Critical Recap: Critical Role C4E31 “Trick of the Light”

Hello and welcome to Critical Recap! I’m Dani Carr, the Critical Role Senior Lore Keeper. Let’s dive into Critical Role Campaign 4 Episode 31 Trick of the Light!

SOUL BOLT ROBBERY

Wick receives Teor’s lion head emblem and knows that Teor Pridesire, the paladin who swore to protect him, is gone forever. The death of his friend spurs Wick to take a carriage to Obrimus Manor to aid the others. Meanwhile, Kattigan, Tyranny, and Bolaire are investigating the basement of the Mercanaud Couturier, which contains eighteen bolts of black fabric and a few magic items, like rings and cloaks. They rob the basement and Tyranny makes herself a bikini out of the black fabric.

Bolaire is wearing Rulius’ body and interrogates him. The tailors are warlocks of Ksha’aravi, the Shadow of Suffering and Tyranny’s father. He gave them the knowledge of how to shear shadows, which all go back to Zebani at the Candescent Creed. The bodies of the deceased are cut in two – half are sent to the Halovars and the other half to the Tachonis.

Tyranny plans to tell the Creed that Rulius and Calastro fought over the mask, that Kattigan escaped, and Tyranny killed him. She cuts off Kattigan’s right pinkie finger to use as proof of his death. Bolaire releases Rulius, allowing Kattigan, Tyranny, and Wulferic to kill the last tailor. They then split up, with Kattigan going to Hal’s and Tyranny returning to the Villa Aurora.

RAINBOW ROAD

At the Hallowed Round, Thjazi Fang and the Cloak’s plan to build a stable trinity of bridges to Faerie, the Dying Fields, and Aramán was successful. The second act of KoTher’ai begins, showcasing a betrayal to Vokjan Murzat that led to the failure of his original rebellion – a parallel to Thjazi’s own life. When Azune and Vaelus arrive at the theatre, fairies swirl around her and Temelow calls her a Wild Thing. The fae know she did something powerful and sacrificial in the forest.

In the Tenebreal Reaches, Thaisha begins to guide the souls of the deceased and panicking Rungjani out of the Dying Fields and onto the Old Path. She comforts Azhmi, Vokjan’s wife, who is wavering between celestial and undead and searching for her husband. She explains that Azgra is dead now, but Azhmi is hesitant to leave the world when there is still work to do. Thaisha says that it is time for the living to do the work. She asks Azhmi to walk through the river of magical paint and stabilize the bridges with their stories.

Azhmi creates a 12 foot tall celestial version of herself made of rainbow paint. Thaisha names them the Kaedra, a brand new celestial of story. A new revelation of the Old Path, once a dark forest, is now technicolor and beautiful. The Kaedra leads the spirits across the bridge and rushes out into the city and the forest. These freed spirits are only the ones from Vokjan’s revolution, but they are the start of something bigger.

STOKE THE FLAMES

Azune and Vaelus reflect on the dragon’s appearance and show Thaisha the moss from the fairy cavern. The play continues, with Lash/Vokjan deriding the power at the top of the hill. The audience can feel the weight of the Sundered Houses at the top, even though the play is referring to Azgra. Hal creates the illusion of a falcon flying overhead and Murray skywrites the magpie symbol, stirring the pot of rebellion.

At curtain call, Hal plays the lute and gives a speech that faith in the hearts of all folk free and fair has returned to Dol-Makjar. The audience follows him out into the streets of Dol-Makjar, singing and celebrating, as the veil closes. Thaisha and Vaelus notice Bolaire’s painted Figment chameleon and its Bolaire mask scurrying to the Olbalad coffin. It tries to enter the box and repeatedly calls itself Bolaire. Thaisha and Vaelus take the box with them as the procession leaves the theatre.

TROUBLE AT THE TOWER

Occtis and Julien are escaping Obrimus Manor with Mara’s unconscious body when Occtis feels a massive pain in his chest – the Stone of Nightsong has been sundered. He is extremely worried about Thimble and refuses to leave her, but Julien won’t let him go back inside. Hannen arrives while Occtis and Julien argue and eventually decide to go back up the tower.

Inside the manor, Thimble searches for Teor and finds herself in the main study where she discovers a book of ship schematics. She hears Occtis’ Aunt Trimus saying they are under attack and that Koral is dead. The aunts summon undead to kill the infiltrators. Hannen bangs on the door, demanding Mara. Thimble takes the schematics while Hannen talks with Trimus. If a member of his order has wronged House Tachonis, he should make sure she sees justice. When Trimus tells him their home is cursed, he sets to work removing that curse.

