The Vanishing | Critical Role | Campaign 4, Episode 20 Part 1

Why, hello there. I'm Brennan Lee Mulligan, and welcome to Campaign 4 of Critical Role. Thank you for joining us on this journey as we explore Aramon, a world of fractured kingdoms, tumultuous rebellion, and sorcery that rises from the graveyard of the gods. You're listening to Part 1 of this adventure, with Part 2 arriving this upcoming Tuesday. Our episodes typically arrive on the Critical Role podcast network a week after our initial Thursday night streams on Beacon, YouTube, and Twitch. But if you'd rather listen to a full podcast episode of Campaign 4 right when it airs, without any ads, consider becoming a Beacon member. You'll receive access to exclusive content, discounts at all our online Critical Role shops, pre-sales for live events, and so much more. Start your seven-day free trial today at beacon.tv. Now, without further ado, let's begin this episode. of Critical Role. Wind howls across silver-white sand in the vast reaches of the endless night. And our sleepless duo once again keeps watch. The Seekers have made their way from Tanisar, returning to the Tyria Via to retrace their steps and return ostensibly first to Castle Torch and then west to Dolmachiar, having learned the vast secrets in the dark at Tanisar. Gathered here in this place, there are horses hitched to an outcropping of rock. Tysha and Julian, Dr. Tolter, sleep nearby. the two of you keep watch as the wind howls there is another figure the body of Dame Gaia Saramai here at night does she remain tied to her horse or has she been lowered to the ground to give the beast some chance at rest he kind of lowered her to the ground don't want the horses to expire lowering Gaia to the sand unwrapping her you see black armor, sword that serpent tattoo that now stands out even more as her exsanguinated body pumped, you know, all of its blood out through these injuries. You see cratered breastplate and ribs from where the scorpion's tail of the half-formed attempt at the Deva Vendicta crushed through her viscera. And the second injury shattered her jaw, tore apart her jugular vein and even cracked the vertebrae at the back of her neck. Her eyes remain, her eyes, the bridge of her nose, the upper part of her face remains undamaged but the mouth is a bloody mess. The sort of green of her eyes stays open in this shock that Octus finds some palpable empathy for that sudden realization that you're about to die and the only thing you can do is be amazed. Yeah. As we're putting her down, I'm just going to look a little closer to the wound through her jaw. Close your eyes. Yeah. No, I know how that feels. I feel bad. The last thing she tried to do was help me. tell me to get out. I feel bad, but it was also nice to know that someone in my family was nice sometimes. You know? Yeah. So much of the narrative around my family is evil. Bad. Yeah, I've noticed that. Yeah. hopefully there are more like her I think there are it's just my dad is a particular kind of asshole and it tends to overshadow some of the other things your brothers and sisters seem to and competition for your daddy's love. I think he wanted it that way. He wants everyone to try and impress him. What a leader. Yeah, well... He doesn't seem to know everything, which is comforting. Nor is he all-powerful. Anyway. No, he's not. Look, I appreciate you helping with everything here. I am. And I'm sorry. You got hurt. I'm okay. You and Julian almost weren't. I know that... What I... Said when we talked about... The stone and... Yeah. You and... Whatever this means. I don't know. I don't want you to think that that's my only reason for following you. It's because of what you can do for me. Okay. I mean, I wouldn't blame you. You know. Julian only has one reason for being around me. So. But if that's not the case, why? I don't know. Okay. I... I believe we were pulled together for some reason, and I... I don't know why yet. Okay. I mean... Boiling it down, I don't really know why I'm with Tysha. You know? Yeah. Other than... Friends? Kind of. I mean, it's kind of like a weird mom-son situation. I don't know. I didn't... It's gotten weird over the six months. Six months? She's been mad at me. I'm doing things that she doesn't like. I don't think she ever thought about who... where I came from and who I am, and now I'm starting to do things that make her upset. She has to remind me that some things that my family used to do are not normal or nice, like the cages. Yeah, that's pretty bad. You get used to it. You know? It's everywhere. To get used to bad things like that. means a little bit of disassociation, which is usually not healthy. Right. But, I mean, there was some of that going on a long time ago, right? Yeah. Yeah. Hey, look, I'm going to wrap up her face. I'm going to take one of the shirts that I took from the Eidfassen house. I'm just wrapping her on the face. No one needs to see that. I'm going to also bind, take the head of my cousin out of my satchel. That's right. And kind of wrap it up in their clothes and kind of bind it to that body just to kind of keep it there. Yeah. I just, you see me pull a head out of my bag. I want to look at this later. Hopefully it'll tell me something more about what they were going to do to me. Do you want to talk to her? What do you mean? I mean, I talked to Pascard. Oh, right. Um... I don't know. Then... We can try. Okay. Yeah. If you want. Sure. I mean, we go all night. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I am going to take out the stone. Mm-hmm. And I'll speak with this. feel as you step forward once again and feel yourself at the edge of the temporal reaches edge of this vast underworld that should not be you need to select one of the two dead bodies before you, either Tertia or Gaia. To whom do you wish to speak in this moment? Tertia. Sand. Darkness. Darkness. You can hear whales in the distance. There are spirits that are lost here in the desert. They can't find their way home. You see, before you, the head wrapped in gauze begins to glow. Sunken, desiccated flesh, Tersh's hair had largely fallen out. suddenly translates the spirit of a much healthier young woman perhaps a year or two younger than Octus see she stands up spectral wings grow from her back you see as the wings grow larger and larger. She is anchored to the ground. The wings are too large for her to be able to stand up under their weight. They're not part of her natural body. Something's been done to her. This ritual. Can you help her up? Give me an athletics check. Natural 20. you go to her holding the stone of night song lifting her up the wings break from her back on a natural 20 and nightingales flash across the sand and you can hear them singing in the darkness providing comfort and direction to those souls that are lost here Tertia looks down at you Spirit Hi Hello Tertia Hi cousin I don't As you say hi cousin you see Veilus a sort of spectral Octus kind of appears here In this place nearby Routed through your command Over the stone of night song and you can see that she looks out and goes, Who's that? Hello? It's... Octus. And faintly you can see her go, Octus? Did it work? Did we do it? May I, in sort of helping her up, I want to take in her body and see, try to see everything that they did to her. you see that there is a lump of calcified. The only thing solid in her, she's almost translucent. Okay, okay. But you're still able to physically interact with her here in this space. You're partially sort of in the underworld as you cast this spell. As you lift her up, the only thing solid you can see is a lump of some fossilized ivory material in her chest, to where her heart would be. She looks and says, Are you... Are you part of the ritual? No. Oh. Um... You didn't survive the ritual. I know. You knew? I'm proud. I was proud to serve my family. I was going to become something good, right? I don't know. Cousin, if you can hear me, the ritual did something. I don't know what the purpose or the final intention was, but you were changed and you were something else. It didn't. It didn't quite work. I don't think fully. Do you know why? My father mentioned something, that there were some concerns about earlier experiments. He didn't share everything with me. Wait, is Taharkas okay? Um, Taharkas is okay Okay Um, cousin, we didn't know each other well Did you have access to the magic that all of us have? I did Okay, good, good If the ritual failed, where do I go now? Why haven't they found me? Who? Oh. Father? Uncle? I'm sorry. I'm sorry it didn't work. You did nothing wrong. How did they say they were going to find you? Moctis. Oh, that's right. You'd have no way of knowing. What? Your condition. There's nothing scary about dying. Are they going to find me? I came home. Valus, I'm going to need you to give me a constitution saving throw. Oh, no. Oh, that was... Oh, that's not good. That's five. Your concentration on... Or not your concentration, but your magic of this spell shatters as snaking out of the sky a massive biker covered, dripping with dark blood, talon of bone, grasps Tertia in its claws. I'll try to grab her back. On that failed constitution save, she's wrenched from your hands. She looks at you, crushed by the talon, and goes, I'm not scared. And that's all for this moment. of our journey with our speakers. We'll return to Dolmachiar and our schemers on tonight's episode of Critical Role. Welcome back, friends, to the Critical Role announcement playhouse. Indeed. We've got some announcements to get through before we jump back into Armand. Beginning with tonight's sponsor, Ether and Iron. A new video game set in an alternate 1930s taking inspiration from New York's rich history, art deco, and film noir. Sam, what do you know about the game? What do you know about the game, he asked. A question more loaded than a six-shooter in a jealous husband's nightstand. This flatfoot wanted the goods on aether and iron, a narrative-driven RPG where you're an underworld smuggler in the mean streets of New York, a city dirtier than a politician's search history. But was I going to spill the sausage? Not on your life. This canary don't sing unless the microphones made a moonshine. I don't play games, buddy. But fate's a funny thing. I bet that smoke stains sweetheart knows what's what. Name, name, sister. Give up the goods or I'll let the whiskey do the talking. Sure. This Seamus acted tough. But he was weaker than a handshake from an escape room designer. I've splashed around with sewer rats like him and managed to keep my two-piece clean. You want the news, detective? Read the papes. Maybe you'll see how the game lets you assemble and upgrade incredible Aether powers, levitating cars, and recruit a team to drive them. Don't get cute legs. Next you'll tell me players can add hidden compartments, smoke dispensers, and flamethrowers in a twist on strategic vehicular battles. Every sap knows that, sweetheart. What I don't know is why this two-bit goon keeps giving me the side eye. The dizzy dame was on to me. This skid row siren found out that Aether and Iron lets me navigate the city that never sleeps. Dodging dime store thugs stashing black market hooch and sidestepping the fat cats. But what she didn't suspect was that Aether and Iron launches on steam and steamed at March 31st. A secret I'd keep tighter than the lid on a jar of month old kombucha. And with that metaphor, it hit me If I could hear this Schmo narrating his internal monologue Maybe they could hear mine, too Man, oh man This putz was dimmer than a glow stick at the end of Burning Man And less charismatic than a mime on the radio And more confused than the writers on the final season of Game of Thrones Oh wait, you're talking about me Then's the brakes, kids Well, this case was closed But Aether and Iron was just getting started featuring full voice acting, turn-based car combat, dice rolls, skill checks, and a deep, well-crafted world. Level up your