Game Changer

This transcript is machine-generated and may contain errors in names, terminology, or attribution.

[clink] [clink] Pickaxe. Coming to Apple TV+ on August 9th. You're the Marine? Yeah, you're the ex-con. Yeah, I did time, but you don't gotta cast aspersions at me. From the director of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity comes a new film. It's your first job? I know what I'm doing. I'm a little late for a crit change. Starring Matt Damon. Everybody in New England is after us. And Casey Affleck. Go, go, go, go, go! What are you doing? Taking notes. Taking notes on a criminal conspiracy. The Instigators, rated R. Streaming August 9th on Apple TV+. This summer, during the biggest sporting event of the year, Peacock turns to two broadcasting legends for the Olympics coverage you can't find anywhere else.

Um, I think they mean us. Oh, s***. Um... [clears throat] With an incredible duo sure to take home the comedy gold. Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson. New episodes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Only on Peacock. Arc 2, episode 73 of the D&R Podcast is brought to you today by the lovely folks over at patreon.com/dandr. You're the folks who are responsible for making this show happen and supporting our everyday lives. Thank you all so much. Throughout the summer, while we're recharging and getting ready for Arc 3, we're going to be posting several special episodes and really cool stuff on our Patreon.

Get ready for special character chats with each group and the return of DRP. Find out more at patreon.com/dandr. Before we get started with the show today, we wanted to thank everyone out there for their support in following Arc 2, all of your feedback, and during the summer months we are going to be setting things up for Arc 3, and we're going to be polling everybody out there in what you think of the show, our Patreon, and everything we do. So once again, thank you for your continued support, and we really hope you enjoy this Arc 2 finale. Previously for group B, after a devastating run-in with a dragon, both Larg and Brelim tragically perished.

Miles away from the nearest city of Esterhold and almost completely out of options, Kaldin advocates for using the Bell of Vecna to try and bring them back. Obviously this comes with a lot of risk. After some debate from the rest of the group, it was eventually decided that they would attempt the ritual. And that's where we pick things up today. Let's do that thing where we go around the table for the very last time of Arc 2 for group B! I'm Jason, I'm the Dungeon Master, going around the table starting with Valerie. Hi, I'm Valerie, and I play Alayna the Human Fighter.

So you started, and then I was eating, and then I was trying to chew really, really fast, and then I was like, "Please don't pick me first," and I'm trying to get it all down my throat. Okay, because it sounded like you were petrified. [laughter] I don't know if you've ever had to laugh and also chew really fast at the same time, but it's really hard. That seems like a problem uniquely to you. [laughter] Karen! Hi, I'm Karen, and I play Kali the Elven Druid. And Jamie. Hi, I'm Jamie, and I, at least for the rest of today, play Tatiana the Human Rogue.

And Ian. I'm Ian, and I play Kaldinhalek, the half-elf Frosty Boy. And sitting to the side for now, we have Alex. Hi, I'm Alex, I used to play Brelin, the halfling bard, but he's dead. And Jameson. Jameson, I used to play Larg, the half-orc Pala Rhaegar barbarian, and he's also dead. So, how about that theory-a-thon, guys? That was a lot. That was a lot of-- Hey, yo, that shit sucked, bro. [laughter] So I think you can kind of feel this weird nervous energy tonight. And that's because the last time we sat down, it seemed like you guys were gonna use the bell.

The bell of Vecna, for those of you out there who maybe forgot that they had that, or what it's done. I wanna pick things up directly after the last episode ended with you guys. You are in this cave with a large, very dead dragon. You are still in the mountains, overlooking Esterholt, you're still a ways away. But I guess my next question would be, what's the plan? [laughter] That's not a question you ask Group B. I mean, well, I usually ask it twofold. It's what are you planning to do, and then what are you actually going to do? I've got just a question that's not pertaining quite to the stuff.

This dragon that's dead, is there anything we can harvest off of it? Anything that we would know is valuable? Yeah, I mean, you can get some scales off that. I guess it depends on-- Well, okay, it's a few things. Are any of you good at skinning animals, at harvesting? Specifically dragons, it's not the same as skinning a deer or something like that. It takes time. It's meticulous work, but if you're willing to put in the effort, yeah, you can probably get some scales off this. Okay. I mean, Cauldron is not good at skinning animals, only freezing them. But-- Yeah, this is also a, you need help.

Like, let's say Callie. Callie were to attempt it. You kind of need help. Like, it's like, here, hold this flap or pull this and make sure this doesn't crush me. That type of thing. It's a big, big animal. But you want to give it a try? Oh. Is this something we're doing right now? That's kind of what I was asking, because it's like, would that be the thing that's on your mind? I think it's a thing for later. Well, there might not be a later, is why I bring it up. Sort of to transition, I think Tatiana would insist that everybody at least rest the night before we do anything so that we can be at full force if we're doing this.

Because we pretty much decided last time, it's happening. Right? Yeah. Well, we already slept though, right? No. No? No, no, no. If you remember-- I thought we slept on it and then woke up. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought we had a night's rest and then-- Oh, maybe we did. I think I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, God, you're right. Yeah, that does ring a bell. I thought you meant between the dragon fight and this. And I'm like, no, that was the conflict. Half of you were going to go to sleep. And then, yeah. So, ate the farry-ore, daytime, still in this cave. I would like, I guess, at the very least, Tatiana, do you still have that blood?

That Drake blood? I think I do. It's very dried up, though. Cullen will say, "Hand me the Drake blood." And she will. He takes it and he dumps it out. And then he goes over to the dragon, takes out a knife, hacks into its artery, and just says something in Draconic, like the equivalent of Rescuieta and Pache or whatever. And then fills that thing up. I'm such an uneducated American because I'm like, "You know Elvish?" And it's like, that's fucking--never mind. I know. And the answer is no, I don't. So, yeah, if you do this, so this, I picture this as kind of a thin vial, like this would just dump blood out.

Like this would be a sizable amount, basically. This would overflow this and probably all over your hand. So I'm guessing, what is that you're corking it up to save it for later? Yeah. Okay. And Cullen will hand it back to Tatiana, hand her skin back or whatever container it was and say, "This is fresher and maybe stronger. Who knows?" And she'd take it with a nod. And then he'll go back and like, sit down. Get ready. So when you say get ready, what are you doing to prepare for this? I mean, he's probably doing--he's probably got the notes from Donhurst that he's just going over.

He's probably got the bell in front of him. He's probably sitting crisscross applesauce at the mouth of the cave. And he's probably doing like breathing exercises that Kali taught everyone and just sort of like, like getting himself ready. Would this be a thing--I gotta ask a couple of questions, because if not, I gotta do a little info dump. But would this be a thing where all of you guys have read over these notes or has it been Kaldin mostly, specifically? Essentially, do you all know what it's going to take to pull this off? Alina doesn't really know anything about it.

I'm trying to think, like, because when we found them, I know that like Kaldin did like an arcane arcana check on it and stuff like that, but I don't think like prior to this event, Kali would have wanted to read them. But probably would want to at least look over them before we did anything. Okay. I don't think Tatiana would know or probably understand if she attempted to read these. But she would probably ask what was going to happen. She would want to be filled in by Kaldin or Kali or whoever. Okay, so I feel like Kaldin has looked over these once or twice before.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to give one, I want you to give me an intelligence check. All of us or just me? Just you. Okay. Just to see something. Oh, no. Oh, shit. Oh, wow. Okay, so that's a one. My heart just skipped a beat. So you got that out of the way. Now it's all going to be fine. Shake it off, shake it off, shake it off, shake it off. So, as I was saying, this is no easy feat. It's certainly not something I would suggest that Kaldin do alone. There are a lot of outside factors. One, you need incredible concentration to pull this off. The problem is, when you start this ritual, one, it can't be stopped.

You have to follow through. Two, there are going to be a lot of outside stimuli that can really mess with you while you're doing this. And if at any point you botch or screw something up, it's going to deal some physical pain to you, too. Honestly, it's going to take all of you to pull this off in a flawless manner. You could limp through the finish line without nailing everything, but I would advise you to nail as much as you can. Can we get what it's going to require mechanically? Someone's going to need to keep an eye on Kaldin, because this takes a physical toll on somebody performing this ritual.

