Critical Recap: Critical Role C3E99 “Downfall: Part One”

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 99 Downfall: Part One!

LIGHT BEYOND TIME

Downfall begins in a place beyond time itself, where mortal minds cannot comprehend: Tengar, the Eternal Palace, a place of light, eternity, and possibility. Something new is growing in the Orchard of Possibility – when the fruit is plucked, dread and nothingness come to Tengar. Beings of light are destroyed in an instant when this nothingness takes them.

The palace is destroyed as multiple entities of possibility flee across the stars on a newly created vessel. These beings of light take on Real forms as they attempt to escape this great nothingness. A horned figure, a sunfire, a head of bright light, a compass, all before crashing in a place entirely new, where enormous elemental figures tower above them. This is the story of how the Pantheon came to Exandria aeons ago.

BOARDING GATE

Over a century into the Calamity, Aeor is the last bastion of the Age of Arcanum while the rest of the world endures war, ash, and ruin. The gods have vanished during this lull in fighting and many people are hopeful the war will end soon. In Hawk’s Hill, Gwessar, a large group of refugees await the arrival of an Aeorian skyship and hope for safe passage into the flying city. Four people are part of this crowd and intent on boarding the skyship:

• Trist (she/her, played by Ashley Johnson), a human schoolteacher and cleric/paladin
• Ayden (he/him, played by Nick Marini), a humble human teenaged cleric/paladin/druid/barbarian
• Emhira (she/her, played by Laura Bailey), a dreamy human warlock guarded by divine champion Purvan Suul
• Asha (she/her, played by Taliesin Jaffe), a wild and angry elven monk transporting a very large and heavy crate

The foursome find each other in the crowd, with Asha commenting on how happy she is to see them again.

The skyship arrives with the aeormaton sorcerer S.I.L.A.H.A. (they/them, played by Abubakar Salim) leading the way. Supplies first, then laborers, then people with Emblems of Sanctuary will be allowed to petition. Trist has a loving conversation with her husband Amaris and her two children, Haylie and Topher. Ayden and Emhira tend to an elderly couple with a dying father. Ayden attempts to heal the man, but Emhira reminds him he cannot heal age as the man quietly passes away. Ayden gives a famished family a tent filled with food. This act gets Ayden chastised by S.I.L.A.H.A., who telepathically reminds him to stick to the plan.

S.I.L.A.H.A. inspects Asha’s crate and surreptitiously gives them each an amulet. They will follow S.I.L.A.H.A., who leads them to the skyship. A gnome family is cruelly kicked off the ship when the captain refuses to allow one of them to board with her Dawnfather symbol. The captain tells the crowd not to seek hope from the gods, but from Aeor and its might. The elderly gnome refuses to leave her symbol behind – when she sees Ayden, she is overcome with emotion.

PLANS CHANGE

The group says their final goodbyes. Trist carries a sending stone from her family and her husband’s overcoat. Emhira asks Purvan to take care of Trist’s family and thanks him for protecting her for all these years. Asha tells her druidic companions to return to the Grove and find the worthy. The group of five board the skyship and leave Gwessar behind.

These five strange and familiar mortals sneak off together to inspect Asha’s large crate. They open it and reveal, to their surprise, The Emissary (he/him, played by Noshir Dalal) – an earth genasi of ice and snow sent in place of the individual the group was expecting. Asha in particular is upset by this change, sulking in her wolf form before rejoining the group. S.I.L.A.H.A. sends The Emissary back into the crate, as he is supposed to be apples.

The skyship passes through the Latimus Princeps, a barrier that Aeor erected to keep their city hidden from divine influence. The group is able to pass through this barrier, thanks to their mortal forms and the amulets that S.I.L.A.H.A. gave them. When scanners approach, they are nearly caught due to a zone of truth spell, but Emhira and S.I.L.A.H.A.’s magic distractions send the guards on their way.

Aeor approaches and the flying city finally reveals itself to the five mortal avatars of the Prime Deities: Trist, the Everlight. Ayden, the Dawnfather. Emhira, the Matron of Ravens. Asha, the Wildmother. S.I.L.A.H.A., the Arch Heart. The Emissary, a proxy of the Lawbearer.

MAGE ON THE INSIDE

The skyship docks in Aeor, where the group examines the Ars Ward for the first time. S.I.L.A.H.A. espouses the beauty of the city, while Asha finds it tasteless. Ayden looks for the stars, but the light pollution blocks the celestial bodies from sight. They board a tram, where Emhira steals a pendant containing a trapped imp from a drunken enforcer. They arrive in the Opus Ward, where the laborers of Aeor live. This is not the place for the city’s elite.

S.I.L.A.H.A. leads them to a ruined stone building, a former temple that is still standing. The images of the gods within have been smashed and destroyed. Archmage Arcadia Cerenvetorix meets them there. She is who arranged for them to safely pass through the Latimus Princeps, because she is the avatar of the Knowing Mistress. She is concerned about the Lawbearer sending The Emissary, but he assures her that he knows to share his mother’s love with the world.

Arcadia has been in Aeor since she was old enough to know what needed to be done. She is the one who sent them the vision that told them where and when to meet in order to put their plan into place. She warns the group, particularly Trist, that four Betrayer Gods are waiting deeper in the temple. She won’t tell them which god is which avatar, as it will be easier on them just to know that they are there. She also encourages them to not reveal their true identities to the Betrayers, either.

TIES THAT BIND

Arcadia leads them inside, where they meet their four Betrayer partners in this plan: Father Milo Crowst, a priest of the Dawnfather; Tishar, an intense barbarian; Zaharzht, a tortured tortle pierced with hooks and barbs; and Umleta, a halfling archer. Tensions flare, but Arcadia reminds them all that they called this truce long ago in order to infiltrate Aeor and learn what they were hiding. Arcadia has discovered that Aeor has built a weapon capable of killing the gods – the Factorum Malleus.

Arcadia wants to take a week to plan, but Milo reveals that a celestial snitch has beaten them here to warn the Magistri of the gods’ arrival. They must act quickly. Ayden and Trist want to find a way to break the machine while sparing the city. Arcadia reveals to the Primes alone that The Emissary bears a power within him they can use. He must be intact when the time comes to destroy the weapon.

They need to attack three different points in order to bring down the Factorum Malleus:

• The Eravox Protocol: this is Aeor’s backup plan to send the weapon’s blueprints to every mage in the city at the first sign of trouble.
• The Obtenebrator: Located in the Genesis Ward, it is what keeps the city hidden.
• The Latimus Princeps: The barrier that keeps the divine at bay. It is built into the Factorum and must come down last.

They split into three teams – Ayden, Milo, Arcadia, and Trist will search for passages into the Genesis Ward. Asha, Tishar, Zaharzht, and The Emissary will search for the Obtenebrator itself. Finally, S.I.L.A.H.A., Umleta, and Emhira will seek out the Snitch, as well as information on the Protocol. The gods restore the images of themselves on the walls of the temple as they leave. No matter what, this will be their last night as mortals.

That is it for Episode 99 of Critical Role!

FINAL THOUGHTS

• What incredible portrayals of the gods we’ve gotten to see! Gods in mortal form! Gods BEFORE the Founding!
• I won’t reveal which Betrayers are which, yet. Hopefully it’s a little easier to follow the plot knowing which Primes are present, though!
• Seeing where the gods came from BEFORE Exandria was such a wild way to start us off! How much of that did Bells Hells witness, if any?
• So little trust, so little time – even among the Primes, trust is hard to come by.

Catch Part Two of Critical Role: Downfall, aka Critical Role Episode 100 on Thursday, July 18th 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?