,
for the family– Did he say a family name? MATT: Yeah, the Lumas. LIAM: Lumas. Thank you. LAURA: Oh, for the–?
LIAM: For, yes, for The Anger. MATT: Yeah. He was
hired by the Lumas, the twins that were
supposedly attacked. LIAM: And the meeting's
being worked on. MATT: Yes. It just needs
a day or two heads-up, so they can arrange it. It's not like a drop-in
type circumstance, but with enough heads up,
he can have it arranged. LAURA: Do you want
to give him a day? LIAM: When's this ball? MATT: "It's a little over
a week from now." LIAM: Oh, I don't want to
wait 'til after that.
I guess at their
earliest convenience, if that's all right. MATT: "Certainly. I will go
ahead and set something up "and let you know
when it's confirmed." LIAM: Is it all right
if I bring my friends? MATT: "You may have to take
that up with the–" LIAM: The family.
MATT: "– the family "who remains of it. "At least whoever is "stewarding the
family for now." LIAM: Understood. TRAVIS: Could I ask
one more question? Just because you hear
rumors and stuff. MATT: "Yes, small sir?" TRAVIS: Gurge, you said he
goes out into the Wilds. You wouldn't happen to
know whereabouts, maybe? MATT: "Not specifically. No." TRAVIS: Oh.
Okay. Thank you. MATT: "My apologies." MARISHA: I also
have a question. MATT: "Yes, scary one." MARISHA: Who– Hmm!
Who puts out bounties? Like, who controls that? Is that the Wilders,
or is that the Quorum, or is that families?
Who does that? MATT: "Honestly,
all of the above. "Bounties are placed
from all different sources. "Some are business-related.
Some are personal. "Some of it is from
the wealthy elite. "Some of it is from
the everyday individual "with vengeance on the mind "or a particular business
interest that might suit them. "Some bounties
are placed openly "in various places
of gathering. "Others are placed through
whisper networks. "Others are shared
amongst the Elder's Post "and other such spaces
where the more "dubious members of
the city often frequent. "It can vary. "For someone like Artana, "they were likely
requested directly." MARISHA: And what
about the Treshis? MATT: "I'm certain
they have put up "many bounties in the past." ROBBIE: Would they have the
influence and funds to put up a bounty,
an exorbitant bounty, say, 20,000 gold? MATT: "Easily.
"They have three guilds
under their house name. "They have quite a bit in
their coffers, I am certain." LAURA: Is that high
for a bounty, or is that about average? MATT: "Whoever it is
has certainly "made someone very angry, "but I've heard of higher." SAM: Well, it being the
time of day that it is, maybe we can scoot back
over to the Soot and Swill or unless it's one o'clock
in the morning and I just don't know. MATT: No, no, no, no, no.
It's mid-afternoon, I'd say, between travel to and
from, and asking around, and the previous encounter
at the Smolder Spire, yeah. LAURA: All right.
LIAM: That's a good use of time.
ROBBIE: One last question,
before I go, I'm sorry. MATT: "That's okay."
ROBBIE: The substance we gave you from our
encounter with Dugger. MATT: "Yes."
ROBBIE: Did you happen to find any more information
on that, by any chance? MATT: "I haven't
heard anything yet. "I have an occasional
associate I work with "who is an
accomplished alchemist, "who has at least confirmed
it is indeed brumestone, "as suspected. "Though such things in such
a small array is very rare "and often nearly
exclusively controlled "by the Alsfarin Union
of Ank'Harel." LAURA: That was the dust. MATT: "Yes." LAURA: Didn't we give you
a vial of a slime, too? MATT: "Mm."
ROBBIE: That's what I meant. MATT: "Oh, my apologies." ROBBIE: My apologies. MATT: "Nothing back
on that yet." LAURA: Our apologies.
Everyone's just so sorry. TRAVIS: Not me. (laughter) LIAM: So about the jizz. MATT: "Nothing back yet." ROBBIE: Thank you.
LAURA: (laughs)
Anyway, about the jizz. (laughter) ROBBIE: About the
vial of jizz we– MATT: "Thank you
for your time. "Do you require
anything else of me?" MARISHA: Do you require
anything of us, those that you sponsor? SAM: Well. I mean. MATT: "Sponsor?" MARISHA: I don't know.
I'm just tossing it out. MATT: "Hmm. "Well. "We'll see how the
coming times ahead do.
"So far, you've proven
quite the capable allies. "Now, stay safe. "Don't get in too deep." LAURA: Thank you. SAM: Ah– TRAVIS: Do we walk backwards
first a few steps and then turn?
ROBBIE: You just– yeah. TRAVIS: Okay. Thank you! LAURA: Sorry. Last thing. MATT: As everyone else
is leaving. LAURA: I'm sorry. MATT: "Yes?" LAURA: I just remembered.
Have you had a chance to talk
to the Starlight Academy? Have you sent a
letter already, or–? I just didn't want
to go there and they not know
that we're– MATT: "Thank you for
the reminder. "I will get on
that immediately." LAURA: Thank you. MATT: "Not to worry. "My apologies, things
have been a bit busy." LAURA: Hectic. Yeah. MATT: Evelyn sees you back
out. The city is yours. TRAVIS: Holy shit! You guys are into some stuff! I heard about about families.
You're after some guy
named The Hanger. You want to go to
the Starlight Academy? LAURA: Well, I don't
want to go there. We would like to visit there. They don't allow outsiders to look at their library. TRAVIS: Oh, I've
been in there. LAURA: What? MARISHA: How?
TALIESIN: Insight check. TRAVIS: Nah, I'm fucking
with you. No, I haven't been. You don't have to! I'm lying! TALIESIN: You're
fucking lying.
(laughter) TRAVIS: This is crazy. Who's The Hanger? LIAM: The Hangry. The Anger is someone who– He's a warrior
here in the city who has some information. Yeah, you had a little,
just a little drop. TRAVIS: They just fall out,
these bats and these caves. Boy, the bacon's the worst. The ones that hurt. LIAM: Yeah. The sharp ones? TRAVIS: Yeah. Makes the eyes water. TALIESIN: Save me. LIAM: He's a friend of
a friend of a friend from overseas. I'm trying to find him. TRAVIS: Oh. LIAM: We all… Most of us weren't
together a week ago. You're a new arrival
to a new group. TRAVIS: Well,
I feel very lucky. ROBBIE: It is true though.
We have, as you said, wandered into some shit
or however you put it.
I know we're trying
to help you, but… You might be in for it
too if you stick with us. TRAVIS: I can be of service. I'm capable. Just watch me get
into a fight, hoo! LIAM: You really want
to find this Gurge? TRAVIS: Yeah.
LIAM: That's still the priority? TRAVIS: Well, yeah.
Otherwise, I'm just here. MARISHA: Did you know
anything about him being beastly at times? TRAVIS: He was a mess.
Oof! The odor on him. Oh my god! My hair had a good,
vibrant color to it. Now it's just white. It's not at all
because I'm 200 and up. LAURA: 200 and up? TRAVIS: I don't know.
I stopped counting after 101. Because what's the point? ROBBIE: I'm still
so confused. The nature of your
relationship with this Gurge. Who is he to you? TRAVIS: A master craftsman. Well, at least
someone with the hookup. SAM: To a master craftsman? TRAVIS: Yeah. He didn't have a lot of
nice stuff in his place so I got a little
suspicious of that part.
He seemed to be in the know. LAURA: But he's a hunter? TRAVIS: Yeah, seems like it. LIAM: And a wanted man. SAM: If you don't find him, you're trying to find a
master craftsman to work for, to apprentice for? TRAVIS: I would peddle
my skills, but anything to survive. Survival of the fittest
in this world. I got to do
whatever it takes. SAM: I've heard,
but it sounds like you really want to
survive by woodworking. TRAVIS: Sure.
I love working with wood. (laughter) SAM: Should we get
you some… some wood? TRAVIS: I pull out
a little twig. I got this one I was
just whittling on it while we were taking
the cable car thingy. ASHLEY: What's your favorite
type of wood to work with? TRAVIS: Ooh! Well, oak is very strong
but it's not very pliant. I like cherry wood. LIAM: What's that
going to be? TRAVIS: This one? This is not preview night,
okay, Orym? There's no sneak peeks! LIAM: We want to get
a peek of something! TRAVIS: No! You got to wait! You got to earn these things! LAURA: We haven't
even given him– TRAVIS: These kids! There's
no patience these days! ROBBIE: He's not
an actual child.
TRAVIS:
Instant gratification! (laughter) LIAM: I'm two inches
taller than you! ASHLEY: You said you're 200
and up and then 101? How– SAM: He said he stopped
counting after 101. TRAVIS: Yeah, hundo plus. ASHLEY: How old do you feel? TRAVIS: Oh… I don't know.
Sometimes I feel older than time itself,
and other times I just feel like
everything's so new. I could be in my younger 20s. ASHLEY: That's wonderful. Time is something that… It's a construct that man
uses to define change. Be whatever age
you want. I guess. LAURA: Is time different
in the Fey realm? ASHLEY: Maybe. I don't really know. LAURA: Oh. ASHLEY: I think it
just is what it is. LAURA: Oh. I heard stories. ASHLEY: What'd you hear? LAURA: I just heard
stories about, you can't ever tell
what time of day it is. Things happen when you
come and go from there. Years have gone by! It only feels like a
couple minutes for you. ASHLEY: Oh my god. LAURA: (gasps) Oh my god! LIAM: Look at the pig! ASHLEY: Werthering Heights?
Oh my god. LIAM: The pig is
in Werther's! TRAVIS: That is unapproved.
(laughter) ROBBIE: Blur it! MARISHA: Unofficial,
not a sponsor. LIAM: Yet.
TRAVIS: Oh my god. MARISHA: Yet.
LAURA: Did it have glue on it? Did you take it off and it had glue?
SAM: Little bit. TRAVIS: It's non toxic! TALIESIN: They're old.
Send a telegram. ASHLEY: Oh, well, yes. I think that can happen. Sometimes I get a little
bit confused with time because maybe it's just
where I'm from, but I don't know, just take
things day by day. LAURA: So do you know how old
you are in Exandrian years? ASHLEY: 112. LAURA: Wow! That's amazing! ASHLEY: Yes, 112. That's my age, but I feel… I feel about 732. ROBBIE: Whoa. TRAVIS: That's the opposite. MARISHA: Wiser. ASHLEY: Wiser, of course,
but also sometimes younger, I guess everybody feels
that way though, sometimes. LAURA: Yeah. TALIESIN: I don't even
know why I care, but how old is the monkey? ASHLEY: Oh. Mister? MATT: (hooting) ASHLEY: How old are you? MATT: (confused hoot) (retches) ASHLEY: Let's say– LAURA: That landed on my–
Okay.
ASHLEY: Oh dear. TALIESIN: That was better
than what I was expecting, I'll be honest, that went
better than I hoped. ASHLEY: How old do you
want to be? LIAM: He's pretty smart. MATT: (panting) ROBBIE: Mister, Mister,
do you remember when– TRAVIS: Mister Mister. ROBBIE: (laughs)
Mister Mister! Do you remember when you were
birthed out of the ground? Do you remember when Fearne
delivered you into this world? MATT: (excited hooting) ROBBIE: Okay. Okay. So how old are you? Can you tap it out? TRAVIS: Yeah,
there we go, yeah. Like the counting horse. TALIESIN: Did you see
Star Wars in a theater? (laughter) ASHLEY: That's always the
best measurement for age.
MATT: (chittering) Curls off of her,
gets on the ground. Picks up a hand
and looks at you and goes to knock and goes– (chittering) MARISHA: Did you get that? ROBBIE: I understood
absolutely nothing. MARISHA: All right. ASHLEY: Oh, tell me. MATT: He tells you, "Since you found me,"
essentially. ASHLEY: Okay, so
since we found him, but he was probably already who he was before this. Somewhere else, maybe, so let's make you… Let's make you 42? LAURA: That's a great number. ASHLEY: Younger, older? MATT: (unsure hooting) ASHLEY: I'm going to
make you younger. Let's make you… Let's make you seven. MATT: (excited screaming) ASHLEY: He likes that.
He's seven years old. TALIESIN: It works. LIAM: Are we giving out ages? MATT: Curls back
under your hair. ASHLEY: Scritchy scritchies. MATT: So where are
you heading to? LAURA: Oh, right.
TALIESIN: I've already taken
that silver out my pocket. MATT: All right, another
silver from all of you. LAURA: Why? Why? TALIESIN: Death by
a thousand coins. LAURA: Just exposure. TALIESIN: Just got to
have a nickel on you. MATT: Look, the Quorum's got
to make its money somehow. LAURA: Yeah. I'm going to be
a master at this after– SAM: Yeah, you're doing
it again and again. ASHLEY: Oh no!
SAM: Oh no, oh no. TRAVIS: What's that? ASHLEY: The car's a-moving! TRAVIS: Oh god. TALIESIN: Can you shame a fear
of heights out of somebody? I'm so fucking curious. ASHLEY: We'll see. TRAVIS: I have a question.
I think you were talking about your brother, right? And asking about
the bounties. Are you worried that
if we find Artana Voe or Preio Madali, Medala? ALL: Madali.
TRAVIS: Madali. That they might
recognize your face and take you as collateral? LAURA: Oh, what if it's
the same bounty hunter? ROBBIE: Chetney, I actually
hadn't thought of that. That's very smart. ASHLEY: I hadn't thought
of that either. ROBBIE: Huh.
MARISHA: Should we
disguise you? TRAVIS: We could maim you. ROBBIE: No, thank you. TALIESIN: I think you're
going to find the vibe here to be a little more
chill than that. If it comes to things,
this is the sort of place that gets resolved
in a brawl. I don't think it's
really going to be that big of a problem. It's a nice place.
Well, no, it's not. It's my kind of nice place.
It's my kind of nice place. MARISHA: When was the
last time you've been? TALIESIN: I don't know, I got
kicked out for something. MARISHA: Oh!
LAURA: Perfect. TALIESIN: I don't remember.
I was very drunk at the time but I did get kicked out,
but it didn't seem personal. No, I don't think so.
I don't remember. It wasn't personal.
I would've heard. MARISHA: We still have
to dive into whatever is going on with you.
MATT: (rumbles) You come to rest at
the bottom of the cable. Exiting once more
into the Smolder Spiler. The (garbled) Spire. Sorry, I've been
day drinking over here while you've been
role playing. Spiralerler! (laughs) The familiar smell of the
somewhat soot-dappled air greets you as you step out into the open afternoon sky. The faint mist is still
lingering over the city from the cold morning
and you can see a bit of a darkened
possible storm front is on its way
in the distance. But you go ahead and follow
your genasi friend here to the Soot and Swill Tavern.
The outside of it,
you can see it looks to definitely
be a tavern though it looks like
it's in a bit disrepair and the wood, while it looks
like it's definitely modeled to have a dark, almost burnt-umber-to-black
wood coloration, the closer you get, you
realize it's just over time been turned to
a blackish color from the surrounding
atmosphere. There's actually almost
a charcoal scent to the air surrounding it. Perhaps it may have
burned at some point and was salvaged. But as you begin
to make your way towards the front of it– SAM: ♪ Making my way ♪ MATT: Hmm.
LAURA: First of the year. MATT: There it is, yay. You can already hear a
low, rhythmic drum beat, coming from the inside. Someone is playing a
low undertone of music throughout the chamber
as you hear laughter and the clinking of
metallic implements of eating and drinking. You can hear
banter and shouts and the occasional grumble. There, across the way you can see the circular
edge of the bar where a couple of patrons
are currently leaning over and talking
amongst themselves as they gather their drinks
by whoever's serving them. As you step inside, the
smell in here is strong of old stained wood,
ale, charcoal and ancient burned interior, and just an undercurrent of faintly-bathed individuals that have come in here
during their work break or a day off.
You can see most of
the folks in here look like they're standard
working-class folk. Some of them maybe have
come off of a mining shift and you can see
the bit of soot and dark black dust
that has gathered around their fingers
and elbows and the outside of their face where their masks
had come off. They're all enjoying a bit of late
afternoon merriment before they go to rest,
go to work, or go home.
MARISHA: Looks like
it's happy hour. TALIESIN: I make my way
straight to the bar. ALL: ♪ Makin' my way! ♪
TALIESIN: Thank you. LAURA: I'm going to
stay by the door. MATT: Okay. LIAM: ♪ Stayin' away ♪ MATT: Are the rest of you
staying back with Imogen? SAM: I'll hang with Ashton,
if that's all right. MATT: Okay. ROBBIE: I'm going to hang
back with Imogen, yeah. MATT: Okay. So it's
just the two of you or is anybody
going with them? ASHLEY: I'll go up with them. MATT: Okay. LIAM: I'm going to stick
with my man, Chetney.
MARISHA: And I'll
stick with Imogen. MATT: Okay. Got it. So the three of you begin
travel through the center. Some people glance over and give you
that look of like, "Oh, I've seen this guy
around here once or twice." The two of you definitely
draw some stares as you step through here. Some of the folks stop
their conversations and glance over,
most of the eyes on you as you come rolling through. Someone leans forward
with an intense look and just takes a deep swig before setting
the drink back down.
MARISHA: I just,
once again, do my thing where I poke
into their vision. MATT: Trailing behind them? The person goes
about their business and quickly ignores
what they were doing. TALIESIN: That's my
new favorite thing. MATT: The three of you
head over towards the bar. You can see the semicircle
that is open on each side and behind it, there is a
large offset series of shelves for all sort of
dark glass bottles and tankards and glasses.
Some of them
dirtier than others, you can see a whole
stack of kegs and taps all set up to the side. They're in the
middle of the people that are chatting
at the edge of it, leaning onto the point. You can see the
purveyor of it is a female uniya
in her 30s or so, you can see dark brown hair that in places has
streaks of a deep red. It comes forward down
heavily in the front over this side of the face. Then on the back it's just
pulled over the ear and tied. They're in the process of
having a lively conversation with another patron
as they go ahead and start filling
a few glasses.
As soon as they begin going
into roaring laughter, she glances over
towards you and goes, "You're back again, huh?" TALIESIN: Yeah. How bad was it last time? MATT: "Wasn't great." TALIESIN: How expensive of
a bottle would I need to buy to make it great? MATT: Checks under the
counter for something. "That one." Points over to
one of the shelves and you could see
there is a finer, a stack of smooth baubles that create a singular
little wine bottle of sorts. Though it is not wine. There are elements
of gold filigree around it and it
looks of elvish make.
Imported, definitely. TALIESIN: Fuck me! Oh. LIAM: Syngorn. ASHLEY: How much is it? MATT: "85." ASHLEY: I have
just the thing. I have just
the thing, actually. MATT: "Do you? "Hi, by the way, who are you? "You're adorable." ASHLEY: Oh, hi, I'm Fearne. MATT: "Fearne, what'll
you be having to drink?" ASHLEY: That bottle. I'm going to reach over– SAM: Oh god. ASHLEY: — put my hand on
the small of Ashton's back and I'm going to unclip
the Allhammer earring that he stole from me. TALIESIN: Let's roll,
motherfucker. ASHLEY: Let's Rollies? MATT: Perception check.
TALIESIN: Mm-hmm. MATT: Sleight of hand check. LIAM: Rollies! ASHLEY and MARISHA: Rollies! TRAVIS: Keeping what's
important up front.
ROBBIE: Let's go. SAM: I'm going to perception
check this, too. TALIESIN: Want to do this
on the count of three? LAURA: She already
rolled– oh. TALIESIN: I rolled, too. Want to both say on
the count of three? ASHLEY: Yeah. ASHLEY and TALIESIN:
One, two, three. ASHLEY: 19.
TALIESIN: Nine. LAURA: (gasps)
SAM: Oh! MATT: It is yours. ASHLEY: This should
suffice, I think. It's from the Allhammer. It was from my great-great-
great-great grandfather. MATT: Make a deception check. MARISHA: Holy shit! TRAVIS: Great-great-great–
great-great grandfather! That's some record keeping
you've got there.
ASHLEY: 15. MATT: 15, okay. ASHLEY: I mean, this is worth
much more than the bottle, but I don't want to
carry it around, it's big. MATT: "Your great grandfather
was a pachydan?" ASHLEY: Mm-hmm. (wheezing laughter) MATT: "Who am I
to question it? "This is a very fine piece. "However, if we're in
the business of pawning here, "I'm just going to say "there is a level
of take on this.
"I'll knock off
half the price, "but say another 40 gold
and we're square." TALIESIN: I'm going to
give 50 gold. I might be a little more annoying before
the night is over, I just want to start
the apology now. MATT: "That's fine,
I got plenty more bottles "for you to buy
before the night's done." TALIESIN: Fuck me. MATT: Shifts it
forward towards you. TALIESIN: Better be
fucking be great. MATT: "It's all right." TALIESIN: (sighs) SAM: We're going to have a great evening
here tonight, miss. By the way, my name
is Fresh Cut Grass, smiley day to you. Your name, for the next
time we need a refill, was? MATT: "Whose is this?" TALIESIN: They're
kind of their own.
I've been making
some friends, and– I know, I'm aware of–
MATT: "You made friends!" TALIESIN: I'm aware
of how that sounds. MATT: "We'll see
how long that lasts "for the rest of you,
but sure! "But wait. "I just haven't seen
one that talks before." TALIESIN: Yeah, they just
do what they're going to do. SAM: I just start spinning
around in a circle. TALIESIN: They're doing
that right now. MATT: "(laughs)" Other patrons begin to,
"(laughs) Great!" They're throwing some copper
on the ground around you. SAM: Thank you!
Oh, copper, oh! TALIESIN: They're
professionally likable. I don't know
what else to say. MATT: "Well, at least
one of you is.
"Two of you, my apologies." ASHLEY: Oh, it's really fine. SAM: No, go– I was just
wanting to know your name, so we could be
sure to flag you down to tip more later. MATT: "I'm Preio.
