Critical Recap: Critical Role C3E26 “Hidden Truths”

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 26 Hidden Truths!

DUPLICITY

While taking first watch, Fearne and Dusk discuss the Feywild. Fearne enjoys Exandria but Dusk prefers the Feywild, finding it frustrating that concepts are put in boxes here, rather than being wild and free. Fearne likes the rules sometimes, because they help her know what not to do. Dusk encourages her to live her life out of the box, doing whatever she wants. Dusk thinks Fearne’s parents may have been in trouble but Fearne’s Nana told her they left because they were saving the world. The Calloways didn’t mention this, but Dusk isn’t sure how much time they had with Birdie & Ollie; just that she considers them family. Fearne and Dusk agree that running into each other here in Bassuras must be destiny.

Once alone, Dusk is contacted telepathically by Sorrowlord Zathuda, Bearer of the Lightless Flame and Grove Captain of the Unseelie Court, asking if she has located the Moontide Crown and dealt with the Calloways. Dusk, in a different voice, explains that she’s discovered that the Calloways have a daughter, who has led her right to them. Dusk will succeed where their rivals have not, but the Sorrowlord believes that Dusk’s dalliance in Exandria is a distraction. He threatens to find a better use for them in one of the Yore Mirrors if she fails. Dusk swears to bring him the crown soon and end the Calloway line. Dusk checks their ring, which still points in Fearne’s direction, before going to bed as a riot of color crosses her face.

RED MOONLIGHT

Imogen has another storm dream, which starts with her already overtaken by the storm. She sees the same unfamiliar feminine figure from before and can make out more details this time – short grey hair, dark eyes like a bird of prey, heart-shaped face with a hard, grinning expression, wearing dark leather armor. She is flanked by dozens of other figures in masks and leather armor. When Imogen asks who she is, the figures rush her.

Imogen wakes up to Ruidus flaring overhead. She is drawn to the window and feels a yearning sensation as she looks up at the bright red moon. After a moment, the flare ends and it returns to its regular ruddy color. She goes to FCG and has them draw the woman from her dream, but the sketch isn’t very detailed. Imogen wants to tell Laudna but there is still a distance between them. FCG offers to facilitate a reconciliation when Imogen is ready.

NEW PLAN

In the morning, Bells Hells decide to search for allies before they enact their letter plan to get Armand Treshi out of the Seat of Disdain, as it will take a day for the skyship to return to Bassuras. As they leave the Raha Den, they are met by some people from Paragon’s Call, led by the dwarf Tanvir the Rake. Bells Hells were seen lurking outside the Seat of Disdain yesterday, so they’ve come to learn their business. The group bluffs and intimidates their way into making them believe that they’re here for potential work, citing Ashton’s impressive brawl with General Ratanish. Tanvir gives them a day to come talk to Ratanish – otherwise he’ll find them tomorrow and learn the real reason they’re here.

Bells Hells worry that this will make Armand hole up deeper in the fortress and that their letter plan won’t work now. They split off in search of allies, intent on expediting things. Ashton, Chetney, and Imogen go to the All-Minds-Burn, where the very high members communicate telepathically via an underground hivemind, discovered by Imogen. Ashton talks to his friend, the eisfuura Justi Pross, and convinces her to help them.

Justi thinks the best way inside the Seat of Disdain is as a member of Paragon’s Call. Bells Hells could challenge them to the Run, or Deathwish, the dangerous death race that the crawler gangs participate in, in order to prove themselves. Justi and the All-Minds-Burn could set traps along the track and even the odds in Bells Hells’ favor. Pleased with this plan, Ashton suggests hiding Armand at the Greymoore Orphanage, where Ashton was raised.

FINDERS… WAIT, DANCER?!