LIFE AND DEATH

Hannen’s distraction allows Thimble to continue searching for Teor. She finds the statues of the three gnome paladins being loaded into crates, then flies to the crypts. General Raimond’s undead form is still up, and the Pridesire brothers are dead. Despite hearing the arrival of the Tachonis family upstairs, she chooses to attack Raimond. Occtis and Julien see the arrival of the Tachonis family and decide to flee. Julien’s shadow attacks and pulls Julien to the stairs. Occtis casts firebolt at the shadow and it releases Julien.

Thimble kills Raimond, freeing him from this unlife. As she approaches Teor’s body, his second Death Boon activates. The Bracers of Oak and Birch float to her and Thimble grows to human size. The bracers clasp to her forearms and give her the strength of a giant. She is able to carry both Teor and Cyd, as well as items like Raimond’s blade and the Torn Banner. She heads to the underground river.

Above, Julien and Occtis watch the arrival of Petra, Ryah, and Primus. Primus immediately kills Hannen with Power Word Kill. He chokes Trimus, telling her that they will either rule the world before the year is out or they will all be dead. The druids will either be dead or beyond their reprisal. The Tachonis have to leave. Dol-Makjar is dead. Hannen’s ritual fails, and the Tenebral Gloom returns to Obrimus Manor.

CONFRONTATION

Julien and Occtis flee through the Tanners, heading to Hal’s house. They spot Wick’s carriage, but have no idea that Wick is inside. They keep moving, and Wick arrives at Obrimus Manor. With no word from his friends, Wick charms a guard into bringing him into the courtyard. He sees Primus screaming at Ethrand as the carriages are loaded with carts. He kills the guard with a Firebolt and rounds on Wick, who claims he was looking for Petra and Ryah.

Primus can see through Wick and asks if he is truly Yanessa’s heir, the way Koral was his. He grabs a carriage driver and demands that Wick kill her or Primus will kill Wick. Wick is hesitant, but he follows through: he kills the carriage driver to save his own life. Primus is satisfied. He tells Wick that his daughters cannot marry and demands that Wick returns to Yanessa. As Wick leaves, Primus resurrects the carriage driver as an undead servant. Wick weeps, heading to Hal’s.

Tyranny returns to the Villa Aurora and tells Cruelty her story about the tailors, showing her Kattigan’s finger as proof of his death. Cruelty tells her that Amariya told the Photarch about the mask and said to return it to her. Cruelty will retrieve the mask from the tailors. Tyranny, upset that Wick left without her, heads to Hal’s.

GIANT ALLIES

Hal, meanwhile, is still leading the procession of happy and rowdy audience members through the Rookery. Azune is approached by an attendant of Lord Otto Einfasen – he requests a word. Azune engages with Otto and his two sons, Runbrom and Josefir, in their carriage. Otto was impressed with Azune’s precision and he now wants Azune to speak freely about House Tachonis. Azune believes that Primus aims to raise an army of the dead. It’s just a hunch, and the images of his former teacher, Murray.

Murray, who is extremely drunk, is brought to the carriage. She tries to explain her visions of Primus sailing to the underworld, using Minor Illusion to aid her shaky words. Vaelus arrives, having heard the commotion, and Azune vouches for her. The Einfasens argue about this possible army and whether Otto too would kill his son for the benefit of his house. Azune asks how many Einfasen to the Tachonis during the Shaper’s War.

The Einfasens discuss their past. They were the children of giants, forced to kneel before the Shapers and their subjects. No good comes from following the Tachonis. There are no more giants, but the dead grow. They will spend everything they have trying to survive a war against the Tachonis. The alliance needs their magic. The Einfasen will offer their aid to House Royce and the Golden Orchard in secret, but the time is not right for outright war – but when it is, they will crush the skull. Otto tells Azune to follow Harondus’ orders.

LLOY DROP

Meanwhile, Hal and his procession are stopped by forty Sons of the Dawn mercenaries and members of the Grey Battalion, as well as Filoneus and Zebani Halovar and Oscuro Milanti of the Archanade. Hal welcomes this, but Thaisha steps forward, summoning Call Lightning and Murray alerts the Magpies. Oscuro is surprised to see Thaisha. They are here to arrest Hal for stealing the Pariah Blades from the Archanade. Thaisha refutes this, saying she gave permission, and Oscuro apologizes.