hustle, smarts, and brass with Aether and Iron. Check out bit.ly slash Aether and INCR launching on Steam and Steam Deck on March 31st. Demo available now. Matt, keep your nose out of the gutter. Thank you very much. Marisha, you got the next announcement. I do. You guys, we cannot wait to see you for our Echoes of Exandria live shows this year. and we just announced all the details of what's going on to each event. Whether you're hoping for another adventure to the Happy Fun Ball, maybe a standoff at the playing game, or more space horror and ruin it. Are these going to happen? What? You're going to get all that. And, and, did you ask for the grand pool ball to doink of all of this and that himself back in the GM seat? What? There we go. Actually, we did. Because you're getting that, too. You're getting all of it. So we only have a few tickets still available. So if you're waiting to pull the trigger, now is the time. Head on over to critworld.com slash events for all of the info. Fantastic. Thank you, Marisha. Super excited for all that. And if you are headed to PAX East this Saturday, March 28th, You can watch myself and Chris Parker out of the Acquisitions Incorporated show in the main theater, 8.30 p.m. Eastern Time. That's right. We'll be streaming live on the Darrington Press YouTube channel. You can catch the VOD on the Beacon the following Monday. Come check it out. It's a continuation of a whole new narrative of Acquisitions Incorporated. Liam, you're up. Oh, my God. We are so excited to announce it. I don't want to hear this project. I just got a hernia. And we'll lead a project with our friends at Penguin Random House, Children of Empire. A new novel coming this November. I love it so much. It's so good. It explores the fate of Empire kids, Caleb Widogast and Beauregard Lionel in a first of its kind official sequel to our Mighty Nein campaign. Look who's on the back. Children of Empire is written by Hugo, Nebula, and Ignite Award nominated author Nibidita And cover art is designed by a long-time friend of Critical Role, Nicky Dawes. This fucking book is so well written, I can't wait for you guys to get it to pre-order. And for all the details, visit criticalrolebooks.com. Empire King! Thank you, Liam. I'm actually, Allison, you do up. Oh. Costume change. We got a lot of those. Hey, get in, Critters. We're going shopping. Yes, we are. Ashley and I love the thrill of finding fun bits, bobs, and thrifted treasures. And our friends at eBay Live are going to help us make that happen. So, join us. Let's do it. Tomorrow. March 27th at 5 p.m. for our Weird Kids Shop-A-Ganza. Sponsored by eBay Live. Help us find some collectibles, some rare items. And we will be auctioning off a few items ourselves with all the proceeds raised going to the Critical Role Foundation. So tune in on Beacon, Twitch, YouTube, and eBay Live at 5 p.m. Pacific as we shop till we drop. Fantastic. Heck yeah. Love it. And Travis, I think she is stepping in Dolores' deed. Oh, my God. You got it. We have some of the best I love it merch. New in the shop. They're holding it up. The Essex-Failish Knit Pullover Sweater Vest. The Caleb Widowgast Button-down Long-Sleeve Shirt are both available in the critical shops. The Essex-Failish Knit Pullover Sweater Vest is a deep, dark purple with rich purple lilac and cool gray details, plus a ribbed hem, cuffs, and a collar. for that cozy yet stylish feel. The design of the colors is super cool, best are inspired by Essex Halas. And of course, the Caleb Widogast button-down long-sleeve shirt. It's a dark purple long-sleeve button-down with the quote, you were not born with venom in your veins. Embroidered in gold along the edge of the left collar. Look at that there. This button-down was inspired by Caleb's level 10 coat and his bright flame magic. Both are available up to size 6XL. Get them in the crystal. Oh, shot. They're amazing. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Thanks, Laura. These two pieces of clothes look like they go together. They do. You really are. You absolutely can. It's as if they thought about that. They also go with Taliesin's hair. Everything goes with my hair. That's right. That's right. And if it doesn't, the hair will change. That's true. Yep. All right. I think that concludes our announcements. So, thank you for hanging in. Let's jump back together into Aramon. Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Thank you. Thank you. The End People are getting tracked to their homes and there's a secret. People have very different apartments from each other, and that's fun to me. I love that. How long have you been to see a D&D character's apartment? Not enough. That's what I was saying. That's how I feel. Last we left off, after the events of Fiazi Feng's execution and his wake, those left behind as soldiers and seekers left the city to seek and soldier elsewhere were our four most employed heroes um team employment it's a living uh it's a living after your first conspiratorial get together at the seven stars tavern after realizing that the Lady Cormoray was interested in the pariah blades, and the Lord Einfassen had dismissed half the Revolutionary Guard or more, and Tucunas had come in on top of the Penteveral installing Dean Cora Keplin Vicerick, and the body of Thiazzi Fang had been, you know, had resulted in all of this attention and fanfare in the week or some odd preceding the arrival of Mirzab. the arrival of the play that you will unveil with the beginnings of the Hallowed Round, a brand new theater here in this space. You began your conversation in the Aviary of the Seven Stars, an old tavern within the rookery, where indeed you actually overheard the arrival of some gentry who had been to the gala at the Palazzo Divinos, a place that all of you had entered in the dead dark of night to find a melted black and silver candle after a massacre had occurred and been cleaned up as though it had never happened at all. It seemed that people had arrived to discover an illusory gala, and that the Royce, the sundered house of Royce, had returned to Ferry. That's cool, except for the weeping family members of staff and servants wondering where their family members had gone. They'd been absconded to fairy without a word's notice. Very peculiar. You spoke to Horace Blade, who was a partygoer there that you knew as a merchant, someone you had met through circles of your hero's mother, Elodie, your daughter's mother. You knew Horace as a merchant, a hardworking Dolmachiar merchant who helped you figure out the mystery of your spell grist and the fact that Fiazzi's escaped glyph, even though it had been a fake and would have doomed him to death, he had never actually seemed to break. Why didn't he? Horace led you through a deep analysis based on a lot of insight he has into ceramics and natural crafting that basically the one that Thimble had had was janky and made by criminals and had a little fairy edge to it, but in being janky was True Blue. That was a real Misty Step glyph, which, by the way, means that you guys do have a Misty Step glyph. I have it. The really nice-looking one that was extremely expensive, that was the dud. That was the one made to seem like a Misty Step glyph, thus that it could bypass Auzanay's detection and rest without the ability to actually do so in Thiazzi's coat. questions abound, but Horace also lets you sorry, Horace also lets you know that a bunch of these tablets have gone missing. Of the jankies. Of actually the, so yes, this Horace blade that his families, that Hand and Wheel, which is the name of his ceramics company, he let you know that Hand and Wheel had had a bunch of blanks go missing. They basically had the ability to, they were finally made enough, they were made of the right materials and with the right arcane components to receive a spell, but on their way to being made, they got knocked over and a bunch of blanks were taken. These are basically, this is the equivalent of like stealing Sudafed, right? It basically went in and like, oh, we're going to grab the blanks and then we'll make our own spells on them, right? Those have gone missing. And the janky one appeared to be someone doing a quick and dirty on one of those stolen blanks. Yeah. You also realize that you had seen the symbol of hand and wheel before on the amphora of paints delivered by Bolaire to the Hallowed Round, currently being used to paint the theater, that had been mentioned as one of the last mental statements of Fiazzi to Hal in his dying moments. you you took off from the seven stars after talking about all the things you needed to do you talked about Bateen Tukon you talked about Romina Roundtree a maid of the Einfassen who's the sister of one of your company members you talked about getting together the guard we have to act you talked about going and making nice with Dean Cora and indeed the following Well, before we get to the following morning, arriving back in Hal's home, you met Lord Thelonious Halovar as Azunay, invited to stay with Hal, decided to stand guard and successfully turned what was an extremely dangerous encounter into one of the Lord's Halovar after wishing you a soon-to-be-happy candle feast, believes you to be a man of faith. I am indeed. And looked at you and said, good man. you spend the night in Hal's home a tearful moment of processing that T'hassi is truly gone and of course all of the terror that now befalls you you spent the night there the following morning you headed out you begin your morning by finding Varin Kador at the Falcon's Rest at the memorial to those that died in the Falcon's Rebellion and told him basically he said that, you know, I've been guarding for one of the vassal houses of House Royce. We're getting crazy notice. There might have been arrests. Something's going on. Am I in trouble? And you basically said, we all need to get together. Something's afoot. And we need to, you should quit. And we should all get together and start working against this. You also discover Murray went and had a heart with teen Cora God and her good graces amazingly We're besties now. We're besties now. Wherein she agreed with a letter that Belair had written talking about an internship program and that people should come, students of the Pentef role should come work. And Korra, knowing the Cormoray's special interest in the Arcanade, thought that was a brilliant idea and gave you a big stack of applicants and said, get it sorted by the end of the day. And told you to hire some TAs with a small stipend, but not to hire Demetis Blix, who missed his class this morning. How odd. Demetis being a well-known wizard of the Pentephril, who's beloved by all, a real kid with a lot of school spirit, who had to finance his own way at the school and did so with a lot of performing in the Obermach marketplace or the Obermach marketplace before that was made illegal. Bollaire had a heart-to-heart, not a heart-to-heart, but had a tense exchange with Makmaz Gelsidar, who essentially talked about the Saladin wing and the switching of the wings or the idea that the Saladine and Loy wing would have a big uprooting of all their artifacts and talk about, you know, the wind is blowing one way. Are we going to do the right thing and be brave? Machamon says, I refuse to be brave, but I will talk to you and tell you what's happening. Osnir was called to the Palazzo Divinos to investigate this strange Royce absconding to ferry. I know. So much happened in one episode. In all one episode. Schemer is not, it is the aptly named Schemer's table. Hal had a mournful of errands, disguised as an older orc, carting his dead brother's body in a wheelbarrow, made like four stops. First stop, I dropped him off. First stop, you dropped him off. With Olgood saying, hang tight, my man, can you go bury my brother real quick? And Olgood was taking him up to the cemetery near where your father. You can have a carpool lane, so you do what you can. You then talked to your fight