This is my establishment. "I've got a few tables
that are open. "Just don't… "Well, don't do anything
he tells you." TALIESIN: No problem.
All right. SAM: Thank you kindly!
TALIESIN: Taking the bottle, taking some glasses. MATT: "Wait, does
it drink, too?" TALIESIN: No. Well, kind of, no. I'll show you later
if things go well. It's actually
pretty entertaining. MATT: "Okay, you know
where to find me." SAM: I spin the other way
and go away. MATT: "All right,
what can I get you?" Begins dealing
with another customer that's walked in
since your conversation. LAURA: Did we see
all that happen? MATT: From a distance, yeah. TRAVIS and MARISHA:
♪ From a distance ♪ TALIESIN: So, much like a
shitty day at Disneyland, we're going to claim a table
as quickly as possible.
SAM: Hey! Mission accomplished,
we already found her. TALIESIN: So I've done
my best to smooth over any previous engagements, so we're kind of
at a neutral point now. LIAM: Broke even? TALIESIN: More or less.
I tried to start things, so that when things
inevitably go poorly, we have somewhere
to go, but yeah. Have a drink when
you're ready. Somebody who she doesn't
already kind of hate should go over there
and have a conversation. MARISHA: Why don't we send
her a shot of this? You know, lubricate her. ASHLEY: That's a
very good idea. MARISHA: Toast with her. LAURA: Yeah, yeah, yeah! We can all raise a glass
and she can raise it and then she can get drunk and we can ask her questions.
SAM: I can bring
it over to her, she seemed enamored by me. TRAVIS: In my experience,
you know, people that work at bars have
really strong constitutions. They can just drink
and drink and drink with all the assholes
late into the morning and be just fine. LAURA: That's true.
TALIESIN: Can confirm. TRAVIS: But it's
a good gesture. SAM: Yeah, would be
nice either way. LAURA: Yeah. Make her like us a
little bit more, right? This is expensive shit.
How often does she
get to drink this? TRAVIS: That's true. LAURA: Why am I cussing
so much with y'all? TALIESIN: Okay,
I got to try this shit. I want to see what I bought. TRAVIS: "Why am I cussing?" ASHLEY: (like Imogen)
"Why am I cussing?" TALIESIN: I have that
effect on people. MATT: It's sweeter than
what you like usually, but it's not bad.
It's definitely stronger than you're expecting,
at least from what the bottle
seems to let on.
It'll definitely
get the job done, if maybe spike your sugar
intake for the evening. TALIESIN: That's the worst
money I've ever spent. Yeah. Give her some. LIAM: I'm super curious. LAURA: I know.
LIAM: Pour me a glass? LAURA: Is there markings
on this or anything, so we can see what it is? MATT: Do you read Elvish? LAURA: No. MATT: There are
markings on it. MARISHA: Actually,
I can read it. LAURA: You can? MARISHA: I can.
TRAVIS: It says drink me! LAURA: What does it say? MARISHA: It says, and you
see Laudna's eyes go (zoom) white with a greenish
glow-ish tint to it. TALIESIN: Never going to
get fucking over that. That's the fucking best.
MARISHA: As I read it. LIAM: Disney crosseyed. TALIESIN: It's been a while
since I've seen that, it's great! MATT: It is an elf-based
deep plum wine liquor that is based out of
the Gladepools of Tal'Dorei. LAURA: Oh, the Gladepools! MARISHA: Plum wine
from Tal'Dorei. LAURA: Fancy.
I'll just pour little
drinks for everyone around the table.
TRAVIS: Thank you! LAURA: You're welcome.
ROBBIE: Sweet! LAURA: Hey, who
paid for this? This is not a cheap… Was that you, Ashton? ASHLEY: Ashton did.
TALIESIN: I did. LAURA: Thank you, Ashton.
SAM: Ashton had a little bit of help, though,
over here from Fearne. ASHLEY: I actually didn't
pay anything. LAURA: Oh really? SAM: You gave a trinket,
didn't you? ASHLEY: Oh, yeah, but I don't
think that's worth anything. LAURA: A trinket? Oh, is that what you
reached for on his back? ASHLEY: Yeah.
SAM: I'll bring it,
I'm going over. MARISHA: All right. SAM: (whirring) TRAVIS: That's what happens
when glucose gets you. (laughter) SAM: Preio? Pardon me? MATT: "Oh, hey there, yeah." SAM: Compliments
of our table, we wanted you to have
this little taster. MATT: "Oh goodness,
look at that. "Thank you so much. That's
sweet, that's really sweet." SAM: I don't know if you're
allowed to enjoy on-duty. You are, you are.
TRAVIS: Goosh! Killing it. No problem.
SAM: How is it? TRAVIS: Woof!
MATT: "I mean, it's– "It probably does better
when you have a cough, "but I'm doing
all right for now." SAM: Oh, it's syrupy
or something? MATT: "I think it'll help with
a cough, that's what I mean.
"It was good, "I'm not trying to talk down."
SAM: Are you hurt? Are you okay? MATT: "I appreciate the offer,
it's a very sweet gesture." SAM: Excellent.
MATT: "Can I get you "anything?" SAM: Oh, no, I don't
consume any beverages. We're just here,
we're just here. We're looking for somebody. MATT: "Oh. "Well, who are you looking
for, little man?" SAM: Oh, well we were–
Oh boy. We were, you know what? I'll just cut to the chase
and be honest with you, if that's all right,
because you know, yeah. We were actually
trying to find a relative of yours,
a relation. MATT: "Oh?" SAM: Yeah. I think
her name is Artana? MATT: "Yeah, I don't know
where Artana is these days." SAM: Oh, Artana Voe. MATT: "Yeah." (laughter) MATT: "Yeah, yeah, no, I mean,
you know, she gets around. "Not a relative of mine, "but I haven't seen her
around in a while." SAM: Not a relative
of yours? Huh.
MATT: "No, no, no. "Madali's my name. "Artana Voe is different." SAM: Oh. Okay. Okay. Because we had just heard
that she was your sister and so I guess the
fellow who told us that lead us astray,
is that right? MATT: "Seems to be, yeah. "You know. "People get things
wrong all the time. "Just because
we're both uniya, "doesn't mean we're
necessarily related." SAM: Sure, yeah. I guess we should just
never assume, huh? MATT: "Yeah, for the best." SAM: Because when
you assume you, you make an
um of asses. MATT: "That's how it goes,
that one, yeah." SAM: All right.
Well, if you find
out where she is, let us know, we'll be
over there drinking. MATT: "Of course, yeah. "No worries,
if I see her around." SAM: Okay. MATT: "Nice." Your passive insight
is pretty decent. As you're asking
these questions, the first time it comes up, and then later
when it comes up, you can't help
but catch Preio just quickly looking over towards the kitchen
and then back to you. Then back to the kitchen
and back to you. Definitely seems to
be a little tight in the physical position than
when you first approached. SAM: Okay. MATT: Before relaxing once
more as you head off. SAM: Well, she
liked the drink. LAURA: Oh, good! SAM: And then I asked
her about her sister, and she claimed– LAURA: Oh, straight up,
just like that? SAM: Yeah, well, I panicked.
So I just did it. And– She doesn't know
where she is, and claimed not to
be related to her. LAURA: And you believed her? SAM: No, not exactly. I got a little something. She kept looking
over to the kitchen. Now, either she's
really hungry, or there's someone in
the kitchen that maybe she's worried about us seeing.
LAURA: I'm going to side glance to the kitchen.
Do I see anyone? Side glance.
MATT: You can see the kitchen door, which is, if the bar is on the far
left hand corner as you enter, the kitchen door's
on the right hand side on the far back wall.
Same space where the bar is, but it's partially ajar. ROBBIE: Is it one of
those swinging doors, a back and forth,
for heavy traffic? People going in and out? MATT: No, it looks
like it closes. It's a normal door. LAURA: Can I see anybody
moving on the other side if it's partially open? MATT: Make a
perception check. LAURA: Oh! 14. MATT: 14?
LAURA: Yeah. MATT: Not too bad. Looking in,
you don't see anybody but you can occasionally, through the din of the
interior chamber here, hear the sound of a pan. Something breaks
and you hear, "Shit!" But there's a person in
there, at the very least. LAURA: Okay. ROBBIE: Chetney. TRAVIS: Yeah? ROBBIE: Do you think you could
make it into that door without anyone seeing? TRAVIS: Oh, no problem. Do you want me to get in
there and see what's what? ROBBIE: Not my choice
to make, but– LAURA: I mean, remember there
could be a very skilled bounty hunter on the other
side of the door, so– TRAVIS: What do I look like? LAURA: I don't know, are you
a skilled bounty hunter? TRAVIS: You don't know.
I've lived lifetimes. LAURA: That's true. TRAVIS: Here's another
idea, though, just in case this
goes tits up. We could always put
a bounty out on Ashton and make them come to us. LAURA: Oh yeah. SAM: You mean, talk to the
barkeep and say that we want– TRAVIS: We need somebody
found, mm-hmm. Then we lie in wait. ROBBIE: You want to use
our friend Ashton as bait? TRAVIS: Well, I'm pretty good at reading
people, and it seems like they're down for pretty
much fucking anything.
LAURA: (laughs) TALIESIN: Well, now
I'm conflicted, fuck. TRAVIS: It's a good
tease, huh? TALIESIN: I was about to be–
TRAVIS: Anyway– TALIESIN: — really angry about that.
TRAVIS: You ready to go to this room? LAURA: Right now,
just right now? TRAVIS: Well, yeah. LAURA: All right.
SAM: We can get a little demonstration
of Chetney's skills.
TRAVIS: I go invisible. SAM: Oh, oh shit! MATT: You watch as
Chetney vanishes before your eyes
in an instant. MARISHA: Fun.
TALIESIN: Well– TRAVIS: Peace out, bitches.
And I slap Dorian in the face. (laughter) LAURA: Don't you become
un-invisible when you attack? (laughter) ROBBIE: It's a caress,
it's a caress. TALIESIN: I'm going to walk
to the bar, then, and get up and try and
get some attention. MATT: "What do you want?" TALIESIN: That was
an apology bottle. Now I need something
I can actually drink. MATT: "Noted, all right."
TALIESIN: Something– Yeah, what do you–
something with some burn. I can't get the
plum out of my fucking mouth.
MATT: "Fair enough." and goes ahead and
starts going through, looking back over
the shoulder at you, seeing what would be
considered your type, but also, "It looks like you
came into some money recently.
"At least the way you
brazenly walked in here. "I'll find you
something proper." TALIESIN: All right. MATT: Begins
glancing through. While you're doing that. TALIESIN: Yeah. MATT: Roll a stealth check
with advantage. TRAVIS: 17. MATT: 17. You skirt across the floor. You can see some
individuals stand up and start making their
way towards the exit. You cross past and dodge out
of the way, darting through, behind where Ashton is,
the bar over to the edge of the far right corner of
the back part of the chamber.
There you see the door
partially ajar and you scoot in. Immediately the room is
about 10 degrees warmer and you can see above you, there are
counters and tabletops. There is a stone slab
across one way. You can hear the sizzling
of some sort of meat cooking. There are numerous pan handles
you could see off the side, and in the far edge
of the room you see about a hunched,
nine-foot tall ogre, who is currently
wearing a long cap that pass down their back
to about mid back, no shirt, a heavy
leather apron on, and you can see grease
smattered on their arms.
They're in the process
of juggling different pans and filling a plate. LAURA: Does he have
thick glasses? (laughter) TRAVIS: Okay, so
we've got a cook. Are there any other windows
or doors out of this kitchen? MATT: Make a perception
or investigation check. TRAVIS: Ooh, my choice, huh? 21.
MATT: Okay. The first thing you hear
is this gentle (whistles). The ogre is just
whistling to himself as he's getting
his work done. At one point, you see
hobs this large cooked piece of ham and half catches
it in the pot before it hits the floor. (grunts) Puts it back up in there
and keeps cooking it. TALIESIN: That's a cook. (laughter) MATT: Looking through
the room, you can see all
manner of utensils hanging from different
hooks that are jammed up into the wood of the ceiling. You can see hanging locks of
garlic and other dried herbs that have been partially
carved away and utilized. To the far left, there is
a table that has two wheels in the bottom of one side
and stoppers in the other.
It looks like it's a small,
almost like a serving cart, that's being used
for general storage. But it's pushed a little
further away and you can see along the wall beside it, it looks like there is a door
that is meant to blend in with the rest of the room, that has just enough of it
pushed away from the wall where you can just
see the outline of it. You do not see,
at this glance, a place to pull
it open necessarily, but you do see
the outline of a door that otherwise would
be difficult to spot. TRAVIS: Flat, flat plane?
No knob or anything? Just no purchase,
just a crack between that and the other wall? MATT: From what you can see,
there's that heavy rack is placed up against
it and it helps blend it in there, and
is either holding it closed or hiding what
is used to open it.
But that is what you see to your left.
TRAVIS: Does it look like it's slightly ajar or
like a sliding thing? MATT: It doesn't
look it's sliding. It looks like it's ever
so faintly pushed away from where its
resting space is, where there's a
very faint lip of it that you see is exposed. TRAVIS: Got it. It's just a thin amount, so I
couldn't even get through it. I have to move
this fucking bookcase. MATT: You would, yeah. TRAVIS: Unless it's cheap wood
and I hate cheap wood. (laughter) MATT: The call is yours.
TRAVIS: Fair enough. LAURA: Is it
a backless bookcase? Really cheap wood. TRAVIS: Got that shitty
board on the back. MARISHA: Cardboard.
TRAVIS: Son of a bitch. It's leaning. TALIESIN: What is the
Tal'Dorei Ikea, I wonder? (laughter) TRAVIS: Are there any
vegetables up on the counter that I can reach up and snag, like a turnip or a radish? What do they use
in Animal Crossing? SAM: It's a parsnip.
MATT: Yes, actually. There are a– what's
your passive perception? TRAVIS: Passive perception. Hold on, I know
where this is. It's right here, it's 11.
MATT: 11, yeah. I mean, like,
glancing around, you can see there are
a number of some carved, some still waiting
to be cooked tomatoes and what looks like radishes,
potatoes, and other things that are easy to grab with
a little bit of a leap from where you're standing. TRAVIS: I'll take
a radish and a tomato. One hard, one soft. MATT: While the ogre cook
does not notice, they both vanish
from the counter. LIAM: This one's
for the theater. TRAVIS: How to get in? Do I handle this all myself? Show these bitches
how it's done. Or do I exercise teamwork? And who am I talking to? (laughter) LAURA: Are you saying
something to me? TRAVIS: Oh. (laughter) No! No! Stop, how do I
sever this connection? Hello? LAURA: You don't
hear anything. TRAVIS: I have more power
than I thought. (laughter) I will– I'll make my way back
towards the kitchen door, but I'll take the radish and
I'll roll it along the floor behind the ogre's feet,
kind of loudly, and see what kind of
a reaction it gets.
MATT: Okay. You roll it. (thumping) He's in the process
of holding two various cooking
implements before, "(grunts) Ah, shit." Gets his foot back
and starts kicking it over to where he is, sets one down
and picks it up. Begins setting it
on the counter. TRAVIS: Okay. I'm going to creep my way
back out like a mongoose. I make my way back to
the rest of the group. MATT: All right, as you
all are slowly sipping your imported Elvish– LAURA: It's giving
me a headache. MATT: — plum wine/liqueur. It's in that
in-between space where you're not sure
which one it is. TRAVIS: (stage whisper) Hey.
ROBBIE: (yells) TRAVIS: Don't act–
Act normal. It's me. It's Chetney. ROBBIE: I know, yes. What did you find? TRAVIS: I found, in
the kitchen, an ogre. ROBBIE: He's whispering into
the side of my thigh, right? MATT: Yeah.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you're on me? Ah! TRAVIS: Your shirt's just
pulled down on the side. (laughter) Okay, here's the dealio. There's an ogre,
about nine feet tall, real big, making food.
Don't eat the food. But there's a door
hidden behind a bookcase. I would have done it myself, but I'm the one
paying you people! So I wanted to come back
and report this. I could stay like this for
a while, so I'm still of use. MARISHA: Do you need a–
TRAVIS: I'm done. MARISHA: Do you need a–
TRAVIS: I'm done talking. MARISHA: Do you need
a distraction? TRAVIS: Oh, that would
be a great idea. MARISHA: I could
probably help with that.
TRAVIS: Okay, did you
want to elaborate, or–? MARISHA: Oh! Should I? I don't know. ROBBIE: What happens
during the distraction? There's usually distraction and then something
else happens. What's the something else? MARISHA: Well, you know, if
he's cooking at the stove, maybe I could have the
stove burst into flame, like it's gotten
out of control and pops in his face
a little bit. LAURA: Oh.
TRAVIS: Ashton. TALIESIN: Am I back yet? MATT: Yeah, if you
feel confident that you've distracted
long enough. TALIESIN: Definitely. MATT: Okay, then yeah. You've strolled back just
as this conversation was happening.
TALIESIN: How much do I owe for the bottle? MATT: That would be– TRAVIS: Oh, I thought he
was paying for the bottle.
Sorry to cut you off.
MATT: 12. TALIESIN: All right,
that'll do. SAM: Then Chetney will
use the distraction to sneak through the door? LAURA: Can he still
just go by himself? TRAVIS: I'm just curious–
TALIESIN: What'd I miss? TRAVIS: Is anyone
passing out food? TALIESIN: What the fuck? TRAVIS: Just act normal! TALIESIN: When? How?
TRAVIS: Is anyone– MARISHA: Oh, he went
into the kitchen– TALIESIN: No, act normal,
I don't know how to. LAURA: Oh, right. TALIESIN: I know you went
in the fucking kitchen. MARISHA: Oh. TRAVIS: I was just wondering
who delivers the food? LAURA: Oh, have we seen
any waiters or anything? ASHLEY: I've seen a lot
of delicious ham walk by.
TALIESIN: Oh you don't
want to eat the ham. ASHLEY: No to the ham, okay. MATT: You have seen,
there are two bar hands that both bring
drinks to tables and occasionally go into the
kitchen when you hear a, "It's up!" No specification,
just "It's up." Then they both
look at each other and one of them heads back
to check to see what is up and then emerges with
various portions of meals and delivers them
about the chamber.
ASHLEY: Why can't we
eat the food? Wait, can I see you yet? TRAVIS: It's filthy
back there. Listen, if you just
want to take out these people handing out food,
then they'll be short-staffed and then somebody else will
have to leave the kitchen to deliver the food. LAURA: How would we take–?
MARISHA: Take them out like– Yes.
SAM: Kill them? MARISHA: Murder? TRAVIS: Boy, that's a lot of
interpretation on your part. I just said take them out.
It could be for
a drink, to dance. ROBBIE: You also wanted to
set the cook's face on fire, was the other idea, so.
TRAVIS: Right! MARISHA: Oh,
don't get me wrong, I wasn't being judgmental. I'm here for it,
if it calls for murder. TALIESIN: We're going to die. LAURA: Yeah. TRAVIS: Or a distraction.
SAM: I can try to take, with a spell,
wherever you are, I can try to influence
them to do something other than their duties,
like leave. TRAVIS: Oh, I also
need some muscle, because like I said, there's
a bookcase in the kitchen.
It has to move. TALIESIN: I can do that,
I'm just very visible here. More visible
than even normal. LAURA: We just
have to find a way to– SAM: Orym can be sneaky. LAURA: — get him
out of the kitchen. LIAM: A little, I'm not
that strong, though. I'm just fast. LAURA: Is this place
open all the time? ROBBIE: What gets a cook
out of the kitchen? ASHLEY: I know. SAM: What?
LAURA: What? ASHLEY: You know when
you go to a restaurant and you're like,
"I would really love "to give my compliments
to the chef"? SAM: They bring 'em out.
ROBBIE: Excellent, excellent.
ASHLEY: Yes. MARISHA: Good idea.
ASHLEY: Then he'll come out. I can give him all the–
I'll eat the food, guys. I'll eat anything. So if I order the
food and I'm like, "Oh my goodness,
this is amazing," and then you guys
can go in there? MARISHA: It's not a bad idea. LAURA: Yeah, some people
could go in. Some of us would still
have to distract Preio. Praya. LIAM: They're really
interested in you, so maybe you can, continue to showboat.
SAM: I can distract more. LIAM: Yeah?
LAURA: Oh, that's right. Maybe you could put on a
performance or something. TRAVIS: Maybe the tiny
tots can handle it. I mean, I've got
guns for days. I just need other
person to help me push. (laughter) TRAVIS: What are
you laughing at? SAM: Who's the
sneaky one besides– Is anyone sneaky? LAURA: I think we're
all terribly un-sneaky.
ROBBIE: We shouldn't
need to sneak if it's only the
chef in the kitchen. SAM: You're right,
you're right. Well, so let's start
by ordering a ham. LAURA: Okay.
TALIESIN: Ugh. ROBBIE: Ashton, you think
you and I can handle the bookcase with– TALIESIN: If we can get back
there without being seen, sure.
ROBBIE: All right. MATT: Okay.
ASHLEY: I go up to the bar. MATT: All right, so you go
ahead and approach Preio, who finishes
serving two drinks. "Hey, honey, what
can I do for you?" ASHLEY: Hi, what do you have? What's on the menu? Is there a
chef's special today or something of the sort? MATT: "Yeah, you want a meal? "We got a meal." ASHLEY: What do you have? MATT: "Whatever's in
the meal for the day." ASHLEY: That sounds great.
Okay. MATT: "All right,
get it out to you. "Another meal!" (laughter) TRAVIS: Outstanding.
ROBBIE: Oh wow! TALIESIN: It's not
a happy meal, it's not an unhappy meal. It's right in the middle. ROBBIE: Another meal. TALIESIN: It's just
another meal. (laughter) TALIESIN: No maze on the box. No word scramble. ROBBIE: There will be a toy.
