The Break

0:03 Tonight's episode of Chris Heavens is sponsored by Scribe Quill. Miss a plot thread in your last session? Scribe Quills got you upload your TTRPG session recording and Scribe Quill transcribes it, turns it into an engaging recap, and narrates it with text to speech. Dial in the vibe with thematic background music and pick from a range of voices to match your world. Share it with your party and kick off your next session perfectly In Sync. Preserve the essence, keep the momentum, Search Scribe Quo and start recapping today. Scribe Quo Remember better play faster. I didn't think it would stay with me like this. Visions usually fade.

0:44 They blur at the edges, they soften. They become something I can lock away and label later. This one didn't. It followed me back. It settled in. It's standing right behind my eyes every time I blink. Orion was there. That part is easy. That part fits. I can say his name without it hurting Orion. See. Fine, normal. He looked healthy, safe. That matters, that has to matter. But Neros wasn't supposed to be there. He didn't arrive. He was already present, like the vision had been built around him and I was only just allowed to notice.

1:26 I hate that. I hate when reality pretends it didn't change. Orion spoke, I answered. The conversation made sense while it was happening, I know it did. I remember nodding at the right moments. Now, when I try to replay it, the words won't stay together. They crawl apart and they refuse to line up the same way twice. You know, spots. Just like a teacher watches a lesson. Patient, certain. Proud. No, proud is wrong. I don't want that word anywhere near my son. I tried to step between them. I know I did. The memory insists on it. My body does not agree. My legs feel offended by the idea of movement. The light shifted, or maybe time did. One of them bent and the other followed. Orion's shadow went the wrong way. It pointed towards Nero's instead of away from him. Shadows don't do that.

2:23 They know what they belong to. Nero's touched Orion's shoulder. No hovered, no claimed. I felt it in my teeth. That's not a place that feelings should live. I said. Stop. I know, I said. Stop. I heard my voice later, like an echo that hadn't caught up to the moment yet. Nero didn't look at me. He didn't have to. I wasn't a part of the equation anymore. Orion looked back. He wasn't afraid, he was reassured, like something had finally explained the world to him. That's when the room started misbehaving.

3:03 The corner softened, the air thickened, my thoughts stacked instead of flowed. Every time I reach for the same memory, I pull back something different. This isn't panic. Panic is loud. This is quiet. This is the sound of something settling in place where it does not belong. Neros is close. I can tell because my name feels heavier than it used to, like it's being held by someone else. I can't stay. If I stay, I'll start listening. If I listen, I'll start understanding. If I understand, I don't know what I'll choose, so I'm stepping away before that choice gets made.

3:44 For me, I need distance. I need silence. I need answers that aren't shaped like his voice. Tell them. I'll return, just not like this. If I keep talking it makes space and I can't let him have any more room inside my head. I'm sorry. Stop let's write the story. I don't need the allegory, please just tell me what's real. But nothing ever seemed to be real. But she's some colors that don't exist. Painting my painting counterfeit this every truth I knew just starts to twist can from a calm in a world like this. I've been my tongue till the words went dry. Welcome to another episode of

5:16 Crit Happens here on the iTunes, player.fmpoddirectory.com, sticker.com, TuneIn Radio and iheartradio.com. Want to give a quick shout out to Kasdea Kenzie for that cold open, an amazing cold open. As we welcome in the rest of our agents. Say hello, agents. Hey, hello. Agents. Hello Agents. Hello. Hi, we also want to take a quick moment and welcome in a new player to the main campaign. You've seen her in the Unit episodes which are still currently airing on our Spotify. We want to welcome in Michaela. Welcome in, welcome aboard.

6:01 Hello and thank you. Hello. Hi, Michaela. Hi, Michaela. So as you all remember, at the end of our last session, you there was an emergency meeting with the high leaders of the Scale Balance Syndicate in regards to the aftermath of the Pyre Hart Accord. From there, you guys all went to your separate ways into the your separate rooms in the in the inn owned by Zebulon. And that's kind of where we'll take it from there. So morning comes late in the Shatter Peaks. Cold light slips through the Tavern windows, pale, thin, catching dust in the air. The hearth is dead, Only Gray ash remains.

6:44 No one remembers hearing it go out. The Tavern feels wrong. Not hostile, not damaged, just emptier than it should be. Each of you come down to me. Rooms 1 by 1. See Zebulon. Kind of cleaning up the place from the night before, getting it prepared for the next few days while he'll be gone on his adventures with all of you. So what would you like to do from there? I'm packing up some of the alcohol at the bar to bring with another adventure. I am finally clear of my like week of not drinking and so.

7:24 Very true. Yes, you are. You are no longer part of it. Yep, you are no longer under that obligation any longer. Congratulations. I I honestly didn't think you you remembered I had a post it note on my on my monitor that today was the episode that you would be able to no longer be held to that promise. Plan. So yeah, I've got a handful of potions. I think Ogman gifted me some that I was still not able to drink. Correct. Yeah. And yeah, I'm bringing in a keg with us. A whole keg you better bring. Two I've. Got. Two in my bag, we. Can fill up the second. 1 Sure, if Harkham sponsoring it, we'll.

8:10 Do it. How much is a keg? We'll make it happen either way that. Keg party are going to happen. That's fantastic. So like I said, each of you one by one except for I believe Glaive and Harkum, you went back with the leaders of Scale Bound Syndicate. So basically what will occur for you 2 is that wherever the the party decides to go, there is a there is a kind of a fork in the road here is you will basically meet up with them on the way to wherever they decide. Glaive has a slightly new appearance.

8:51 Send it once we meet back up. Correct, and for those of you that listened to the last episode too, I'm holding myself to this. I am digitalizing his voice entirely because it sounds way cooler. I even gave him an out. I was like, Are you sure you want to do that? Man, I talk a lot. Yep. Yep. And basically what just happened is I'll just put a marker every time that you you speak as your character and it'll be fine. It's it's I haven't saved the preset on Adobe Audition not sponsored by the way. So it's, it's a highlight and click and done. So other than Glebe and Harkum. So right now we would have Mimi, Osisa, Savara, you would be the only three actually at this point that are still taking refuge at the Tavern of Zebulon. And forgive me, Zebulon, what is the name of your Tavern again? I can't remember off the top of my head. I believe it's the whisper.

9:47 Fan the whisper fan. Thank you. I haven't written down somewhere so you guys other than Glave and Harkum and also of course Michaela's new character which will have her introduced in a few moments. Once she is introduced, the three of you, Mimi, Lucisa and Sabara may come down from your rooms. And what would you like to do from there? Mimi's already cooking breakfast. Hell yeah. What are you making? What are you making? Yeah. As you wake up, you can hear. You can smell the fresh sizzling of some few eggs that Mimi has collected upon her travels. Don't ask where she got them, she's scrambling to get them together with some screaming root and some harsh our mushrooms. And it smells.

10:39 It smells sweet, which is insanely alarming because it's like an egg and protein dish, but it smells like cotton candy. It's just just serving this up on different plates. OK, this sorry, go, go ahead. This is might be a little mitigate me, but are we aware that Kez Day is gone? Not yet, not yet, correct. We'll go over that just a moment. Yeah, real quick, Mimi, give me a wisdom check, please. Just a straight Wisdom check. Wisdom there's my D20. What the fudge nugget?

11:20 No modifiers, just straight roll. You can add your wisdom modifier to it. OK, it means open my laptop. Become what? I seek to destroy an iPad kid. Wisdom, Wisdom, Wisdom, Wisdom 18. OK. So I know you kind of vaguely went over it, so explain to me exactly what you're making for the party. Precisely what I'm making for the party is a protein based dish. So it's kind of like eggs because who doesn't love scrambled eggs and basically bacon? I'm saying basically because it's not the exact same thing. And it's like scrambled together in little omelets. And it has this, like, weird red sauce. You think it's squished tomatoes? I think it's ketchup, but you guys don't know if it's ketchup or not spread across the top of it. OK, Mimi's very proud of herself. Yeah.

