Critical Recap – Age of Umbra E2 “The Lost Monastery”

Hello! Welcome to Critical Recap! I’m Jared Deiro, the Critical Role Junior Lore Keeper and this is our recap of Age of Umbra Episode 2: The Lost Monastery!

The Luzal Ascension

With the heavy doors shut behind them, the party seal themselves away from the Luzal Vaults. Safety, for even a brief moment, is all they needed to catch their breath. Suddenly a loud bang from the door startles them, Eryn calling out. Idyl hesitantly allows her in. Misty takes this opportunity to lightly lift the golden crown from the deceased Gate Guardian, gifting it to Brixton. After placing the beautiful gold crown atop her head, Brixton believes (even more) that this is her destiny and that she is touched by the veiled gods. During this brief moment of respite, the group try to get to know one another, learning that Misty doesn’t remember a lot from her past – just obscure flashes.

Eryn takes the lead up the ascending stairs. They travel through the darkness for some time, until they catch the faintest glimmer of the moonlight in the sky. Arriving at the Firmaments Harrow, the group find a (mostly intact) outcropping among the peaks, and there looming – the Luzal Monastery. As they slowly approach the holy site, they notice a faint warm flickering firelight coming from within, and a small trail of blood leading toward the monastery doors.

Destiny Marred

The group enters the Monastery, as the deep voice of Velk echoes along the stone walls – they hear him praying to one of the absent veiled gods Aratu, the Dawning Sorrow. Velk, a well-armored and regal lion-like katari, steps away from the holy statue and points out Idyl, saying he has been touched beyond the aetherwave. He then looks to Misty stating that the gods speak through her. Through this, he feels the gods never left, that they’ve only been waiting – waiting for their children to prove themselves. With blood seeping from his open wounds, Velk raises his hands to the clouds … but nothing happens.

August takes this opportunity to try and put the large Katari to sleep, BUT Velk catches the needle before it makes contact with his skin. The mad zealot sees the group’s arrival as a test from the gods, an opportunity to prove himself of his destiny.

Velk rakes his claws across the statue’s face, causing the statue to ooze a dark shadow. It falls into Velk’s puddle of blood. He is then thrust into the air – his arms bulge, his back fills with muscle, his jaw snaps and extends. The horrified group watch as Velk becomes feral, growing three times his size. The behemoth leaps into the air and dislodges a giant ornamental sword from a separate holy statue. He lands in front of them, no longer the man they once knew, but now as Velk the Forsaken.

Through a brief quarrel with the gigantic katari, Snyx falls unconscious, and though he hangs on by a thread – a voice from within tells him to “keep going”. The party eventually proves successful, pushing Velk off the cliffside.

With Spoils Come Shadows….

The party makes their way around the Luzal Monastery, where they find ancient weapons, armor, and holy decor everywhere. Brixton finds a small stone reliquary at the statue’s base. Eryn successfully picks and opens the strange container – a poof of dust escapes causing her to cough. Inside the reliquary they find an old polished humanoid skull, prepared with hints of gold pushed into the skull’s sutures, with the jaw bolted shut by an iron band. August lifts the skull, and a small orb falls out – a Valorstone. Brixton’s seen one in the past, laid within the breastplate of the Emberwarden’s armor. Across the monastery, Snyx removes a holy gilded falchion from a stone statue, giving it to Brixton. Snyx also pulls embedded chainmail armor from a painting of an angelic figure, giving it to August.

As they take their short rest, Idyl declares that he wants to press further into the monastery. He needs answers to his questions: why have the gods left? Why were these divine gifts bestowed upon him? But Eryn, now covered in sweat, continues to cough until she vomits on herself. As Misty looks at the thick grayish bile, they deduce it may have come from whatever was in the reliquary. Although Eryn wants to continue on with Idyl, they notice she is hot to the touch with a rapidly beating pulse. They decide to turn back.

Once through the Luzal Vaults and back in the jungles, Idyl inspects the skull a bit further, noticing the inside is covered in a holy script, as well as the band. He removes the metal band from the skull’s mouth and finds the teeth have been removed. This skull was treated with holy means. He senses through his divine gifts that the skull belonged to someone heretical and was placed in the monastery to be sealed away – to be forgotten and protected. This was not a saint, these are funeral rites for someone deemed evil.

All That We Can Do…

They arrive back at Desperloch where Truvo immediately gets to work on Eryn, thankful they brought her back when they did – she would not have survived the night.

Out of fear that the scholars may try and take their findings for themselves, Brixton decides it’s best to find a trusted ally to bring them to. Snyx recommends Hallarin the Sot; an old, drunken, scraggly retired scholar. They enter Hallarin’s hoarder hovel so he can take a look at their treasures. The old man is very impressed with the artifacts. He expresses that there are very few scholars he would trust, one of them being Thalia. Though young, he believes she is clear of mind and heart; and has a bit of a soft spot for outcasts. Snyx asks Hallarin what he saw when exploring the Luzal Vaults, to which Hallarin falls silent, eyes wide with panic. He demands they leave at once.

Over in Truvo’s medicine hut, the old galapa pulls Idyl and Misty outside to give his daunting news. After running his tests, Truvo has learned that whatever Eryn has is more than a standard mold infection. Young Eryn has the Umbra in her. This thing she has ACTS like a disease, but it’s more of a curse. “Something” has been placed on her and it is beyond his capabilities to help. Truvo fears there is nothing he can do in Desperloch. Suddenly, black smoke fills the central forum of the settlement. Misty and Idyl realize that Eryn is gone just as smoke envelops everything around them.

Brixton rushes to where the smoke is emanating from, finding herself at the Pyre, the central location that’s supposed to keep them safe. As the rest of the group rush through the homesteads, they all find themselves at a pillar of black smoke – where the Pyre once was. The sacred fire is now out and multiple bodies lie around its base, along with two bisected Pyre Keepers. There is blood everywhere. Blood is the only thing that can put the sacred fire out. The party stares in horror as young Eryn stands in the middle of the bloodbath. She then turns with a grin across her face.

That is it for Episode 2 of Age of Umbra!

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Not gonna lie, Velk was pretty bad-ass. Glad he’s out of the way, but a hulking Crash Bandicoot “Tiny Tiger” katari was not what I expected – and I’m on board, baby.
• I love me some deep ancient ritualistic horror lore. The uncovering piece-by-piece of what had been done to this skull is so haunting and juicy. I NEED MORE.
• DAMMMNNN!!! ERYN?!? I knew there was gonna be some bad news when she came back. But I did not expect Ring Girl level malice like that ending. R.I.P. ERYN (?)

Catch Episode 3 of Age of Umbra on Thursday, June 12th 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 a week later on our podcast. Is it Thursday yet?