MATT: You can hear
the sizzling commence of a fresh whatever
being prepared. (laughter) LIAM: Comes with
ball and cup. MATT: Yep. A number of minutes later, you hear a voice
in the kitchen go, "It's up!" You see one of the servers, who's a very short
goblin who's been darting around between
the different tables and took a little
break on the corner, you can see has
a small bit of tobacco they've just finished rolling as they're about to head
outside on a break go, "(sighs)" (laughter) MATT: Heads and treks
back to the kitchen. Returns with a platter
and you can see on it– there are definitely
portions in this. There are different colors. There is a gray something. There is a brown series
of somethings, and what looks like it
might've been a soft rice. It comes over. It does smell like it
was cooked and may have some flavor or enjoyment to it. But it's definitely
a little nondescript when placed upon the table. "Here you go." ASHLEY: Thank you very much.
MATT: "This is for you." ASHLEY: Do you have utensils? MATT: (stammering) ASHLEY: Thank you very much.
MATT: "All right." MARISHA: Look at
the neutral tones. LAURA: You don't
have to do this. ASHLEY: I mean, this
looks delicious to me. Don't you smell this? TRAVIS: It smells pretty good.
TALIESIN: Yes, sadly. TRAVIS: Should we
case the perimeter while you're eating the food to see if there's
a back door or anything? TALIESIN: Did you see
a back door back there? TRAVIS: I was inside, so no. LAURA: So you didn't see
a back door into the kitchen? TRAVIS: No, there's a door
in the kitchen, behind the bookcase. TALIESIN: Was there
another door? TRAVIS: No. MARISHA: I'll look! I go and I look. SAM: Oh, outside the– MARISHA: Uh-huh.
SAM: Okay. MARISHA: I go walk
around the back. MATT: Okay, you go ahead and
walk the outside perimeter. There is a very thin space
to glance on the side, and as you get to
where the back is, there is no back alley.
This is actually built partially into the Spire itself. SAM: No back door. MARISHA: No cellar, nothing on the sides?
TRAVIS: That you know of. MATT: Not from the
outside, it seems. As you begin to
carve through this, oh, there is cooked ham,
there is beans, there was an actual meal. It's all covered
with a loose gravy that tends to give
a muted coloration to everything on there, which in itself is
quite delicious, but yes. MARISHA: Oh, it sounds good.
MATT: It's not bad. ROBBIE: Loose gravy.
ASHLEY: Excuse me? MATT: Yes. "Uh, yeah, yeah?" ASHLEY: Come here, please. MATT: "Is there something
wrong with it? "What did he do?" ASHLEY: No, this,
what is this? What all is this? MATT: "That's a meal." ASHLEY: This is one of the
best meals I've ever had.
(laughter) MATT: "Really?" ASHLEY: It's all
so just tasty. Could you bring out the chef? I would love to give
my compliments to the chef. MATT: "Okay." ASHLEY: This really is
award-winning stuff. ROBBIE: As I'm hearing this,
I motion to Ashton to make our way over toward where we could
get to the door. ASHLEY: I'm going to try
to eat as much as I can. MATT: It is greasy,
but, I mean, it's the southern shit
I grew up with and loved. LAURA: Yeah.
ASHLEY: Good shit. MATT: Yeah, yeah this is some
late night Waffle House shit. LAURA: Ham and beans
sounds fucking good.
MATT: Yeah. TALIESIN: Distract the liver.
MARISHA: I want to go to a Waffle House.
LAURA: Right now. MATT: The goblin server
rushes off and goes into the kitchen. Who's doing what
at this point? TALIESIN: I'm hanging onto you as we go over there
with the bottle. TRAVIS: I'm rolling
in the deep. MATT: Okay, the invisibility
lasts for an hour? TRAVIS: An hour! MATT: Yeah, so you're
still holding on to that. SAM: I've got eyes on…
Preio. MATT: Preio.
SAM: And I'm on distract her duty if
she walks away or anything. MATT: Preio's currently
in the process of now cleaning
down the space. A few patrons have left
and there's a little bit of a lull.
SAM: Wait, she's by the bar? MATT: Yeah. Preio's back at the bar.
SAM: Okay, I'll zoom over. TALIESIN: Fresh, Fresh,
bottle trick. Bottle trick, if you need to. SAM: Bottle trick? Oh, oh okay.
TALIESIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah. LAURA: Oh, yeah,
good idea, good idea.
SAM: I don't know
what that is. MATT: "Hey there, honey,
can I get you anything else?" SAM: Oh, I just had a bottle
trick I wanted to show you. (laughter) MATT: "Okay, show me
a bottle trick." SAM: Well, it's
a work in progress. I thought maybe you could
give me some pointers, having run an establishment
like this for quite some time. MATT: "Sure." SAM: I'll put the
bottle on my head. MATT: Okay. LAURA: Oh, that's dangerous
to be called a bottle trick. Well.
TALIESIN: Well. LAURA: There's more to this
trick, you just hold on, because it's
pretty impressive once he–
SAM: I will try to zoom forward and zoom
back with balancing it on my head.
LAURA: Okay, well. TALIESIN: Oh no, that wasn't–
LAURA: The bottle– No, no, no, no. Preio, hold on. MATT: Well, first, make
a dexterity saving throw. (laughter) SAM: That's a natural 20. (cheering) MATT: At first, it looks like
it's about to tip back and you compensate, and at
this point, it begins to lean in the other direction
and you compensate.
As opposed to just
keeping it in place, you are continuously
keeping it right about to fall,
LAURA: Look what I can do! MATT: Which builds
this perpetual tension, and everyone around the bar,
on the edges, start going,
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" All of a sudden people are
starting to join in. "Whoa, whoa." This stupid-ass trick somehow
is gaining attention. TRAVIS: Killing it.
SAM: I'm covering my eyes. MATT: Preio's on
the edge going, "I don't know what
I was expecting, but sure." While this is happening– MARISHA: It's a Boston Dynamics video.
LIAM: Hovering over towards the other side of the joint, so that we're in place
for when the chef exits. MATT: Right at this moment,
as this is happening, the goblin comes
rushing out. (whimpers) (thundering footsteps) "Who wants to see me?" SAM: Oh jesus. ASHLEY: Oh wow. Me! MATT:
(heavy running footsteps) You just get
this bounding ogre. People are scooting
out of the way, and one of the tables
people pull it back, it's like (scraping) off the wood
across the way.
Big smile on the face. You can see the lower
underbite of the ogre peering beneath
this giant grin. The grease and sweat
across the face. That one long hat
dangling and swaying to and fro as it bounds
over towards you. At that moment,
Preio glances over, and then everyone focuses– you rolled a natural 20–
focuses back on you. (heavy footsteps,
grunting pants) "Is it okay?" ASHLEY: I have to tell you this is one of the best meals
that I've ever had.
This is one of the best meals
that I've ever had. MATT: (grunt, exhale) ASHLEY: It–
MATT: (heavy breathing) You see tears beginning
to well up in his eyes. (exclamations, laughter) MARISHA: I love him. MATT: "(grunts)" ASHLEY: What's your name? MATT: "My name "Pretty." ALL: Pretty! ASHLEY: Pretty?
LAURA: Oh god. Brady or?
ASHLEY: Pretty or Brady? TRAVIS: Pretty.
MATT: "Pretty." ASHLEY: Oh, so Pretty.
LIAM: What's going on? MARISHA: (laughs)
"What's going on?" ASHLEY: I just have
to ask you, what are the ingredients
that you use? Is there cinnamon in this? MATT: "(sniffles) Yeah." (laughter) ASHLEY: I thought so. What else, what else? This is an old family
recipe, isn't it? MATT: "Sure." ASHLEY: Tell me everything
that's in it, please. MATT: "Well." ASHLEY: Okay. MATT: "First, I cook
a lot of meat fat." ASHLEY: Okay. MATT: "Then I mix it
with the oil." ASHLEY: Oh great. You know what, hold on,
I got to write this down. MATT: "Oh, it's
a secret recipe." LAURA: That's true.
You shouldn't take all the secrets.
MATT: "I'm kidding.
"You can write it down."
ASHLEY: Okay, I don't have to. (Pretty laughs)
(laughter) ASHLEY: Have a tissue. LAURA: Here have
some plum, here. ASHLEY: Have some plum wine. LAURA: Have some
of our liqueur. LIAM: Oh, he's going
to get sloppy. ASHLEY: It's very sweet. LAURA: It's really good.
MATT: "Another. "So–" and he starts going on and on about this. You guys are– what are you doing?
MARISHA: Go, go, go, go. TALIESIN: Are we doing this? LAURA: You're doing it!
ROBBIE: Yeah. TALIESIN: Pass Without
A Trace. SAM: Oh, thank you. MATT: All right,
so I would like those who are heading
towards the kitchen to roll a
stealth check, please. You with advantage.
LIAM: For our little mob? TALIESIN: Our little mob all
has Pass Without A Trace. MARISHA: These four? TRAVIS: Yeah! TALIESIN: Thank god.
TRAVIS: 20! Oh, Pass Without A Trace, 32! ROBBIE: Dirty 20, with– SAM: Plus 10. ROBBIE and MATT: 30. LIAM: 15. TALIESIN: 18.
MATT: Plus 10? LIAM: Yeah, plus 10,
I rolled low. TALIESIN: 18. MATT: 18, okay, still pretty
decent across the board. There is some
heavy distractions between the kitchen chef
being left outside and lightly blubbering
in a public space, which is a very rare sight
in this establishment, let alone the oddest
of circus acts transpiring in the center of
this dive bar, which is not usually this
kind of lively at this hour.
But you all trek around, skirting the crowd,
blending in, and then pass through the
open door into the kitchen, where you are met with the
smells of cooking oils, and meats, and garlic, and other delightful
hefty meal bits. Here you are. TALIESIN: Let's do this. TRAVIS: I quickly walk
over to the bookcase and I tap it, because
you can't see me. Then I'll look in
the little bit of the door that's seen. Do I see any traps
or any contraptions that might set off an alarm?
MATT: Investigation check. TRAVIS: Okay.
MATT: The rest of you see what may be
a bookcase to Chetney, is just a serving cart with
the wheels on one side.
ASHLEY: Oh my god! MARISHA: Because your
perspective was that limited. MATT: Yeah. It's about three and a half
feet up, almost four feet up with the chest length there. ROBBIE: Chetney, Chetney,
where's the bookcase? (laughter) TRAVIS: I can't
quite see above this gargantuan structure, but it's here. ROBBIE: I don't see it.
TRAVIS: Everyone! ROBBIE: Tap on it!
TRAVIS: Together on three! LIAM: Where in the room are you?
TRAVIS: (tapping) MATT: You can hear the sound.
What'd you roll? TRAVIS: A 25.
LAURA: Whoa. SAM: Oh my god.
MATT: 25. The door, as you glance past, you can now get a good look
behind the small gap. It looks like there
is a single metal ring that rests as bolted
into the door, that is pretty flush
with the cart placement to keep it hidden. You do also see a small
keyhole beneath it. TRAVIS: Oh, hold on,
I got to work. Can I reach the keyhole
from where I am, or is through the– MATT: You can.
It's a little rough, if you
don't move it out of the way. TRAVIS: Help me move
this gargantuan– ROBBIE: Orym. TRAVIS: Please! LIAM: You want help moving? TRAVIS: Yeah. LIAM: (squeaky wheel sounds)
(laughter) MATT: It's no longer
in your way. TRAVIS: My gods, you are a
man of unparalleled strength. I pick the lock! MATT: All right,
go ahead and roll a pick locks check with your– It's once again dexterity
and proficiency modifier. TRAVIS: Ugh. That is a 12. MATT: A 12. TRAVIS: Not great,
that was really low. MATT: It's not giving,
it's not giving. MARISHA: Shit.
LIAM: Oh no. MARISHA: Oh shit. LIAM What's the– TRAVIS: Goddamn it.
TALIESIN: What's a
thieves' tools roll again? MATT: If you're
proficient with them? TALIESIN: I am. I believe
so. It's under my tools, so I would assume I'm– MATT: It's under your tools,
but is it under proficiencies? TALIESIN: Where are
my proficiencies? It just says languages.
It doesn't say… Oh wait. There we are. It's proficiencies tools:
disguise kit, thieves tools. MATT: Then yeah. Go ahead and roll. It's
your proficiency bonus and your dexterity bonus. TALIESIN: Dexterity save. SAM: Dexterity bonus.
MATT: Bonus. TALIESIN: Oh, so, all right. MATT: Modifier. TALIESIN: That's cocked. That's worse,
but that's okay for both of the things
it could've been. 11. (groaning) MATT: This lock is
not moving for you. It doesn't look like
it's a complicated lock, but for some reason,
it's eluding both of your minds and
your tools at the moment. You can hear the sizzling
of food that's now, in the cook's absence, is
beginning to maybe get close to burning.
SAM: Oh no. TALIESIN: I'm going to
hop over and flip it.
MATT: Okay. LIAM: Is Pretty making
a lot of noise still out with the group? MATT: You glance
out the area. Pretty is on his knees
on the ground, holding Fearne's hand in his. You can see
intense conversation, the two of them.
As right now he's like, "Then, when it's
close to being done." ASHLEY: Okay. MATT: "Then you just slather
it with all the gravy." ASHLEY: That's how you do it! MATT: "Yeah, and you let it
sit for two, three minutes, "and it congeals." ASHLEY: Oh! Good stuff. MATT: "Yeah!" All right, so
what are you doing? TALIESIN: Chetney,
you need to hurry up. It cannot possibly
take that long to describe what this is. You've got to fucking hurry.
TRAVIS: (repeated) I'm trying.
Okay, can I try
it one more time at a higher DC or something? I don't know. MATT: If you want to
try it one more time, but I will say you've both
failed doing this once, which means not only is
the DC extremely high, but you're at risk of breaking
your tools if you fail. TRAVIS: We could
just force it. LIAM: Yeah. MARISHA: Can't get it open.
SAM: It's gone bad. MARISHA: Keep failing
their checks on fucking doors.
MATT: What are you doing? TALIESIN: You want to try
and force it? That'll be better.
TRAVIS: Might as well. TALIESIN: I'm still cooking. ROBBIE: Do it, do it.
MATT: Okay. TRAVIS: Let me try one more
time, and then you can fucking wreck it.
LAURA: You're cooking? TRAVIS: Maybe we'll get lucky. TALIESIN: It was burning. TRAVIS: I'll just try
one more time. Oh! That's a 26.
MARISHA: Oh!
LIAM: (sighs) MATT: 25 was the DC. (groaning) After all that. So at a moment you feel one of
the picks beginning to bend and you're like, "Oh no,
no, that's not good." Then you just manage to slip
the second tool underneath, and it manages the pressure
that's bending it to give, and the final tumbler goes
and it pulls it slightly away from the wall.
TRAVIS: No problem,
let's move. LIAM: All right. MATT: All right,
so who's doing what? TALIESIN: Do we all go in?
ROBBIE: I'm going in. TRAVIS: It's a swing,
or it's a slide? MATT: It's a swing.
TRAVIS: Swing, got it, okay. MATT: It pulls a little bit
further away from the wall. It's not fully open. LIAM: Invisible old man,
you first. TRAVIS: Okay, I go. MATT: All right,
who's after you? LIAM: Me. MATT: Okay, then after you? ROBBIE: Yeah,
I-I-I'll go after Orym. MATT: Okay, so as you
rush in, followed by Orym and the rest of you– ROBBIE: Hurtful,
hurtful guys. We all stutter sometimes. MATT: You all immediately
dart into this room that is low lit. You can see that there
is one oil lantern that's set on a table that's dimly lighting this space. The room is about
10-foot by 15 feet. It is a small room. You can immediately,
glancing around, you can see all sorts of
storage crates, and boxes, and looks like burlap bags
filled with grain or rice or all sorts.
This is a
kitchen storage area. You also see a cot. On this table, where
there is the lantern, you see a figure
that is sitting there. Currently in the low light
you can see what looks to be a woman, maybe late 20s
or so, who is uniya. You can see the elven ears
and the orcish features giving her this unique, almost strikingly beautiful
combination of both features. Very slender build and
dark leather armor, and a cloak that is dark
green, nearly black. Heavy belt with a number of
pouches and tools around it. You can see that there
are a set of black gauntlets that are
resting on the table, along with a
mostly empty plate. As soon as you all
step in, and glance, and see them, they
immediately look up, and then reach over and
grab a heavy crossbow and aim it right towards you,
who the first that walked in. As you all gather in, the three of you
are right there.
TALIESIN: (tutting) MATT: She goes to aim and
we're going to go to break. (groaning) MATT: Because we're there. SAM: Wow. MATT: We'll pick up at this
spot here in a few minutes. We'll see you guys
here shortly. (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) (epic adventure music) (mysterious music) Hey Critters, Laura Bailey here
to guide you through what's new in the Critical Role shop.
Ooh, so comfy cozy. Glorious! I mean, the Traveler always said impulse purchases are a good decision. Look at this. Isn't it fashion? So much fashion happening here. The cuteness! It's overpowering. Style should never be
a dump stat, darling. And hey, if you want, you can head
over to the Critical Role shop right now. (mysterious enchanting music) (typewriter clicking) (mysterious music) (inspirational music) We now go live to a special address from the President.
Hey dweebs. Now as your president, I've
been kinda killing it lately. I gave global warming
an atomic wedgie. I balanced the budget by
selling my Pog collection, and I saved the Queen of
England from that octopus! But my kick-assery
is far from done. According to this
chart that I made, an estimated 35% of you are
still a bunch of nasty goobers, but don't worry, I have a plan. Operation: Gag Me With A Spoon. It's easy sleazy. According to this study
that I wrote, if every citizen subscribed
to Critical Role on Twitch, we could reduce maximum
goobage by a metric buttload. Twitch is the only place
where you'll get a live and moderated chat
and when you subscribe to Critical Role, you
instantly get access to all their shows as soon
as the live broadcast ends. So while you're oogling
those Critical Role dorks with their sick goof-em-ups
and their nerdy voices, think of me, Gale, the
current president of whatever.
Now I gotta go make a
fresh batch of spitballs, but I guess I have some time
for your boring questions. You. Gale, is it
true that if you subscribe to Critical Role through Prime Gaming, you have to resubscribe every month? Uh, yeah. I do it right after my monthly
prank call to Pee-an O'Brien. Next question. Does Critical Role have exclusive emotes
for their subscribers? Uh, doy. Of course they do. I like the hello bees one,
'cause bees are cool. I replaced my whole security
detail with a bunch of bees that think I'm their queen. Last question. Yeah, with all due respect, is Operation: Gag Me With
a Spoon a real policy, or are you mad goofin'? Am I mad goofin'? What, do you see me
scarfing Milk Duds while doodling ding-dongs
in the SkyMall catalog? Listen, I know I'm new to this.
And I admit that when
I made the wish to be the boss of
everything, I did not know the witch that works at
Woolworth's was listening. Well, Faustian bargain or
not, I am the president and I have an obligation
to lead this country. So to answer your question,
no, I am not mad goofin'. Security, take him out. (bees buzzing) (Gale laughing) Later, chudruckers! MATT: And welcome back. So as we left off. SAM: Oh god, that's right. MATT: While many of you
are running distractions– TRAVIS: What a dick. MATT: — in the
Soot and Swill Tavern, our troupe of an invisible
Chetney, a Dorian Storm, an Orym of the Air Ashari, and an Ashton Greymoore–
TALIESIN: Oh shit. MATT: — are rushing into
the back hidden chamber that is affixed next
to the kitchen. As you dart in,
in the dark-lit room, you are immediately
faced with a figure.
Cloaked, standing up, and pulling a heavy crossbow
on you all, finger on the trigger,
tension held in the air. LIAM: Please, don't shoot.
TALIESIN: Whoa, whoa, whoa! LIAM: Definitely don't
want to fight. MATT: "Why should I not?" And you see the other hand
reaches back for a blade. LIAM: Just want to talk,
looking for Artana Voe. MATT: Make a
persuasion check. TRAVIS: Come on. MARISHA: Big money.
TRAVIS: Invisible. LAURA: Ooh, ooh! LIAM: I can't see it.
It looks real low, though. And my–
LAURA: Halfling Luck! TALIESIN: You rolled
such a tiny die. LIAM: My nondescript
tablet is turned off. SAM: Oh no. LIAM: It's real low, though. SAM: Let's just cut. LIAM: Super low.
(laughter) MARISHA: Take it back,
trash it. LIAM: Total of four.
MATT: It's garbage SAM: Total of four?
LAURA: Oh no! What's with
the rolls tonight? MARISHA: Right? They're
bad, right? They're bad. SAM: I don't know what
you're talking about. MATT: Does a 19 hit you? LIAM: Just. Just.
LAURA: Oh no. MATT: Just? Wow. Okay. TRAVIS: Take it and duck. MATT: You take eight
points of piercing damage as you have your shield up and the bolt releases from
the heavy crossbow, (whooshes) it hits the shield, arcs up, and just catches you on
the side of the chin.
And then (impact) sticks
into the wall behind you. LIAM: Believe it or not,
still don't want to fight. Still, still don't
want to fight. TALIESIN: I step in front– MATT: At this point, you
watch the heavy crossbow fall to the side, the hand
catches another bolt, spins it around, and in one
movement, turning it around, (whooshes) pulls it back, has it at the ready, and has now geared it
over towards you, Dorian. LIAM: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait. LAURA: Wait.
ASHLEY: Wait. LIAM: We just want to talk. I got a bolt in my
chin, I'm not swinging, We just want to talk. MATT: "Then talk. Quickly." LIAM: We're looking
for Artana Voe. That you? MATT: "Maybe. What do
you want with her?" LIAM: Chet? Still here? ROBBIE: Whatever you say
it had better be good. (laughter)
LAURA: You're such a dick. MATT: All right.
LIAM: We need to find– (laughter)
ASHLEY: That's so great. MATT: Does a 14 hit you? ROBBIE: It does not.
