"Reunion & Revelation" (3x30) is the thirtieth episode of the third campaign of Critical Role. Bells Hells entangle themselves further in dangerous Fey business as they ride across the treacherous Hellcatch Valley to find answers to a growing mystery…
Synopsis[]
Announcements[]
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- Merch Alert! "Clue: Critical Role" game (virtual depiction) is now available in the US and coming soon to Canada. Also, new Bells Hells and Orym t-shirts and ankle socks! "Clue" has the seven Mighty Nein characters... what about Matt? Per Travis, "Fuck that guy." Good way to start a session!
Previously on Critical Role[]
Last we left off: Bells Hells trekked to the city of Bassuras in the Hellcatch Valley in search of Armand Treshi, who had escaped Jrusar as a fugitive. You were sent by Lord Eshteross to go retrieve him to bring him to justice. While there, you made a friend named Dusk who had a weird tangential history to Fearne's family. Along with you they traveled, and you met Birdie Calloway, upon which realizing that this individual Dusk was not who they seemed and was actually an Unseelie assassin, sent to wipe out the Calloway bloodline and retrieve something that your parents had stolen from the Unseelie.
After some tense conversation and some uncertainty of who to trust, you made a deal with the individual known as Yu, who was the actual individual behind Dusk, that in 30 or so days they would return, in which the crown that would no longer be necessary for what seems to be the coming Apogee Solstice could be returned to the Unseelie and you would be left unharmed. Now after this arrangement had been made and they were let to leave, some quick catching up was had between you and your mother, while the rest of you took the rest of the day to gather your things and prepare for the following day's journey, in which Birdie Calloway was going to lead you to the hideout where she and Fearne's father currently reside and are building something with their seemingly long-term ally, Ira Wendagoth, the Nightmare King.
So, you gathered your single now-repaired skirmish-crawler. After briefly leaving and forgetting and then returning for your delightful new friend and ally Hondir, you made your way out of the city to the east, tearing across the open badlands that is the Hellcatch, following her and her crawler towards this location.
Part I[]
The party heads out of town on their crawlers, Birdie Calloway leading the way toward the edge of the mesa and a bridge crossing the ravine to another, smaller mesa. Coming the opposite way is another skirmish-crawler. As it passes at high speed, they notice red streaks coming down from the eyes of the driver - the mark of rank of the Fist of the Ruiner gang in Bassuras. Orym notices a figure standing on the mesa they are approaching, and a puff of smoke like a flare rising behind them. As they reach the other end of the bridge, a metal barrier rises in front of them, but both vehicles evade it with minimal damage. However, a much larger three-legged, gun-equipped crawler vehicle emerges from the rocks and Maracris, the leader of the brigands atop it, demands they stop, or die. They have been marked by "his eye" and must pay tribute by leaving their belongings, including weapons, money, and automatons.
Chetney and Laudna drop Paragon's Call's name, but it has no apparent effect. Imogen picks up the backpack containing their bomb and sets it down by the leg of the Fist of the Ruiner crawler, apparently complying with their demand. After mentally telling Orym and Fresh Cut Grass to back up, Imogen triggers the bomb, significantly damaging the enemy crawler and its occupants.
Fan art of Imogen's Lightning Bolt, by BlackSalander.[art 1]
In the aftermath, they notice several gang members emerging from behind them as well. Orym sprints toward the vehicle and uses his Boots of Striding and Springing to leap atop it. There, he sees a huge gun, manned by a gunner who sprays shots at the rest of the party. Imogen fires lightning at three gang members and the huge gun on the ruiner-crawler, killing one of the gunners, but the black powder within the large gun ignites, setting off 60 shots at once and destroying the gun. Hondir is hit and knocked unconscious while the rest of the party takes significant damage, and two of the gang members are killed outright. The remainder continue to fight back with their other guns, however, and a mage casts Vitriolic Sphere on the party including Birdie, hitting most of them for serious damage, and knocking out FCG and Imogen. Birdie retaliates with a Charm Person on the caster while Fearne revives FCG with Cure Wounds. FCG then heals Imogen, but immediately thereafter falls unconscious again from the continuing acid damage as the enemy crawler begins retreating.
As the party and the remaining crawler gang members continue fighting, the residual acid damage from the sphere knock out Imogen. Ashton is able to bring back FCG and Chetney brings back Imogen with Potions of Healing. Fearne manages to kill the gunner with Scorching Ray, being pickpocketed by Ashton of a thimble as she passes him. FCG bring Hondir back to consciousness, but Birdie goes unconscious from the acid. Her crawler is still running and runs over Maracris, killing him. The remaining gang members flee to the crawler which continues to retreat, but Laudna casts Darkness on it. Three minutes later they hear the crash as it falls off the other side of the mesa. Fearne brings Birdie back to consciousness.
