MATT: Welcome back, everybody.
SAM: Are we in sync?
MATT: Hopefully. There it is. Okay. Anyway,
welcome back! Thank you again for your patience,
we're going to kick into this really fast.
However, back to the matter at hand, we are
sponsored tonight by Marvel Puzzle Quest. Sam,
once again please.
SAM: Once again, I hope people can hear. Marvel
Puzzle Quest is an awesomely addictive role
playing puzzle game where Marvel's fearless
superheroes come to life! You can download it now
on the iTunes, the Google Play, the Amazon App
Store, and the Steam. And now, a rare 5-star
Spider-man has arrived in Marvel Puzzle Quest just
in time for Spider-man: Homecoming, the movie. You
can recruit Spidey and play in two new boss
missions featuring the Sinister Six. Face the
Vulture, or recruit him as a supervillain for your
team. Now, to celebrate the awesomeness that is
Marvel Puzzle Quest, I have another one of my
famous puzzles for Taliesin.
TALIESIN: All right! Bring it!
SAM: Which of the following is an actual enemy
from the game Marvel Puzzle Quest, and which is
the name of an actual movie starring Jean-Claude
Van Damme.
TALIESIN: Oh no. I am genuinely in trouble!
SAM: Hitman!
TALIESIN: Oh no, that's a DC character.
SAM: That's an enemy. Brawler!
TALIESIN: That's a Jean-Claude Van Damme.
SAM: No. Timecop!
TALIESIN: That is a Jean-Claude Van Damme!
(laughter)
SAM: Century Fighter!
TALIESIN: That's--
MATT: What is it, Taliesin?
TALIESIN: I don't know! JCVD! This is so painful.
SAM: Game enemy.
TALIESIN: Oh my god!
SAM: Kickboxer!
TALIESIN: That is a Jean-Claude Van Damme.
SAM: Bloodsport!
TALIESIN: Also a Jean-Claude Van Damme! And also,
I think a Marvel villain, as well.
SAM: Cyborg!
TALIESIN: That's a DC hero.
SAM: That is also a Jean-Claude Van Damme. I'll
skip a couple of these. Okay. Defender!
TALIESIN: That is a--
SAM: Actual enemy from the game.
TALIESIN: Yeah, Marvel enemy.
SAM: The Expendables! Double Impact!
TALIESIN: I'm not even going to-- yeah okay.
SAM: JCVD!
(laughter)
TALIESIN: The only Jean-Claude Van Damme film I've
seen.
SAM: Okay. And one more for bonus. Killing
Machine. That's a trick; it's a Dolph Lundgren
movie.
TALIESIN: I have never been so baffled in my life!
That was amazing!
SAM: Marvel Puzzle Quest! Marvel Puzzle Quest.
TALIESIN: Marvel Puzzle Quest.
LAURA: Go play it!
MATT: Thank you guys so much. All right so, merch
updates, Laura!
LAURA: Yes! Okay, you guys. I gots, you know, just
a few, just stuff. So, you know the David Mack
poster? It looks like some people have requested,
so the poster-- not the signed one! But the
unsigned one is going to be for sale for a few
days extra, so there's that, that's happening.
SAM: Hey, that's good news!
LAURA: That's good news. Also good news is that
some stuff is out of stock in the store, but all
of it is going to the manufacturers right now, so
things are getting made! So things'll be back in
stock very soon.
SAM: Laura, is something wrong with your head?
LAURA: And! Actually, I think that's about it.
There's still like, the shirts. Some sizes are
available but some of them are out of stock, and
that's all being reprinted. So you guys, it'll be
back in the store very soon. Go check out the
store!
TRAVIS: That was the bubbliest she's ever been
over a three-month span.
TALIESIN: I'm blaming the shirt, man.
LAURA: It's the strawberries.
MATT: Something that they recently announced in
regards to the podcast. Right?
MARISHA: Oh my gosh, guys! Episodes 11 through 21?
21.
TRAVIS: 20.
MARISHA: 20? Yeah. 11 to 20 are out, right now.
The other next batch of 10 should be out in a
couple of weeks or so. But you can find that on
iTunes and Google Play.
SAM: Yay!
TRAVIS: I listened to it on my ride today. Your
ads are funny. You introduce an ep, I introduce an ep.
LAURA: Aw, that's exciting.
TALIESIN: Oh, that's right. I'd forgotten about
that.
MATT: We have another announcement. Travis, you
want to take this one?
TRAVIS: Yeah! Yeah. We went and lost our
collective damn minds for a second year in a row
and at GenCon this year, we gon' be doing Critical
Role live once again! It's coming back. Second
year. This time it will be Friday August 18th, at
the Murat Theater at Old National Center. It's
going to be broadcast on both Twitch and Alpha,
and we're going to have general admission seats
and VIP package seats which will be the first
like, few rows of the theater. You guys'll get
like, a whole hour show before the actual show
starts, so you'll get early admission. Brian
Foster from Talks Machina will be in there.
MARISHA: (gasps) Brian Foster!
TRAVIS: We're going to have a whole pre-show
specifically for the VIP seats. We're going to
have a gift package! A special gift bag. And the
tickets go on sale tomorrow morning at 10:00 am
Pacific. What's PDT?
SAM: Pacific Daylight Time.
TRAVIS: Oh! That one! 10:00 AM PDT.
SAM: When we're in daylight savings time, it's DT.
PST is when we're not in daylight savings.
TALIESIN: I just learned that.
TRAVIS: I just did too, that was great! And a
ticketing link can be found on geekandsundry.com
tomorrow morning 10 AM B-- no PDT! Help me. I'm
stroking out.
LAURA: Tickets are on sale tomorrow!
TRAVIS: Tickets on sale tomorrow! General
admission and VIP seats! VIP seats are limited. So
it's first come, first serve.
LAURA: Well, yeah.
MATT: All right, awesome! Thank you, Travis! So
excited about that, guys! So we'll see you guys at
Gen Con. We have some fun stuff coming up there at
San Diego Comic-Con! We announced the panel we
have. That is on...
TRAVIS: Saturday, 10:30.
LAURA: It's 10:30?
TRAVIS: 10:30 AM.
LAURA: Sweet.
TRAVIS: It's at room 3 letters. BCD?
TALIESIN and MARISHA: PDT (laugh)
MATT: We put it out on socials, so keep an eye out
for that. We'll have our schedule up here and
stuff, for Comic-Con available up. So hopefully
we'll see you guys there! Let's see, we have this
week's Signal Boost went up with our buddy, Mischa
Pollack.
MARISHA: Oh yeah, Mischa!
MATT: Been friends with him since high school, and
he's an awesome gentleman. Extremely talented,
extremely smart man, so check out his episode of
Signal Boost. I like it a lot. Wednesday Club!
Thank you for having me on last night.
TALIESIN: Thank you being on our show! It was
fun.
MATT: New episode next week?
TALIESIN: Yeah, we're going to be doing, in honor
of the new sets that have been happening
everywhere, we're doing a secret headquarters
where we're going to be talking about famous
superhero headquarters and everything from like,
old school stuff and the League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen, to the Titan's tower, all the fun
stuff. It'll be cool.
MATT: And the new series Dread went up today!
Taliesin and I were players in the awesome Dread
show that Ivan Van Norman runs. My mic is whack?
SAM: Yes, your mic is whack.
MATT: Where'd my mic go?
TRAVIS: They're working on it.
MARISHA: You guys can send in Chris to adjust it.
It's okay! They know we're a show with a sound
guy. There's no real illusion. Sound guy Chris!
TRAVIS: Chris is a Libra. His interests include
underwater basket weaving.
LAURA: Yes, long walks on the beach.
SAM: He has more than one nipple, but less than
five.
(laughter)
LIAM: It's an interesting tech night. Ash and I
are Skyping in from the USCSS Nostromo, which is a
Weyland-Yutani vessel and if we fart out it's
because we've been eaten by xenomorphs. Sorry.
SAM: Can't hear Ashley at all. Liam is totally
overpowering. I love it
LIAM: (creepy voice) Samuel.
MATT: All right guys! Well, that being the case,
let's dive into tonight's episode of Critical
Role!
[dramatic music]
MATT: Hello, everyone, and welcome back.
Hopefully with a fixed microphone?
SAM: We'll find out!
CHRIS: We're good!
MATT: Ah, perfect, awesome! Yeah, I love it! All
right, so to get you guys get caught up to speed
with what we did in recent episodes.
(muffled dramatic music)
SAM: Is that you, Liam?
MATT: Anyway. Last we left off, Vox Machina had
confronted the Whispered One, the Undying King
Vecna, in the Shadowfell. The battle did not go in
your favor, with the death and very faint recovery
of Vex, and the disintegration of Vax during this
confrontation. Realizing that it was not going in
your favor, you Plane Shifted to the Feywild,
where you began to come up with some sort of plot
or plan to try and bring your friend, Vax, back
without a body. During this time Vax had a
conversation with his patron, the Raven Queen, and
was given an offer where he could return along
with powers that would aid in this coming final
confrontation. However, the deal came with some
drawbacks, and upon his friends awakening the next
morning in the Feywild, they found Vax returned to
them, whole. Seemingly alive, returned, though
missing his equipment. Equipment returned, and a
brief period of figuring out what possibly
delivered their friend back to this space. It was
decided that based on his experience with his
patron that the powers beyond the Divine
Gate-- the Prime Gods that lay claim to the divine
beyond the Prime Material plane will probably be
the next best bet in gaining some sort of power,
information about how to better prepare for the
coming struggle with Vecna, the Whispered One.
You then made your way to Vasselheim, where Pike
went to her temple of Sarenrae which she had
helped raise and reconstruct, and had a vision
from her patron deity asking her to come visit her
at the Island of Renewal, and was granted, through
this vision, an object that would link, via your spell,
a way to traverse past the Divine Gate and
directly to her location on the plane of Elysium.
Also, Grog and Scanlan had a little excursion in
the city of Vasselheim and a minor altercation
with the guards, which led to a larger altercation
with the guards, which led to a much larger
altercation with the guards, which led to them
barely escaping and deciding it's time to go.
TRAVIS: We can't go back.
MARISHA: Vasselheim's most wanted?
MATT: Yeah. You guys then clasped hands, and using
the Plane Shift spell found yourselves stepping
down on the crunching sand-like shores of the
Island of Renewal. There looking past the clusters
of stone and trees that mark the perimeter of this
interesting, beautiful, strange distant landscape.
You can see beyond the tree line and the hills
that jut up from the floor the crystalline
structure that seems to mark the center of the
Island, and that is where we left off. What would
you guys like to do?
LAURA: Did you say the sand is made of pearls?
MATT: It appears to be, yeah. The granules of the
sand are too big to be tiny sand granules, they're
about pearl-size, maybe a little bit smaller. And
they're smooth, and they seem to reflect the light
in a very beautiful way.
LAURA: I just want to take a handful and look at
them.
ASHLEY: Oh, can we make a body scrub?
LAURA: Good idea, Pike. I'm going to take a good
handful and put it in a pouch and save them.
SAM: Microdermabrasion.
LAURA: They're micro-plastic beads that have
washed up on the shore.
ASHLEY: I'm going to take a little bit, too.
MATT: Okay, so you gather up some of these
pearlescent beads of some kind and fill a small
pouch of them and put it amongst the rest of your
belongings. All righty, anything else you guys
wish to do to prepare? What do you want to do?
SAM: Oh god. We're going to go see Sarenrae,
right?
TRAVIS: Yeah, you know, like one does. Fucking
jauntily walk up.
LIAM: (distorted) And you said that that tower was
full of some sort of flame, right?
SAM: Sorry, robot Liam!
MARISHA: No, I wanted two cheeseburgers. What did
you say?
LIAM: (in speak-and-spell voice) I am richer for
having known you.
TRAVIS: Thank you!  Much better!
MATT: What did you say?
LIAM: I said (robot noises). You said that that
tower had, was full of some sort of flame, right?
MATT: Yes, and the, what little you can see, it
seems to form this torso of a feminine structure,
the body of which gives out these wings that curl
upward. Held amongst the center of these wings is
a large, gem-like flame. And you see within the
actual crystalline-- we'll call it like a palace,
if you will-- it looks like there's a light source
within that flickers and dances like an eternal
bonfire or flame, and it seems to have a pulse to
it.
LIAM: I'm sure this is unnecessary, but I'm
going to start thinking about setting the Death
Walker's Ward to fire damage.
MATT: Okay, so you guys want to take a short rest
to do so?
LAURA and SAM: Oh.
MARISHA: Do we need a short rest?
LIAM: It's a 20-minute thing. Well, I don't have
to, if everyone else wants to start.
SAM: We're not in a rush, right? 20 minutes won't
kill us.
LAURA: I guess. Sure.
MATT: Okay. So you take the better part of an
hour, half an hour or so, 40 minutes or so, for a
short rest to reset your armor to fire resist. Any
other preparations?
SAM: Yeah, well hey. I'm no expert on the
religious arts, but we have this eye of doom with
us. Should we really be bringing this into a holy
place of goodness?
LAURA: I don't know.
TALIESIN: I think, if anything, it might be even
less effective here.
SAM: But what if it knows where we are and can
somehow get an advantage and kill Sarenrae or
something? I don't know.
LAURA: I feel like we should definitely ask
Sarenrae about it. But it's a little late to get
rid of it now.
TALIESIN: Other than your pocket dimension.
MARISHA: It's in the Bag of Holding, right?
TRAVIS: Nope.
ASHLEY: I have it. I have the eyeball in the box.
SAM: Is it still in the box? Can you shake the box
and make sure there's something still in there?
LAURA: Don't open the box!
SAM: Don't open the box! Just shake it.
LAURA: Does it feel like there's an eyeball if you
shake it? Just shake it and feel. Does it shake
around?
MATT: (rattling noise) It does rattle a little
bit. Like a peeled wet grape, you hear it sloshing
around inside.
ASHLEY: (laughs) Ew.
TALIESIN: Best Halloween trick ever.
TRAVIS: Can you crush the tiny granules on the
ground in between your fingers, if you try really
hard?
MATT: Do you try?
TRAVIS: Yeah, I try real hard.
MATT: Okay, you pick one up, and you (grunts)
push. Make a strength check.
TRAVIS: 23.
MATT: (grunts and strains) No.
LAURA: Whoa! They're titanium pearls!
MARISHA: It would be good for microdermabrasion!
LAURA: It really would. Wow.
ASHLEY: Could I put my hand in the water? Just a
(doot).
MATT: You step back a bit to where the shore is.
The water is gently brushing against the shore and
then pulls back. There's no heavy waves. The
current is this steady, almost relaxing,
undulating sound. This (steady whoosh). You reach
over and place your hand within, and you feel the
water soak into the inside of the plates of your
gauntlet. It's warm. It's probably the equivalent
of a good 75, 80 degrees. It would be wonderful
beach water.