choreographer, Inez Roundtree, saying, I think we should talk to your sister tonight, who works for the Einfassen, starting to pull threads, and then you headed to the Grey Library in Marood, where Birendra Moss, an elder bullfolk librarian, helped you try to find anything about magic masks and what the history of that might be, which directed you to a book in the library, a book, Visages of Creation, a book that no longer is on the shelves. Fun. You stepped out to see the arrival of a massive entourage bearing three red hounds on a white field, the flag of Timony, announcing the arrival of King Augustus Valyan, who's nowhere to be found. They don't know where he is. Announced by a faithful hound who could speak in Kahadi. You, we return. What a recap. We return. We return to the Arcanod, the massive museum here in the heart of Dolmachiar, wherein Boller is hard at work after his meeting with Makhmaz. and where our friend Murray Magneson has just arrived with a big stack of papers. Where would Murray find Blair here? Well, this moment I would probably be in my above-board office, which is out in the open in the room where everybody's working. working on paperwork, very frustrated. I don't know if you would look at what I'm doing, but I'm clearly angry and very delicately trying to do something. Murray, you just hear... What is this? Bureaucracy. Oh, that's been in a file forever. Yeah. What sort of bureaucracy? I sort of, well, I pitched the idea that we should work together, the Arcanod and the Penteverell. Dean Cora loved it. and so now we have to pick some interns, or I have to pick some interns, I guess it's not really on you, but I have to pick some interns by the end of the day, because, um, you know, nothing like a bureaucrat who has absolutely no idea of, like, how much time work actually fucking takes, but these are a bunch of students um from the arcanon i can also pick a couple of teacher's assistants but if you want interns here they are i'm going to idly start flipping through a few i'm going to very irritatingly put what I'm working on down and start idly flipping through the first few. As you mean to flip through the first few, if you're sort of doing it half-heartedly, go ahead and give me investigation with disadvantage. That would be a 16. You looked through on a 16, and you, I think on a 16 investigation, not all of these applications are created equal. You see a handful in the early version. There are a few students that just seem to be over eager. And you can just tell from the scroll that this is like the fourth application to some extracurricular that they had made. But I think that is 16. You find one or two that actually seem to... I think you just see some terminology. Some like, oh, you're not casually interested in artifacts. This is actually like something that you have a little bit of either passion about or education in. But I think on a 16, you don't find what you would consider a slam dunk. I'm just rolling through a few of them. Yeah. Well. Maybe like any water? Yes. Or wine? No. Well, yes, but not here. All right. Water in the quarter. Yes, sack of papers. We have to have a quick conversation about this. Okay. I'm going to have a gig. Hydrate it, whatever it is that people do. All right. What's the conversation? Well, the question is going to be chaos. Do we want controlled chaos or do we want uncontainable chaos? Controlled chaos means we get more of what we want, but it will be easier to discover that we're a problem. Uncontrolled chaos means we get less of what we want, but... But it's off of our hands if shit goes wrong. Completely. I don't know if that latter is necessarily the case, however, because if anything goes bad, it's going to be on my ass. Well... Whether it's controlled or uncontrolled. Well, that's the thing, is if things go bad and it is on your ass, we will have failed anyway. If things go bad and everything goes well, it won't matter. Will it? In for everything or in for nothing. This may end very poorly. What exactly do you have in mind? I mean personally I would be willing to hedge my bets a little bit more on having some inside men some students that we can inscript in our cause intelligent students I would say let's not take too much time on this list well I don't have that much time I've got to the end of the work day I've got so much other shit I have to do. Clearly you are going to need wine. What we should do is just take a quick, quick flow through, find people that we know to be, we know, you know these people. Just forthright. People that you trust would not betray the damage that this is going to cause. people hopefully who are not part of moneyed families, and then maybe a smaller list of absolute idiots. I'm going to do a quick look through the papers myself. Cool. Is Hal's daughter in there? Hero, right? She's the one who's at the... Hero, yeah. Is Hero in there? Hero studies of the Pentafural, correct? This is Hero... In the list of applicants. Go ahead and give me an investigation. Would you like advantage if I helped? Yes, she's 18. Investigation. She's 18. Okay. That's going to be 13. I think that with this, this is a very recent process to be able to sort of apply to. What do you think, Hal? Do you think Hero, would you have encouraged Hero to apply for extracurriculars in her time at the Penteveral, or to dedicate herself to her core studies? I think that she probably kept on her own track, to be honest. You do not find Hero's application on F-13. That's all right. I can make a special request, but I feel like it would be inappropriate before talking to Hal about it. I agree. You know who else is in this stack? You know, I'm very suspicious of it. Do you know Deminus Blick? Kind of nerdy kid used to busk in the marketplace? We are going to flash back. We are going to flash back. I love a flashback. Blair. This is maybe only a year or two ago. It is a bustling, busy day in the Ogre Marketplace. You are walking home to your apartment. Your apartment actually overlooks this area. There's street performers everywhere. you look and see sort of facing a crowd standing up on not just a soapbox, but like a soapbox on an apple crate to get up high enough. A handsome, young, gnomish man, darkish brown skin. He's got like a sort of almost like ice cream swirl of hoopy hair that goes up. he's got a little blue jacket and a sharp vest stands up and goes one and all ladies and gentlemen all comers and goers please do your attention please my name is Demetrius Blix and I am an illusionist of the Penteveral Dolmacher's very own academy of what? Wizardry! That's right you heard it here folks. Not sorcery not anything else of the kind but wizardry itself and I come to you as a proud and recent graduate of the School of Illusion Now, illusion, you may ask, what power does it have? With my studies, this candle, and you see he snaps a finger and a candle lights. He goes, this candle will be turned from its dull, mundane, yellow flame to a flame of a different color. One and all. You see, he looks out and goes, he says, that's right. This yellow candle would be made blue before your very eyes, but false magic isn't cheap. That's right. It takes money. Real miracles. Lost currency. And the currency of this kingdom is coin. So please dig deep, as I will be doing, to arcades. As this happens, people scream as a wagon parts and a dragon moves its head through a pair of curtains at a fruit stand across the way. People are, it's a massive head as this spiral-eyed glittering dragon goes, You're telling me that you can change the color of a candle? Why, for all my riches I would give but dragons hard. And you see he goes, I don't need your riches because you're fake. That's right, folks. Bam, and the illusion of the dragon vanishes into his hand. We're not interested in fake gold, all right? We're interested in real gold for real illusions. Folks, the dragon is a work of magic. The gold is fake, but the illusions are real. Genuine mirages, bona fide figments, all fictions factual. But first, I've got to see some silver gold. I'll take a copper if you like. You see that? And his act is, again, these incredibly remarkable illusions of very, like, stereotypically wealthy monsters trying to pay him and him going, I can't take your money, I'm making you up! Bam! As the illusion fades, as he hypes people up to see this very low-rent candle trick. I... Oh, dear. Oh, dear. I'm going to walk up and, I would say, very publicly take out five gold and drop them in the hat, I assume, whatever hat it is. Wow. You drop five gold in the hat. And you can see that there are a number of other street performers around. It's like a busy sort of thoroughfare. You drop five gold in into a small hat that is filled with, you know, a few copper, maybe like a silver piece he put in there to suggest that you could put a silver piece in there. I think I'm probably pretty well known for over tipping buskers anyway. As he does that, you see that he sort of, you know, wraps up his, or like, you do that, he goes, Hey, thank you, this gentleman right here is a real patron of the arts, sir, and I see that you wear a fine mask yourself. I have something of an interest in facades and appearances, and may I say, he was quite dashing. Thank you, young sir. What's your name, kind sir? Blair, it's a pleasure. What is your name? Deminus Blix. You see, he looks around, and as sort of the crowd begins to disperse, he hops off and goes over and says, hey, I sort of ticked the cap and goes, this is quite a sum. Are you, I don't mean to, this is a lot of money. yes well that's a lot of talent I really don't I really don't well do you would it help you if you knew how I was going to use it or do I owe you anything for it I understand that this sort of thing can feel like a debt it's inevitable how about we have a cup of coffee and we discuss your future because you are quite talented you're very young and you need polishing I would be curious what sorts of what are your thoughts for your future? I found where I want to spend the rest of my life Pentelworld is the best it's the best place in Aramon I want to school gave me everything if I can be lucky enough to I don't know help help put a word of power together or find something or even just teach other kids like me how to do this I love this you know this is the I love these illusions you know like they they're not real but they're realer than everything starts as an illusion for us fascinating Coffee sounds great. And, hey, I'll treat you because you've been more than generous. Well, at least I know that you know how to spend money well. You see he smiles. The next time you walk through the marketplace seeing him perform, you see that his tiny little soapbox made of this, like, plywood, that he's only not breaking because he's, like, you know, three-and-a-half-foot-tall gnome, has a tiny inscription that has been put illusory there, but permanently so. It's like an enchantment on the box. And it's very funny because it's just a tiny little soapbox, and written on it is a sort of laughing mask with gold coins around it. And his soapbox now says, The Blair Center for Performing Arts. Lord. Oh, my God. I will definitely keep dropping one gold coin every time I pass. And we would have definitely at this point had a few conversations about when he's ready, what I can do to help secure his future in the pentagram. God save anyone who wishes to be a teacher. We return to this present moment in the Arcanade as you hear Murray speaking of Demetrius Blix. You know, Diminus Flicks, little gnome guy. Not really, like, the most terse individual. He's a little bit, like, verbose in this practice. I'm well aware. Okay. He's gone. He didn't show up for class, and that is not like Diminus. Diminus is like Mr. School Spirit. He shows up. I don't think that kid's ever even been sick in his life, or at least if he has been sick. When was the last time? He's gotten everybody else sick because