They're essentially zonked out. They're in the middle of this. Much like if you remember the episode where you guys trip on mushrooms and shit, it's very much like, gotta keep him hydrated. There will be times where if he messes up, something will be doing damage to him. There will be things that might try to attack or hinder Kaldin from finishing this ritual, depending on how it goes. And someone's going to have to be there to push back against that. There's a lot to it. There's a lot of moving pieces. I have a question. When you talk about something that could attack, like the Bell of Vecna isn't demonic.

It's a Vecna. It's a big gray area. Picture it like this. A hammer is a tool. And if used properly, you can build things with it. A hammer can also be used to hurt someone or bust through a wall or break things down. It's just a tool. And there are lots of different ways to use this. So yeah, its original purpose was to essentially wrestle someone back from the brink. But that doesn't mean it doesn't have ties to the demonic world, because Vecna has ties to the demonic world. Right, right. Okay, got it. Essentially, if you guys have questions about this, now's the time to ask and anything that you would have general knowledge of or maybe something you could read between the lines, I'll try to help you out.

Other than that, just know that there are no guarantees with this thing. And there's a lot on the line. Well, I know that I wanted to do something if that's okay with everybody else. Oh, sure, of course. Because I figure while like everybody's preparing like Tatiana is not our economy, she's not gonna be able to help in any sort of way like that. But being that this is a big thing that she is against but sort of out numbered for, she is going to go cool off, and is going to sort of like explore a little bit from where this beast came from. Oh, you're going further into the cave.

Just like just like a pea just like a little like a pea. I just want to pee. Like a little bit like a baby like a baby pee. Baby pee? Baby pee. Just a little one. Okay. Quick, quick and easy. Quick, give me give me give me baby perception. Baby perception? Well. Oh, God. That was a baby perception. It was. Guys, roll better. Okay, I'm doing. I'm so scared. Okay, that's an eight. Yeah. Uh, there, there doesn't, there doesn't appear to be any more dragons back there. Okay. There are no more dragons in the back. They're out of dragons. Fresh out. Okay. Fresh out of dragons.

That's great news. Yeah, you're gonna- Glad to hear it. You're gonna see a few skittering bugs and things like that, but that dragon seemed to rule the roost. That was the big, you know, to do. Obviously, there's not many creatures that are gonna bunk with something like that. So. I was more looking for like some sort of horde, possibly. Oh, like something waiting behind the dragon that was just like stuck. Yeah. Like treasury in nature. Well, we got some stuff. Did you all put? She put, put that stuff on. Yeah. We got the bracers of something. Bracers of archery.

The cloak of protection and the gauntlets of ogre power. Mm-hmm. I know Callie wanted the cloak of protection, but I don't think we figured out who gets the other two. I mean, I love the bracers of archery because I think I'm the only one who shoots arrows. That makes sense. Yeah, take it. Put those gloves on, dragon slayer. That's some true shit. Tatiana the dragon slayer does have a ring to it. Do you guys have access to this? I shared it last time, but it's not necessarily something that would be in your inventory. So I'll do it again. Oh, is that in the party's inventory?

It might. I just have it. I don't even know where to look. Bracers of archery coming at you. Boom. One bracers of archer. We're going to put those on. So you got that. Elena is getting. Where's Elena? What am I getting? You're getting the gloves, right? Get them strong gloves. Well, here's the thing though. It says your strength becomes 19. My strength is 18. Yeah. So I don't know. I thought it would serve a better purpose going to someone else. Well, do you think Kaladin's going to go beat people up? I mean, I guess not. I'm not looking to punch anybody. Out of the living people here.

I guess there is four people left. I mean, you can put them on large. He'll be the strongest corpse in Theria. Like it'll be great. So dark. Okay, then I'll get the gloves. Sorry. But all I wrote was strength becomes 19. I feel like there was like something else to it. Or is that just it? That's just it. But that's a good thing. So you are. Let's do it. Okay. Chat. Okay. So that didn't automatically do it. So I'm just going to bump it up. Boom. 19. There you go. All right. And finally, we got a cloak of protection. Callie or Kaladin? I think it was going to Callie. Callie.

Okay. Yeah, because it was all green and velvet. It looks amazing on a forest elf. On a forest elf, yeah. I don't know why I made that noise, but I did. All right. Why are all my spells concentration is all I want to know. You picked them. Well. And we found gold, right? 219 gold. Yep. Oh, 219? I think no, actually I think it has 291. 291. Oh, that's possible. I mean, I definitely wrote 219, but I was trying to write everything really quickly. Yeah. So you want me to split that for you? Yeah, but what if people come back and then it's like, "Ooh, look, she took all the gold." Oh yeah.

Can we wait to split it? I mean, yeah, you didn't wait to split the loot, but yeah, no. I mean. We're going to use that right now. The loot doesn't do us any good just sitting in a bag. That's fair. Okay. You are geared up. So. I just, sorry, sorry, sorry. No, please. I just want to make sure that Callie and Tatiana, you guys both know what your things do. Oh, mine's looking at me plus one AC. And saving throws. What? Yep. It only says plus one AC. Okay, what is the Bracers of Archery? You get proficiency in long and short bow and plus two to attacks. I don't know if that's all attacks.

I'm assuming it's attacks when you're using the long or short bow. I saw it say plus two to damage. Oh, it's engineering the joy too. While wearing these braces, you have proficiency with long bow and short bow. You gain a plus two bonus to damage rolls on ranged attacks made with such weapons. So, well, it said attack. Damage. All right. So do you have a good night's sleep? You've taken these items and you're picking them up just in case you need them. I guess. Is there anything you would be doing in case the worst occurs? Alina mentioned that she had to go write some letters.

And so to prepare, she's writing a letter to her parents. That would be an Overdale. Yes. In come. I don't know how we're going to get the letter there, but. Well, I mean, someone might find it if the worst were to happen. Yeah. Well, shit. I think Tatiana is doing the same thing. She's writing a letter to her parents, to her siblings, like the whole shebang. Right. I got I got to look at these papers. For the bell? Yeah. OK. Could you do me a favor? Yeah. Give me an intelligence check. Cool. Well, that's better. Better. OK, so a couple of things that may have let's say they're they're reading between the lines type things.

So a couple of things is while the bell can definitely think of it like using a GPS. Right. So when used properly and it's working properly, it'll get you from point A to point B in the quickest time possible. And, you know, as few wrong terms as possible. If things start heading south with the spell, there's no telling that there's so many different outcomes that could be coming your way. Like we're talking D100 outcomes. Oh, my gosh. So it's not just that we could be Cronenberg's. Oh, yeah, no, there's there's far worse things than that. That's great. Great to know that there are options.

Oh, oh, oh, Callie's not going to tell you that. OK, good. Never mind. You don't know that. Good to not know that there are options. So there are a lot of different things that could happen. Not all of them are like the the doom of the universe or anything like that. But it's it's not something you want to play with. You don't want to gamble with those odds, right? The bottom line is a lot of this is on Kaldin's shoulders, but he is so not doing this alone. This is going to be a huge team effort. And there are things that all of you could do that there might be situations where you might need to draw fire.

So being able to get something's attention and then run from it or jump around or something that could be hugely beneficial. Pushing back, fighting that that could be hugely beneficial. Just keeping an eye on Kaldin's just just his his vitals, his life signs. That's going to be huge, too. The biggest thing that Callie would know is that under no circumstances do you stop this ritual in the middle. No matter what happens, you got to finish what you start. And would I be able to interpret it as Kaldin has to be the one to finish it or ask could it be picked up by somebody else?

It could be picked up by somebody else if, again, the worst could happen. Right. Not that that would happen. No. Right. OK. And then I guess my next question is for Ian/Kaldin. How does Kaldin look like he's taking all this in? Like, what is Kaldin's face doing currently? Well, if I think he's right there with you, I think we're like going over the papers together and he's like telling you what he's read and showing them to you. And like you're reading these things and like maybe you're like like picking up on stuff that he hasn't gotten. But he's like he's he's almost like methodical about this.

Like he was incredibly emotional the night before or the evening before. But now it's like this is a job that we have to do. And this is how we're going to try and do it. So more composed. Yeah. Good. Great. So nervous. I'm sorry. I'm sweating. Karen is sweating. Go ahead. Oh, no, no, no. It's just. Yeah. So Calliope probably suggest that we don't do the ritual right next to the cliff's edge. Probably not like all the way in the cave, but like, you know, giving people room to maneuver, I guess. OK. But probably don't want to be on the edge of the cliff while this happens, just in case.

