Hello everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons and can't listen to a count off screen when we're going to go live. But I appreciate the effort guys. →
I did. Don't do that. His life's hard enough right now. All right. Anyway, bringing this back in, thank you for joining us. We'll pick up here in a minute for the actual story, but first we have some quick announcements. No, not Siri. →
Announcements. Come on. She's all right. First and foremost, tonight's episode is sponsored by our friends at Puzzle Quest. Magic: the Gathering. →
Hi, everyone. It's me, Sam Riegel. Tonight, we're pleased to be sponsored by Magic: the Gathering - Puzzle Quest, which you can find at bit.ly/magicrole. Guys, the hour of devastation is at hand in Magic: the Gathering - Puzzle Quest. Check out new card abilities like Eternalize and the latest Planeswalker to arrive: Elspeth, the Sun's champion! Not second or third place; the Sun's champion! Jump into daily live events where you can compete alongside your coalition for top placement or head over-- I don't know any of these words. →
Or for top placement or head over to the all new training grounds to perfect your deck! With over 150 new cards, you can craft an all new strategy to dominate the leaderboards! Magic: the Gathering - Puzzle Quest: 50% Magic, 50% match three RPG, 100% Puzzle Quest! Download on the App Store or Google Play. Okay. So typically, when Puzzle Quest is our sponsor I do a little quiz with Taliesin. Today I'm going to throw it to Liam O'Brien, just to mix it up. The theme of tonight's quiz is: Is this a Magic: the Gathering card or a Kama Sutra position? (laughter) →
Okay. I wanted to give you guys some updates on some merch items. Those amazing posters? They will be sent out in a week. I think. Yes. They will be sent out in a week, because they're in the warehouse now, ready to get shipped. I've gotten a lot of messages asking where are the aprons? And the reason that they're not shipped yet is because we ended up selling so many that the manufacturer didn't have enough cloth to make the aprons, so then there was a backlog of that. So they're done, and they're about to get to the warehouse so you'll be getting your aprons in a couple weeks, and then we'll start getting them, so that's solid. Also, we have these awesome necklaces. →
Let's see, next up. GenCon live. We are at the tail end of any available tickets for the show. So if you haven't got one yet and you're still planning to be around or near Indianapolis for GenCon and want to come see, get it quickly. We're about to close that out. Looking forward to seeing everyone there who's coming, it's going to be fun and depending on the next couple episodes, I'm real curious to where it ends up when we get to GenCon. →
All right. So also, the Critical Role podcast. We have up to episode 30 now available. →
Next batch went up, so those of you who are coming on the podcast audio version of our crazy story, those episodes 21 to 30 are available for you now. →
Talks Machina, once again on Tuesdays. We'll have a discussion about this episode next week and on Tuesday at 7:00pm Pacific, with our wonderful host Brian Foster on Twitch and Alpha. →
Both? Both. The week after Gencon we will be streaming the panel that we did at GenCon. I feel like Brian is going to be in New York for Ashley's birthday right now. He flew out today. →
Good. We didn't have that option. And also the new episode of CelebriDND is up as well, where I got to dungeon master wonderful John Bradley who you may know as Sam Tarley on Game of Thrones. →
Also, had a wonderful guest Laura and Liam joined us for that. It was a lot of fun, so check it out. →
I believe our last announcement today is the birthday of one fabulous goliath barbarian. →
So, anyway, last we left off, Vox Machina, in facing the terrible threat of Vecna returned to physical form, sent you all through this conflict to seek audiences with a number of the deities of Exandria. After getting blessings and fragments of the essence of three of the gods, you discovered that Vecna had completed the Ritual of Seeding and ascended into godhood. However, discussing with Ioun, the Knowing Mistress, it will take a little bit of time for him to both understand the extent of his power, to claim his domains, and expand beyond his current condensed avatar form, so time is of the essence. Not to mention that in order to claim the full strength, there needs to be a showing of power and faith to gather attention and faith from the masses. →
So with that information, you also imbued upon Grog the ability to blacksmith and Percival the knowledge of the construct of these Divine Trammels, things that could possibly be used to seal and have been used previously to seal a god as killing them is a very difficult and dangerous thing. Retrieving this information, you discovered that the place where these can be crafted is called the Core Anvil. Once belonging to the All-Father, the deity of construction, design and craftsmanship, it resides beneath an underwater volcano known as Scaldseat, off the shore of a city called Shorecomb in Issylra. You also had a fantastic little run-in with Vecna, recently, taunting you all. →
Last we left off, you had found yourself in Vasselheim, went to the Trial Forge to speak with Earthbreaker Groon, discovered what would be required to attempt to make contact with Kord, and you made communion with the Raven Queen, and in declaring your complete faith in her she offered a piece of her essence to give you the third seed with which to make a third Divine Trammel, and with you all falling asleep within Scanlan's Magnificent Mansion, you cast True Polymorph on yourself to take the form of a planetar and did whatever you did in that form as you all went to sleep that evening. →
Except that while he was checking out his junk in the mirror-- heavenly junk-- I shut the door behind Keyleth and I. I don't think we should go another couple of days in silence. →
I was angry. I was very angry, and maybe if we had this conversation yesterday, even, I might be yelling that to your face right now. But it's hard to be angry at bravery and selflessness. →
I mean, we've always had the problem of you having one too many ladies in your life, right? (laughs) It's hard to compete with a god. →
I've done a lot of stupid things in my life, and I've never had any regrets, really. I do know the chance you took on me, and I've confirmed your worst fears, and then some. →
Regardless, I am sorry, and I regret that I'm not outright dead already and that you have to stare at this walking pantomime of a life in front of you, but Kiki, I'm grateful for the time I have left to look on you, and I am grateful to fight for your future. And I'm grateful for that chance you took on me. →
I wouldn't take it back. You taught me how to take chances. (laughs) Can I ask you a question? What exactly was the deal that you made with the Raven Queen? Was it when we slew Vecna, or defeated him? I have a feeling semantics are becoming increasingly more important. →
I don't want to leave, but there are some things that I will not test. Hey. I do have faith in her. And I have faith in you and what you'll do. (sighs) God, I feel so stupid. →
It's fitting, really. You can protect that plane. I'll be here to protect this one. I mean, if these past few days have taught us anything, it's death isn't the end. I just don't want to forget. If Sprigg could forget the names of his party members that he died alongside-- he ran-- never mind. What's going to happen in a hundred or hundreds or even a thousand years? I don't want to forget this. What if there comes a day when I don't even recognize the name Vox Machina anymore? →
I don't believe that will happen. You're going to live a long life. Yes. And you will love again. And you will lead. And you will be loved, because who cannot love you? →
I'm grateful for you, and I always will be. And I'm grateful for any second that we have left. And I don't want to spend any more being angry at you. And I'm sorry that I was. →
Well Pike, goes up-- yes, don't forget! "I can prepare the feast for you guys. That way, you "don't have to spend a spell of yours for it. As you guys are on this mission to go make this-- I can be "help-- I think I need to stay here for now to shepherd both the people in my temple of the "Everlight with whatever words I can keep them calm under this chaos in the city." →
"Then I can let you know. I also have a Sending spell prepared, so if anything happens, I "can let you know immediately. As long as you're on this plane." →
She hefts it and takes a little bit of her fading blue hair at the tip and carves off a little piece of it, hands the axe back to you, and very deftly braids it into a small braid, ties it off, and hands it to you. →
You hand her the chalice, and she prepares the feast within the mansion, so what little bit of for some of you may have been an unsatisfying breakfast this morning is quickly taken over by the fantastically tasting feast of such a holy spread. Taking the hour to eat it, all of you guys get the benefits of Heroes' Feast. →
