"By Heart Alone" (E4x04) is the fourth and final episode of Exandria Unlimited: Divergence, set just before the Divergence over 800 years before the events of the three main campaigns. The group arrives in Vasselheim, where they find that audiences with both holy leaders and cruel lords await...
Brennan tosses it to Matt-from-another-time, and the first sponsor is JRPG video game Suikoden's HD remaster, which gives it a glow-up. Sam decides to give himself a glow-up as well with Handsome Sam, but Basic Sam's feelings are hurt, as are the twoLi'l Sams'. It's a Pseudo-Sam convention! Also check out the Suikoden special Tuesday, 11 March 2025.
Second sponsor is Matt-from-yet-another-time in a cowboy hat and accent promoting the Quip 360 electric toothbrush.
Next week, 12 March 2025, marks the 10th anniversary of the first livestream of Critical Role. (The 10th anniversary of the founding of the Wiki is about three weeks later, on 5 April 2025!)
Rising up, its eastern side illuminated by the faintest early rays of dawn light, its western edge still lavender and indigo, the snow and stone facing the receding night in the west, the mountain known as Heaven's Stair here in the lands of Issylra, the city of Vasselheim, this city awakens in a new day, having seen the dawning of yet another age. Walls, the outer edge shattered and laid low, some by the blows of gods themselves, scatter here and yet the city stands. Vasselheim, the Dawn City: it had seen the Founding, the clashes of the Schism, the heights of the Age of Arcanum. In these streets at one point fell the footsteps of Vespin Chloras, who would call the Calamity upon the world, and those long centuries of ruin would the Dawn City weather and survive. Now yet again, another age comes to this eternal place where mortals walk, hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm, knowing that a new day has come to Exandria.
Part I[]
As the party approaches Vasselheim, the city is seething with both those readying to flee, and multitudes of newly arriving refugees from the Strife Emperor. Among them, Fiedra notices the travel-stained Lord Callister and his young son, last seen at the dinner party in Rybad-Kol. Grenalin, the older warrior former family friend of Erro Mordaurum's parents, leads them to the Shadowbrook district of the city, where they find many weeping clerics of the Moonweaver.
The high priestess Eldanwyn is comforting many distraught worshipers and clerics, whose accustomed powers seem to have disappeared. She has sent for the Far-Seer, Volsting, but he is ill and needs healing, which she can no longer provide. Rei'nia introduces herself, saying she can help, and demonstrates by casting Cure Wounds. Nia tries to explain that her sister Liana was the mortal incarnation of the goddess, and that she is not gone but simply farther away, and mortals' relationship with her has therefore changed. Eventually Eldanwyn leads them to the keep of the Knowing Mentor, where Volsting lies ill, attended by Morgana Thundershield, Forge Keeper of the All-Hammer here in Vasselheim. Morgana tells them that no one in the service of the All-Hammer has heard his voice in living memory, and that more recently, the same was true for the Moonweaver. They had been feared possibly fallen. Nia haltingly tells them that although the gods are more distant, their power is still accessible as long as mortals retain their faith. She heals Volsting, while the other clerics watch how it is done.
Volsting regains consciousness. Nia shows him the mirror and Crokas shows him the Orb of Avalir. Volsting shares that the Knowing Mistress seems to have joined the Moonweaver behind the Divine Gate after suffering a grievous wound in battle, and that the last great battles will be fought soon, far away in Ghor Dranas. He verifies that what Nia has told them is true. Just then, Rux Tallheart, kobold paladin of the Platinum Dragon enters, and they learn that the followers of the Dragon have not heard from their god in many long years, either, but that does not trouble Rux. The Far-Seer has told them that the next battle will be in distant Wildemount against the Scaled Tyrant and the Lord of the Hells. However, the problem isn't the battle; it is that all of the gods must be found and held behind the Divine Gate, and several are missing. They must be found.
