Critical Recap: Critical Role C4E41 “True Nature”

Hello and welcome to Critical Recap! I’m Dani Carr, the Critical Role Senior Lore Keeper. Let’s dive into Critical Role Campaign 4 Episode 41 True Nature!

COWARDICE

In the Tower of Ksha’aravi, Tsul’rekshi’s tongue dispels the wall of shadow, revealing Ksha’aravi’s true self – a 1ft tall centaur rooster unicorn. His bottom half is a rooster, his top half is a rat, his eyes are a frog’s, and a single spiral horn juts from his forehead. He flees, forcing Wick and Tyranny to chase him around the room filled with religious relics and attempt to catch him as Tsul’rekshi’s body slowly reforms. During this chase, Wick discovers that he is now a fallen aasimar, having become native to the Pit.

Ksha’aravi is finally caught when Tsul’rekshi fully arrives in the flesh. They grill Ksha’aravi about his past and working with Yanessa. Ksha’aravi is the Shadow of Suffering, aka the demon of Cowardice. Yanessa is his boss, not the other way around. Thousands of years ago, Iljaza’s marriage to Azgra caused a rift in demonkind. She took her loyal demons to the Dying Fields, banished the “principled” demons to Aramán, and left the rest in the Pit. Then the Shaper’s War destroyed the afterlives, so the backbench of demons have been running the Pit.

Ksha’aravi met Yanessa when she was 16, not long after the end of the Shaper’s War. The two struck a deal for her soul, with Yanessa asking for a year to return with three other souls and then play a game for the chance to keep her soul. Every year, the amount of souls tripled and every year, another game was played – and she beat him every time. In the fifth year, they played a guessing game: Yanessa asked him what her true name was. K’sharavi answered incorrectly – Yanessa, Wick’s grandmother, is not Yanessa Halovar. This guessing game was how Yanessa learned the true name of Ksha’aravi and received his soul in return.

Now, Ksha’aravi has Wick’s soul and he refuses to give it back. Owning a soul isn’t perfect domination: it’s more like a deed. Yanessa won’t let him die and he can’t use magic on her, but he can lie and move around the edges. Tsul’rekshi demands her tour of the tower, wanting to know what the Creed is doing, as well as Tyranny’s origins and the origins of the Light.

FAIRY PLIGHT

Hal and Murray meet with Temelow in the Tintazi Wood. She updates them on the fairies of Hawthorn’s Glade arriving to the cherry tree glade, thanks to Thimble. The fairies need help. A malevolent force is moving below the city: Rainbloom has sensed Laumy, the raugrannoth, gathering power in the sewers. A battle is coming between Laumy and whomever opposes him. He wants to lead the fair folk, even if it’s against their will. The sewers must be wrested away from Laumy’s control, because this new fey power is going to be challenged.

There is unrest in Dol-Makjar’s underbelly. Laumy is gathering forces of fae and demonkind, as with the Crow Keepers gone, he needs new allies that can be in the market and in the world, since he cannot. These dark forces know they must join together or be swallowed by the Creed. The fair folk need people who can walk in the daylight. Temelow asks that they talk to Sallow. Hal says they’ll add it to the list.

REMEMBER

Meanwhile, a weak and injured Azune stumbles to the Brethren Hall to plant Murray’s magic bug in the interrogation room. He talks to Murray through the bug, claiming to be fine. Azune spots Filoneus Halova at the doors of the Brethren Hall and looks for another entrance. He sees Lake Nahami and recalls the dragon and that the Epheme Wing in the Archanade is dedicated to the time before the Shapers. When dragons lived. He remembers his time in Bolaire’s theatre and Murray with a dagger – then everything goes black.

Murray hears Azune collapse from her side of the magic bug. She and Hal bolt to the Brethren Hall, with Murray regretting pushing him so hard. Murray hears wheels over the magic bug, then someone carrying Azune up wooden stairs. She hears singing in draconic and Hal casts comprehend languages – it’s a lullaby in Navika’an that Hal recognizes, about children asking how to repay the kindnesses of their family. The only ask is to remember them as being loved.

Murray takes a short rest in order to cast locate object – when she does, they find that Azune has been taken to his own apartment. He is asleep, tucked into bed with his wounds tended to. The glyph containing magic bug has been shattered, a dagger stabbed through it. Hal and Murray spend the night on the roof next to his apartment so they can stay close, in case he needs them.

MEET ZGROOG

Back in the Pit, Ksha’aravi begins his tour by getting blasted with the light from prayers. He takes them down to a cathedral-esque hall, whose floor drops into a pool of lava twenty stories down. Holy texts of scrolls stretch across the hall like a net, and within the net is a massive, radiant tick. This is Zgroog’Wazbashav, and the Light is inside him. He eats souls from a trough and is injected with filament. Lux Heaven is inside Zgroog. Souls of devout believers are fed through the trough via the black cloth. They have to be kept here, so that the Tachonis can’t get them in the Tenebral Reaches. This is all to keep the facade of the religion alive, with the filament acting as a narcotic. At least the souls are happy.