The Candescent Creed’s issues with the play have nothing to do with the Archanade, so Oscuro and the Grey Battalion leave. Zebani tries to match wits with Thaisha, but she is outmatched by the druid. The Creed is clearly outnumbered here, and they are right to be afraid. The Creed and their soldiers leave as Hal hopes that the beam reaches them.

DEBRIEF

Slowly, everyone descends upon Hal’s home. Misha Undragor puts on Bolaire, who takes care of him within his mind theatre. Hal is upset about this, but Bolaire reassures him that Misha is fine. Occtis explains what happened to Teor and Hannen. They are still waiting on Thimble, who is in the river. It feeds into Lake Nahami, where she rescues Teor’s and Cyd’s bodies once more and rushes to Hal’s. She arrives in her human-sized form with Teor and Cyd.

Kattigan, bereft, demands to know what happened. Thimble explains, and gives Raimond’s sword (Sprezzatura) to Julien. The brothers never made it to the gnome statues. Kattigan, Bolaire, and Occtis tend to Teor’s and Cyd’s bodies. They were successful in retrieving Mara and the Wraith’s Gem that holds the soul of Julien’s sister, Alba. If it is brought to her side, a remove curse spell can be cast and she will be restored. Alba is in the Golden Orchard with Aranessa. Wick confesses his killing of an innocent person. Bolaire and Thimble are both compromised. But the bridge to the Dying Fields was built!

MARA THE WING

At that, Mara the Wing wakes up. She is groggy, but she recognizes a few of them. Before her capture, she flew to Dol-Makjar straight from Venatus. She was there when Thjazi died. She knows he saw her. She was supposed to be in the Tenebral Reaches. The easiest way is through Obridimia, but when she arrived, she couldn’t pass through. She was supposed to clear a way on the other side and get things ready. Thjazi was supposed to join her safely with the aid of another member of the Cloak.

When Mara couldn’t get through the border, she knew they were compromised and flew back to Dol-Makjar, stopping only to send the Drowned Men to Tannesar. Thjazi saw her, which meant that he let himself die on purpose so he could arrive in the Tenebral Reaches. They have no idea how Thjazi is in the Tenebral Reaches but not in the hands of the Tachonis.

Everyone pools their resources. Kattigan shows the tome from the tailors, which discusses the demons and the Creed, as well as the Halovars being involved in soul trade. Koral’s letter to his father discusses Thjazi’s escape: Thjazi had the Scar, but the druids of the Old Path might have circumvented something. Julien mentions his shadow acting on its own and Thimble suddenly remembers that Thjazi’s nickname was Shadow.

THE HIDING PLACE OF THJAZI FANG

Everyone investigates Julien’s shadow. Bolaire taps it with the tailor’s shears, and the shadow nearly punches him. They realize that the shadow has aided Julien before, and its attack tonight was an attempt to go save Thimble. Bolaire recalls seeing the shadow attach itself to Julien when he spat on Thjazi’s body at the farramh. Thaisha realizes that there is an ancient superstition tied to the Old Path – disrespecting a corpse at a funeral causes the ghost to haunt you. Julien saved the soul of Thjazi Fang by disrespecting him, bypassing the Tachonis Scar.

Julien is angry. Hal tries to talk to Thjazi, but the Shadow can only really act when it is near the Tenebral Reaches. While they experiment, Kattigan and Occtis take the Pridesires’ bodies to the cellar.

THE CLOAK

Mara explains that she and Thjazi were part of a small group called the Cloak. Mara needs to fly north to tell the Professor that the ritual didn’t happen. Thimble explains that the ritual DID happen – they made a bridge at the theatre. Mara is shocked, but Murray demands answers. The Cloak is attempting to fix the problem of the Underworld. They believe it was possible to retrieve the lost afterlives and re-anchor them to Aramán and allow souls to escape the Tenebral Reaches and go to an afterlife and relieve the spillover into the physical world.

Thjazi and Mara went to the Font of Gavzidra, then worked with Tsul’rekshi to make the paint. Thjazi had planned to get a Pariah Blade from Thaisha and to talk to Hal about using the Hallowed Round. He didn’t want to talk to Hal until the deed was a sure thing, and he was arrested before that assurance arrived. Mara will not apologize for Thjazi. She knows that Thjazi was a thief who used people, but good things came from his actions.