Inspiring Leader. A creature can't gain temporary hit points from this feat again until it has finished a short or long rest. So you have temporary hit points until your next long rest, essentially. →
Of us swimming through the volcano, and then going underground and shielding ourselves, and then fighting! And then Grog's forging the trammels! (enthusiastic a cappella music) →
No, temporary hit points, so as soon as you take damage, they go away from the temporary first. Temporary never come back. Then you have the maximum hit point bonus. →
Raven Queen taketh away. All right, so as you guys are all sitting there watching Keyleth dance while she eats, while you're eating, it's a unique display. You're prepared for the rest of your day, Pike says goodbye to everybody, gives you a hug. Says, "Be safe." →
One question. I have the infinite blessings of Ioun's knowledge. I am a holy man. However, I'm not exactly clear. Do we need those little peas to make these trammels? And we have three of them. →
We're not going to get more of these before we forge the trams? →
There are volcanoes underwater, and this one is less burning smoke. It's the sulfuric gases and poisonous fumes of the various reactions and chemicals and pressure beneath. →
So. With your things gathered, you all find your way, I imagine it's not too far of a walk from the Raven's Crest to a tree that is functional for this spell. It's on the southern border of the quarter that holds the Birthheart, the orchards and various trees there. You find yourselves a suitable tree, gather yourselves, steel yourselves. Now that the morning has come, the tension in the air of Vasselheim and the word that spreads of some sort of looming threat, though sourceless and directionless, definitely has built this air of fear and rush for preparation that surrounds you. →
Pike? You know you have-- what's it called you put on me one time? That Death Ward? Should we put that on one of us before we go, just in case it's super dangerous? One of the squishier ones? Does someone want Death Ward, so if you go down-- →
As you guys are arguing, she leans forward and beneath her breath finishes the incantation with the Death Ward, and you, Vex'ahlia, it sounds like a soft clinging of gentle metals in the back of your head, and as it hits this warmth hits your chest and then it sets in. It doesn't quite fade, it's like having a localized blanket held to your sternum. Who else would like one? →
So for those four that have marked it, you have Death Ward, which lasts for eight hours. The first time you drop to zero hit points, it brings you to one, and then the spell fades. →
All right. Pike sends you off with a wave and you all step through the tree. You feel the transitional burst of energy as the druidic magics pull you from one living source to another, and you all emerge on the outside of a tree that is barely wide enough to sustain the doorway between the two, and as you all gather on the outskirts, you turn around and you can see this somewhat-leafless, living through the winter, but not the prettiest tree you've seen. The doorway portal closes behind you. →
Glancing around you, there is a light snowfall and you can see slush and snow gathered, dirty, along the edges of the streets. You are on the outskirts of the city of Shorecomb. Population-wise, it can't be more than a few thousand people at most. →
It looks like there's a very healthy fish trade. →
To the immediate right of you, there's a cliffside, maybe 200 feet from the edge of the town where there are carts going to and from. You can the large crane carrying large containers and large nets filled with caught fish from the bottom of the cliffside. People around noticed you emerge from a tree, and you can see about four or five of the various peasants and working folk stop in their tracks and stare at you, frozen. →
"This way, James." And he grabs his little kid's hand and the kid is slack-jawed watching you as he drags him off to the side. People start walking again and still glancing over their shoulder, they go about their business, keeping a very close eye. →
How would one go about finding out if you're being watched via magical means? Is there a way to do that other than if one is not a magic user? Is that a perception check? →
Okay, it's a couple hundred feet to get to the edge of the cliff. And these are sheer cliffs that drop off for 150, 200 feet or so before it hits very hard pebbled beaches. These aren't sandy beaches. →
You look down, and there are the rocky beaches, there are a number of large docks that jut out from the rocky beach, and you can see there are about five or six varying degrees of rickety winding wooden staircases that are built into the cliffside that lead from the top edge of the cliff down to the beach below. You can see a lot of workers are currently hauling large sacks, small crates and boxes, things that are too small to bring on the large winding cranes that they have on the edge as well. There are ships coming, there are ships going. It looks like this is a decent trade stop for cities along the shoreside here in Issylra. →
20. Glancing out at this distance, the sky itself is very cloudy, very gray. It's a very gray day. It's cold, it's chilly, the wind that's blowing is very faint, but it's enough to the point where snow is falling. There is a very faint mist in the distance. Either a storm is coming or a storm has passed that's preventing you from seeing any sign of a glimmer of the smoke. So you're not entirely certain the direction. →
There are people about and some of them are just passing, not paying mind, and few of them stop and glance at these very well-dressed, very dangerous-looking figures that have now just walked up and look out past the ocean, but no one's broaching any conversation. They look like they're more making a wide berth or keeping a very untrusting eye on you as they walk past. →
You get the sense that a lot of the snow that was in the street when you got there and the slush was from a storm that recently passed. And the clouds and the fog that you see in the distance, it looks like it's blowing away. →
Okay. (laughing) Strangely, no little girl is working at this dock. However, the person you did see that looked like a little girl is actually a generally short fellow who has a wrap over the top of his head, a swollen cheek where it looks like he might have some sort of a tooth infection who spins around. It's not a bonnet. It's a crusty looking fisherman, who is like, "Who are you "calling a little girl?" →
Oh, my bad, fellow! Sorry, as you can tell, we're not from around here. Visiting. Yeah, I had a couple of questions. One, there's a volcano just off this coast somewhere, right? →
"There we go, straight questions." He rubs his swollen cheek side. You can see his teeth are graying and yellow. There's a little bit of blackened decay at the edges, but he grins a little bit at the sight of the gold. "I need a little more than that paltry sum." →
"All right. (sniffles) Volcano is that way." And he points out. You see he glances over, he lines up where you can see a couple of larger rocks that are breaking out from the shore surface maybe 20 or 30 feet out from where the pebble beach ends and meets the water line. He's lining up his arm and, "That way, about five miles." →
Leads you guys back down one of the winding stairways, and you have to wait at certain moments. There are certain areas where it switchbacks, and it's open. You would think it's a platform for looking out, but it's more for letting people get past, and for the pathways up and down, it gets narrow on the actual stairs. But eventually, you make your way down to where these docks are, and there are three large buildings that are the hubs of most people checking in, checking out. They have a number of docksmen that are keeping tabs on what's going in and out of the dock, and what materials are being shipped in, taxing those that are using it temporarily, general business in the vicinity. He leads you over. "Now then, I'm going to introduce you to "Senth. She can rent you something, at the very least. I recommend not letting that one in. She "has a thing against the smaller folk." →
Stretches his lower back with a couple of cracks and snaps. The hunched man gets about four, five inches of height and is almost cresting about Vax height. →
I don't care. That was a different reason, and if your fucking dock mistress is such a bitch that she won't give us a good deal because of him then we'll find someone else. →
Hobbles off and makes his way back up the stairs. So you come outside to this one dock hub. →
It's a modest two-story building looks like it has like a watch tower second story and the bottom floor is much larger. The door is currently closed. The wood looks a little sea-rotted. You can see the edges of the wood are curling and dark and perpetually damp. Little bits of green moss and various fungus are starting to gather at the very edges of the building, but it seems to be standing and has been there for a while. →