12:27 So Mimi, as you all begin to sit around the table, so Zebulon, Savara, Osisa, I'll dry. Yeah, Mimi will. Yeah, Mimi will place this kind of on the on the table and should be incredibly happy. And the result is almost like, like a camp favorite, you know, morale, you know, you start to feel yourself being a little bit more prepared and healthy per SE, if you will, with this meal. Oh, Cece, you said something before I was beginning. Sorry. Oh, yeah. I, I wouldn't be up yet. I'd probably just be kind of getting dressed, knock on Cassia's door, like, hey, I think breakfast is being cooked and make my way downstairs. Sure.

13:09 So as you're getting, you know, prepared, you begin to smell the, the the specific aromas that Mimi had described. You can essentially tell that breakfast is being made, going to be prepared pretty soon. So you will go to Kasdea's door. You said you're going to give it a knock, correct? Yeah. OK. You give it a, you know, a slight knock, just like a hay, and there's no response. Just like, not even like an echo of anything at all. No, there is zero response. I kind of sigh and I say, I know that yesterday was incredibly painful, but I hope you can rally a little.

13:58 And if you can't, I'll come bring you some breakfast and I'll walk past. OK ASA, you hear no response. Just kind of rub my forehead a little, just like, OK, whatever. And walk downstairs. OK, So you'll go down and you will again see Savara and Mimi. Mimi just kind of preparing the remainder of breakfast. Put it on the the tables. Debulon kind of packing up a copious amount of alcohol. And. Games and games, correct. You need dice. You need what? What's your what's your go to game?

14:40 Oh, I've got dice, I've got playing cards, and I've got 3 dragon ante. And. Dragon Chess. Oh my goodness, it's going to be a party. All right. So all of you will start to make your way to the table. And with Mimi's creation of the food I'm going to give as a benefit of this meal, everybody gets to gain advantage on the first saving throw that I asked for for everybody. And you may also gain 10 temporary hit points. Yeah. And the food, kind of almost.

15:20 So just once they're gone, they're gone. But not me and Harkum, right? Correct. You and Harkum will not benefit from that, correct? Good breakfast, Mimi. So I killed. Someone last week, but this makes up for it. Yeah, OK, OK, That was not my fault. I told him it was a little spicy. He did not heed my warning. OK, that's where there's a fire next to the like, a little fire emoji, very tiny. You know, if you read the fine print you'd see it may cause bloating, explosion, combustation everyone liked. The spice. OK, Yeah, exactly, exactly.

16:02 That's that's what I said. That's why I made that anyways. Messiah, do you want to do do you want a plate? See, you arrived a little later than everybody else. It's. Osia. Osisa Fudge Nugget. Don't worry, I I McKenna, I think this was before you. Well, actually, I don't think it was, but I don't think you were at this episode when Patty began first began playing with us. I literally the first episode, first episode that she was on. I for the life of me could not remember how to pronounce her name so bad that I had to put it in the discord. Her name and the nickname. I had to. I had to sound it out because I kept screwing it up. Osisa OK, OK, OK.

16:47 I got this redraw. Osisa, come over. I'll meet you, Plate. It's it smells great. Thank you. Oh, Kazda hasn't come up yet. Maybe. Can I do you mind if I make a plate for her too? I want to take it up to her room. Is she? Is she in there? Assume so. Maybe she's just sleeping off the other night. I I know it was rough. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, OK, we should probably actually figure it out if she's actually in there or not. Didn't hear any movement.

17:33 No, like shifting as if somebody was like, you know, rolling over your footsteps. Nothing. You know what, you're right. I I was trying to give her space but maybe it's best to just make sure she's OK. Mimi rips off the apron and goes straight up the stairs. OK. Is anyone going to accompany Mimi or is it just going to be you're just going to send Mimi up? I'm going to go with. OK, Savar and Zebulon, are you going to go with or are you going to stay behind? No, I'm staying down here, OK. I'm not getting involved, OK, I got breakfast to eat. Exactly. I got I got to make sure my weapons are nice and shiny. They're in the mood today.

18:18 All right, Mimi and Osisa, welcome to Whispers. All right, so hi. All right, so you 2 will go up to Kasdea's room and who we'll go from there. How would you like to role play this out? OK, pause. I am first OK, OK, I'm taking notes. So obviously Mimi charged directly up those stairs. Like have you ever seen what's that one that create the the guy from Kung Fu Panda like go up the side of the, what's her name, Tigress.

19:05 Yeah, yeah, Tigress. Yep. Like. She just like bounds up the side. That's that's me, me going up the stairs. She's climbing just. Poof, cool, give me an athletic check. Please can do oh that is a 24. Oh, yeah, you, you make your way straight up the stairs, bound up the stairs. You hit maybe one or two steps on the way up, but you're just bounding your way up these stairs, LC. So I assume you're kind of following back, But like, normally, yeah. I'm like, I want her just bound up the stairs like a giant cat. And I'm like drowning to myself a little like, yeah, that's, that's a good way to wake her up. Go ahead.

19:50 Yep. OK. So what would you like to do from there? I would like to gently knock on the door. Surprise. OK, Like a yeah. Like a just. Like a like a little. On Acrobat this up the stairs like dunk dunk dunk dunk up in the stairs. Suddenly, that tiny little knock. Yeah, yeah, tiny little knocks. Yeah, you you hear no response. Nothing. Oh, Cassadea, are you in there? Again, you hear no response.

20:34 Cassadea, I'm going to count to 5 if you don't answer, I'm breaking this door down 123. Mimi slams the door in on three. OK, give me a let me think here. I think we will do a acrobatics check. Acrobatics. Oh, I'm sorry, Athletics. I I always mix those two up. Yeah, give me an athletic check, OK? That is a 22. OK, you Van Damme kicked this door in and I need you to give me a perception check. Perception. OK, OK, 17. 17 You noticed that the place is trashed. What the fuck?

21:25 What the what the fuck? What? Hey. Oh, maybe pokes your head out down the hallway. It up here right the fuck now. Get through this doorway right now. OK, so you're going to yell that? Yes, maybe he's going to look for. Before we go back, before we continue, I'm going to move everybody back because you're now including everybody else. Give me one second. Well, I feel. Bill Jade. OK, so I'll have Mimi repeat her last action that she did. Hey, oh, get the get up here right now. Something's not right. Get up these stairs. Get through this doorway right now. Everybody hands on deck.

22:10 Cease is going to run fully and and kind of get into the doorway. OK. Oh. Yeah, Mimi scares me a little, so I'm listening. Yep, yes, ma'am, whatever you say. I'm like. My employee, but also kind of like bossing me around, yeah. How tall are you, Zebulon? 59 like. Perfect. I'm 75. I like push you kind of aside. Like. 2 steps at a time, head up to the door. OK, I'm looking for like, Cassadea, where she'd like keep her like most prized stuff. Like what happened to her. Is there blood? Is there like remnants of evil? Like what the fuck? Give me a perception check and do we?

22:55 Like walk into here. Muffin Yeah, I'll see. So you can give me one as well. OK, that is not as well. It's 15. I got 23. OK Mimi, you like I said, you'll see the place is absolutely trash. There's clothes strewn about, there's items of, you know, just kind of trinkets and things like that, that 'cause they keep set of scattered everywhere else. That's all you see. I'll see some of the 22 you notice on the side table by where 'cause they would have been sleeping. There is a note on the table. I'm going to grab the note. OK.

23:38 Are you will you read that aloud? Yeah, why not? OK, if you check your Discord DMS real quick, I have sent you the contents of the note. Oh, you said DMS. OK, hold on. OK, just read this out. Correct. She left a note. Guys. What? It says I need time away from all of you. This is not punishment. This is not blame. Something followed me out of Pyre Heart. Something that knows my name.

24:22 Something that knows I Orion. If I stay, I risk bringing that weight down on the group. I will not do that to you. I'm going somewhere quiet, somewhere I can think without interference. I will watch the fractures from a distance and send word if I learn anything useful. Do not look for me. Do not follow signs that feel familiar. Trust that I am doing this to protect the mission. Tell the Syndicate I am still bound by my oath. Tell them distances. Strategy. I will return when I am certain my choices are still my own. I know, she said.