ASHLEY: Okay. Guys, it feels so nice. Should we go
for just a little bit of a swim while he attunes
to his--
SAM: Probably, yes.
MARISHA: I walk over to Pike and put my feet in
the water with her, stand on the edge.
TRAVIS: Me, too.
TALIESIN: Oh, also.
LIAM: I put my cold feet in, since I have no
shoes.
TALIESIN: Wow!
LAURA: Shameful.
TRAVIS: Is there a sun? A point of light in the
sky?
MATT: The sky is gently dappled with faint wisps
of cloud and is blue and beautiful, but you do not
see a particular sun in the sky. Though the light
seems to be ever-present, what faint shadows you
see seem to be almost from multi-directional
light. There is no actual sun in the sky that you
can see.
TRAVIS: The light appears ever-present. Strange.
LAURA: Wow, Grog.
TRAVIS: Ow.
LAURA: I'm going to keep an eye out, see if
there's any movement in the fields while he's
attuning his armor.
MATT: Perception check, please.
LAURA: 24.
MATT: All right. As you guys sit there waiting on
the edge of the shoreline, keeping a watch across
the waters and the edges of where the beach begins
to slowly form into the rolling hills and the
sparse bits of trees that you see marking the
interior of the island, there's no change. It's
almost like whatever pattern is here is a set
pattern, or at least, any alterations or changes
would be over a very prolonged period of time. You
see no signs of any other life. You see no signs
of any other beings walking within your immediate
eyesight.
LAURA: Does it feel nice?
MATT: It feels nice. It feels comfortable. It's
welcoming, if a little quiet.
TRAVIS: When this rest is over, do we know what
direction we're going in?
LAURA, MARISHA, and TALIESIN: Towards the tower.
TRAVIS: Jeez, not everybody at fucking once. All
right. Shit.
MARISHA: Well, you had such good observation
skills with the whole ever-present light thing.
TRAVIS: What does that mean?
MARISHA: Man. You're always a surprise. And after
so many years.
TRAVIS: Thank you.
MARISHA: I look at Pike. I say, Pike, this place
is beautiful. It's incredible, and I don't think
we would be here if it wasn't for you and your
connection to Sarenrae. And I'm honored to be here
with all of you all. And to see this place with
Vax. This makes me happy. Just this moment. This
is nice. (sighs) I love you all.
SAM: We love you, too.
LAURA: We love you too, Keyleth.
ASHLEY: I love you, Kiki.
SAM: Just to be clear--
MARISHA: And I use my inspiring leader feat.
(laughter)
SAM: I was just about to ask, was that
well-thought-out speech inspirational?
MATT: All right, so level 18 that you are, with no
charisma modifier, correct? Everyone gains 18
temporary hit points.
TRAVIS: Damn!
LAURA: Are we all healed up and healthy now?
MATT: You did take a long rest. Yeah.
TALIESIN: Oh, we did take a long rest.
MATT: There were some healing spells spent on
Pike's end and dealing with the eye that was
recovered, I think. And then you with the Plane
Shift.
SAM: Me and Grog got shot a few times.
MATT: Yeah, you got to heal a little bit.
SAM: But I can use some hit dice.
MATT: Yes, you can, during the short rest.
LAURA: These Boots of Haste, I don't have to
attune to them? They're not attunable, right? Or
do I have to attune to them?
LIAM: Yes, darling, they are. They're attunable.
LAURA: Okay, that's fine. Then I'm just going to
unattune my bracers and attune my Boots of Haste
that I have on. I'm going to spend the next ten
minutes cleaning them up and making them look
really pretty.
TALIESIN: You know you're going to get them
back next long rest.
MATT: All right. So you've attuned to the Boots of
Haste.
SAM: Yes.
LAURA: I'm going to get so much shit online.
MATT: Broomgate 2.0. (laughs)
LIAM: No. It's exactly what you would do when you
almost lose somebody.
TRAVIS: (laughs) Keep it coming.
MARISHA: I'm so proud. He's as cold as his skin is
right now.
LAURA: Don't die anymore.
LIAM: It's in character. I mean, don't give her a
hard time.
MATT: All right, so you guys finish resting. It is
comfortable. It is nice here and especially, in
the rush of the current state of things, this
brief moment of respite feels so removed from that
race, that chaos, that ever-present fear and
doubt. And later you know, whether it's the
surroundings or the general nature of the plane
that you're in, but it's soothing. It's
comforting. As you finish your attunement to the
item, you finish your new attunement to your
resistance, you guys gather your things, step out
of the water, put your footwear back on, and what
would you like to do?
SAM: Walk towards the busty lady.
MATT: What's the marching order?
TALIESIN: Oh, really?
LAURA: We're going to have to fight things in this
beautiful place?
ASHLEY: I'll go first.
TALIESIN: Ash in front.
MATT: Okay, Ashley's in front. Who's next?
TRAVIS: I'm with Pike.
MATT: All right, Grog's right up there with Pike.
LAURA: I'll be behind Grog.
TALIESIN: I'll be with you.
LAURA: Lovely.
LIAM: I'm going to trail sheepishly behind
Keyleth.
MARISHA: I was about to say, I don't leave Vax's
side.
LAURA: Trinket is out.
MATT: Trinket is out?
LAURA: And he is walking between-- behind me and
Percy. Yeah.
SAM: And as always, I'll enjoy the rear.
TRAVIS: Yeah, you will.
MATT: Okay, then. All righty, so with Pike leading
on and approaching the pathways that lead towards
the center of the island, the rolling hills ascend
higher and higher, the further towards where the
distant crystal monolith resides. Up from the
soft, pearl-like sand to reveal large obelisks of
carved rectangular stone at off-kilter angles,
jutting out of the ground in places. You had seen
some of these at a distance when you arrived and
you as well in your vision, Pike, earlier. The
trees you walk past begin to slowly thin out to
replace some of these stone structures. You can
see what's almost this outer ring of nature that encloses
the inner portion of this island.
The wind is now warm against your skin as it
begins to whip through this area and you can hear
it tear through some of the openings between
these ever densely growing clusters of stonework.
Occasionally, these stone structures resemble
figures of old ancient figureheads from the Age of
Arcanum, who bore the embrace of the Everlight
with them before her following fell from grace.
You can see the ravages of time and the
diminishing of her influence following the
Divergence are shown on some of these figures as
they appear to be sheared or cracked or broken in
places. But still, no sign of anything else moving
on the island.
TALIESIN: Does it look like people are avoiding us
or does it look like this is not a place of--
MATT: Make a perception check.
TALIESIN: All right. I had a funny feeling you
would say that. 12.
MATT: You see no signs of any movement, any foot
tracks. No signs of anything in the vicinity that
would lead you to believe that you're being
avoided or being watched.
LIAM: Does it look like anyone has been here for a
very long time?
MATT: Make an investigation check.
LIAM: Oh, I'm not going to waste Luck on that.
That's a one. I have no idea what's going in this
fucking place.
MATT: Pike, you lead on. You make your way through
these tangled paths and they shift and curve and
turn and the light never seems to change overhead
and as you hike along and chat amongst yourselves
and keep open to the vicinity around you and
you're breathing in the clean air with hints of
seaspray and saltiness that eventually makes its
way through the breeze. You can feel parts of you
sweat beneath your armor, from the general warmth
of the atmosphere, and you travel for about an
hour. Pike, and Vex and Vax and Keyleth, you pick
up on this, too. The crystalline structure in the
center of the island doesn't appear to be any
closer.
TRAVIS: Shit.
MARISHA: Didn't we go through something like this
before?
TALIESIN: We literally went through this before.
LAURA: We had really think about being there, is
that what we had to do?
LIAM: Yes. Pike, do you think you need to talk to
her somehow? Or call to her somehow?
ASHLEY: Yeah. Okay, I'm going to pull out the key
again.
MATT: Okay. The metallic loop. The curved piece of
metal. Okay.
ASHLEY: Yeah.
TRAVIS: (quietly) There is no spoon.
ASHLEY: Sarenrae, we have
travelled very far and we are here and if you
could give us any guidance to get closer to you I
would be forever grateful.
MATT: You say this out loud?
ASHLEY: Yeah.
MATT: Okay. You look out before you, still staring
at the crystal structure. No response.
ASHLEY: Okay, I repeat that again in my head.
MATT: Okay, so you say it back to yourself in your
head?
ASHLEY: Yeah.
TRAVIS: Ticking them off, one at a time. Here we
go.
MATT: Okay. So you look forward at the crystalline
structure, looking at its form, and focus on those
words on the inside of your head. No response.
LAURA: Maybe we have to let her know we're here.
SAM: Pikey-poo. Pikey-pants. You had a religious
thing and talked to your god, right?
ASHLEY: Say again?
SAM: You talked to Sarenrae briefly, right?
ASHLEY: Yeah.
SAM: Did she invite you or all of us?
LAURA: Oh shit. Is this a thing where you think
you're invited to a party, so you bring your whole
crew and then maybe realize they weren't invited?
SAM: Do you want to walk solo for ten minutes and
see if you are, solo, getting any closer?
TALIESIN: We'll keep you in ear contact.
LIAM: Is this like party hopping at Comic Con?
LAURA: Yeah. Get us on the list. Once you're in
there, then we'll join you in line.
TALIESIN: See how many wristbands you can get.
ASHLEY: Okay. I'll keep walking and I'll keep
looking back, thumbs up, and I'll see what I can
find.
MATT: Okay. You walk forward and you can look back
at your friends and you continue to walk forward
towards the structure. You eventually begin to
weave between these stone obelisks, which get
dense and overlap to the point where maybe
about a hundred feet ahead, you lose sight of
Pike.
LAURA: I want to get on my broom and fly up in the
air and see if I can see her from the air.
MATT: Okay. You fly up in the air and you look
down and you see her. She's right beyond where you
lost sight of her originally, and she's walking
forward.
LAURA: Okay, okay. How you doing, Pike?
ASHLEY: Good, good. Just traveling over these
stone structures.
MATT: All right, you watch. Pike, you walk for
another ten minutes or so on your own, and you
watch her travel, and as you focus, she's
travelling, but she's still the same distance from
everyone else she was when she left. She went just
beyond eyeline and then it's weird. Like it
doesn't make sense. You watched her maneuver and
change and shift around things, yet she hasn't
gotten any further or any closer.
MARISHA: So is it like a side-scrolling
background?
MATT: In a way, I guess.
LAURA: What? And I turn around and the ocean is
still where it was, behind us? Pike.
ASHLEY: Does it look like I've gotten far? I feel
like I've gone real far.
LAURA: I don't think you've gone far at all, dear.
I think you're in the same place.
TALIESIN: I've got a weird theory.
MARISHA: Is the terrain repeating itself? What was
your theory?
TALIESIN: Maybe this is vision-based. Maybe we
have to close our eyes.
LAURA: How did we do this before?
TRAVIS: I like this. Let's walk with our eyes
closed.
LAURA: Maybe we just have to think really hard
about being at the tower.
TRAVIS: I close my eyes and I start walking
straight ahead.
MATT: (laughs) As Grog closes his eyes and starts
walking.
LAURA: I close my eyes and think really hard
about being directly in front of the tower.
MATT: Okay. Anybody else want to do anything?
MARISHA: I start walking the opposite direction.
TRAVIS: Eyes closed or open?
MARISHA: Away from the tower, with my eyes open.
LIAM: I stand confused and watch Kiki leave us.
MATT: Okay. Keyleth turns away.
TALIESIN: I spin three times in a circle.
MATT: What are you doing, Pike?
ASHLEY: I'm going to stand there and think about
being closer to the tower with my eyes closed.
MATT: Okay. You all begin to close your eyes and
begin walking and start wandering in different
directions and bumping into pieces of stonework.
SAM: Bunch of cockroaches when you turn on the
light.
MATT: Pike, you close your eyes for a moment and
concentrate, and your vision is dark. You don't
see the world around you, but within a few seconds
of embracing this darkness, a sudden burst of
light appears ahead of you, and you see a burning beacon
visible in the direction where the crystal palace
was before you.
SAM: Just Pike?
MATT: Just Pike.
ASHLEY: So I'll try keeping my eyes closed and
start walking towards it.
MATT: Okay. As you guys are figuring yourself out,
and you are concentrating so hard on being
there--
MARISHA: I turn around. Is the tower any
closer?
MATT: Nope.
MARISHA: Is it further?
MATT: Yep.
MARISHA: Shit. I walk back.
MATT: Okay. You join the rest of the group and you
watch half your party still stumbling into pieces
of stone. Pike, you with your eyes closed, still
seeing this burning beacon, this circular
sphere wreathed in flame that just licks up as the
flames slowly burn out of the bottom of this
structure and flicker off into nothing. You step
for about two minutes or so in its direction, and
the heat gets warmer and warmer and warmer, and
then you open your eyes for a moment and you're
right in front of it.
ASHLEY: Hey, guys, can you see me?
LAURA and SAM: Can we hear her?
MATT: You guys can hear her, yeah.
LAURA: Oh shit. I open my eyes.
MATT: You look down and she's right in front of
the crystal structure.
LAURA: She got all the fucking way there? What did
you do, Pike?
ASHLEY: I just thought about it. I closed my eyes
and I started walking.
LAURA: That's what I fucking did.
TRAVIS: Yeah, I did, too. Ow.
LAURA: Open your eyes, Grog.
MARISHA: I walked the other way, and it definitely
didn't work.
SAM: What is she doing that we're not doing? Her
hair is partially blue. Maybe we should dye our
hair blue, as well.
ASHLEY: Maybe you can only get here if you're a
believer of Sarenrae.
SAM: Oh. I'm a believer. Can I try?
ASHLEY: (singing) I'm a believer.
SAM: All right.
MATT: You close your eyes?
SAM: Yeah. I'm going to clutch my symbol of
Sarenrae and I'm going to close my eyes and I'm
going to see if anything happens.
MATT: You sit there in silence for about a minute
and a half as the darkness is there before you,
pitch black. And you're clutching the symbol as
hard as you can with your fingers, to the point
where it's almost hurting your hand, and you see
the faintest distant flicker.
SAM: I'm going to go towards it.
MATT: You guys watch Scanlan, eyes closed, begin
walking towards the crystalline structure.
LAURA: It's working for him.
TALIESIN: I'm going to follow him.
LAURA: I'm going to try to follow him. I'm not
going to aim for the tower, I'm going to try to
get to Pike.
MATT: Okay. So you're going straight for Pike?
LAURA: Yeah.
MATT: Okay. And you're following Scanlan?