he still shows up. When was the last time I saw him busking? Before they made it illegal. Fuck. Yeah. I feel like I've got to track him down. I don't know. It's very disturbing. I think it's very... Give me a... We'll call it... It's sort of like a luck check, but we'll call it a history check. Straight up? Yeah. Got it. 20. You talked with him one time after it was made illegal. You still... You had enough of a coffee date. There was a way for him to reach you. And you remember him just saying, Yeah, the... Well, I, you know, not being able to perform is tough, but I think there's some other, there's some other ways, there's, like, other ways to make some money, and you've been so generous in the past, and there's, you know, I'll find a way. There's, like, there's job postings. I'm going to go talk to Dean Tallbarrel and put myself up for some job postings, because sometimes people will come in and, like, contract to the school, but the school doesn't really do that, but they'll, like, make recommendations to grad students if they want to take the work. So I'll figure something out. You know? You just got to stay up. And you see that there's a tiny little chameleon familiar on his shoulders. Yeah. I would know how to get a hold of him, I assume. Yeah, you would know where he stays at the pentagon. And I'm sure I would have started figuring out how to anonymously make sure that his situation was maintained. I think on that history check, your ability to move funds to him was, you have obviously enough income that you can help support him, but with the loss of that performance space, it's not that he would starve, but his studies, his tuition. By books. By books. That type of a thing. Yeah. Material components. So there was a... He knew that due to your support, he wouldn't have to go hungry. But it's possible that his dreams were larger than just not going hungry. I'm sure I would have been looking into some sort of process to make sure that he maintained his school one way or another, and in ways that would not indebt him to me, or feel like, you know, such a thing. I don't like it. Maybe we can run a quick errand and knock on the store. I would very, very much appreciate that. My name is... We'll get you far with him if you don't know him particularly well. I know him, all right? I mean, he... He was a part of our grant program, more or less. I mean, the kid didn't have us into his name. I'm well aware. He was in my office quite a lot. Make sure he could continue his studies, but... He was very talented. It was. What have you done to me? He is very talented. Me? What? Oh, I'm terrified of the bloody future now. Oh, my God. What? Is this... Is this empathy? That I'm seeing behind this glossy facade? Oh, no, darling. You care? No, darling. Oh. This is empathy that you're seeing in front of this glossy facade. I love empathy. I always have. Azunay. Mm-hmm. You are also quite near the Arcanaut right now. I am. You can call to the Palazzo Divinos. Mm-hmm. With your... My detail. Your detail. What are you doing at this press conference? Well, from the Brethren Hall towards the Palazzo Domino's, it's a little bit of a walk, and I know the Arcanade is not far away. Yeah. Been clocking my detail after the speech I gave them and the sort of lukewarm, hard-to-read response I got from them afterwards. And in my mind, I am feeling like it's burning in my pocket. The active glyph, the one with Misty's step on it. I'm going to turn to my detail. I'm going to say, everyone, I know that we have an assignment towards the Palazzo Divinos to investigate it. We need a quick detour towards the Arcanade. There's some unfinished business that's very pressing that I need to take care of first. Follow me. Oh, the detail falls in behind you. And I think Murray and Bollaire, you see towards your sort of more public office, are there notes being passed in class? I do have gum. I hope you brought enough for everybody. Read it out loud. Read your joke out loud. I'll say it. He thought me slapping down the stack of papers was my cake. Oh, my goodness. He thought it was Murray's cake. Oh, that's paper. Yeah. Why wouldn't you read that out loud? It made a very strange sound. That stack is about as thick as Murray's ass, so it's not that far out. Unbelievable. My goodness. Azuna, you end up walking in about this time in the conversation. Azuna, you enter and join with Belair. Okay. And I would have left my detail waiting for me outside. Cool. I come in. I see you, Belair, and you can see on my face, I'm so fucking glad to see you here as well. Okay, two of you. Great. Hi. I'm just kind of like as he shows up, like kind of going through these papers. And I'm back to clearly, delicately, and frustratingly attempting to... Well, I don't know if anyone's looked at what I'm doing. How free am I to speak here? Is this a bit... Are we to be spite upon you? No, I think where I look around, there's just the people who work directly with me. And while I haven't told them everything yet, clearly they are aware that shit's going down. Yeah, for sure. Well, I won't take up too much of your time, but I just, Bolero, I have some stuff that I need to give you. I've been signed. Oh, well, and I start to search through my pockets, and I'm searching for the glyph that I got from Timbald, the false one, and the candle, and the other one that I got from Oristat has been split into the used one. and while I'm searching for all that stuff I say to the both of you Lord Einfosson has tasked me with investigating the Palazzo Domino's my detail of Arcane Marshals is waiting for me outside and I don't know what's going to be waiting for me there but I know that I don't want and this is when I hand you the glyph with the Misty Step I know that with a team of Arcane Marshals yeah you don't want to find that on you I don't want them to. So I'll give you the Misty Stepgliff, the one, the false one that doesn't ping any magic. And I pull out the candle that we used. Yeah. And I give that to you. Well, what are you going to do? I mean, you're in a position of power in this situation. Are you going to report the truth? I'm going to report something and that's when I hand to you one half of that split glyph that has had any markings recognizable markings kind of scraped off of it I hand you one half the other half I'm going to find there as evidence of something that went amiss my plan hopefully is that we can find a way to inscribe on these something that implicates House Taconus. And the half that you have, well, you can plant that on somebody. This is going to be evidence. On who? On a Taconus? On a Taconus. Preferably. Someone that we can, at some point, maybe a gala, they'll be put in a position where I can find it on them. What makes you think that even if you implicate the Taconuses in this, that anyone in the centered houses is even going to listen to you. Well, if I build up enough evidence, enough of a case, this is just one other thing to add to that list. I want them to suspect each other, and Ein Fossen is someone that I'm going to be talking to on the regular. If I can give him evidence of something that he's unaware of, then that's going to at least plant the seed of suspicion. He doesn't strike me as the kind of person that wants to be left out of the loop. He speaks of collaboration. I need to convince him that the collaboration has been uneven. All right, all right. It doesn't have to happen today. I mean, it's a gamble. I think, like, any type of, like, just judiciary due process is pretty much out the window. You know that, right? I do. The only way that you're going to get I'm Fostham to listen to you is if you, like, convince them that somehow the Taconuses can... are targeting the I'm Fosthams. I intend to do that. I met with Varen Kador, my contact, and it looks like that part of what I hoped to do is in motion now. There's going to be a number of people joining the other Sundered Houses working for us. All right. That's good. Um, the Royce, House Royce, and a lot of their vassal houses have been targeted out beyond Dolmachiar. Look, I can give you the full update when we're all together, but they're waiting for me. All right, all right. Do you need anything from me before you go? Can I help you? Can I help you? Can I give you something? What do I have? I don't know what I'm going to find there, and I wouldn't mind having other eyes and ears. Colleagues of mine are welcome to work alongside me. Bolaire? Yes? How good are you at trickery? Can you impersonate a Taconis? As long as they're not too well known. Can you impersonate a specter of a Taconis? What do you feel of that kind of trickery? I would love for the arcane marshals working under me to leave the Palazzo Divinos, thinking that they saw something terrifying that suggested something very terrible happen there. I know a really great illusionist, but he just happens to be missing at the time. Great to see. Well, if you can, wherever you go next, pass by the Palazzo Divinos. I can give you a little magic mouth situation on one of those runes that you can trigger to your liking. That's about all I can do right now. I don't think I have. I don't have another blank rune. I don't have anything to put that on. Would we have a blank rune? Probably not. I mean, you don't even need a rune. You can put it on a coin theoretically and trigger it as you need. Then I'll hand you a coin if that's the case. Okay. I've never done this before. How does the magic mouth work? And I'm looking. I don't, I think, I can definitely trick one person. I'm trying to see if I'm double checking to see if I can do something to a group of people. Okay. Is that a circumstance, I think? You said a circumstance. Which could the circumstance be whenever Azune wants it to be? Imagine if Azune recites a message in my voice at the same volume as I spoke. Hmm. I can try to sound like a Taconus. I'm Lord Primus Taconus. That sound like him? Not much. One more. Try more acting. Oh, boy. Or less. Do it, but mean it. Wait, already, no. Less acting. Less acting. No. No. Try mime. The interpretive dad. Well, I feel better already. There's nothing I can do to a crowd, but I can do quite a bit if you give me access to an individual. Yes, I can do some truly terrible things. Okay, I will split us up into pairs, and I will take the person that goes with me towards the west wing of the Divinos Estate. what's the plan we need to convince them that they saw something an echo of what happened there a specter that tells them that house Taconus obliterated Royce and Devinos that conversation needs to begin out in the world in private, in public, rumors I need someone that's not me to return to the Brethren Hall claiming that they have evidence or saw a vision that Taconus did terrible things there. That will not be hard. I will just need access to somebody with... I'll need access to somebody with... inscrutable credentials. Someone who would never lie. Okay. Somebody with power. But in the meantime, I have forgery to work on, and it's going poorly. It occurs to me that a significant chunk of this collection, or at least a small portion of it, could, in theory, belong to the Lloyd family. And so with just a couple pieces of paperwork, instead of maintaining the collection, a bunch of it would go back to them. Now you're going on to topics that are a little bit above my head. All right. I got some minor illusion I can try and I can roll with you and be invisible and just try and figure some shit out if you want to be like spooky about it Um take care of whatever you need to take care of That sounds like it a viable plan What you suggested I think sounds viable. I have to return to them. And we'll meet you at House Primus? At House... Tacoma? Davinos. To House Davinos! So Davinos is how... Ah, shit. Alright, alright, alright. You can. Alright. I know we all have a lot on our minds. We all have to take care of. I must go. And I'll excuse myself from the two