Critical Role Recap: Episode 27

Previously on Critical Role, the Mighty Nein pursued their kidnapped comrades towards Shady Creek Run. Along the way, they met Keg, a dwarven fighter with a vendetta against the Iron Shepherds—the very same slavers who kidnapped Jester, Fjord, and Yasha. Before they reached the city, the party encountered the Iron Shepherds along the road. The Mighty Nein ambushed the Iron Shepherds, but the battle turned disastrously against them. Lorenzo, commander of the Iron Shepherds, impaled Mollymauk upon his glaive and left the rest of the Nein behind to spread word of the Shepherd’s power and grow their legacy of infamy.

Three-Paragraph Synopsis

Mollymauk Tealeaf was dead. Caleb, Beau, and Nott were all that remained of the Mighty Nein to give him a proper burial. His glorious coat was left waving upon a stick thrust into the soil of his grave, the only sign that a great man laid in the dirt below.

The Nein gained a new ally soon after Molly’s burial: Nila, a firbolg druid with a personal desire to see Iron Shepherds suffer. She was kind and gentle by nature, but she prepared to track them down and destroy them to a man if it meant recovering her son from their clutches. Together, Nila and the Mighty Nein traveled beyond the borders of the Dwendalian Empire and journeyed through ice and snow to reach Shady Creek Run. There, they met with Ophelia Mardun, confident and dominating tiefling who sought to spite the Iron Shepherds.

The party searched the upper levels of the Iron Shepherds, giving the slavers’ brute strength the respect it deserved, and chose to retreat back to Shady Creek Run to hire mercenaries and prepare for their assault.

Full Summary

The Mighty Nein gazed down upon the body of their fallen friend as the snow began to settle on his forehead. Beau grabbed Keg and slammed her to the ground, demanding to know why Keg didn’t tell them that Lorenzo had magic. Keg, quietly, said that she was sorry. She didn’t know. Angry and despairing, Keg declared that the Iron Shepherds had become even more powerful than she thought, and that fighting them was pointless. It was tantamount to suicide.

Funeral for a Friend

Beau went through the pockets of Molly’s coats and took his cards and amulet, giving the coat to Caleb. Nott protested, pointing out that Molly woke up (from the dead) once before and might do so again.

Given that the Iron Shepherds also took Yasha, Fjord, and Jester, Beau stated that they didn't have much of a shot against them now. Caleb didn’t disagree, but he also wanted greater things than merely wandering through the woods picking pockets. Beau, practically in tears, said that she realized Molly always left things better than he found them, even when he was running a scam, and that she always left things worse. She swore to stop “******* shit up,” and take baby steps towards being a force for good.

Caleb asked what they were going to do first. Nott looked to Keg and asked if she was going to freeze up again like she did in the last fight. She revealed that she did it once before, and it caused a man to die then, too. It’s why she fled the Shepherds before, but she’ll try not to do it a third time.

Beau went through Molly’s belongings and his coin purse. “He’s going to sponsor his own campaign for resurrection,” she said, only half-joking. She took a few things to remember him by—including his swords—and Caleb made a hole to bury him in. They wrapped him in his tapestry and lowered him into the ground. Caleb wrote a note on a piece of parchment for Molly and told him to find them through the Gentleman. He included his name: Mollymauk.

“Long may he reign,” said Beau, looking down upon the grave.

“Shine bright, circus man,” said Caleb. He found a branch, large enough to be a walking stick, and hammered it into the ground with a stone. He hung Molly’s coat from the branch, over the grave.

An Ally with a Vendetta

They moved on, and they saw an unfamiliar horse on the road, just standing there. Medium-brown in color. The horse was looking right at Caleb, and it moved in step with him as he approached it. When they were face to face, its body shifted and changed before him, transforming into a firbolg with black hair and brown skin. She had a round face with a wide nose and long, floppy ears. She had a powerful frame, and loomed over Caleb at over seven feet tall.

This firbolg, Nila, had been watching them. She was sorry for what happened to Molly, and she had a great desire to use some of her considerable power against the people who did this to him. “I just want to say that I’m ready," she said. "I’m ready to do things I’ve never done before.”

The party moved on. It was early in the morning, nearly 1 AM. On the path, they saw the corpses of slaves killed in the combat, tossed onto the road. They pressed on further, and made camp when their legs could no longer carry them for weariness. They gathered together for warmth as a cold storm passed through the forest.

Their huddling kept them save from frostbite and exhaustion, and they pushed onward through the now-snowy path. The looming peaks of the Dunrock Mountains grew ever larger as they traveled towards Shady Creek Run. At the border, a group of Crownsguard demanded to know their business in leaving the empire, and warned them that returning into their lands would not be quick or easy. It would require a thorough search.

Nila related to Nott that her people rarely relied upon her, because there was always someone more capable. She accepted that and decided to support others rather than trying to lead. Beau said that maybe this would be a chance for her to prove to herself that others could rely on her.

The Mighty Nein passed through the Quannah Breach and left the Dwendalian Empire behind. Beyond the edges of the empire was a vast wilderness: the Greying Wildlands. The valleys and mountains were a natural labyrinth of dirt and stone. Shady Creek Run, beyond the borders of the empire, was a strange and crooked town. The party entered the town in search of a brothel run by the Mardun tribe—the Landlocked Lady. The Mardun tribe was a rival of the patrons of the Iron Shepherds, so hopefully the Landlocked Lady would be a safe haven for them within Shady Creek Run.