FCG, Dusk, and Fearne go to Finders Takers, a boutique scrap and black powder shop that FCG used to frequent. The three meet the owner, Esmer, and FCG tells her that Dancer was murdered a few months ago. Esmer does not believe him, as she just saw Dancer a month ago. They were intimate, had another falling out, then Dancer left again. Dancer had a new metal arm, but none of her robotic companions. FCG is shocked by this news, as he saw Dancer die.

Esmer doesn’t know where Dancer is now but assumes that she’s at the Ends if she’s still in town. Esmer always liked FCG and thinks he is the most special of Dancer’s creations. If they see her, they’re asked to tell her to not come back unless she apologizes. They commission an explosive and Fearne asks Esmer why FCG might be fritzing. Esmer guesses that he might be imperfect due to conflicting technology within them. Meanwhile, Laudna and Orym spend the day watching the fortress; at dusk, Orym sees Armand nervously smoking on the roof with two guards.

IMAHARA JOE’S

Everyone meets in the Ends, a junkyard, in search of a crawler to use in the Run. FCG recalls that Imahara Joe was Dancer’s competitor in the world of arcane machinery. Dancer did not like him and was jealous that he became the de facto head of tinkering in the Ends. They meet Joe and talk to him about getting a skirmisher crawler. He can finish a basic armored skirmisher for them, though they could rent a second one as a loaner if they joined up with a crawler gang and got sponsored. Now they just need to instigate the Deathwish race by talking to Paragon’s Call.

Fearne asks Joe about Birdie and Ollie Calloway and he confirms that he knows them. He’s delighted to meet their daughter. They’ve been his customers for a couple years and come in every few months for supplies like his lights – caged glowing orbs that serve as power sources. They’re arcane batteries drawn from the local leylines that power low-level enchantments. Fearne recognizes these lights as being very similar to the ones the Nightmare King had. Dusk asks him to not tell anyone else about the Calloways, should anyone come asking.

RELICS

Joe recognizes FCG as having run with Dancer. He says that he nearly bought FCG himself when they came in on the trade caravan but Dancer beat him. FCG is deeply confused, as Dancer said that she built him herself out of spare parts. Joe explains that FCG is a relic of history known as an Aeormaton – constructs from the Age of Arcanum that were created by the people of Aeor and gained sentience. When Aeor fell, everyone assumed that the Aeormatons were destroyed and lost. In the past five years, there have been exciting rumors of Aeormatons waking up around Exandria.

Joe is an avid student of ancient constructs and would love to, consensually, look over FCG. FCG agrees, if they manage to survive the next few days. They both just want to know who he is and Joe would take care to not harm FCG during the inspection. FCG is reeling from all this information and is worried that they might be someone totally different in this past life. Dusk tells him that he’s more than his programming. Bells Hells know the names of some of the flying cities of the Age of Arcanum – Aeor, Avalir, Zemniaz – but no details beyond that.

Fearne has a postcard of Aeor from her parents. She received postcards while they were traveling and shows the Aeor one to the group. It is meticulously handmade and the painted Aeor looks like a city, not a ruin. Bells Hells wonder if her parents are hopping through time. FCG casts identify on the postcard, learning that it is not magical but that the handwriting is all the same. They discuss possible codes in the postcards as Ashton takes them to a different caravanserai known as the Undercarriage for a night’s rest.

That is it for Episode 26 of Critical Role!

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Dusk! What the hell! Moontide Crown?? Unseelie Court??? The Sorrowlord mentioned Sammanar, the Master of the Unseelie Court. Fearne is in DANGER.
• FCG is a confirmed Aeormaton! Why would Dancer say that she built them herself?
• Speaking of Dancer, she’s ALIVE?! What?? FCG needs a nice silver piece and a long stasis rest to process all this new information.
• Fearne was confronted by a dark mirror version of herself in ExU who said that the gifts from her parents were actually from her Nana. Could that be true? Or are the Calloways time hopping?

Anyway, catch Episode 27 on Thursday, July 14th at 7pm Pacific on twitch.tv/criticalrole and on youtube.com/criticalrole or a week later on our podcast. Is it Thursday yet?