MATT: You watch as she fires,
but it's slightly to the left, the bolt (springing) into the wall next to you.
It was a warning shot. (laughter) SAM: I missed. (laughter)
MATT: (crossbow reloading) LIAM: Gurge.
TALIESIN: Oh, for fuck's sake, we're looking for– (groans) Fuck's sake, we're
looking for a friend, a friend of a friend
who went missing. We're just trying to
help a buddy out. There's a lot of
weird shit going on and we just need a little
bit of fucking help. LIAM: Gurge, we're
trying to find Gurge. TALIESIN: Gurge. Fuck.
MARISHA: You forgot his name. (laughter) TALIESIN: (groans) MATT: Crossbow's still
pointed at Dorian. "You're not going to
find Gurge here." TALIESIN: I know that!
We need help. MATT: "What do you
have to offer?" TALIESIN: Fuck, I don't
know that, hold on. We hadn't gotten that far. What do you need?
What do you want? Why don't you fucking talk,
you asshole. (laughter) TRAVIS: We have money.
TALIESIN: Thank you.
TRAVIS: I'm closer to
her and to the left, I've just kept going. MATT: (crossbow firing) With disadvantage because
you are invisible. Ooh. That's going to be a– another 14 to hit. TRAVIS: Misses.
Ow, you got me! MATT: (crossbow reloading) TRAVIS: I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I've had this affliction
my whole life. Listen, I'm looking for
Gurge, he's a friend. I'm just trying to find him
so I can get some work.
Please, we don't want to
bother you very much. We can give you money, we don't want to
bother you anymore. If you could point us to
the direction of where– MATT: "Put it on the table." TRAVIS: (stutters)
H-h-how much? MATT: "What have you got?" TRAVIS: Ah, that's kind of
an open-ended question. How about 25 gold? MATT: She points it
back over towards you. TRAVIS: 30, 30! 30 gold. ROBBIE: I have more
gold as well. MATT: "Put it on the table." ROBBIE: All right. TRAVIS: You see 30 gold
just appear on the table. MARISHA: (metallic pinging) TRAVIS: (coins dropping) (laughter) TALIESIN: I swear to fuck,
Chetney, if I find out you have
more money than that– (sighs) You're going to be
dead in ten years.
ROBBIE: I've got that.
I could at least match it. I think. May I? MATT: "Match it." ROBBIE: Okay. I'll walk slowly
over and pull out 30 gold, set it next to Chetney's. MATT: "All right." TRAVIS: You also see a
small wooden rocking horse appear on the table. (laughter) MATT: "Thanks." Still drawn, grabs the chair, drags it back towards
the back of the chamber, so her back is
towards the cot, goes and slowly
sits in the chair but keeps the heavy
crossbow aimed at you, across her lap, and just keeps eyes darting
amongst all of you.
"I was hired to
find him, and I did it. "He's not with me anymore." TALIESIN: Where'd
you take him? MATT: "My client is
privileged information." She glances back
at the table. "I can tell you I was
told he was a threat "the minute he
entered the city. "Apparently word got around: "wild man Gurge was returned
to the civilized streets. "My client paid me very well "and emphasized he be
brought back alive." TRAVIS: 15 more gold
appears on the table and does the poker chip
(coins clattering) to form a new tower.
TALIESIN: I'm still
trying to decide how much I like this
motherfucker. I'm not– TRAVIS: Please! SAM and MARISHA: (laugh) LIAM: I'll put another
hundred down if you can tell us where
we can lock onto them. TRAVIS: Wow! MATT: Make a persuasion
check with advantage. LIAM: Hey– MARISHA: Come on.
ROBBIE: (whistles) LIAM: Natural 20. (cheering) MATT: Plus? (cheering) LIAM: Plus nothing. MATT: Okay. LIAM: On the Keyleth die. LAURA: What? TALIESIN: Fuck. Holy fuck. MATT: "Show me what you got." LIAM: Shield and sword away, shield and sword down, and
slowly pull out a sack, and I count out 50 for me, and put in 103 gold
on the table.
MATT: "My client was
Vali Dertrana. "Vali's the
business commissioner "of the Mirror Towers
in the Core Spire "works out of the Moon Tower. "I haven't done much
for him before, "but when a client is
shifty about details, "especially when they can get
me killed, I hold no loyalty. "So there you have it." LIAM: Cool. Cool, cool, cool. TRAVIS: Vali Dertrana
over at the Moon Tower. MARISHA: She was at what? LIAM: We were obviously
never here. Side question: if we ever needed
your services, what would that run us? MATT: "It depends on what
services you're looking for." LIAM: How much would it
cost to bring in Gurge? MATT: "Gurge, here? "Well… "knowing what I know now– "Eight G's." TRAVIS: (coughs in shock)
SAM: Eight gold pieces. (quiet laughter) MATT: He's not a
typical mark, that one, "and if you're
looking for him, "you best be careful." LIAM: Okay, okay.
Well, we'll table
the collaboration. Is that extra hundred
worth any advice or tips? MATT: "I don't deal with
people like him often. "In fact, only once before. "Just don't get bitten." LIAM: Okay. Gang, are we good? TRAVIS: Is there anything
in the room on the tables away from where Artana is of any value or interest? MATT: Roll a
perception check. LIAM: Roll that check. MARISHA: We've got
two kleptos now. TRAVIS: 17. (laughter) ASHLEY: (mimicking Chetney)
It's just so shiny. MATT: Around Artana, both on the table,
on the belts, and on the
edge of the cot, there are all manner of strange tools and
knives and hooks. They could be
torture implements. They could be
hunting implements that could be used for cleaning creatures,
skinning creatures, or making someone yell
in pain if they need to. You're uncertain
as to the purpose, not too dissimilar to a lot
of your chiseling tools, just a little
nastier looking. Beyond that, it's hard to
tell in this low light. Most of the rest of the
chamber appears to be storage for all manner
of cookable goods.
TRAVIS: I start slowly
backing out of the room. It looks like you work
with your hands. I respect it. TALIESIN: Dorian, you got
something you want to say? You want to ask? ROBBIE: Long as you don't
shoot me, is that fair? Uh– Have you heard of
a large bounty 20,000 on a… security detail
that went wrong? Something perhaps put up
by the Treshi family? MATT: "Yeah. "You do match
a certain description "that came across my path." ROBBIE: Does it
seem to be a… popular bounty in the
bounty hunting community? (laughter) MATT: She leans forward
and gives you a good hard look from tip
of head to bottom of feet.
"Real familiar description." ROBBIE: Oh. (drawn out) Hi. No… TALIESIN: We wouldn't be
asking if that was the thing. ROBBIE: Yeah.
ASHLEY: No. TALIESIN: That would
be some crazy shit. MATT: "Stranger things
have happened. "Meal tickets walking
into my lap." ROBBIE: We all
have family, right? And we want to protect
our family, don't we? I have nine friends here
who I consider family. MATT: Make a
persuasion check. LIAM: Here's that
other 50. ROBBIE: Eight– math is hard. TRAVIS: 50. Does that help? Does that help?
Does that help? MATT: The silent
Bertrand Bell– (laughter) MATT: — as he
looks over you. ROBBIE: He's in my pocket
in a greasy bone mess. MATT: It's true, yeah. Roll a persuasion check. ROBBIE: All right. LIAM: 50 gold, I added
an extra 50 gold! MATT: Yeah. ROBBIE: (laughs) Oh wait!
Oh, no, no. MARISHA: That's a 12.
ROBBIE: Oh, thank god. Yes. 15.
TRAVIS: Yeah. MATT: 15. ROBBIE: It's why we're there. MATT: "Yeah, that'd
be pretty brazen "for a mark familiar
with their own bounty "to walk in here against me. "But you say family.
"I take it you're
related to this mark?" ROBBIE: Oh, in a
very broad sense, yes. MATT: "Well, I bet you'd
tell your friend– "Sorry, your family to get
out of town real quick. "If he's still here. "I'm not the only hunter
on the loose. "I don't know, it seems like "this is the
first lead I've got." She's reading your
face intently. "If he's still here." TALIESIN: It wouldn't pan
out the way you think. We appreciate your candor. MATT: "All right, then. "Hope we don't meet again." TALIESIN: Pleasure would
definitely not be mine. Out! TRAVIS: Some of your
tools need sharpening. TALIESIN: Try the meal
when you got a minute. I close the door. MATT: Close the door
behind you. (as Pretty)
"Anyway, I'm sorry. "I've got get back to work." ASHLEY: It's been such a pleasure to
spend time with you. It really, truly has. MATT: "You too." ASHLEY: Thank you very much.
MATT: "Look." ASHLEY: Yes.
MATT: "I may be called
Pretty, but you are–" ASHLEY: Pretty– You just have– Your heart
is as big as you are. MATT: "It's very swollen." (laughter) ASHLEY: I just can tell.
Yeah. MATT: He starts (stomping). LAURA: Have we
seen our friends come out of the kitchen yet? MATT: Not yet. The rest of
you step out of the room and at that point you
hear the heavy footfalls approaching the kitchen
of the cook. MARISHA: Do something. LAURA: (coughs) (bangs table) Pretty! MATT: "Yeah?" LAURA: What are you
doing later? SAM: Oh no. MATT: "Working,
and then sleeping?" LAURA: What time
do you get off? (laughter) MATT: He looks back–
(laughs) He looks back over
at his boss, who's like– "Uh– "Two hours after sundown." LAURA: Two hours
after sundown– Pretty? Do you want to go on a date? MATT: "With you?" LAURA: Anybody at this table.
SAM: What? LAURA: I mean–
TRAVIS: Oh yeah, yeah– (laughter) LAURA: Whoever you want
to go– I don't know.
ASHLEY: (stammers) We could–
we could all go, just make it a full group hang type of thing. LAURA: You know, the three of
us are sitting at the table, still, right?
It's the three of us? MATT: Looks back and gives a
big old thumbs up to his boss at the tavern front. Preio goes, (as Pretty)
"They like the meal." (as Preio) "I mean,
go get it, buddy." He gives you, like, a "Sure?" MARISHA: We'll meet
you out front. MATT: "It's a date." LAURA: Have they come out yet? MATT: They're now coming out. I need you guys to
roll a stealth check if you want to be
unseen as you exit. TRAVIS: Pass Without
a Trace still up? MATT: It's still–
How long does it last? TALIESIN: An hour.
MATT: Ten minutes, right? TALIESIN: No,
Pass Without a Trace? MATT: Is it ten minutes or
an hour? One of the two.
TALIESIN: Uh, (gibberish).
LAURA: I know, which one is it? MATT: It's been a while.
TALIESIN: One hour. MATT: One hour. There you go.
TALIESIN: Concentration. I didn't get shot. MATT: That's true.
You're good. TRAVIS: 31.
LAURA: Whoa. LIAM: 32.
TALIESIN: 20. I rolled real bad.
MARISHA: (gasps in shock) TALIESIN: Plus 10!
ROBBIE: Ah, fuck, natural one. TALIESIN: Plus? ROBBIE: Plus four, plus 10– oh, okay, 15. LAURA: Natural one.
MATT: Still a natural one. ROBBIE: Doesn't matter,
right? It's a failure. MATT: It is a group check. ROBBIE: Okay. MATT: You rolled
a 20, you said? TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.
MATT: Let me see what
it's looking like. (bumps microphone)
Oops, sorry. LIAM: 32 and a 31. MATT: 32 and a 31,
that's two successes, two failures– LAURA: Whoa. MATT: A natural one
is two failures, and then you're on
the cusp, we'll see. MARISHA: But Fresh Cut Grass is still doing
his bottle trick. (laughter) MATT: Yeah,
and you know what? No disrespect to you, the
charm's worn off a little, and folks are going back
about their business. SAM: It's just
back and forth. (laughter) MATT: At a certain point, it just doesn't grasp
the same attention. SAM: I went from side to
side for a while, now diagonal, but that's all I got.
LIAM: Second verse,
same as the first. TRAVIS: Oh man! MATT: As you all scoot
out of the kitchen and back into the riff
raff of the chamber, looking across to
your friends as, stepping aside, a big hand
palms the side of your shoulder and pushes you, Dorian,
out of the way. "Move aside,
shift got to finish!" He just charges back
into the kitchen with a renewed vigor. It does not seem
there is a lot of eyes noticing your return,
luckily.
But as you reconvene
at the table you see your friends
finally return. LAURA: How did it go? TALIESIN: That was expensive. SAM: You're bleeding. MARISHA: You totally have
an arrow in your chin, wow. LAURA: It wasn't sticking
in your chin, Orym. (laughter) MARISHA: The whole time just centimeters from
your jugular. ROBBIE: Whoa! TALIESIN: I forgot. I'm
going to wander over to Fresh Cut Grass
and grab my bottle. All right, thank you. SAM: I can stop that now? TALIESIN: Oh yeah, well done.
MARISHA: Good job, good job. TRAVIS: We can go
if we want to. We found out all
we needed to. SAM: Who's saying that? LIAM: You know,
we got a lead. We should probably
get out of here soon. MARISHA: Okay, we just have
to be back in two hours. TRAVIS and LIAM: Why? LAURA: We have a date. LIAM: With?
MARISHA: Mm-hmm. SAM: All of them are going
on a date with the cook? MARISHA: Pretty is his name. He's very sweet. LAURA: He was so nice.
MARISHA: So nice. ASHLEY: He was very,
very nice. Yeah. LIAM: Okay, wasn't the
outcome I was expecting. ASHLEY: What did
you guys get? TALIESIN: Shot, mostly. LIAM: A name, a location
for good old Gurge. TRAVIS: You can't see me. (laughter) TALIESIN: Did you just
say that out loud? TRAVIS: Yes.
TALIESIN: I take an elbow to wherever I heard
that coming from. TRAVIS: Ow! (laughter) TALIESIN: Asshole!
TRAVIS: Damn it! SAM: Well, let's go. Yeah.
Let's get out of here. MARISHA: Are you all right? ROBBIE: Hmm? MARISHA: You look very– LAURA: Distracted.
MARISHA: Pensive– Distracted.
ROBBIE: (clears throat) I
thought we had the drop on them– They ended up getting
the drop on us. LIAM: Walked right into it. TALIESIN: I mean, all things
considered, we did all right. LIAM: Do we really need to
be back here in two hours? LAURA: Yeah. We can't stand
him up, he's too nice. MARISHA: Oh, absolutely! LAURA: He had a good soul. ASHLEY: He really did. MARISHA: We've all–
ROBBIE: Chasing– MARISHA: Well, he's
just an outcast, and we all know
what that's like, and that would be
just so mean. TALIESIN: Gods love a cook. MATT: It's two hours
past sunset. Sunset's probably about
three hours off. LAURA: Three hours away.
Great. MATT: Five hours,
technically. LAURA: Five hours away. MATT: Two hours past sunset,
three 'til sunset. LAURA: Got it,
got it, got it.
ROBBIE: Nine friends plus
three sunsets equals math. LAURA: We have five hours. ROBBIE: Got it. LIAM: One adventuring
party leaves at 60 miles an hour
going north. (laughter) MARISHA: I hated those. TALIESIN: I'd say go shopping,
but all of the shops down here kind of fucking suck. LAURA: Yeah. TALIESIN: I mean, they're here,
but they kind of suck. SAM: Where was the lead?
Where did… LAURA: Oh yeah, where did
she send you guys to? LIAM: Moon Tower
in the Core Spire. SAM and MARISHA: Core Spire. LAURA: All right,
which is how– Is there a connection to
the Core Spire from the– Smolder Spire? MATT: Correct, yeah. All the different spires
connect to the Core Spire and a handful of them have premium contacts between
them that cost more, but they all connect
to the Core Spire.
That's the one they use
as a junction point between all of them. TALIESIN: That's where
the theater was. LAURA: Yeah, the Core Spire's
got all the shit. TALIESIN: Yeah. MARISHA: Let's not forget we
have to go back to the theater to pick up our memberships. ASHLEY: Oh, that's right. MARISHA: They had to
make up the cards. I have to sign for them. LAURA: Mm-hmm. LIAM: Dance card is so full. TALIESIN: Weird fucking week. MARISHA: It's true. Maybe we have time to catch
a show between our date. SAM: Maybe you can take
him there on the date. LAURA: Oh, that would be so cute!
MARISHA: That's a brilliant idea. LIAM: Could multitask.
ASHLEY: That would be really sweet, yeah.
TALIESIN: Five birds, two
stones? I don't know. Are you still invisible? LAURA: We're heading
to the Core Spire. MATT: All right. Everyone
mark off a silver piece for the return trip. SAM: Someone spot me. TRAVIS: Probably not now. TALIESIN: Did you
just say that? TRAVIS: It's worn off by now.
LAURA: I'm paying for FCG. TALIESIN: Okay, never mind. I
was going to take another hit, but that's okay. TRAVIS: You've got so much– (whispering) You've got
so much money! That was almost half
of what I have. You're very generous. TALIESIN: Was that almost
half of what you have? TRAVIS: Yeah!
TALIESIN: Insight check. 13. TRAVIS: Yeah! TALIESIN: All right. (laughter) TALIESIN: Just making
sure. You're weird.
ROBBIE: As we're leaving
and getting called out on being distracted, and they're chit-chatting
about their date, all Dorian can think about is that woman in a
fucking dark corner realizing he just gave
information about himself and his brother.
Every instinct in him wants to go back there
and just fuck her up. He doesn't. He stays with
his friends for now. MATT: Okay, just focusing
and staring forward as you all continue your
return gondola trip to the Core Spire, shaking
slightly along the way. ASHLEY: Oh no! LAURA: Fearne! TRAVIS: We should
probably relay some of the stuff that
was said, I mean– Artana said some
messed up shit.
SAM: You did? TRAVIS: No!
The bounty hunter. ASHLEY: What kind of things? LAURA: Do you want
to relay it all? TRAVIS: Well, I'll relay it
all, but there was, I mean. She said "as long
as you don't get bit." LAURA: What do you
mean "bit?" ASHLEY: Bit by what? LIAM: By the beast. TRAVIS: Yeah, Gurge.
LIAM: By Gurge. ASHLEY: What is–
(gasps) is he–? MARISHA: He's got, you know, some sort of infectious– LIAM: Direwolves? SAM: Someone said wild.
What, he's a wild person? Wild man? TRAVIS: Yeah, he's a– He either was turned into a
beast or becomes a beast or– ASHLEY: Maybe he becomes– Did you ever see him
turn into anything? TRAVIS: No! ASHLEY: By the light
of a full moon? TRAVIS: No.
He smelled terrible, though.
LAURA: Would we know about werewolves and
stuff like that? MATT: You only have the
information you've been given. LAURA: I know! Would there be
lore of werewolves or something? MATT: There's definitely
folktales about it. You've never encountered one, but people speak
of distant stories. Occasionally in Marquet,
there are tales of people that transform into beasts
at the light of a full moon. Some that go wild and just– Murdering folks,
some that end up being hunted down as
destroyers of villages, but they all seem
kind of old, and, you assume, used
to scare the children.
LIAM: You could've been a
gnome werewolf, Travis. You blew it. (laughter) TRAVIS: Shit! (laughter) TRAVIS: Reset, back to one! (laughter) ASHLEY: Wait, you
said he smelled. What does he
smell like? Just– TRAVIS: Like urine. (laughs) ASHLEY: I don't know if
I know what that is. TRAVIS: A little
fecal matter. LAURA: A little fecal–
ASHLEY: Oh, oh, oh. LIAM: Pee and poo. TRAVIS: Yeah, and just B.O. I think he was one of
those au naturel people, doesn't like to offset
the natural musk. ASHLEY: Sure. TRAVIS: I just figured that's
from the wilderness stuff. Now that I'm putting
it together, like a jigsaw puzzle,
one piece at a time. The picture becomes clearer. Stinky. SAM: This bounty hunter
said that Gurge was delivered to the
Moon Tower? Is that right? TALIESIN: Mm-hmm. LIAM: Yeah, the full name was
Vali? What was the last name? TRAVIS: Vali Der– ASHLEY: Dertrana?
MATT: Dertrana. LIAM: Dertrana. SAM: That's who ordered
the hit or the capture? MATT: Correct.
TRAVIS: Delivered alive! MATT: They are the business
commissioner of the Mirror Towers. MARISHA and LAURA:
Business commissioner. ROBBIE: Head of business.
MARISHA: At the Mirror Tower? Moon Tow–
SAM: Mirror Tow– MATT: Within the Moon Tower
of the Mirror Towers, there are– TRAVIS: Is it "Mirror Towers"
or "Meer?" MATT: It's the Mirror– TRAVIS: Mirror Towers.
SAM: Mirror Towers. MATT: Now, that's a
space that you know of and you may have heard of, but none of you
have really been to. It's further towards the
top of the Core Spire. You get closer
to the Quorum Grounds. While a number of– Close to a majority
of the Mahaan houses live on the Lucent Spire. A number of them do reside
and do their business, as well as a number
of the guilds, up towards the top
of the Core Spire, overlooking the rest of Jrusar
and the surrounding jungle. LAURA: Is the Core Spire
the tallest? MATT: It is the
second tallest. The Aerie Spire, which is
where the conservatory and the sky port is,
is the tallest, but it's also a lot thinner. Most of its construction
is towards the top of it, as opposed to the Core Spire,
which is almost throughout the entire Spire itself.
TRAVIS: Who knows anything
about the Moon Tower? MARISHA: Ashton! TALIESIN: I've never fucking
been there. I don't know. SAM: The Aerie Spire,
we're going there now? LAURA: No, we're going
to the Core Spire. SAM: Oh, okay. LAURA: To the Mirror
Tower of the Core Spire. LIAM: Of the Moon Towers. MARISHA: No, the Moon Tower– MARISHA, LAURA, and LIAM:
Of the Mirror Towers. MARISHA: — of
the Core Spire. LIAM: Oh my gosh. TRAVIS: You've been
here longest, but you haven't gone
there because, why? Is it fancy or something? MARISHA: Would we know
anything about if it's fancy? MATT: You would know
that a number of guilds actually carry the core
of their business within what you've heard are
the Mirror Towers. You've never been there. You're not quite sure
what a Moon Tower is. You've generally not
wandered that far off because you haven't
had a reason to, but you know that apparently, it's a place
of guild business and that's about it. If you want to
roll a history check for any additional info? TALIESIN: I mean, fuck it.