Well, we want to we want to be able to leave if we need to. Right. I know we have to finish this. But it may not have to be all at once. And if we need to get out, then we need to get out. We should be able to find a way to grab Larg and Brelyn too. If we need to get out in a hurry. I think I could get us all or get most of us to to safety by by having us fly down. All of us. Well, I think Elena will have to carry Larg. Tatiana will have to carry Brelyn and you might have to carry me. Or if I'm able, maybe you can become one of your animal spirits and I can take you more easily that way.

Yeah, definitely. OK. I just have one more thing I need to do. I just need to I just need a couple of minutes. OK. And she's going to. Leave the cave and walk a few paces away. Probably just far enough that they like that she could still hear them and they can hear her. But like a little bit of space, she's going to meditate for a few minutes. And then she's also going to do something that she's never done before. And she is going to pray to who specifically? I think she's going to pray to Arathis. Just basically. Almost pleading for some intervention or something that they don't have to do this.

Because she really doesn't want to use this spell and then she'll go back. I'm picking up a somber vibe. Is there something I can do to help with that? Do you want to give us a hug? You know what? Yeah, bring it in, everybody. I mean, I think if you just if if Brelyn and Lark are back, like, I would just fix it all. Can I just say for the briefest moment, I was like, wait, is this Jason speaking or Arathis? And I was like, is Arathis just this cool like talking dude? What can I do to help? I'm sensing a somber vibe. What can I do to help? He turns his chair around and sits backwards.

Oh, he's got a baseball cap. Let's wrap fellow adventurers. That would have been bomb, though. Before you partake in this ritual, I've given you a couple of warnings and told you that once you start, you can't stop, blah, blah, blah. Now, it's driving Ian absolutely insane that I haven't given specifics. He's driving me crazy. He's been driving me crazy all week. I'm having nightmares. Essentially, you'll be asked to kick things off with an Arcana check. Now, that sets everything in motion. And how well you do on these checks is going to change things throughout.

Now, you can't get advantage on any of these checks. You can have augmentations. Callie mentioned that a little bit earlier, so you can have a helping hand, a little boosty boost. But no one can actually help you with this ritual. It's pretty much on you, so no advantage. That being said, you will be asked to hit five specific difficulty checks with Arcana. It's always going to be Arcana for you. Now, the rest of the team might need to pivot or change or do something on the fly. But for you, it's always going to be Arcana. And every time you fail one of these, a fun little monkey wrench is going to be tossed in.

Now, this ritual will keep going until either you are all dead and no one can continue, or you successfully complete it. Do we understand? Yes, but the spell we're talking about, it grants advantage. The Enhance Ability spell is what grants advantage to whatever check is chosen. In this case, intelligence checks. Well, I thought this was a fun D4D6 situation. We're talking second level, baby. Okay. Hmm. Let's see here. You know what? I'll allow it. Yes! Have I told you that I love you? Have I told you lately that I love you? I love you. Told you you're my hero.

Is there anything that Cauldron or Callie would have been able to tell Elena and I about how we can assist in any way? Like, mechanically speaking, if there's any way we'd be able to assist? I mean, I think we're about to get into a scene here, but I was thinking about trying to cast this spell on you, but Alex brought up a good point that I might not be able to concentrate on this spell to be able to do anything. Is that true? That is absolutely true. You're going to be preoccupied. Okay. Yeah, I don't know. Okay. I was going to try and give you some temporary hit points, but I don't think I can do that.

I can't do that right now. No, it's okay. I more meant like, in any of those papers, does it say that we should expect anything to occur that we would need to... Oh, yeah. Like, do we know that we have to fight? You have to go against these skeletons to prove your worth, or I don't fucking know. I mean, if it was written like that, that would be way cool. This is done by that kid from Donner's. Oh, right. That's true. Maybe that's what he's written, or he's drawn pictures or something. I don't know. Okay. Stick figure skeleton. Would there be anything like that, Jason?

Is there anything, like, any specifics or anything? Oh, I would say definitely be prepared for anything. There are... obviously this kid didn't exactly know what he was doing. Or at least didn't nail the dismount. There could be fiscal threats. There could be more ethereal threats. There might... Basically, the cave itself could turn against you. Anything could happen. Okay. Then, yeah, I think that's all that we can part with or explain. Can I ask Tatiana, Elena, and Callie to please roll initiative? Oh, God. Can I do my thingy before anything else happens?

What's your thingy? Why did I click my AC button? I'm such a weirdo. Cast that spell. I mean, like... I'm gonna probably do that before we start anything. Okay. So I'm gonna cast... Callie's gonna cast Enhance Ability at third level. She's gonna cast it on Kal'Din. And she's gonna cast it actually on Elena. And so for Kal'Din, he's going to get Fox's Cunning, and so he's gonna get Advantage on Intelligence checks. And Elena is gonna get Bull Strength, so she'll have Advantage on Strength checks. Okay. Are we ready? Yeah. Kal'Din's gonna take a little bit of that dragon blood and draw some protective ruins and Draconic on his body, like on his head, like the monk from Quaid-on.

And he's gonna look at everyone and say, "We've done this before. We can do this together for Larg and for Brelyn, so we can bring them back for this whole world." Elena, Callie, Tatyana, I owe all of you my lives in different ways. And I don't know what's gonna happen, but I want you to know that I am proud to call you friends here. I think Tatyana would sort of soften, which she doesn't do often, but she would sort of soften and look towards Kal'Din and just sort of like give him a nudge on the shoulder and just say, "Yeah, yeah, you're okay too." And then sort of like weirdly blush and look down.

Like, "I don't like expressing this, but you're okay." Kal'Din will do that thing, like just squeeze your shoulder. Like, you know, they're like standing on, like they're facing opposite directions. He'd just like squeeze, you know, like reach and squeeze the shoulder. Is everyone ready? I think Callie is gonna kind of settle in next to Kal'Din, so that way she's close to him. And she's gonna say to him, "If you find yourself wavering, I'm right here." And she's gonna like clap her hand on his shoulder so that like he, even like when he's concentrating on this whole thing, like he can still like feel that connection and like recenter himself.

And she's just gonna, and then she's gonna say, "I forgot what I was gonna say." So that's cool. Yeah, so she's gonna clap him on the shoulder. And she's gonna say, "I will be right here this whole time." He like reaches up and puts his arm on her hand and just nods. And we're like forming a perimeter around Kal'Din right now, right? Yeah, I was thinking that Tatiana was standing in front of Kal'Din and I was standing behind him, like radially outward. Okay. We've done everything we can do to prepare. Oh my god, I was like, that scared me. Let me know if that looks good to everybody.

It looks great, but now I have to get my mouse so I can control this. Why won't you? Oh, there it is. You want to wait for Jameson for one minute? Yeah, I think Jameson should be there. And this opening, that's the exit, huh? Yep. Good to know, good to know. And I would imagine we have like their bodies nearby or something too. Yeah. Just hanging out, just prop to Weaken at Bernie's style. Yep. I think I'm actually gonna take a step out. Wait, which way is the opening, what? This way. Where the light's coming from, to the right. To the right is the opening. Where the light is coming from.

Yeah. Well, the light's coming from a bunch of different places. To the right. Like closer to where Tatiana is. Yes. Okay. Yes, yeah, okay. I was thinking like, Elena's like here. Okay. In real life too, like it's so good to be playing with all of you. Oh my god. All of you. Like imagine how much time we spent in this stupid hobby and like how far- We're not actually dying, it's okay. Dude, every time I get to sit down with any group, it's the highlight of my week. Like it's always awesome. You can say it though, it's group view. I hate that Brie character. All day I was like, I'm going to play dungeon of dragons on Earth.

And everyone was like, oh, that's cool. I was like, no, you don't understand. You don't get the stakes. Wait, dude. All right, are we ready? Yes. Oh my god, okay. Now, I'm not going to tell you what any of the target DCs are. You'll find out whether you have succeeded or failed based on context clues. I was just thinking like, we rolled like, you know, like a 13 and it's like, okay. And then a demon pops up from the ground. It's like, oh man, guess we failed that one. It's like we get like a 17. It's like some daisy sprout out of the cave. It's like, oh, hey, I guess that was a success.