25:04 Hands out the note towards Mimi and the rest of the group to to see. OK. Mimi is not really looking at anything. She's kind of just standing there, staying in the space, just thinking. I would jot a quick note into the Ledger. Kasdea gone, still on our side, almost like unintelligible, but the bare minimum to convey her message. OK.

25:46 Look like you know Kasdea's handwriting. Or anything like that. Like the verbiage of it does anybody else feel like isn't really her talking? Give me an insight check, Osisa Savara. If you're looking at the note too, you can give me that as well. Sure. I would think it's hard to say this is more. Or less. Respective, I wanted her to have at the end of that. Both of you wrote 17 OK, combined 17 from both of you, you're able to kind of work out between two of you yet that yes, this is absolutely in case they is handwriting OK. Cool.

26:33 So real quick, Zebulon, after you write in your Ledger, 'cause they are gone, still on our side, you're not able really to you kind of rest your hand on the table where the note was found. You basically you have this, you know, almost leadership urge. Like yes, as day has gone, but we still have to worry about the fractures. You know this is moving as Daya did not leave so we could just hesitate. Exactly. Yeah, I put like the bare minimum effort into conveying that information, more or less, because that's not our objective. Right.

27:14 The one thing you do notice is that you do not receive a response from the syndicate. I don't know what they would say back. I believe that. I think it's time for us to plan to approach the first fracture that we can find. Have we located any? Do we have that kind of intelligence? Yes. So based on the meeting that you had with, you know, Relvain and Careless May and the general from the Syndicate, they left behind effectively 3 battle strategies that are currently sitting still behind the bar for you, Zebulon, that's where you would have placed them.

27:59 What are they labeled? Are they labeled? Yes, they are labeled. Give me a Have you give me an insight check as well? 19 Nice. Yep, they're almost labeled. Yep, they're almost labeled Clear as day. So he will lead everybody down to the main area of the bar, have everybody sit down at a table. He will turn the the battle maps to everybody so everybody can see them. There are three locations on the map of Aurelio.

28:41 It's kind of marked in charcoal almost. Each one is almost faintly warm to the touch, as if almost the charcoal ink itself remembers what heat feels like. The first mark is designated code name the black. The black glass Causeway 2nd is labeled Cinder Reach Vault. The third is labeled code name Frost line Watchtower. Now these are all effectively think of it kind of like if in olden times when people would send letters with the wax seal.

29:24 The wax seal is in the in the in the emblem of the Syndicate, a kind of dragon esque with scales surround kind of encompassed in a shield outline almost. Personally, I'm more fond of the cold than fire, so I think I would open the last document and start reading that. OK so you will choose code name the frost line watchtower. So as you go, you pop the seal, and as you pop the seal it almost gives off like this small pulse of arcane energy. So as you open it, as you open it on. I assume that being a Tavern owner, you would have a map of Aurelios somewhere in the Tavern, correct? I think that would probably be like in the back, the war room essentially, Sure.

30:31 And which is where we are, yeah, that's going to say that's where you are. So I'm sorry, have you played? In the bar but. Have you played the new Pokémon game yet? I have not. I would love to, but no, not yet. Well, there's their their main thing is they have a battle like a meeting strategy room where it has a map of like everything. So that's kind of what I'm thinking of right now. As you pop the the wax seal on the third battle plan, this pulse of arcane energy kind of floats towards the map and begins to darken and circle around the charcoal ink that is designated for the Frost Line watchtower.

31:14 So I would open the other two right away, get that to happen again. OK, so you open all three and all three, all three points on the map will begin to almost like pulsate with like a faint red glow. I'm going to look at the map and discern the other two are probably in the action belt, right? So the Frost line watchtower is located within the shatter peaks. So where you are currently, the Black glass Causeway is located in the action belt. It is an old trade, old trade Rd. In the Action Belt and the Cinder Reach Vault, yes is also located in the Ashen Belt, more towards the southern coast.

32:03 My vote is tackle the one closest to home. Anybody else have thoughts? Joy. I mean honestly it makes the most sense to just go for the closest. OK, So you will all kind of vegan ingredients that the Frost line Watchtower is going to be the first location that you will go to Zebulon wait sponsor. Yes. Before we go, can I take like a stuffed animal or Simeon Cassidy and put in my bag? Sure, I will have I tell you what she is not here tonight because they is listening to us as we are live recording this because they if you want to send Mimi a quick DM, something of yours that you want to keep. And then if you also want to send it to me, we'll work that out kind of behind the scenes during the break as well. I'm going to make sure she heard me anyway. So if she doesn't respond within like 5-10 minutes, Mimi, just let me know.

33:07 I'll I'll send her a text. All right. But sure, absolutely, you are more than welcome to do that. OK, continue, Sir. All right, so zip you on the battle plans. Give me. I'll tell you what, before we continue, give me an inside check. To. Brother OK, this is just a normal piece of paper. Now somebody else look at that. Somebody else looks there. OK, Mimi's been pretty silent this entire time. Maybe he's going to come up beside the insanely short human and go what you got there. Nothing.

33:52 I'm going to, like, quietly doodle a little picture of that guy with his nose hanging over the corner of the page and it says Zeb was here. Now let me let me see it. So real quick, before you, before you see it, Mimi, Zebulon, you'll draw that thing and it says Zeb was here and it will just slowly kind of fade into the page. Zeb wasn't here. Mimi, go ahead, give me give me an insight check. Mimi. Oh my gosh. Sorry, that is it.

34:34 How do you math 18? 18 with an 18 you'd notice that not only is the one that Zebulon currently holding, but the other two battle plans are pages from what you would assume is another Oath finders Ledger. Mimi. I will look at it Zebulon. What's that? The papers you're holding are from somebody else's Ledger book. Really, I didn't know we could even like, take pages out of the Ledger.

35:21 Yeah, which is why I'm slightly, no, not slightly deeply concerned that this is not completely trustworthy ledgers. Are. Still, hey everybody, like open your ledgers, open your ledgers and see if you have any pages torn out of them. Sure. Everybody give me an investigation check. Mimi's got brains for once. Wow.

36:01 And an 11. OK. 20. 23 Osisa, sorry, say again, which type of check investigation into your legation, that'll be 15, OK. And then Mimi. 23. 23 OK, everybody takes a look in their ledgers. There are no pages missing from any of your ledgers. OK. Can I look at the paper and kind of like hold up, hold the paper, all the paper that's in my book and put them like side by side? Are they different or are they the same? What's your passive investigation? Muffin on a cracker, passive investigate. How far is that?

36:53 I mean passive perception. No passive investigation. It should be what is it, Seb 10 plus your intelligence Intelligence modifier. Intelligence. Plus, yeah. A solid 11. OK, what's an 11? I mean the DC is 10. It's not, It's not. You know they are the same style of page, but again you do not notice that any of your pages are missing. OK guys, so this came out of somebody's book and I'm going to write.

37:38 Down on the page is anyone there question mark? Please don't make this be a freaking Tom Riddle moment with the gosh Dang. Diary. So as as you write that, the words kind of disappear and nothing appears for about 30 seconds. However, after that you see the words agent. Let's see here the word code name question mark. I'm going to just doodle this. Ebulon was here again.

38:20 The ebulon thing will disappear once again and you'll see the word ha appear and then you'll see the words relvain here. What? What can I do for you? Relvain who? The FARC is Relvain. It's snapped their neck. I don't even know who this is. I'm snapping. I certainly wouldn't suggest that. I'm joking. I'm joking. I know exactly who this is. Nebulon. What? What's going on? The person on the other page at the end of this page is. Sorry, what was the name again?

39:07 Relvain. Relvain. Relvain. That sounds familiar. I feel like we met them at the bar one time. I feel like we know this way. Pause can. Can I write something on the paper? I promise not to be malicious. If you don't. I will pinky promise you. I will pinky promise. All right. OK, maybe he's going to stick out her pinky. We're going to do an elaborate pinky promise. It's like 5 moves in a row, yeah. I imagine something actually more of the lines if she holds out her pinky and then you with your index finger and your thumb just kind of like pinch it and then kind of shake it up and down.