TALIESIN: Yeah. Just nonchalantly.
MATT: Okay. Vax? Keyleth? Grog?
MARISHA: What do we do?
TRAVIS: I'm not going anywhere.
ASHLEY: Come on, Grog.
TRAVIS: I'm confused. I want to see what happens
to those two when they follow.
MATT: So what are you guys doing?
LIAM: How is it working? What are you guys doing?
MARISHA: They're believers.
SAM: Maybe you guys have to believe.
LIAM: Well, I think that the existence of a
pantheon of gods is a well-established fact in our
world, so I believe.
SAM: So poetic.
MARISHA: Do I have to believe deeper than that?
TALIESIN: I think, perhaps, you need reverence.
MATT: Scanlan and Percival disappear into the
brush ahead of you guys as you're having this
conversation. You, rushing towards Pike, as you're
going towards her, you're not getting any closer.
You can see things rushing past you, but
there's some disconnect, that as soon as you begin
to change focus, you're right where you were. Grog
and Scanlan. Scanlan, you step forward, and that
beacon becomes brighter and warmer, and you feel the
warmth and you open your eyes, and you're there
next to Pike, in front of the palace. And Grog,
you walked alongside Scanlan, and you walked as he
watched and you went past the brush and suddenly,
you're at the palace.
TRAVIS: I'm there?!
MATT: Yeah. Sorry, not Grog. Percy was. You stayed
back. I misremembered.
LIAM: I grab Keyleth's hands.
MATT: Percival. That's my fault. So Percival,
you made it past the boundary with Scanlan.
LAURA: How did you-- how did-- Shit. We should
have followed Pike.
MARISHA: But Percy, you don't believe in anything.
This is bullshit!
TALIESIN: I believe in plenty of things. But,
yeah, no, I agree. This is bullshit.
LAURA: I'm going to close my eyes and be like,
Sarenrae, I really believe in you. You're so holy,
and very divine and beautiful, and I think you do
really good things for Pike, and I'm very happy
about that.
MATT: You concentrate. A minute. Two minutes. Five
minutes.
LAURA: Fuck. This is not working!
TALIESIN: Pike. Pike, do you want to collect the
rest of them and lead them back here?
LIAM: I scoop up Keyleth's hands and I say, you
trust me, right?
MARISHA: Yeah.
LIAM: Yeah, yeah, you know that good feeling that
you have when you hang out with Pike? You know
that warm feeling you have. Toasting marshmallows
with her around the fire, that kind of feeling?
MARISHA: Yeah.
LIAM: You know that comes from Sarenrae, so focus
on that with me. And we'll go to Pike. Focus on
Sarenrae and that marshmallow feeling.
MARISHA: But that comes from Pike, not from
Sarenrae.
LIAM: You know that's partially true, but not all
true. Come on, give it a shot.
MARISHA: Okay. I try really hard.
MATT: To?
MARISHA: Think about the marshmallowy goodness
that is Sarenrae.
MATT: Okay. Vax and Keyleth do this. And then what
do you do?
LIAM: Close our eyes and show reverence to her.
MATT: Okay. Another five, six minutes of darkness
passes. Your eyes are closed. No beacon. Nothing.
ASHLEY: Okay. How long will it take me to walk
back to them?
MATT: Do you walk back to them?
ASHLEY: I want to walk back to them.
MATT: Okay. A minute. You emerge from the brush,
and you walk and see Keyleth and Vax, eyes closed,
clutching hands, just hoping. And Grog, looking
bored as hell.
ASHLEY: Okay. Where's Vex?
LAURA: I'm up here, dear.
ASHLEY: Okay. Come here. I have an idea. Okay? So
everybody, hold onto me somehow.
TRAVIS: Hold hands? Like preschool?
ASHLEY: Yeah.
LAURA: Like a train?
ASHLEY: Yeah. Just don't let go. And I'm going to
think real hard, and maybe we'll all be there
together.
LAURA and TRAVIS: Okay.
MARISHA: Okay. We have to walk, though, right?
TRAVIS: Eyes closed.
LAURA: All right. I'm not closing my eyes. I'm
just holding onto Pike's hand.
MARISHA: I'm still thinking about marshmallows,
though.
TRAVIS: Thinking about bacon.
LIAM: I grab Pike by the earlobe.
ASHLEY: That tickles.
MATT: And Pike, do you close your eyes and follow
that beacon once more?
ASHLEY: Yes.
MATT: Okay. As you guys walk alongside, focusing
on Pike and her leading this small pack of friends
along through the heavily rolling hills and the pieces
of stone obstruction that force you to make your
way around. You help guide her around these
various obstructions that get in the way. Pike,
you're concentrating on this burning beacon of
warmth ahead of you. And within three minutes of
travel, it seemed almost closer than when
you saw her disappear before. You guys look at
her, and glance up and you've just come across the
threshold of the stones, and you're now in this
open sandy patch at the base of this large crystal
structure.
LAURA: Nice! Good job, Pike.
TRAVIS: Pikey-poo.
ASHLEY: Look at this.
MATT: So now standing-- (laughs)
LAURA: (laughing) It's beautiful.
ASHLEY: It's so much more beautiful up close.
MATT: Standing before this magnificent glass-like
structure, you can see the winding shapes and
edges clearly ascending in the form of a female
torso, rising from beneath the sands to a
staggering height. Two wings of glittering crystal
curving upward to frame a massive round red gem
that shines above the head of the woman, with
flames curling from the inside of the facets. This
red gem would probably be about twice the size of
Grog. It's hard to see the actual height of it
here, but it's probably close to a hundred feet
tall, the entire structure.
Now, you see the shifting flicker of the intense
fire that burns within the palace, now, it's
causing the shadows cast by all nearby things to
dance behind you, and in the inside you can see
what appears to be a heavy bonfire almost that is
visible beyond a 20-foot domed doorway right
at the base of the torso. As you begin to approach the
entrance to this crystalline palace-like statue,
the heat of those flames that you see 
inside, roaring and burning quickly, get hotter
and hotter on your skin. And as you begin to enter
the interior of this structure, the heat feels
like it should be getting close to unbearable, but
it never hurts. You acknowledge the temperature
change, and you're used to knowing this much heat
should hurt, but it never does. It's just hot and
welcoming. You now stand within the hollow
interior of this incredible wonder, looking at a
spiraling red tower of orange-red flame that
reaches up about 60 feet or so, in this spiral.
It's all flame. This large bonfire in the center
of this structure. It flares rhythmically, like a
very intentional heartbeat. (roaring flames)
Giving these whipping sounds of the heat, and the
wind and the air that it's tossing upward and out
into the rest of the island around you and you now
begin to acknowledge the warm winds that were
blowing through the island, all seem to be
centering and spiraling out from the center of the
island.
And it's at that point that you see something in
the flame begin to take shape. You watch as this
dark outline begins to open up as two large wings
unfurl from within, revealing feathers of ivory
and pearl, like the beach you arrived on, as this
15-foot-tall feminine vision of Sarenrae emerges
from the roaring pyre, long curling flames burn as
her hair from her beautiful dark skin framing a
warm and motherly smile, her eyes gold and brown
like the most polished brass. Her robes of light
blue unfurl in endless strands that almost seem to
tether her to the inferno behind her, and as she
emerges from the flame, you can't help but find
yourself stunned and awed at the presence. Her
standing there unsinged from the flames, slowly
descends, still floating above you, her arms out,
her wings and hair unfurled, almost like a canopy
above the group as you look up at her. Her face
turns and smiles onto small Pike on the ground,
and you hear her voice for the first time for all
of you, but not the first for Pike, who has heard
her voice for a very long time. "My Pike, you come
"to me after all this time. Such a beacon in a very
dark world. Welcome."
ASHLEY: I take a knee. Thank you for letting us
come here. It's just such an honor to be in your
presence and to meet you in person. I've been a
believer of yours for my whole life, and to
actually be here in front of you is very
humbling.
MATT: She descends faintly. Her massive form
slowly seems to-- not shrink, but shift perspective
a bit, where once she was this massive entity
before you, seems almost human in size as the hand
comes down and reaches and touches the top of
Pike's forehead and just runs down the nose, onto
her chin. And you see the brow furrow a bit as she
says, "You vanished from my sight. You walk paths
"cast in shadow. My sands whisper thoughts of
sorrow and foreboding. I must know from you all,
"what dark tidings bring you before me harboring
such emotion?"
ASHLEY: Well, I think last time we spoke, we took
on a battle that we were not able to complete and
we need your help.
MATT: "What type of foe do you face?"
LAURA: You know Vecna?
MATT: She looks to you a bit. There's a faint bit
of recognition. "This entity, this Vecna, is
"clouded, even in history. I know little myself,
and with my sands, they know little of this undying
"king. I imagine by his own design."
LAURA: He deals in secrets. It's kind of his
thing.
MATT: "What can you tell me?"
TALIESIN: We have a piece of him.
LAURA: We do.
SAM: Yes. Maybe. Well, we can tell you that he is
awful, evil, pure evil incarnate, and he wants to
be a god.
LIAM: He has eyes on your territory.
MARISHA: He is something of a demigod now, you
could say, and well on his path to ascension.
MATT: "Ascension?"
MARISHA: He wants to be like you.
MATT: "How?"
MARISHA: Or I guess he wants to be like the Raven
Queen.
MATT: You watch the flames grow a little more
cool, a little more of a deeper red in color, and
the brow furrows more and she pulls back a little
bit from Pike. Not in a retraction, but a worried
sense that seems to fill the room. The brightness
of the outside sky seems to dim ever so slightly.
"Ascension? The Raven Queen, you say?"
MARISHA: He could tell you more, but I know she
was a mortal who rose to her godhood, and I know
he's looking for a similar path.
MATT: "Impossible."
MARISHA: We've seen it.
LAURA: He's been working on it for a very long
time.
LIAM: And obviously hungry for power.
MATT: The wings, still unfurled, the tips seem to
almost curl in a bit as she, as opposed to
floating above you out and about, is now standing tall
floating above the ground about five or six feet.
Her vision, her eyes seem to drift from you and
look out past the glass and crystal to the distant
shores beyond as she speaks out, exclaiming the
thoughts as they come across her mind. Sarenrae
says, "The Ritual of Seeding is one of the Matron
of Raven's design. It is the secret rite that
"rebirthed her from her mortal trials and granted
her the powers to take her place among the Prime
"Gods and become custodian to the realms between
life and death, fate and the cold of winter. But
"this ritual was summarily cast from all knowledge
and sealed, intent for eternity, by all who walk
"the paths of divinity. None should know this. None
should know this."
LAURA: What about the goddess Ioun? The goddess of
knowledge? Would she have known?
MATT: "She was the one who spearheaded its
destruction."
LAURA: Vecna's been taking over her chapels?
Temples?
MATT: "I know not where Ioun is. She is hidden
away. The Dawnfather would know more than I. They
"were together when she was wounded. If this ritual
has come into the hands of another mortal, where
"is this mortal now?"
TALIESIN: We have his eye in a box. It's powerful
and intelligent.
ASHLEY: I take out the box.
MARISHA: He's slowly staked out on the Prime
Material plane. Just north of Vasselheim, about
350 miles.
LAURA: Recently completed a ritual in the
Shadowfell.
MATT: "If he's finished the seed, he's already on
his way."
LAURA: Oh no.
MARISHA: What does that mean? How can we stop
him?
MATT: "The ritual takes some time, from what I
recall. I don't know how long. I was not its
"architect. I was not the one who sealed it. Ioun
would be the one to ask. However, if this is
"completed, then the Accord of the Divergence is in
danger. If we will have one god on one side of the
"Divine Gate and the others on the other, we could
not stop him. Understand, in order for any of us
"to directly interfere to seal a god like we did
once long ago, we would have to tear down the
"Divine Gate and that would release an entirely new
armageddon upon your world. So either you stop him
"and seal him, or you live amongst the only god we
cannot stop."
LAURA: How do we seal away a god?
MATT: "I don't know. I was betrayed during the
Calamity. I was not present when they began to
"seal the Betrayer Gods. You'd do best to speak
with maybe some of the others who were more
"prominent in that time. You walk in Elysium. This
is the realm also of Pelor."
LAURA: The Dawnfather?
MATT: "Yes."
TRAVIS: Might I ask, does Kord reside in Elysium?
MATT: "No, but you could perhaps speak with him,
too. I don't know much about Kord. We don't see
"eye to eye." And if you could see a goddess glance
sidelong with embarrassment, this is the closest
you'd ever see. "I've fallen from import over
recent years, until recently."
SAM: You?
TRAVIS: No.
MATT: She looks down at Pike for a minute. "Until
recently." And turns back to Scanlan and says,
"And don't think your prayers have gone unheard,
as well."
SAM: You heard? I'm new at praying. I'm sorry for
all the cursing at first. I had a lot of emotions,
and I didn't know if anyone was listening.
Apologies, but you heard me at night?
MATT: "When your heart was true to it, yes."
SAM: Wow. You won't tell anybody, will you?
Because some of that is personal stuff.
MATT: She smiles and averts her gaze from you. "Do
you know if this mortal, this man, this Vecna, do
"you know in your heart of hearts, Pike, that this
man is beyond redemption? Is there any spark of
"hope in his heart to turn him back to the light?"
ASHLEY: Well, I would always hope that in
somebody, but at least the time spent with him
that we have, it doesn't seem that that's his
path.
MATT: "Well, I trust in your insight, and this is
your judgment to make. The greatest judgment you
"may ever make. As you walk this path, closer to
conflict with this entity, search yourself for any
"glimmer, and if there is no redemption to be had,
then smite him with all the might I have granted
"you."
ASHLEY: Okay.
LAURA: He's not doing a lot of talking to us.
TRAVIS: A lot of killing, disintegrating.
SAM: How will we know if he's a god or not?
MATT: "You'll know. We all will know."
LAURA: So it hasn't happened yet?
MATT: "Not yet."
LAURA: Okay.
MARISHA: How long do these seeding rituals usually
take? How much time do we have?
MATT: "I don't know. You would have to ask those
who were responsible for sealing it."
TRAVIS: Dawnfather.
MARISHA: I'm so confused. That's it? We didn't
walk away from him unscathed the first time, and
we're just supposed to try again?
MATT: "Even in the dark days of the Calamity, the
might of our weapons could only diminish the
"betrayers who rose against creation. The two that
orchestrated our victory and designed the means of
"sealing away such terrible evil, I've already
mentioned. They would be of more aid than I. The
"Knowing Mistress Ioun, as wounded and hidden away
as she is, and the Dawnfather, warden to the
"Chained Oblivion. His fortress across the fields
of Elysium. I could send you there."
TALIESIN: That would be quite helpful.