That's okay. As you push the door open, glancing inside, there's general gray dull daylight coming from the cloudy sky, but there are also a few oil lanterns hanging in different places. You can see stacks of maps or other heavy pieces of parchment that are curled up and tied off in sections. There are small crates, most of them empty, that are scattered about the entranceway here, and as you enter the building you watch as a very tall, thin, lanky female half-orc spins around across the room with a singular monocle that is very, very intense to make one eye look really big over the other. Spins around; sides of the head shaved and the rest of it slicked back against the head with a little bit of a light brown shock against the black to one side. Dressed fairly nice but you can see the clothing at an immediate glance is nice upfront and then tatters at the bottom. Spins around. →
You watch as the one eye, moving independently of the other, glances and looks each of you very quickly up and down and then slicks back into place. "That can be arranged, yes." →
"Three days' rental including a crew on board. That'll run you approximately 150 gold "pieces. I require, to be in case you lose the ship or don't return with it, an additional 500 to hold "in case you lose the ship. So a grand total of 650 up front with 500 to be returned upon your "return." →
You take a glance over it, Percival. Seems very thorough but nothing beyond what was requested and basically if the ship is not returned all money is forfeit. When the ship is returned, a very intense investigation and perceived state of the ship is going to be requested from an appraiser to see if any damage was taken. Yeah, it's essentially like one of those seedy car rental places that the contract says they will ding you for every damage. →
Flings it back and there is an expression of, "Of course a gnome would do that." If this was a Telltale game it would say, "Her hatred for gnomes deepens." →
"All right." Immediately puts it into a small shelf, writes down some remarks on it. "Very "well, I will show you to the Shore Shanty. Follow me, please." →
Leads you out to one of the far end docks, and there are a number of decent ships and larger fishing ships, some faster-travel ships, some long boats. You see one galleon-sized ship that's just left and taken away, and on the far end there is one of the shittiest tugboat-sized boats you've seen in a while. Scanlan, you've seen boats like this and they're largely used for either relatively cheap and relatively quick messenger services. A courier ship, if you will. That's about it. →
There are three. Two of them appear to be the crustiest barnacles-- The gentleman that you met earlier, Fenna, looks like the brother of these two that mated. That really lived the life. →
Both of these men that are inside, that're playing cards hunched over the table, can't be younger than their early sixties. One of them has a big, thick, gnarled white beard that darkens at the tips which you can only imagine, as most hair tends to get lighter at the tips, means it's crusted with stuff. They're both wearing general seafaring garb and tattered clothing. They're muscular. Their skin is very tanned. One of them's wearing a heavy knitted cap that folds back onto itself and rests on his shoulder to the side. They are both playing cards and they look over. "I "guess it's time to work." Takes the cards, pulls them up from the table. "All right, where we "going?" →
You watch as this large gentleman walks over and slams his fist on this small, wooden-- ugh, my brain isn't working. Thank you, a hatch in the ground. "We've got customers." And you hear this rustling beneath and all of a sudden the hatch slams up, and barreling out from underneath you see the drunkest, most unshaven, unwashed, gnarled goliath you've ever seen. No facial hair, but bits of frizzled dark hair in the back, which is interesting. Very few goliaths grow hair. Now what's interesting about this, too, is the size isn't as large as you height-wise, but width is about matching yours, so this is a bowling ball of a goliath. Steps up on the top. (grunts) →
Actually, yeah, that's a good point. But if Danny DeVito also was doing Iron Man competitions for a number of years and then let himself go, so he has the bulk of the muscle underneath but then-- Yeah. Doesn't say a word, just looks at you all and then walks out onto the deck of the ship. →
Well, one of the two older gentlemen that were there, the one that knocked on the hatch, goes, (hums). Sticks his hand out the side of the doorway, "Maybe two hours? Three hours?" →
They pull the sail up, they get everything ready, they go ahead and undock from the dock, pull up anchor, and the general wind, because it's cliffside here, the wind is pretty strong right here at the bay, so immediately the sail billows open and the ship takes off. And they begin to curve in the direction, loosely, of where you were pointed earlier. →
Appreciate the sound effects. If we're going on a three-hour tour, I demand to know who's Gilligan, who's the Skipper, millionaire and his wife. The movie star-- →
All right. As you set sail, the wind picks up, speed is enhanced and you gather at this rate probably in under two hours you'll probably make it to the destination with the help of the Air Ashari-- →
So as it guides on, Captain Santy stands at the front of the ship glancing out, this giant square jaw just nestled right into where the pecs meet up beneath the thick sweater that's almost hanging off the arms at this point. No cap, balding head with the scraggly hair in the back, and just looks off in the distance. The rest of the two are just sitting back where there are various jugs of some unseen liquid, keeping tabs on the sail. It's a very leisurely, lackadaisical energy on this ship. →
And he points out and you glance out at where Santy of the Shore Shanty is, and you can see in the distance there's a little line of dark that is rising out of the ocean. →
Quickly enough, you begin to approach and you can now see what was a thin column is now a fairly large billowing stream of dark fume that you can see as the waves get larger and larger the further out you go. Certain swells, some of it breaks up and it chains and snakes upward, based on how it's finding its way to the surface. →
Eventually, you get within maybe 30, 40 feet of where it breaks the surface there, and the sails fall into loose and are tied around the bottom, anchor is thrown off the side, chain is let down, and then eventually the captain turns back and-- →
As soon as you say that question, the two other older gnarled gentlemen on the ship go (noises of warning). Captain is just staring at you. (spits) Spits on the ground before you. →
Perfect. As each of you make your way into the water (splashing). You can smell, by the way, the fumes. Because you see the dark color of it, you immediately envision or at least instinctively prepare for the smell of fire smoke or a fireplace. As soon as it hits you, it's a very acrid, sharp metallic smell with hints of sulfur and other chemicals that burn the inside of your nose and sinuses immediately. →
It's the proximity. Being near, you can smell occasionally as the wind blows through, a whiff gets to you. You all make your way under the surface and begin to swim down, following with your vision where the source of this dark column of fume is. →
You can make out the gist of things, but depending on how fast you're talking, it could be hard to hear. It's getting darker and darker the further down you descend, and the water gets murkier and murkier. It also gets warmer. →
It's good. It leads you into it. Descending further and further, the only visible light that you have is the one that Percival is shining below, and as it goes through, you can see it reveals another 40 or so feet ahead of you, and then as you pass over, it suddenly becomes shorter and then longer again as it comes and hits the smoke, and you can see the smoke and the fume now. →
It's billowing up at a rapid pace, and the water is getting hotter and hotter, to the point where now it's starting to feel like a sauna. →
About another 20 or so feet, and it's hot enough to stand, but it's getting really uncomfortable, and with Percival's light, you can see the bottom. (soft impact) You guys all land there at the bottom of the ocean. It's so dark that outside of Percival's light and the glow around you, you only see the outline of each other from the splash-back of the light as he projects it around. →
All right, so glancing down, you can see you guys are standing on a rising upward cone; the top of the volcano at this point, where you can see all the ground below you, especially immediately around where the water or the fume is gushing out, is porous, dark rock. There's no soot; there's no soft surface that you hit. There's no usual bottom of the ocean you expect. Yeah, no sediment. It's just hard rock. The force of the vents seems to be pushing any of the sediment off, and it descends slowly around you and disappears into the darkness. →
You can see a number of small-- strangely enough, with the heat of the surrounding area, too, you can see little bursts of color within the porous rock, and with a quick glance, Vax, you can see there are bits of plant life, colorful pinks and purples that are slowly pulled into the porous rock on the outside of these vents. You can see a very faint glow in a couple of places of the rock where it looks there is still some sort of very hot, very slow pressurizing molten rock that is cooling slowly. It looks like there's this constant slow battle between the ocean water and whatever's forcing upward. →