MATT: Just in case.
LAURA: I wonder if we're
going to get kicked out. They're really particular
about people they let– MATT: Nah.
TALIESIN: No. LAURA: — wander into
these places. TALIESIN: That was–
just in case I'm wrong– Four.
SAM: We've got to sneak in and get Gurge for– LAURA: We need to sneak in?
SAM: Chetney, right? MARISHA: And they
said they'd– SAM: Or else we
don't get toys. MARISHA: They took him alive, which is interesting.
TALIESIN: When you put it like that. MARISHA: Because business
commissioner makes sense: she wants to takes him
out if she's afraid that he's going to
cause any panic or scare and detract
from local business. TALIESIN: That's an expensive
person to hire to take them out. MARISHA: But she wanted
him alive, right? Why not just take him out? LAURA: Chetney, is this
guy a real bad guy? Is he a criminal?
Has he killed people? Are we trying to
let a killer free? SAM: Yeah, we're
talking about, now, going to bust out a werewolf
man from an ivory tower so that he can recommend you for an apprentice
carpenter job? Is that what's happening?
(laughter) LAURA: This is a bit
absurd at this point.
LIAM: Yeah, you could
just slum it with us. I say that as someone who just dumped
100 gold for you. TRAVIS: Yeah.
LIAM: But still. TRAVIS: I could pay you
back half of that. LIAM: I just want
my wooden toy. MARISHA: I guess we're
just curious if there's another route
to the same outcome– SAM: Or another layer that perhaps you haven't
revealed to us yet about why– the importance
of this gentlemen.
TRAVIS: I don't know
enough about him. I didn't know
he killed anybody and I didn't know he was a
beast or a wolf or bear, lion, whatever the hell he is.
I don't know, maybe we can find out
a little bit more, but you're right. It's all a little
frustrating. ASHLEY: Was he
a friend to you? ROBBIE: Yes, why are you so
dedicated to this cause? TRAVIS: Well, when I left
Uthodurn, I left all the years of work that I had done
behind and a bit of a career, all up in smoke and then I thought that might be
the end of my crafting days and I suppose it
could be again, but it makes me real happy and
he seemed to understand that I had skills that
are kind of rare and the people that pointed
me in his direction said that he was the key to,
you know, higher clientele.
I took it on faith. I'm sorry I don't
have more answers. It's really all I have, but it sounded pretty
good at the time. MARISHA: Oh no, it's
nice to be believed in. Sometimes it's very special
when it comes around LAURA: Can I roll
an insight check? MATT: Sure. ASHLEY: Good call. TALIESIN: Shifty
carpenter man. LAURA: 13.
MATT: 13. TRAVIS: Can I roll
a deception check? MATT: You may, if you'd like. MARISHA: Wait, what
does it mean? TALIESIN: Travis is
just fucking with us. TRAVIS: 21. (laughter) It's all lies, Imogen. I want to wear
your skin for a hat. (laughter) You could just ask me!
I say it in my head. MARISHA: She has nice skin,
honestly. TRAVIS: I said that
in my head. MARISHA: Oh, the skin part? TRAVIS: Yep. MARISHA: Thought it was–
TALIESIN: Did you just blurt out "she has nice skin"
out of nowhere– TRAVIS: What the fuck,
Laudna! Shit! (laughter) ASHLEY: She has nice skin. LAURA: Okay, in your
head you hear– MARISHA: Just in the ether.
LAURA: There's got to be
more to this, Chetney. TRAVIS: Out loud you hear:
I'm sure there is, I don't know any more
than that. That's literally all I have. Truly. We can just leave it, I don't
want anybody getting hurt and I don't want you
being out more money. LIAM: Well, in this beast's
defense, we have heard that the people down below
think highly of him, which doesn't jive
with him being, you know, a crazed murderer. Tell you what,
the ladies have a date in three or four hours. Why don't we just
visit, look around? What's the worst
that could happen? We don't need to go
invading a tower tonight. TRAVIS: That would be
most generous of you. I would take you up on that. I mean, if that's
okay with the ladies.
What? LAURA: Nothing.
Nothing at all. MARISHA: Are you going to
go on a little boy date while we have our date? LIAM: You don't want
to come with? I mean. MARISHA: Oh wait, what?
LAURA: What? MARISHA: I was distracted.
LIAM: It's, like, four hours away your date, right? LAURA: Yeah. LIAM: I was just saying maybe
we all go have a look around TRAVIS: Yeah.
LAURA: Oh, all right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, lets go. LIAM: Not invade
a tower tonight, but just get
a lay of the land. ASHLEY: What is
the Moon Tower? Isn't it weird
that they have– LAURA: Is there a Sun Tower
and a Moon Tower? SAM: Maybe that's
the Mirrors. ASHLEY: Maybe the moon
makes it come alive. MARISHA: That's a good point. SAM: Let's go find out. MARISHA: Yeah. ASHLEY: Yeah,
let's go find out. MATT: So you have spent
most of your time within the Core Spire,
in the central, mid-range of its
spiraling main streets, following where you know
it's supposed to be, you begin to head further and
further up and as you do, you cross by
beautiful gardens, these tree-covered,
constructed elements of the most beautiful aspects
of the surrounding jungle, cultivated to be
a welcoming presence here in the middle of
the industrial city.
Continuing further upward,
you pass a massive waterfall that cascades from
the top of the spire, which is odd given the fact that there is nothing
feeding a waterfall from that far up,
in a spire this thin, but it cascades down
the side of the spire and spreads into a series
of rivers that scatter across and then spill off
the side of the spire, down, turning into
mist waterfalls below. You begin to realize that
there are certain portions of the Core Spire
street below where there's perpetual
mist flowing. You now know its source is
from this upper portion. There are bridges
that lead over each of these small rivers. Continuing onward and
keeping an eye abound, you do eventually find rising
against the stone spire wall to your left, a heavy gate that surrounds
a guarded courtyard that holds up four beautiful
polished towers of marble and limestone, that
climb to a droplet-like peak, each of them,
at different heights. Heavy vine cover climbs up
the sides of each tower, the peripheral edges,
carefully manicured to frame the warmly-lit
arched windows that adorn these
towers in different ways.
You can see the base
of each tower expands into a small compound
with its own interior set of chambers and you can
see sets of stone archways that dot the courtyard
where different pillars and statues mark way points
and paths between them, set with nearby benches. This is a beautiful space,
cultivated, gated, and you can see there is
probably four wardens that are keeping perimeter
or standing watch at the front gates that lead
into the interior of the space that, glancing about,
you get the sense this is likely the
Mirror Towers, as the bit of, now starting to press into
sunset, lighting is gleaming off of their polished
exterior's strongly and catching the surrounding
neighborhood in bright, flickering lights that
occasionally shift and shimmer almost like you're underwater.
LAURA: Do any of them
obviously look like it would be the Moon Tower? MATT: Not from this distance. MARISHA: You said they're
laid out in a geometric– MATT: There's two of them
that are the closest and then there are two more
behind and further apart that are not quite up
against the spire itself, a little bit further away from
it to allow green courtyard to surround it and there are
trees and bits of jungle brush that have been
carefully manicured as well, similar to the gardens
you've passed by and you can see the
stone pathways between and through these arches that
creates this interior space and there's probably
about a dozen or so people you can see,
some that are sitting and talking in elements
of this courtyard, others they're walking
from one tower to another. You see a one set that
exits from the front gate and give a nod to
the guard as they head further up the spire
into buildings above. SAM: Are there simurghs around
or anything patrolling? MATT: There are, glancing– Actually, make
a perception check for me.
SAM: Mm-mm. Nine.
MATT: Nine. At a glance, you see maybe two
or three that are in the sky, not directly
scanning overhead, but three that are at
a quick glance around within, you know, 300-400 feet
of your location, glancing over the city. LIAM: Excuse me, ma'am. We're visiting and
everyone is set to come get a look
at these towers. I'm sorry to intrude, what
can you tell me about them? They're beautiful. MATT: This older woman with a soft monocle that sits over
the bridge of the nose with a chain that links
to her earring.
You can see her hair
is heavily curled and then held
underneath with a pin to where it gives this
braid bob look to it. She has a high-V collar coat that goes over the rest
of her outfit. She looks very well dressed,
with some jewelry. Her, you know, dark tan skin and this creased smile
peaks up. "Of course, these are
indeed the Mirror Towers. "This is where a number of
the guilds do their business "and where the Quorum
occasionally holds meetings "outside of the main halls
at the peak of the spire. "Where are you from?" LIAM: Well, we're old friends,
but we're from all over. Some of us live here,
but some are coming from overseas even. MATT: "Hmm. Well,
welcome to Jrusar, "Those of you who are
from far from here, "and I hope you enjoy your
stay in our beautiful city." LIAM: Oh, thank you. Do they do the same thing
in all four of these? MATT: "Oh, different business,
it shifts from time to time. "It is often a place
where our diplomats "and visitors on official
business will come and stay "and have their meets." LIAM: So they each have
their own purpose? MATT: "Yes, but even
that varies "based on what is available "and what is
needed at the time." LIAM: What's this one called? MATT: Make
a persuasion check.
LIAM: Oh no. It's three. (laughter) ROBBIE: How long can
the country rube– MATT: Yeah. "I am terribly sorry,
but we are on our way "for an evening's rest,
but good luck, "I hope you enjoy
your stay. All of you." ASHLEY: Uh, oh– uh.
MATT: Yeah? (laughter) ASHLEY: I love your
glasses, your monocle. MATT: "Thank you."
ASHLEY: Where did you get it? MATT: "It was a gift
many years ago." ASHLEY: Oh, I love it. (laughter) ASHLEY: Can I have it? (laughter) MATT: "No."
ASHLEY: Okay. MATT: And she turns to leave.
(laughter) LAURA: "Okay." (laughter) LIAM: Swing and a miss. LAURA: Good try, though,
good try. MARISHA: It wasn't bad. SAM: Should we ask how to
get in through the gate? Or do you like, if you
need a pass or something? LAURA: Need to make
an appointment? Are there guards?
There's guards.
MATT: There are two guards
posted at the entry gate and you can see there
are two separate wardens that are slowly
working their way across the perimeter and
there is, it is like an oval courtyard
path of the gates, meaning it doesn't completely
connect in the back, it meets the back portion
of the spire. You can see built
into the rock behind it, there are a few open windows, like there is an interior
structure of some kind and as you get up
to this part, you can start seeing more
windows and platforms and balconies built
into the spire that overlooked different
elements of the city, that aren't necessarily
part of this courtyard and the towers themselves. But you don't have any close
view of them, necessarily. TRAVIS: There probably
aren't any symbols or identifying iconography
on the outside of the towers or anything?
MATT: Make a perception check.
TRAVIS: Ugh, 14. MATT: 14. From this distance, you can make out the
front tower to the left. Along its base, you can see
there is an arched doorway that leads into
the bottom of the tower and about 10 feet above it,
in a darkly colored, similar limestone material. Right there, you would see– Sorry, I'm double checking
here the different types there are. Okay. You see a circle with a series of diamond
shapes that emerge from it in a continued pattern
around its perimeter.
MARISHA: The sun? TRAVIS: Feels like it, or
that's the Snowflake Tower. (laughter) MARISHA: Obviously not wrong. ASHLEY: Snowflake Tower,
Sun Tower, Moon Tower– LAURA: Rain Tower.
ASHLEY: Rain Tower. TRAVIS: That's the one
that's to the front left? MATT: Front left, yes. LIAM: Well, let's just
keep strolling. LAURA: Can I go up to
one of the guards? LIAM: You sure can. LAURA: I mean. MARISHA: Maybe they
do guided tours. TRAVIS: You going
on another date? LAURA: (chuckles weakly) SAM: Before you walk up, can
I cast Guidance on you? LAURA: Sure.
SAM: Okay. You got this.
LAURA: Okay. MATT: As you approach,
you see the two wardens that are at the front.
There was one that appears to be
a younger human, muscular, handsome with a bit
of curled dark hair that comes from underneath
the helmet that he's wearing.
The other looks to be
a bronze-scaled dragonborn, probably a little older with you can't quite tell
if it's facial hair, or an actual facial trait but part of the chin
comes to a long point that seems to curl
inward at the edge, but they're both
armored and holding their position and
as you approach, they glance over,
not aggressively, but definitely in
a curious wariness. LAURA: Hi. All right.
So I was sent here. I'm from Gelvaan,
have you heard of the city? MATT: The two look
at each other, and the dragonborn pipes up, "Yes, we are aware
of the location." LAURA: Wonderful! So Master Faramore
has asked if I would come and talk to someone about
opening a business here and he said that
the person to talk to was the
business commissioner, but I think he
said her name was– oh gosh, what was it? Vali, Vali Dertrana,
I think it was, about getting
a license or something, I think he was looking,
looking for a way to– MATT: Make a deception check.
MARISHA: Come on. TALIESIN: I think you
have a d4 on that. MATT: You do add a d4, yes. LAURA: Oh!
Do I get advantage? MATT: Nope. LAURA: Okay, cool,
that's a natural one. So I don't think a four
is going to do anything. MATT: Doesn't matter on that. "Unfortunately, lest you
have previously set a meeting "Unfortunately, lest you
have previously set a meeting "with the commissioner,
you may be out of luck. "Perhaps I would submit
something in writing." LAURA: That makes sense,
you know. Of course, I think he sent
a letter ahead of time, but it probably hasn't
arrived yet, so– MATT: "What is your name?
I could pass it along inside." LAURA: Imogen of the
Faramore Residence. Also–
MATT: Writes it down. LAURA: Did he send it
to the correct tower? Now he thought it
was the Moon Tower, but I see there are four
and now I'm wondering if maybe we sent it
to the wrong one.
MATT: As he's writing
in the notes, haphazardly, goes
like, "Well, "if it was the commissioner,
it's likely the Moon Tower." LAURA: Moon Tower, yeah,
and which one was that? Oh gosh,
they all look the same. MATT: He begins to
point towards the– what from your perspective
will be the back right portion before the other guard
takes a spear, hits their foot. "Ah, somewhere
on the premises." LAURA: Right, sorry. All right, well,
keep an eye out. Oh, is there a
mailbox or someone that it should be
delivered? Oh gosh. MATT: "I will pass
this within. "Try back again
tomorrow morning." LAURA: Thank you so much.
You've been so helpful. What was your name? MATT: "It does not matter.
Have a good day." LAURA: Thank you. SAM: How'd you do? LAURA: I think I know where
the Moon Tower is.
It's that one back there. TRAVIS: That was
bloody great. LAURA: (laughs) ASHLEY: Okay, well, we know
which one the Moon Tower is. LAURA: Yeah, but
I don't know how we're going to get in there. MARISHA: Maybe this
is something we can get
Eshteross' help with, like some sort of
a written pass. LAURA: That's true,
that's true. LIAM: Introduction. LAURA: He's got so many ins,
I feel like, yeah. MARISHA: Anything he
writes on paper is gold. LIAM: Is it just
the one entrance? TALIESIN: Or pick and choose.
MATT: Looking about, there is
the main gate in the front and the rest of it
is a large wall and the rest of it
is a large wall that surrounds the courtyard that is about seven
and a half feet tall and you can see has
metallic pikes along the way, about every half foot or so. That's primarily
what you can see. LIAM: You said the
back towers are close or up against
the spire itself? MATT: They're not up against
it, but they're maybe 20, 30 feet from the
spire wall to allow more of the courtyard
to still fill the space behind them with
green and bush.
LIAM: And that spire behind
those two towers, how high does that go? MATT: The spire is
the central rock core of the entire city spire
and that climbs up for, I'd say 500, 600 feet more. TALIESIN: I could toss you
over the wall. LIAM: I know you can. TRAVIS: I could go invisible
with Ashton again and we could just– ASHLEY: Walk right in.
TALIESIN: I'm not doing that with you again. TRAVIS: What do you mean?
We're synced up. TALIESIN: No, I don't
really think we are. TRAVIS: Oh. TALIESIN: No. TRAVIS: I could go invisible
with Orym again. No, just kidding. LAURA: Man. LIAM: By the way,
you owe me drinks for the next two months. TRAVIS: Yeah. TALIESIN: Or the rest of your
life, whatever comes first. LAURA: It's a long life. ROBBIE: Things always
tend to go sideways when we sneak in somewhere
we're not supposed to be. LAURA: I feel like we got to
find a way to just get in. MARISHA: I know, I feel
like we've resorted to the B&E route quite a bit
and maybe we should mix it up.
TRAVIS: The letter's
a good idea. I mean, you guys have
a hookup, right? LAURA: Yeah.
We should talk to him. LIAM: Yeah.
MARISHA: Surely. ASHLEY: He can get us
something official. MARISHA: Maybe there's a pass,
like a fast pass. SAM: (laughs) MARISHA: Like the
trolleys should have. ASHLEY: They really do need
a pass here of some sort. TALIESIN: Maybe one–
I don't know if they use those
any more, though. It might be gone.
MARISHA: What?! (laughter) What is this, you need
some sort of membership? LIAM: This is the Haunted One
background built all around fast pass. (laughter) SAM: Are we deciding we're
not getting in tonight? We're not going to try to– y'all aren't trying to do
your fancy stuff to get– ASHLEY: I mean, I could see
if I can walk in. SAM: Or be a bird
or something. ASHLEY: Little–
All they can do is say no. Oh, I guess I could. MATT: Do you have flight
unlocked currently in your– ASHLEY: No, I can't fly yet.
TALIESIN: You could be
a bird that doesn't fly. You could be,
like, a penguin. MATT: At a certain level,
she will be able to fly, but not quite there. ASHLEY: No flying speed yet. ROBBIE: So it looks like this
whole area is fortified from the front facing side. MATT: Correct. ROBBIE: And then
built into this– MATT: Correct.
It's a large oval wall that holds in the courtyard
and the towers are within this
central courtyard. ROBBIE: Yeah.
LIAM: So if we're doing sneaky, sneaky.
You got the gates, you got the wall,
you got mountain climbing. ROBBIE: That's a lot
of sneaking. MATT: There are a number
of hedges and large bushes and archways all
throughout the courtyards. It's not an open field. ROBBIE: Everyone get a hedge.
Put it on. MATT: I mean,
worked for Snake. (laughter) MATT: He never did a hedge,
but he should've. LAURA: Are there people
constantly coming in and out of these gates? MATT: Not too often.
In fact,
since you've arrived, you saw the two that were
leaving as you approached and you've probably
been looking around, walking in the space,
in a very nonchalant, not attention drawing way
for about 10, 15 minutes and you haven't seen
anybody else exiting. LAURA: I feel like if
it's a place of business then people would be coming
in and out all the time. TALIESIN: Might be the hour. SAM: How intricate are
the wardens outfits? MATT: They're no more
or less intricate than the other wardens you've
seen around the city. SAM: Are they the same? Everyone's uniform
is the same? MATT: For the wardens
are generally the same. You see small details,
like other, beyond them
personalizing themselves, or occasionally seeing some
with shoulder pauldrons and other symbols
of higher station and having some authority
amongst over other wardens.
But continuously,
you see a through line in the general attire
they wear, yes. TALIESIN: You having
a thought? SAM: Well, yeah, I'm trying
to think, you know, some of y'all could
blend in as a warden and walk some of the
other ones in, maybe? If we got– we have a fabric
place that we've been to. (laughter) LAURA: That is true. ROBBIE: Costumes. TALIESIN: None of us
blend very well. That's the one thing
that I keep noticing. This is not a– this is not a– I can't think when
you're doing that. It's okay, it's okay. MARISHA: Doing what? TALIESIN: Nothing.
MARISHA: Just making
eye contact. Trying to be polite.
TALIESIN: Keep at it. LIAM: A dead lady standing
next to a robot. MARISHA: I don't know
what the fuck you mean? SAM: If you put a spotlight on
us, we could be cops, right? (laughter) ROBBIE: We're
totally not cops! SAM: I'm a warden! MARISHA: I've got sunglasses.
SAM: Freeze! (laughter) LAURA: Let's try
to get a letter. TRAVIS: Yeah.
LAURA: Yeah. TRAVIS: Yeah, and then if
that fails, we can, you know– MARISHA: Break and enter.
LAURA: Yeah. LIAM: Things are going
real well. TRAVIS: Or decide if that's
what we want to do. You're being very
generous, again. This looks pretty– It looks a little
more heavy duty than the kitchen
in the tavern.
LAURA: Yeah.
ROBBIE: It feels like an official way
in would be better. TALIESIN: Yeah. MARISHA: I'm honestly
pretty invested, though, I kind of want
to meet this Gurge. TRAVIS: You're infested?
ASHLEY: Me, too. MARISHA: I mean, yes,
but invested. TRAVIS: Oh! Phew! ROBBIE: But even if
we got inside, how do we know where to look? LAURA: Well. Yeah, I think we need to
be shown to Vali. LIAM: Yeah, we don't want
to raid a whole tower. ROBBIE: If Artana got in
by bringing in a bounty and this family is
looking for bounties, who's to say we
can't find our own? TALIESIN: (doubtful humming) TRAVIS: Oh shit! ROBBIE: Oh, you like that? TRAVIS: Well, you look
like a bounty.
ROBBIE: No, no, no. That's not
what I meant. No, no, no. MARISHA: I thought that was
what you were suggesting? ROBBIE: Excuse me,
no, no, no. LAURA: Oh my gosh, Dorian,
that's such a good idea! ROBBIE: I thought we could
actually find a legitimate bounty
and then– SAM: How can you look
closer to your brother? LAURA: Just put
a hood on him. ROBBIE: I don't even
believe this is the– Is this the same family
that is looking for– SAM: No, it's not, but maybe
they would be interested in finding one that
another family is after.