So for this specific ritual, bones have to be ground into a powder and sprinkled around Kaladin forming a semicircle. The bell is placed in front of Kaladin as he's kneeling. And to kick things off, the bell needs to be chimed lightly once. And then Kaladin is going to start reciting words. Are you ready? So this chime is going to go off again lightly, but it's going to ring off of the cave walls here, kind of reverberate. And I need Kaladin to give me his first Arkhan Achek. First one of the evening. Here we go. So that is a 15. The light streaming in from the sun outside is going to seemingly dim in this cave.

All of the light is going to dim a bit, as if someone's playing with the brightness settings on a monitor or something like that. It is going to dull. And a fog is going to start to puddle form at your feet. This is very, very low, but it is unmistakable. There's almost a chill that overtakes this cave, just like as if the temperature shifted a couple of degrees. But you can feel it in the back of your neck. But Kaladin is not showing any signs of a chill. If anything, he's starting to perspire ever so lightly. And his eyes are going to first dilate heavily and then go completely white.

Can Kali please give a medicine check? Sure. Medicine. Good. Good. That's a seven. Wait, don't you have advantage? No, I gave that to Elena. Kali's going to notice that Kaladin's heartbeat is speeding up, as if there's some distress, almost like he's panting, almost as if he'd been running all at once. You're going to feel a force in the air. It's almost as if you're being pushed away from Kaladin. It's very, very light, but it's almost like a magnetic force. And you're going to feel this opposition, but it's not going to push you anywhere or do anything like that.

But the people standing about five or ten feet away are going to notice something different. In that fog, you're going to feel something close in. And if Elena were to look outward, you're going to feel as if something is pushing inward. Quite, quite hard, actually. Can I get Elena to give me an athletics check, please? So Elena's going to stand her ground with a 20 and push back against this. But it's weird. It's almost like an ethereal wall of force. It's not shoving. It's just a constant pressure. From here on out, we are going to be using the initiative tracker.

And from here on out, the stakes are going to go up for each one of these checks that you don't complete. Are we ready? Uh huh. Okay. Kaladin, give me another Arcana check. Oh, that's good. Things are going to continue. And Kaladin is reciting these words, but it almost sounds robotic. It sounds like there's no passion or inflection in his voice. Eyes still glazed, he is somewhere else. That fog is now up to calf level. And that drop in temperature is just a little bit more pronounced. The sun outside is almost blotted out. This cave is dark, except for any torches you may have lit.

And this bell. There is a sickly purple glow coming off of this bell and Kaladin's hands. Kaladin, could you do me a favor and give me a medicine check? Mm hmm. Okay. That is way better. So at this point, Kaladin is dripping sweat into his eyes. And you're right there, damping that off. You're also trying to slow down that heartbeat a little bit, just because it's getting very rabid. Almost heavily concerning. So you're going to do what you can to keep Kaladin alive, conscious. Alayna, do me a favor. Give me another athletics check. Okay, so that pressure is still constant, but not getting any stronger.

Kaladin, give me another athletics check. I'm sorry, another Arcana check. Oh, we doomed if it's athletics. Kaladin's voice is going to take on sort of an otherworldly tone. At first you think it's the echo of the cave. It's some kind of trick of the acoustics, but there is a deep echo following Kaladin's words. And it does not sound like Kaladin in the reverberation. It is a bassy, almost frightening sound. And listening closely, it sounds like another language. Tatiana. Could you do me a favor and give me an acrobatics check? A sharp piece of rock is going to shake loose from the ceiling of this cave.

And it is going to strike Tatiana in the foot and lower calf. And it's going to do five damage. So nothing lethal, nothing terrible, but you can tell that the cave itself is going through some kind of distress. Even if it's a slight reverberation in the ground that maybe you can't sense, this cave is reacting to it. It could also just be the spell. Kalie, I'm going to give you an option. Okay. You can either keep treating Kaladin, or you can give me a religion check. You mentioned prayer earlier, and I would love to incorporate that. If you think- You're toying with my emotions.

If you think that Kaladin will be fine for another round, then there's no need to check on him medically. And maybe a prayer could help? I kind of hate you right now. And you know I'm going to do this religion roll. So why even give me the option? You could see what's behind door number two. There's this door here that's perfectly fine, and you know exactly what's behind it. But there's also this mystery door. Mystery door every time. Okay, here we go. Oh no! That is a dead one. I'm going to go dino. So, as a result, here's what we're going to do. God dang it.

Because. Let's just interpret this as a bad omen. Or maybe a sign that this particular ritual may not be blessed by the gods, or may not even be wanted. Who knows? But Kaladin's remaining checks are going to go up by two in difficulty because of that. No, don't do that! You asked to talk with the gods, but it wasn't the gods that answered back. Oh, I'm so mad. For those keeping score at home, Kaladin has three successful checks so far, and two remaining. The ground is going to rise up, almost as if it were sand, but it's definitely rock. The rock is going to rise up and form a wall and race toward Kaladin.

Alayna, what would you like to do about that? So it's like, almost like a... Like it starts as a spike, but it just keeps going in one direction almost. Picture it more as a large, flat sledgehammer of ground. Okay. And it's like going in a... I'm picturing almost like a mole that's crawling underground. It's like making a line towards Kaladin. Yes. Um... I'm not sure what I could do to... Well, I can give you a couple of different options. Yeah, please. Option number one is you throw yourself in front of it, and we make it an athletics check to see if you can fight it off or keep it at bay.

Now, option number one might do a little damage depending on if you fail or succeed or what have you. Option number two is you try and move Kaladin. Now to be specific, that would break the ritual. Oh, then I'm not doing that. Oh, actually, wait. No. Like, I know that it's important to not stop it, right? I believe that was... I mean, I guess that's... Did Kaladin and Calli relay that information? Yeah, I think we would have filled it in on that. No matter what, don't stop it. We cut back to a flashback, and you just hear Kaladin and Calli, "No matter what, don't stop it." Keep it back to us.

Forever. Then she'll have to try and go in front of it and try and stop it. Okay. Give me an athletics check. Oh, no. Well, the good news is that you have advantage. The bad news is we dropped a one to take a two. So this wall of stone is going to slam into Elena, and it's going to push Elena right up against Kaladin and the bell. Like, your feet are almost going to touch the bell itself, and you're going to dig in. And this is going to do quite a bit of damage here. Ten. Ten damage. So. I would advise not failing another one of those. Yeah. Is it still pushing, or did it just stop?

It kind of hit you like a blunt force thing and then just broke off into a thousand tiny pebbles. But you're definitely getting the sense that that kind of thing isn't going to stop. Right. Kaladin. I need another Arcana check. Can I roll a religion check instead? Okay, here we go. How does a fourteen do you? You're going to hear, amongst Kaladin's speech and that deep droning behind it, in a language you've never heard before. You're going to hear a higher pitch noise. Like a squeaking. And it's coming from this fog, it sounds like. Because you can hear it near you.

It'll be like a chirp. And then it'll disappear for a second and then be to your left or your right. But you're going to hear multiples of these. Several Imps are going to appear just out of nowhere. And these little things are of the demonic plane. This is really, really low level stuff. That being said, it is very clear that they're here to do you harm. Tatiana, what would you like to do about this? I think as soon as Tatiana sees them sort of up here, she's going to immediately brace herself. And it's going to fire at this Imp back here, trying to cover Kaladin.

Okay. Seventeen will hit. Oh god. Perfect. And I don't think I get sneak because he is not occupied, unfortunately, but I do get plus two for my bracers now. Nice. Oh, damn. Thirteen damage, although it appears as though this Imp resisted some of that damage. How? Well, no. I don't think it's an option. But it's just an arrow. That's the basic damages you can get. Mm hmm. You might need magical weapons. I don't have any of those. Oh, that's a shame. My dungeon master has not bestowed upon me any magic weapons. Okay, that's all I can do. You've got a magic armor, right?

You can throw it there. Just beat it to death with your leather cuirass. This second Imp is going to fly forward. There's little tiny bat-like creatures with scorpion stinger tails. They are gross little things. And it is going to fly forward and target Elena. Oh, wow. Twenty three. It is going to do six damage to Elena. Could you do me a favor, please? Roll a constitution saving throw. Oh, boy. Yeah. So you're going to take three D six poison damage as a result. Eleven damage to Elena. So, yeah, these things are a nuisance. Imp number one is going to race over here toward Tatiana and attack.