Right now, where it's emerging, these jets of extremely hot fume that are billowing past you, it looks like there's one concentrated opening at the moment. As you walk around, it looks like it's not one central column. It looks like there's a number of smaller fissures that are all clustered around this area, and it's hard to see the separation because so much of it's mashing into one giant column as it emerges. →
Okay. Yeah. All right, so it's hot water and gas coming up. If I theoretically wanted to do a Control Water spell and reverse the water inwards, could we go in through one of these tunnels? Through one of these fissures? →
You're seeing little glows within the actual areas where the fumes are spewing up. You're seeing down where the smoke is emerging. You're seeing every now and then a faint glow that appears here and there. →
I'm going to be like, underwater tea party! (glugging) And do a Commune With Nature for a little bit. I get three questions? I want to find any easy tunnels. →
All right, so. You take the minute and concentrate beneath. And with that, all of a sudden you feel your conscious extend into the rock and stone and the various forms of plant life that have made home around the outskirts of the top of this volcano's caldera. Your questions are? →
The Anvil is probably too far away at this point. Yeah, it's probably not right here at the top. What about these colorful plant things floating past us? Are they going to sting us and paralyze us? →
Terrain. Bodies of water. Prevalent plants, minerals, animals or peoples. Powerful celestials, fey, fiends, elementals or undead. You do get a very faint sense of elemental movement. You're not quite sure what that pertains to specifically, but it is moving just outside the radius of your sphere of understanding here at the top of the volcano, and it is moving slowly through rock. →
It helps with extreme heat as a general weather type, but intensely dangerous heat like fire or anything, it's not going to help you with that. So you dive into the center? →
You swim down into the darkness and you're using your sense of balance to keep tabs on what is up and what is down, because once you dive into the middle of this pillar you see nothing. And you begin to swim down, feeling for where the gravity is pulling you and the force against you, and use that to get your bearings. →
You can faintly see a little bit of it there. You do take three points of fire damage as soon as you enter the water, reduced to one. So you manage to push through and descend about 15 or so, 20 feet. You suffer another six points of fire damage, reduced to three. Need you to make another athletics check, please, as you're pushing further and further down. →
A six? It begins to push you up, you lose a little bit of ground. You take another one point of fire damage. You begin to make up, and you get partway down. You get another 40 or so feet down into it, you think. Still unable to really see anything. Occasionally, you see a glint of that light that you saw before. The little bit of glow. You take another three points of fire damage, reduced to one. It is a lot of heat, but you continue to push further. Make another athletics check, a third one. →
20? (grunting) Pushing along, still making your way down, making your way down. You get probably another 80 or so feet before it seems to curve off a little bit to the side. The force of the water begins to shift a little bit. You take another three points of fire damage. You begin to see a faint bit of that glow that you were following earlier, and as you head towards it the heat gets more and more intense. You begin to push past some of the smoke, and you can see right there, looks like there's a glowing ember of rock about five or six feet wide that is molten rock that is slowly cooling as it's being pushed faintly out, but the force of the water curves off to the side and you continue to swim away from where that glowing ember is and following the path of where this push of water is. You take another two points of fire damage. →
Okay. You ride up. Before you can get entirely out of the column, you take another three points of fire damage and eventually emerge from the side of it. Uncomfortable. →
I have an idea. What if I could make us a tunnel straight down the middle? Would the heat kill us or would the water tamp down the heat? If I can make a ten-foot wide tunnel all the way through, down? →
14. On this discussion of burrowing deeper within, if there were any places where you could walk that were not completely filled with water, per se, the minute you exposed it, it would begin to fill with water. Which means you'd have think of a way to either plug it or just stay wherever water exists within the system beneath. →
There's a chance the Core Anvil could be made of molten rock, right? There's nothing that says it's a not dangerous, totally cool to be around piece of thing. →
Yeah, when I was getting the upload from Morpheus, did I see what the Core Anvil might look like? Or was it just like, I'm just hammering and Rambo 2 montage music is playing. →
As you guys are glancing about, for over the next 15 or so minutes, just swimming around and keeping an eye out there, Keyleth, with your glowing hands and cruising across as you head down, you can feel a couple of other small changes in the current. Less of a fume release, more than there is a warmer area of water in a small area and you find there is a pressurized jet of water coming out of one section maybe about 25 to 30 feet down on the side. →
Well, no. The gauntlets don't give him advantage, but they do give him siege and he does double damage against structures and I'll consider this a natural structure. You rear back, and as you do, you guys watch. You haven't really watched him use this type of power in the dark before, and you watch as the faint bit of a few yellow runes glow as he pulls back and then slams into the side and you watch as rock breaks and bits of the volcanic rock break off and begin to tumble down the sides. He punches again and punches again and as you do watch the water flow, you feel the warmth come up. You immediately take six points of fire damage from the heated jet in front of you, but as you slam it one more time, part of it (rock collapsing) gives away underneath as one side of it begins to jet up, you watch as it looks like there is a gap or an air pocket that collapses inward and the water begins to fill in immediately. →
Well there was an air pocket that you saw, but the stone as he punched in, as soon as it collapsed inward it was away from where the jet was. It's a very interesting thing to try and describe here in a theater of mind scenario. →
Yeah, essentially you've opened up where the jet's strength has diminished a little bit at the surface at this point, and you've watched as you've punched and there will be another chamber below that was an air chamber collapsed inward, and ocean water is rushing into it right now. →
Okay, so Control Water takes an action to cast. So as soon as that happens, you finish the spell and as the ocean water begins to rush in (water rushing), it immediately pulls back out, and you can actually stop the current that's blowing upward and heated water is held in place, and you can look down below. The water is this slightly shimmering barrier and there is a small air-filled chamber below. →
Actually, looking down inside, it looks to be roughly 20 or so feet wide on almost any other side, and it looks to be that there's a small, still pool that is there in the ground. It's a small air pocket. →
Okay, you all rush inside there. You land past it and it's about a 15 foot drop, you all land on your feet or stumble off to one side and catch yourself, but you're now in this chamber beneath. →
As soon as the water pushes away, it begins to pull back, and immediately you can hear the rush of the ocean suddenly, oppressively, darting downward to fill the space where you are and then with that, (slamming) you watch as volcanic stone stretches out and slams shut. You're now in a pitch-black room except for the surface of his light and the glowing of Keyleth's hands. →
All of the air in here is poisoned. There is no oxygen in this room. There is that pool of water in the center, maybe four-foot wide, and you can see it's kind of bubbling a bit, like whatever the fume is that's filled the space is-- →
18. You go in and take a breath and you look down below, especially with the light and the lamp that's going around, you can see where this is happening, this little pool, it's another small tube that descends farther and curves away out of sight. →
Okay. Looking down, it does; it's a curvature off, it looks like at one point there was some sort of an escape, or at least that jet that you originally found earlier? Part of it got blocked off and while the get of water continued, the opening here kind of got covered with some sort of liquid rock and it created this pocket. You can swim down there. Who knows where it leads, but it does not appear to have any sort of a forceful jet. →