Ksha’aravi explains that the clerical magic comes from the filament, which comes from Aetheon. Zgroog and Ksha’aravi give luxes the ability to cast at all. Wick’s magic is all angel blood. As for Yanessa, her power comes from numerous sources. Ksha’aravi has no idea where all her power comes from now. Tsul’rekshi demands answers about the Aspirants and the other demons in the tower. Maltyre is the treasurer who logs artifacts. Czeg’awak has no job and should not be given one. Ethegore, the brother of Iljaza, is the Lord of Apathy and the most powerful demon. Yanessa made a deal with him to not interfere.

URUSHA

They arrive at a demonic workshop built within a volcanic chamber where four massive geodes just from the walls. Colorful liquid pours from the cracked geodes into a moat base. Each geode is labeled. Rose red – Zagrasha. Cerulean blue – A’ada. Iridescent pink – Iubaza. Dusky rose – Mudrosha. There is also a workshop/forge with a brazier – Tyranny recognizes it as her cradle. This is where Tyranny was created.

Ksha’aravi reveals that the Aspirants were created to appeal to Ezir, a wealthy nation that has a long and storied relationship with demonkind. The Creed has never appealed to them, so Yanessa sought to showcase a relationship with demons in order to convince them to accept the faith. Yanessa demanded that Ksha’aravi make her good and loyal demons. Unfortunately, Tyranny murdering the Mercaunauds proves that the Aspirants are not under his control and have free will. Tsul’rekshi recognizes these geodes, calling them tombs, and pulls Tyranny aside to explain more.

Before the Shapers, demons were creatures of destruction: even noble, good destruction. The Age of Strife began when Iljaza wedded Azgra and trapped the greatest demons. The Pit was not originally an evil place of evil people. Iljaza changed their language so that they couldn’t even consider an uprising. Iubaza now means domination and oppression. But once, it meant love. These four tombs hold the Urusha, the four great noble demons that Iljaza sealed away.

HEART

Tyranny speaks the word ‘love’, the true meaning of Iubaza, and light races up the pink geode. Tsul’rekshi knew there was something special about Tyranny from the first moment they met. The force within the geode belongs to Tyranny. Tsul’rekshi reaches inside the geode and pulls out a fist-sized crystal ruby heart on a chain. It is a relic of Iubaza. Tyranny was made from something beautiful and noble, but she belongs to herself.

The other geodes are the colors of Tyranny’s sisters. She believes they won’t care about where they came from, since they’re so indoctrinated. Tsul’rekshi finds a piece of paper – this is why she wanted Tyranny to come here. It is a prophecy that speaks of the Urusha overthrowing Iljaza. Tsul’rekshi believes Tyranny and her sisters are the keys to this prophecy. Ksha’aravi thinks the prophecy is irrelevant, since Iljaza was lost to the Dying Fields. Tyranny breaks the news that the Dying Fields have been found.

Tsul’rekshi tells Tyranny that she would never compel her to do anything she didn’t want, but she needed her to have the knowledge of the prophecy and the Urusha. Tyranny doesn’t know who she is outside of her relationship to Wick. She wants to protect him and she wants to take down the Creed. Love is what keeps people going, after all. They’ll fight for each other. Tyranny attunes to Iubaza’s heart, a legendary item. Ksha’aravi warns them all that Yanessa could arrive at any moment.

FRACTURED TOGETHER

Azune, Hal, and Murray wake in the morning with a long rest achieved, though Hal has a level of exhaustion. Azune remembers the lullaby and recognizes the dagger from the gala fight. Azune mends the glyph and speaks into it: he is not expendable. He throws the glyph at the wall. Murray spots the carriage waiting for Azune and sends him a message, asking if he’s okay. The three meet in the alley and affirm their theory that Mayali is who saved Azune.

Azune is extremely angry with both of them, but especially Murray and how she keeps pushing him into danger. How he doesn’t stand up to her. The two argue, with Murray saying that she thought he knew what he signed up for and that he has told her he’s okay. She told him to take care of himself. Murray apologizes and Azune apologizes, but neither feels better. Azune doesn’t feel worthy of pushing back or speaking up for himself and Murray says that’s in his own head. He is still angry, but he is not pathetic. Azune feels like a new man.

The three separate, with Hal going to have breakfast with his daughters. The Rookery noticed his absence in the night and two magpie soldiers check on him. Hal then goes to the library to research the sewers. Murray is haunted by guilt and self-loathing. She has nowhere to go and eventually finds herself at Thjazi’s empty apartment. She lets herself cry, then sends off magpies to the professors. She is a teacher. She is a protector. But she can’t do this alone. She knows they have to do this together. Caring about each other is the only way to win.

Murray begins enchanting her first pair of sending stones. These will allow her to communicate with Azune and ensure that they can both be heard.

That is it for Episode 41 of Critical Role!

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Heart was always my favorite planeteer, so I think Tyranny is gonna do great.
• The return of Mayali! I want Azune to have sister time, he deserves it.
• Heaven’s in a tick! Who’d have guessed.

Catch Episode 42 of Critical Role Campaign 4 on Thursday, November 5th at 7pm Pacific on beacon.tv, where Beacon members get access to the entire episode, podcast included! The episode will also release on twitch.tv/criticalrole and on youtube.com/criticalrole and in two parts on our podcast. Is it Thursday yet?