39:53 Mimi is going to write Hello Relvain. I think that's what he said Relvain. Who are you? Do we know you? So as you write those words again they fade and you see the words. Know me Mimi, we were just together 2 days ago. Give me a history check, Mimi. I think this is the person you were just threatening at the bar. OK, history may.

40:37 Have been a little drunk after getting home. Chad, hang on, I wrote a 19 first 19 dirty 20. OK, so with a. Dirty. 20. So with a dirty 20 you, you know, relvain to be the high syndicate authority that you were you just came in. So last episode. You came in at the end of the episode with relevant Kalis Faye and the general with those 3 high members of the scale mount syndicate. So these these pages in these battle plans have been crafted from one of the highest ledgers available. High yes, correct. Thank you, High Empress.

41:19 Relevant. Correct. Greetings High Empress, sorry for my prior confusion, it will be off soon. OK, bye. And as those words fade into view on the on the page, you see kind of like an animated, like hand waving, like an emoji. That's it. Waving. OK, keep me updated. And I'm going to turn this Zebulon. I'm going to like put my hand on his shoulder. I'm going to go.

42:05 I'm going to I'm going to flip the paper over on its face. All of them. I'm going to go Zebulon until we fully know that we can trust these people. The fact that she just crafted this out of her Ledger, like over the course of the past, what was it? 2 days is actually insane to me if you think about the timeline. Very perfect, isn't it? So until we find out what is fully going on here and we find out all the details, do not tell her anything. We can tell her like General like, oh hey, we're alive. Hey, we made it.

42:47 That's it. No details, not where we are, not what we're doing, not who we meet, not who we're with. No words, got it. I'm going to be. Like doing. Pictures of the landscape the whole time we go. Good. Yeah, It's like. Crude drawings. Of. Where we go very crude, very very 3 year old, 3 moon, old child drawing nothing too descriptive nothing to give away where we are, who we're with. Nada Savara, what do you think about us? You know, just not fully telling the higher ups what we're up to because I have a sinking suspicion that something's going on. I just can't prove it yet.

43:38 I don't care. All right, everybody ready? Do this I need a minute. Please. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. OK. She Thrones an OCSA. Oh, Sisa, my bad. What? Why don't I just call you like something better for me to say? How about just? A sisa. Oh, Sisa. I'm sorry, Savara, if some people's names are. It's a sisa on a seesaw. See Saw Seesaw. Oh, seesaw, seesaw. Let's call you Sisa. Caesar salad.

44:19 Oh. My gosh. Sure, sure. What the hell? These. OK, Are we still up in Kez Deyes room or we're downstairs now? You would have been downstairs in the quote UN quote war room. At this point. OK, I'm going to head upstairs back to Kez Deyes room. I'm going to kneel down and I'm going to use my Ledger to do sending, OK? OK. How what would you like to quote UN quote, I guess send, I'm going to send to Kasdea, OK. And are you sending to Kasdea or Kasdea's Ledger? To Kasdea specifically.

45:17 OK, what would you like to send? I won't pretend no or understand why you left, but my oath still stands. May the gods be with you. OK, you send that and I need you to roll me percentiles. Oh, and real quick before you roll that. So there's a 5% chance that it doesn't work just for just for being honest purposes.

46:07 Zebulon, I have sent you the range of which it will fail. Go ahead and roll me a purse. Percentiles please. All right, so that 'd be like what, D100 them? Yeah, I'm sorry, D100, correct, 71. OK, so it does succeed. However, you receive no response. You wait for approximately, we'll say 10-15 minutes, but you do not receive any sort of reply. I didn't expect to.

47:01 Yeah. Cool. All right, So then I would assume that you go back down, correct? Yeah. Go back downstairs and everybody and kind of wolf down what's left of breakfast. Sure. Work it down real quick. Yeah, Yeah. Cool. All right. Also in our chat I have sent a copy of the map of which the location of the frost Frost Something Watchtower is located, The Frost Line Watchtower. OK.

47:56 Do we know anything about the region that we might want to prepare for? It's cold. It's cold, yes, so. Else there is no. Zebulon, because you at this point are now pretty familiar with the Shatter peaks you do have behind your we'll call it the bar. Behind the bar you do have a you'll pull out like a a narrow metal case inside our cold weather cloaks, chalk sticks etched with runes that you can use for possible warding or things like that, and a single crystal vial sealed in wax. Now that for you specifically is going to be one of the memory blooms, that will be something that you can hang on to as well. Perfect.

48:57 We got the emergency kit. I think we're ready. Perfect. So you guys will head out. Think so. Beautiful. All right, with that, we'll take a small break here on Crit Happens. We will be back here with the second-half of our episode, so we will step away for one moment. We'll be right back with more Crit Happens. That's right, the Kickstarter for Dungeon Trader is now open, and the basement of slow trading and character sheet chaos just leveled up. Launch your game into the next era. Trade items in game with ease. No more pausing to dig through pockets or sheets. Instantly update your character's gear, stats and inventory from your phone.

49:39 Keep your party engaged. Immersive story, minimal downtime. Back the campaign today and unlock exclusive rewards. Early access tiers unique in app merchant skins. Check out the campaign at Kickstarter now the link in the description or head to Duncan Trainer dot app. Your loot, your deals, your story uninterrupted Duncan Trader trade fast. Play deeper Kickstarter live now back today at Dungeon Trader dot app. This message brought to you by the Scale Syndicate and Crit Happens. Welcome back to Crit Happens here on Spotify, iTunes, player.fmpoddirectory.com, citro.com, tuning Radio and iheartradio.com. All right, so you guys will start making your way downtown walking fast.

50:24 OK, You will begin to make your way from the Whisper Fang. The door to the Tavern kind of closes behind everybody with kind of a dull thud. The warmth does not follow as soon as you exit the Zebulon. As long as Jesus Christ, I'm having a stroke. You leave the Tavern in the wind kind of cuts across the wind, the Ridge in hard sheets kind of dragging snow and grit along the stone pathway in front of you as it heads forward and off into the distance below you again the world kind of drops away into a white fog of and broken rock.

51:09 So what we will do here, because you are already in the Shatter Peaks, we are going to do 1 random traveling counter because you'll make it there in half a day. So who wants to be the lucky person? Am I there now? We will say that Zebulon again you're kind of keeping in close communication it it appears with the scale about or the leadership of the syndicate, you will advise them that you are leaving and to have Glaive and Harkum meet up with you. They will join up with you with everybody else before the the random encounter begins.

51:51 So to answer your question with a long winded answer, yes. Heading north? Need bodyguard? Send glaive. As you begin to start heading north, you kind of reach a a spot where the two trails kind of join together into one going more towards northeast. That's where you meet up with Glaive and Harkum. Greetings. Salutation. I heard you folksy at the hand. Runeforge, I should say. Sorry, don't mean to generalize. OK. He was just going to like, you know how a cat looks at like a hairball? And a hairball.

52:37 Like out of the corner of the eye and just standing next to Savaro. OK, that's all she's going to say. She's going to keep walking. All right, so you all just been keep walking. You make it about halfway between where you left from the Whisper Fang up towards the Frost line Watchtower. Whoever wants to give me AD 20 roll that will determine what we're doing here. With Halo, Dang it. Yeah, Michaela is not in this scene, unfortunately. We're about to meet her, though. Somebody who screamed a number.

53:18 I remember what it was. That was me 18. All right, so with an 18, the snow ahead almost kind of changes without warning. What walls was kind of just dull white, this now turning more sharp and reflected, almost like ground up glass shattered across the path. Light fractions across the surface are in thin and blinding lines. Depth kind of vanishes, and every step feels almost closer or farther than it should be, and almost for several moments the world almost kind of loses its edges. Your breath kind of fogs, and then the fog reflects back at you.