All right. And then that's Scanlan and Keyleth at the very end. All right. You guys dive past under the water. It curves, and you can see there's a faint light source in the distance. This curves below. It splinters downward and then curves up slightly, and that's where the light source is coming from. →
Okay. As you get up, you see a familiar orangeish-red glow, and as you see the surface of water above you, there's another, looks like an air pocket. You emerge. You look about, and it looks like there is another tunnel here, but there's a faint glow. It looks like there are small veins of cooling volcanic rock in this area. →
The tunnel continues. There's actually ground that you can walk on that continues down and curves out of the way. →
You can see fairly, with your elven vision, yeah, and with your dagger. So yeah, you begin to walk on the surface. The surface is cooled, and it's very hot in here. But not painfully so, like when you dove into the caldera itself. You walk down about ten or 15 feet and you see it's now breaking off in various directions. You can see small pockets where it closes off, areas where it looks like whatever air or gases were trapped up when parts of the volcano would expand and pressurize upward, it would trap these areas. But you see areas where liquid rock are spilling into and creating small pools. And it continues to descend, almost like a curved spiral, around the way. →
You go around the bend, and you can hear faintly the rushing of water, muffled. You're not that far away, you gather, from spatial awareness as to where the heavy pressure of the water that was forced upward, you can faintly feel the vibration. But as you curve away it gets dimmer and dimmer, as you spiral off further away from the center of this volcano. And as it continues to spiral downward, this natural air pocket cavern, it splits again into a small opening where it's settled, faintly orange glowing, with spots of black molten rock that's slowly cooling. The path curves around the way, and it splits into two pockets of this cooling rock. And then maybe about a five-foot leap to continue downward. →
Okay. As you all take a deep breath under the water and get to the surface, you make a test breath and the air in this pocket is still poisonous and not breathable, so you guys are going to have to take a deep breath under the water and hold your breath as you make your way down that tunnel. →
Shit. Get back in the water. And I'm going to solo go where I wasn't intending to, to see how far it is to get to the next bit of water. You said it was a jump over magma? →
What would have been 56 damage is reduced to 28 fire damage to you. You pull out real fast. →
(sizzle, groan) It burns and burns and burns. Kick it off. You keep walking around the curvature, and it takes about two minutes or so of brisk travel to get around the corner where you can see another pool of warm water. →
So I see water and I shove my face down in it and breathe it. Who knows, with me? And I go back to where I burned my fucking foot, and I go into the earring-- I'm not going to fucking jump over that shit again-- tell them what I saw. Yeah, two minutes. So deep fucking breath. Yeah? →
You've just got to carry the jug, and as long as we stick our head in the jug every time we need to breathe-- you're a genius! You're a genius! I will say that seven more times. We'll space them out. →
As you guys make your way around the way, through the combination of that druid spell and, strangely, Grog's ingenuity, you guys have bypassed a fairly serious situation. You make it down around the curvature of the tunnel, to where that small lava jump is. Anybody who wants to make that leap, go ahead and make an athletics check, please. →
21. You guys all make it across that little stretch of molten rock without an issue. You continue around the way. Vex and Vax, as you guys are making heavy footfalls and making some distance, you begin to feel this (rumbling noise) rumbling in the ground beneath you. →
The rumbling stops as you all quietly stand still. You begin to get bold, to take a few more very faint steps on the ground. The rumbling continues and gets louder and louder. →
I'm hungry. All right. Yeah. So we'll pick up from that rumbling here at the end of the break. We'll see you guys back here in a moment. →
We have quite the giveaway today. We have a spalted tamarind complete dice tower system. Three pieces from our friends at Wyrmwood. This is actually, this is Percival's wood type. It's nice, with a leather interior from our friends at Wyrmwood. →
One lucky winner's going to get this. To enter this, find your way to the Twitch chat. And when requested during the break, go ahead and enter the word "volcano." That will put you in the entry. →
We'll come back with a winner in a minute. We're going to go ahead and have a quick break with some food, and we'll see you here in a minute, guys! [break] →
Yeah, that was making up for the beginning of the game. We have a winner. In the chat, we have johnny2x40 as the winner. Congratulations, johnny2x40. Danoba will contact you shortly to get your information, and we'll get that shipped out to you ASAP, signed by the cast. Congratulations. →
All right. So as the rumbling continues to grow and swell, you all hold yourselves in place. →
(rumbling, crashing) You hear the crumbling and crashing of stone and rock, as from the side of the hallway, right next to where Grog is standing, maybe about a foot and a half in front of him, you watch some large, pointed object pierce through the wall, maybe about nine feet tall or so, go (explosion) out, sending dust and rock spilling out, and there's a faint orange glow from some smooth, armored head to some large creature with a toothy mouth that opens up and (chomping) as it bites down, you see rows and rows of teeth that are glowing orange, as bits of molten rock are spilling out the sides of the mouth. →
Yeah. I hope it's better than that. You recognize the shape of the front, especially you, Percival, as you spent some time with a creature of a similar shape. →
No, because it has two, big. muscular, trunk-like arms, as it (crash crash) out in front, but it has no eyes. It has the solid, armored front, and heated edges where the plates meet. It seems to be some sort of elemental-infused or variant of the bulette that you encountered before. And as it breaks through and stops, mere inches from Grog-- turn that thing off. →
(snarls) Across the way, you hear a low rumble again. (snarls) It stomps the ground. And you watch, from one of the other walls, (explosion) jutting from it, a smaller version. →
And a second emerges. (explosion) Two children. They both emerge, going (snarls). As you're all standing there, holding perfectly still. →
One of them turns around, and starts walking slowly towards the direction that Grog is. →
The large mother. And turns, Grog, and you have to lean back as the nose sweeps past, and is facing right in your direction. You can see these large holes in the front of its armored snout go (sniffing). The mouth slightly cracks open and curls back into what you could almost imagine to be a grin. →
All righty. So top of the round, as all of them seem to have shifted in the direction of Grog, who is now quietly raging. Vex, you're up first. What do you want to do? →
Lovely. So if that was a 3rd-level Lightning Arrow, then that means I get 3d8 lightning damage in addition to my regular damage, or is it just 3d8 lightning damage? Wait. Roll the attack as normal, the target takes 4d8 lightning damage on a hit. Oh, and every creature within ten feet makes a dexterity saving throw. Okay. If I cast it at 4th-level, so no, it's just 3rd-level. →
As you release the Lightning Arrow, it slams into it. (growling) The look shoots in the direction where it came from, and as it opens up its snout to smell, you fire a second arrow into its mouth, and it starts writhing in place as it does. It shakes, and you feel the ground quake in the presence, and a few rocks (impacts) from the ceiling and the children join the wail, and they all turn in your direction. You going to do anything else on your turn? →
At the beginning of your turn, the heat emanating from this bulette that's right next to you is rather intense. You immediately suffer-- from proximity to its searing body-- 11 points of fire damage. →
Ten to 12 feet? Yeah, I'm going to make both of my attacks at Mama Bear. Yeah, because I've got to move. Either I move and it senses the non-stealthy-- yeah, fuck it, I'm just going to take both of my Bloodaxe attacks at it with the first one Great Weapon Master. Not reckless. 21? →
36 points of damage on that first hit? Not bad. The axe cracks into the side of its body, and you see the armor crack a little bit where it hits. You pull the axe free, you can see the blood pour out. As it spills and hits the ground, (sizzle) you can see the actual blood in their body is superheated as well. →
This is this one time where you do swing and it hits, but the angle of the axe blade hits the edge of its head plate armor, and scrapes off the top with a shower of sparks off to the side. No damage. →