As the party leaves, a voice calls to Rei'nia. It is her mother and father, Marsa and Casimir, who have indeed reached the city safely. They happily reunite and Nia tells them that Liana is the Moonweaver, which they understandably find difficult to comprehend. Everyone goes home with them to food, drink, and rest. Outside, troops are mobilizing for the journey to Wildemount. Some time passes, with Nia teaching the clerics of the city about the new position of the gods in their lives.
One night, Fiedra and Crokas sneak out and search for the lord and his son that she saw earlier. While they walk, Crokas asks Fiedra why he calls her "boss". She raised him from an egg, and tells him he's the best prize she ever got, but he replies that it hurts him she doesn't call him her child, but her bodyguard. She is all he has, but even if she calls the other Roaches "her boys", Crokas is her bodyguard, and that hurts him. Fiedra is speechless, but then apologizes, telling him she loves him deeply and wants more than anything for him to have a better life. Crokas didn't know that, and is upset that she didn't tell him earlier. Telling her he needed a mom, not a boss, he walks away.
Fiedra is alone and desolate. She hears the Infiltrator's Key from inside a pocket and pulls it out, and the key tells her that if she's looking for someone, if he's near a door the key can find him. The key requires her to make it a formal request, however, and Fiedra complies. The key shows her an image of Lord Callister asleep in bed, his son curled on the floor at his feet. Fiedra tells the key, "It's just you and me now," before slinking to the building, and the key enters its Awakened state. She stealths into the room and transforms the key into a dagger, holding it at the sleeping lord's throat before whispering into his ear to wake him. Two burning embers appear in his pupils, an unholy light in his eyes.
Crokas has been wandering the streets and eventually decides he has to go find her. However, it takes him time to track her down. Meanwhile, Fiedra tells Lord Callister she is a devotee of the Strife Emperor and just wants to talk, but fails to convince him. He Charms her, convincing her she shouldn't harm him, and asks for the dagger/key, gently taking it from her hand and attacking, wounding her grievously. Fiedra tries to roll under the bed but on an attack of opportunity, Lord Callister hits and she goes unconscious, bleeding out. Finally, Crokas finds her, seeing the lord standing over her body, and attacks, striking him once. Badly injured, Lord Callister casts Charm on the dragonborn, convincing him to let him take the child and the key and leave. Crokas stabilizes Fiedra, but they hear Lord Callister below, telling his master he found the key at last. He is directed by a different, deep voice to: "Find them as only a mortal can. The Gate is almost finished."
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Thank goodness it's Thursday in suburbia with Beacon.
Part II[]
With Fiedra still unconscious, Crokas scoops her up and jumps down from the balcony, looking around and following a trail of blood, realizing Lord Callister is invisible. Crokas activates Stormgirdle and flies to the top of a tall building to try locating them, but is unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, Garen has been trying to find information about his erstwhile home, Uthtor. In the Brightforge neighborhood, he finds a wagon train of dwarven refugees preparing to return there, since they have heard it is now free of the Crawling King. Garen asks if there would be room for him to join them, and when asked his name, dredges into buried memories to remember: Garen Hearthheart. He then wanders toward a temple of the All-Hammer, adorned with bits of poetry and songs, but something keeps him from entering and taking the journey to faith. Outside are inscribed tablets, one written in worn ancient high Mountain Dwarven, and Garen recognizes it as coming from Uthtor. He recarves it cleanly, and the poem it holds seems to tell of the building of a Gate.
Erro goes to the Temple of the Platinum Dragon, telling Nia a bit about his parents and history while there. He is not sure where he's going from here, or what to do with himself, but he wants Nia to know he might have to move on. Nia tells him she'll stay with him-- he doesn't have to be alone; he's family now.