Eighteen will hit. Five damage. Could you do me a favor? Roll a constitution saving throw, Tatiana. Oh, God. That is a nine, so that'll fail. Eleven damage to Tatiana. And then finally, Imp number three. Now, Callie, Imp number three is going to try and get to Kaladin. Would you like to try and stop that? Yeah. OK. I don't I mean, I don't have anything that's a reaction, though, so I don't know if I can. Unless you'll let me. I'll let you. Oh, you're so nice. Let's say he moves over here and he's going to attack Callie instead. Oh, OK. Yeah, that's fine. OK, here we go.

Go ahead. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, no. Oh, no. So it just crit. And it rolled on the table. In addition to standard critical hit damage to your target, it gains combat advantage until the end of its next turn. OK, that could be worse. That could be worse. Could be worse. It's going to do six damage to Callie. Could you do me a favor? Give me a constitution saving throw. Constitution save. Yeah. Roll high, roll high, roll high. Perfect. That's good. That's all you need is eleven. I got a ten. Well, you need eleven. The ten's the DC. No, eleven's the DC. Oh, is it eleven?

Oh, OK. You got real close, but not quite. Callie, your rebuttal. Oh, my rebuttal is water, motherfuckers. Drink some. Get hydrated. I'm going to cast the tidal wave and it's not only going to hit amp number three, but it's also going to hit amp number one because it is a 30 foot long wave. Love it. So let me pull up my thing. Sorry, I got really excited. OK, I have to target them. And then they have to roll a safe, which they might make. Oh, wait. Hold on. Oh, they have a they have. They have advantage. They have advantage. That's what I'm trying to figure out.

Hold on. Well, one of them, you said, got advantage on attack rolls. Yeah, but that shouldn't be. Oh, no. They have magic resistance. Imp has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magic. Wait, wait, no, no, wait. You just said you said, oh, they will have damage on melee attacks or on regular. And then you're here to tell me, oh, they also are impervious to magic. And in heroes, don't forget arrows. Resistance. They are resistant. That being said, OK. That being said, infant number three still fucking fails. Yes, it still fails. Fails that pop quiz.

So I think I all I have to do is hit the damage. It'll do automatically. Right. Should. Yeah, because one of them still gets half damage. Mary Sue Imps. Guess what? That will kill it. Number three. It'll kill it. Number one. Yes. Are we sure? Did it do the right amount of damage to him? Number one, like, sorry to not kill it, but half damage. The damage to half damage. Yes. So it still takes full magic damage. It just has a better chance of avoiding it. And Tatiana already damaged it. Yeah. Oh, OK. OK, OK, got it. Got it. I think the takeaway here is Callie's magic is f-ing strong.

Yeah, it's true. Anything else, Callie? That's all I can do. All right, Elena, you're up. There's one imp remaining. Hey, let's get rid of this imp that is right next to me. So I'm going to slash at it with my longsword. I have advantage. Wait, do I? No, I don't have advantage. Do I have advantage? Just kidding. No, no, not for attack, which means we got to take the one. Wait, no, no, no, no. But what if the 11 went first? I need to just reroll. Here's what we'll do. We're going to roll a d10. One through 10, we're taking that one. 11 through 20, we'll take the 11.

How's that sound? You said roll a d10. One through 10. Roll a d20. Sorry. It's not a trap. A d20. I'm so sorry. It's been a long day. Roll a d10. One through 10, fuck you. What a nice way of saying, yeah. We're taking that 11. You hit. Okay. Oh, good. We got it. Okay. Oh, and I hit. Okay. Then damage. Eight damage reduced to four. And I'll attack it again. Okay. Because I can do that. And this time not advantage. That'll hit. 16. Damage. Another eight partially resisted. And he's still alive. Oh, yes. I picture you batting this thing and it'll tumble down to the ground and spring back up and fly again.

It's like a shitty balloon. What? From hell. Yeah, it's a hell balloon. Hell balloon coming to Amazon Prime. Okay, I'm worried that we're going to have to fight something even worse. Oh, well. So I don't want to use my action surge just yet. So we'll keep this minion alive to keep the next spawn group from coming. I hear what you're saying. Or that. Just kidding. Okay, then that's yeah, that's going to be the end of my turn. Okay. Kal'Dan. It's time for another Arcana check. Okay, gotta do better. Gotta do better. Here we go. Well, that's better. We're going to drop that one to take a 10.

Thank God for advantage. As a 15 total. On the opposite end of the cave from Kal'Dan, if you look ahead about 20-25 feet, the cave wall is going to start to distort. Until it is an inky black. It almost has a like a suction to it. It seems to absorb light around it. And if you stare long enough, you'll notice that there's a ripple. And there are pointy tendrils starting to push through. Tatyana, what would you like to do? I mean... I mean, I suppose finish off this imp, but I kind of want to shoot the tentacles. No, I'm going to shoot the imp. Okay, let's do it.

Oh, that'll hit like hell. 25. I'm going to do my +2, and then this time because he just got hit by a lip. Well, I don't think I'm going to need to roll this, but I would do my sneak attack damage. You better do your sneak attack damage. Okay. That will kill the imp. Yay! But it took a lot. Hit that hell balloon. Okay, Kaladin, I need you to do a couple of things for me. One, could you make a constitution save? Oh, yes, yes I can. Good, good, good. Thank you, the mountain. That's a 21. So Kaladin's breathing is going to be pretty steady right now. Still drenched in sweat.

You can tell that this is taking a lot out of him, probably both mentally and physically. And he's doing his best. That being said, Kali, I'm going to give you a choice. You can medically check up on Kaladin, or you could give me another religion check. If I can aid you. Why do you keep giving me these choices? I mean, I like giving you choices. There's a logical part of me that's like, Kaladin's fine. I don't need to check up on him, his breathing's fine. Why don't we just do the religion check? And then I'm like, no, Karen, don't do that anymore. You saw what happened last time.

What are the odds you roll a one a second time? Fuck off. Those are the odds. How dare you say that to me in the middle of this situation? Would you put that curse on me, Ricky Bobby? Fuck it. 16. Wasn't a one. That was not a one. Kali's going to feel something. As if just, just probably praying in between all of this madness. Just like, OK, we need a helping hand. Oh my God, please, please, please. That portal or vortex or whatever it is on the other side of the room, it's going to ripple almost as if someone threw a stone into a pond. And you're going to see those tendrils shrink back a bit.

Also, as a result, we're going to negate the difference in difficulty check and lower these back down to their original. Thank you. I take back all the horrible things I said about you. That's OK. You'll say them again in a minute. Probably. As long as we're all on the same page. Yeah, yeah. Alayna, there's not a ton to do here unless you want to beef around with that vortex. I actually I have a question. Sure. Because I got poisoning damage from the imp. Is that like ongoing? Do I have to save for that? No, no, no. You're good. OK. Yeah. The answer gone. That's all over.

Then. So there's like tendrils coming out of it. More if I had to describe them, think of them as really sharp spider legs. Like needle like. OK. Oh, kind of like this, you might not understand what I'm saying, literally all but like the those like ferrous metal balls were like you put a magnet near them and they like look like they're a living organism type thing. Kind of like that. Picture them longer, like almost Dr. Octopus. Right. No, no, no, I just had to think about it for a second. Cool. Well, because those are robotic. So it can be. Yeah, but not that.

These are organic. Definitely. And sharp. Carbon based. That's a chemistry joke for all you guys out there. You're welcome. Maybe it's silicone based. We don't know. Yeah, but that's not organic. We don't know. Would you like to tell you right now, silicone is not an organic material. Maybe it is in the demon world. OK, I'm going to go over to the thing and it's like hack and slash it. Oh, really? Oh, should I not? Hey, I like your chutzpah. What do you want to do in all this, Fel? Well, I just thought if they're like, you know, being over there, you know, going like, wah-boom-boom-boom, you know, they're little wiggling.

Yeah. You want to hack at them. I can just, you know, like take my sword and just go into it, you know? So you want to diddle the portal with your sword? Well, it's 1am, Jason. Sorry. Guys, I got to. Yeah, I got to go diddle my portal pretty soon. I got to get all up in that vortex, if you know what I'm saying. Sure. I'll do that. What do I, I don't know what to control click. Just just give me an attack. Okay. 21. Gorgeous. Give me some damage. Ooh, baby. Okay, so here's where things get interesting. Kaladin. I need you to give me a flat d10. The result of this will be what's on the other side of that portal.