TRAVIS: It was hard getting here.
LAURA: Will he be as accepting as you?
MATT: "I don't know. I haven't spoken much with
the others in some time."
LAURA: You should throw a party. Invite them all.
Get to know them again.
MATT: She looks down at Pike once more. "My Pike,
you've done more than you know. You've been a
"guiding light for these wonderful champions and so
many more." She reaches down and lifts you off the
ground a bit, looking at your face, the bit of
sadness that creeps across it as she lifts you up
and you guys watch as she glides, passing through
the crystal, Pike being brought below the archway
as she just lifts her out beyond this crystal
structure. She ascends upward about 25, 30 feet or
so, holding Pike in her hands out in front of her.
And just chucks her.
(laughter)
MATT: No. Holding her close-- and by this point,
Sarenrae's form has expanded to almost the size of
the crystal structure you came to. You can now see
a parallel between her wings and her form and her
torso as to the actual incredible presence of this
god before you. And leans in, as she shows the
island to Pike below and whispers close to your
ear, "I'm not lonely here, Pike, for my sands
"remain with me, speak with me, and we learn from
each other. Look." As she extends her arm, Pike,
you look out, and all of the light of the sky
seems to shine at once through every pearl, every
grain of the beach sand that you've walked across.
And where once you saw what was just a barren
landscape, you now see thousands and thousands and
thousands of people. Opaque. Translucent. Souls of
those that have come to Sarenrae since the dawn of
creation. Those who swore themselves to good under
her banner and at the end of their lives came to
become part of the Island of Renewal and forever
live with her and amongst the rest of the
community of people that are warmed under her
light. They all seem to look up at once at you,
and you sense them smiling, as the vision fades
and the island goes back untouched.
She drifts back down and places you on the ground.
"You see, one day, you will join us, too. And we
"will all have so many stories to share." You now
see her hovering over all of you as you step out
of this to join Pike on the exterior of this
tower. "While I am diminished, my powers limited,
"you do possibly face something terrible, unseen
since the Calamity. And for this journey, Pike, I
"grant you my blessing."
And as she reaches her hands out and they expand,
her head lifts up, her eyes close, and her wings
flare into a phoenix-like flame that just
emblazons the sky with light and fire. The heat is
more intense than anything you've felt, yet still
there's no pain. It's just all-consuming. It's
like the rebirth of a phoenix and you're all
surrounded by it. For a moment, it's all there is
in existence, just this incredible entity. And then
the flames slowly die away, except for the flames
that currently engulf Pike's gnome form. And as
the flames burn away, you can see on Pike the
familiar set of wings you've seen her spiritual
form hold, which fold in and then dissipate. You
now have the Blessing of the Everlight.
(cheering)
ASHLEY: Oh my goodness! What is that?
MATT: You get a plus-two bonus to your
constitution.
ASHLEY: Okay.
TRAVIS: We'll take a picture and text it to you.
ASHLEY: Okay.
MATT: As a bonus action, you can summon the wings
of the Everlight, granting you a flying speed of
40 feet for up to ten minutes. And while you have
these wings, any spells you cast that cause
creatures to regain hit points heal an additional
ten hit points.
(cheering)
MATT: But once this ability is used, you can't use
it for another seven days.
ALL: Oh.
ASHLEY: Man, I love her so much.
MATT: So if you want to take a picture and send
that to her. Here we go. Hold onto that and give
it to her.
MARISHA: Is Sarenrae gone?
MATT: No. Sarenrae is still there, just the flames
have burned away.
LAURA: I'm going to send this to you, Ashley.
TALIESIN: I'm right here, guys. It's really not
cool.
ASHLEY: Oh man!
LAURA: Since Sarenrae is still standing there, I
want to say to her-- shit.
TRAVIS: Good start.
LAURA: Shit, sorry. I want to apologize. This
feels so stupid. I want to apologize for never
realizing what you are and what this could be and
for not showing you the reverence that you
deserve. And I hope to change that in the future,
and I will certainly think differently from here
on out.
MATT: As you look down and look up, where once she
was this large entity above you, you look down and
look up, and she's right before you. "No apologies
necessary. The creation of Exandria, the peoples
"that populate it and develop and design, innovate
and worship, was with free will to make your own
"path. Faith is important to some, but the intent
was to instill you with the means of doing and
"choosing whatever and however you like. We do not
wish reverence of all. Just those who find us. At
"least, I speak for myself."
LAURA: Well, I think you're pretty wonderful.
MATT: "There is balance to everything."
LAURA: And I took these from your beach. It
doesn't seem right.
MATT: She takes the pouch from you and pours it
out, and as the pearls are about to land, they
drift off and dart off back to the location where
you originally found them.
ASHLEY: Same. I just thought I wanted to take a
little piece with me, but I already have that. I
didn't know what it was.
MATT: As you empty the pearls, they also dart off
towards the beach where you first landed.
LAURA: I just thought they were really pretty.
ASHLEY: I would have told you before we left, you
know.
MATT: "It's all right. But for everything great
that we may have created, you continue to create
"far better. Our existence brings threat. We've
brought two calamities before. We try and avoid a
"third. Whether we diminish in time or just
maintain this balance, it's you, and your
"children, and your children's children, that hold
the keys to the future of your lives, your people,
"your culture, and us. So don't apologize."
TRAVIS: Would you say Sarenrae's attractive?
MATT: Are you asking her, or is this a question to
me as the DM?
TRAVIS: Yeah, that one.
MATT: She's beautiful. I wouldn't put it in terms
of any sort of a sexual object.
TRAVIS: She's just beautiful.
MATT: She's just an incredibly beautiful,
powerful, feminine form. And, to the extent where
Grog, who usually being a man who's driven by base
needs, not a single thought comes across you in
any base or defacing way, it is too powerful. It
overwhelms it.
TRAVIS: Yeah, no, she's beautiful.
MARISHA: What are titties?
LAURA: What even are titties?
MARISHA: What do titties?
TRAVIS: I'm keeping my little pearl from the
beach.
MARISHA: (laughs) That you've been trying to
crush?
TRAVIS: Yeah.
LAURA: Terrible. Matt's like, shady shit.
TRAVIS: We're going to need one, y'all gave yours
back.
TALIESIN: It's going to be like the Wonka factory,
it's just it's going to turn on you.
MATT: You stole fizzy lifting drinks. You now have
to be watched.
TALIESIN: Pearls from the beach, you get nothing,
sir! Good day!
MATT: (laughing) Good day, sir!
TRAVIS: It's just one!
MATT: I know. "You have my blessing, Pike. Do this
for me, do this for them, do this for you. Do this
"for all of creation. And do it soon. The longer
you wait, well, the longer you wait. Do you wish
"to be off to the Dawnfather?"
SAM: Yes, time is of the essence. We should go
right away.
MARISHA: Is he as warm and welcoming and nice as
you are?
MATT: (laughs)
MARISHA: Okay, that's a good answer.
MATT: With a bright white flash emanating from her
torso and arms, your vision just goes white and
you all blink for a moment as your head spins for
but a brief instant. Your feet touch hard ground
and you all immediately reach up and rub your
eyes, and as your vision slowly coalesces once
more, you find yourself standing in the deep
center of some vast orchard, surrounded by an
endless sea of fruit-bearing trees of all sizes,
shapes and colors, intertwined, the canopy broken
and sparse in places where you can see above a
clear, blue, cloudless sky. You're no longer on
the Island of Renewal, that's for sure.
LAURA: Oh, I thought, but isn't that where the
Dawnfather is?
MATT: Island of Renewal is where Sarenrae is. The
blessed fields of Elysium is the plane. He existed
elsewhere in there.
LAURA: I understand now.
MARISHA: Is there the same ever-light sky?
MATT: Make a nature check.
MARISHA: Ever-present, sorry. Ever-presence in
light. I use my druidic die. 29. Sorry, 31.
MATT: It's hard to see from down low, because the
canopy does choke it a bit, you can see bits of
the sky that appear blue, cloudless, whereas you
saw wisps of cloud over the island, this appears
clear, you can climb up a bit and try to get a
better look if you want.
MARISHA: Sure.
MATT: Okay, so you begin to leap up through the
branches, and a lot of the trees here have winding
and knotted branches, so it's pretty easy to find
your way up the canopy after maybe a five minute
climb. You get up and peek over and you can see
now this orchard goes on for miles and miles, and
miles, filling this vast valley that you can
barely see mountains that crest the edge of it in
the distance near the horizon. You also see there
is no cloud in the sky, and there is no sun, but
there is a single pillar of light that streaks
down from way way up, the zenith striking down in
the center of this orchard, where there you see
before you this awe-inspiring sight of the
Dawnfather's home: a gold-plated citadel of many
humongous towers and spires that both resembles a
military fortress and the largest-steepled church
you've ever seen. It's hard to gauge distance with
so many trees between you and it, you don't know
if it's miles off from you, if it's maybe a
thousand feet or so, but even at this distance,
it's incredible in its scale.
MARISHA: Oh. Hey, guys, Pelor's not messing
around.
TRAVIS: They make really tall things here.
LAURA: I fly up next to Keyleth so I can see. Wow.
Do you think this is like Sarenrae, where we can't
get to him unless we have him in our heart?
MARISHA: You know, I feel a little bit more
connected here. This I can-- it's trees. I'm
surrounded by trees. This I can relate to.
LAURA: I mean, I've tried to talk to Pelor
before.
MARISHA: I've talked to the Sun Tree. (gasps) I
wonder if the Sun Tree is here? Maybe he's got a
twin here like you have a twin!
LAURA: Maybe.
TALIESIN: Do I recognize any of the fruit that's
growing on the trees?
MATT: Make a nature check.
TALIESIN: Yeah. 15.
MARISHA: Decent for a city boy.
MATT: It's interesting. This orchard-- various
fruits thrive in various climates. As you begin to
walk a little bit through, it is a peppering of
all sorts of trees and fruits. You see apples of
all shades, you see oranges, you see rare passion
fruits, you see floral-based growing fruit. It's a
perpetual harvest here.
LAURA: I rush down and say, don't eat the fruit!
SAM: Might be souls?
LAURA: I think it might be souls!
TRAVIS: No, it's fruit! Souls don't grow on
trees.
MARISHA: Souls also don't wash up on beaches, but
apparently they do.
TALIESIN: That may be the most interesting thing I
think you've ever said, is souls don't grow on
trees.
MARISHA and TALIESIN: Souls don't grow on trees!
MARISHA: At least he knows the dangers of
monocultures. This is very impressive.
TALIESIN: Yeah, this is, there's a lot of
variety.
TRAVIS: What?
MATT: What're you guys doing?
LIAM: Vax is off on his own, by the way, sitting
on his ass having a moment, because it wasn't too
long ago when he had a thing for Sarenrae, and
that was pretty bittersweet so he's staring off
into space.
MATT: Okay.
TRAVIS: One piece of fruit? One piece, just one
little piece. An apple.
SAM: No.
TRAVIS: We're in Elysium! Oh my god, please.
TALIESIN: If you do eat anything, and you
shouldn't, but if you do eat anything, eat
something you don't recognize, it'll be funnier
that way.
TRAVIS: Is there any fruit that I don't
recognize?
MATT: Make an investigation check.
TALIESIN: (deadpan) No, don't, stop.
TRAVIS: Something I don't recognize. 12.
MATT: Yeah, actually, you guys walk for about
three or four minutes in the direction of where
you saw the fortress, and you come across what
looks to be a small bush that's clustered near
this dark wooden tree with a thick, gnarled
exterior, and this bush has these small ripe
plum-like fruits that come to a point at the
bottom that you've never seen before.
LAURA: Grog, do not. Do not.
TRAVIS: What? Pick this?
LAURA: Don't! (gasps)
MARISHA: (gasps) Grog!
TALIESIN: I dare you not to eat it.
MARISHA: Don't say that. He'll do it! You know
that's what happens!
TRAVIS: No, why don't we say, are you a person?
TALIESIN: (whispers) Grog.
TRAVIS: Nothing? Nothing. You want to check it for
magic?
LAURA: Yeah, I'm going to check it. Hello, are you
a soul?
MARISHA: Yes, I'm a soul.
LAURA: (gasps) Oh my god, it is a soul! It just
spoke to me. Oh my god. What's your favourite
color?
MARISHA: Blue, like your feather.
LAURA: It said blue, like my feather! Did you hear
it? It was talking, Grog. It was talking.
TRAVIS: Hey, Pike?
ASHLEY: Don't eat it.
TRAVIS: What?!
(laughter)
ASHLEY: Just in case!
TRAVIS: What do I do with it? I already picked
it!
ASHLEY: I have an idea! Why don't you hold onto
it. Keep it in your pouch.
LAURA: Not in the Bag of Holding, keep it in your
shirt pocket.
TRAVIS: When have I ever worn a shirt?
ASHLEY: You can ask him if the fruit is edible,
and make sure it's not people.
TRAVIS: That's fair. All right. I will hold onto
the pointy plum.
MATT: (laughs) Okay.
LAURA: Are we getting any closer to the citadel?
MATT: You guys keep walking towards it?
LAURA, MARISHA, and TRAVIS: Yeah.
MATT: All right, you walk on.
LAURA: Are there any people? Does it look like
there's tracks in this orchard?
MATT: Actually, Vax, Vex, and Keyleth, you notice
fairly quickly in that you begin to see movement
ahead. The air itself, which by the way, the wind
here is carrying a very sweet and fragrant, almost
like honey flower whiffs that come through in
waves that hit you, the whole atmosphere here
makes you hungry, it makes you comfortable, it
reminds you of childhood in a strange way. It's a
very good, positive atmosphere. You begin to see
as you approach, figures, moving. Pike, you
recognize this because these are similar to the
vision you just had from Sarenrae. They are
entities. They are souls. They are people that
walk the fields of Elysium, and you see them walk
with small satchels, and you see them picking the
fruit. And gathering, and harvesting. They don't
seem to pay you too much mind, and as you begin to
get close to some of them, they just stop and
watch you. It's very Spirited Away, in a strange
way. You see these somewhat translucent entities
that barely acknowledge your existence and then as
you pass by, they go on to whatever work they were
doing. No speech, you don't even see eyes or
faces, you just see the outline of the human-like
shape, various heights and sizes.
LAURA: But they're picking the solid fruit?
MATT: They're picking the solid fruit, and
gathering them.
TALIESIN: Are they eating the solid fruit?
MATT: You don't see any of them immediately eating
it.
TALIESIN: None of them are eating the fruit.
MARISHA: I have a feeling it's an offering.
TRAVIS: I have a feeling it's fucking fruit.
MARISHA: Are we getting closer?
