Critical Role Episode 16

Previously on Critical Role, the Mighty Nein ventured into a long-forgotten arcane research facility from the Age of Arcanum, an era of gods and mortals from nearly 1,000 years ago. They did so on the behalf of the Gentleman, a water genasi crime boss that operated out of a tavern called the Evening Nip beneath the city of Zadash. All the Gentleman desired was for them to get the lay of the land, kill any hostile forces within the facility, and return any relics they found within to him.

After solving puzzles, disarming traps, and destroying the remains of ancient undead creatures, the Mighty Nein found themselves in the facility’s deepest sanctum. There they found a deactivated teleportation circle, a corpse, a research journal, and a magical greatsword. They investigated and took some of these items, but before they could make a clean getaway, a horrific spectral creature emerged from the bookcase in the back of the room and screeched at the intruders.

Art by Julia Corsi (@bioswear)

Two-Paragraph Synopsis

The Mighty Nein fought an allip, a mad undead spirit, and destroyed the urn that contained its remains. They looted the sanctum and returned to the Gentleman’s retreat in the Evening Nip, where they handed over the research journal they found. In exchange, the Gentleman agreed to erase from the record books their crime of killing the High Richter.

They then returned to the streets of Zadash and spent some downtime gathering supplies and cavorting around Zadash. Caleb and Jester opened the lead-lined box containing the magical dodecahedron they recovered from the Xhorhasian insurgent after the attack on the Trispire. Caleb gazed once more into the eternal void within this “beacon,” as the dark elf called it, and discovered the power to affect fate within it.

Full-Length Summary

A spectral creature, its body like a tattered black cloak, appeared before the Mighty Nein and wailed in madness and pain. The creature tried to speak with the adventurers, and rasped “My secrets are yours.” It whispered a terrible, maddening secret that penetrated Beau’s mind and showed her terrible visions, hallucinations that drove her to lash out in rage and pain—and caused her to attack Yasha in paranoid fury!

This creature was an allip: the tormented spirit of a being driven to madness and suicide. This creature originally hailed from third edition Dungeons & Dragons which will be appearing in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. The allip knocked both Jester and Yasha unconscious during the encounter, but the Mighty Nein persevered. After a grueling fight, a severely wounded allip tried to escape by sinking into the floor, fleeing using its incorporeal body. Molly, however, got to the creature first! His sword, glowing with radiant power, pierced the spectral creature to its core, and its shadowy body dissipated, shredded like so much cloth.

The Mighty Nein rejoiced, but their elation was short-lived. The creature reconstituted itself mere moments later, emerging again through the bookcase! Jester got the idea that the spirit was bound to the body, just like the wisps bound to their urns of ashes. Unsure of what to do, they pulled back the bookcase, and discovered a secret burial niche. Within it, they saw a beautiful, ornate urn—and Molly instantly shot and shattered it! With the urn destroyed, the allip faded from existence.

Looting the Facility

The party took a short rest and then began to examine the treasure in the secret chamber. They found some art objects, as well as a ceremonial mantle. Its edges were singed, and it had a secret pocket. Jester found a bunch of rings and Caleb searched for any magic rings. He didn’t find any magic rings, but he sensed some magic on the sword they had found in the room at the end of last episode. It was the only magic item in the treasure hoard. After examining it, the heroes discovered that the sword was called the Magician’s Judge, an ancient weapon used as an executioner’s blade in the Age of Arcanum. It was a greatsword that can dispel magic on a successful hit—or even without attacking. Yasha claimed this blade.

This moment was a bit disconnected from the rest of the action, but after reading through the research journal, Beau asked if anyone knew of a creature called the Crawling King. Fjord made a successful Intelligence (Arcana) check and recalled a “larvae-like” worm god with a screaming human face... one of the Betrayer Gods known as the Crawling King. With that factoid noted, the party exited the research facility and made their way back to the river. Caleb continued to pour over the journal the entire way back. They piled into the boats; Yasha, Caleb, and Nott in one, with Jester, Fjord, Molly, and Beau in the other. Fjord suggested going down the river, following the current.