Okay. Infinity. It's infinity. Okay. That, that tendril, you're going to hack the tip off of it. And you're going to hear a noise. It's so distant. It sounds like, imagine you're standing in a big open field and half a mile away. You hear very distinctly yet distant. A woman shrieking. That tendril is going to draw back. Now, do me a favor and give me a constitution save, Elena. Something is going to reach through this portal and it's going to grab at Elena's armor, the upper chest, the collarbone somewhere in there. And it's going to try and pull. Elena is going to stand her ground, but there is a, it's not one of the tendrils.

It's almost this gray ooze, but it feels solid and it is going to attach itself to Elena and it is going to continuously try to pull. Kaladin. We need another Arkhanajek. Oh boy. Okay. I don't, I have, I don't know where we're at. We could maybe have four successes, maybe three. I don't know where we're at. Here we go. Oh, how does a 22 suit you? At this point, the fog has almost completely enveloped Kaladin. It is just above waist high on most people standing up. The light has completely disappeared outside. You wouldn't even know it's daytime. It almost feels like the world is closing in around this cave.

Like nothing exists outside of the ground you're standing on and the walls that you could reach over and touch. That vortex is going to get stronger. A face is going to peer through as those tendrils come back, reach around outside of the vortex and stick themselves into the side of this cavern into solid stone. And a woman is going to start to pull herself through this vortex. Everyone except for Kaladin, do me a favor. Give me a perception roll. Alaina, you get advantage. Cause it's right up in her face. You have a front row seat. Didn't help. Yes, I see it all.

You see the whole shape. I see all of it. I know, I'm back like this. I'm back like this. Man. This skeletal figure, not a skeleton, I need to be clear. This female shape is so rail thin and malnourished looking. She's being supported by these dagger like spider legs, four of them to be specific. So it almost looks as though she is levitating through this portal, though she is very much propped up by these legs. Her body's covered in these blood stained bandages. Her skin is a very sickly gray with long black hair covering most of her features. But you could tell that she's wearing some sort of mask that obscures half of her face.

She's also covered, covered head to toe in bruises. Her eyes are going to snap open and stare directly into Alaina's. Callie, Tatiana, give me a religion check to see if you would know who this might be. I don't want to know. No. Both of you through, both of you through maybe old stories or texts or maybe a school lesson long, long ago. You would know that there are several demons in the pantheon that could be strong enough to pull themselves through. And there are several unmistakable telltale signs of who this is. This is a very powerful and one of the worst demons in the pantheon.

A female demon named Sogoth. She has an obsession with torture. She has experimented on every race, both long since dead and currently living. She can look into your soul and find out what would cause you the most pain. And sometimes that's physical pain. Sometimes it's something that would just cause you immense mental torment or emotional damage. That is what she lives for. That is what she exists to do. To cause agony. Tatiana, what would you like to do? I fucking, I mean, how do you expect me to know right now after all of that? Um, I mean, I, okay, I think honestly Tatiana's first gut reaction would be to run up and she's going to pull Elena off of whatever this solid slime thing that is grabbing her.

Okay. Do me a favor. Give me an athletics check. A 13 is not going to be enough to pull Elena or to detach Elena from this, this woman. Callie. Mm-hmm. You have an option. Mm-hmm. You have a few options. Mm-hmm. You can, you can continue to look after Kaladin and just make sure nothing gets to him so that he can continue concentrating. You can try to do something to this very powerful demon, seemingly slipping through into your world. Or you can continue to pray. Now before you answer that. Mm-hmm. Kaladin do me a favor and give me a constitution save. Kaladin's breathing is going to become ragged.

It's like he's, it's almost as if he's underwater. Like he can't get air into his lungs. Like you can, you, you, you can watch his body hunch over. He's just wheezing and trying to maintain composure. You could tell his body's almost on autopilot, but he is just completely drenched in sweat. He is exhausted. This is slowly killing him. What would you like to do? I need to do some damage to Kaladin by the way. Oh, thank you. I need to do 17 damage to Kaladin. Oh, f- Alright. Um, Kali is going to, so this whole time she's kind of been like kneeling next to Kaladin with her hand on his shoulder.

She's gonna stand up and move around him, still maintaining contact with him. Um, just, I want to get on the other side of him. Okay. Well, Tatiana's there, but I'll go there for right now. Um, I, I want to just, uh, make a barrier between myself, or between him and this demon. Um, but I still do want to, um, I don't know, probably heal him? Or should I do a medicine check? Oh, that's up to you. I hate you. Um, I'll do, what is the medicine check doing for him? The medicine check is stabilizing him, trying to keep, uh, keep his body in the best possible shape to continue doing this ritual.

Alright, I'm gonna do that. Okay. Mhm. Okay. That's a 13. Mhm. Elena, what would you like to do? Uh, I have a question on how much I know, because I did very bad on the perception roll. And I didn't do the religion, so it's like, so I don't know it's a demon, like, I can assume it's a demon, because it looks like one. But yeah, I don't think, yeah, I don't think rocket science would be needed at this point. Like, it's obviously something very, very bad. Yes. Um, yeah, like when Tatiana came and grabbed you, it was in a panicked state. Yes, no, I, I, I, there's, there's not an ounce of, there should not be an ounce of Elena that's confused about this situation.

Okay. Um, and I'm still holding my sword? Yep. Um, okay. Then I think what I want to do, because it's like, it's like grabbing onto like my, my upper chest, right? Yep. So what I want to do is, um, like, I'm going to bring the sword and both my hands like above where it's grabbing me, and I'm going to turn the sword horizontal, and I'm actually going to grab onto the blade with my, my other hand that isn't on the hilt. And I'm going to kind of like, try and like cookie cutter it down to slice off the black ooze solid thing to disconnect myself from the demon.

Okay. Oh boy. So essentially, you're hacking at this ship to get it off of you? Yes. Do me a favor, give me an attack. Oh, that'll hit. Do me a favor, give me some damage. Eleven will be enough to sever you from, from this woman. Okay. Um, and it wasn't like picking me up and just now like disconnected. Yeah, you're just disconnected. It was trying to pull you in. Right. Think of a scorpion spear from, from Mortal Kombat. Oh my god, you know how much of that game I've been playing? You think I'm going to know that? You think I, me, Valerie Spanier, I'm going to like, oh, it's like, oh, I know what you're talking about now.

Yeah, you're right. Mortal Kombat's just been a cultural touchstone since 1992. Why would you know? That was before she was born. Yeah, but it's not- It's like one of the hottest games selling right now. It's not gone anywhere. Like it's still around. You can't go on Facebook without seeing an ad for Mortal Kombat Eleven. Right! Oh, I definitely don't get those ads. Those are called "Tailored" and they're not for me. Um, then, so I'm, I'm now not attached. So I'm going to, uh, once again, hold my sword with two hands and I'm going to now slash at the demon.

Ooh, baby. Okay. Did I not? No, I'm just saying like, this is a big moment. Let's you, okay. You are the first person on the show to attack a legit, this is one of the demons of the Pantheon. This is not, this is big. Um, okay. I have a question. Okay. How big is the demon? Um, so Sogoth herself is actually relatively small. Like, Elaina standing toe to toe would be like way larger than Sogoth. Those spider legs on the other hand are, that, that adds some height. So she would be in the air a bit, like legs just kind of dangling. Yeah, but like mechanically how, what's her size?

Go with medium for now. Okay. So to be clear, you are about to be the first character in the whole of Deonoid history to make an attack against one of the demon lords. I thought I've done that twice now. No, no, no. This is against her, not appendages, not, no, no, no. These are just accoutrements. It's like scarves for demons. Okay. That will hit. Okay. Um, I, Oh wait, this, that, that. Yeah. Oh, then yeah. I want to use pushing attack. Okay. So I can expend a superiority die to attempt to drive the target back. Okay. And I add the superiority die to the damage roll.

And it has to make a strength saving throw. And if it fails, I push it 15 feet away back into the portal. Okay. First I'm going to roll the superiority die. Okay. And that's a 4, 6, d8. Whoa. Okay. So max damage on that superiority die. So that's... That's added to my damage that I'm about to do. Two. So 22 damage and it has to make a strength saving throw. Okay. Let's do it. 18. Yeah, that beats it. Oh. So, so Goth's turn. She is going to pull herself the rest of the way through this portal. And her legs, the appendages that is, are still embedded in this rock, but they're going to gently lower her in front of Elena.