MATT: You continue to walk and make sure to avoid
some of the larger clusters of these various
harvesting entities, these harvest souls. You,
who's leading the charge this time, who's leading
you through the orchards?
TALIESIN: One of you two. Is this technically
favored terrain for you?
MATT: It would count as a forest for you.
LAURA: Yeah? I guess I'll be in the front. Percy,
have you done a lot of talking to Pelor?
TALIESIN: Not really, no.
MARISHA: Percy, how do you feel about gods these
days? Last time we talked we were both not
optimistic, I feel like.
TALIESIN: I know how to be polite. I'm very
reasonable at that.
MARISHA: Reverence.
TALIESIN: Reverence.
LIAM: You can certainly acknowledge when someone
can squash you like a bug.
TALIESIN: Yes.
MARISHA: But a lot of things can squish us like
bugs. I don't know, this is complicated. Let's
just keep going. I'm going to keep an eye out
while we're walking, for anything that resembles
the Sun Tree.
MATT: Okay. All right. Are you leading the way?
LAURA: Yeah.
MATT: Because you have no sun to keep tabs on,
you're just going to have to fly up above the
canopy and keep an eye on it, so you're cresting
and descending through the orchard as you
progress. You travel for about an hour and a half
to two hours, and you notice you are getting
closer, but it is a long way away, you probably
have another three, four hours of travel before
you get there on foot.
LAURA: It's a long trek. We've got a while.
MARISHA: I wonder if we believe harder if we'll
get there quicker.
TALIESIN: I don't believe that'll work.
SAM: Well, let's just go.
LAURA: Just keep on pushing on?
SAM: Yeah.
LAURA: Right? We don't have anything that'll make us
move faster?
TALIESIN: Well, we have misty, but that seems--
LAURA: That seems stupid.
TALIESIN: It's a nice walk.
LAURA: Yeah, it's beautiful.
MATT: You guys continue your trek, and as you get
closer and closer to the fortress of the sun, you
do notice the trees of the orchard grow taller and
thicker. And it's like whatever fertility
enchantment that runs this section of the plane,
the closer to the central portion of this fortress
you get, the more the rampant wild growth seems to
gather and expand to the point where it, in some
places, almost resembles the Feywild, though
nowhere near as mysterious and threatening in some
cases. But you've never seen apple trees that
grow four stories tall. But here you see them.
And the scale is immense but the branches are as
dense with apples and leaves as they would be
elsewhere. It continues to go. It's an impossible
size to some of these trees and plants and bushes.
It dwarfs your size by comparison to where you
really get a sense of scale of how small you may
be in this realm versus some of the creatures that
call it home.
MARISHA: See, this tree can squash me like a bug.
If it fell on me, yeah.
LAURA: I wonder if its apple grew as big as the
actual tree. If it fell, you'd be doomed.
MATT: As you progress, a few more hours into this
trek, eventually, Vex, you begin to notice the
light ahead begins to grow brighter.
LAURA: Hey, I think we're getting closer.
SAM: Awesome.
MARISHA: Does this feel like sunlight? Does it
register like sunlight or is it a whiter light?
LAURA: Like should we put some sunblock on as we
walk towards it?
MARISHA: Yeah? Is it sunlight temperature?
MATT: It registers as a sunlight. It is a pure
light.
TALIESIN: Like kitchen light white or like reading
room light?
MATT: Like noon daylight light.
TRAVIS: Arizona or California?
MATT: And as you push closer and closer to where
this brightness continues to expand, and it's
brighter than you anticipated. You're getting to
the edge of a clearing where the tree line comes to
a halt, but as you do, it hurts your eyes a little
bit. You have to adjust from the dark interior of
the forest to the outside. And as you finally
breach the edge of the tree line and look out, you
can see this open clearing, and immediately you
can see the column of light that's cracking down
from the center of the sky is what is lining this
clearing; where the light touches, the trees stop.
And it hurts a little bit to look at it because
the light is reflecting off of this bright gold
brass-colored citadel before you. You thought the
crystal structure that Sarenrae was in was, you
know, impressive. This is four times larger than
the largest structures in Vasselheim or Emon
you've ever encountered. And you watch as this
massive citadel-- It has maybe two dozen separate
towers of different heights that stagger and shift
and they all come to these steeple-like points.
And there in the center of the structure is one
thick, massive tower that crawls upward and upward
and upward and upward for, even at this point,
surmising 15, 20 stories before the tip vanishes
into the bright light that is descending from the
sky above. You see the outline of a few sparse
trees that catch your attention. You do see some
trees that litter this open space within this
bright light that are of the same type of tree as
the Sun Tree that resides in the center of
Whitestone.
MARISHA: He does have a twin.
LAURA: Do you think this tower is compensating for
something, or maybe it's a representation. Hard to
tell.
TRAVIS: Basically we'll know Vecna's a god if
another skyscraper forms in Elysium somewhere.
MARISHA: How close are we to the column of light?
MATT: You're stepping beyond the treeline and into
the light, so you're just at the edge of the tree
line.
MARISHA: I Druidcraft a little twig and hold it
into the light column.
MATT: Okay. Doesn't seem to affect it at all.
MARISHA: Nothing? I'm going to touch it.
MATT: It's warm. It's like warm daylight.
MARISHA: Okay, we're not going to die.
LAURA: That's good.
TRAVIS: Are you sure?
MARISHA: No.
LAURA: (laughs) I'm going to look at the citadel
with my eyes wide open for five seconds, and then
close my eyes really fast to see if I can see
better details of it like when you look at the
sun.
MATT: (laughs) You do, actually!
LIAM: I swat my sister in the forehead.
LAURA: Hey, I'm doing stuff here; it's science.
MATT: In closing your eyes, yeah, you can see the
shape and the outline of the spires that go off,
and you can see the plating and the large, heavy
structures. And you can see the various windows
that dot the outside on multiple levels. It looks
like there's at least seven or eight different
levels of the actual fortress. You see lines of
windows and looks to be balconies that adorn it at
these different stages. And at the top of that,
the towers go higher and higher. It's almost like
a city of a fortress in its own right in its
scale. It's impressive. It's like if you took part
of the City of Brass and jammed it into one
structure and made it pure gold.
TRAVIS: Pure gold?
MATT: It's gorgeous.
LAURA: This is beautiful!
MATT: (laughs) But it does burn the shit out of
your eyes if you stare at it that long.
LAURA: Worth it! Worth every second! I like Pelor.
I like him a lot.
TRAVIS: Someone should go in and test out the
light.
SAM: Yeah, let's just go in. It's just light.
MARISHA: Maybe the light will take us there,
straight to him.
TRAVIS: I push Vax in.
MARISHA: I jump in.
MATT: You push Vax in? All right.
LIAM: Oh, warm again!
(laughter)
MATT: It's very warm. And with your dark leather
it's like the goth kid in summer. Little sweaty.
LIAM: I was never the goth kid.
MATT: You guys begin to make your way on foot,
trekking towards the center of this clearing,
towards the fortress of the sun. As you begin to
make your way beyond the various trees with their
blossoming, beautiful white, pink, and purple
blossoms that mark the Sun Tree during the spring
and summer, you can now see along the perimeter of
this what appear to be hundreds of figures.
Hundreds of figures that just dot the outside of
the fortress. And as you get a better look at some of
the spires you can see that on the upper levels,
including the one central tower, you can see these
beautiful medallion-like circles of stained glass,
mosaics of color on a scale that is impressive.
You can only surmise maybe the smallest one being
20 feet in diameter and going up from there on the
scale on the central portions of it. And what's
interesting is, usually with stained glass the bright
exterior, the color is darkened and shaded because
the light is once you're inside the structure, but
the color is so vibrant in the stained glass, you
get the sense that there is a light source within
the actual fortress that is as bright if not
brighter than the column of light that is
descending from the sky.
LAURA: Should've worn sunglasses here.
MATT: As you begin to get closer and closer to the
citadel, once again the scale seems to build and
build. What should seem to be a shorter walk gets
longer and longer as you begin to see how massive
and far away this is, compared to where you
thought it was. And about 30 minutes since you
left the treeline, you begin to just get past the
final bit of Sun Trees that are planted around the
exterior.
MARISHA: I touch a few as I walk by. See if I feel
anything.
MATT: They're alive, they're vibrant and similar
in texture as to the one you've spoken with in
Whitestone.
LAURA: You going to try talking to them?
MARISHA: Should I?
LAURA and TALIESIN: I don't know.
TRAVIS: Do you know this tree?
MARISHA: I don't know. Maybe he's like a distant
relative of the Sun Tree. Maybe I know him by
proxy.
LAURA: Maybe they're like, oh yeah, Sun Tree I
remember him, he got taken away as a seedling, but
he was really great. How's he doing?
LIAM: I mean, you know you want to.
TRAVIS: It's an Elysium tree, just saying.
LAURA: Maybe they don't even speak our language.
It's possible.
LIAM: This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,
Kiki.
MARISHA: I'll try and speak to one of the Sun
Trees that looks the most friendly.
TRAVIS: (laughing) Amicable tree.
MATT: Make a nature check. See which one seems the
most approachable of all the other trees.
TRAVIS: Weigh the nuts.
MARISHA: That's a natural one. I don't know.
MATT: You see one tree that looks definitely the
most amiable of the ones in the field and you
approach it.
MARISHA: Amiable?
MATT: Amicable. Pick your term.
MARISHA: Amicable, amiable. All right, I'll talk
to a tree. That's what I'm going to do.
MATT: As you finish your spell and reach out, your
finger touching the warm exterior of the tree. The
light's still a little blinding, but you've
adjusted to it now, where you can make out shapes
and color, as opposed to the blaring white. What
do you say?
MARISHA: Hey, Sun Tree bro. Are you a Sun Tree
bro? Are you a Sun Tree brother? What's your
name?
MATT: "I'm a tree of the sun. And I'm not your
bro."
MARISHA: No, I didn't know if you knew the Sun
Tree that grew in Whitestone on the Prime Material
Plane. I didn't know if you knew him.
MATT: "So because I'm a tree of the sun, you
assume that I know all other trees of the sun. Is
"that what this is? It's one of those things? We
all look alike, don't we? Just all of us trees of
"the sun, right?"
MARISHA: Can you tell me a little about this
plane? How do we talk to Pelor? How do we see
him?
MATT: "I recommend probably going towards the
giant golden fortress that is right behind you.
"It's probably a good place to look, where all the
light's coming from."
MARISHA: Okay. Yeah. Wow. I have a friend who wants to
know about the fruit. He's wondering if the fruit
is souls? If he can eat the fruit.
MATT: "The fruit is not souls! It's fruit."
TRAVIS: Vindication!
MATT: "The Dawnfather is the god of the harvest.
Good luck. Sorry if I came off a bit brusque. It's
"been a long time since anyone's talked to me."
MARISHA: No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend
you.
MATT: "Apology accepted."
MARISHA: Would you like a hug?
MATT: "No. I would most definitely not like a
hug."
MARISHA: Okay. Well, it was wonderful meeting you.
Absolutely. Thank you. All right, bye. Okay, bye.
MATT: "Good day."
TALIESIN: What a beautiful tree you've found. It
casts so much shade.
(laughter)
TRAVIS: Yes! Oh my god.
MARISHA: You were waiting the whole time to use
that, weren't you? The whole conversation.
TALIESIN: I was just sitting, like knitting,
crochet?
MATT: As soon as you rolled that one, I was like
okay, then.
SAM: New NPC: Dick Tree.
(laughter)
MATT: It's more ornery than anything. (laughs)
All right, as Keyleth returns from her
conversation with the tree.
LIAM: You don't seem as blissed out as you
normally do. Did it go okay?
MARISHA: Yeah, it was fine. Just can't talk to
everybody, I guess. It's fine.
TRAVIS: What did you ask him?
MARISHA: Nothing. Just asked if he knew the Sun
Tree, and he got super offended. You know what?
Let's just go.
TALIESIN: You've never been rejected by a tree
before, have you?
MARISHA: No, I have never been rejected by a tree.
Most trees like me. People don't like me, but at
least trees do, except for this asshole.
LIAM: I start to smooth out her mantle, which is
wiring up like a cat's.
MARISHA: My leaves are prickly.
LAURA: Maybe he was just pretending he didn't like
you because he felt uncomfortable because he likes
you so much. Like Kash!
MARISHA: That's nice, Vex. Thanks. You didn't talk
to this guy, okay? You don't know.
TRAVIS: Did you ask about the fruit?
MARISHA: Yeah, he said it's fruit. It's fine. You
can eat it, too. You're right, Grog. You were
right! Eat the fruit! Let's go! Come on.
SAM: Yikes.
LAURA: Breathe in, breathe out.
MATT: All right, you guys begin making your trek
back towards the Fortress of the Sun. As you're
walking--
MARISHA: I rip off an apple as I go, and I start
aggressively eating it.
MATT: The Sun Trees here don't bear fruit.
MARISHA: I fucking spike an apple that I had
earlier!
MATT: Okay. If you have an apple with you, you're
welcome to eat it if you wanted to.
MARISHA: No! I just want to go in the tower.
LIAM: I lean over to Percival and say, this is one
of those times when it's best just to keep quiet.
TALIESIN: I'm so quietly delighted by this.
MATT: All right. As you guys begin to approach the
fortress, you watch as those hundreds of figures
you saw at the base are beginning to collect
towards the front of what appears to be the large
doors that lead to this side's entrance to the
actual structure. As they gather, they begin to
push in your direction. You also see other figures
up on the higher floors, balconies, almost.
(wingbeat, whoosh) Glide and then flying in your
direction rather rapidly.
LAURA: I hope they're friendly. He's definitely
not as solitary as Sarenrae, is he?
MATT: At this point, you watch as these winged
entities, three of them, approach faster than the
rest of the horde that seems to be pushing in your
direction. You can see long, golden-white wings.
You see very intense-looking breastplates made of
gold and brass, with rubies marked into it.
Similar, but not as well adorned as the armor that
Pike wears. Holding spears, various other weapons
or shields, but as they fly in and land, (impact
noise) landing. They all stand about five or six
feet taller than all of you. Humanoid, muscular,
almost Roman in physique, but their skin is a very
faint light blue. Their eyes are white.
LAURA: Hunin and Kyor!
MARISHA: Are they devas? Celestials?
Angels!
LIAM: Celestials.
MATT: They have similar traits, though apparently
purer and much stronger than the half-blood
celestials that you had met previously in the City
of Brass.
LAURA: That we rescued. Didn't just meet them. We
saved them.
MATT: You did, and you gave them a new life under
the remaining family of--
LAURA: Hunin and Kyor. I even got their fucking
names right!
MATT: You did, which is awesome.
LIAM: The third time, yeah.