54:12 The snow mirrors faces not clearly, not fully, just almost. Impressions or angles, familiar outlines where none should exist. Behind you. The path almost looks longer than it should all. Right, everybody linked together. That path looks longer than it should. That is true glaive. Unhelpful. You are very helpful, Glaive. Who's the designated leader? Is it Zebulon? I don't go first, no way.

54:54 I don't talk. Elias, I think. I will first. OK, I'm holding on to you. Hell yeah. Everybody form a chain. Let's go. OK. So this as the snow is kind of turning reflective as the path continues on space is almost coming unreliable. I need everybody to roll me either a survival check, acrobatics check, or an arcana check. We will first start with I'm just going to go down the order of how I have you guys in Discord. Let's start with Glaive. Oh OK, Survival acrobatics or.

55:41 Arcana, correct. So just to kind of give you a little bit more as to what each of these checks will be not. Athletics. Not athletics, correct. OK, survival. You're kind of guiding yourself through the distortion in space. Space and time. OK, you're going to survival. Yeah. OK. All right, Harkum, what would you like to do? Survival check and that is a 24. OK, we're survivally. Oh, wait, I forgot to do it myself that we didn't hear anything on this five.

56:21 I'm sorry, Mimi. I'll go with Acrobatics. Do you want me to roll right away? Yes, go ahead and please roll 22 two. All right, all right. Next is going to be Osisa doing Arcana and I rolled a 24. OK, Savara. I did Acrobatics 9. And Zebulon. Acrobatics 16. OK, well first start with the failures Zebulon and Savara, both of you with your acrobatic chap you, you kind of slipped towards a drop in the path that was not seen. I need both of you to give me a strength saving throw please. Oh, I'm good at those.

57:30 I'm not. There are two separate spectrums right there. My. My bonus is like the only thing that made this OK. OK, 15. OK, I got a nine. Plus 10. You got a nine. All right, So both of you, both of you are going to take a bit of a tumble here. Shoot, you were going to take 11 points of bludgeoning damage. Oh, by ten pit points. Yep. So goodbye 10 pit points for the both of you, all right? That's right, because of my impeccable cooking. Oh yeah, everybody else, we'll start with Glave and Harkum. Both of you are able to guide yourself through the distortion with your survival checks just fine. On the other side, it kind of clears out. You kind of look behind you and almost appears like a imagine what it would look like if you had one of those old time TV static screens.

58:22 Just like in your face. That's what it kind of looks like. There's nothing but distortion and then acrobatics. There's nothing but distortion. Everybody except Savara and Zebulon is failed. I got to save that portion. OK, Mimi, with your acrobatics check, you will keep your balance in the entire time and kind of avoid the the drops on the on the sides of the path and you'll get all the way through the distortion. And then Osisa, with your Arcana check, you almost identify the spatial distortion and you're able to with your arcane abilities, you are able to reduce the effect to where you can see and get through. Awesome.

59:18 All right, any questions before we move on? You're in none. OK, so as you all make your way through and Savara and Zebulon after you fall down the the paths, you're able to kind of see everybody else get through and you're able to get through with no additional harm. So as you continue to go along the path and again, it's kind of climbing up, you know, you're at the border of the still cold and the watchtower is where the, I'm sorry, the Shatter Peaks and the still cold is where the Watchtower is located. So and you know, based on the map that the still cold does have mountains towards its border.

1:00:07 So it's starting to get a little bit steeper in height. So the frost line Watchtower rises from the Ridge like a broken tooth stone blackened by old cold. One side leans outward, held in place by iron braces. Adding long after the original build the syndicate banner. Everybody give me a perception check. Let's do this. Who rolled below a 14? I rolled exactly a 14. Beautiful.

1:00:49 It meets, it beats. All right. The Syndicate banner that was mounted on this Frost line watchtower is gone where it used to hang. It's almost warped, as if heated and bent almost by hand. There are no syndicate words to greet you, no hum, no warning, just quiet and then everybody. Does anybody have a passive perception underneath 13? Yeah, mine. I do. What's your passive perception, Harkum? 10.

1:01:33 Zebulon, yours is what? Also 10. OK, you 2 do not know this. I mean, if you want to give me if you 2 want to give me a perception check to try to beat your passive, that's fine. Everybody else with your passives. I'll wait for Harkum and Zebulon to roll before I. I also need to roll. I have 12. What did I say the check was 13? Yeah, maybe I'm going to have you fail forward on this one. I just got a 13 OK. I rolled the ten I missed. It OK but you told me I fail fine. No, no, no, you you'll fail forward, meaning that effectively we'll just continue the story on. OK, so everybody except Zebulon, you noticed at the base of the Frost Line watchtower about 15 feet in front of you movement and I need everybody to roll initiative.

1:02:33 Hell yeah, smash something. Here we go again. So who? Has the. Lower Who has the lowest initiative? I have a -1. I have. A +40. Good Nebulon, what are you doing here? Am I rolling this? No, you are not. However, McCallum, I'm sending you Adm. OK Oh my gosh, everyone. Man, you're too precious. We can't let you die. Hello Zebulon, do you have the Zebulon has the lowest initiative? No, that's plus. 3 Then I was 15. So I've got. OK, 'cause I was like who? Just I'm. OK. OK, who's? -1. Debbie.

1:03:15 Glaive, OH. My. God, you're all the -1. No, no, I have a negative 10. Gotcha. Gotcha. OK, I understood that you rolled a -1. I was like, what? I'm sorry, what? This is this is this is going to be really crazy. I like it. All right. I will like my role. Real quick, let's have Michaela. You get to go first. You get 1 action here. You Michaela, you specifically have already been sent here and you are what the party detected. So what you get to do is you get to make one action or talk is a free action.

1:04:07 However you'd like to do this or you may attack. I have to choose either or. I can't talk and do something. You can talk first, but I will. I will require a response from the party. OK, well, well, what I was going to say was OK, so. I sent you another deal real quick before you continue. OK, so you know, obviously y'all are walking up while I'm like mid fight or be getting this fight or whatever and you just see this like pink, pink haired like frantic chaos demon in front of you.

1:04:52 And not even like it's just the she she looks like she's having a rough time OK. And she's mumbling to herself. I don't do cold, I don't do fucking fighting. I don't know what I was thinking. And she has this little buzzing thing or like automaton running around her head just like kind of flying around tracking her. And so she is, she's just kind of like trying to figure out what she wants to do. And eventually she thinks she realizes she wants to do eldritch cannon.

1:05:37 I know that's not what I want to do. She's she's going to just throw a fire bolt at it. Actually, that's what she's going to do. I apologize you're you're just throwing a fire bolt at what? I don't know. Whatever we're fighting, I don't really understand. So I have us. Oh wait, am I fighting you guys? That's up to you. Where are you throwing that? You don't know us. We don't know you. It's called. You see a group approaching you. You see two. What you see are two really huge creatures.

1:06:18 You see somebody that doesn't look like they almost like they have a face, but it changes almost. You see an automaton. You see whatever the hell Harcum is. Tiny dwarf like a very tiny dwarf like. Like try struggling to get through the snow. And then you see kind of behind them somebody holding a staff with a religious symbol on the top of it. And that's that's all you see right now. OK, my, my son, I misunderstood.

1:06:59 OK, So what I'm, I'm going to do is I'm going to like, maybe get the fire bolts in my hand and be like, who are you people? What is going on? I was dropped here. I didn't know. I don't know what's going on. I signed up for something just for an adventure, and here I am. Who are you? The better question is who are you First off? 2nd, I'll put down the fire before you escalate something. Third, we're also here on slight recommendation to fix a few things that have happened. And 4th put down the fire. You're late.

1:07:44 It's breathing faster now. We need to go. I'm uh, Michaela, give me a pers, uh, give me a persuasion check. Mimi is going to turn to Osisa and just like gesture towards the person and just like walk by to see something. It's not very diplomatic. 18 uh. Anybody that wishes to not be persuaded needs to give me a competing persuasion check please. I'm down to help so I'm just I'm like sure.