Thanks. I will inspire Grog by singing the customary birthday song of his people, which goes like this, (singing) Happy happy happy, happy happy happy-- they're a very simple people-- happy happy happy happy. (groans) (laughter) →
Matt is really looking for this thing. In the meantime, let me tell you some other amazing Magic: The Gathering cards. I've got Time Twister, Jace the Mind Sculptor-- →
Over here? (gliding noises) Okay. You're currently floating above the lava. It's not affecting you as you (whoosh) fly by. Because you're flying, no, I will say the mom bulette does not notice you pass. It does not get an attack of opportunity. →
Click the boots. Hunter's Mark on mama. So all that's left is dagger, dagger, dagger, so I'm going to do sharpshooter throws with the three daggers that are left. →
Oof. Nice. Great, so that one, seeing the glow of the slight crack in the armor that Grog had left, the dagger disappears inside the slight gap, and you see this (spurt) of super hot, thick, viscous blood spill out and hit the side of the rock and then cool and darken as it does across the side of the cavern wall. →
That's an additional six damage. All right, infuriated, it's now starting to stomp in the middle, and as it's hitting, the lava's starting to splash up around it. The babies! This one right here is only going to make a bite attack right now. It can't make a leap because you're too close to it. But as you rush towards it, it seems to sense your presence, and the movement of the wings (wing flap) keeping you aloft. And the baby's going to (snapping) and lash out towards you. That is 18. →
If that was the case, half you guys would've been dead a long time ago. All right, I need you to make a strength or dexterity saving throw, your choice. →
27, okay. So you're not knocked prone, but you do take-- let's see here. 19 points of damage, bludgeoning and slashing. You are pushed five feet out of its space. →
Okay. The battlefield changed a little bit, so instead, can I do a Chain Lightning out of the staff and hit all three of those motherfuckers? Starting with the big mama and branching off to the two other dudes? →
That's 10d8. And it's a dex? I think it's a dexterity saving throw, and it's 10d8. One, two, three, four, five. Does anyone want to lend me their d8s? →
59 damage against all three of them. So as you stand in the middle and watch one of them leap past and pounce onto your lover as he's pushed out of the way, you see Grog now facing off with this giant gnashing mouth that is spilling forth super-hot liquid, the lava glowing in the distance. You're having flashbacks to the last time you dealt with lava. You concentrate for a second and release the blast of energy as it arcs off, (explosions) slamming into each of them. You see them shake and quiver, their muscles tensing as they shriek in the middle of the cavern. →
(shrieks) They stagger backward. Hurt, but seemingly still holding on. All right, Percy, your turn. →
I'm going to activate Silence. So that's up. Charge Diplomacy. I'm going to give it a little rev with my bonus action, and I'm going to-- oh wow, can I actually reach? I can't quite reach, but I can get close. I'm going to head against that wall and start climbing up that wall. →
All right, that's your turn. All right, now it's the mama bulette's turn. Mama bulette has been facing Grog this whole time, after taking the dagger and watching you run past, seeming ready to leap, but with you still right in front of it, she'll attack you. That is a natural 18. This is important. So that's a total of 31 to hit. →
So that's 45 points of piercing damage, halved. We'll say 22, plus 13 points of fire damage... and you are swallowed. On an attack roll of an 18 to 20, it swallows the target. And literally, I rolled a natural 18. →
It now begins to (thudding) go right up into melee range with Keyleth, who blasted it with the Chain Lightning before. That brings us to the top of the round. Vex, you're up. →
Generally, you have to decide that before you roll your attack. You can't just add it on like, oh, I rolled well! I'll say no, not for that first attack. You can for your second. →
As the arrow slams into the side, the brambles reach around, and you watch as these thorny vines that wrap around the body begin to blacken and burst into flame. By the proximity, the brambles begin to burn to cinders and then break off the body as it storms forward. →
70 points of damage with a single arrow! You didn't add your sneak attack damage a second time, did you? Okay, good. That is nasty. It rolled a natural 16 plus six for its strength saving throw, so it's not affected by the bramble. However, it is looking rough. The second arrow hits the side and you watch as it streaks, pieces of the armor fall off to the side. You can see the striations of its muscle, and where the muscle tissue is, it's dark, but at the seams it's glowing orange. →
There you go, extra two damage. But now it's bleeding everywhere. Wherever it's walking, you can see it thrashing about. It's spilling off this heated liquid that's pouring out of its wounds. →
First things first, at the start of your turn, because you are swallowed by the mom, you suffer 42 points of fire damage. Oh, it has to make a constitution saving throw to see if it spits him up first, actually, because you did more than 40 points of damage. That is a 22. Yeah, it's fine. →
Wait, no, it's 25 DC. No, it does not! You do not take the damage because she did enough damage with that crit hit arrow that it vomits you up. You are prone. →
After it finishes vomiting you up and you get off the ground, still feeling the sizzling of its salivary liquid on your body, you sing this song to yourself as it rights itself. Its mouth opens once more. You bring the axe down right above its head. You crack the center of its armored plate. The top of its head caves in and you watch as the eyes go dull and the body collapses and falls to the ground, unmoving. Its body is still there, though, because it's very big. It only loses about two feet of height as it collapses, and it's still blocking a large portion of that hallway right now. That's your first hit. You still have half of your movement, still, because you used half of it to get up from prone. →
As my holy self, imbued with the holy power of whatever I am, I float up a bit, draw my greatsword that I always use to attack because I'm awesome and bring it down real hard on the head of the thing. →
21 hits. The babies don't have quite as hard armor. As you bring the greatsword down, you strike with a large swipe of bright, divine radiant energy. As it slams into the top of its head, it explodes with radiant power. →
So first off, I forgot earlier. Grog, you did take another seven points of fire damage from being in the proximity of the corpse, which is still emanating heat, by the way. →
Correct. Well, at the top of your turn, you got that, because you did not enlarge inside. And you also, as your planetar form, did take ten points of fire damage in your proximity to that one there, as well, so mark that. However, you, with that first strike, slam down and cleave the head in half. You watch as the baby's head (gravelly shriek). It had taken 49 damage before from her Chain Lightning. So with that second hit, (whack) it (gurgles) and falls to the ground, no longer moving. There is only one currently living child on the battlefield. →
38 damage. That kills it, yeah. So you hack one down, dart across the way with your blade screaming in the air. It actually cuts through the rock as it sparks across the ceiling. With what little space you have, your wings open, slam down on the second child and watch as its armored body cracks open. The radiant blast expands and bursts when the blade is actually dug a few inches into its form, causing you to destroy it from the inside of its armored shell. You watch as its body inflates for a second, then falls limp as smoke begins to pour from its wounds. So with that, you guys have wiped out the current danger on the battlefield. →
Yeah. I pulled my leg earlier this week, so moving up and down sucks. So as you sit there in the silence there for a moment, just hearing the occasional (plopping) with the nearby lava that fills the nearby hallway, you don't feel any further rumbling. There's just the heat emanating from the corpses of these three magma bullettes. →
The gear melds into the new form. The creature cannot activate, use, wield, or otherwise benefit from any of its equipment, but it doesn't say anything else other than equipment. →
You're flying in here with the small space you have. Being a large creature, the fact that you even flew across-- you were only a few inches off the ground as you darted over. It's only about ten to 12 feet, and you're maybe nine feet tall. →
You guys dart around the corner and follow the next pool. You have your means of passing water around, keeping yourselves viable. The path continues to curve in a haphazard spiral. It curves around and you watch as it passes, evens out, and then goes into a fairly steep decline, a 45-degree decline. →
We're 30 seconds away from the water. I've already gone this way and come back to you guys. Unless something has jumped in the hole while I was gone in that time, I've already covered this ground. →