of you. Azuma, you take off to rejoin your detail and head to the Palazzo Divinos, leaving Murray and Bolaire behind with a quickly tightening set of conspiratorial circumstances. Up at the Gray Library, Hal, you leave having found this unfortunate dead end, and you see a sort of a cavalcade. There are horses and carriages and a couple, a lot of like hounds running around in sort of the courtyard of the Grey Tower. You see this speaking hound, this kind of broad-chested, muscular little fox-like dog looking around being like, His Majesty, anyone? Eyes on His Majesty. And you see that a carriage opens, and there is a beautiful older woman, her hair tied back in one of those, like, gold beaded and braided nets, like the sort of medieval nets, and a small bonnet above her head. a dress of sort of white and cream orange that sort of comes around her looking at it and she looks at it and says, has anyone seen Gus anywhere? You see that Martin says, Your Highness, I'm afraid not. And just sort of see this scene unfolding of a confused-looking regional entourage. So I've just randomly walked out of the library after hours and a retinue has arrived and they announced him and he's nowhere to be seen can i ask it's have has he ever been here is this beyond out of the ordinary that king gus would be here give me give me a history check all right that's uh 21 uh 21 um the king augustus thallian uh has never before made his way to dole machyard to speak to the Revolutionary Council. But you would know on a 21 that Timony has only been a kingdom for a very short time. It was formerly a part of Argosia, and they won their independence during the War of Axe and Vine. Your brother and you were fighting in the east across the pass, but to the north of Dolmachiar, your sort of nearest neighbor, Timony won its independence during that war. On 21, you had always heard rumors that King Gus would have fought in the Falcon's Rebellion, save for the sad fact that he was already a king and could only oppose himself. That was sort of the joke. that within the context of his traveling here, I think on a 21 history, you're maybe not sure exactly why he's traveling here, but there are regional caravans that come through Dolmachiar all the time. It's the seat of the Revolutionary Council. It's the home of the victory of the Shapers' War, right? There's a lot of reasons to want to come here. On a 21, is there anything in particular that you're interested in knowing about this retinue and what they might be doing here. Well, I just want to grasp, like, role-play-wise, if this kind of thing... Am I seeing an alien land, essentially? Gotcha. You are not seeing an alien land. You may never have seen one of the Hounds of the King before. But, no, this appears to be... As you're seeing, you are very much a bystander witnessing this event unfold as you walk past. I think that you, on a 21, I'll say that this sort of comical scene of a retinue that somehow has lost its king. I think a 21 is a high enough history rule that you know part of the history of Timony is that Gus was believed to be a bastard but was actually a trueborn. that part of what happened with him was he was raised by the kennel masters of the lord, his father, and ended up opposing him. So he was raised sort of in and amongst commoners before he became king. So, in other words, no royal born to royalty would just peel off into a city. But you're dealing with someone that would feel probably... So it's like a young prince Hal. Yeah. True. Mixed with false death. I think because it is so out of the ordinary, I'm going to sort of hang in the crowd a bit and see if I can, at the very least, lay eyes on this king if I wait a bit. If time passes, do they wait for him to arrive? Give me a perception check. You can do something with advantage. Okay. Because you're waiting and being patient. That's a 19, and that is the roll. so the perception check is 23. 23! An extremely elegant greyhound lopes over towards this sort of area. It's a long, sort of, like, fast-looking dog. Walks up, looking at the crowd, addressing those of you who are looking at the retina, and says, Good morrow to all of you. and deepest and sincerest regards from this, the retinue of King Augustus' family, and I am sorry to address you so plainly in this manner. Have any of you seen a dashing and handsome king astride of white steel? And you see that the fox-like dog from the carriage goes, Cavalier, don't do that, don't do that, and runs over and says, it's fine, thank you for your time, one and all, those of you fine citizens of Dolmachiar. Are you looking at the king right now? Is that what's going on right now? He looks at you and says, looking at the king? No. If I was the king, I'd get my way from time to time around here. But no, I don't. Instead, I'm out here cleaning up the mess. Handless, I might add. Thank you very much for your time, sir. Well, good sir, whoever you may be. Welcome to Domachiar. You are well met. I am Sir Martin. It's a pleasure, my friend. And you see that the greyhound looks up at you and smiles and says, I am Sir Cavalier. It is a pleasure. And what might I call you, fine friend? Oh, you can call me Hallandiel Fang. Hallandiel Fang. And you see that Martin turns and says, Hallandiel Fang. The performer, the playwright. I humbly admit my place in the streets of this city, yes. You're actually coming, I don't know if business, your business here is fell or fair, but if you have some time in the city, we are on the verge of ushering in a new work in a little over a week here in the city, so if you are staying for a while, let me humbly invite you to the Hallowed Round. The Hallowed Round. Well, you know, we're here on some pressing business, and I don't know that we'll... See, Cavalier looks at you and says, your play is it one of heroes and of good deeds of true love where good conquers evil and night is banished by the light of day it's a story of taking a stand you see that a cavalier goes up on his hind legs with his paws up splendid I would love to see this play you see Martin goes Yes, if we have time, it's opening tonight. We're about a week off. Too far off are you? Yes, certainly. Well, that's not my call to make. His Majesty, if he wants to stay in the city and leave Timmons Rock unattended in the midst of strife for a week or several weeks, then that's fine. I'll tell you what, I'll make you an offer. Make you an offer out of pocket. Good to be the king. I own the show. I own the place. I get to make the decisions. if you only have a night or two, swing by the hallowed round, ask for me by name, and we'll have some of the company give just a private performance. You see, as he says that, you see, the lady of the carriage, sort of older woman, walks over and says, Sir Cavalier, Sir Martin, to whom are you speaking? You see that Cavalier says, this is Alan Deal Fang. and you see she looks and says oh Mr. Fang it's a pleasure you see that Martin looks up and says Harold and Fang has recently come into possession of the Howard Round which was one of the when we were speaking of the creed earlier and there well we understand that you have won a deed of title to a quite significant religious location or at least once was... It has great historic value here in the city and it has been a long time coming. I've worked a better part of my life to get to this moment. So I have... You see that she says congratulations to you, sir. I'm sorry you find us at a bit of a puzzlement here. We are... As ever... As ever, we have come apart at the seams, I'm afraid. It is all not well, my lady. Oh, it is... Give me an insight check. 18. She's trying to mask... The thing that she's presenting to you is this is the sort of bumbling circus of small regional power that has come to the great metropolis of Dolmachiar to speak to the Revolutionary Council. Underneath that is a genuine chaos, not a funny one. They have come here hurriedly. the degree to which, you know, even with the pomp and circumstance and the armored knights and everything else, she is trying to sort of hand wave in that way you do when you're like, ah, I'm scruffy, it's been crazy. And you're like, yeah, you haven't showered in like two weeks. You know, that way that it's the hand wave over the deeper thing. She, uh... challenging times um might I ask uh oh and here she looks up and you see that Martin kind of looks to her and she says I had not put together until just this moment uh I'm very sorry for your loss oh that's that's kind of you thank you tumultuous times all around here in this city and abroad um you see she says uh she says well I and Martin says um yes you see the dog on that insight check the dog is a little agitated by how loudly and clearly she just says I'm sorry for your loss and she looks and says well should your play or your troop ever travel. I hope you make it as far as Timmons Rock. I am the Duchess Elisabetta, the king's sister. And you see a young, sort of like 11-year-old boy comes over smiling and bows very astutely and says, Hello, sir. And she says, the young Prince Rowan. Oh, I bow. You see that he returns it with a head nod and she sort of pats him. And you see he looks and says, am I supposed to bow back? You said this was a free city and we're not. And you see she looks and says, we may always bow. And you see that she pats him on the head and nods hers as well. If I might ask a favor, my brother, the king, will certainly ask where good drink, good conversation, and good company might be had in the city. My brother is very wary of hearing news only from the ministers and viziers of state. wise wise to keep company uh in a variety of places um i do know a little place off the beaten path if you guys are able to make your way about the city with some discrepancy uh you can try the seven stars she smiles and says uh and they serve ale here at the Seven Stars? Oh, do they? Yes, they do. Very charmed, Mr. Fang. I must attend to our retinue as we will have to present to the council Sans Monarch. Well, they are chaotic times, but as long as we keep a hold of our hearts and his voice reverberates on that single word, we will make it through. And I give her Spartac inspiration. She touches a hand to her chest and says, All right, come in my sweetheart. And gives the young prince a kiss on the head as they hold hands. And walk out from the retinue. Actually, hey, don't forget. I wink at him and say, kindness is free. He smiles and nods his head to you as well. I bow again. And they walk off. You see the cavalier turns to you, nods as well, says, Good man, and walks away. Martin looks and says, Thank you for your advice. The seven stars, this is in the rookery, correct? That's correct. I'll review the match of the city. Thank you. And you see that the tired little sort of fox-like dog wanders off. And you see the retinue makes their way into the Revolutionary Council. Hal, respect these dogs so highly, but I just want to squash them. Who's a good, good, good hand of the king? Who's a good hand of the king? You are. You are. He's putting on a dog, working his ass off. Hal, after that, where do you make your way to? I did a bunch of errands, so I think I will just go. I know we want to check out these paints, and we're all going to compare notes, so I will try to get to the hallowed round first and be ready. Hell yeah. Make sure we have privacy. You get to the hallowed round. Go ahead, you should be so kind, and give me a performance check as you get there, just in terms of engaging with the work of your day. That is a 24. 24. 