1:08:25 OK, fine. 18. Place everybody extra. 17 I got a 19 I got a 19. Oh my God. We're. Seniors. Yep. So the two senior agents, Glave and Harkum, everybody else, because it's just kind of walk towards Michaela's character and Glave and Harkum will just kind of stand back. I'm cautiously approaching pause, out, forward. All right, I'm going to turn around and keep walking going where we're supposed to go.

1:09:14 I apologize. I was very confused. I thought that I didn't realize that the We were rolling initiative. For me it's. OK, I like screwing with them so it's fun. Who? Are you? Right, right. So one of these days we're going to turn out and screw with you. Uno refers card. We're going. To enter an attack stance. OK. Hey, hey, buddy. Hey buddy, how about we? How about we hear them out first? Yeah, she turned her back to us, which is evidence. Going to keep walking and I'm going to like take the oath binder Ledger thing and just kind of like wave it in the air and just keep moving where where we're supposed to go. I need you to.

1:10:01 Say it immediately stands down, Yeah. OK, perfect. Me and me and Glave are just going to kind of stick together because we're I think we have a stick with Glave, but cautiously stay behind it with my great club ready. Sure, like in my hand. Sure, Yeah, when I see the Ledger, I'll move forward. Actually, when I see the Ledger, I'll run forward past everyone and vigorously shake her hand. Oh, oh, glave, glave, slow down, slow down, slow down. I mean, he's kind of like first clave. Pet him on the arm and be like cleave, cleave, cleave. Slow down, slow down buddy.

1:10:41 I too am from the syndicate. Oh good Lord. That's nice. Field name Blave. She's just going to kind of look over him with the stain. Thanks for that bug. He's going to. Point and then I also am not live. Maybe he's going to come up next. Hey, sorry about him. He's very new to the world. I'm Mimi. I'm 3. Yes, Lee. Yep, back there, the very tall woman wiggles eyebrows. Is Savara the lady who looks like she could smite us with the hand of God?

1:11:29 Is a Caesar. The short little is Zebulon. Cut her off. I'm going to cut. Her off. Cut her off. Oh no. Wait, cried Muffin. I can't say that I'm. So oh, you can't. Oh my. God. Some. People saying that word about me just became part of my vocabulary, damn it. OK, I'm going to like cut her off and say what? I'm sorry. I'm going to say, Oh my God. But kind of all right, I'm going to cut her off and I'm going to say. Call him whatever you like, he's a shapeshifter. I'm going to cut her off and I'm going to say we have. We'll have time for introductions later. Let's just get this done.

1:12:20 OK, so you will make start making your way towards the frost line watchtower doors. The final approach to the watchtower kind of fights you the entire way. Snow fins of the jagged ice sheets which are stretched over fractured stone. Heat bleeds almost upwards and uneven pulses turning solid. Footing soft without any warning. Old ward pylons are kind of jutting from the ground like snapped bones. Their ruins are warped in half a race, no longer feasible, and the mountain does not collapse. It almost resists. Every step towards the watchtower feels closer than farther than wrong, and like every step forward almost demands intent. So here's how this is going to work. In order to only approach the tower, I need everybody to roll me a check.

1:13:20 Now what you're what check that's going to be is based upon how you approach the tower. So we will again go in Discord order starting with Glaive. How would you like to approach the tower? Is there a door like a ramp leading to a door like a normal tower? There is however kind of similar to the traveling counter. It's a bit distorted and hard to see. How far away is it? Right now we it would be about 65 feet away. 65 feet. Huh.

1:14:07 Now the path laid forward is to think of it like almost black ice. You know, it's, it's very slick, it's very hard to gain traction. There are sudden drops on either side of the path, very similar to what you had before. So how you intend to approach it based on what you do with what check I'm going to call for? I suppose.

1:14:53 Oh, I can't do that to myself, damn it. I mean he'll burn a a charge and then cast Misty Step twice and go right to the tower. OK, because of the distortion I am going to call for an arcana check I. Don't understand what the distortion is and why it would impact my spells. So basically again, remember because this specific area is a fracture in Arc arcane, you know essence and magic heavily influenced by Neros and the rest of the newly formed faction, the area surrounding this watchtower is incredibly unstable. So I guess the check is going to be called for You don't. I will say the word glitch and misty. What if I just use this an item to do it? I'm still going to call for it because of the distortion. OK, that is a 17 and I'm

1:16:25 switching to just using a dimension door. OK, with a 17 dimension door you've told me I. Can tell about myself? Yeah, any other spot within range, 500 feet. Jesus Christ, you arrive exactly the spot design. OK. So with the distortion and with a 16 you said correct? 1717. With a 17, you go to you, you cast to mention door, and you end up about right up against the watchtower we'll call building, but you end up about 30 feet to the right of the door.

1:17:16 Doesn't dimension door let you take somebody with? You you can bring along objects as long as their weight doesn't exceed what you can carry. You can also bring 1 willing creature of your size or smaller who is carrying gear up to its capacity. Does anybody not think they can get across this gap by themselves? I mean, I think the only person that would necessarily benefit from that based on current positioning would be Harkins. Zebulon. I've got some spells. I would say that Harkin would probably be the only option here because again, he has stated that he is standing right next to Clave. Yeah, but they don't have to be right next to me. Oh, it must be 5 feet.

1:18:05 Yeah, you're right. Yep. OK, I'm not going to ask. I'm just going. To do it. OK, love it the. Benefit. So Harkum and Glave will walk through the dimension door, we'll say, and again about 30 feet from the door to the right, but you effectively end up right in front of the watchtower. I missed. I look at him, I'm like, no shit. All right, Yoink. All right, let's go to Mimi is next Yoink. Crossing a gap.

1:18:49 So again, it's about 65 feet to the door. You can't. You can kind of see where the door would be located through the distortion in in the the essence of magic kind of in the air. But yeah, how you'd want to get there, how you want to get there completely after you, but then based on what you do. I'll call. I'm jumping. Aim 30 feet to the left. I'm a cat. I can make it. I'm going to use my feline. I'm getting over there. OK, give me an acrobatics check please. Means I can double my movement speed. Yep, go ahead and give me an acrobatics check please. Because I'm a on it that is a dirty 20. OK, let's.

1:19:34 See Is it Dirty 20? With a dirty 20 you will make it successfully across the way. Next will be Michaela. Have you said your character's name yet? I I I must have missed it. I think I did. What's your character's? Name next. Amber coil. OK, next will be next. How would you like to navigate this? OK. So. Probably don't, really. Can you give me another verbal description of what the hell I'm doing here? Yeah, so. Where I'm going? You're you're standing about 65 feet away from the door to the frost line watchtower. The area around the tower in kind of a circle is very distorted in magical arcane essence, kind of acting almost as like a glitch in the air where everything's kind of almost, if you're looking like through a like a kaleidoscope almost without the colors, everything just kind of appears distorted in the air again, kind of looks like you're looking through TV static.

1:20:46 OK, well I'm going to try what Glaive tried first or was going to try and do the misty step into misty step. OK. Yeah. OK, I'm going to call for two separate arcana checks because you're using missing step twice. Well working for me, I got plus 10 to Arcana so that's a 28 for one. OK. And 13 for the other.

1:21:31 OK, with your 28 you'll successfully when you use your first misty step, you'll kind of blink out in and out of existence 60 feet is or what's the misty step range or misty step 30 feet, 30 feet. Yeah, you'll go 30 feet in front of you. You're still on the on the path and then you use it again, but the 13 you are going to end up. In an area by the door that is a lot more exposed to the cold and the strain of the magical distortion, you are going to take 7 cold damage and you will end up still about 20 feet back with the second Missy step not working nearly as well as the first. Can I cast misty step again?

1:22:35 Sure, give me another account check. That's in that 20. Oh, beautiful. OK, you will successfully make it. Second Missy step right in front of the door. All right. Next will be Osisa. How would you like to navigate this? Spencer Yes. Oh, did you say something? Because I couldn't hear anything. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. So you make it in front of the door with that third misty step. You're right in front of the door. You are good to go there. We will move then to Osisa.