Walking about Shady Creek Run was strange—there were no Crownsguard in their colorful uniforms patrolling the city. All of the authoritarian trappings of the empire were gone. However, most people living in the city existed in absolute squalor, driven to the wilderness by absolutely necessity. Everyone was armed here, and many kept to the shadows. This place was truly lawless—for good or for ill. The Landlocked Lady stood out from the rest of the ramshackle thorpe. Even though it was carved from the dilapidated hull of a crashed ship, it was, in Caleb’s word, “the belle of the ball.” They entered…

A Night with the Landlocked Lady

The bartender was a balding human man. He possessed an affable, if sleazy, demeanor; his first act after greeting the party was to proposition Nila for work in his establishment. Keg greeted him as Champ.

“His name’s Champ!?” Beau exclaimed.

“…His name’s Champ,” Keg repeated.

The group decided to retire for the night. Most retired quietly, but Beau got very drunk, hired a companion for the night (“I don’t care, just make her hot,” she said), and then went to bed. Her companion was an amber-skinned elf with vivid platinum hair. She introduced herself as Vorsa, pushed through the door, shut it—and the scene faded to black.

Caleb and Nott met and discussed the events of the other night. Nott told her adoptive son that she loved the Mighty Nein. No matter how flighty or cagey Caleb were to get, she didn’t want to run from her friends—because she loved them. She liked traveling with them and living her life freely and joyously, instead of lurking in the shadows all the time. Caleb responded more reservedly: “I like them.” Nott replied with a shaky smile: “That’s a start. […] We’ve used a lot of people in the past. I want to make sure we’re not just using them, too.”

The next morning, Keg approached Nott with a paper and put on a pair of crackled spectacles and gave a shaky, halting apology. The entire party gathered, ate breakfast, and resolved to meet with Ophelia Mardun, the woman that the Gentleman had asked them to meet with.

Meeting Ophelia Mardun

As they passed through the streets of Shady Creek Run, the Mighty Nein saw a group of rough mercenaries traveling through and parading their strength through the town. Keg identified them as the Grudge Gang—it looked like they were traveling towards the empire’s border, probably as mercenaries hired to support the army in the war against Xhorhas.  

They left town and traveled through the forest towards the Mardun family estate. The forest, it was said, had been cursed for centuries. Nila called a tiny blackbird from the forest and used her spells to ask it a few questions about the forest—what was dangerous in it. “Be wary of spirits,” the bird replied. “Be wary of bone-spurred beasts.”

Finally, Nila asked it where the mansion was—and the bird took off flying! The Nein gasped and rushed after it, crashing through the undergrowth to stay within sight of it until they found the mansion. It was a grand building, only showing the earliest signs of disrepair. Three people wearing simple chainmail and carrying crossbows paced back and forth through the courtyard of the mansion. Caleb approached and hailed them, and asked them for an audience with Ophelia Mardun.

After some deliberation, the guards allowed the party into the manor. It was a rather opulent home—as if it were trying too hard to be aristocratic. A woman eventually met them. She had dark gray skin and ankle-length straight black hair. Her eyes were bright, pupilless, and yellow, and two tall horns curled out of her brow. She exuded an air of power, aggression, and authority. This tiefling was Ophelia Mardun.

“You bring tidings from the Gentleman, you say?” she asked, her thick Zemnian accent providing a moment of comfort to Caleb, despite her domineering demeanor. “You have invoked the name of my comrade. You have my attention, do not squander it.”

Caleb told her that the Gentleman sent them. He said she was in need of assistance, and they intended to render it. Ophelia told her mercenary allies that her smugglers had gone missing. She suspected that the Jaggentoth family—the patrons of the Iron Shepherds—might be involved. Ophelia gave a simple command: take an eye for an eye. Hunt the Iron Shepherds, and don’t implicate her.

A Plan of Attack

The Nein returned to Shady Creek Run, but a sound caught Keg’s ear an hour into their journey. It was the faint snapping of undergrowth. Keg had no idea what it was, only that it sounded… unique. She said it was fine, and urged them to keep going. Nila, however, heard it as well, and put an arm out. A shadow moved through the dense forest, just south of them. It was like a massive, fifteen-foot-tall black bear, its fur matted and strange, and rigid spikes of bone emerged from its flesh. It sniffed and snarled and growled, then sat down on the ground… and closed its eyes to take a nap.

Nila cast pass without trace to help them sneak past the beasts… and they saw a second dire bear approach and plop down next to its mate. This monstrous beast brought the bloody and mangled corpse and began crunching down on its bones. Fortunately, the party managed to slip past the creatures and arrived at the crumbling walls of their destination—the manor of the Jaggentoth family.

Caleb looked through Frumpkin’s eyes and did a circuit of the property. The Iron Shepherds’ carts were there, and there were mercenary guards present, but none of the Shepherds themselves were present. Of course, they could be inside in one of the lower chambers of their hideout.

Nila transformed herself into a mouse and Frumpkin—as an owl—carried her over into the Shepherds’ hideout. Nila snuck through the main level of the house in her mouse form. The house was almost completely devoid of decoration, and there were members of the Iron Shepherd eating, drinking, and merrymaking within it. As she snuck through, she saw Lorenzo eating something… unlike an animal. Nila squeaked three times, her signal for “get me the hell out of here!” and Frumpkin swooped in to extract her. They both managed to escape unscathed, and they joined their party in the forest.  

With their reconnaissance completed, the entire party began to search the perimeter—but Keg tumbled down the hill like a clattering of pots and pans. The entire party booked it back to town, with Keg babbling “sorry, sorry, sorry,” the entire way.

Taliesin appeared briefly at the end of this episode, perhaps a little peeved that he didn’t have the chance to debut his new character. Perhaps it was one of the mercenaries the party could have hired? We’ll find out next week on Critical Role. Is it Thursday yet?

Unless otherwise credited, all images in this article are courtesy of Critical Role.


James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and 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 partner Hannah and his very own Frumpkins, Mei and Marzipan. You can usually find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.

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