The party notes that since some of the brigands got away, they might now be known to be enemies of the Fist of the Ruiner. They also note how little using Paragon's Call's name affected the other gang. They loot the bodies, noticing the tattooed red teardrop streaks on their faces, the iconography of the Ruiner. Orym remembers that long ago Marquet was a lush continent, but during the Calamity Gruumsh attempted to destroy it, being prevented at the last minute by a hero. The Ruiner's destruction therefore only affected a third of the continent rather than its entirety. They also find 420 gold pieces and two carbine rifles on the bodies, before roaring off back on their journey to the Calloways' hideout.
Break[]
- Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent now free on Google Play and the App Store.
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- The Tal'Dorei Theater presents "The Bard College of Tragedy"" with excerpts from the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn.
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- President Gale wants to reduce maximum goobage with subscriptions to Critical Role on Twitch.
Part II[]
Bells Hells, Birdie, and Hondir continue their hour-long journey across the Helcatch, eventually reaching a small platform under a mesa-cliff overhang with a concealed cave opening. Inside, a tunnel leads to the Calloways' hideout, filled with lush greenery growing in the light of multiple small glowing purplish stones. Birdie tells the party Ira Wendagoth told them it's not healthy for them to actually touch them.
Birdie welcomes them. She confirms Ira Wendagoth had mentioned he'd met someone in Jrusar that reminded him of the Calloways. While she and Chetney go back outside to erase the crawler tracks, the others go further in to the laboratory, which holds a 30-foot tall telescope-like construct pointed toward a hole in the roof of the rock-hewn chamber. Oleander greets Fearne joyously, expressing surprise at her age, 112. Ira greets the party as well, less joyously. After introductions, Fearne give Ollie the Weave Lens her grandmother gave her to give to her parents, and Ollie immediately hands it to Ira.
Fan art of Ira Wendagoth with the Weave Lens, by Lap Pun Cheung.[art 2]
Ira apologizes to the party for their previous encounter,[1] saying he was "merely following instructions" and they should complain to his previous employer, Armand Treshi. The telescope device is called the Veilscatter Scope. It should allow them to view places normally protected even from Scrying. Laudna volunteers to try looking through it before the Lens is placed. As the scope extends, it bends. Through it Laudna can see the glow of one of the ley lines floating across Marquet and its intersection with three others drifting into a nexus above a dark jungle. Ira shifts the scope to aim at Ruidus, but Laudna finds that when she tries to look at the moon, her vision and attention blur into almost drowsiness. and she is unable to focus on it. Ira begins working to install the Lens with his prehensile toes.
Ollie tells Fearne that he inherited what his mother called the "Squint" - he gets flashes of intuition when he's in danger. When Ruidus appeared in the Fey Realm several years after Fearne's birth, he had a full-fledged vision of its malevolent red light engulfing and destroying the Feywild with what he had thought was Birdie standing in its center. But now, seeing Fearne grown, he thinks it was her. When they sought aid from the Fey courts, they weren't believed. The moon had disappeared and shortly afterwards, they were threatened by an Unseelie agent and told to keep quiet about it. When they traveled to the Unseelie Court, the moon was visible again, and they secretly observed a meeting between "a cabal" of Unseelie agents and "Exandrian military". They stole the Moontide Crown from the Court's unfinished device and ran to Morri Calloway, who identified it. Morri promised to take care of Fearne and keep her safe.
Imogen shares her dreams of the red moon and its storms. Hondir believes she is one of the special Ruidusborn, of which an increasing number (about a dozen) have been arriving in Yios searching for information about the moon. Orym asks about the Exandrians Ollie saw. One was Otohan Thull. The other was an older elven man with long white silver hair, dressed in grays and blues, carrying a cane, and "with an air of history around him".
Ira explains he is working on this because he was bored after the Apex War, and the Calloways' warnings about Ruidus aligned with his own observations. He is upfront that there is no way Bells Hells can guarantee he will do what he says, but points out that if they stop him, they will learn nothing, saying, "You don't have to trust me. Just let me work."
Ollie explains he met Birdie as a young man, part of a wandering group of singers in the Feywild. In one village, a beautiful young girl outfleeced him thoroughly, and over a few drinks he realized he loved her. This happened about twelve years ago. The party is confused; Fearne is 112 but Ollie believes she should be about 14. Ira suggests that since Morri is a collector, and they left Fearne with Morri, Morri may have stretched time to have more of it.