MATT: So as the three of them land (impacts)
around you, spears not aggressive, but at their
side, and powerful entities. They triangulate
around you, all standing so much taller than you
do, their wings still unfurled in a very prominent
display of power. Their helmets covering everything--
the helmet comes down over the nose and reveals
the eyes. It's very Roman in structure. One of
them yells out, "You who approaches the fortress.
What is your business here?"
TRAVIS: Guards. Best to let Scanlan and I take
this.
(laughter)
LIAM: Percy, do you want to flash a little
Whitestone bling, at the moment?
TALIESIN: You're pretty Whitestone blinged.
LAURA: We're Vox Machina. We were sent here to
speak to Pelor by the goddess Sarenrae.
MATT: "Sarenrae sent you?"
LAURA: Yes, she did.
MATT: "With what business?"
LAURA: To speak about a very big evil growing on
the Material Plane.
MATT: Make a persuasion check.
LAURA: Oh no. Okay. 22?
MATT: Okay. The one guard that you were talking to
looks over to the guard that's to the left of all
of you, and he gives him this slight head nudge.
That one, who's a little bit smaller than the other
two, walks past and his pupil-less white eyes,
which emanate this faint white glow, seem to look
past each of you. I say past each of you. It
almost is a piercing gaze. As it looks at Scanlan,
it gives a little bit of an upturn of the nose. A
neutral disapproval of Percival. Keyleth, less so.
Grog, almost a sneer for a moment. And then to Vax
and Vex. And then to Pike, a nod.
SAM: Oh, a nod.
LAURA: She's good.
MATT: He looks back to the first guard, and says,
"There is no evil among them."
LAURA: Hear that, Grog? You're not evil.
TRAVIS: Yeah, I knew that. Why didn't you just
ask?
TALIESIN: We do, it should be noted, carry a
dangerous artifact that we should warn you of.
SAM: Check in our weapons. Yeah.
MATT: The one soldier that you were first speaking
to steps forward, his heavy footfalls from his
armored boots. He puts his hand out. "We will take
this artifact."
LAURA and SAM: (hesitant noises) Will we get it
back?
MATT: "What need do you have with a dangerous
artifact?"
LAURA: Well, it belongs to the great evil, and so
it's possible that we can use it to defeat him, so
if we don't have it, we might not be able to do
that.
TRAVIS: It may give us an advantage.
LAURA: Could be really great.
MATT: "The Dawnfather will be the judge of that."
LAURA: Okay.
TALIESIN: I'm all right with that.
SAM: Don't look at it, though. It'll turn you
super evil, and you'll rip out your eye.
MATT: "Noted." Such a big thing, and yet you shook
it a little, strangely. "Very well. Follow us,
"please."
SAM: How's that fruit?
MATT: Their wings fold behind them, and they walk
alongside you, matching their gait to yours. As
you move forward, even with your brisk pace, their
gait is so long that they're having to make long,
slow strides to keep up with your slow pace.
LAURA: I hold Percy's hand as we're going in.
TALIESIN: Yeah, we'll do this together. I'm all
right.
MATT: At this point, the mass army that's been
approaching you, you can see now, are hundreds of
armored spirits, similar to those that you saw in
the orchard. As they approach, the three planar
entities that are walking alongside you put their
hand up in a dismissive motion, and the army
parts, leaving a singular path that leads you
right to the front of the fortress. And the path,
because there's so many, goes on. It's like
walking through a parade of silence. As you all
look around, you can't make out any faces. You see
hundreds of sets of glittering golden armor with
the somewhat-visible form of these translucent
spiritual entities that take up the space. You
don't sense any hostility, animosity. You don't
sense any welcoming. You don't sense anything from
them. They're present and letting you pass.
LAURA: Is the armor solid?
MATT: Yes, the armor is solid, and the spirits
that inhabit them are pseudo-material. It's hard
for you to gauge; you haven't encountered this
type of creature outside of your spectral
encounters with ghosts and other spirits. As you
step forward, being flanked and escorted by these
winged guards, you are brought to the base of the
50 or so steps that ascend to the front 40-foot-tall
double doors that now (loud creaking) creak
open to reveal the interior of the palace, which
is as bright, if not brighter from the inside as
the outside pillar of light you're leaving.
As you prepare yourselves to adjust your gaze, you
ascend step by step to eventually take in whatever
the interior of the Fortress of the Sun has to
offer. And that's where we're going to take our
break! We're going to return back here in a few
minutes. We're going to use the restroom and get
snacks and stuff. You guys can rest here for a
minute. We have a giveaway.
TRAVIS and MARISHA: Fruit.
TALIESIN: Don't eat the spiky bit.
MATT: That's right. Make a wisdom saving throw
real fast.
TRAVIS: Really?
MARISHA: Wait, really?
MATT: Yeah.
LIAM: Everybody?
LAURA: No, just Grog, because he's an idiot.
TRAVIS: 13.
MATT: 13. Okay, good to know. All right.
MARISHA: Maybe you would have gotten smarter.
Maybe it's super fruit. Maybe it's acai berries.
MATT: All right, so our friends at Wyrmwood have
this awesome black walnut personal dice tray with
a leather interior. It's pretty badass. We'll only
have one lucky winner over in the Twitch chat. The
key word for tonight is latency. L-A-T-E-N-C-Y.
Like the kind that you get when you have two
people on Skype guesting in. So to win this, find
your way over to Twitch chat, follow the
instructions, and when it's time, put the word
'latency' in, and one lucky winner at the end of the
break we'll be able to give this away to and
announce. Enjoy, rest. We'll see you guys back
here in a few minutes.
[break]
MATT: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to
Critical Role. First and foremost, the winner of
the chatroom contest-- and I hope I'm reading this
right-- is n-nailhammer.
(laughter)
TRAVIS: Wait, one more time.
MATT: Nnailhammer.
TALIESIN: Is it Nine Inch Nail hammer?
MATT: It's two N's, ailhammer. So nnailhammer.
Congratulations, nnailhammer. You won the
giveaway. Denobo will contact you and get you the
info. Congratulations! All right, so back in to
where we left off.
As you ascend the remainder of the stairs and step
into the entryway to the Fortress of the Sun,
you're led through a series of gorgeous silver and
gold archways, dozens of feet above you. The
intricacies of the interior, scrolling trim and
inlay across every wall, pillar, and bannister is
incredible. Not gaudy, just magnificent in purpose
and history. Glancing across the marble floor, you
can see the construction here is immaculate. There
isn't any sort of smudge or damage dealt anywhere.
These arches themselves, even as you glance over
and look, the detail seems to fractal smaller and
smaller, in places, where you can't imagine a
craftsman's hand could have built this. Only
through the will of a god could such a thing come
into creation on such a vast and minor scale.
You also notice as you walk in, there's no shadow
or shade. The walls seem to almost emanate light
on their own.
MARISHA: I beg to differ.
MATT: The outside's a different story.
MARISHA: Go to the courtyard.
LIAM: Just you wait!
LAURA: No shadow underneath us?
MATT: No shadow underneath you. Looking around
you, and looking at your hands, you can see very
faint shadows can be cast between your fingers and
things that are very close, but it's like there's
a diffused light throughout the entirety of the
interior of the fortress that casts away any
darkness or shadow. There's no umbra; there's no
place where light is absent. It is just light
everywhere.
You hear this soft music played, the deeper into
the fortress you get.
MARISHA: Club's over here, guys.
MATT: Rocks fall; everybody dies.
(laughter)
MATT: It's okay.
LIAM: Benny Hill music commences.
MATT: Soft music you hear playing throughout the
interior of the fortress, like this distant sound
of a thousand soft choir voices accompanying the
inspirational sight of the building that you now
walk through. You see other entities adorned in
armor, still opaque and pearlescent in their
spirit form. Some of them have flowing robes of
gold and white that trail behind them and drift
across the floor silently.
The further in you walk, you begin to see where
some of these spires and spiral staircases twist
upward. The rooms have purpose in construction, but
the scale of those that walk through the halls is
so varied that you see staircases on large scales
and small scales. They almost seem to wrap around
each other in places. It's surreal, almost
Escher-esque in some of the interior
construction.
You see archways and doorways on different levels:
some that appear to be reached only by those that
can fly versus those that can just walk and climb.
Occasionally, you look up and you can see
skylights across the top: some open glass and
crystal, some appearing to be a small window of
stained glass that glitters down in bright blues,
purples, reds, oranges. There's definitely a
stained glass motif in a lot of the interior of
the fortress, which you've seen in some of Pelor's
imagery, and the symbol around him is like a
circular stained glass structure that spirals in
with the actual star and the sun in the center.
The music continues to grow louder and louder the
further in you walk, and you feel like you're
being led along for a good 15 minutes straight.
This structure, this hallway, just goes on and on,
the arches passing one after the other after the
other. Your eyes have adjusted to the brightness
of the interior now. Eventually, you come to
another set of large doors. These doors
themselves: no wood, no stone, just pure, vibrant
platinum and gold. The symbol upon them seems to
be the same circular motif as the symbol of the
Dawnfather, with the star in the center, but the
detail and intricacies. You get close, and your
eyes-- especially you, Vex and Vax-- you glance
and you can see, on every small scale, even just a
simple bar of the star and the sun has writing,
and has artwork, and then as you look closer, even
on a smaller scale, that writing is comprised of
smaller artwork and smaller writing. You're thrown
off by the level of detail and intricacy of this
place's construction. You're in awe. Your jaw
drops as these reveals seem to barrage you with
each step into the structure.
At that point, the doors (scraping noise) open,
and you wince once again, as the light that fills
the room from the inside is near-blinding. You
close your eyes a bit, and all you hear is this
deep, resonant voice say, "Come."
LAURA: This has to be Heaven. The doors just keep opening.
MARISHA: This must be the bright light that
everyone sees when they die.
TRAVIS: Don't steal his doors, or anything.
SAM: You want to steal the doors?
TRAVIS: What a terrible thing to say in the
presence of the Dawnfather.
LIAM: (muffled) All right, one foot in front of
the other. Here we go.
SAM: Oh, we can't hear Liam.
LIAM: "One foot in front of the other. Here we
go," I said.
TALIESIN: Let's go.
MATT: You shield your eyes, upon stepping into the
actual chamber, because otherwise, even closing
your eyes isn't enough; the light is so intense.
It still hurts through your eyelids. As you step
inside and look off, you can now glance around the
interior of this chamber. The same level of
fractal-like scrolling detail you saw in the doors
lines every inch of the wall on the inside of this
large, square chamber, hundreds of feet across on
each side. It's incredible. The floor is almost
mirrored in its polish. Glancing down, while there
is no immediate shadow, behind you, the bright
light does cast a bit behind you. You can see your
reflection almost perfectly in the polished floor
below.
You glance up, and you see the interior of that
giant steeple-like tower that's sat at the center
of the fortress in the distance, and you look up
almost endlessly. You can see floor after floor
with an endless spiral of various stained glass
structures and reliefs and small statues that
protrude from the edges, and this tower is
seemingly hollow, just leading up, and you can't
even make out the top of it from this distance. It
looks like a tower that is infinite, almost, from
this perspective, it's so big.
LAURA: Is the light coming from the tower?
MATT: No, the light's coming from the center of
the room. As your eyes slowly adjust and you
glance past your fingers and your hands, you see
there in the center of the chamber is a 25-foot
throne of gold, brass, silver, and ruby. Sitting
upon that throne sits a mighty being, wearing the
most intricate and beautiful golden plate armor
you've ever seen. Similar in detail and design as
the interior of the chamber around you, it almost
blends in if you didn't see it shift. A white
cloak encases the shoulders of this entity and
sways gently at their side like it's been brushed
off and dangles over one of the arm rests. And
where a head would be, instead there is a burning
star, so bright that you can only look but a
second before you have to avert your gaze and shut
your lids out of the pain. Just enough time to
barely make out the outline of what appears to be
a male head, almost featureless, burning within
the corona. This, you can only imagine, is the
Dawnfather himself, Pelor.
As you step into the chamber, the door (boom)
closes behind you, and the winged planar entities
that pushed you in are not in the chamber. It's
just you... and the Dawnfather.
SAM: Look how far we've come, guys.
(laughter)
SAM: From throwing shit at people...
LAURA: Didn't you do that just last week?
SAM: I did. I do that most weeks.
LAURA: Grog--
TRAVIS: Yes?
LAURA: Next time we visit the Dawnfather, wear
some underwear. This floor is like a mirror.
TRAVIS: But I don't ever-- oh, okay.
TALIESIN: What are you-- oh god.
SAM: Ooh! You mean I can-- oh, sorry.
(laughter)
MATT: "Vox Machina."
TRAVIS: Oh shit.
(laughter)
TRAVIS: Little bit of pee comes out. A little
bit.
MARISHA: You guys, he knows our name.
MATT: "You come with purpose. I can sense your
determination. What would you tell me of your
"purpose?"
TALIESIN: Vecna walks the earth.
MARISHA: We are here to prevent the coming of a
third Calamity.
TRAVIS: We seek the means to destroy him and all
he stands for.
MARISHA: He seeks ascension into godhood.
LIAM: And all your children are in danger, and we
have begun communing with the gods. I extend
slowly the wings and bow my head in deference to
him.
TALIESIN: The Divergence is threatened. Your
guards, your creatures, have some of our proof in
their care, at the moment.
MATT: "Another seeks the path of the Matron of
Ravens. A flaw in our annihilation of her hubris.
"That it still exists is dire news. That it exists
in the hands of such a slippery, vile mortal as
"Vecna, even more so. I thank you for your haste in
sharing your findings. I shall ponder a strategy."
He leans back in his chair, brushes his hand like
this, and the doors behind you (boom) open.
LAURA: It was you that I was speaking to, in
Whitestone. I had no idea.
We have the eye of Vecna.
MATT: His form shifts a bit, seems to lean forward
on the throne, resting the bright, burning,
star-like head on the edge of his gauntleted fist,
leaning forward in your direction. You try and
glance up, but it hurts in the presence. "Present
the artifact."
SAM: Well, we gave it to--
LAURA: No, we still have it.
SAM: Oh, we do?
LAURA: Yeah, he kept it with us.
ASHLEY: Oh, I have it, actually.
SAM: Could you guys turn them up? We can't hear
them at all.
LAURA: Please.
MATT: So as you place the box on the ground--
ASHLEY: I'll try to take it over-- I'm going to
leave it on the ground; it's a little hot over
there.
MATT: Okay. As you leave it on the ground, you
can't see his eyes, you can't see where he's
facing necessarily, but you can sense his
attention; it's like a beacon across the room.