24, very high. This play is coming together. As you get there, you see Shadia looks up and waves and says, Morning, Dad, and gives you a kiss. See, her hands are stained with paint, and she's off, you know, like working all over. You see over in a corner, she's actually taking a break from painting everything to get the street troops together, get, like, the crier teams together. For, like, going out and actually, like, getting people, like. Barking? Yeah, barking, bringing people in. So it's, like, a little bit more than a week to go. Time to, like, get people psyched for the big opening night. I think seeing whoever is here scurrying about, I will walk down to the center of the round and say, Everyone, can I get your attention for a second? I just want to say I know how hard you all have been working. I have no doubt that we will get there in a week. I can see how tired you all are. That's lunch. Please, please, on me, everyone. Make your way back to the Rookery. Go eat and don't come back for three hours, okay? Hey! He's too shy. He goes, whoa, really? Can we still, can we actually, is it okay to use some of that time to actually go plan some spots in the city that we're going to, like, bark at and do stuff? The city is yours, as always. Onward! She just does a full, like, acrobatics flip, flip, flip, flip, flip, spin, bam, lands, and takes off with her friends. That's my kid. Love a walkaway lunch. She takes off. You see, Nevada says, Hal, you are such a darling to them. And I actually could use the time off. I don't know if you've heard about the Timony people, but I'll tell you what. These dogs are barking. And she says. Let me tell you. Get yourself to the seven stars if you want to look at royalty. Woo! My God, finally, my chance to marry up. She says, by the way, whoever you've released lunch to, she looks out and says, we've no word from Misha this morning. Oh. Um, maybe I'll send a runner to his house. When's the last time you saw him? The last time I saw him, well, he was here at rehearsal yesterday. Okay, okay, okay. I will add it to the to-do list. Go have a pint. Have a pint for me. A pint shall be had. Dormatis Arcana. Yes, Dormatis Arcana. Sort of the magical technique. Oh, boy. This is looking bad. Why? Wow, wait. Magic is just going missing. Oh, no. I'll tell you later when you get here. Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Incredible. So, Azune, arriving at the Palazzo Divinos, you see that arcane marshals are present. You see that there are, you see Harondus Einfassen is on the scene, you and your team. He's there. He's there. Oh, shit. Einfassen. How many other Arcane Martials are here in addition to my detail? Only Einfassen's security are there. Yours is the only Arcane Martial detail that has shown up. Okay. There are some other Revolutionary Guard, but very few, as most of them have been released. But basically, you're essentially the detectives arriving on the scene with people that have closed the perimeter. Got it. Okay. As I approach, I am utterly aware of Einfassen, and I'm very sensitive to how he might regard me, the expression on his face. If it's sour, I'm really wanting to clock to see if he's... Give me insight as you approach. Twelve. He turns to you. He is regarding you with a smug condescension that you think overlays a little bit of suspicion and alarm. Noted. Noted. Oh, shit. Lieutenant, I am pleased to see you have arrived. The palazzo has been cordoned off, and this purported disappearance to fairy, reopening of the door to those lands beyond wherein the Fairfault dwell. We would like to get to the bottom of this at once. I have some sorceress ability myself, but not in the manner that might unveil certain questions. If you would be so kind as to avail yourself and your team of your unique abilities. Of course, my lord. I have a plan in place. The four of us know what to do from here. Will you wait for us on the outside of the palazzo? The outside, it is... Or will you accompany us and come inside alongside us? Give me a persuasion check. Okay. Oh, my God, I'm so nervous. 22. He goes, oh, the choice is mine. Is there an effect on the magic if we are present while you are conducting your investigation? Or there are... What would you recommend, Lieutenant? I'm going to approach him so that it's clearly just a private one-on-one moment my lord at some point I was going to offer to you a bit of a hands-on look at how we do what we do if that is of interest to you then by all means I would love to accompany you on your investigation of the three that are with me the speech that I gave to them before Horace, Dalla, and Grotto Horace, not to be confused with Oris did I get a sense of one of them being less enthusiastic about what I was speaking about or was it just a sort of a general I think you didn't sense any large commitment from any of them of being against you or what you were saying. Okay. I think what you sensed was trepidation from people who view this as a job. Like, I'm going to pay a minimum wage, man. I don't know. Okay. Dental. Horace and Dala, you take the east wing. Grotto, you come with me. We'll explore the west. Activate everything that you have at your disposal. We're not just sensing magic in the traditional sense. I want you to open your eyes, your ears, everything you have to any echoes of anything that might have happened here. Oh, my God. You see that they say, Lieutenant, and you watch as the Arcane Marshals here, again, dressed in the sort of armor of the Revolutionary Guard. Their eyes variously shimmer alight. And you see Harandus sort of looks at the flicker of magic. in this space as the arcane marshals. You know, warriors, though they are, having these sort of innate magical gifts begin to move through casting both detect magic and using a kind of paladin's divine sense, a sort of mixture of actual spell casting with an intuitive, potent power sort of beyond that. Moving through the space, you see that, you know, Horace and Dala take off and Grotto accompanies you. Or sorry, no, Grotto accompanies you, along with the Lord Einfassen who walks with you into the space. You walk back in and you see there are tables with some now kind of like sweaty cheese and things that have been put out. The gala was like a day ago. you look and see like you know the sort of the illusions have all faded and gone of the things that were you know welcome people to the gala and the disappearance of the Royce returning to Ferry as you enter do you want to make an actual even though you have your own plans here do you want to make your actual investigation check oh absolutely and I will say to Lord Einfassen it is important that you hang back observe and And no matter what you see, if you see anything that seems peculiar in any of my, the members of the Arcane Marshals, just allow it to unfold. It's best if you don't use your own magic at this moment. It might interfere with what we do. Understood. I don't want you to detect anything that would suggest that I was here or present on the night. I understand completely. Yes. Thank you. and I'm going to... I mean, I don't have time to do the ritual, so I'm just going to activate Detect Magic. You activate Detect Magic and begin to move through space. Go ahead and give me Investigation with Advantage. Great. A 20 on Investigation. a 20 on an investigation. Last time you were here, the last time you were here, you went only so far as this big central chamber where the candle was. You found no bodies, no blood of any kind. You walk up into the West Wing, where you find some quarters that are on a 20 a little bit unusual to you looking in this space. It's a small bedroom, a little chamber. On a 20 investigation, you don't get any magic. You don't get any magic. Which is unusual because there's a residue in the Palazzo Divinos from the presence of the Royces here for many, many years. It's sort of like people that smoke in a house and there's like a residue on it. Right. Yes. This room is clean. This is a clean, clean, clean room. And you look in the corner. You don't detect any magic at all. You know, on a magician's level, this place looks fine. On an interior decorator's level, it's kind of a weird open spot in the sort of feng shui of the room. You look in a corner, there's a chair just sort of standing nearby that's been put up against the wall. It's clearly a chair that wants to be at a desk, and there's no desk here. Looking at the wall there, there's a lot of damage to the stone on the wall that has clearly been mended with a mending cantrip. cantrip, but the mending cantrip can't fabricate more stone. So, like, if something damaged this, it can, like, patch things over, but you're just looking and being like, oh, this is like, if you blow a hole in a wall and you clean up the rubble and mend the wall, it'll be like a thin little strip of, you know, like... You can see the putty in the drywall. You can see the putty in the drywall. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's a table in this room. And what you see in that table is it's a beautiful table, really finely made, with one glaring flaw in it. There's just a really ugly knife mark in the middle of the table, like someone drove a knife down hard into the table surface. I am taking my time first looking at the wall and these sort of marks and kind of almost like CSI in my mind seeing like what else could have been here. if there's what looks like it could be a blast mark, was there something in the way, a body, that would have absorbed some of it? I mean, almost as if I'm looking for a person-shaped outline on the wall, but not quite that exaggerated, you know what I mean? Like anything that would have absorbed what could have caused that damage on the wall. This is a funny one. I'll make it a low DC. I'll make it a DC 15. Give me a nature check. Okay. Which is not a skill I think you have. There's only a DC 15. Cool. Only a DC 15. It's not nothing. Grado will give you the health action. Oh, yes. Grado can give you the health action. Oh, Grado can. Beautiful. Yes. I will pull him in so that we're doing this together. I rolled that exact same thing. Oh, man. Twice. Hard to tell. But is it hard to tell? Oh. So I'm going to spend some time there with Grotto, and I will whisper to him something about this isn't tracking. And I'm... Sometimes you can talk somebody into seeing something that is only barely there. Yeah. And I'm going to outline, and even with my finger, dig into the kind of what looks like the puttied over blast marks, the mended ones. and then more gently kind of wave in the area at the center of it. Something was in the way. Something happened here. You see that, right, Grotto? You see that this has been mended. Some violence has happened here. Yeah, but they didn't have all of it to mend it back. They didn't. You see that Lord Iron Fosn says there has been some degree of magic in this room having to do with the structural integrity of the building? It appears to be, yes. You see, my lord... Could this be the gate to Ferry here, if such a thing exists? If it was the gate to Ferry, then it would be resonating with so much magical residue. In fact, what's happening is the complete deadening of it. Can you explain further? A cover-up. Give me a persuasion check again. I'm going to use a luck point on this one. Yeah, go for it, go for it. Yeah, yeah. 18. 18. He looks at you and goes, a cover up. That is what the walls are saying. There is a... Are you saying that there is an absence that strikes you as conspicuous? Absolutely. You see, when we entered the Palazzo, there's a sort of residual hint in the atmosphere of magic that I would think we would expect from the Palazzo Divinos. As soon as we enter this room, it's as if it's been completely scrubbed, erased, void. Except on the walls, there's evidence of blasts. And here, I'm not sure if you can see it for yourself, I see evidence of something absorbing some of that. Fascinating. A fruitful investigation thus far. You don't have any indication about what kind of magic might have scrubbed this place, as you said. That will take a little more time, but I believe that I have a way to hopefully detect that, yes. This is extremely valuable information, Lieutenant. I appreciate your effort. May I speak with you on our way back to the gardens? I would love to. I do take my work very seriously, my lord, and I don't want to let you down. I want to make sure that I give this. It's a thorough investigation. May we speak later tonight Yes Perhaps one moment in the hallway and I will let you continue your work Of course Grotto if you I'll continue. He says, I'll keep looking. And you see he takes out some small tools and actually begins to, like, scrape at the walls and get his hands dirty, like, looking into what's happening here. Iron Fosnick steps out. Give me one more investigation check as he's up into the hallway. Okay. One more investigation check. I'm... I'd like to try something. Yeah. Fuck. I'd like to metamagic subtle spell. Cool. Guidance on myself. Great. 