"Broken Wing" (4x02) is the second episode of the fourth campaign of Critical Role. The loved ones of Thjazi Fang must contend with the ramifications of his past plots and schemes still reverberating across Dol-Makjar and their own lives...
Synopsis[]
Cold open[]
In a flashback to a battle against the forces of the Sundered Houses taking place some 12 or 13 years earlier during the Falconer's Rebellion, Azune Nayar and Kattigan Vale lie unconscious. Near them, Loza Blade and Tunk, the boarman, are continuing to fight as the battle rages all around them. Teor Pridesire manages to stabilize Kattigan as Thjazi Fang and Thimble run past. A sorcerer of House Cormoray summons a 15-foot dragon near Loza, but Thimble manages to break his concentration on the spell. Thjazi, however, is hit and knocked unconscious. As everyone tries to fall back, Casimir Gavendale scoops up Thjazi and brings him to relative safety with the others in a sheltered trench.
Announcements[]
- First sponsor is Hit Point Press, with Sam as Detective Clive Bridget Jones Forsyth, Scotland Yard, here to solve the case of the Deck of Many Murders. Use code "Critter" for 30% off on their spooky collection.
- Fathom Entertainment is bringing the New York live show featuring Fjord and Jester's wedding to local theaters in the US and Canada on October 15, 2025 at 7:00pm local time.
- Ongoing Kickstarter for Daggerheart Class Packs.
- New merch: Fjord and Jester sherpa fleece jackets in CR shops; Jester and Molly costumes available at Spirit Halloween shops.
Part I[]
In Halandil Fang's home, Thaisha Lloy has remembered the silver box she brought with her that Thjazi told her to retrieve from Venatus to give to Bolaire Lathalia, and taken Hal with her upstairs to get it. However, when Thimble's name was mentioned downstairs, the box flew open and shattered black ceramic began moving together into the shape of a mask. Thaisha nudges one of the fragments and a roiling mist swallows both the fragments and Thaisha, sending her unconscious to the ground. Hal immediately casts Healing Word on her. Vaelus, Bolaire, and Murray Mag'Nesson rush in along with Shadia. When Bolaire inspects the box, the fragments are gone and the box holds only a thick fog. He notes that it bears writing in a halfling language interspersed with Celestial glyphs, including a word for the Tenebral Reaches, and realizes the box is a coffin for a halfling. As Thaisha recovers, she looks at Vaelus and hears the distant call of a nightingale, while Murray uses Mage Hand to close the box. Bolaire decides to take it with him where he can inspect it more closely, and he and Murray leave together, with the box. Aranessa Royce checks in with Hal that he feels safe from Vaelus before leaving with a still-suspicious Julien Davinos. In the carriage, she tells him that his father General Raimond should be waiting for them at the manor.
Downstairs, the closest friends of Hal and his family are helping to clean up. Hal and his daughter Hero play their lyres together in a nostalgic song from the Falconer's Rebellion, "Broken Wing", as the group that had gone to rescue Thimble arrives. Thimble tearfully says goodbye to Thjazi, but then notices Vaelus and accuses her of masterminding the attack against her in search of her stone. She tells Vaelus the stone was stolen from her, and Vaelus believes her. Meanwhile, Thimble returns to Thjazi's body and sees the wedding ring he still wears on a chain around his neck, triggering memories of his wedding day with Aranessa. As a commoner marrying a noble, Thjazi was nervous in his borrowed finery, when Aranessa "gave" him his wedding present: Thimble. Due to House Royce's close connection with the fae, those who marry into it have fae protection as well. As a warrior fairy from the Gardens, Thimble decided she liked him and they went together to find her a different dress among the doll clothes.
Azune Nayar apologizes to Thimble and searches Thjazi's body for the magical item he sensed on his back standing on the gallows. When he finds it, it is a cheap piece of ceramic, not what Thimble had created, but the magic is pristine to create a perfect illusion that it was the correct item. They realize they have been betrayed, and only two who were in their group are unaccounted for: Casimir Gavendale and Talcydimir Pridesire. When Teor Pridesire hears they were working with his brother, he is surprised, saying he is not dependable. They decide that Thimble will visit the Crow Keepers thieves' guild at a tavern in Caravan Hill called the Guard Tower in an effort to talk to Casimir, while Azune will ask around with his fellow Arcane Marshals and Revolutionary Guard members to try to find Cyd. Loza Blade explains to Teor that the Revolutionary Council has increasingly ceded their authority to the Chamber of the Lords-Advisory of the Sundered Houses. House Royce has been the only voice slowing this shift of power.