And you can see the wound you've left in her body. Those blood-soaked bandages are going... You can tell that they were all dried wounds and bruises all over her. That slash you just put in her, she is going to start bleeding from it. This decrepit black inky substance. Kind of gloppy. Thick. And though there's this fractured mask obscuring almost half of her face, you could still see most of her mouth. And she's going to smile at Elena. And she's going to tilt her head ever so slightly. And she's going to lean in and whisper, "Now I have to take something from you." And she's going to touch Elena's chest.

And there's going to be a flash. "Calvin, we need another Arkhanachek. And it needs to be a high one." "Nautral 20!" "Oh my god!" "What the hell?" "I just screamed." "I really hope I didn't just wake my baby up." "Awwww." "Jesus fucking Christ." "I'm screenshotting this." "I haven't smoked in over a year and I need a cigarette right now." The temperature is going to noticeably dip to the point where everyone in this cavern can now see their breath. And as Sogath is standing in front of Elena, something is going to fire from the opposite side of the room.

Behind Calvin, behind Kali, behind Tatiana, and behind Elena. And it is going to knock Sogath off of her feet. Those appendages are going to catch her. But a second blast is going to come from the same spot in the cavern. There's going to be a strangely well-dressed man. And you can hear footsteps very distinctly. Almost as if they're miked like you can hear them. You can hear a single boot. And then something that sounds like clattering. And then a boot. And then clattering. Everyone do me a favor and give me a perception check. Oh, I better roll fucking good on this.

Okay. God damn it. Well, you have bigger things to worry about in your face, God. So it's tough to tell because of the fog. But this figure that's parting this thick soupy mist is again almost dressed like a noble. We're talking long black cloak silky with red trim and gorgeous. We're talking vest and like three piece suit-ish looking like this person's dressed to the nines. And they have beautiful long brown hair. At least half of their head has long brown hair. The other kind of dips into this skeletal... Ugly, if you'd like to put it that way. He's going to hold his skeletal hand up.

And you can see where it's kind of slightly coated in muscle fiber and tendon. But it's mostly skeletal. And with a final blast, this person is going to not only knock Sogath back into this portal. But the portal is going to slam shut abruptly. Kaladin is going to come back to his senses, though completely exhausted. And this figure is going to speak to the party. I think we need to have a little chat. And I think that's a pretty good time... [Laughter] Oh shit! I'm off. We just started! We just started. That is going to do it for Group B for Arc 2. Oh my god, could not have gone out a better way.

Arc 3, Group B evolves to Group Vecna. We are Group V. Group V! Guys, I worship Vecna now. Vecna is my new shop. Wow. What the fuck? Great job, Jason. Jason, oh my god! Round of applause for Jason! You guys did it! Round of applause for Jamison and Alex! Best comments ever! In the city of Odyssea, a group of disgruntled Aladrin led by Dagon stands amongst the ruins of their former great city. As they hold an artifact that could potentially turn back time for them, they take in the devastation, as many of them are seeing the city in its current state for the first time.

Would there be a reaction from everyone who hasn't been here yet? I mean, I would imagine, but I don't want to speak for anybody. Yeah, I feel like as you walk further in and just see everything, or to see its expression and her eyes are just kind of tightened a bit and she's not showing much outward emotion, but she's definitely kind of just not like this. It's kind of like a symbol to her of what the Aladrin have become, but just to see it in the flesh, it hits pretty hard. For Althea, from a distance she noticed that it's in disrepair. She remembers seeing the skyline clearly and beautiful over the ocean, and now even towers are kind of crumbling.

It starts with that thing where you hold your hand over your heart, like you're just trying to hold in your own emotions. And then as she steadily gets closer, her face gets more and more forlorn. She's not saying anything, but it's clearly visible that this is sad for her. I have my gust cantrip going, so my hair ruffles. [laughter] I look out into the area, into the town and the towers. We will return it to its glory and just keep walking with everyone, seeing the potential and not what it is, trying to kind of ignore what it is now. I think Safiya's been trying to stay focused as much as she can, but you can tell there's a tightness in her face.

If her chin could only go up so much higher, it probably would. [laughter] Viggen will turn and look at everyone. I know this is shocking for you, and it was for me the last time I was here, but with this, we're going to turn back time here and restore everything. This will seem like a nightmare, a dream past, although there's something that I've been thinking about that we should probably discuss. Now, the Yurion brings back the entire city, and if it's turning back time, all the people come back, including ourselves. We're going to have to discuss on how to handle that.

My thought was to just replace them with ourselves, as disturbing as that sounds. I don't know if I could live beside my younger self. Althea's going to step forward and put her hand on Dagon's forearm or something. We all knew what we were signing up for. We'll deal with that moment when it comes. She'll squeeze his forearm and step back and then look away. Okay. If no one else says anything, he'll probably head for the center of the city. Are we just going to activate it in the center, or is there anywhere more secure, since we won't be able to move it once it's running?

Good question. Jason, what's in the city center? Well, a lot of debris. If I were to make a suggestion, one of the Fallen Towers might actually make a better spot for this thing. The way this works is you are going to pick a date. Within a radius, it's going to essentially turn back time to that date. Now, time is still going to march forward, but it gets complex. We'll get into that in a bit. But if it's messed with or any harm comes to it, the effect ends. Otherwise, it's meant to go on forever. So if we activate it on a Fallen Tower, will it then be at the top of the tower when it's reset?

How does that work? Well, you're all dealing with this in a… you've read about it. It's very second-third-hand information type of thing, so you're kind of guessing. But if you're putting it in a tower, you at least know that there's going to be a tower around it. Yeah, that's better than just out in the middle of the road. And then presumably we can act around it and build more defenses and stuff around it. Yeah, I think the tower is probably a good spot, I agree. We'll probably want to, when it's restored, add to that security. Yeah. I mean, towers are fortified positions by their name, so… That sound good to everybody?

Yeah. Now Dagon, you're going to have to pick a date. You don't have to give me the exact date. That's my job. But… I thought of something. Okay. That I don't know why I didn't think of before, but I have a date in mind. Okay. It'll be the day before… I think at any date I choose there's going to be some sort of consequence to, but… [Laughter] Well, I'm just thinking about the gods and… yeah. There's going to be some 'splaining to do. We're a legend. [Laughter] We're trying to pick gods anyway. I would like to go back to the day before everyone disappeared.

That makes sense. Okay. So… There's some things to keep in mind. At some point you're going to need to explain to the populace what the hell is going on, because to them, the date is going to be Fall of 1169. Nice. So that puts you… [Laughter] Nice. So that puts you about a century off from the rest of the continent. So that's going to be tough to explain to people. But that's a problem for future you. I mean, Dicko kind of did that speech once before, right? Pretty much! Yeah! [Laughter] Yeah. You ready to fire this up? Uh, yeah. Let's figure it out. So after selecting a date, you guys are in this ruined tower.

If you look up… One, it's fancy as hell that the interior used to be, you could tell, very Fallout right now. But it is Aladrin construction, so… Still… Devastated Sheik is how I would put it. And the walls are going to go up about 25 or 30 feet before it pretty much is just cracked open. You could tell the upper portion of this tower fell and there was a huge mess. Dagon is going to set this on the ground, and he is going to activate it. And then I would imagine he is going to step back. You're going to hear a slow hum at first. But as this powers up, there is almost going to be a glow building to a blinding light that is going to almost erupt out from the top of it.

And it's going to dance off of these walls and into the sky. And that column of light is going to be high above the city before it starts to spread out. And there's almost this falling dome of magic that is going to encompass the city of Odysseia and just outside of it. And things are going to start happening within the city, slowly at first. You're going to see figures. It looks like there's some sort of fight going on between two groups in the city near the red dragon skeleton. But they seem to be fighting backwards. You're going to watch someone in a bush reverse stab people like he's taking his dagger out of people.

And it's going to speed up over time. And then there's going to be this blur. And then you're going to see a group removing the scales in reverse. So they're basically putting the scales back on this giant red dragon. And again, you're going to see that this is just going to speed. It's like you're watching a stream at four or five, six times speed, but in reverse. And it's going to keep picking up speed. There will be a blur. And that red dragon is going to pick itself up off the ground and fly in reverse. And you're going to see figures all over striking the dragon, it breathing fire, all that.