It's ever-present, but there is definitely a focal
point that you can sense when it comes to you,
it's like having a spotlight on you amongst a
theater of thousands of people. It's intimidating,
but also exhilarating. The beacon shifts in the
direction of the small box you placed on the
ground. Immediately the box flips open, and you
watch as the eye levitates out on its own,
twitching and looking around in all directions. It
has no lid to close, and the tiny slit-like iris
of it seems to retract best it can, in the
presence of such bright light. You hear this low,
ruminating (hums). "Do you have purpose with
this?"
SAM: Only if it can help us destroy Vecna.
MATT: "Do you know how this would help you destroy
Vecna?"
MARISHA: We don't know how to destroy Vecna.
TALIESIN: We seek knowledge and power.
MARISHA: And assistance.
MATT: "I could destroy this right now, only if you
do not need it. Its existence is a threat. But the
"choice is yours, since you brought it before me."
LAURA: Do you know what help it would be to us on
the Material Plane?
MATT: He stares through you. The beacon finds
you.
MARISHA: It's not the only one in existence. There
are others.
TALIESIN: I think it might be, yes.
MARISHA: Right?
LIAM: That's his eye.
MATT: There are other people missing eyes, but
this is the only one--
LIAM: It's his. And it should be destroyed.
SAM: Right now?
LAURA: Maybe it'll make him weaker, if it is
destroyed. He obviously put it in his scion. We
destroy it, we keep someone else like Delilah
Briarwood from coming into power. Right?
TALIESIN: Yes, I think...
LAURA: I say destroy it.
LIAM: Delilah was obviously his pawn and she was
using it. Fuck it. Destroy it.
TALIESIN: We stand with... a master of the Grey
Hunt. She is the one who can speak for Whitestone
on that level. If you say destroy it, we destroy
it.
MATT: The beacon comes back to you again. The
stage beneath you, everyone around you, seems to
vanish in the light that's the attention of this
entity, this god, ancient beyond all thought and
reason that you would contemplate, awaiting your
answer.
LAURA: You know so much more than we do. If you
believe it is unsafe, then we trust your wisdom in
destroying it.
MATT: "The wisdom of the creators is to instill
their creations with the choice of their own
"destiny."
LAURA: Then I say destroy it.
MARISHA: What if we can--
MATT: "The choice is made." And with that point
you watch as, without leaving attention from you,
the eye begins to lift up out of the box once
more. The hand that was under the chin unfurls
into a clasping set of fingers, and as they clench
together, you hear the metal clink and grind, and
you watch as this light begins to flare around the
eye. And if you could hear a squeaking scream from
a powerful artifact, you watch as it just burns in
a flash. And (shattering noise) the shattering
sound echoes throughout the room. You see a burst
of greenish dark energy, and for a moment, the
light in the room seems to dim, like a very faint,
almost brown-out.
TRAVIS: (quietly) Shit.
LIAM: Good.
LAURA: I think that's a good thing.
ASHLEY: I do, too.
LIAM: It is a good thing.
LAURA: Yes.
LIAM: Vecna's a puppeteer. He used that to move
Delilah. It's gone.
MATT: "Now, if you have no further business..."
LAURA: We seek out the goddess Ioun, the goddess
of knowledge. The ritual of seeding was lost to
time, and we know that the goddess Ioun is one of
the only keepers of that knowledge.
MATT: There's a moment of contemplation on his
end. "She is safe. She recovers, hidden away. I
"know elements of where she resides, but this
information only belongs to those trusted."
MARISHA: We know you and her helped seal away the
chaos of these secrets before. We may need your
help doing it again.
MATT: He leans forward towards you, and you feel
the beacon of attention shift towards you this
time. And you, Keyleth, who have spent most of
your life trying to dodge and dive from the
attention of the masses, trying to buck the
destiny that has been thrust upon you since
childhood, here in this moment, you have the
attention of one of the prime creator gods of
Exandria, and you feel yourself weaken and
strengthen at the same time. You're not sure
whether to run or stand, and the voice comes out
once more. "I have champions across all of
"Exandria who have lived longer and proven
themselves worthy, capable. My consecrations are
"taxing, and I will not have it wasted on those set
to fail."
LAURA: How can we prove ourselves to you?
MATT: "You have not one faithful among you, yet
you beseech my blessing."
MARISHA: I could be your champion. You could teach
me to believe. I, arguably, am faithless. I know
you all know that. I believe, and I have respect,
and I am awe-inspired by all of this. But faith, I
still don't know if I have, but I... I believe you
could teach me.
MATT: "Is there anyone else who would challenge
this proclamation?"
LAURA: I don't want to challenge you, Keyleth.
MARISHA: What? We already have one champion of the
Raven Queen. Why not?
TALIESIN: Once, you blessed Whitestone.
MATT: "Whitestone is under my watch and keep. It
was created through the battlefield in which I
"sealed Tharizdun himself. It was the grounds in
which Ioun was wounded in the Calamity. There was
"much sorrow in those lands. Yes, it is under my
watch."
MARISHA: I'm friends with the Sun Tree. We talk
occasionally.
MATT: "A faithless stands to try and accept the
champion's mantle. I ask once more, is there any
"to challenge this claim?"
LAURA: Keyleth... let me? I've never felt this
before.
MARISHA: You are the lady of Whitestone. It suits
you.
MATT: "Very well. You step forth with the growing
bud of faith. That befits the growth of a
"champion. I will see you show me your quality.
You, as the vessel, kneel before me."
LAURA: I kneel.
MATT: He leans forward at the edge of the throne,
you hear the metal clinking as the plates shift
and move. And you can hear now, at the proximity
as he leans down towards you, the faint flicker of
the surface of the sun-like head that is the
beacon of the Dawnfather's face. "You would accept
"my trial, brave soul? Then you and your allies
must ascend the Tower of the Zenith. The chosen
"among you, Lady Vex'ahlia, you must reach the top
of the tower before this time runs thin." As he
lifts his hand you watch, as apparating in the
air, a container of glass with sand across the
top. He lifts his other hand. Another one appears.
And these two hourglasses now held aloft, gliding
slowly above the space where you stand. "Ascend to
the zenith. Embrace your faith and throw yourself
"in the Fires of Dawn. Should you be strong of
heart and your faith be true, the flames will
"grant you my blessing."
LAURA: Just me, or the group of us?
MATT: "You must jump into the flames. They can
help you ascend. However, your trial begins now."
And you watch as one of the glasses suddenly
shifts, and three of the winged planars appear in
the room, armored around you, arms crossed, and
they look to be trying to block the passage into
the tower as they fly up. You look up to the
seemingly endless beacon above you, to the top of
the tower that you cannot see at this distance,
and you know immediately, somehow, quickly, you
have to get there. So. What are you doing?
TRAVIS: Oh god!
MARISHA: I. Hate. Timed. Challenges.
LAURA: Well, I've got the boots, but I-- okay, I'm
going, I take off.
SAM: Wait!
LIAM: Click your Boots of Haste.
SAM: I'm going to to turn her into a red dragon.
TRAVIS: Do you want that?
LAURA: Sure. I click my Boots of Haste before he
does it.
MATT: Okay, so you click your Boots of Haste. They
come into you, you feel the surge of energy, the
rush, the burst of adrenaline through your body,
as you begin casting?
SAM: True Polymorph.
LAURA: Oh my god. Does that ever end? Do you have
to cancel it?
SAM: Yes.
MATT: All right, so as you begin to ascend, you
watch as the three planar begin to rush towards
you, their arms out to grasp. Anyone else going to
do anything?
TRAVIS: Yeah, I would like to smash my gauntlets
together and cast Enlarge.
MATT: All right, so you go into your larger form
now.
TRAVIS: And rage. I'll charge one of them.
MATT: They're up in the air. She's flying up.
TALIESIN: You've got the carpet.
TRAVIS: And I pull the carpet out.
MATT: Okay.
TALIESIN: I click my Boots of Spider Climbing and
spend an action surge to draw and start taking
shots at the wings. I want to drop them out of the
air.
MATT: Okay, go for it, make three shots. Very
quickly. As you're ascending on the broom as
quickly as possible, and they begin to converge on
you, you feel this tickle of energy in the back of
your mind and you watch as your hands begin to
suddenly grow claws and scales, a red color.
TRAVIS: Vax! Do something!
LIAM: I cast Shield of Faith on my own ass.
MATT: Okay. Shield of Faith cast on Vax.
LAURA: Can everybody fly?
TALIESIN: I'm running up the wall.
LAURA: Before I Polymorph, I toss you my broom.
SAM: Are you going to allow that?
MATT: Sure. So you throw the broom off the side,
and you begin to plummet immediately through the
air. As you're concentrating on the spell to cast
it, you finish it off, and you plummet back about
half the distance, and then (whoosh) these giant
leathery red dragon wings whip out of your form,
and you catch yourself. The broom clatters to the
ground, and Scanlan marches over and grabs it,
manages to get it under his grasp.
LAURA: You know that word!
MATT: All righty. So you begin to ascend upward,
right as they begin to descend on your dragon
form.
TALIESIN: 20, 24, and 36.
MATT: 20, 24, and 36, they all hit!
TALIESIN: That's a strength saving throw, or they
fall a little bit.
MATT: Strength saving throw, all right, that is an
18?
TALIESIN: Nope. They fall.
MATT: 21?
TALIESIN: That's okay.
MATT: And a 12. So two of them. You shoot two of
the wings out of the way and they plummet down,
and you manage to coast past two of them in your
dragon form. One of them does manage to grab onto
you and get its hands, big strong hands on the
back of your head and try and steer you to the
side.
LAURA: Can I cast Frightful Presence?
MATT: We'll get to that in just a moment. It's
going to attempt to-- no. It tries to pull against
you, but even with its extremely strong planar
strength it cannot guide you away from the path,
and you push past. You are now outside of the
chamber in the base of the tower, just flying
upward. You can go ahead and use your Frightful
Presence. All right, so that's your action.
LAURA: All of the creatures-- no, of my choosing,
so all the bad-- not bad guys, but you know,
people we're fighting.
MATT: As you roar loudly and it echoes, filling
the entirety of the chamber, the music of the
surroundings now merging and shifting with this
horrible dragon roar. None of these angelic
entities seem even remotely affected by it.
LAURA: Oh, really? They don't even have to make a
wisdom saving throw?
MATT: They are immune to fear. Or being
frightened, sorry.
LAURA: That makes sense.
MATT: But do you continue flying upward? Okay! So
you finish your spell, you take your shots,
Keyleth, Pike, anything?
ASHLEY: Am I close enough to Grog to hop onto the
carpet, as well?
MATT: Okay, so Pike and Grog get onto the carpet.
Keyleth, what are you doing?
MARISHA: Are people clustered up together by now?
LAURA: Do I take the alignment of the animal that
I'm polymorphed into?
MATT: Not the alignment, just your mental scores.
MARISHA: Are people super clustered, or is she now
clustered with them?
MATT: No, she's above everybody. She's way past
all you guys; she shot straight up.
MARISHA: So the angel dudes are all clustered
together?
MATT: Two of them fell a little bit, one of them's
on her back. She's making her way up, guys. The
first stained glass is starting to run out.
MARISHA: Throw up a big level five Flaming Sphere.
Ah, wait can I do a, with my spear can I do a
higher-level Fireball? And just do more charges
out of it? Or no?
MATT: I'll say no because you can't spend more
charges to increase the level of the spell.
MARISHA: Then I will do a 5th-level Flaming
Sphere.
MATT: Okay, so the Flaming Sphere slams upward
against the side there. Saving throw. Rolls a one
on saving throw. So it takes damage. Flaming spear
hits it, however--
MARISHA: It doesn't hit both of them?
MATT: No, you can slam it into one creature per
turn. The one that's on her back, you mean? What's
the range on the flaming sphere?
LAURA: Come on, the time is running out!
MATT: No time for a book. Never mind; it doesn't
matter. The flaming sphere slams into one of the
ones that's not on her back. It's too far out of
your range.  All right, so. Who's doing what
next?
TRAVIS: We're rocketing up on the rug.
MATT: Okay, the rug, not very fast, and her speed
is much faster as a dragon, so you guys are coming
up behind and you're just watching the dragon
(flapping).
TRAVIS: Are we close to any of the other two that
are at the bottom?
MATT: No, but as soon as that timer went out, the
chamber's roof above you slams shut. You're all
cut off from Vex.
TALIESIN: I was running up the wall. I didn't make
it in time?
MATT: Not at your speed, no. It's a big chamber.
LAURA: Okay, I'm going to haste, as fast as I can.
When I clicked my boots, do I still get a hasted
action?
MATT: Yes, you do.
LAURA: Okay, cool, then I can go 160 feet.
MATT: Yes, you can. The planar is still holding on
to the back of your head, it's going to make
another strength check.
LAURA: I'm going to try to tail whip him. Is that
a thing I can do?
MATT: Make an athletics check.
LAURA: Okay. Oh, I have a red dice, it's so
perfect and I never choose this one.
MATT: What did you roll?
LAURA: Oh, okay, well. What am I adding to it?
MATT: Add your strength modifier. If there isn't
an athletics score, then whatever your strength
modifier is.
LAURA: That would be plus five?
SAM: Are you talking about hers or the dragon's?
LAURA: Oh, a plus seven. So 13.
MATT: 13. The planar grabs one side of your horn
and causes you to slam into the side of the tower,
and you skid across and smash into one of the
stained glass windows which (smash) fires out the
side and you end up slowing down a bit and it
actually takes you a moment, it halves your speed
for this round. You try and get your wings back
up. Are you going to do anything about the guy on
your back or are you going to keep plugging as
fast as you can upwards?
LAURA: He's on my back, or he's like hanging onto
me?
MATT: He's on your neck and head. He's holding on
and trying to steer you off to the side by
controlling your movement.
LAURA: I'm going to spin and try to slam into the
wall and knock him into the stone.
SAM: Can she do like a wing thing?
LAURA: Yeah, I'm going to use my wings to thrust
me faster into the wall.
MATT: Okay, go ahead and make an athletics check.
LAURA: No, no. Okay. Athletics check, was a plus
seven, so 19.
MATT: 19? 17. so you slam into the wall and you
hear (groans) behind you. The stained glass that
shattered, reforms right where you left it, and
you continue to ascend upwards. Still holding onto
you, but it's now disadvantaged on its next roll
because you slammed it into the wall. So
(flapping) making your ascent upward as fast as
you can, you watch as the tower slowly pincers
closer and closer. You watch as another layer
begins to close above. All right. He's going to
attempt to try and slam you into the wall again.
Go ahead and make another athletics check. Roll a
d20 and add your strength modifier. Go for it.
LAURA: Okay. That one didn't count.
MATT: You didn't intend to roll it.
LAURA: Okay. Ooh, okay, 21.
