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Runtime Break start
3h 42m 1h 53m

Episode 97: Ancient Sins

Upon hearing that Ludinus Da’leth was indeed not on Ruidus, but was dealing with another important factor in Exandria that had been noted to be towards Eiselcross (specifically in the long-buried and frozen ruins of Aeor) to the far north of Wildemount.
After gathering yourselves, Dorian Storm was returned to the troop. Gathering some materials in Zadash after an interrogation, after making some orders and setting yourselves up for a dangerous and chilly journey, and a number of failed teleports, you managed to finally arrive on the outskirts of the ruins of Aeor.
Your guide (revealed to be Essek Thelyss, a fugitive from the Kryn Dynasty) had previously had experience wandering through these ruins a number of times. Guiding you through, you began to traverse the subterranean ice-covered layers; the strange and oddly magical, and magic-altering auras that occasionally flow through this space. You found the shattered, broken (and in some cases, still locked in time) memory of this ancient mage city.
As you began to delve towards the central portion of the Genesis Ward (in which, looking for information on this locale that came up in the interrogation; The Occultus Thalamus seemed to be tied to what Ludinus has been doing down here and where he likely will be) you investigated a Vanguard tent that had been built in one of these city streets that still remained. Investigating, you found the people within had all been slaughtered, Vanguard members, bloodily. Looking into its history and the scene of the crime, it looked like one of their own had done the deed before killing themselves, after carving an odd symbol into their chest with a blade.
During this investigation, some heavy thuds were heard nearby and as you all gathered yourselves, and darted off into the nearby shadows, some strange creature began to lumber around. This massive, elongated, gray-and-black-fleshed entity (with these sunken jowls seemingly-faceless, and this odd, bug mouth of teeth in the center of its torso) began to (seemingly stirred by the sounds and conversation you were making) look about the space. One of you, unfortunately, had a rough time hiding and caught its attention, where a number of these translucent, armored, chitinous, insectoid creatures began to emerge from its mouth and crawl across the ground in your direction.

Previous Episode: “Shadows New and Old”