MARISHA: Well, also for the
guilds do business here, that means that the Treshis
are a part of here. ROBBIE: I'm just not certain
I want to bring more– SAM: Pretend you're
your brother. TRAVIS: Yeah, put
these manacles on. (clanking)
(laughter) TALIESIN: Why do you have–
SAM: Why do you have manacles? TRAVIS: What? You got to
hold wood still sometimes, you make do with
what you got. You don't have manacles? TALIESIN: Well,
actually, to be fair, I've seen a lot wood
trying to escape lately, so I can't actually– ASHLEY: I don't know about– LAURA: I don't like it,
take it off. ROBBIE: I don't
think that I can. TRAVIS: Try. ROBBIE: (grunts)
TRAVIS: Tink! They come right off.
ROBBIE: Oh! TRAVIS: I disabled
the locking mechanism. ROBBIE: Are these
toy handcuffs? TRAVIS: Yeah, you got
to lock them closed, otherwise they just shut. ROBBIE: Thank you, Chetney. TRAVIS: What the fuck,
you think I'm crazy? (laughter) ROBBIE: I could, sure. TALIESIN: I– I think that would
be a better idea after we got your
brother out of town.
ROBBIE: I don't want to bring
any extra attention to him. LAURA: Yeah. ROBBIE: I'm sorry, Chetney. MARISHA: Should we try and get
him out of town, speaking of? TALIESIN: I think we
should try and get him the fuck out of town. This would be a good idea if
your brother was out of town. ROBBIE: All right. TALIESIN: But… We got to do something
about that, it's family, you got to take care
of fucking family.
ASHLEY: Well– ASHLEY: Where else were you
going with that idea, though?
ROBBIE: Hmm? ASHLEY: Where else were you
going with that idea? ROBBIE: Oh, I just
thought we could find our own legitimate bounty,
maybe something, a little lower budget. Nine of us, it shouldn't be
hard to go track someone down and take them out
and bring them here and that not only would give
us access to the Moon Tower, but also properly
walk us into wherever they keep
their bounties, which, after all, is
what we're looking for. LAURA: I don't think everybody
is the same bounty, order though,
this particular one came from Vali, but– ROBBIE: Could we find
one that came–? Do we know who the
bounties come from? TRAVIS: Do they post on
walls and shit like? ROBBIE: Yeah.
MATT: Occasionally. You would know this
more than anyone. It's rare that a bounty
goes on a public board somewhere because they don't
want a bunch of fuckheads who see the culling number to
go and to hunt someone down, so it's usually gone
through whisper networks and recommendations. TALIESIN: This is not
the sort of information we would be privy to, and anyone who would have
it to give it to us, wouldn't want to because
it's their money, not ours. MARISHA: What about–
Speaking of boards, though, what about this? TRAVIS: Paper? What is this? SAM: It's talking about
the Paragon's Call. MARISHA: Yeah, it says,
you know, demand skilled hands
to protect us, demand Quorum approval,
you know, didn't they say that
the Quorum did meetings here. ASHLEY: They did, they did! MARISHA: Maybe we want to be
a part of Paragon's Call. SAM: I don't even know
if Paragon's Call exists right now. LAURA: I think Paragon's Call
is against the Quorum. TRAVIS: Yeah, I think the–
Right? SAM: Well.
MARISHA: No.
"Demand Quorum approval "and authority for
the Paragon's Call." These were the angry rich
people that were like, "Oh, we want to have–" SAM: Special force of– TRAVIS: Could I see that? MARISHA: Against the
crime in the city. ROBBIE: Can you read? TRAVIS: Yeah. I can read,
get the fuck out of here. ASHLEY: What if we take
that letter up to the guards? TALIESIN: No, yeah,
no, I hate that. I think that's a
really fucking bad idea. LAURA: Maybe we wait
until there's new guards. SAM: More like a political
flyer than a letter. LIAM: I honestly really
liked Imogen's idea. I think it's solid.
SAM: Which is…
get a letter? LIAM: Yeah. See Eshteross. MARISHA: I believe
that was my idea. I feel like I have
to put that out there. SAM: Respect, respect. MARISHA: Thank you. ASHLEY: I think we should– I think we should
get the letter, I think we should
get the letter. SAM: We'll go get
the letter, then. LAURA: Good idea, Laudna. MARISHA: Thank you. TALIESIN: — cheek skin when
it happened, but yeah. MATT: All right,
so you're heading back to Eshteross' place? SAM: I guess so. LIAM: I save my praise
for the living. LAURA: (laughs) Aw. TRAVIS: It's expensive to
move between these spires. MATT: Same spire, thankfully. TRAVIS: Oh, it's
the same spire. (laughter) I hook up a rope and
repel down this bitch. MATT: That is an option. TRAVIS: Oh really? MATT: Yeah, roll
some acrobatics, man. TRAVIS: How far is one
level beneath the one that we're currently on? MATT: A few hundred feet. TRAVIS: Few hundred feet?! (laughter) You know, I'm good.
(laughter) I'm cool. MATT: All right. So heading
down to the familiar space, more in the central
part of the Core Spire, you return to
the Eshteross manner. Evelyn leads you back
to the same study where you can see a few more
books have been pulled out and there is a tray with tea that may have been
resting for awhile. Few of the books to the side
and sitting in the same chair by the fire, you see
Lord Ariks Eshteross finishing chewing on a cookie before turning
and standing up.
"You return." LAURA: Already.
You sick of us yet? MATT: "Not possible." LAURA: He's so wonderful.
ASHLEY: He's wonderful. MARISHA: Are those
cookies you baked? Your latest and greatest? MATT: "I'm trying
a new recipe." LAURA: (laughs) MATT: "Do you want
to try some?" He lifts up the tray
and holds it out. MARISHA: Who would
I be to say no? What are they? MATT: "Maple." (gasping) MATT: "But different!" MARISHA: You daring boy.
MATT: As you take
a bite, he goes, "I added ginger." (laughter) (laughter) MARISHA: Hmm,
spicy yet sweet. MATT: "And?" MARISHA: And so soft. And is that– Is that turmeric? (laughter) (laughter) Fantastic!
ASHLEY: Anti-inflammatory as well. Wow!
MARISHA: Mm-hmm! Good for the throat. MATT: "You have made me
quite happy this night. "Thank you for your insight." MARISHA: Just returning
the pleasure. MATT: "Do you hear that,
Evelyn? She likes it." LIAM: Ginger snaps, canon. (laughter) MATT: "Anyway, I do not
think you were here "to just try my baked goods. "Unless you were, but–" LAURA: No, so we were trying
to get into the Moon Tower of the Mirror Towers. MATT: "Hmm." LAURA: And they
wouldn't let us in, not surprising. MATT: "Not at all." LAURA: So I said
that I knew a guy that was trying to
open up a business. That didn't work too well, but we thought maybe if
we had a letter that showed that we had
actual business there, then we could potentially
get in.
Potentially. MATT: "Do you
have a specific… "cover you would
request for this?" LAURA: Well, in the town that
I am from, actually, the man I worked for,
owns a lot of shops. the man I worked for,
owns a lot of shops. MATT: "And the name of
this individual?" LAURA: Master Faramore.
MATT: "Master Faramore." He walks aside and you
can see he takes up a stack of paper
that was in a drawer of a nearby desk,
pulls two of them out, gets a ink and quill and
begins to write down. (scribbling) LAURA: I don't believe he
has a shop in Jrusar already, but he has them
all over Marquet. MATT: "Understood." (scribbling) (laughter) TRAVIS: Got squirrels
in this room. (laughter) MATT: Reaches over
the top of the desk and takes a small stick
of red coloration, holds it over one
of the candles, lets it drip upon the sheet,
reaches in a pocket and pulls out something
on a long chain, presses it into it, rolls
it up, and hands it to you.
SAM: Whoa! MATT: "This should be enough
to get you where you need." LAURA: Thank you. Thank you. Wow. You make it look so easy. ROBBIE: Don't be ungrateful. LAURA: Um. Oh, I mean, that seems
like two rewards, really. LAURA: This is delicious. MATT: "Then the
trade was fair." LAURA: That is really good. TALIESIN: Um, um– MATT: "Not you, "you don't get one."
TALIESIN: That's fair. MATT: "I'm kidding.
Of course you can get one." (laughter) TALIESIN: Not that this is necessarily your
problem, but… we're trying to get
somebody out of town extremely quiet. Getting them out quietly– The person's actually
a little irritatingly– They talk a lot. We need to get someone
out of town alive. MATT: "What have you done
in the past few hours "since we last spoke?"
(laughter) TALIESIN: It took a lot
to figure out where this guy
was being held. We had to deal with
some very shady people. MATT: "Right?" TALIESIN: It would be easier to move around the city if we had fewer things
to worry about.
Family in peril can make
people do foolish things. MATT: "What's it you
ask of me, then?" TALIESIN: Either if
you're capable of getting somebody
quietly out of town, or if you might know
somebody who could. MATT: "I could likely do so "if this individual would
be willing to come to me. "As I think me or any of
my associates reaching out "would be met with
mistrust, understandably. "And you would
owe me a favor." TALIESIN: I don't think
it would be my favor. I would recommend that
when it comes to family, it's worth the paying
of some fucking debts.
TRAVIS: I'll take the favor. You've paid my debts. I don't owe him anything yet. Seems only fair. MATT: "This is acceptable."
TRAVIS: I'm trying! ROBBIE: Thank you, Chetney. TRAVIS: Yeah, whatever. SAM: Well, that's all if your
brother even wants to go. TALIESIN: Better fucking go. ROBBIE: It seems a bit silly. This individual is
my brother and I have to know. These bounties that
we discussed earlier, what's their reach? Jrusar? Marquet? How far do these
things travel? MATT: "Well "if the amount is right, "and it's been
around long enough, "it can reach "every shore on Marquet. "But it depends,
bounty to bounty." ROBBIE: Well.
Out of town is good. TALIESIN: If you think
he's smart enough to fucking keep low, keep his head down, it's still
going to be your problem. Some moron's going to
think that you're him. ROBBIE: Erase the
bounty is better. TALIESIN: It is better. LIAM: More expensive,
but not better. MATT: "How much is
this bounty?" LAURA: A lot. MARISHA: 20,000 gold. MATT: (Eshteross exhales) ROBBIE: As you can tell, we are in several situations above our station. MATT: "Even if I were to "escort your brother
out of this city, "it would not do anything
about the bounty.
"Do you wish this
bounty paid off?" TALIESIN: We'll have to
hide him from them for now. SAM: Do you have 20,000 gold
extra just lying around? MATT: "Lying around,
no, but… (sighs) TRAVIS: Can I just say, getting him off
the X is pretty good. If 20K feels a little steep and moving is
the next best thing, it worked really well for me.
I'm just telling you. LIAM: Maybe we could get
him on an airship. ASHLEY: Is there such
thing as canceling a bounty? MATT: "There is. "If the reason for the
bounty has been made "in equal share. "What has your brother done?" ROBBIE: Vague. He was part
of a protection party. Things went awry and he was the fall man. Something was stolen. We don't know what.
Obviously important. The burden has fell on him. LAURA: Oh yeah,
they mentioned a golem. MATT: "An automaton being. "Quite an expensive
thing to be taken. "I imagine, if such
a thing were returned "to those who set the bounty "that would cancel the debt "with enough influence and "good will." LAURA: It was stolen
from the Treshis? TALIESIN: Was there any markings
on it? I can't remember.
Was there something that,
I don't know. Do we have any leads on that? LAURA: There was… There was the initials
on the trunk. LIAM: There were?
ASHLEY: JH? LAURA: Initials on the trunk.
ASHLEY: JH! TALIESIN: What were they? ASHLEY: JH, I think. TALIESIN: JH. ASHLEY: I don't remember.
Is that right? TALIESIN: Does that
ring anything? ASHLEY: Jerry. MATT: "I don't remember the "individual with this 'JH'"
SAM: Heinfeld. (laughs) MARISHA: (laughs)
Jerry Heinfeld! (laughter) LAURA: Does that ring
any bells? JH? TALIESIN: I may have a thing.
I'll try and dig it up. ASHLEY: Juh. TALIESIN: Wouldn't
make sense, though. MARISHA and TRAVIS: Jahh. MARISHA: Jaah– TRAVIS: Jaa…
ASHLEY and TRAVIS: Ooh? MARISHA: Haa… naa TRAVIS: Jeh?
LIAM: Jimmy Hoffa. MARISHA: Maybe it's–
SAM: Jimmy Hoffa! (laughter) SAM: We found him! TALIESIN: Oh, yes. (laughter) ASHLEY: After all these years!
TALIESIN: Scraping the NPC names at this point.
SAM: We have a letter. So,
we have one actionable item. LAURA: Yeah.
All right. SAM: Then a lot to think
about with your brother. MARISHA: Is it time
for our date? SAM: Oh my gosh. TRAVIS: What time
of day is it? MATT: Right now, it's about– close to sunset in the
next 30, 40 minutes. You probably have a little
over two and a half hours. MARISHA: We've still got time.
Should we freshen up? LAURA: (laughs) MARISHA: I think I'm covered
in blood still. I'm not sure. LAURA: I mean, yeah, we
haven't bathed since– MARISHA: Weeks! ASHLEY: We're fine!
LAURA: It's been a while.
MARISHA: It's been a while. (laughter) SAM: What do you ladies
like to do on dates? What's your ideal date? ASHLEY: What everybody does,
I think. SAM: Which is what?
I don't really know. ASHLEY: Dancing and
eating and– So many things. (laughter) SAM: Dancing and eating. How about you, Imogen? LAURA: Oh– uh… SAM: Have you been on
a date before? LAURA: Uh… TRAVIS: Oh, shit. SAM: Oh, no? LAURA: No. ASHLEY: Oh. SAM: Oh, are you
bashful about that? LAURA: No– Bashful about
not being on a date? SAM: Just, you know,
going on a date? LAURA: You know, no,
it's just– Like a– you know… It's hard to
find someone who– If you're on a date, it's
just that one person. You're reading their mind.
You know all the things that you're doing
wrong, and– SAM: Oh, you can hear! LAURA: It gets really
uncomfortable, you know. Plus, you know, people
think you're weird and then– They don't– MARISHA: That's why I
hadn't ever been on a date. SAM: Because people
think you're weird? MARISHA: Mm-hmm! TRAVIS: What about
before you died? MARISHA: You know, when
I was a young girl, of course I was still
the freak of the town, but there was
a crush on a young boy that I went to
school with and…
I feel like he threw dirt
in my face at one point. LIAM: What was
the boy's name? MARISHA: Andy. (laughter) ROBBIE: No! (laughter)
ROBBIE: Hell no. TALIESIN: Not Whitestone Andy?
Really? (laughter) TALIESIN: Have you been
reading my fucking notes? MARISHA: Not– Andrew! (laughter)
ASHLEY: Whitestone Andy?! MATT: You can read all
about Whitestone Andy in the Tal'Dorei
Campaign Guide. (laughter) LIAM: I was fishing for a person.
I didn't get what I wanted. ROBBIE: High fantasy Andy. MARISHA: She did not
know fucking Percy! TRAVIS: Just toss
that one back in! (laughter) LIAM: Last name Griffith? TRAVIS: Oh my god. (laughter) MARISHA: (whistles)
LIAM: It's canon! MARISHA: No!
LIAM: Oh man! MARISHA: My whistle broke!
TRAVIS: Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski
de Rolo III, and… Andy.
(laughter) LIAM: Oh, Andy.
(laughter) LAURA: Okay. All right. So, yeah, that's
what you do on dates. You go dancing, and you eat. MARISHA: I'm so excited!
SAM: I mean– I didn't– Yeah, you go dancing,
you eat.
MARISHA: Is the theater a
wrong choice? Is that bad? SAM: Asking me? I don't know! ASHLEY: Theater
would be great! MARISHA: We should take
him for a walk in a graveyard. ASHLEY: Okay.
LAURA: That actually sounds really pleasant. Sounds really peaceful. MATT: "This is extremely
riveting. I must tell you." MARISHA: Oh, my goodness,
we're still here. TRAVIS: Can I have a– MATT: "You have not left?" TRAVIS: May I have–? MATT: "There's two left." TRAVIS: Oh, excellent.
Dorian, do you want one? ROBBIE: Share? TRAVIS: No, you have your own
cookie. You can't have mine.
ROBBIE: Oh, I'll take it.
TRAVIS: I have both. ROBBIE: It's the
polite thing to do, to share sometimes.
TRAVIS: Here, here. ROBBIE: I don't– okay, fine. TRAVIS: I gave you
the bigger one. ROBBIE: Thank you. MATT: "Well, good luck. Stay
safe. Don't take too long. "That is dated, so–" LAURA: Oh! Would it be prudent to go
in the morning or today? Do you think? MATT: "With a
little convincing, "tomorrow should be fine, "but the sooner
the better, rightly." LAURA: All right. Thank you. We could go right now? MARISHA: That's true. Is it
weird that it's after hours? SAM: You mean go up
to the tower again? LAURA: We could. We've got an hour and a half before the date.
SAM: Sounds more important than a date with an ogre? LAURA: Well, it's–
SAM: The kitchen guy? ROBBIE: Thank you. The cook
man was nice, but– SAM: Are y'all
really, truly– LAURA: He was very sweet! You
didn't spend a lot of time talking to him.
The whole
time you were back there, we were having
a conversation. SAM: Are you really? You're thinking you might've
found your soulmate? All three of you,
in this ogre? ASHLEY, LAURA, and MARISHA:
No! MARISHA: It was about
company and being kind. ROBBIE: Can we make
it a speed date? TALIESIN: If you're
not careful, you slowly will get banned from every single bar
within the towers, because you'll get awkward
with the cook in one. You'll get awkward with
the bartender in another.
You'll start
a fight in another. You'll accidentally start making out with
somebody's sister! Things get weird. You might as well take
it and deal with it now. Go on the fucking date,
so we can go back there and drink at some point
in the near fucking future. ASHLEY: Yeah, but
what if we fall head over hooves with him? ROBBIE: What if it's
a terrible date? The two of you have never
actually been on one before. SAM: There's also
three of you. (laughter) ASHLEY: Well, it's more
to love.
I guess. MARISHA: You know what
would be very– SAM: Are you going
to fuck this guy? MARISHA: What the fuck
are you talking about? ASHLEY: Isn't that
what you do on a date? (laughter) TALIESIN: What the
fuck, Grass? (laughter) TALIESIN: What have
you been reading? SAM: I just don't want
anyone to be led on. He seemed like he
had a pure heart, and you don't want to– ASHLEY: He did.
It was a very pure, big heart, swollen, turgid– MARISHA: It's–
ROBBIE: Excuse me? TRAVIS and LAURA: Turgid? TALIESIN: Thank you
for turgid. There are no expectations
placed on this. I think it's just a good time
for everybody involved. MARISHA: Honestly, it's highly
likely he's going to die from clogged arteries
at any moment– (laughter) MARISHA: — from the amount of
grease that he serves everyone and himself, so.
ASHLEY: Give him some
glorious last days. LIAM: — of the day is it?
SAM: All right. MATT: It's 25 minutes
until sunset. LIAM: Sunset?
MARISHA: We've got 25 minutes? Oh, no, wait, two hours–
ALL: Two hours. MARISHA: Two hours
and 25 minutes. (laughter) LIAM: It's maybe the
end of the workday. LAURA: So now's the time
to go visit her. Because she'll be wanting to
get done with everything. We can jump in. She'll
try to: Fine, let's talk really fast. She might
give something away. SAM: All right. Let's go. LIAM: We'll quickly rattle
the information out of her, find this person, wrap it
up quick before your date. ROBBIE: Oh, I'm sure we'll
be done in time. ASHLEY: Yes, this sounds like
such a great, solid plan that will definitely
go very smoothly. TRAVIS: So we're going
in as business people? We're going to make
our way in to the Moon Tower, and talk to someone
about Gurge? ROBBIE: Yes.
TRAVIS: And we get him? LAURA and MARISHA: Uh– MARISHA: That's a little–
SAM and MARISHA: TBD. ASHLEY: We'll figure that out.
TRAVIS: Okay. LAURA: I don't think he's there, personally.
ASHLEY: You don't? LAURA: No, I do not think Gurge is going to be
in that Moon Tower. I think Gurge is going to
be at a different location. Personally. LIAM: Probably. MARISHA: Maybe. ASHLEY: What if he's
in a room? MARISHA: Those towers
definitely have dungeons. ASHLEY: Yeah, or he's in a room where
the ceiling is open, and then they wait
for the moon to come out, and he's like, "Awoo!" LAURA: (gasps)
At the Moon Tower! Fearne, that's brilliant. ASHLEY: Well, there's a lot
more where that came from. TRAVIS: Do we know if
it's a full moon? Would we hear? MATT: Anyone's likely
to make a nature check if they'd like to
lead that charge. ASHLEY: Okay. MATT: Nature or survival,
your choice. LAURA: Is it okay if I check as well?
MATT: Yeah. LAURA: Cool. Cool. Cool. 11. MATT: 11, okay. ASHLEY and TRAVIS: 14. MATT: 14. ALL: Ooh. MATT: Catha's been waning
for some time, and it's off to the
western side of the sky.
Ruidus is drifting overhead
this time of year. So not a full moon,
in the classic sense. LAURA: Is there ever a time
that they're both full? MATT: Yeah. Ruidus
doesn't wax and wane. It just stays this dull red color
in the sky and it moves in a much slower
trajectory through Exandria than Catha does. Occasionally, it seems to almost glow or
flash in the sky at odd times. There are many theories. Usually on nights on which it's seemingly
brighter than others and those that are
born beneath it are considered set for
lives of ill fate. TALIESIN: It's covered often,
though, too? MATT: Yeah, it's
depending on the weather whether you can
see it or not. LAURA: Wow. TRAVIS: All right.