On the way home, they run into a frantic Crokas, carrying the still-unconscious Fiedra. Nia heals her as Garen arrives, and they tell the others what happened and that Lord Callister has the Infiltrator's Key. Nia picks up her Moon's Mirror and it enters its Awakened state. She immediately uses it to cast Commune, reaching the Moonweaver who tells her Lord Callister is a servant of the Lord of the Hells and is still in Vasselheim, hidden by his god, but they must find him before the final battle between the gods in Ghor Dranas takes place. Giving them some background, she explains that more than a century ago, many of the gods took mortal form to bring down Aeor, but some never arrived to join their siblings there. Instead, the All-Hammer had begun the foundations of the Divine Gate while in his mortal form, since anything made by gods could be broken by gods. The Moonweaver herself laid a concealment on Exandria, so that a god in mortal form could not be found by their siblings. Interlaced with this, the Lord of the Hells laid a curse that gods in mortal form would forget their true identities. When this was discovered, the Platinum Dragon charged into Exandria in an attempt to save the All-Hammer. Now, the two gods remain lost, and the Gate cannot be sealed without them, so the Betrayer Gods are seeking them as well, with Asmodeus using Lord Callister to do so.
Nia shares this with her companions and each of them begins searching as best they can. Fiedra apologizes to Crokas, telling him that he is her son. Eventually, she overhears tavern talk about a man with a key looking for doors in a chapel of the Moonweaver near Shadowbrook. About then, a copper dragon appears in the sky, shouting that Ghor Dranas has fallen. Vasselheim begins celebrating, but the party knows they now have little time. They make their way to the chapel, and Fiedra hears the key's pathetic voice whining that it doesn't want to grant that wish so they head toward it. They approach a doorway and hear Callister speaking to his "Lord". Nia feels malevolent divine energy emanating from within.
Crokas steps inside, activates the Stormgirdle, and it reaches its Exalted state. He then uses it to fire a Lightning Bolt at Callister. Erro joins him, seeing a devil hiding right behind Nia, an imp perched above, and a horned cloaked figure on the side in addition to Callister and his son Timothy. As he does so, Honor's Last Stand moves to its Exalted state, and he gives Nia a +3 bonus to AC while attacking the devil. Condemner also become Exalted as Fiedra looks in, and she uses it to cast Hold Person on Callister, telling him, "Stop fidgeting," then snatches the key from his hand. The key thanks her, wailing that he was bad, and she tells Callister's son Timothy that she'll help him. Garen runs in and begins using his now-Exalted Hearth's Hammer to strike a mighty blow against a pillar within the room, crushing another devil. The paralyzed Callister screams "Kill the dwarf!" summoning the imp's attention, but it misses. The second devil summons two more, which attack, missing Nia but hitting Garen.
Crokas hits and Lightning Bolts Callister, telling him, "Never touch my mother again," before killing him. Nia heals Garen and gives Guidance to Erro, who scimitars the devil near him. Fiedra uses the newly Exalted Infiltrator's Key to cast Invisibility, and the key excitedly tells her they have to get the little boy through the main door in the rear of the room, which will send the devils home. Fiedra, however, is suspicious, realizing the key is lying to her and on the side of the Lord of the Hells. As a deeper voice urges her to make her third wish, the rear door blasts open and behind it is the frightening figure of a wounded and bleeding Asmodeus, newly imprisoned within his realm of the Nine Hells and held at bay by the statue of the Moonweaver sealing him from entirely entering Exandria. The god attempts to lure her with promises of power and comfort, telling her she will join him eventually anyway, but Fiedra resists him. He summons the Callisters' son towards him, and Timothy tells Fiedra he was created without a soul, to act as a home for the Lord of the Hells. To enter this world, Asmodeus needs either Fiedra's permission as the holder of the key, or needs the boy as his vessel to come through to him. Fiedra grabs the puzzled child, making him invisible as well. Garen attacks a large devil.
The imp hits Garen and devils hit Erro and Nia, preventing her from regaining hit points. Crokas hits a devil, while Nia uses the Mirror to cast Greater Invisibility on herself and heals Garen. The Lord of the Hells reaches out to Garen, lifting him into the air. Erro kills a devil, while Fiedra runs with the boy, telling him he doesn't have to go with the god. Timothy recognizes there is something wrong with him, being created without a soul, and Fiedra suddenly realizes the ruby in the Infiltrator's key contains the child's sleeping soul, for which she could trade a life of potential riches. When asked, Timothy cannot promise to do good, but promises he will try, and Fiedra presses the key to his chest. The ruby shatters, releasing his soul into his body. Erro moves to Garen, shielding him from the Lord of the Hells, who instead casts a Fire Bolt into Erro, doing enough damage to kill him outright. As he dies, he thanks Garen for freeing him from Rybad-Kol. Garen takes up Honor's Last Stand from the fallen Erro before killing a devil, leaving only one standing that retaliates against him.