This is further than you covered. There's the pool of water you saw, and if you continue around that way, you can see it curve as you glance around and it descends in a steady decline. →
The pool of water, by the way, as you glance down and look past the surface, it does have a cylindrical tube that is feeding the liquid into it, but it's much smaller. It gets to that big of a pinching point before it vanishes out of sight. →
Of the pool. Continuing down the path of the tunnel, as it curves around and goes into the decline, it continues and maintains its width of about 15 to 20 feet on either side. You glance down the decline, and there's a portion of the ground that opens up and glowing molten rock slowly drips and dribbles down for about 40 or 50 feet. →
You glide down your own way. The air is extremely warm as it passes by you. Holding your breath at this point, because you are not near any source of water, it looks like, and you're not carrying one with you. You glide down, rapid speed past the lava, which eventually comes and cools in a clump, a small mound where it seems a recent hole punched out of and began to dribble down. →
It's been cooling and causing this extra layer on the tunnel. Everything here seems to be in this weird state of flux. You continue past it, and it drops into a tunnel below, maybe about 20 or 30 feet wide. Descends downward. →
Given that case, as soon as you land, you look up and you can see across the rock here, there is one portion of the wall that is smoother than the rest in a concave perfect square across the opposite side. You can see faint runes or glyphs that are pressed into the stone, like part of it has been untouched for quite some time. →
Glancing at the glyphs here, there are roots of magical, arcane glyphs here, but whatever enchantment there was here is very faint. It's more about the message or image that is set here. →
It is an exit seal. It is a final word of those that utilized the space within. It translates to, "Here the Crafter's Halls lay dark, the means of making the World Ender gone. Allhammer protect us all." →
The Allhammer is one of the prime gods of family, craft, and construction of fine, important things. It is the patron saint of all craftsmen, blacksmiths, forgemasters, artisans, and from the information you received from Ioun, the creator of and last user of the Core Anvil. →
Grog and Keyleth on the carpet. You two on the broom. You flying. We're good. The rest of you guys descend down at a 45-degree grade and make it past where the lava stopped and cooled and collected and thickened up. Eventually, you find the area where it drops off into darkness below in this cylindrical tunnel. You make it down the 30 or so feet to where it stops. It takes you a moment, based on where Scanlan points you towards, but you can make out the runes he was mentioning. →
You get that sense. The forge was made by and for the use of the Allhammer, and the Allhammer is locked somewhere on his own plane across the other side of the Divine Gate and has been for 800 years. →
I'm going to say: well. We are here at a doorway. I don't know if you speak to the Allhammer, if you know anything about this, but if you have any way to help us get through this, now would be the time. Trying to do good work here for you and all of mankind. →
Oh yeah. Well, I'm going to take the bean out and say all that shit again with the bean in between my hands. I'm going to whisper it to the bean because it's part of him. →
There's no words that respond, but you do get a warm sense pushing you forward. You get the idea from whatever guidance Pelor is sending your direction that you can translate from your only recently somewhat-faithful heart that you're on the right path. That's as much as you can muster from the conversation. →
I don't want to jump the gun, but I did punch a volcano today. This door, probably not too big a tuna for me to filet, you know what I mean? Unless the runes say, "If you punch, melt you will." →
Tommy Wiseau is what I'm getting from this. I'm going to take the Sun Stone out of its little container, and really light up the room, and just illuminate the whole room now. →
22. Glancing about, with the help of his light, as well, you look and you can see most of the rock is jagged and broken in places, and as you feel the edges, some parts flake off relatively easy, and when you get to the section of where that rectangular piece of the wall is that the glyphs are put across, it looks like it's a little smoothed over, like someone smoothed it down to make this intentional seal, but there's no sign of any sort of keyhole or handle or anything. →
26! You jam your hands into the wall and push. As you push and shove, your fingers are grinding and breaking the actual stone until they feel something metal. It goes from crumbling stone to a metallic surface, and as you pull your hands back a little bit, you pull away these giant chunks of volcanic stone, the actual runes and glyphs breaking around your grasp, and you can look inside and see hammered, dark metal on the other side. You then put your hand in and shove as hard as you can, and with a very faint grinding, you feel it give about an inch, then another inch. →
And then eventually, it gives out suddenly, and you watch as suddenly the entire square structure falls inward with a slamming echo sound that echoes again and again, down a stairway that disappears from view about 20 feet ahead of you. →
-- steps into the hallway, which is now littered with broken rock for the first ten feet or so, with a platform where the large rectangular metal structure fell over. No signs of any traps, no signs of any tweaking with the floor or walls for any triggers. You do notice that the metal surfaces here are a texture of rough, hammered metal. You can see the series of small indentations, like all these have been hammered into place, and it looks like the seams where these large metallic wall slabs would be have a thin little placed bar over those, as well. You've gone from central volcano, natural, emerging and expanding rock and lava to a place of very intense, intended construct. →
Ten? (sighs) You're not entirely certain of the metal. It is a dark, dull, slate gray. A little darker than that, even, and elements of the edges appear to be almost red. Almost like a rust or ruddy color, but you don't recognize what type of metal it is, necessarily. →
Right, I'm saying for the purposes of the guide being released and you embracing your fate-touched nature and the extremely dutiful adherence to the law of your Raven Queen... sure, I'll give you a fate-touched additional fourth Luck. →
All right. So, this hallway that you guys have pushed through now, it's about 20 feet wide, 30 feet tall, and this long ceiling gradually curves to an apex point, like two adjoining sides of a roof. And it continues to progress forward, and then descends with the staircase. →
You put your hand out and feel it, and yes, they are. Not like (sizzle), but your hand can rest for a few seconds before you have to remove it. They're very hot. →
So you're having to like, step, step, step, leap down a few feet, continue again, leap down a few feet, and each of you are doing this. Who here does not have magic boots? →
Correct. So you're fine. You, as you're walking, the ground is very hot, and you can continue to move your feet in a way where it's not too bad, but you get the sense if you were wearing normal boots and not the usual Ashari-made, leather setup that you work on, they would probably be melting across the metal floor here. →
All right, so. The air itself now smells of very caustic fumes mixed with the smell of burning coal, but there is oxygen now in this chamber. You can breathe. There's enough air to actually get a lungful here and there, though it is still thin, and there is still the toxic fume here that had you not had the Heroes' Feast, you'd be having a rough time. But you're not having to constantly dip into the jug anymore. →
27, okay. You continue down for about two minutes or so, and even glancing ahead to the edge of your visual range here in the darkness, because there is no light source below at this point... →
the stairs are continuing and continuing and continuing, and you have no idea how long it'll go for, but you begin to sense as you're walking, and you hear this faint rhythmic, bassy rumble of a low, nearly inaudible, drum-like beat, deeper than any sound you've heard, quaking the ground ever so faintly. (slow, rumbling pulses) And you can very faintly feel it. You get down and move your fingers to the ground, and for the moments before the heat gets there, the next time you hear it, you can feel a very faint vibration, only because you are very perceptive at the moment. →
Another ten, 15 minutes of descending these stairs that seem to go on and on and on, and you guys are starting to hear this (low rumbling), but it is getting steadily louder the further down you climb, Vax. You begin to see along the metallic walls, occasionally, shapes in the metal. And you glance over, Vax, and look, and you can see, carved from the metal, humanoid, armored warriors standing about ten or so feet tall, larger than normal. Their poses vary. Some of them are on the side, some of them are attacking, some of them are defending, and about every 25 or 30 feet or so, there will be one on one side or the other. →