Let's try it. SAM: We're going up? Who's going in, all of us? MARISHA: Should we
get briefcases? LAURA: Have we left
his presence yet? MATT: I assume you guys have begun trekking towards
your next destination, wherever that may be.
LAURA: Okay, I'm just
going to talk to him. MATT: All right. LAURA: Is this letter for all
of us, or just a couple of us? MATT: "This was to give all
of you entry, I understood." LAURA: Thank you, that's
all I needed to know. I'm sorry to disturb you. MATT: "It is fine.
I am used to it now." LAURA: (laughs) MATT: Okay, so you were
heading to the– SAM: Same place?
MATT: Mirror Towers. Okay. Returning to the upper
regions of the spire, you come to the
familiar courtyard that previously you
could not quite enter. The same guards are posted. LAURA: Good news. MATT: "Yes?" Takes it. Pulls out a small
blade and cuts the seal, but looks at the
seal for a second. "Just a moment, I need
to confirm legitimacy." He steps through the gate and you see him vanish
in the courtyard. An awkward
five minutes passes. The other guard
looks at you all, spear to the side. ASHLEY: Hi. LAURA: How's your
night going? MATT: "Okay." LAURA: Cool.
ASHLEY: Do you like
working here? MATT: "Mm." TALIESIN: Does it pay well? MATT: "Eh." LIAM: What are
the hours like? MATT: "Long." ROBBIE: Do you get
bathroom breaks? MATT: "Yeah."
TALIESIN: You ever seen some shit? Some shit go down? MATT: "Maybe."
LIAM: You get along with the other guy? MATT: "Okay." ASHLEY: Is the fence to keep
people in or keep people out? MATT: "Both."
ASHLEY: Oh. MARISHA: Ever punch
someone in the face? MATT: "Once." LAURA: Whoa.
MARISHA: Cool. TALIESIN: Do you have your own
armor, or is there, like, a locker full of them
that fit everybody? MATT: "That." TALIESIN: Ugh.
TRAVIS: Would you
like a wooden coin? MATT: "Sure." (laughter) TRAVIS: There's a small,
copper-looking wooden coin. MATT: "Thanks." It's at that point that
the dragonborn guard returns. TALIESIN: I'm so proud of
everything that just happened. MATT: "You have been
cleared to enter." LAURA: Oh, wonderful.
Thank you so much. (laughter)
MATT: Gate opens, and you enter the courtyard. TRAVIS: If he flips that–
SAM: That was it, that was easy. TRAVIS: — he will die.
LAURA: Gosh, can you imagine? We would've gone
through all this effort, we would've snuck in, we would've come up
with some stupid thing, when all we had to do
was go to Lord Eshteross. MATT: At about this time, the sun has entirely set. LAURA: Thank you so much. MATT: A gentle mist
begins to slowly gather across elements of the spire, even reaching this high, which you begin to
notice as the storm that you saw in the
distance begins to close in. The gray sky shows that
rain may be imminent any minute now,
but for the time being, the change in weather,
the change in temperature, has caused the fog to rise
higher than it normally does, and even this high
up in the spire, there's a faint mist that's
beginning to fill the space. But here you are now, in this torchlit interior
of the courtyard, you can see various
small stone pillars that carry sconces that burn and give this beautiful,
gentle flickering throughout the various regions of cultivated
garden and bush.
You can see the archway,
you step through, and there is a central portion
of the courtyard where there are a number
of benches around and there is a
series of set marble, that gives a starlike spiral, out in the center, and paths
split off and separate, heading to the
various towers around. You can see the arches,
even in this space, have symbols upon them. You can see one
that resembles the sun, going in the direction of
the first tower that you saw. You can see one that
resembles a simple four stars You can see one that
resembles a simple four stars that goes off to
the one to the far left. You can see off to the right, there is one towards the front that has a clear space with a water-like pattern
of waves pushing through, and there is one that
has a crescent Catha set upon it that heads
to the far back right. LAURA: I think that's the– That's the way we go.
ASHLEY: Yeah. LAURA: As we're walking,
I'm going to slowly Prestidigitation everyone to
make us as clean as possible. MATT: Fair enough. You do pass one individual, you can see
is leaving the Moon Tower, an older man, looks to be elven
in appearance, his hair would be thinning, if
not for the elven blood, but is pulled tight
against his head and slicked back to
the middle of his back with tendrils that
rest in front of his ears and drift to the
center of his chest. He's wearing
fine yellow gold robes and is currently holding a small stack of tomes
under one arm, and he scoots past
and gives a nod and he continues on
through the courtyard. You continue onward
to the Moon Tower, and there you see,
as you approach it, it is a beautiful
central tower that rises probably
six, seven stories. It is a thick tower
like the others, and still ends into an almost
teardrop point at the top, where you can see
a gem of some kind is refracting what little bit
of distant Catha moonlight that is beginning to push
through the gathering clouds before the rain for the
evening takes it entirely.
At the base of it,
you can see it widens out into
a series of structures, a small compound that rests
around the base of the tower, and a small rise of
about seven or eight steps leads to the open entryway, where you can see
a warm light from the inside. Stepping up into that space. (water dripping) Small droplets begin to
fall from above and you sense a very
faint bit of rain beginning to fall
upon the city.
LAURA: It's kind of magical. MATT: Now, you all quickly step
within the interior. Within the Moon Tower, you can see there
is a young assistant of dark
bluish-purple-gray skin, elven, dark elf
in particular, looks maybe in his
late teens, early 20s, very young to
a visual perspective, who is wearing these
stark white and silver robes. He is currently taking a
number of leather-bound books and setting them upon
these dozens of locked shelves around the interior
of the chamber.
You can see each of
these books has a chain that is affixed to the front, there is a loop
on the binding, and they are locked
within these spaces, and they are labeled, though a bit far from
where your eyes can see. As you step in to the
sound of rain splashing upon the stonework outside, he stops and looks back. "Sorry, I'll be
right with you." Places the tome up and
finishes locking it, and almost loses his balance
before catching himself. "(exhales) Okay." Closes that shelf,
and you can see a whole set of bars
comes down and locks. He places a lock in there,
sets his keys to the side, steps down from his shiftable stepping tower, pushes it to the side. "Right, can I help you?" LAURA: Yes. I'm going to pull
out the letter and read it to make sure I
know exactly what Lord Eshteross said in it. MATT: In not so many words, it breaks down that under the intent and power within the
Prudaj Textiles Business and the House of
Lord Ariks Eshteross, the bearer of this,
and is written your name in full, and
the seven companions you see before you are to
be granted audience when available within
their schedule to specifically Vali, and it breaks down Vali Dertrana and
a number of titles thereafter, the business commissioner
of the Mirror Towers, liaison between
Mahaan houses.
It is a very, very
formal presentation, but it does
seem to be thorough. LAURA: All right. MATT: "Oh, all right. "I think he's– "Let me check.
Excuse me just a moment." He double checks all
the locks on the shelves, and then heads down the hall, and to the curve
around the right beyond what would have
been the tower base and further in toward
where the base compound is to the back of
the tower and to the right and then vanishes
around the corner.
TRAVIS: Assassinate. No. ASHLEY: I'm going to
run my fingers along some of the books. LAURA: Yeah, I want to see
what the books are. MATT: Okay.
LIAM: Are they in Marquesian? ROBBIE: We're such thieves. MATT: Interestingly enough, they are numbered,
but there are no titles. Fearne, I would like you to make a constitution
saving throw for me, please. ALL: Ooh! SAM: Electric fence.
TRAVIS: Why? ASHLEY: Okay. LAURA: Ooh, that's good. Oh. TALIESIN: Please be the only
good roll of the night. ASHLEY: Is… this a magical effect? (laughter) MATT: It would be
considered, yes. ASHLEY: Because I have
advantage on that. MATT: Okay, roll again. TRAVIS: Come on, now.
ASHLEY: Roll again? TRAVIS: Yeah. ASHLEY: Because that
was not good. That's not any better. ASHLEY: Six. MATT: Six. LIAM: We're rolling
ass tonight. MARISHA: Yep, we are.
LAURA: We're rolling ass tonight.
MATT: You take seven points of
lightning damage. MARISHA: Yep. MATT: And you are blinded. All of a sudden,
your vision goes to white as your body shudders at the burst of
arcane electrical energy and you all watch
as Fearne's hair stands out on end for a
moment and stays there as she pulls away, eyes wide.
ASHLEY: Oh, do not
touch those books! (laughter)
LAURA: Are you okay? ASHLEY: Yes, I'm fine,
it's like when you put your finger in a socket. SAM: What's– Nope.
ROBBIE: What's a socket? SAM: Why are your eyes
doing that thing? ASHLEY: What's wrong?
What are they doing? SAM: They're
pointing all over. MARISHA: Fuck. Fuck.
Nope, you're failing. TALIESIN: I'm going
to gently– ASHLEY: Oh wow, I can't– TALIESIN: — grab her and move
her away from the books. I'd also like to pickpocket
her really quickly. TRAVIS: Oh shit!
MATT: Okay! Go ahead and make
a sleight of hand check. ROBBIE: But her senses
are heightened. TALIESIN: I feel like,
with advantage– No, it's okay. MATT: Given
the circumstances, it'd be with
advantage against– Yeah, go for it. (die clattering on floor) (yelling) MATT: You roll perception
with disadvantage, because– TALIESIN: I'm doing
that again. SAM: It ain't happening. ASHLEY: Perception, you said? MATT: Yes, with disadvantage. ASHLEY: Okay. Okay, 15. TALIESIN: 20. LAURA: Oh!
ROBBIE: (whistles) MATT: Okay.
TRAVIS: Boy, this is– TALIESIN: I was going for an
interesting object, not money.
ASHLEY: Let me see
what I have. MATT: What would be
an interesting object that you think would
be likely pilfered in your current state? MARISHA: Pulling out the old notebook.
ASHLEY: Stand by. TALIESIN: Yeah! ROBBIE: You're stealing
from each other. TALIESIN: Yeah!
MATT: I love it. LIAM: Get that Stonky Ring. ASHLEY: I know exactly what
I think you should grab is my very important chamber pot
that I got from Dugger.
TALIESIN: How big is it? ASHLEY: It's like
a soup bowl. TALIESIN: Actually, how many random objects do
you have on you right now? ASHLEY: So many. I'm just riddled with them. TALIESIN: Tell you what. I'm going to roll a d6. ASHLEY: Okay.
TALIESIN: And just– TRAVIS: In all her clothing. TALIESIN: We'll go
down the list, and whatever number
of the first six. ROBBIE: Yes.
TALIESIN: It's only fair. Ready?
ASHLEY: Let's do it. TALIESIN: Three. ASHLEY: That's literally
the chamber pot. TALIESIN: Ah!
Never mind, then. (laughter) SAM: Rollies! TRAVIS: Verified handpicking. MATT: It's a nice
little chamber pot, it's about that big, it has– ASHLEY: It has a flower
in it from Orym.
TALIESIN: It has
a flower in it? ASHLEY: It's like a– Yeah. LIAM: Keep it fresh.
LAURA: Just sitting in the dried piss at the bottom.
LIAM: Keep it fresh. TALIESIN: All right. MATT: It has a little rope
around the lip of it that she can affix
to her side, so it dangles as she walks. TALIESIN: It's dangling
around mine now. MATT: There you go. Your vision does begin
to slowly return just as the young
dark elf returns.
"Ah, terribly sorry, "I think he's indisposed. "He's not coming to
the door of his office, "so he's probably busy." LAURA: Oh! MATT: "Come back
tomorrow, maybe." TALIESIN: Is he all right,
are you sure? Is he taking a nap, or–? MATT: "He has long meetings."
TALIESIN: We're here right now. MATT: "I understand,
but he's indisposed. "My apologies." LAURA: Of course. ROBBIE: But you just went
up to see him, right? MATT: "Well, I knocked
on the door. "He's not currently
answering, "because he's probably
in a meeting." MARISHA: What if he's dead? TALIESIN: I mean, are you sure he's okay?
MATT: "I don't think he's dead." ROBBIE: You were gone
and back so quick, he must be nearby. TALIESIN: I'm a
little worried. ROBBIE: Yeah, me too.
Should we go check on him? MATT: "I've got this.
I've got this."
ROBBIE: Yeah, are you sure? MATT: "I'll go check again." ROBBIE: I'm going to
press a little bit, up to him a little bit and just walk
toward that space. MATT: "Ah, just
give me a moment. "I'm going to go check,
all right." LAURA: Yeah, I'm
just so nervous. MATT: "No, it's fine,
it's fine." He fumbles and pulls
out his key chain and wanders back down
the hall and to the right.
LAURA: I'm so stressed. SAM: I think we should
follow this gentlemen. ROBBIE: Let me know
if you want to. ASHLEY: We'll just come with
you to just to make sure. MATT: He's already
down the hall and he left around the corner. LAURA: Just slowly walk
down the hallway. LIAM: See if we can
catch sight of him, yeah.
LAURA: Yeah. MATT: You do hear echoing
from the hallway. ROBBIE: What did you say?
MATT: "Hello?" TRAVIS: I can only
go invisible once a day.
MATT: "Hello, Master Vali? "Ah, I don't know." (creaking, door locking) As you guys all step down the
hall and turn the corner, you can see him locking
the door behind you. He goes like, "Ah! Sorry. "I don't know. "He's apparently not here. "So he might be gone,
might've left for the day.
"I didn't see him." LAURA: Oh.
MATT: "So my apologies." ASHLEY: Was that his
office or his bedroom? MATT: "No, this
is his office." ASHLEY: Oh, that would make
sense, I don't know why– MATT: "But I think
he might've gone." LAURA: Oh, all right.
MATT: "My apologies." LAURA: That's strange. And you didn't see him go? MATT: "I didn't, but I've
been busy, you know, "it's possible
he went around.
"Try back tomorrow." LAURA: Of course. Do you know,
does he live close by? MATT: "I don't know;
I've never asked." LAURA: Oh, really? What time does he normally
come in in the morning? MATT: "Well, normally
he comes in– "I haven't been
paying much attention. "A lot of people
come in the morning. "I've seen–"
ROBBIE: As he's distracted with these questions, I'm
slowly just shuffling Chetney behind my cape. TRAVIS: (groans) ROBBIE: And I'm
going to pull my little eyelash and
that gum out. I'm going to, tink, and I'm going to
cast Invisibility on him.
LIAM: Nice.
MATT: Okay. Is Invisibility
verbal and somatic? ROBBIE: It is. MARISHA: Uh-oh.
MATT: And material? TRAVIS: Maybe not.
MATT: I would like you to make a sleight of hand.
ROBBIE: Rather not? MATT: You can make a
sleight of hand check. ROBBIE: ♪ I am very good
at sleight of hand. ♪ ♪ Very good. ♪ ♪ That would be a 24. ♪ (cheering) MATT: Carefully muttering
under your breath, and motioning and
gesturing just out of the periphery sight
of this individual, you sense the arcane energy
leave your fingers, and Chetney,
you vanish from sight. ROBBIE: Go get him. TALIESIN: I'll actually
say, since we're here, I actually have
some questions. Has any of these books
actually ever escaped? MATT: "Uh." TALIESIN: You've really
got them locked up there. Do they leave? MATT: "Like on their own?" TALIESIN: Well, I mean,
that's a lot, clearly. LAURA: We saw furniture
come to life just recently.
TALIESIN: It's been a thing,
it's actually a thing. LAURA: Yeah.
TRAVIS: While they're talking, I just (footsteps)
start going. MATT: Roll a stealth check
with advantage. SAM: Come on. (exclamations) TALIESIN: What's up, Travis. TRAVIS: That's not possible. Oh, okay, jesus christ. I saw a one and a one,
but that's an old dice. That's a one and 16,
so 20, dirty 20. MATT: Okay.
MARISHA: That's not possible. TRAVIS: I was like,
"That can't happen." MATT: You gingerly move around
and seemingly unnoticed are to the
exterior of the door.
SAM: Exterior of the door. MATT: He just finished
locking the door behind him right as you guys arrived.
TRAVIS: Distance from his desk and book area to the hallway and
the door is? MATT: Oh, a good maybe
70 or more feet. TRAVIS: I'm going to, well,
let me look around. Is there anything
else down the hallway or is this the
end of the hallway? MATT: You're right behind. He's still in the hall, but he's starting
to usher the rest of you back, he's like,
LAURA: Yeah, we'll start walking him. MATT: "Right, okay. "Furniture, wait,
I heard something "about that happening.
LAURA: You did? TALIESIN: That was us. MATT: "You were
there for that?" LAURA: Yeah, we ended up
taking care of it.
MATT: "This whole city's
going to shite." LAURA: Have you ever
heard of anything like that happening before? MATT: Go for it, go ahead
and roll (laughs). SAM: Come on, come on. MATT: "I mean, I know about
there's all manner of "enchanted and
animated items, "but they're not running
wild in the city." TALIESIN: Fucking kidding me.
TRAVIS: Do a good job. SAM: What's your idea of
a good date, by the way? MATT: "I don't know,
like, maybe "gondola ride to the Aerie? "I don't know."
MARISHA: Ugh.
TALIESIN: I don't know,
I like it. TRAVIS: 21. MATT: 21. (laughter) The lock is a
bit too complicated for you at the moment. ROBBIE: No! TALIESIN: Yeah. LAURA: Should've
gotten some Guidance. MARISHA: Fuck. SAM: I can't guide
some invisible weirdo. MATT: It's a tough
entry on that one. TRAVIS: No, that's fair,
that's fair. But I'm not going
to be thwarted. Is it just this
desk in the hallway? Is there another way? Do I see stairs any way?
Other doors? Anything that leads up? MATT: I mean, there is a
staircase in the central area where his desk is and
it spirals upward to the actual tower.
TRAVIS: But nothing that's behind him besides this door?
MATT: No.
This office does feel like
this is on the outside of the compound, so it is
the furthest portion of this base area around the tower. TALIESIN: It's like a lobby. MATT: Right, so– TRAVIS: Good luck. MATT: So the office of Vali is against the outside
of the building. TRAVIS: Got it, got it,
got it, got it. TALIESIN: So none of
these books could've made
this happen then? This is not some sort of
weird magic collection– MATT: "I don't know,
this is–" TALIESIN: You mean you
lock these books up and you don't know
what's in them, or–? MATT: "No, it's not my job
to know what's in them.
"I'm just told to
lock them up." ASHLEY: You don't take
a little peek? SAM: Imogen.
MATT: "No." SAM: How's he doing? TALIESIN: No, I mean
clearly, clearly. MATT: "I appreciate your
coming by, I really do. "Come back tomorrow and
maybe he'll be back in then, "and we can go ahead
and get this sorted." Hands the paperwork
back to you. TALIESIN: Will you be working tomorrow morning?
LAURA: Chetney. TALIESIN: Or will it
be somebody else? MATT: "Tomorrow, it might be someone else."
LAURA: Chetney Pock O'Pea. MATT: "I'm off for
the next two days. "I'm at the end
of my shift, so." LAURA: Have you made
it into the office? TRAVIS: No, it's
a sturdy lock. I tried, it's not working. SAM: As he's ushering us out,
I'm going to touch the books. MATT: You're going
to touch the– SAM: I'm going to
touch the book.
MATT: Well, the books
are behind a bar.
SAM: Yeah, the cage. MATT: Okay, make a
constitution check. SAM: 12, I don't know.
16, actually. MATT: 16, okay. You take four points
of lightning damage. ASHLEY: Take one.
MATT: And are not blinded. SAM: I'm going to just
spaz out and go– (screams) MATT: "No, no, no, no,
you're not supposed to– "stop that, that's enchanted,
oh god, god. "Please, don't, don't.
"I'm sorry. (exclaims)" TALIESIN: I don't know
what happened. Sometimes things happen. Okay, hold on, I'll check.
MATT: "Don't touch this. "None of you touch it! "It's specifically designed
not to be touched." LAURA: What happened? TALIESIN: Okay, buddy,
I got you, I got you. Hold on, hold on. MATT: You can see
other, out the way, there are some other
patrol wardens are starting to hearing this noise
and you can hear. "What's going on?" And distance,
they'll be here shortly. TALIESIN: It's all right. It's all right.
MARISHA: This man hurt our friend. LIAM: He's very expensive.
LAURA: No, no. MATT: "I did not, what?!" TALIESIN: It's all right,
sometimes– They get buggy,
they get buggy. It's all right, it'll– ASHLEY: He just
needs a tune up. (laughter) TALIESIN: You're literally
just playing with– okay. MATT: Chetney,
what are you doing? TRAVIS: I'll try one
more before we just call it off.
MARISHA: Come on, Chetney! MATT: Oh boy.
You're going to need to
roll super high on this. TRAVIS: It's a 26, but
I don't know if that's enough. I think that
might've been before. MATT: Yeah, 25 was the
threshold the first roll. This brought it up higher.
TRAVIS: Figures. MATT: Sorry. TRAVIS: I can't do it,
I can't do it! LAURA: Just come back. We can try again
in the morning. TRAVIS: I'm a failure. LAURA: No, you're not.
TRAVIS: I add nothing to the team. (laughter) LAURA: Chetney,
nobody else can be– Well, I guess somebody
else could be invisible. I guess Dorian could do
that to anyone now. No one else can–
Chetney, just get back here. TRAVIS: All right. I was enjoying
the pep talk, though. MATT: The wardens approach
and they're like, "What's going on in here?" TALIESIN: Oh.
MATT: "This automaton touched
the side of the books, "so it went a bit haywire. "Are we all right?
Are we all right?" SAM: (robot voice) I cannot
feel anything anymore. I am entering
malfunction mode. ASHLEY: Oh no! TALIESIN: This is my fault. I got to take him
home and do a thing. It's okay, nothing you did,
nothing you did. We'll just–
Come on, come on. We're good, help it up.
