Critical Recap: Critical Role C4E22 “The Point of No Return”

Hello and welcome to Critical Recap! I’m Jared Deiro, the Critical Role Junior Lore Keeper. Let’s slide into Critical Role Campaign 4 Episode 22 The Point of No Return!

A BIT OF MISCHIEF

In the year 59, the Falconer’s Rebellion ended, and the victorious Sundered Houses thundered toward the castle of House Royce in the Golden Orchard. Manacled and bound, Thjazi Fang is here to face trial.

An 8-year-old Occtis Tachonis wanders the grounds of the Orchard, where he meets Thimble and her brother, Twig. They taunt Occtis’ older brother, Ethrand, telling him that Thimble is a vicious warrior who killed tons of Tachonis with Thjazi – it’s why the Tachonis are trying to kill him. Occtis is fascinated by Thimble, a forever child.

Occtis and Thimble sneak to a large window to watch the trial. Here, Thimble notices an illusory Thjazi pulling his hand out of his manacles to scratch his head, over and over. Suddenly, an invisible Thjazi whispers to Thimble that they need to get a few things from his room and get out of here. He asks Occtis if he’d like to help with this little bit of mischief, to which the young Tachonis agrees.

CREATURE OF FILTH

12 years later, in the sewers of Caravan Hill, the brother of that roguish Fang stands ready to fight a gang of thieves. Hal has become the adventurer he sought to leave behind. Bolaire casts silence on a Crow Keeper as Azune crushes his chest with his warhammer – killing him instantly. Shocked, Hal watches as his friends go to work.

Deeper in the sewers, they can hear Crow Keeper Captain, Zaghi, speaking to a fey creature known as a raugrannath, called Laumy. Murray decides to sow some infighting, and uses mage hand to throw a dagger across the chamber at Laumy. The room goes into a frenzy, as Laumy believes the attack came from Zaghi.

Hal slips down a ladder to get Demodus out of the room, while Laumy removes the rogues one by one. Hal picks up the boy, heals him, and sneaks up the ladder. Demodus wakes up and, in an attempt to assist, casts mage armor on Murray, which sparkles and blasts fireworks everywhere.

As the fight continues, Hal escapes up the ladder, Laumy kills Captain Zaghi, and Bolaire intimidates Laumy back into the sewers.

PARTY PLANNING

While the group takes a breath, Demodus explains his little predicament. Turns out Demodus owed money to the Crow Keepers from a situation a long time ago, and when the marketplace outlawed magic, this made the money a lot harder to come by.

Yesterday morning, Dean Kora introduced Demodus to Trimus Tachonis. For 250 gp, the Tachonis were looking for an illusionist to create something special for the Royce family – fae music, sylvan writing, etc. During this Job, Demodus was working with Ophelia Seremai, who was working with Lt. Junaeus. Demodus felt that Ophelia was awful; he watched her bark and scream at the soldiers, as he was instructed to write notes of ‘goodbyes’ in Sylvan writing. Although he did think it was weird that he was writing a goodbye for Royce while employed by the Tachonis, he assumed it was a joke.

Demodus realized the Palazzo was not only empty, but he could smell the burnt ozone of “dispelling” abjurative magic everywhere. After working for hours, he noticed the soldiers packing up clothes and jewelry while adding last-minute candles. They also asked him to take a couple of bites of cake, and he watched as they then left it on a plate. The whole thing felt off.

After hiding in the closet to eat some real food, Demodus eavesdropped on Lt. Junaeus speaking with Ophelia. Junaeus mentioned that “the falcon had been delivered to Obrimus Manor.” Then there was a long pause. Junaeus looked at the soldiers working and asked Ophelia, “They’re loose ends, aren’t they?” and Ophelia said, “So are you.” He watched Junaeus cry as Ophelia touched her face and said, “They’re going to give you the scar for this. You don’t have anything to worry about.” Then they heard Lord Ethrand Tachonis call for them outside, so Demodus ran.

For the last 24 hours, Demodus had been trying to get out of town via wagon, but then ended up here. Demodus is shocked that everyone came looking for him. Bolaire offers to hide him in his apartment.

HOW MANY WONDERS CAN ONE CAVERN HOLD?

Before leaving the sewers, the Schemers loot the Crow Keeper’s weigh station while Azune manacles an unconscious Crow Keeper. Hal finds a piece of Sylvan writing on the floor – a small piece of fairy poetry. Murray mutters the final words, and the panel in the floor opens. Here, they find multiple velvet pouches of gems, a charm necklace, and 40 blank spell glyphs. Jackpot.

Hal leans against Bolaire’s shoulder, burdened by the night’s twists. Hal hasn’t taken a man’s life in almost 30 years. Bolaire can’t relate; it hasn’t felt like war in many years, just survival. Whatever this is – this is war. Bolaire offers to show Hal the worst of himself.

They climb to the unconscious Crow Keeper and unshackle him. Bolaire asks Hal to kill him, take his face, and put it on the body of the Crow Keeper. They need to make this body look like it died in a battle.

Hal stabs Bolaire, and Bolaire dies again. Hal pulls the mask away from the body and looks inside. It’s just a theatre mask, but inside is an opalescent sheen with beautiful cursive just below the eyes. Hal brings the mask closer to his face and reads, “your thoughts unravel.”

Azune and Murray enter and watch Hal bring the mask closer; it’s intoxicating and irresistible, but he closes his eyes and puts the mask on the unconscious Crow Keeper. Bolaire wakes up, and gets dressed. Although Hal wants to stay shell-shocked, there is too much at stake. He squeezes Murray’s shoulder and rubs Azune’s head. Hal is a very good actor; he rallies the Schemers and they all head out.

Before leaving, Demodus puts his Penteveral magic to the test and covers the walls with spell blasts, glimmering emblems of House Tachonis, rival thieves guilds, and gold pieces of the Daredak Consortium. Things have gone a little crazy lately, why not make ‘em a little crazier?

AAAAaaannnnd that is it for Episode 22 of Critical Role!

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Just something to keep in mind, folks – Laumy is still in them damn SEWERS ( ˶°ㅁ°) !!
• Love getting the three-dimensional story of what occurred at the Palazzo over the last few days. Very fun,
• MORE BOLAIRE LORE, Hell yes. It was a crumb, but I’ll take it!

Catch Episode 23 of Critical Role Campaign 4 on Thursday, April 16th 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?