MATT: Yeah, you beat him. He tries to pull you off
to the side and you begin to skid into it. Your
wing hits the side of the tower (scraping noise),
but you keep pushing forward. The pain hits you,
you end up taking about 25 points of damage, just
grinding into this divine golden side but you keep
flying up (flapping) the tower gets tighter and
tighter and tighter. You now can see as the planar
is going to attempt to--
LAURA: Wait, can I--
MATT: What are you going to do?
LAURA: Is he hanging onto me with one arm now?
What is he doing, because I knocked him into the
wall, right?
MATT: Yeah. What are you doing?
LAURA: I'm going to just dash. I'm going to fuck
him and just dash.
MATT: You're going to go double speed, all right.
LAURA: Double speed!
MATT: You shoot up. That gives him a full round to
go ahead and try and scare you off. Roll again with
your strength.
LAURA: 15.
MATT: (crash) Slams you into the wall. You skid
and slow down a little bit. You can see it's
closing. But you are dashing so you get a second
speed run, which does get you up towards where the
wall's closing now. You can see now the bright
light is getting brighter and brighter. Your eyes
are hurting in its presence, you can see a
large brazier at the top of the tower that is now
in flames, before you. You're not quite there; you
have one more round. He's going to go ahead and
now turn around, and now the angel turns around on
your face. He is going to attempt to punch in your
eyes.
SAM: Do you have legendary--
LAURA: I'm going to use my legendary resistance.
MATT: Well, it's a physical attack on you. What's
your AC?
LAURA: 19. Natural.
MATT: Yeah, it hits you, you take disadvantage on
your next strike. Go ahead and roll an athletics
check to try and buck him off. One last time, this
is the only one you have time for. Disadvantage
because he punched you in the face.
LAURA: Okay, 14.
MATT: 14, all right, you're slowing down, you're
slowing down, you're not quite getting there, he's
bashing you in the face--
LAURA: I'm going to take my claws up and rake
him!
MATT: Okay, make another strength check.
LAURA: What is it, 18!
MATT: 11! You thrust him off your face! As he
falls off down below, (flapping) you make it up to
the top, and you now see the brazier is about the
size of your dragon form. It's physically your
size and you can see now the tower's beginning to
close around you, what are you going to do?
LAURA: I'm going to reach the tower thing and push
myself up through.
MATT: Okay, you pull your way up to the top, and
now you're right above the brazier and the flames.
You look down into the brazier, the fire there
burning is ever-present light--
LAURA: I rush into the fire!
MATT: You dive into the fire. Your dragon form.
which resists it at that point, it immerses your
entire form, at which point you hear the tower,
guys, above you crack and you hear this echoing
(smash) sound, of what sounds like shattering of a
thousand windows at once. You, as you dive into
the flames, feel this moment of searing bright
pain in your eyes, in your mind. Your dragon form
is immune to flames, but your form suddenly
shrinks, the spell dispelled, the dragonoid form
cast away. You sense this kind of lost nothing; your whole
body is numb at this point, and you are just
surrounded by a white light. Much like where Vax,
in the plane in his communion with the Raven
Queen is shrouded in darkness, this is endless,
every color. You have no sense of personal form.
You have no sense of time, place, and for the
first time in a long time, you don't remember your
name. For a brief instant, you think, what bit of
conscious thought you can make, is this is what
oblivion feels like? Did you make the right
choice? Were you led astray? Were you strong of
heart enough? The flames were intended to cleanse
away sin, darkness, possibly those who are
unworthy. Is this it now? Did you fail?
You guys down below watch as the chamber doors
that closed off above you (scraping noise) open up
again to reveal the tower. And you can see there,
suspended in the middle of the air, thousands of
shards of stained glass that had shattered inwards
from the impact but frozen, held in place. As they
all slowly retract back, reforming the windows
that were once there. Whatever impact or shock
wave had scattered them below reversed and
repaired. And you watch as they do so, ascending,
until the tower's back untouched as it was. The
one planar that had ridden the dragon form of Vex
towards the top of the tower slowly descends
(flapping) and lands next to the three others. And
they all give a nod towards the Dawnfather, who's
still there, not looking upward, just looking at the
rest of the remaining members of Vox Machina, his
beacon of attention just shifting from one to the
other. The three planars leave the still-open
doors. "What does she mean to you?"
SAM: To us? Oh god.
MATT: "To you, all of you."
MARISHA: I told you that I was faithless, which
might be true when it comes to the gods, but not
with Vex'ahlia, not with Vox Machina. She gives me
my power.
SAM: Her name is Vex, and she is greedy and mean
sometimes, and she can steal a lot. She's a little
bit not the greatest person, but her flaws
highlight everything that is right about her,
which is she does all these things to protect her
friends and her family. She would give her life
for any of us and for anyone who was truly in
need. And she's not perfect, but she's the most
perfect of all of us.
TRAVIS: She believes in me. She tries to teach me
to use my brain, which I don't do very often. She
tries to teach me to learn from the world. And she
always cheers me on, which not a lot of people do.
I believe in her.
MATT: The beacon shifts to you, Pike.
PIKE: I don't have a real sister, but I consider
her more of my sister than I've ever had. She's
family, and if you take her from me, there will be
hell to pay.
MATT: The beacon shifts to Percival.
PERCY: She is Mistress of the Grey Hunt of
Whitestone, Baroness of the First House of
Whitestone. She is my heart and my judgment and
the future that I have chosen, and she is the one
that I have betrothed to.
SAM: What? Betrothed?
MATT: The beacon shifts back to Vax.
LIAM: She is every hope I have. When I am gone,
she will make the world right. She has the
intelligence and the savviness and the heart to
make real-world decisions. She is me, but better.
She is your champion.
MATT: "Then there is hope." And you watch as in the
center of the chamber, a second star seems to be
birthed before you, this bright point of light that begins to
swell in equal intensity as the head of the
Dawnfather himself, as a flash consumes the
chamber, and there before you, you see, now
reborn, hair scattered back, intact, slowly
descending, eyes closed, consciousness not yet
drawn from within: Vex'ahlia. As her feet touch
the ground and she falls to her knees, she
breathes in.
Your eyes open. You look around and see the faces
of your friends, your family. And you're
immediately aware of the presence of the entity
behind you. As you spin and look, whereas there once
was a burning star-- and to the rest of you, you
see the painful, endless light that averts your
gaze-- it doesn't hurt your eyes as much, and you
can see the faint features, the soft cheeks, the
hairless head, and the bright warm eyes of he who
brings the dawn. And you can see the smile there,
behind the light. "There is hope."
Get your blessing of the Dawnfather.
(gasping and cheering)
TRAVIS: Holy shit, Super Saiyan.
LAURA: What did I get? What is it?
MATT: You naturally have resistance to necrotic
damage.
LAURA: That's good for me. That fucking Finger of
Death.
MATT: And if you want to read the rest of that,
you can.
LAURA: As a bonus action, you channel the light of
day into your being. For one hour you admit,
emit-- fuck me running, you emit bright light in a
120-foot radius, and any evil creature within that
120-foot radius that hits you with an attack or
spell immediately suffers 4d6 radiant damage and
is knocked prone.
MARISHA: Wow! You're a walking nuke!
LIAM: Shine bright like a diamond.
LAURA: (laughs) Once this blessing ability is
used, it can't be used again for seven days.
ASHLEY: Yeah!
LAURA: Holy moly.
ASHLEY: Blessings of the gods!
TALIESIN: We'll have to add a sixth star to the de
Rolo crest. Fucking excited.
LAURA: Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to
represent you.
MATT: "If what you say is true, then we are too
late to prevent his ascension. Know that killing a
"god is beyond even most deities. To destroy is to
diminish one low enough to seal them away for
"eternity, as I have done once before. Such a
technique I used to banish the Chained Oblivion
"once, after it nearly slew the Knowing Mistress.
Having brought it low in battle, Ioun had devised
"something she called the Prime Trammel."
SAM: The Prime Trammel.
MATT: "Guided by a sizable sliver of a god's
power, one such device could be formed, and when
"enough are affixed to a wounded god, seal them
away in a plane beyond the Astral Sea. Such a
"method could perhaps force a new god back through
the Divine Gate and beyond the reach of your
"world. Ioun, however, the one who has the design
for such an artifact-- she has been in hiding
"since her wounding. She heals still, the wounded
god, and has feared for the past eight centuries
"that her enemies seek to finish the job. We
communicate on occasion through missives and
"emissaries. All that I know is the key to her
hidden realm is within someone. The last word from
"the mistress from nearly a century before granted
me this." The gauntleted hand extends and opens,
and there you see, apparating in the space above,
what appears to be a three-dimensional
topographical map of some kind. It slowly rotates,
made of pure sunlight and flame. It's a mountain
range with a glowing light within a small, hidden
house or hovel within a forest. Make an
investigation check. I would say Keyleth,
Vex'ahlia, Vax'ildan, and Scanlan.
SAM: Natural 20.
LAURA: Oh, good, thank god. Because mine sucked.
MARISHA: Also a natural 20.
SAM: It's a real good map.
MATT: Yeah. What did you get, Vax?
LIAM: Not a natural 20.
MATT: Okay. Glancing at it, both of you recognize,
as it pulls back and shifts inward, this is deep
within the Cliffkeep. This is far north of
Kraghammer. This is in a forested region outside
the Pools of Wittebak.
MARISHA: Pools of Wittebak?
MATT: Wittebak. Once a gnomish home, it befell to
a terrible natural occurrence sparked by unnatural
means, and since has become a series of acidic and
toxic natural liquids and waters that burble up
from beneath the earth, and many wandering giants
and larger ogrish folk use to their heart's
content. But it's not in the Pools of Wittebak,
just near it, this strange hovel. The voice of the
Dawnfather burns forth once more, the heavy
resonance shaking the room. "If you seek to devise
"these Prime Trammels, then take this stone, my
champion. It should be enough essence for one of
"them." You watch as he reaches up into the halo,
the corona of light around the head, and plucks
from behind an ear a small bead of extremely
bright light. As he pulls it from his head, you
watch the strength and intensity of his glow ever
so faintly diminish, and places it in your hand.
As soon as it releases from the gauntleted
fingers-- so massive, each finger is as thick as
your torso, it plops into your palm, and the glow
fades, and there before you, you see what looks to
be some sort of an oval-like opal.
LAURA: I love opals.
MATT: "Now, I have invested what I can safely do
within you. Go. Be swift. Find this key. Strike
"soon. Destroy or seal this great evil and prove my
faith in you is not misplaced, Vex'ahlia."
LAURA: It won't be.
MATT: The doors behind you that are already
partially ajar (rumble) open up all the way.
LAURA: I guess I'll put this in a really safe
pocket, then. There's one that's got an extra
snap. Triple snap and then a zipper over it.
MARISHA: Just don't let it fall in the toilet when
you go over to flush.
TRAVIS: I take out the little pebble and I drop it
on the floor.
MATT: You reach for the pebble. It's not there.
TRAVIS: Shit. Is there a hole in it? No?
MATT: No hole. Sarenrae was not going to teleport
you across the realm, letting you take away one of
the prized souls of her people.
TRAVIS: Oh, those were the souls!
LIAM: That was the pope, Travis. That was the
pope.
TRAVIS: Should've swallowed the rock.
MATT: As you exit the chamber, you can see the
various souls and planar that wander the halls on
their own business have all now joined shoulder to
shoulder as a procession, showing you a respectful
exit from the compound. As you walk, they all seem
to give a nod of respect towards Vex'ahlia, the
now freshly chosen champion of Pelor for this
endeavor. As you step beyond the staircase that
leads you down beyond the Fortress of the Sun,
into the center of the clearing that is watched
and protected by the various trees of the
Dawnfather, looking out amongst the endless
progression of the orchards, you consider what
your next path is to discover who and what this
key is to Ioun, and hopefully there's enough
time., because time, right now, and the decisions you make,
will greatly affect what can and cannot be done.
And that's where we're going to end tonight's session.
TRAVIS: Oh my god. What the fuck!
MARISHA: Champions over here.
LAURA: Oh shit.
SAM: (singing) We are the champions.
MATT: This is so fun. I haven't been able to do
epic-level content! That's so fun!
MARISHA: Is every episode going to be this
emotional for the rest of the game? I can't keep
doing this.
TRAVIS: Liam, what did you say?
LIAM: I said the twins are officially salt and
pepper shakers.
MATT: You totally are.
LAURA: Oh my god, and I have the white--
MATT: You have the white dragon scale armor.
LIAM: That's right.
LAURA: Tight.
MATT: That's actually pretty great.
TALIESIN: I think this actually changes the crest
of Whitestone now, because now there's a sixth
champion of Pelor who's of Whitestone. Six stars,
not five now. Holy cow.
MATT: Oh man. You should really not change that
crest, because it's in the campaign guide that's
being published in two months.
TALIESIN: It would only be hers.
MATT: Okay, there we go. I feel better about that
now.
TALIESIN: It would only be her house crest.
MATT: You know, it's okay, because the book
technically takes place before all of this. There
you go.
LIAM: Matt, I also have to throw out. We on Skype
now get the full Twitch view, so I'm seeing you
guys with all your icons, with everything, and it
is the weirdest amalgamation of Baldur's Gate and
Sega's full-motion video game from 1995 Night Trap
starring Different Strokes.
MATT: That's all I've wanted. All I've ever wanted
as a creative was to develop, design, and produce
what I would consider to be today's Night Trap for
you all. If we could achieve that, I've done my
job.
TRAVIS: Liam, we miss you! Ashley, we miss you!
ASHLEY: I know, I miss you guys!
MATT: Thank you for staying up late with us. We
really appreciate it, guys.
ASHLEY: I love you, guys.
MARISHA: We're god hunting without you guys. It's
weird.
TALIESIN: We need our east coasters.
ASHLEY: Man, to think I almost didn't Skype in
tonight.
MATT: I know! I'm glad you could.
LIAM: I'll give all my cows a hug for you.
MATT: All right, guys. Our tickets for the live
show at Gen Con go up tomorrow morning. Look for
that. Hopefully see you guys there.
TRAVIS: It's in an even bigger theater. We had an
amazing time last time, and this theater is even
larger, and will be mad, mad crazy.
SAM: Live, in person. Find out how tall Travis
really is.
LIAM: Four foot three.
LAURA: We're all teeny.
MATT: Well, thank you guys so much. Rest well,
especially you east coasters, and you east
coasters, and you other country-ers. Have a
wonderful night. Sleep well.
LAURA: Thank you Marvel Puzzle Quest!
MATT: Thank you Marvel Puzzle Quest for being our
awesome sponsor!
MARISHA: And check out the podcast!
MATT: Check out the podcast, which is awesome. And
is it Thursday yet? Good night, guys!
[music]