The party split and Yasha, Caleb, and Nott remained outside of the facility while the boat containing Jester, Fjord, Molly, and Beau went further downstream to investigate. They found a waterfall! Beau tried to poke her staff through the waterfall just in case there was a secret cave behind it. There was something back there! Molly instantly started taking off his jacket and leapt through.

All they found within the waterfall cave was an ancient half-elven skeleton with manacles around his hands and legs. Perhaps an escapee of some sort. The body was incredibly rotted and its clothing was moldy. The manacles had a rune inscribed on them—perhaps they were magical in some way. The party found nothing of worth, and turned back to reunite with their friends and to take a long rest before returning to the Gentleman.

"Consume."

As they went to sleep, everyone but Travis was asked to leave the table as Fjord experienced another ominous dream-message from his mysterious Otherworldly Patron.

Fjord floated in a dark void. He looked down in his hand and found his pact weapon—the magic blade he had bonded with in Zadash. As he examined it, light exploded around him. A massive, yellow eye opened.

“Con…sume,” his patron growled.

He glanced at the blade, then back at the eye.

“Consume!”

Fjord thought long and hard and brought the sword up to his mouth, as if asking if he should eat it. Receiving no answer from the eye, he gulped and forced the sword down is gullet. The sword began to slice his flesh… but as pain told him to pull away, a supernatural hunger told him to keep going. Blood began to fill his throat and mouth, but he forced the sword down. He looked up at the eye.

“Good.”

The eye closed, and darkness reigned. A current swept him away into darkness… and Fjord awoke in a cold sweat.

When he awoke, he resummoned his pact weapon and found that it was once again the falchion he had originally bonded with, but it had absorbed some of the power and the appearance of the magic blade he had found in Zadash. Travis was ecstatic about the development. It’s clear that Travis is loving playing a warlock and watching his own story unfold.

That next morning, Jester asked Fjord about his tusks. Fjord pulled down his lower lip and showed the stumps of his tusks. He revealed that when he was younger, folks made fun of his teeth. He was the only half-orc from where he came from, she he got rid of the target. Jester did her best to comfort him.

They began pushing up the stream, with Jester and Yasha rowing upstream to return the Gentleman’s hideaway. When they returned to the dock, doused in green lamplight, they found Kara dozing during her watch. She helped moor the boats and help them onto the dockside. They were blindfolded once again as they were taken back to the downstairs Evening Nip.

The Gentleman's Hospitality

Inside the luxurious bar, Kara asked one of the Gentleman’s other associates to see if the Gentleman himself was awake. The Gentleman was called for, and he emerged from a back room wearing a long, royal purple robe. He called it “breakfast,” but everyone knew what the Gentleman had been doing behind the curtain only moments before. They shared breakfast with their roguish patron and showed off the art objects they recovered from the facility. They tried to withhold some of the items they found, but after the Gentleman’s acute probing, Beau handed over the research notes—and then scored a clutch natural 20 on her Charisma (Deception) check to lie about the other items they found.

The Gentleman got them off the hook for the murder of the High Richter (or will in the next day or two), and informed them that if they ever needed him, they knew where he was… and if he ever need them… he could always find them. They left the Evening Nip and decided to wrap up some loose ends and let off some steam while in Zadash. Their first order of business was to visit Dolan.

As they made their way out of the Evening Nip, Beau leaned over to Fjord and said that something had been bothering her. Earlier, the Gentleman told them that Ulag had leaked information to the Xhorhasian insurgents. But why? He just wanted to get his wife out of prison. Fjord agreed that the Gentleman’s claim was suspicious, but it wasn’t anything they could look into right now.