22? Glancing around the seams, these appear to be just reliefs in the wall. There is no deeper seam. Their proportions are flattened. They are designs in the wall. →
The craftsmanship is extraordinary, the detail. Because you rolled so high, you can tell that these are just reliefs in the wall, but up until that point, it looks like the detail in the nooks and crannies are so microscopic, you can see texture on the skin, almost. Like pores carved in. →
It's immaculate. It's artistic, the level of detail put into these. →
Grog, continuing the charge forward, taking the steps, eventually you begin to see a source of some light. A faint, orangish-red light. Your initial instinct, based on your previous travels through here, is molten rock. It's a very similar orangish-red color from this distance. As you descend, step upon heavy step upon heavy step, you watch as you can see a square orange opening below. As in, the pointed hallway that leads you down comes to an end, and the stairs descend into a chamber. →
Okay. So. As you descend, Grog, the staircase continues below as the hallway comes to an end, and you find yourself descending into the center of a massive hexagonal chamber. The walls climb about 25 feet on each of the hexagonal sides. There's one flat wall ahead of you, and you assume probably one behind, though you cannot see it from your current perspective on the staircase. →
You can see that the walls are still made from the long plates of intricate, hammered metal, black and red-tinted with dust and rock and whatever other materials were forged into the actual metal. →
The support girders of dark red metal marks the seam at every wall-plate, like when you entered the hallway above. →
Central to the chamber ahead of you, across the wall that you see there, there is a glowing pit of heated coals, about 15 feet on any side that marks the floor before a giant, metal wall with two X-shaped cross beams that hit the corners of where that wall begins on each side. And in the center where they meet, you see a raised relief of solid gold bolted there that surrounds an opening of some kind. There's a space in that golden relief. →
It's 25 feet to the ceiling, and it's halfway down, so it's about 12 and a half feet in the center, so from the ground, you'd have to get up to see it. →
Okay. You walk up, and you come to the very bottom of the last step. (grunts) Leap onto the ground, walk forward to the edge of where the coals are, there at the base of your feet. You glance up and you can see it. Make a perception check. →
All right, you glance up and you can see the relief of solid gold. The opening in it is triangle-shaped, roughly one foot across from point to point, like that. It comes into a triangular point. And it's about that size; it's about a foot, and then a foot, and then a foot. →
It's a weird rough circle, and then the triangle is carved into the center of it. The two walls immediately to the right and the left of that, where the hexagonal pulls back to each side, you see two more of those metal warrior reliefs that you saw earlier in the hallway. →
The coals are in a square section, a 15 by 15-foot square section of the floor in front of you that leads right up to the wall with the giant X meeting the seams in the relief. →
All right, you fly up above the coals, and the heat emanating from the coals below you is extremely hot. You can see it warping the air above it, so you have to protect yourself a bit and squint the eyes, and you swear you can smell the scent of burning hair. And you get up close and you can see the relief, perhaps some sort of triangular or pyramid-like shape would slip into it. →
It looks like all the corners eventually converge to a point on the interior of it. →
Do you guys want to walk around the back of the staircase? As you guys move around the back of the staircase, the wall on the opposite side of that relief contains a third armored warrior relief embedded in the wall. You can see there are four pillars right along the side of where the staircase descends that contain bolted-in, large braziers that contain ever-burning flames, flickering, that give that orange-red glow, similar to the coals you saw embedded in the ground as you arrived. And then on the back side of the staircase and the column that held it aloft, you recognize it immediately, Grog, strangely. Because while you've not cared or understood what these things are before, suddenly you know what it is. You see a large metal-- it looks like a well, almost, but there is a furnace built into it and a number of tools that are hanging to the side, small tongs and heavy leather gauntlets. This is a smelter. →
Okay. You swoop around the room. You detect no evil. You detect no magically consecrated objects. And at that point, the spell's about to fade or become permanent. →
Okay. And with that, a smaller Scanlan form appears, the planetar angelic form vanishing, and he drops about four feet and lands on his feet on the ground. →
Okay. So you walk up the side and look into it and you can see it's a triangle, and then pushing inward, all the points converge on the inside where it would fit a pyramid structure, about one foot on each side, corner to corner. →
24. You approach, and look up into the warrior, and you can see the three of them are all in the same stance. They're all standing square. →
They all are clutching a long greatsword in one hand. The other appears to be open to either receive something or hold aloft something that's not there, and they're all facing forward. →
Looking ahead, you can see the armored helmet that adorns its head that normally would pincer to where the nose is, and you can see the pores of the face. The helmet is one, big, domed curve on top, and where a face would be, there is no face. →
There's the outside of the head and a similar triangle gap in the face that's smaller than the one in the relief. You glance over quickly into the other warrior, and the third, and all three of them are faceless, instead having an empty triangle that disappears into the face. →
One open hand. It's embedded in the wall, and the other one is open to the side. But the relief is all embedded in the wall, and you can see the triangular opening. The only thing that darts inward is that vacuous shape in the face. →
Well, the statues are in the wall and you can see the outer shape, barely protruding from the wall, so it would be hard to place something in the hand. →
Okay. The bellows are there. The big old heavy bellows, and Grog, you know exactly what to do. It's a really strange phenomenon to be like, "I've never done this," but it's second nature, and you begin to get that forge to well and burn, and brightly. You can see the flames and the coals heat up from dull red to a bright orange to a white at times, and as it heats up, you have the tongs. What do you smelt in? →
You get the sense here that smelting is the heating and liquefying of metals: one, to remove impurities, and two, to then pour into a mold in which, when it cools, the metal makes the shape of whatever the mold is. →
The faces of the statuary. Maybe we should prod them. We might as well start prodding things, because nothing's going to happen if we don't prod them. I'm going to crawl up to one of the statuary soldiers and see if the helmet comes off, or if the face is removable. I'm going to start tinkering. →
No, your fingers slide in. It does come to a vanishing point. It comes to a point like the larger relief. Once you look inside and get a glance with the little bit of light that's in there, the shape on the inside of it is different. →
It's imperfect and messed up. It's hard to see what it is, but it's not a perfect triangle like the rest. Also, immediately, you guys see there's a flash of orange light that completely surrounds the exterior of the warrior, and the two other warriors, their entire outer line glows a bright orange, and with that, you instinctually step back-- →
Or yeah, step up, as all three of them (heavy movement) step out of the wall. Unlike the ones you saw previously that were pressed in and relief, these have a little more dimension to them, and the majority of their physical form was embedded backwards into the wall. They all of a sudden come storming outward, giant greatswords swinging in front of them, as they all immediately, the heads creepily with the open, triangular void of where a face would be spin to one of the nearby individuals in their space. →
No. They're bolted against the far wall, and it looks more ornamental, or at least there are seams against that back wall to hold a relief there or at least that's where the relief is placed. You get the sense with more inspection, you'd get a better feel, but it doesn't look like, immediately at glance, it's integral to the design. So! We'll pick up right at the beginning of those large, metallic creatures emerging from the walls and the ensuing conflict next week. In the meantime, thank you guys so much for joining us on the next crazy step of our adventure. →