It is going to fall into the sky and up into the tower that you're all standing in as the debris picks itself up and reforms. The city itself is starting to rebuild. This dragon is going to disappear. And you're going to see hundreds of warforged all of a sudden in the city. Just kind of living their lives, you know, just walking around. It's going to keep rewinding. You're going to see them nailing boards over things and installing their makeshift defenses and that type of thing. They're defiling your city, essentially. Things are going to back up again, and it's just blinking, blinking, blinking.

And after a time, you're going to be staring at the city of Odyssea again. It is glittering, gleaming. This jewel on the coast overlooking the ocean. The buildings are pristine. The furniture is intact. Nothing is picked clean. And then you're going to start to see people appear. Thousands of people. Aladrin just living their lives in the city. And you guys right now are alone in this tower. No one's there with you. And then everything's going to stop. That column of light is going to be reduced to almost a nightlight glow. It is just a faint glow. And the bubble around the city is barely visible.

But there's kind of a waviness to the air. And then the people outside are going to start to just move freely. They're just going to be. And to the city of Odyssea, it is now 1169. And they're probably wondering why it's so unseasonably warm. Look at that. It's glorious. I don't think I could have imagined it any better. I picked the day before you all disappeared. And because I picked this day. And I decided to do this. It will be my responsibility to make sure nothing changes again. So during all this while watching the city go in reverse. If anything, Althea actually looks more forlorn and more forlorn and more forlorn.

As she sees all the things that the city went through. And then as it's back to the place it was. This look settles over her face. It's not happy. It's just like, this is how it is. And then she'll go up to Dagon and give him a hug. You did it. You brought it back. And pull him real tight. You know how back, but then he'll sort of pull her away a bit and look at her very seriously. I'm not done yet. And she'll put her hands on his face. My son, you are the light of my life. And you are everything I always wanted. I love you and I'm sorry that I wasn't there for most of your life.

And then she will pull him in again for another hug and kiss him on the cheek. And then she'll bring a dagger down and try to stab him in the back. (laughter) This took a turn. Okay. Would you say that Dagon would be expecting this? No. Okay. I thought they were on the same page. Oh boy. I... Okay. Next question. Would anybody in the group try to stop this? Eretice would be looking towards Thallen, right? And Sophia and seeing if they're gonna try and stop it. Thallen's actually standing knowingly and just not approaching it, kind of seeing if anyone else is going to try to stop it.

Yeah. Yeah. So let me rephrase because if anyone is going to try and stop it, then Eretice would be trying to stop them. Okay. Yeah. They're basically checking to see if anyone's stopping this because... Yeah. Do I get like a reflex check on this or something? Oh boy. This is really tough. Because this is someone Dagon trusts, right? And it's... I don't think that this would be something like if it were an enemy that were pulling you in for this. I think you'd be at the ready. I don't think you'd be ready for this. James, I love you. No, no, no. It's good. It's good.

If no one's going to stop this, Althea is going to plunge this dagger into Dagon's back. And I would imagine that there is a twisted expression of both shock and pain on Dagon's face. And between that and only having one functional leg, I imagine Dagon falling to the ground. And as this group of Eladrin stare at Dagon on the floor bleeding out, the city is going to move around them completely unknowing. And I think that's a good time for us to stop arc two and pick things up again in arc three. Holy shit. Okay, then I get my last words with arc three starts then.

Okay. When Althea drew him in for the high bear, I just had the biggest grin on my face. I was like, yes, here we go. I was cringing the whole time. My heart was beating so fast. Okay, James, I am so sorry. But during the last game I hit up everyone behind the scenes. I told them what I was planning. So I imagine what like throughout like these travels and stuff like Althea is just like drawing everyone else's side and being like, here's what's gonna go down you're on my side. Yeah, cool. But that's such a potent image to end the arc on that's really, really...

You did, you Game of Thrones me. Do you know what's cool? There's still a Dagon in the city. Yes. For one more day. No, no, no, there's a young Dagon in the city. Yeah, I know. But what happens tomorrow? I don't know. Oh, this is a reverse timeline. It's going to follow the same path unless... Unless someone intervenes like the few people who are... Here's the thing. Okay, check this out. And this is where things get super confusing and I've had two years to think about it. So, in this timeline for Odysseus, the Aladrin did what they did, right? Okay, so... There's no outside influences on the city to do what they were going to do to the city.

There is no witch in the swamp. There is no trapped gods right now. So nothing is going to hit. There's no disaster that's going to hit Odysseus because there are no outside influences on the city. No one in... Oh, go ahead. No, but I thought it just reversed time. Wouldn't time just tick forward like it did? Like you're winding up a music box? Now that it's hit this point, it diverges. Yeah. So it's a new timeline. So... We need to establish how time works. I know. Is it endgame timelines or is it Back to the Future timeline? So, okay, check it out. Back to the Future lied to us all.

But, do you remember how I said there's like a bubble around the city? So only the city of Odysseus and everything within that bubble has changed at all. The rest of the world is fine. The rest of the world, it's 1266. It's- that's the time. Only Odysseus has changed. Everyone is allowed to freely leave the bubble. As long as nothing happens to that artifact, these people get to exist. So, Susan, I think you should explain your mindset behind it because it was really cool when you clicked it to me. First, I'd just like to point out, Jason asked me today, "How do you think James is going to react?" And I said, "He's going to laugh." And that was the first question.

James? I will say that I was so glad we spent like 20 minutes talking about your like stuff and we're all just sitting back here like, "Uh-huh." Oh god. Y'all have fun. Cheers. So, James, okay, so here's the thing. Althea thinks she's sad for Dagon because he spent 100 years alone. And then on top of that, now you've pledged yourself to a demon. So she wants to give her son the best chance he has and since we're returning back time and you brought back the son from before all that happened, she wants to give her son the best chance he has without having all that misery, without her there, without being demon-possessed.

That's exactly what a good mother would do. Is murder her son. Especially when Dagon was talking about killing his past self. That was such a beautiful ironic moment. It's so good. Oh, man. At least there's still a Dagon. Yes. Yes. He doesn't know that he has a son though. Oh, yeah, that's gonna be fun. Man, there are so many. Like, okay. There's a lot of ethical stuff. Like it's like, is this even right? Is this okay? Are we doing the right thing? So there's a Dagon now that exists that never had to suffer, never had to go through a century of isolation from his own people and, you know, desperately claw and scrape to get them back only to be disappointed with who you've become versus who they were and it's so fucking cool, man.

Yeah, and so the Eladrin are still like, even if it's just one city, like a pretty powerful force. This is a game changer. The next Uminyiro, but better. This is a game changer. This is going to do a lot. But there's another city of Eladrin now too. Yep. With all the same Eladrin. Yep. I feel like there's gonna be like a war or something. Have you guys thought what your characters would do about their doubles in the city? I'm now alive, so it's great. Yeah. Hey, so is Alex. We gotta tell him. Welcome back. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, that means our boss is alive too.

You're back and you've aged. You've aged two years. Yeah. You de-aged two years. Holy crap, guys. Thank you so much for listening to this. If you're listening to this live on Twitch, wow. I hope you all enjoyed that. This next arc is obviously, there's so much that we have to unpack and there's so much we're going to be talking about in the next several weeks leading up to that. We are basically taking a little time to work on the book for the next several weeks leading up to Dragon Con, but we will be back by Labor Day, actually. So Arc 3 will be coming to you just a little bit later this year, so don't fret.

We know you guys have tons of questions and we are going to be hosting a living in theory on our Patreon completely about Arc 3. So hold those questions and we'll try to answer everything that we can in the next living in theory. Until then, please visit our Patreon at patreon.com/dandr and check things out there. We'll be posting lots of updates. There are two trailers in the works to give you a taste of what's coming up in Arc 3. And on top of that, you can preorder the Adventurer's Guide to Theria Volume 1, Alara at our old Kickstarter page. You can check it out there and preorder.

You can find it on the front page of our website at dandrpodcast.com. And of course, you can send your email and feedback to dandrpodcast@gmail.com. That's dandrpodcast@gmail.com. Thank you all so very much, and we'll see you for one more extended rest on Friday the 28th on our Twitch stream at 9 p.m. Eastern. That's Friday the 28th, 9 p.m. Eastern. We're trying to grab as many people for that as possible, and it's just basically a major decompress for us. Thank you all so much. We'll see you then.