Vaelus talks semi-privately (Occtis's familiar accompanies them) to Thimble, assuring her she didn't tell anyone where the hideout was or that they had the Stone of Nightsong. For her part, Thimble assures Vaelus that she had free will in choosing to partner with Thjazi, and she apologizes for having taken her stone. Downstairs, Loza tells Thaisha she is retiring and moving to Dol-Rungja in the morning, and offers to take a message to Thaisha's ancient Grandmama there. Before she leaves, she gives Teor a small scroll case containing half of the banner of the Torn Banner. As Vaelus leaves, Hal tells her that if she threatens his family again, she will live to regret it.
In the morning, Tyranny is walking through the Villa Aurora, home of the Halovars and headquarters of the Candescent Creed, encountering her three sisters on the way, who are also aspirants under different members of the household. Tyranny then reaches the front door, where Teor has arrived to speak to Wicander Halovar. Tyranny goes to Wicander's office, where he is recovering from the tension of the previous day, and tells him that a large furry gentleman with big strong hands wants to see him. Wick is nervous, but agrees. Just then, a wagon approaching the house loses a crate containing glowing white liquid that burns the leg of a worker it hits. Teor runs to the worker and easily lifts the heavy crate from him, then uses Lay on Hands to heal him. Wick arrives just in time to see this, and is thoroughly smitten. However, he refuses to tell Teor what the liquid is, saying it's church business.
They go inside to converse, and Wick realizes Teor fought against his family in the Falconer's Rebellion, but decides to forgive it. Teor asks Wick if he knows where his brother Talcydimir ("Cyd") is, but he doesn't. Just then, the Photarch Yanessa walks into the room, asking Teor who he is and not believing his effort to present himself as a new member of the Creed. She proposes increasing Wick's security forces and Teor offers himself. Wick is enthusiastic but the Photarch not so much so, and sends him to talk to the head of security, with Tyranny. When they are alone, she tells her grandson to get rid of Teor, who served under the traitor Loza Blade. Wicander asks why Thjazi was executed when he believed he was to be pardoned, and Yanessa responds that the Tachonis are moving and they need to move as well, since as their closest allies their backs are within reach of their knives. Thjazi had to die because the Tachonis wanted him to die. She believes she has made a mistake keeping the truth of many things away from Wicander so that he would walk only in the Light, and tells him she will meet with him that evening when his father returns to share the truth with him.
Break[]
- Ads for Hit Point Press, Aether & Iron game coming on Steam.
- Promos for The Mighty Nein (animated) (coming November 19, 2025), Weird Kids, Critical Role Foundation, and Beacon.tv.
- New merch: Fjord and Jester sherpa fleece jackets, 10 year anniversary tarot deck, red dice bag, game night camp shirt, sweat shorts and t-shirt, champion dice for Grog, Percy, and Essek, Vox Machina clothing collection in all CR shops; residuum dice set in US, EU, and UK; live tour merch in US and AU.
- Submit fan art and cosplay for possible inclusion in the weekly online gallery. Critical Recap releases every Wednesday on CritRole.com.
- Beacon in an escape room.
Part II[]
Bolaire and Murray have spent the night at the Archanade, a massive museum where Bolaire works as curator of the Lloy Wing, inspecting and investigating the silver box. Unnoticed by Murray, Bolaire briefly "drifts into the black box" but nothing has changed there. Murray Mage Hands the silver box open, seeing the wafting mist and learning the box was constructed fairly recently from wood recovered within the Wastes, the place where the goddess Sylandri died, with plates from the temple of the goddess Rauwyn. From this, they learn the box is the coffin of the halfling celestial Olbalad, who acted as the halflings' Angel of Death. When the celestials' creators, the Shapers, were killed, the celestials went feral and many were slain. When Bolaire drops a tool into the swirling fog within the box, it seems to fall forever. At dawn, Murray leaves for her office at the Penteveral, and Bolaire wanders into his private area of the museum where he finds several newly arrived crates. When he opens them, they hold casks of paint and a note reading, "For Hal, with all my love."