2024 rules give you the... Ask you to select a specific skill. Yeah. I'd like to... I'd like to choose persuasion. Perfect. Great. Um, and so, as if, hopefully, he doesn't notice it using a subtle spell, a sorcery point to do that. Okay. Um, and it will last for a minute as I step out into the hallway with him. Perfect. You step out into the hallway with him. Uh, give me your investigation check. Yes. First. Holy moly. Um, investigation, uh, another ten. Okay. No way. I'm going to focus on him at this point. You look down. On a 10 investigation, you look up and just see a bunch of burned down candelabras. There were candles in the thing that all were allowed to burn down that had physical candles in them. Okay. Doesn't register anything to you. You see that the Lord Einfassen looks at you and says, you were requested personally to investigate this matter by a member of the chamber of the Lord's advisory do you know why? I do not give me and is that an honest actually give me persuasion or deception your choices I mean I don't know why I can I fear maybe something, but I really don't know. You've got that blessing and persuasion right now. Yep. I don't want to use this one. This one's done. I'm going to use this one. What the hell is that? Welcome to Campaign 4. Yeah. Right? I'm getting everybody the cheapest plastic dice I've possibly given. I have a big number on mine. Freaking A. No. Is it the 15? What are you looking at? That? Every table needs an average. Call it 9. Call it a 20. What is that? Perfect. 13? Is it? Oh, it is. There's a 9 and there's a 6. Oh. That's... I think it's a 13. It looks like a B. Yeah, I think so. Okay. It's so... They're just so close together, it looks like a B. That's weird. I think it's a 13, though. It is a 13. It's a 13, yes. As I compare it to the other die, the position is 13 plus... Or is it an ampersand? You rolled a 10 on reading. 19. And then you added your guidance. Oh, yeah, my guidance. So 20. 20, yes. He looks at you and says... How old were you when you joined the Falconess Rebellion? when I was taken from my parents against my will I was 12 between you and I Lieutenant I am struggling to make heads or tails of you allow me to help you my lord because I have nothing to hide I wonder how many friends you have that you do not know about there are explanations floating in space. I don't anticipate that a young lad, too young to be on the front line, perhaps not even strong enough yet to wield a broadsword, would have a coherent ideology of opposing the nobility who by right govern these lands. However, you have people that are speaking on your behalf who I cannot understand why. Give me a perception check. Okay. Do it. Get it. People speaking on your back. Oh, no. No. Louise, no. It's time to rip. I know. I know. They were on fire for me last time. This is the sixth. It's not a natural one. I want to ask, by the way, do you have your divine sense activated right now or now? I don't have divine sense. You don't have divine sense. I'm more sorcerer than paladin. I'm more sorcerer than paladin. Cool. he but there's people around me that might he looks at you and says when you think back to your time serving in the Falcons Rebellion a fact that would make you highly unlikely to be valued as a member of the arcane marshals what lies now in your heart about your service to that rebellion in your extreme youth there is nothing in my heart that is of service to that rebellion my lord let me tell you the story of how me in the falconers rebellion came to be you're right I was young small not strong of course not a soldier but I wasn't meant to be a soldier words that you've used before suggested that you understood that I might have had a relationship with the Azifang I guess that's one way to call that the Azifang came to my village and he stole me and other children like me from our families and forced us into the rebellion against our will and he threatened us he said that if we were to not follow whatever it was that he said then he would kill our families we didn't fight we weren't meant to fight we were meant to be cannon fodder he used us I made sure that I was the arcane marshal to scan the day that he was going to be executed so that he can look me in the face and see that I was going to be there to watch him take his last breath for what he did because at the end of all of it he had my entire family killed the day after he took me. I have no love for him and no love for that rebellion. I'm a proud arcane marshal and when I came here by the grace of the powers that be they understood that a child forced in to that position was forced against his will and I was given a second chance here. And I've made the best of it. And I'm dedicated to my work. I'm dedicated to the R.K. Marshals, the Revolutionary Guard, and now that you are the head of that department, that institution, I am dedicated to you. Go ahead. I'll allow you to give me either deception or persuasion. And I'll let you add that guidance, even though it's for persuasion, I'll let you add that guidance. Bruh. Okay. I'm using my other luck point. Okay. Come on. Let's throw that first. Okay, that's a three. That's good. That's good. That's the fourth of a play. Natural 20! Okay, okay, okay, okay. He looks to you. Natural 20. What the fuck, Louise? I can't feel my feet. I don't know why, but that's a good thing. How did he break? Jesus. He looks to you. The Azifang was a villain. I am sorry. for the torment that he put you through. I do not hold you accountable for what you did as a boy of twelve to survive. But know that this secret of yours that I hold gives me power over you. I will not say it in a sideways or sinister manner. You should fear me. he puts a hand on your shoulder and says I trust that you have spoken the truth to me serve me well and your life will be a fruitful one I look forward to our collaboration my lord Lieutenant Azuninaya are you a member of the Candescent Creed? No. No. Very good. And he pats you on the shoulder and says, There are some who believe otherwise. I do not know why. But for our purposes, if you chose to be a devout man, that would not be an unwelcome development for me. Do you understand? Oh, I do. And I share that conviction, my lord. Your detail is being expanded, your responsibilities augmented. In addition to patrolling, Ben Teverell and the Arcanade, it has come to our attention that many of the licenses signed by one Hall and the Fang at the Hallowed Round require the utmost inspection and adherence to the protection of the populace from dangerous arcane magic. I would like you to hold Halady's saying to the word of his agreements with extreme prejudice, Lieutenant. Understood. Ladies all. He started that with the Aussie was a villain and then said the most insane villainous shit. That's crazy. Game recognized game. That's crazy. Dude, you got two of them with the lies going. It's hard. I can track all of them, but don't worry. You are allowed to continue your investigation, but I believe everyone is heading towards the hollowed round more or less. I guess you're cutting back to the Arcanade. I would quickly... Yeah, go ahead. What do we do? Are we supposed to go and help? Are we supposed to go and help his new name? What are we supposed to do? He just dumped, like, an elephant's load of shit on our laps right now. Are we supposed... What are we supposed... This is jazz. What are we... Jazz is chaos. Do we go help? Not at the moment, no. But I don't want to leave my boy in the lurches. Without assistance. We're all going to be without assistance in a while. If you want to go pick him up on the way to our meeting, that would be fine. That way you get to check. I have to get everyone working on the project in here. Okay. Okay. Um. And you also have a... Do you feel comfortable with what you've selected? That's a yes. That's fine. There's not enough hours in the day. Whatever. It's just... Jazz, yes. Jazz. Okay, I'll see you over there. I'm going to just go slide by the Divinos and see if he needs anything. Okay, I'm going to tell everyone the best I can what's about to happen. What's about to happen? Well, they're... I am a divination wizard, and I should know this, and I feel so lost right now. There's a bunch of strangers from the Penteveral who are about to come in asking what to do. They don't know what to do yet, and I'm going to be asking them to make a mess of everything. Do I take these papers? Do I leave these papers? Take the papers. Leave the gun. Take the penola. All right. I'll just head over to the plaza. And I'll just pull the five people in my team and just... I'm so sorry. It's been a bit odd. I know you all have questions, and I don't have time to answer them just yet. Don't be late. Bollier. Mmm. Go. We're a museum at war. Those of you who are old enough to know what that means, we are sitting on a giant unguarded pile of wealth, prestige, and narrative. And it's going to be plundered soon. What we need to do is hide what's important. Watch word of the day is for conlocution. make a mess with paperwork. Make piles of things that only make sense to you. I'll leave everything that has ever touched the Lloyd family to be in one particular corner. I want to make sure that the paperwork is reasonable but messy so that we can get the important things out first if we need to. You're going to be getting a mountain of help that has no idea what's going on or how to do anything from the Pentabril. Use them as best you like. and know that if you decide that the current new administration is trustworthy, they kill the storytellers first. Enjoy. And I'm going to run off. Give me persuasion or intimidation if you'd be surprised. I don't know. Which one is more? Do intimidation. That's fun. It's rare you get to use an intimidation joke. That's true. That's true. Come on, baby. 22. 