Fearne notes that Morri is very, very tall - like 14 or 15 feet tall. She is not a member of a fey court, but is a collector and guardian of her own fane who does favors in exchange for things to add to her collection. She is a hag, but not in a coven, and very, very old. Fearne hesitantly asks if she herself was given to Morri in return for a favor, and Oleander denies it, but then looks thoughtful, glances at Ira, and pales. Birdie sits. When they question Ira, he tells them with satisfaction that the device is completed.
Official art of Catha and the caged Ruidus, by Clara.[art 3]
When Ira asks who wants to look first, Imogen hesitantly volunteers. Chetney is very suspicious that Ira and the Calloways have just built the same thing the Unseelie Court was building, but Ira simply gently pushes Imogen's face into the Scope's mask. Through it, Imogen sees a field of energy completely surrounding Ruidus like a lattice weave of magical threads forming a cage. She suggests it holds a god who can't escape, which interests Ira. When she tries to look more closely she fails, but she does not develop a headache like Laudna had.
Orym, holding his Sentinel Shield, also looks and sees the same lattice. An eight on a religion check fails to reveal the nature of the energy field, but he sees a glint in the storm and grabs Imogen to also look. Through a gap in the clouds on the surface of the red moon, they see a city.
Featured characters[]
Bells Hells[]
Returning[]
New[]
- Maricris, leader of a contingent of the Fist of the Ruiner gang
- Oleander Calloway
Mentioned[]
Quotations[]
- Birdie Calloway: Do you trust me?
Fearne: I don't know. - Ira Wendagoth: This is certainly a surprise. I heard there was company coming, but I wasn't expecting... acquaintances. I do apologize for the means in which we left off last time. Things are complicated.
Fearne: It's okay.
FCG: Is it? - Ashton: Would have been really awkward if [Ira] showed up one day wearing your daughter's skin as an overcoat. That would have been a faux pas.
Ira: That would indeed have been a faux pas. Not friends and family. That's only for acquaintances. And we're family now. - Oleander: (explaining how he met Birdie) We were on a good thing for a while, and then there was one small village that I got out-fleeced. There was this young girl, bright and beautiful, just vibrant as the day is long, bubbly, and she took me for everything I was worth, and I was angry for a second, and then we laughed it off over a few drinks, and I realized I loved her. So I asked her to come with me, and she went, "No." Then she asked me to come with her, and I said, "Yeah."
- Fearne: I've done some standup.
FCG: Standup, really?
Fearne: Well, whatever it's called out here. [...]
Liam: With the Grenlings or the Upright Seelie Brigade? - Fearne: In order for Morri to do favors, you have to give her something.
Oleander: Aye.
Fearne: Was I something that you gave for a favor? - Chetney: When people have holes in their story, usually it means they're just leaving out the most important parts.
Inventory[]
| Adjustment | Count | Item | Source | Destination | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expended | 1 | Explosive device | Imogen | Ruiner crawler | Purchased from Esmer, placed in a backpack and not used during the Deathwish Run. |
| Acquired | 420 | Gold pieces | Bodies of the brigands | The party | Divided equally. |
| Acquired | 2 | Carbine Rifles | Bodies of the brigands | The party | |
| Stolen | 1 | Giant blue porcelain thimble | Fearne | Ashton | Pickpocketed during the battle. |
| Transferred | 1 | Weave Lens | Fearne | Oleander Ira Wendagoth |
Installed in Ira's Veilscatter Scope. |
Trivia[]
- The description of the older elven man involved in the meeting between representatives of the Unseelie Court, Otohan Thull, and himself very closely tracks the description of Ludinus Da'leth, the leader of the Cerberus Assembly in the Dwendalian Empire.
- Sam's jerrycan has a picture of the moon labelled "Not Haunted, Just Vibing".[2]
References[]
- ↑ See "Chasing Nightmares" (3x11) from 0:11:43 through 1:59:35. When the party invaded his laboratory under the Moon Tower of Jrusar, Ira animated the furniture precipitating a battle. When he recognized Fearne as a Calloway, he held off attacking and teleported from the room. Shortly later, after the party had left, the tower exploded.
- ↑ See "Reunion & Revelation" (3x30) from 3:03:05 through 3:03:25.
Art:
- ↑ Fan art of Imogen's Lightning Bolt, by BlackSalander (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Fan art of Ira Wendagoth with the Weave Lens, by Lap Pun Cheung (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Official art of Catha and the caged Ruidus, by Clara (source). Used with permission.
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