Crokas picks up Erro's body and tells the Lord of the Hells, in the Draconic that Erro taught him, "Change is coming, and you are not that change." He kills the imp on his way out. Nia uses Major Image to make the statue of the Moonweaver tell Asmodeus, "Do not fall victim to your folly. You will not, you cannot, and you have not won!" However, instead of being an illusion, the statue actually becomes the goddess, to the horror of Asmodeus who believed she had abandoned the world forever. She tells him simply, "I lied," before pushing him back into the Hells and closing the portal.
The party leaves the chapel, bearing Erro's body. Outside, divine protection is encircling the world, and the populace is celebrating. In the following months and years, Erro's body is laid to rest beside his wife Donaea in Snowgrave Pass of the Stormpoint Mountains. Fiedra eventually returns to Gwessar, reuniting with the Roaches and the other survivors of Torm's Hill, accompanied by Crokas and Timothy (whom she adopts). When Timothy is 14 or 15, they meet the leader of a group of marauders with a roach tattoo: Kephekedriel, who decides where they are isn't a bad place to start being nice. Eventually, Crokas goes off to figure out who he is without Fiedra, traveling to Wildemount to join and train with a monastery there, taking the Orb of Avalir with him and contributing to the foundation of the Cobalt Soul. Nia continues teaching the clerics of Vasselheim how to negotiate their new relationship with the gods. One day, she runs into Ondetra, her former patient in Torm's Hill, and they build a relationship.
Garen remains in Vasselheim, creating a memorial statue of Erro holding aloft Honor's Last Stand so that it cannot be taken, but only given by whatever god chooses to do so. He travels back to Gwessar in search of his home of Uthtor, and helps to found the city of Kraghammer among its ruins. Eventually Desmond Dragonstrike asks him to travel to K'Tawl Bay to aid the dwarves there in establishing a town called Bend in the middle of a swamp, and Garen reluctantly agrees, before he leaves creating a stone arch over the entrance of the city, bearing the poem he first read in Vasselheim and leaving a blessing on Kraghammer forever.
Eventually, Garen arrives in the K'Tawl Swamp, encountering Fiedra among the criminal element of the town being built there. One day, Garen is helping to build a gate within a farm wall when a traveling Expositor from Vasselheim asks what the name of the town is. Garen replies, "It's still Bend," and the name is recorded as "Stilben". Later, a figure approaches him: Erro, looking no older, who greets him. Garen is taken aback, and Erro tells him he has been searching for him. Transparent golden wings flare out behind him, revealing the dragonborn as the mortal avatar of the Platinum Dragon. It took Erro his full mortal life to remember his true identity, and it is now time for Garen to do the same. Their wars have harmed their children, and they must trust them to be stewards of the world Garen, the All-Hammer, created for them. In his godly form, the Platinum Dragon takes the All-Hammer on his back, flying him first to the valley near Torm's Hill, then to a volcanic ocean island, icy ruins on a frozen expanse, a city with a volcanic crater in its center, islands moving in the misty sea-- showing him the world he created for an endless time. They return where they left from, with Erro appearing as he did when Garen met him in the prison. Erro tells Garen all of his works and deeds have served as prologue to this moment. His humble life in service of the good shall serve as the keystone to the Gate, which Erro steps through before turning.
Garen carefully places the final keystone, locking it in to protect everything they've witnessed and created. He drops his hammer, stepping through to join his brother on the other side, knowing that Exandria is in the hands of those who love it.