The Mighty Nein found Dolan in his home and Caleb gave Dolan the papers that Ulag gave him before he passed away. They told Dolan that his husband was safe, thanks to the Gentleman’s agents, and now far away from Zadash. Dolan thanked them for everything, then furtively said they shouldn’t be seen together for too long and bade them farewell. The Mighty Nein returned to the Leaky Tap. A town crier was shouting about a harvest festival tournament and skirmishes occurring at the Xhorhasian border.

Shenanigans Between Adventures

From here, the party ran around town on their own, making their own fun. These events took place over the course of about a week. Fjord returned to Wren Sutan’s medical clinic, searching for the lordling, but failed utterly. He only succeeded in attracting the attention of the Crownsguard, and he returned to the Leaky Tap. Jester scouted out the temples in town, looking for which ones were the least well-guarded. The Raven’s Den, a shrine to the Matron of Ravens, was the least populated. She waited for some time, then slipped in when everyone else had left. She tried to vandalize the shrine of the Raven Queen, but was caught by a young priest, who forced her to get off the statue and pray instead. A raven appeared, briefly, then flew away when they finished their prayer.

Molly and Beau decided to try drugs! Molly produced a skein filled with dried mushrooms that he had acquired earlier… and quickly learned that they were not a safe substance! They managed to succeed on their saving throws to avoid being stunned for an hour by its toxins, and discovered that, while high in this way, they could see into the Ethereal Plane for some time. They wandered around town, completely high, while Fjord kept an eye on them.

Nott used disguise self to appear to be a normal halfling girl, then spent an hour eating lunch at a café, like a normal person. She searched for a place that could send a package safely over long distances. She wanted to send a package to the hitherto unknown location of Felderwen, packed up all the buttons, all the rings, doorknob, a brass baby bottle, all the ball bearings, and bracelets, and 50 gp. Was Nott supporting a goblin family elsewhere in the empire?

Caleb went to get more ink and paper for transcribing spells. He and Yasha made a quick visit to Pumat Sol’s shop.

Beau went to the Cobalt Soul. She surprised Xenoth with a smile. “Manners! That’s… new,” he exclaimed. She asked after Dairon, the elf that met her back at the beginning of the campaign. Dairon welcomed her, and asked why she came. After Beau stammered for a time, trying to think of an explanation, Dairon suggested… “Did you come here to train?” Beau agreed, and endured a grueling training session with her new master.

Art by Julia Corsi (@Bioswear)

Gazing into the Void

Back at the Leaky Tap, Caleb was investigating the magical beacon that the Mighty Nein had recovered from the Xhorhasian assassin a few days earlier. Jester got involved with the investigations and they decided to examine the magical dodecahedron together. Jester and Caleb linked hands and the wizard gazed into the beacon alone. He drifted into an astral void… and met a threshold. Caleb’s heart began to race, but he continued. He began to hurtle ever faster through the void until a faint gray glow appeared. He stopped before it, a mote of pulsing, gray light.

Caleb said “Father, mother, I hope I don’t let you down,” and reached towards the mote.

Jester gasped as she heard him speak. She watched a faint gray mote exited the dodecahedron and enter Caleb’s chest.

Within the cosmic environment of the beacon, Caleb took its power into himself, and he felt “probability become malleable.” A “fragment of possibility” entered his body. By utilizing the power of the beacon, he could manipulate fortune and probability, allowing him to—in game mechanics terms—reroll one roll and use the higher result, whenever he wanted. The beacon’s power could only be accessed once per day, but anyone could reach into its core and take this power.

Something tells me that this isn’t the only power that this mysterious, cosmic object possesses.

Critical Role will return on May 3rd, 2018. What will the Mighty Nein do next? Will they visit the harvest festival and participate in the dueling tournament they heard about? Will they leave Zadash entirely? And most importantly… is it Thursday yet?

Photos in this article are courtesy of Geek & Sundry and illustrations are courtesy of Julia Corsi (@bioswear).

James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He loves watching Critical Role and wants everyone he knows to get into it, too. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his very own Frumpkins, Mei and Marzipan. You can usually find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.