Sandkheg's Hide is a potent alcoholic beverage produced in the deserts of Marquet. It is made using the acidic bile or spittle of sandkhegs[1] found within the Rumedam Desert.[2]
Description[]
Bottles of Sandkheg's Hide are made of dark green glass, wrapped in the chitin of a sandkheg, and corked with a wax seal.[3] Its smell is similar to vinegar wine with an earthy, herbal aroma.[4] It has a pungent acidic taste that burns the tongue and throat of the imbiber, making their body feel numb and intoxicated. Due to the numbing of the mouth, the imbiber often has difficulty speaking.[5]
History[]
During "The Streets of Ank'Harel" (1x65), Grog purchased two bottles of Sandkheg's Hide at The Shade for a total of 800 gold, though each bottle's price was only 350 gold. Upon showing the liquor to the party, Percival and Keyleth promptly sampled it, becoming immediately intoxicated. When Scanlan was given some, it numbed him from the nose down,[6] although Grog himself enjoyed it as a nightcap.[7] Grog later shared some with Jarett Howarth, a native Marquesian, and they both strongly felt it.[8]
Sandkheg's Hide also made a cameo appearance in the semi-canonical "Critical Role: Grog's One-Shot" (Sx26).
Official map of the source of Sandkheg's hide, by Deven Rue.[art 2]
Quotations[]
- Treev Bonebreaker: "They hold it down and just squeeze its abdomen and the whole sandkheg spews out into this little glass barrel and then you pay for it. Top dollar."[9]
- Vax: (to the very intoxicated Percy and Keyleth) Can you feel this?
Percy and Keyleth: (affirmative grunt)
Grog: Does it taste good?
Percy and Keyleth: (dissenting grunt)
Vax: Do you recommend it?
Percy and Keyleth: (non-committal grunt)[10] - Grog: Could I take a shot of the sandkheg bottle? I would like to slowly start building up an immunity.
Matt: (after Grog's 29 constitution saving throw) You drink it. You feel the sparkling numbness begin to spread across your throat. It's strange. It's weird. It's exhilarating. It triggers your adrenaline, and you almost go into a rage from the instinctual reaction of that sort of chemical release in your brain. You hold it in place, and you sit there a second and stare as it slowly goes down your system. You feel the warm, curling burn from inside your belly that fine alcohol gives you, that little shimmer of pins and needles down the back of your neck and your spine. Your vision begins to blur a little bit. It takes you a lot of alcohol to get trashed, but you're a little buzzed.[11]
Trivia[]
- A recipe for "Sandkheg Hide Ale" (featuring gin and Szechuan peppercorns) is included in Exquisite Exandria: The Official Cookbook of Critical Role.[12]
- During May 2024, Critical Role teamed with Quest's End Whiskey to produce a custom-blended small-batch bourbon named "Sandkheg's Hide" available for a limited time only. Each bottle was packaged with the original alchemist’s "found" journal, map, and the story of its inception by fantasy writer Jasmine Bhullar, artist Tyler Walpole and cartographer Deven Rue. The whiskey itself was described by the creators as "an intriguing whiskey with base notes of baked apple, brown spice, shortbread cookie, and oak. This 4+ year aged whiskey blend is cask-finished to bring out herbaceous notes, dried red fruit, and a hint of smoke."[13]
References[]
- ↑ See "The Mines of the Many" (1x98) at 2:39:37.
- ↑ See "The Streets of Ank'Harel" (1x65) at 3:15:52.
- ↑ See "The Streets of Ank'Harel" (1x65) at 3:09:35.
- ↑ See "The Streets of Ank'Harel" (1x65) at 3:11:53.
- ↑ See "The Streets of Ank'Harel" (1x65) at 3:12:27.
- ↑ See "A Traveler's Gamble" (1x66) at 2:51:18.
- ↑ See "The Chase to Glintshore" (1x67) at 2:42:57.
- ↑ See "Passed Through Fire" (1x69) at 2:17:06.
- ↑ See "The Streets of Ank'Harel" (1x65) at 3:42:37.
- ↑ See "The Streets of Ank'Harel" (1x65) at 3:14:21.
- ↑ See "The Chase to Glintshore" (1x67) at 2:42:57.
- ↑ See "Exquisite Exandria: The Official Cookbook of Critical Role", page 146.
- ↑ See Quest's End Whiskey Sandkheg's Hide.
Art:
- ↑ Fan art of Grog with a bottle of Sandkheg's Hide, by Lap Pun Cheung (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Official map of the source of Sandkheg's hide, by Deven Rue (source). This file is a copyrighted work. Its use in this article is asserted to qualify as fair use of the material under United States copyright law.