Fan art of Julien's morning, by Elaine Tipping.[art 3]
Meanwhile, General Raimond Davinos arrives at the brothel where Julien Davinos has spent the night drinking and in the company of two "companions". Julien is sullen and hungover, bearing an old grudge against his father for his long friendship with Thjazi Fang, whom Julien sees as a dishonorable traitor who mistreated Lady Aranessa. When they arrive at their home, Aranessa waits there, sharing that "the wagons" were stopped at the Dvalmar Pass. General Raimond explains that the Tachonis are searching for a young renegade member of their family who is apparently in Dol-Makjar. Raimond and Aranessa believe it would be wise to find this renegade before his family does, and Julien agrees to try to do so.
In the woods outside the city, Kattigan Vale wakes, with alcohol-induced hazy memories of the preceding afternoon and evening, no money, and no food. The strongest memory he has is of Thimble's sorrow, and he and Wulferic head into Dol-makjar and the home of Halandil Fang in search of her.
Meanwhile, Azune Nayar wakes in the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guard and begins his workday. When he arrives at the office of his captain Edrian Fazir, he finds there also Sir Harondus Einfasen of the Chamber of Lords-Advisory, who is there to discuss closing certain offices of the Guard to direct the resources elsewhere... say, for example, Azune's own Arcane Marshals. The roles being vacated, such as Gate Guardians and patrolmen, would be handled by the men at arms of the Houses of the Chamber of Lords-Advisory, and Sir Harondus himself will become the security overseer. Though Harondus shows him nothing but respect and cordiality, Azune can sense how dangerous and ruthless he truly is.
At the Penteveral, a place of higher education with a focus on magic, Murray learns that Dean Ellipides Tallbarrel has just been fired by the Sundered Houses. Murray rushes to him, and he tells her he no longer believes it is possible to do their important and necessary work there, and he resigned because otherwise, the Chamber of Lords-Advisory would revoke the license to cast arcane magic on-campus. Ellipides has come to realize there is a power greater than magic: the political power of the Chamber of Lords-Advisory. Just then, Lord Primus Tachonis arrives, looking for his son, who is a student at the Penteveral.
Back at Halandil Fang's home, the household and visitors are stirring in the morning light. The previous night, Thaisha Lloy did her best to encourage Shadia to make a move on Occtis Tachonis by assuring her that she and he were not romantic partners-- that Occtis, in fact, was a virgin. Hal comes to her room to speak to her in the morning, revealing that he was unaware of their plot to save Thjazi but suspected something was planned, and had hoped his own machinations would work. He shares that Thjazi saw something in the air just before his death, and told Hal to look out for Murray at the Penteveral, that Bolaire has paints waiting, and to look after Thimble. Thaisha did not know what was in the silver box, but had picked it up in Venatus at Thjazi's request.
Downstairs, Thimble has slept in the room with Thjazi's body, making him more presentable and promising him that she will find who did this. Wulferic arrives with Kattigan in tow, both entering through the window. As Kattigan and Wulferic wolf down some food, the group at Hal's home splits into teams, with Thimble, Kattigan, and Occtis heading to a tavern holding the headquarters of the Crow Keepers, the oldest thieves' guild in town in search of Casimir Gavendale. When Thimble asks one, "Where's Cas?", they are sent in to Solomon but fail to persuade him, and things quickly become extremely tense.
Meanwhile, back at the Villa Aurora, the day has passed with Wicander taking care of his duties with the Candescent Creed, and teaching Tyranny that the church can distill the light energy of the universe into liquid Filament that can be used to cast magic, or be ingested by people, or tattoo people (such as Wicander's own facial tattoos). Tyranny quickly establishes that Wicander has no idea what the Filament really is or where it comes from, but that he truly believes the propaganda of the church. Just then, Wicander's father Godard Halovar, accompanied by Aspirant Enmity, summons them, escorting them into the lower levels of the villa to show them the inner workings of the Prismatic Retort which is used to distill light into liquid Filament.