Crokas: (to a frightened priestess) Learn to learn again.[1]
Brennan Lee Mulligan: The miracle is that these spells of healing and of communion with the forces of nature and divinity, in all the preceding ages of Exandria, were heartfelt requests from the followers of these divinities for their direct intercession. Nia, through and mediated by her love of her sister, the Moonweaver, shows that that divine source lives in a mortal heart as well, and it is her belief that intercedes on her own behalf. That belief that there is a reunion coming on the moon, far away in its shining silver light, that her and her sister will be reunited. And that, for the first time, does not need to be literal, does not need to feel the hand of the divine come crashing down. There is divinity in that belief itself, and that heals the Far-Seer.[2]
Volsting: Knowledge is a heady brew, best consumed by and shared in equal parts by all, and not hoarded by the very few at the expense of those with little.[3]
Crokas: (to Fiedra) I needed a mom. Not to fight for a boss.[4]
Timothy: I wouldn't help me if I was you. Fiedra: But I will.[5]
Timothy(to a fellow child) I was born to be a home for the devil![6]
The inscription outside Vasselheim's temple of the All-Hammer (copied onto an arch over the entrance of Kraghammer): "The Gate is built by heart alone, though hearts be held by flesh and bone, and flesh and bone by earth and stone. The door we make, when lock we break will bridge the waters, roads to take. The stones that stand to staunch the flood, freedom found by toil and blood. By stone betrayed, the seal is made. The hand that holds, the heart that prayed, the stairs it shaped, the debts it paid. The gate is shaped, the keystone laid."[7]
The Platinum Dragon: (to Garen, the All-Hammer) "I searched for you for quite some time. It took my whole entire mortal life to remember who I was." And transparent golden wings flare out behind his back and vanish away. "And now it's time for you to do the same, my brother."[8]
The Platinum Dragon: (to the All-Hammer) It is time we entrust our children to be stewards of this world that you created. The All-Hammer: I look forward to seeing what they can make now that we've given them a nudge.[9]
Fan art of Garen Hearthheart with the world he shaped in his hands, by GalacticJonah.[art 3]
Brennan Lee Mulligan: (narrating to the All-Hammer/Matthew Mercer) You ride on the Platinum Dragon's back, seeing a world shaped by your hand. [...] Those voices as you drifted off to sleep telling you that they were grateful, telling you that they were scared, asking you to shape something for them so that they might have the tools to know that they were heroes. A valley for free folk, the mountains and peaks shaped by the loving hands of the All-Hammer. What a world he made.[10]
Liam: (as the Platinum Dragon narrating to Matt, as the All-Hammer) You lose track of time sailing through all of your creations and after a time, we pass through another bank of clouds and your vision obscures and returns. And you stand in that same spot of work, and Erro now looks exactly the way he did the moment you met him in a prison all those years ago, filthy and bedraggled and covered in dust. Your friend and brother and kin. "All of your works and deeds have served as prologue to this moment. A humble life in service of the good shall serve as keystone to this gate." And I nod down at this gate that you've been building and I step through ahead of you five or six feet and turn around. "There's only one thing left to do, my friend." Matt: He goes. As old as his visage is, and there is a quiet, ageless strength and assurance to his movement as he carefully places the final keystone. Locking in that solid final piece with communal design. A necessary gate to protect all that we've witnessed and all that we've created. And he drops that hammer, which sinks with a heavy impact, as he steps through to join you, clasping your shoulder. Brennan Lee Mulligan: Two brothers from eternity until forever stride past the gate into the great beyond, knowing that Exandria is in good hands, ever loved and cherished by all who will come from this day until the final days of creation. May they be far, far removed. Stories abound. Adventures unfold. The watchful gaze of the gods giving light to those who use their stories to find the way.[11]
Trivia[]
In Sam Riegel's ad read at the beginning of the episode, the "Little Sams" are played by his real life children Max and Kestrel Riegel, who have appeared in an ad for Beacon, had guest appearances on the main stream, and provided voices for The Legend of Vox Machina. "Basic Sam" is played by Morgan Peter Brown,[12] who plays Sam's understudy in the ad read for "Downfall: Part One" (3x99) and the father of a typical suburban family in a Beacon ad. "Handsome Sam" was Andy Bean.
Exandria Unlimited Cooldown Divergence E4 at 16:16 (subscription required) (Transcript).