  • UltragrampsOPMEnglish
    1·
    5 months ago

    ♪Episode Song References♪

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    Highlights

    • 00:11:57 Laura:“Oh, just an Essek sandwich between Orym and Dorian.”
      Travis:“The sound of thousands of pens hitting paper.”
    • 00:14:17 Liam:“Raid?!”
    • 00:15:10 Ashley puts up her hand in protest from further description of the acid bugs by Matt.
    • 00:15:44 Robbie:“Did you turn into an old prospector?”
    • 00:17:40 Marisha:(early 20th century accent)“Let’s go, baby. Come on, come on!”
      Matt rolls three misses
      You can almost hear the victory music in Marisha’s head.
    • 00:18:52 Ashley:“I hate bugs with, like, a buncha legs. Centipedes, millipedes, not cool.”
      Robbie:“Silverfish…” (shudders)
    • 00:19:55 Liam sends gross bug link to Laura
      Laura:“That’s the one! That’s the one, Liam!”
      Ashley:“That’s disgusting and I’ve seen those.”
    • 00:21:09 Laura:(to Ashley)“Just do it. Chaos.”
    • 00:23:58 Travis:(Taylor Swift Goat Scream)
    • 00:24:06 Laura:“He just needs to make a whizz.”
    • 00:24:20 Liam rolls back-to-back 1s resulting in his first critical fail of the campaign.
    • 00:25:08 Taliesin:“They be trippin’”
      Ashley:“Straight trippin’, boo.”
    • 00:26:03 Laura:“Nar.”
      (everyone):“Narrr.”
    • 00:26:21 Fan Art Moment Travis:“He just played croquet with Orym!”
    • 00:27:13 Liam:“We will not go quietly into the night…”
      Travis:(in nasal 1940s broadcast tone)“We will not vanish without a fight. We’re going to live on. We’re going to survive. Today we celebrate our independence day.”
    • 00:27:42 Hot Boi Dunamancy
      Marisha and Liam exchange the “ooh! he’s doing cool stuff!” look.
    • 00:29:16 Marisha busts out the fan:“Oh moy gyad-ah!”
    • 00:32:15 Liam:“Is there any kind of save or anything? Or am I in this guy’s guts?”
      Travis:“I will not answer you.”
      Robbie:“Back that up.”
      Orym is eaten
    • 00:33:13 Taliesin:“Anybody got some Bane?”
    • 00:33:29 Robbie forgets he is allowed to say ‘fuck’.
    • 00:35:40 Fan Art Moment Dorian floating up a bit to cast 5th level (yellow) lightning bolt is joined in an additional cast (in purple) by Imogen (Ghostbusters “crossing the streams” style)
    • 00:37:15 Marisha:(to Liam)“Shouldn’t’a gotten eaten.”
    • 00:38:07 Travis:“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Nice shootin’ there, Tex.” Ghostbuster’s scene
    • 00:39:14 Critical Role has an Honor the Cock Moment.
    • 00:40:29 Imogen’s Wild Magic Bonus Fireball
    • 00:41:09 Marisha:“Oh no!” (reference to Aimee’s attempt at a British accent “ay nay”)
    • 00:41:27 Laura:“I should’ve taken the cocked!”
      Liam:“I’m not going to say anything.”
      Marisha:“Yeah.”
    • 00:46:00 Laudna’s new ability: Void Puppet requires it to appear like someone who’s died from or near her.
    • 00:47:18 Ashley realizes that Marisha chose the sacrificed villager meant to represent Pike
    • 00:49:34 Matt’s “Butthead” voice
    • 00:52:36 Liam’s wrist catches a stray weighted dice from Taliesin.
    • 00:57:32 Fearne casts Scorching Marisha Ray
    • 01:00:32 Ashley:(blows raspberry)
    • 01:01:45 The creature attempts to siphon something from Orym “that isn’t present” (magic/spells)
    • 01:02:15 Fan Art Moment Orym escapes into a Shadow of the Colossus boss fight and eventual killing blow.
    • 01:07:34 Chetney copying a runic symbol on a piece of wood ends up being a clutch decision as the corpse begins to be devoured.
    • 01:07:46 Fearne wants “tummy teefies” from the Tomb Tapper.
    • 01:13:11 Travis chooses a battle cry for his dice roll:“Werthers!”
      rolls a 7
      Travis:“Fuck you.”
    • 01:23:57 Essek:“Watch.”
    • 01:25:40 Travis:(Texblade)“We should get movin’.”
    • 01:25:57 Taliesin:“Yippee-kai-yay.”
    • 01:30:10 Fan Art Moment Orym riding piggyback on Dorian flying through the spooky cavern.
    • 01:37:20 Matt:“You do definitely smell…”
      Laura:“Ass.”
      Matt:“Just so much of it. This is a massive asshole.”
      Travis:makes jug band hoot noise
      Ashley:“Wow.”
    • 01:38:42 Taliesin’s face goes through a broad range of emotions.
    • 01:50:33 Pâté deserves kindness, too
      INTERMISSION
      The hallway entrance here is about 15 feet wide in the area where you are. So you can go in waves of three if you want to fill the space.
      As the globules of crackling energy gently drift along with you as you step, alighting the footfalls ahead of you. Slowly, you see the unveiling of the smooth bits of marbled stone floors and the scattering of broken stone that is occasionally cast from the nearby partially-ruined fallen-in walls. The crumbled piles and the occasional gap you can see above that leads to the floor above you, up into shadow as well.
      Pressing forward, there is a slick layer that reflects the lift. Everything here is ever-so-faintly moist. The temperature is warmer than the central city and there is no frost gathering in this area either. There are a number of places in the city where, magically, the temperature fluctuates drastically, and there’s places that are ice-coated in frost and some places that are temperate and warm. This is a warm interior. That smell, that sweet rotting fruit smell is stronger here, but it has an acrid bile sort of smell that mixes with it. It’s this sweet and sick that makes you uncomfortable.
      You continue on for about 80, 100 feet or so. It’s just straight hallway, only parts of it fallen in and continuing to separate. You come upon the first open door. The blood trail is still going, It’s not super thick.
    • 02:13:47 Ashley:“Guidance?”
      Matt:“I’ll Allow It.”
    • 02:18:42 Imogen:“Dorian? You know you’re gettin’ pretty far ahead of us.”
    • 02:19:36 Laudna:“Laboratory.”
    • 02:25:28 Essek:“This region, here beneath Genesis Ward, it seems to be central to a lot of the magical research and technology that was being developed within the city. Which also makes sense as to why it’s been such a focus of the Assembly’s excavation and ‘flag planting’, if you will.
      The Thalamus was referred to as being part of this subterranean region. Once again, we were careful to not touch everything we found.”
    • 02:26:39 Ashley gets a whisper after Insight checking Essek’s statement about “his partner”. Essek reveals the name of Bren (Caleb).
    • 02:33:20 Liam:“Is it (stone inlay) as scary as a wooden chair?”
      Matt:“Could be.” (troll face)
    • 02:41:59 Liam:(Irish)“Come on, Patty!”
    • 02:46:22 Matt catches Taliesin’s RP masturbation
    • 02:48:03 The connection to Pâté is lost
    • 02:50:33 Pâté’s body is found devoid of magical essence, Chet smells fiends.
    • 02:58:45 Hijinks casting Speak with Dead
    • 03:05:09 Fearne calls on her devil associate and he has heard of Dominox
    • 03:07:30 Teven:“There have been a number of Grand Demons through history. One of our great enemies in the ancient times. We wanted to feel his ruin upon our blades, but he was not seen through the Calamity. We fear he was lost.”
    • 03:07:59 Travis gets very excited about Teven’s sniff test
    • 03:09:50 Teven:“The Grand Demon of Loathing has quite a mythology. Why would it be here now?”
      Fearne shows Teven the symbol found on the chests of victims.
      Teven:“That is his sigil. That is the Carving of Gifting. Those who offer in their final moments what he desires, their oblivion. I do not know where we are.”
      Chetney:“Essek, fill him in.” (Travis’s troll forcing Matt to voice both parts of the dialogue)
    • 03:13:32 Orym:“Metal.”
    • 03:16:22 Chetney’s nightmare
    • 03:31:45 Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
    • 03:32:39 The Pinion of Service: An Abyssal Soul Anchor developed to contain shadow magics.
    • 03:36:04 “Dominox feeds on insecurity.”
      Ashton:“We’re fucked.”
    • 03:38:07 Dorian’s nightmare begins by seeing his brother on one of the hooks.
    • 03:38:44 Laura does a little dance into the Ducreux pose at the end of the session.