Fan art of the captive celestial, by Lap Pun Cheung.[art 4]
They reach a massive set of doors carved with the symbol of the Candescent Creed with writing in Celestial, or ancient Obridimian. Inside are two chained war hounds that cast Dispel Magic over them. As they move forward, Tyranny quickly apologizes for being hard to work with over the past couple months. Wicander is greeted by the Photarch, now dressed in a simple white gown. Yanessa assures him that she truly loves him, but that some things he has been told are not true. She then shows him a massive, 40-foot tall glyph-carved stone container, the Prismatic Retort. At her request, Godard removes the blindfold he always wears and beams of light shoot from his lidless eyes into the base of the Retort. The runes alight and it opens, revealing gleaming light and captive within it is a screaming, feral, 30-foot tall angel, its featherless wings outspread and pinioned, and its glowing blood being harvested, as the Photarch says, "Wicky, I'd like you to meet your grandfather."
Featured characters[]
Player characters
- Azune Nayar
- Bolaire Lathalia
- Halandil Fang
- Sir Julien Davinos
- Kattigan Vale
- Murray Mag'Nesson
- Occtis Tachonis
- Teor Pridesire
- Thaisha Lloy
- Thimble
- Tyranny
- Vaelus
- Wicander Halovar
Returning
- Aranessa Royce
- Elodie
- Enmity, Tyranny's sister
- Godard Halovar, Wicander's father
- Hero
- Loza Blade
- Olgud Akarat
- Pincushion
- Shadia
- Thjazi Fang (in a flashback)
- Tunk, a boarman (in a flashback)
- Wulferic
- Photarch Yanessa Halovar
New
- Agony, Tyranny's sister
- Casimir Gavendale, of the Torn Banner (in a flashback)
- Cruelty, Tyranny's sister
- Edrian Fazir, captain of the Arcane Marshals
- Ellipides Tallbarrel, outgoing dean of the Penteveral
- Gallant, a grad student at the Penteveral
- Kora Klepenvaisreck, presumed to be the Penteveral's next dean
- Madam Gurlizda, of The Tangled Sheet
- Lucia, of the Torn Banner (in a flashback)
- Milo, of the Torn Banner (in a flashback)
- Niveda, member of Hal's theatrical troupe
- Norma, of the Torn Banner (in a flashback)
- Sir Harondus Einfasen, Chamber of Lords-Advisory
- Lord Primus Tachonis, Occtis's father
- General Raimond Davinos, Julien's father
- Solomon, of the Crow Keepers
- Wicander's grandfather, a 30-foot-tall angel
Mentioned
- Azgra the Conqueror, Shaper of War and Orcs
- Sir Filoneus Halovar, Wicander's uncle
- Olbalad, the halfling angel of death
- Rauwyn, the Trickster, goddess of halflings
- Sylandri, Shaper of Life and Elves
- Talcydimir "Cyd" Pridesire, Teor's brother
- Tansul, god of the sun
Quotations[]
- Photarch Yanessa Halovar: (to Wicander Halovar) I thought it would be of great benefit to our house that our Scion should walk only in the Light, but there's nothing solid that doesn't cast a shadow.
- General Raimond Davinos: (to Julien Davinos) Men do make their own choices, and maybe one day, you will take an interest in why they make those choices.
- Ellipides Tallbarrel: It was the feeling of the Chamber of Lords-Advisory to the Revolutionary Council that casting magic is not necessary for the study of wizardry.
Inventory[]
| Adjustment | Count | Item | Source | Destination | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transferred | 1 | The Torn Banner | Loza Blade | Teor | |
| Stolen | a couple | Treasures left around Thjazi's body | Thjazi's body | Thimble | Thimble reasoned he would have wanted them to be used. |
| Transferred | 1 | A letter | Thimble | Halandil | The letter has "Bolaire" written on it. |
Trivia[]
- The episode shares its name with an in-universe song connected to the Falconer's Rebellion that was played in taverns and halls and military tents early in that conflict when people were hopeful for the change that was being sought.[1]
- Lilli Furfaro, a critter who is also a musician, composed and recorded a song in honor of this one. [2]
References[]
- ↑ See "Broken Wing" (4x02) at 0:48:38.
- ↑ Liam O'Brien and Alexander Ward praised the artist for it (Liam's tweet, Alexander's tweet).
Art:
- ↑ Fan art of Thimble and Vaelus, by 6ix.ty4 (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Fan art of Teor as seen by Wicander, by Odd (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Fan art of Julien's morning, by Elaine Tipping (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Fan art of the captive celestial, by Lap Pun Cheung (source). Used with permission.
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