22! I'm a monster. You see that your team nods their heads low. You see that one of your archivists, Rosadela, goes and says, I believe there are a number of pending requests for retrieval and maintenance from the Loy family to their artifacts that we are merely borrowing. I actually am of the opinion that somewhere we have a piece of paperwork that says that everything from them is on loan and has to return to the family. I've been looking for it everywhere. I'll make sure to find it in several copies that might say conflicting things. You want everything to move quickly? Make it move quickly the way that quickly things do, with a mess and deep irritation, and I leave. Hell yeah, you swoop out of the museum. Murray, you take off. I think you catch up to Murray actually in no time. You arrive at the Palazzo together. You see one of Azune's soldiers is outside. That basically sees your approach. And looks and says, Oh, Professor Magnussen, would you wish for me to go and collect Lieutenant Mayar? Oh! No. No. No, no. I was just walking by. I was just passing by. How are you? Uh, good. Uh, Dala. Inspector Dala. Dala, right. That's right. I think we've crossed paths a few times. Uh, very well. You know, just, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm, bye. And then I go, I'm gonna go I'm gonna go around the corner. Charm. I'm gonna go kind of to like the west wing of the house. kind of like trying to trying to interpret the word vomit that azune dumped on me when he was at the arcanon and then i'm just gonna like clear i swear i i'm just gonna cast message yeah to him um uh so you just wipe my my finger across my mouth and and go azune i'm i'm outside what do you what do you need from me? Do you need me? Do you got this on lock? Uh. Do I hear it? Yes, there's a message coming out from him. Um. I will respond. I think at this point I've left Grotto alone. Yeah. In the West Wing. Yeah. There is a single person in the West Wing if you have an idea of how to further the plan that I set forth. He's at your disposal. If you don't, don't risk it. What type of a caster? What type of a caster? Is he sensitive to a certain type of magic? He's going to detect something that's near him. When I be arriving about this point, I know it's a very quick question. Your message to your team was so short that I think you could just hurry and catch up to Murray outside of the palazzo. I'm on the phone. I will have made sure to step more than 30 feet away from Grotto, knowing the range of something like Detect Magic. Do what you can if it's doable. Don't push it if it's not. What's your plan? I don't know. I might be able to try and not get in his head. Kind of plant some echoes of what might have happened here. I mean... Is that too risky? I can... What do you want him to know? Belair's asking what you want him to know. I want him to feel like he saw what Takanas did to the Devinos and the Royces. I wanted to haunt him. Is he someone who, like, gets visions? Does Grotto get visions? Does he, like, how does he see magic? Like, if I put, literally implant something in his head. Perfect. All right. He's too far away for me to see, I assume. I'm going to cast Invisibility on myself. Hell yeah. And then I am going to tell Blair to stay the fuck out of sight. I can help. How? Oh, I hate this. I lay these hands upon the mask, and I slowly begin to pull. and a face begins to overtake the mask and swallow it and the clothing starts to shift and almost like cracking glass, slowly this image of a person comes out of this, which is the man who was wearing me when I decided to have a change of heart. And I very specifically give his clothing the look of someone of authority so that I can walk about and look like I belong there. Hell yes. Murray, you're moving invisibly. you are disguised as effectively an arcane marshal, a member of the Revolutionary Guard. You are able to get within distance of where you need to get to. You're able to basically join Azunay, like, up in that west wing. You basically got—Haranus Einfassen has left. You said, I need a lot of time, and he's giving you a lot of time. But he already—just you saying this place has been scrubbed, he didn't appear to need a lot more than that. It's like once you told him that, he was interested in leaving. Right. Great. So you guys arrive up in the West Wing, not too far from Azune and the room where Grotto is still investigating. Is he still in that room that Azune was in? Yes. And you see him? And I see you. I mean, if someone of authority is coming to me, then I will approach him. You see someone you don't recognize in the armor of an arcane marshal. Oh. Excuse me, sir. You know exactly who I am. Hello, darling. From that point on, I will pull you so that we're far enough away out of the range of Grotto's Detect Magic. I'll pull you to the side and I will message into you. I trust you have a plan? A bit of a one, yes. Keep some distance away from him. He's probably detecting magic. in the near vicinity, I will leave the room. How far would his detect magic? I'm going to walk and show you. If I heard that, I thought you were asking. No, I would probably know, but I know that if we have to cast, we have to get within 30 feet of him, which is always tricky. Yeah, correct. Can you somehow get him to drop detect magic for a moment? Um, it will drop. Ah. If you have a little bit of time to kill. I actually don't think you want him to drop Detect Magic. You want him to believe that this is something that he sensed. Did you get close enough to Ted? I think so, without him knowing that I'm there. I think at this point, Detect Magic has dropped. Okay. He's collecting, now he's collecting... Like physical evidence. Physical evidence. Great enough. Huh? Yeah, because we've already kind of paced the whole area. It's only a ten minute... Yeah, it's a very ten minute. He just needs to find something. It doesn't have to be magic. Or, if you like, I was just going to help you with your little spell. Or, if you like, I can just... I can fix this. Or, at least, I can fix this for... a bit. I don't know. What are you... What are you... What are you talking about? I can make him think he found a piece of evidence that's inscrutable. I can maybe bolster that with my spell if you start first, and then I can get in his head. I was hoping you could make it a little more likely that my spell works, but I will take what I can get. One, two, punch here. There for the grace of God. There for the grace of something. And I've gone to, like, a corner on the opposite end. Yeah. You go to your corner. What are the spells that we're casting? I was going to use one second I was going to use phantasmal force cool I'm going to use musical migraine hell yeah what does musical migraine do the description is You hear faint echoes of music in your mind. You can hum fragments to unlock its subharmonic power while targeting one creature you can see within range. The target makes a constitution saving throw on a failed save to take 3d6 thunder damage and incapacitated. But I was hoping I could maybe skin that a little bit. Sure. To make it feel, whatever you do at the same time, to make it feel like Grotto is catching echoes of what happened. And I want to, like, basically implant the screams of the Divinos and the Royce families getting completely murdered and decimated in his head. Give me a DC-15 Arcana check to alter the spell in this way. Okay. And a magically Rick Roland. Ha, ha, ha, ha. That's exactly what I was going to do. So my poor tent, you beat me to it. The poor tents that I rolled at the top of this, I wrote them down, were 11 and 13. I will use that 11 because that will put me in a 19. Great. And that 11 is gone. Perfect. So, yes. So this one is going to create screams, horrifying screams of ghostly, of spectral horror. I want him to give these flashes like he is tapping into this massacre that happens. So, Marie, being invisible, is going to, like, walk around the corner, be far enough away. Yeah. This is a 60-foot spell, so I don't want to get close. And as soon as I can, like, see Grotto kind of through the threshold of the door, Marie is going to take the tip of her fingernail, fingernail and she rakes it across the brim of her hat and it's going to create this like very imperceivable subharmonic vibration that she then shoots and throws it into his head uh he has to make a constitution saving throw hell yeah on a natural seven on the die he fails So, I want to sound like screams, people dying, maybe the voices of, like, the Taconists. It's just, like, actual echoes of this massive massacre. Uh, give me phantasmal force. As you cast musical migraine on him and he hears the screams, what is he seeing? I know he scoured the room but at some point just in his walking around something that for some strange reason he didn't sense perhaps because it was in the floor he triggered a glyph and that glyph was a recording it was someone in the midst of dying who somehow captured the events and they are now being they are now being replayed from this person's vantage point before him as a desperate attempt to leave to leave any any evidence of what Tacona's did to the Royston Diffievo's family oh like one last ditch we're leaving a message help me, it's the 911 operator call yeah and you can visually just see a massacre in the room With that failed con save, I'm going to roll his intelligence save at disadvantage. He needs a 13 or higher on both of these dice rolls. Yeah, intelligence 14. So he gets a plus one. So we are looking for a 12. Yeah, he needs a 13 or higher on both of these to save. Any 12 or lower on either of them, and it's over. 14. seven. Okay, okay, okay, okay. As it happens, my question for you, Bolaire, you were there, you guys brought Octus back as a fucking revenant. What do they see in this room? Who is speaking? Do you have any people assigned to this? Are there any specific people that are speaking or acting in this way? I'm trying to think, who do I know from either of these families? You know Octus? We know Octus. We know Julian. Octus is actually perfect. Octus is perfect. I make that sad little boy voice freaking out and trying, stuttering, to explain what happened. And I'm using every detail we managed to hear from him, including the necromantic magic. I love it. I'm going to ask, I'm going to throw a wrinkle in here, but this is awesome. First of all, you cast a spell. You guys are winging it. You look around, you are fucking winging it. You look around and see Grotto stand up hard holding his head. He stumbles back. He floods into the ground. Ah, God! Blood oozes from his nose as he starts to scream. You seven damage. He's not that powerful. Seven damage is a good chunk of his hit points. He stumbles backwards looking out. Octus begins to scream. Give me a history check based on what you were able to glean that night from conversation at the Loy Estate. Okay. I'm, by the way, perfectly happy to embellish because I do love a story. I love it. That's a history check of a, oh, no, just a 25. Just a 25. I am a librarian. I love it. 25. So in that case, I'm going to say that you get the details right. First of all, Octus turns and says, they're coming for me. Please remember. So the thuds on the table, you see a Tacona's hand. The damage in the table is the knife going through. You see, by the way, as you're looking, Bolaire, you realize your lie is the truth. This is the room that Octus was murdered in. The knife is the knife. The knife wound in the table is the knife wound. The desk that is missing is the one that Aranesa turned into a tree to escape that they pulled with its roots out of the wall. And I think, Bolaire, in this moment, all three of you realize, oh, this lie we're doing is true. Just the truth. All you can do is think of Demetis looking at you and saying, all truths start as an illusion. And you use this lie to tell a truth that they use magic to destroy. Azune, was there something you were going to do in this movie? I mean, I think I can see that it's starting to take effect. I see what you're doing. I'm going to I'm going to cast a message into Grotto's mind and I'm just going to repeat over and over again the priestly houses are coming for us the priestly houses are coming for us over and over and over again you repeat that Grotto stumbles out of the room give me perception checks the two of you Murray and O'Leary 15 thank god 15 6 ok 15 um you see Grotto stumbles out you're invisible you I think are off or like in this in this Grotto's bleeding grabs you and says something happened I don't know I got you I got you I got you stay with me there was a massacre here they killed Dr. Staconis here in this wait wait stay with me um as you begin to like hold him up and cart him away you look over Murray you look over as you have fabricated the truth of what happened. In a corner, these candelabras have all sunk in a way. Thinking of Demidus, the truth starts as an illusion. You look over and see the last candle burns out as a blue flame goes out. And that's when we'll take our break. All truth starts as an illusion. That's the title of the episode. Damn! That's theater, baby. That's theater, baby! Oh, my God. And that's where we'll leave our story for now. Part two of this episode of Campaign 4 drops this Tuesday. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you soon for more Critical Role.