1:23:16 How would you like to navigate this? Sorry, forgot to end me that. That's all right. I'm going to do like I did last time, just walk straight through. OK? We are going to have you give me a survival check for that one. OK, And what's your what's your normal walking speed? Is it 40? Right, 3030. OK, so I'm going to have you make me two separate survival checks. We'll go with the first one first. OK. First one would be 24. OK, 30 feet in.

1:23:59 You're still on the path on the way to the to the watchtower. Give me a second survival check, please, 2020. OK. Is that a natural or dirty? That's a dirty 20. Is a dirty 20. OK, so you make it about 5 feet in from the door. We'll just give you the free 5 feet to get to the door successfully, all right next to Savara. I'm just imagining Savara just like taking off with a dead Sprint. Oh yeah, I mean, absolutely. Beautiful. Like absolutely just shakes the ground with her mask. Hussein, bolt the shit.

1:24:43 Just go, all right? What's your movement speed? 30 OK give. Me your first survival check please. A-14. So with a 14 you are going to be running and you start falling off the track. You take 8 cold damage I need. I'm resistant to cold. OK, cool. Then you only take four. Yeah, go ahead and take 4. All right. And then give me a I'm going to call for an insight check to see if you can if you can make headway of where the path is. OK, 15.

1:25:43 With a 15 I'm going to have you fail forward and find the path. However, on the way to getting back to the path, you do take some more cold damage. I rolled a force only too cold damage there. Oh, no. Oh. No. Thanks. And then once you are back on the path, we'll have you make the second survival check for the rest of the way. Let's go How about a dirty 20? Yeah, enough. It's a dirty. 20 You will make it the rest of the way. Oh yeah, cool.

1:26:23 And then finally, our friend Zebulon. All right, so my mask gives me an ability called Mirror step that's like a more distant misty step, but I need a mirror to transport to. So I'm going to pull a steel mirror out of my bag, I'm going to frisbee throw it, and then I'm going to use Mage Hand to catch it and then frisbee throw it again all the way across the gap and then mirror step to it. OK. That's a hell of a hell of an idea. Holy shit, this is going to be awesome. OK, first I need I'm going to have you give me just a straight dexterity check.

1:27:13 This will be kind of a tandem dexterity check to not only Frisbee toss it you know on the path, but also to also catch it with your mage hand. Effectively, this will be kind of in the same rule. We got 19. 19, OK with the 19, Yeah, absolutely. So the second one, you're going to use your mage hand to whip it 30 more feet, correct? Correct. All right, give me another Dexterity check. That rolled A1. Oh boy. Plus. 3 is 4. With a natural one, you're going to kind of, if you ever seen that, that Vine where the kids are playing Frisbee or disc golf and he just eats it into what appears to be nowhere and what the fuck, Richard? That's effectively what happens here is here the May 10 is going to kind of throw it, but let's go over it too late and it just kind of careens off well off the path. You can give me a perception check with disadvantage to see if you can see it.

1:28:19 It's a pretty it's a pretty high DC, though I'm not going to say that right now. It's DC of 18 all. Right here goes. We got a 15, so no. Yeah, with a 15, you just catch a glimpse of it, just kind of shimmering as it just gets heated into existence and you see your mage hand kind of like turn and look at you like, not bad. Yeah, just give me a little shrug, yeah? The summon the pinky kind of do that thing with the shoulders. Yep. All right. I think I only had the one mirror. Let me double.

1:29:01 Yeah. Go through your things, you see if you have another mirror. No, just the one. OK, I want to shout across. The SO was anybody. Have a mirror? Anything. Like maybe it's going to. Shut back. I mean I have a gold tooth but it's really tiny. Yeah, I mean, you know what? Skin's kind of. Reflective that's that's more plausible. I'm already. Right. Wait, I'm already on the other side, right? Hold up. Yeah, you're over here. I got some shiny ass weapons my dude.

1:29:42 That's true. I just, I take out let's just for the fun of it, like let's take out Emberfang or no. Does that always on fire? That's a flame tongue sword, correct? Hold on then. It's only it's only on fire if you quote UN quote use the keyword or the the the the activation word. For it, it's flame touched. OK, yeah. So no, it would not right now. It would not be on fire. And I keep these things. Shiny. You can. Arkham starts polishing the ice. So I I just, I take out the the great sword and I just slam it into the ground until it like sticks and stable.

1:30:31 OK, it's. Just going to kind of like, you know, actually walk by and say, what's a nice sword you have there? Just keep walking. OK, so Zebulon. Dark vision to look for the glint in that weapon there and then teleport to it. Also, real quick, I'm looking at Savara's character sheet. I think we need to figure out the IT says I'm looking at your defenses and it says you're both resistant and vulnerable to cold. Yeah, yeah, cuz something gives me. I have built in resistance to cold, so I may have. No, no, no.

1:31:16 OK, so with the with your with your flame, your flame sword, while you're attuned to it, you have resistance to fire damage but vulnerability to cold. So moving forward, I'm not going to charge the HP for it. Now you will basically just be a normal resistance or not resistance, but you'll take normal damage on cold. They'll kind of cancel each. Other Fair enough. So. OK, I had that attuned. Zebulon it. Well, is it the tune? Tell me. Look at your. Sheet. Yeah, it is. It's under my attuned items. OK. Right now. So yeah, we will say Zebulon, give me a reception check to start. We got out of 20.

1:31:59 That works for me at thirty 20/30/20 So go ahead now and give me an arcana check for your mirror step because of the distortion. That one's a 15. OK, with a 15 I'm going to say that you use your mirror step ability. However, because of the magical distortion, you do teleport to the correct length that you'd. Basically, you appear what would be right next to the Great Sword of Savara, except you appear 10 feet above it and you are going to take five points of falling damage as you boom hit the ground. Oof.

1:32:54 Well, better than it could have been and. I'll tell you what, let me appreciate the assist. Let me check. It will be a pommel to the nut sack. And a real quick shout out to our good friend Kevin at Rural Virtual Academy. I am going to roll my body die to see what part of your body you land on. Oh man. And it's going to be you're going to land on your left leg. So I am going to say, what's your current speed, 30. I'm going to say that you will have a speed of 20 because you sprained your knee. You took an arrow to the knee. No, because you'll sprain your knee. Left knee. Any healers in the chat now that? Is the iconic because my left knee is darkly injured in real life?

1:33:40 Not in real life. I mean, if you want to go to where Archie is right now and take him up by the knee, I guess. But character wise, that will be until your next long rest you will have that 10 feet penalty. Oh oh, seesaw you. Should have let me know you were going to mess it up. I could have made you fall like a feather. Next time. Would a regular heel work, or do I need to use something specific to that damage? For that, I'm going to call for a. That's what I'm thinking. Lesser restoration if you have. That I can blame my hands on you. Yeah, yeah, because basically I'm going to call this a condition that's afflicting Nebulon right now. Just kind of a off the cuff.

1:34:32 It's not necessarily a broken knee, but, you know, it didn't feel great. You know, you kind of landed on your knee on the hard ice, so lesser restoration would cure it. Otherwise, next long rest, he will take the time to care for his knee and be able to to get that back. So I'll go over to him and and hold up my symbol in front of kneel down in front of his his legs and hold up my symbol and cast lesser, lesser restoration on the injured knee. OK, I'm going to have you give me a percentile check. Once again, Zebulon, I'm going to send you a range that it will fail because of the distortion.

1:35:17 So go ahead and give me AD 100, please. OK, 86. Holy shit. OK, Zebulon, do you want to save the numbers of which it would have failed? The range was 80 to 85, so we were off by. 11 point so yes I will I will allow a fact that that spell will go off as it should Zebulon you will retain your normal speed holy hell OC so I'm going to give you an inspiration because you started to say 80 and my heart almost just stopped so all right can we get. Hey listeners, can we please get a thank you Osisa in the chat?