SAM: I'm going to try to make the Apple computer
boot noise. TALIESIN: Do it, do it.
I want to hear it. SAM: I don't know. (bongs) I don't know. (laughter) MATT: Yeah, we're old. (laughs) TALIESIN: Come on. SAM: All right,
we're leaving? TALIESIN: Yeah.
LAURA: Do you know what time we should head back here
in the morning? MATT: "I wouldn't go
any later to– "earlier than nine,
probably." LAURA: You know, is it
possible to leave a note? Slide it under the
door or something, so that he knows
what to expect? MATT: "Maybe, I can
probably do that." And the wardens (groans),
and they wander off and continue their walk
throughout the grounds.
MARISHA: Please, it's
the least you could do. SAM: (robot voice) I am hurt. MATT: "I can leave a note,
just give it to me." LAURA: Okay, yeah. MATT: "And then please–" TALIESIN: Super appreciated. LAURA: Yeah.
TALIESIN: That's really cool. MATT: "I need to
close soon, so–" LAURA: Do you have
a piece of paper I can– MATT: "I can get
that for you, yeah." He wanders off,
and goes in the desk, and starts getting
a piece of paper out. ASHLEY: But how do you
touch the books? How is that a thing? MATT: "That–"
TALIESIN: 20% less.
MATT: He turns to you like,
"Well, that is information "I should not be sharing. "That's part of my job."
SAM: Like a Roomba. (laughter) TRAVIS: Roomba. (laughter) LAURA: Write a whole letter. TRAVIS: I tug on
Dorian's cape. Let me out. ROBBIE: I know. LAURA: Okay,
here's the letter. There you go. MATT: "All right, I'll make
sure it's left in the office. "So sorry. "Sorry about your friend." SAM: (robot voice)
You have destroyed me. MATT: "Oh god." LAURA: Maybe you shouldn't
just slide it under the door because now I'm worried
that he's going to come in and he's not even going to
see it's under the door.
Can you leave it
on his desk or something? I'm just freaking out. MATT: "(sighs) All right." LAURA: Chetney, follow him. TRAVIS: I picked up on it. That was slick as fuck. (laughter) TALIESIN: Are we going to– Oh boy.
MATT: "But nevertheless, "get out, get out." LAURA: Okay, okay, okay.
MATT: And he ushers the rest of you out.
LAURA: Okay, okay, okay, okay. SAM: Thank you,
have a shiny day. MATT: Closes the doors
behind you.
TRAVIS: I'm still inside. MATT: Still inside. Looks at the sheet. "For the love of gods.
(groans) "Why'd this day
get so weird?" And he starts walking
down the hall. Make a stealth check
with advantage. MARISHA: Come on.
SAM: Come on, come on. Get in that room. TRAVIS: We're doing good,
we're doing good, 17. MATT: 17. SAM: That's not–
That's not great. MATT: Okay, continues
walking down the path, pulls out the key ring,
finds the right key, turns to the right,
heads down the hall, comes to the door. (clicks) (creaks) Opens up inside. It's shady inside, but
it looks like there is a blue orb that sits
above a small pillar, floating about
an inch above it that just gives
this dull blue glow throughout the interior
of this office. Stepping inside, you can see there is a large
dark wooden desk. You can see there
are shelves. There is a liquor cabinet
off to the side, there's a bunch of papers
and stuff on the main desk area.
There is a large
stained glass window that looks out
into the courtyard. MARISHA: Time is
a flat circle. MATT: But the figure,
the young dark elf goes over and sets the paper
on the desk and goes, (sighs). And then leaves the room,
closes behind. (clicks) And locks it. And you are now
locked within the office. What are you going to do? TRAVIS: I count to 10. I don't even breathe. I say to Imogen: I'm in. LAURA: Great! What do you see?
What are you doing? TRAVIS: There's
a big blue ball, a stained glass window, and these enormous bookcases. (laughter) I'm afraid to move. LAURA: Is there a door
in there anywhere? Can you get– TRAVIS: Is there
a door anywhere? LAURA: Outside of
the one that– MATT: You can make a perception or
investigation check, up to you, to look within
the darkly lit room. Do you have darkvision? TRAVIS: I do, 60 feet. MATT: Okay, yeah, yeah. TRAVIS: 22. MATT: 22.
LAURA: Okay, okay. MATT: Okay, so first,
the stained glass window that overlooks the outside, you can see it
creates a colorful rose represented in a
rainbow tapestry of panes that gives the symbol there.
Some are larger,
some are smaller. Just beyond it, you can see
some of the distant lights in the courtyard. Looking around
the sizable office, the decor is mildly gaudy. You can see there
are paintings of little quaint cottages
at golden hour. SAM: Oh boy. MARISHA: Kinkades? MATT: Yeah, just
filled with Kinkades. (laughter) ASHLEY: Hey, those are
fun puzzles, though.
MARISHA: Fuck this guy. (laughter) TALIESIN: Burn it down. MARISHA: (laughs) Burn it down. MATT: His name is
Kinkade [Kin-kah-day] and he's the Painter of Suns.
TALIESIN: (laughs) MATT: You can see tapestries
of odd blocky patterns in clashing colors
throughout the room. Definitely a lot of
money put into this. There is a heavy vermaloc
bookcase that sits against the wall
behind the large slab of the wooden desk
there that you see with multitudes of
intricate drawers that are visible on
the chair side of it. TRAVIS: Vermaloc. LAURA: (laughs) MATT: Yeah, vermaloc
is actually pretty rare and you recognize
it immediately. TRAVIS: Oh yeah. MATT: Deep purple coloration. LAURA: Ooh.
TRAVIS: (high-pitched laugh) SAM: Yeah.
MATT: (laughs) TALIESIN: I'm so glad I can't
hear this in my head. SAM: Wood porn. ROBBIE: Hashtag
horny for wood. MATT: Yep. TRAVIS: Please let me
be alone in here. In fact, I'll close my eyes
and just use my senses. Do I hear or smell or feel
anything that might be off? Something that could be
illusory, arcane in nature? Not what is seems. Just another physical
presence in the room or something that is hidden? MATT: Nothing to that–
Well, well, what'd you roll for
investigation before? It was–
TRAVIS: 22.
LAURA: 21
MATT: 22. Or 21. I will say within
the sense there. LAURA: 23. MATT: Well, glancing around
the space in here, first off, you do see there are just
numerous blank paper stacked on the desk. There is a large trader or trade route map
of the Oderan Wilds spread across
one half of the desk. That's with
trade routes marked and all the paths of the
actual jungle around. (laughs) You can see there are– Once again, all the
drawers that you can see, there are locks
on the drawers.
There's three on each
side to a total of six. After your previous
experience in the day, you glance back
at the bookcase on the wall behind you. You're like,
"These fucking bookcases." You head over to it and look at where
it meets the wall. You sense the faintest of noise from behind the bookcase. TRAVIS: You're shitting me. MATT: No. TRAVIS: Oh, baby. Okay. I look at the blue orb. Make a little move. Anything? Reaction? Flare up? MATT: Nothing. TRAVIS: Fuck yeah! Home free! All right, I'm going to go up
and look at the trade map. I'm going to scroll
that piece of shit up. Squirrel that away. MATT: All right. (cheering, screaming) MARISHA: Chetney! TRAVIS: This is
the biggest item! (laughter) MARISHA: Oh.
(exclaims) MARISHA: Oh my god. ROBBIE: Wow. TALIESIN: That's hot. LAURA: Oh my god. TRAVIS: Yeah. ROBBIE: Gulch of the Betrayer. MARISHA: Fucking brilliant. TRAVIS: Gurge is here. SAM: Fucking brilliant. TRAVIS: That's fucking hot. ROBBIE: Oh my god,
yeah, yeah, yeah. MARISHA: Cool. TRAVIS: Okay, phew. The locked drawers
are very tempting, but I've learned, that door, I don't need anyone
else for this. I'm going to put my
back up against the– Is it a bookcase or
is it a fucking tea cart? MATT: No, this is
an actual bookcase. TRAVIS: Goddamn it. I'm not afraid! Wait, I'm going to look on
either sides of the bookcase to see if there are any
sorts of traps or wires or anything that might– MATT: Make an
investigation check. TRAVIS: Okay. 16. MATT: 16. You don't sense any traps,
but you do get the sense this bookcase is
on a mechanism, but one you do not see the presence of
around the bookcase. TRAVIS: I go over
to the desk. I've made these kind
of things before. I look under the desk
for a button or a switch. Where is it, you fuck? MATT: You look
underneath the desk, and it is just smooth wood underneath where
the chair is set.
TRAVIS: Goddamn it. From my vantage point, can
I look under other things for some sort of a switch
that only someone under four feet would see? MATT: (laughs) Nothing in that space. There's just the drawers. TRAVIS: I know it's
here somewhere. Are there
candle stick holders? MATT: No, there's just the
orb in the center of the room that's giving the single
source of light beyond the faint bit of light
that's coming through. Actually, no, at this point,
any sort of external light has been covered
in the rainy sky. Other than
the distant torchlight, there's not much making
it in from the outside. TRAVIS: Is there a drawer with
a lock that has more wear on the outside of the
lock than the others? MATT: Make an investigation
check for me.
TRAVIS: 23. MATT: 23. On the left-hand top side, you see where
the key hole is, there is much more wear
on the wood surrounding where the metal
entry point is. TRAVIS: Let's go to
work on that one. MATT: Go ahead and
roll for me, please. SAM: Chet, come on, old man. TRAVIS: Yeah,
much better, 24. MATT: 24,
messing with it there. (clicking) The drawer opens up slightly. TRAVIS: As it opens up
slightly, I look. MATT: (laughs) Glancing inside,
there is a small iron chest about that large, almost
like a scroll case, but it is a chest. It's
designed with a flip top that is immediately
visible there. And a small leather bound book
about that big. TRAVIS: It's a iron chest
that's open? MATT: It's closed currently. TRAVIS: I open it. MATT: Okay, you can open it. On the inside, you see 100 platinum pieces. (gasps) SAM and LIAM:
That's a lot of money.
MATT: For that one there– TRAVIS: We're going
to Dalen's Closet. (laughter) MATT: From there, there's
also six gold pieces. That's all that's within
that one, yes. TRAVIS: Fuck. SAM: There's a book, too? TRAVIS: There's a book? MATT: There's a small
leather bound book. About that big. TRAVIS: I'll do
(flipping pages). Do I see anything on the first couple of
pages before I thumb it? MATT: There's only
20 pages in there. Only the first
two are filled with any sort of
text and writing. A lot of them
shorthand notes. Roll an intelligence
check for me. TRAVIS: Man, I don't
remember the last time I rolled a fucking
intelligence check. Ugh. 17. LAURA: That's good. MATT: 17's pretty damn good. TRAVIS: Oh, okay. (laughter) TRAVIS: I don't know! 21 and 26, falling apart. MATT: Fair enough. The shorthand breaks
into elements like: pay made, order, Dreamset. The next one and all the other
ones we're talking about different connections
to unions. Other one that's talking
about times that are set.
It doesn't quite make
out the details. The one other one that
catches your eye says, requested by Nightmare King. TRAVIS, SAM, and ROBBIE:
Whoa. ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's make that one big. MATT: Comma, bring alive. LAURA: Uh oh. SAM and ROBBIE: Oh boy. TRAVIS: What the fuck
does that mean? MARISHA: Oh no. SAM: Nightmare King. LAURA: What's up with that?
ROBBIE: That's fucking fine. LAURA: Yeah, that sounds– ROBBIE: Everything's okay. ASHLEY: Scary.
TRAVIS: That's on the top. Of the six drawers,
one is unlocked. Are they all equal size
or is it that thing where top ones are smaller and the bottom ones
are heftier? MATT: Actually, on this one,
the top ones are larger and the bottom ones
are thinner. TRAVIS: Okay, I'll go to the
top right one and see if– Actually, I'll run back
to the door, put my ear. Any sound? MATT: Nothing more, no. TRAVIS: I'll go back
and try that– LAURA: Chetney?
TRAVIS: Huh? LAURA: We're going to
lose connection soon.
TRAVIS: (loudly)
What do you mean? There's a time limit on this? LAURA: There's a time
limit on this. How are you doing?
TRAVIS: How much longer? LAURA: Like a minute. TRAVIS: I found a bunch of
money and a trade route map. LAURA: You don't
have to yell. I can hear you. TRAVIS: Oh, (whispers)
and a trade route map.
There's a door
behind a bookcase. LAURA: Oh, another one? TRAVIS: Yeah,
but a real bookcase, and there's a mechanism. I'm trying to find it, but
it wasn't under the desk. LAURA: Maybe it's in one of
the drawers of the desk. TRAVIS: Let me look. I'll
try the upper right-hand. MATT: Upper right-hand? Go ahead and roll to
see if you unlock it. TRAVIS: Come on, goddamn it. Yeah, 27. LIAM: Yeah. MARISHA: Holy shit.
ROBBIE: You killer. MATT: Okay.
MARISHA: Thank goodness Travis is rolling good. TRAVIS: Sometimes. MARISHA: (laughs) I know. MATT: You go ahead
and (clicks). Hit the lock on the
top right. (creaking) It opens up a bit. There is a heavy
velvet sack that is currently
taut and tied and– MARISHA: Some Crown Royal. MATT: That's all you
see in there, yeah. TALIESIN: It's full
of Crown Royal. ROBBIE: Tiny werewolf. TRAVIS: Heavy velvet sack.
SAM: Tiny werewolf? TRAVIS: Without opening it,
can I feel the contents? Does anything feel like
a key or anything? MATT: No keys, but
certainly a lot of coin.
TRAVIS: Oh shit! Okay. How much time do
we have left? I don't want to
get stuck in here. LAURA: Like a minute,
I don't know, not long. Check the inside
of the drawers, could there be a button or something?
TRAVIS: There's six drawers! I unlocked two. LAURA: Yeah, but have you
touched all the inside of the drawers that
you've unlocked? TRAVIS: Oh. No?
LAURA: Look for a mechanism within them. TRAVIS: I stick my hand
down and reach around. MATT: On the one
on the right? TRAVIS: Yeah. MATT: You stick it in.
You hit something. You hear behind you. (rumbles) (cheering) MARISHA: Oh my god. ASHLEY: Yes! TRAVIS: Oh my god. I owe you my body
when I get out. Okay. So I'll turn around. MATT: You turn around and
you can see– MARISHA: After Pretty. MATT: — where the
bookcase was, there is an open area carved a little bit smaller than
the size of the bookcase.
There is a darkened
staircase that descends. LAURA: Uh oh.
You can't go alone. TRAVIS: You bet your ass. We came for one thing
and one thing only. Beast man. I'm going in. (gasping) MATT: You go in? TRAVIS: Yeah. MATT: Roll a stealth check. TRAVIS: Oh god.
LAURA: Alone. TRAVIS: Well, how the fuck are
we going to get back here? LAURA: Did you take
all the money? TRAVIS: Yeah.
I got all the money. LAURA: Okay. TRAVIS: Should I not? Last 20 seconds. LAURA: (phone line
interference) Chet– Chet– SAM: (static phone line) If you'd like
to make a call… (laughter) TRAVIS: I mean, I really
want to come back. But how the fuck are
we going to do this? LAURA: No–
SAM: Man, do you. TRAVIS: I'm going. MATT: Okay, roll a stealth
check for me, please. TALIESIN: I'm so excited for your next character.
ROBBIE: Does he get advantage because he's invisible? MATT: As invisible he gets
advantage on stealth, yes.
TRAVIS: I do get advantage
on stealth? Okay. MATT: Because you're
invisible, yeah. TRAVIS: I hate this. (groaning) TRAVIS: 16. SAM: That's not bad. TRAVIS: It's not great.
It's not terrible. MARISHA: Oh,
you have advantage. TRAVIS: Yeah,
the other one was– MARISHA: Advantage.
The other one was bad. MATT: As you begin heading
down the stairs, you hear voices. One, that, as you pick up
the conversation, says, (Voice 1, posh) "Our patron
is pushing "for legislation in
the coming week "so whatever you plot
must be quickened." Another voice follows up.
(Voice 2, creepy)
"Your dullard mind "fails to grasp the
beautiful pattern "I've already constructed
across the city." (Voice 1) "Ira, I'm serious. "Let us get this over with,
so that I might never "deal with your
cruel arrogance again." (Ira) "Then bring me some
riff raff from The Steps. "People no one would miss.
And maybe a Mahaan child "just to spice things up. "This next wave will–" (Voice 1) "I will
most certainly not "bring you a child,
you freak. "And only a
short time longer. "Finish your work and
be gone from my life." (Ira) "Of course, once my work
is done, I shall leave. "(chuckles)" Footsteps begin
to approach you.
TRAVIS: I back up. I go to the inside of the
drawer and I click the button. MATT: You go and
click the button. It's not closing. TRAVIS: I shut the doors
and I try and open the door and get out of the office. MATT: The door is locked. (thumps) TRAVIS: There's no
inside thing? MATT: Not that you see, no.
TRAVIS: Oh god. I'll try to do the lock pick. MATT: (approaching footsteps) Go ahead and
roll for lock picking. LAURA: Oh god!
MARISHA: Come on, come on. LAURA: Chetney! MATT: Now, I'm going to
ask you this again. What's giving you–
are you rolling 2d20s? TRAVIS: Yes. Because…
SAM: New role, who this? LIAM: Next character is
going to be even older. TRAVIS: No, not on this one. MATT: On this one,
all right, roll one. TRAVIS: That's a 16. MATT: The door's not budging. TRAVIS: I shut the drawers
and I run across the office, and I put myself
in the corner. SAM: Are you still invisible? TRAVIS: I am, but I make myself small
and tiny in the corner. MATT: Okay. Stepping into the room, you see an elven,
half-elven man, you see an elven,
half-elven man, light blond hair coiffed
in the front a bit, these sideburns that
come to a point. He's wearing some nice
clothing and he steps in. (inhales) (exhales) Goes ahead and reaches behind
one of the nearby portraits you see hanging next to
it, and presses something, and the bookcase (rumbles)
shifts back into place.
MARISHA: Cool. MATT: Pulls the chair
back and sits. TRAVIS: Uh-oh. LIAM: Crap. ROBBIE: Oh fuck. MATT: He steps up and one of
the ornaments on the wall, which is this sheathed saber, (unsheathing) pulls free. And begins walking
through the room. Looks out the window. Looks underneath the
small futon, slashes. Where are you? TRAVIS: I'm in the corner.
If you come in the door and the bookshelf's on the
right, I'm in the far corner opposite where the desk is. MATT: Okay. Slowly begins to make his
way through the room, swashing and cutting
through the air. SAM: Oh god. LAURA: But you're very short, so maybe he's
cutting above you. (laughter) MATT: (sniffs) SAM: Old man smell. (laughter) TRAVIS: Smells like menthol. (laughter) MATT: (sword swishes) Slowly creeping closer to where you're
currently resting. About five feet away.
(slices) Three feet. (slices) Right next to you. TRAVIS: I run! ROBBIE: Where?! TRAVIS: I run up. I jump
on whatever bed or shelf is next to the window. I'm going through
that motherfucker. (cheering) MARISHA: Through the window? (cheering) TRAVIS: I don't know
what's on the other side. ROBBIE: Go, old man! MARISHA: Come on.
MATT: (foot falls) (glass breaks) The stained glass shatters
as you fall and tumble. Out into the rain below. The rain's pouring
on you, on your face. You hear a voice go,
"What the–?" Rushes up, blade ready,
you can see the elven man standing there,
looking out about. TRAVIS: I take the tomato from
the kitchen and I toss it. MATT: Towards him?
TRAVIS: Yeah. MATT: Okay, roll an attack. LAURA: Wait, no,
not an attack. TRAVIS: No, not an attack. I'm just tossing a tomato at him.
MATT: Just tossing a tomato? Okay.
(laughs) Just in the direction? TRAVIS: Yeah. MATT: (splats) "Are you fucking
kidding me?" (laughter)
TRAVIS: (fast foot falls) Sonic the Hedgehog. MATT: As you rush off
into the rainy evening, in the courtyard, eyes
peeled for your friends, the rest of you looking
at each other panicked as the last conversation
you had with Chetney he seemed to be lost
within the office. Until you hear the shattering
of glass in the distance– LAURA: Oh fuck. MATT: — and the
shouting of voices. As you glance over into the
now harder falling rain… We'll pick up there next time.
TRAVIS: Oh my god! (groaning) MARISHA: Epic! SAM: What a caper! ASHLEY: What a caper! ROBBIE: Let's go! LAURA: (whoops) ROBBIE: You got all the
good shit on you, too. LIAM: That's got to be
a record for the show. We did three
clusterfuck break-ins. TALIESIN: In a row! MATT: No joke!
That was insane! (laughs) TRAVIS: Fuck! My fucking wrists
are throbbing. MATT: (laughs) MARISHA: Did you get
in your steps? LAURA: Oh man.
TRAVIS: Yeah, yeah. MARISHA: Just from this game. TRAVIS: "You've
achieved your goal." LAURA and TRAVIS: Oh my god.
TRAVIS: I can feel my
heartbeat in my eyes. MATT: All righty, hey. ROBBIE: You did it all. TALIESIN: Way to go. LAURA: And you got money. TRAVIS: I can pay you back! LAURA: So much money! MATT: It's not over yet!
LAURA: I wonder how much is in that bag. ROBBIE: Yeah, he has it all. TRAVIS: It's not over, MATT: It's not over yet. TRAVIS: Oh shit. MATT: We'll pick up
there next week. Welcome to the new year. TRAVIS: Yeah, 2022! (clapping) SAM: Oh boy. TRAVIS: Legend of Vox Machina,
January 28th. MATT: That's right, yes! Soon! (cheering) SAM: Mere days away. MATT: Oh my goodness. Thank you all so much for
joining us for this chaos. We love you very much,
and is it Thursday yet? Good night. (cheering).