Critical Recap: Critical Role C3E20 “Breaking and Entering…”

Hello! Welcome to Critical Recap! I’m Dani Carr, the Critical Role Lore Keeper. Let’s dive into our recap of Critical Role Campaign 3 Episode 20 Breaking and Entering…!

NECESSARY DAMAGE

The heist begins and the search to locate the lapis earring Wind Folly is on! Bells Hells look for a feasible entrance on the left side of the Twilight Mirror Museum, but all of the windows are barred and there are no doors. Ashton and Chetney notice the katari and goblin members of The Verdict climbing a rope to a second floor window. Ashton causes the goblin to fall into the bushes while an invisible Chetney scurries up the rope. Both the katari and the goblin eventually make it through the window but Chetney follows the seasoned burglars, harrying them as they investigate the second floor.

After a few different attempts, Fearne and Ashton manage to break the bars to a first floor window with a combination of heat metal and Big Hammer. The group investigates the dining room, the foyer, and the kitchen, with Laudna locking members of The Verdict out of the foyer with her immovable rod. FCG casts locate object, discovering that the earring is somewhere beneath them. Orym gets attacked by trapped utensils in the kitchen, but he and Fearne find a hidden door to the backyard.

In the foyer, Ashton and Imogen get zapped by two statues of Evon Hytroga but then find a door behind a painting (which also features Evon Hytroga). Behind the door is a staircase leading down. Bells Hells set a few traps with ball bearings and flour and lentils, calling Chetney down to join them. Chetney sees the katari and the goblin get caught in a tar trap before he leaves, though he contends with the statues and the ball bearings before he’s able to rejoin the group.

MUSEUM MAYHEM

Bells Hells head down the stairs and find the actual museum proper. There is another staircase on the other side, which they assume The Verdict found as Chetney can smell the other group ahead of them. An artifact sits in the middle of the room: a masked headdress, which the plaque claims to have belonged to ‘a Lyth-Priest of the cult village of Hishari before its destruction.’ There are also two sets of ceremonial Hishari armor, which look strangely familiar to Ashton.

The double doors are barred, but when sawing through the bar, FCG triggers a spray trap that webs everyone except Chetney to the floor. Chetney hits Ashton to make them rage and break through his webs, and the two manage to free everyone else with fire and strength. Ashton then breaks down the double doors, finding that the next room contains Kryn armor and a relic that looks like a broken Kryn Dynasty beacon (though the plaque refers to it as a relic of the ‘Xhorhasian Dynasty’).

When Orym steps closer, the armor releases a strange breeze, causing everyone but Imogen and Chetney to think they are falling through the floor down a vast pit. Chetney and Imogen eventually shake everyone out of their visions and the investigation continues. In another room, Fearne finds three members of The Verdict passed out on the ground. Laudna casts a magical darkness in that room and Ashton shuts the door. Before they can investigate the left room, they see the tarred and floured katari and goblin walking down the stairs.

FINDING THE TRAPS

Bells Hells run for the remaining room and Chetney tosses the Eversmoking Bottle behind, filling the chamber with smoke. They shut the door and Laudna locks it with the immovable rod. The relic in this room is a carved wooden mask – the Haunted Mask of the Mountain, once owned by the noble dwarven house Ovorag and which appeared at every mysterious death in the family. The room also contains a set of descending stairs and five marionette puppets. The puppets fall to the floor and attack, but being made of wood, they burn under Fearne’s wildfire.

The Verdict are trying to break in behind them, so Bells Hells head downstairs. This chamber has a book on a center platform that claims to be the journal of Vespin Chloras. Another room contains the Spear of Judgement, owned by Yuana Bretei, a cleric of the Lawbearer, and the other room contains the masthead of The Hungry Fathom, a ghost ship. Chetney chooses the masthead room to continue through, but when he goes to unlock the next door, he falls down a trap, sliding down a greased chute and onto something gelatinous at the bottom.

The creature begins to pull him in so, he hammers a piton into the wall and wolfs out, standing on the piton and clinging to the wall with his claws. The others lower Orym down on a rope and Chetney leaps for him, grabbing his arms. The two are pulled up, but Chetney is at a low enough health that he must fight against his lycan bloodlust. He slashes out at Orym but quickly regains control and apologizes. Bells Hells are disturbed by his actions, but FCG heals him and they resolve to talk about this after completing the heist.

THE PRIZE

Bells Hells make it into the next room, which has a large stone lion with no plaque. It is a trap of some kind and they avoid triggering it. Chetney unlocks the door into the next chamber – this one holds Wind Folly, encased within a glass box, as well as two strange humanoid alcoves in the walls. These alcoves begin to fill with clay as they attempt various methods of breaking the glass around the earring.

They try Ashton’s hammer, which cracks the glass, as well as cold, fire, radiant, and blood magic, but nothing works. Their attention on the box is diverted when the two alcoves finish filling and two clay constructs step into the room.

That is it for Episode 20 of Critical Role!

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Vespin Chloras is the mage whose actions led to the Calamity. There is no WAY that Evon Hytroga has his journal. It’s gotta be fake. Right???
• Those terrifying marionettes must be the five that the toymaker at Knot Forgotten made – Sashimi’s siblings!
• This was not a great time for Chetney to reveal his hit point controlled bloodlust to the group, but would there have ever been a good time?
• In what world are some of these traps not considered deadly?!

Anyway, catch Episode 21 on Thursday, April 21st at 7pm Pacific on twitch.tv/criticalrole and on youtube.com/criticalrole or a week later on our podcast. Is it Thursday yet?