1:36:00 Thank you all, wonderful goddess. Very much so. Thank you, Osisa. Hashtag. Thank you, Osisa, in the comments. Yeah, it's all me. It's definitely not my goddess at all or anything. No, no, no. All right. Dante is cool too. All right, she knows how to. So at this point, including, yes, Neros and Harkum, I'm going to say that everybody is standing within 5 feet of the door. How would you? Like to play? Neros, I'm sorry, not Neros. Go away. I apologize.

1:36:40 Leave, Neros, Leave. You had me excited. The power of my pinky compels you leave. All right, So what would you like to do from there? Hold on. I would like to knock on the door and say hello. Is anyone home? Nebulon What the? Well, it's only. Harkins just opens the door and walks in. Why? Why? Why are we like this? OK slow down bro, I need.

1:37:21 Need Harkum to make me a constitution saving bro. I can't save, huh? Bro what do we always say? Don't walk straight through the open freshly door. 2220. 2. You grab effectively the handle to the door. Are you pushing or pulling? I don't know, I guess. I guess I would start to push. As you begin to ask any questions, as you begin to push the door, give me a strength check. Oh OK, that's a 20/30/20.

1:38:08 Beautiful. So with a. 30. 20 with a 3020 as you begin to push this door, it kind of like cracked because it's pole door, but you managed to push it in and kind of kind of break it a bit. And as it comes off the hinges a bit, you hear the sound of an object funk against the other side of the door. I'm just like, open the damn door, let us in. Too damn cold out here. Do you keep pushing? Yeah, I guess I can like, heed my foot into it. Sure. You kind of push the door all the way in in reverse direction and you notice that there was an axe that came crashing into the door as. A.

1:38:57 Is it a hand axe? It's just a normal axe. We'll call it a great, we'll call it a great axe. Oh, never mind then. So as you so. You think I pushed the pull door? So do you all enter behind Harkum? I would activate my invisibility mask but then yes, follow. I'm going to stealth. OK, so Mimi, anybody that's going to stealth, go ahead and give me a stealth roll with disadvantage. Mother fuck. I'm invisible and also have boots of Alvin kind.

1:39:39 Do I have disadvantage? I'll say you make that. I'm a cat. It's so, well, you know, I have boots of Alvin kind, but I have disadvantage which makes it normal. So now I still have disadvantage, correct? I'm not a clumsy, ah, human. Wait, it's going to step in and say hello? We're here. I have manners. So negating all with the stealth all of you are walking that. Might not negate stuff. No, I'm not going in with them. I'm not in the doorway yet. I'm not walking through. I'm done. No, I can't look like this.

1:40:19 Every single time there is a door and you guys pull this, Mimi's going to join the dark forces, OK? So we'll say Glave walks in, says hello, we're here, I'm here. There seems to be no response. So what does Harkham see? Are you stepping through the door too? Oh yeah, I was already in the door. Like I just walked in. Yeah, you see kind of just a an empty watchtower with what appear to be broken arrows. You do see unfortunately a few skeletons laying around as well, but as of right now that's all you can see. Can I tell where the arrows came from? No, these more appear to be broken arrows from the what you could only assume is the skeletons that were beings humanoids at that point using them almost as like makeshift swords.

1:41:30 I'm trying to fight with those cuz those are the only response that they had. OK well I am just doing keep on wandering around till I find something interesting I guess. Let somebody else take turns. OK, yeah. I mean, what's your passive perception? 11, right? 10. Ten. OK. Yeah, With A10, there's nothing necessarily other than what I've described out of the ordinary to you. Spencer, can you look at the DMI just sent you quick. Michaela not necessarily in this realm and you and I will talk about this a little bit more. In this world of Varelios, you know, magic is much more of a. Rarity.

1:42:22 An enigma, yeah, not so much a rarity, but it doesn't necessarily work in the normal ways that it does. Magic is much more powerful, but also become can become easily unstable. OK, yeah, so I'm going to walk past these idiots as they're deciding whether or not to walk in the door or not. And I'm going to say, Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys. So it's the site. It's not a spell. It's like the heat. It has memory. Somebody tuned, tuned it, like tuned the the, the heat or the magic.

1:43:04 And then just like up and left. So we should be alone. And then she's just going to keep walking. I want to be like, yeah, I'm going to follow her. She knows her way around so. OK. Oh. Yeah, I'm, I'm gonna like be kind of a little bit behind or about 6 feet we'll say. OK, but inevitably all of you will enter the Watchtower, correct? Yeah, I guess maybe it's just not going to anything and just keep eyes and ears healed. OK, not really paying attention to the rest of the group, but paying more attention to surroundings.

1:43:46 Sure. OK, so as everybody enters it, who will be the last person to enter me? Mimi. As you cross the threshold and pass the door, the door seals behind all of you with a final deliberate sound inside. Right. Frost line watchtower. The cold does not vanish, but it changes. The air is stale and warm in uneven pockets, like heat traps too long behind stone. Melted frost clings to the walls in thin, glassy sheets. Your breath fogs once and clears, as if the tower decides you are allowed to breathe. Here.

1:44:28 The floor slopes inward. Every step carries A faint vibration, slow, regular, with a pulse moving through the structure like a distant heart. Syndicate ward rings line the interior walls. Most are dark, yet a few grow faintly, not with light, but with contained heat. The sigils almost look stretched, as if rewritten under pressure. Snow that's drifted in through the cracks never reaches the floor and evaporates mid air. Iron stairs spiral upwards into shadow. Several steps are warped, softened and re hardened.

1:45:11 Chalk marks. Chalk Marks and crude stabilizer scar the stone, evidence of recent work meant to keep the tower standing a little longer. The silence is absolute. No wind, no creaking, no settled stones. Only the pulse of the watchtower. You reach the lower chamber. A section of the floor has been torn open. Beneath it, what appears to be an old syndicate conduit running through the towers core has been split wide open. Heat coils through etched channels like liquid fire, contained by force alone. The conduit thrums with energy. The I'm sorry, the conduit thrums with energy it was never meant to carry.

1:45:58 The pulse quickens once, twice, thrice. The worn rings along the walls flare in response. One fails with a sharp hiss, then another. A crack splits the stone near the ceiling, glowing orange and purple for a breath before sealing itself shut. The temperature, all of a sudden, spikes. Then the pulse stops. The silence that follows presses in hard. Footsteps are echoing from above, measured, unhurried, not rushed, not hiding. A shape emerges from the upper stairwell.

1:46:40 Tall, calm, familiar. No scorch marks, no strain. The present steadies in the air around them, as if the tower itself recognizes authority. Amber light traces faint lines along his armor and eyes, reflecting the glow of the exposed conduit below. They look at the damage, the open conduit, the failing wards. Then they look at you. A small smile touches his mouth, not pleased, satisfied. You chose frost line. He says, voice carrying easily through the chamber. Good.

1:47:24 This place was always meant to break first. He steps closer to the exposed conduit. The heat bends toward him. I wondered how long it would take the Syndicate to follow the pressure instead of the politics. Nearest rest a hand just above the glowing channels. He does not touch them. He does not need to. The conduit responds. The pulse resumes. Slower now, but stronger. This tower, it's not a weapon. He continues. The message 1 you are always going to read. His eyes lift to meet yours. And now that you're here, I don't have to leave it unfinished.

1:48:11 The ward rings scream as three more fail at once. The tower shutters, Silence begins again. And that's where we're going to end. Tonight's episode of Crit happens, right? OK. So I don't know what if I should use my fists or my rizz in this situation, because there are two roads that we can take gang. We can take that we fuck him up road or we can take the also Eros. I'm giving you a wedgie. I I don't even care.

1:48:52 You have to be able to get to me first. Entering. I could use, I could use Earthquake and just just shake the fucking tower. I have unlimited vortex warps. Yes, you see. So stab him. Stab him. All right? Get him. You know what you release our God upon you. Get him. We'll see. Get. Him all right well that's going to do it for tonight's episode of crit habits. Thank you so much for listening stay tuned on Spotify and Facebook for our Nat 20 and unwind for this episode as we kind of recap everything that we've learned so far.

1:49:34 But until then from everybody here at the P3 podcast network, I am Spencer Hart. We will see you guys next time. Goodbye. So long.