THE ORIGINAL PLAN

They take Mara to the Hallowed Round, who is shocked that the ritual worked at this magnitude. They had planned to make a small drawing in the back of the theatre as a test, to create one stable trinity to the Dying Fields, as Kahad has the only stable Barrowdell. Bogrey, another member, was to take Thjazi and a plowshare in his diving bell-like contraption to the underworld, where Mara would meet them. They needed to connect to Faerie via the Stone of Nightsong, which would stabilize their tiny path and create something small that confirmed this was possible.

The Coffin of Olbalad is Phase Two. If this worked on the Dying Fields, they planned to make a small path to Piper’s Down. They have to make these bridges seven times in order to reconnect all the afterlives. Bolaire asks about the mask. The Drowned Men had the mask and threw it in the coffin, knowing that it was connected to Rauwyn. Mara doesn’t know where they found it. Bolaire is incensed by this revelation.

PHASE TWO

This road is beautiful, but it is very noticeable. The Cloak is vulnerable now; therefore, secrecy has to be scrapped for speed. Mara needs to find the Professor. Vaelus has the coffin, but she says it belongs to Bolaire, who is still livid at Thjazi’s recklessness and terrified of what Termina will do. Mara apologizes and offers her protection. He can come with her and meet the Professor. Anyone can come with them who wishes, but Phase 2 has to start now. They need another plowshare and another anchor, which needs to be demonic.

They go to Lake Nahami in the Tintazi Woods to plant the Miller’s Road seed from King Gus and to see the new faerie cavern. Temelow is already there – she can no longer feel herself dying near this place. Thaisha buries the seed and a towering cherry tree immediately grows. Its roots encase the cavern, protecting it. Mara wants Thimble to come with her and carry on Thjazi’s mission. She agrees, and encourages Bolaire to join her so that she can learn what Thjazi did to him. Bolaire hesitates, but is encouraged by seeing his painting of Figment. He knows Rauwyn is playing her last trick on the trapped souls of Piper’s Down.

Bolaire agrees to join Thimble, along with Vaelus, Kattigan, Occtis and Julien. Julien needs to go to the Golden Orchard to save his sister. A relic from the Golden Orchard would aid in the plan, and they could try to re-open the doors to Faerie. Mara will get the Professor and other members of the Cloak and meet them in the Golden Orchard.

PARTY SPLIT

Thaisha will go to Dol-Rungja. She needs to speak with the druidic circles – the neutrality of their people is a mistake. This will also put her in conflict with her grandmother, but Thaisha can handle her. Here in Dol-Makjar, the bridge is proof that the afterlives are not destroyed and the Sundered Houses will want it destroyed. Wick and Tyranny will stay in the city. Wick wants the Creed to pay for what they did to him and to avenge Teor. Tyranny wants to learn more about the demons of the Halovars and poison the well from within. Murray, Azune, and Hal will also stay in Dol-Makjar. Murray wants to work on ways for them to communicate with each other.

Thaisha re-attaches Kattigan’s pinkie finger. Occtis asks Vaelus if she considered what would happen to Occtis if she smashed the Stone of Nightsong. She did not. Occtis is struck by this revelation. He asks Murray to look into his necromancy – some of the undead he’s resurrecting are retaining bits of their consciousness. That’s not normal Tachonis necromancy. He also gives Wick a glyph of shielding, should he encounter Primus again.

SET PATHS

The Seekers – Thimble, Occtis, Vaelus, Julien, Bolaire, and Kattigan – will take the Miller’s Road to Timmony. Then they can sail across the Sea of Imlay to Houndsport and Telmora, then through the Dvalmar Pass. Tonight, they will rest in the fairy cavern. Bolaire thanks Azune for every conversation and asks how his name is truly pronounced. Azune tells him in private. Bolaire asks Azune to take him to his apartment to gather some things, which Azune does. Julien gives Azune the Einfasen axe from Ingrid.

In his apartment, Bolaire finds a note from Demodus thanking him for everything. He tells him to find him in Timmony, and includes a flipbook of a cat that refused to die having its own adventures. Thaisha and Occtis say goodbye and she gives him a sewing needle for Pin. Vaelus and Thaisha say goodbye, knowing they have made profound impacts on each other. They will miss each other terribly.

In the fairy cavern, Julien watches his shadow. It embraces two figures, both of which have manes. Then the figures vanish. Thimble and Kattigan hear the distant roars of brothers who don’t have to go on their next journeys alone.

The New Seekers table will head to the Golden Orchard.
The New Schemers table will awaken in Dol-Makjar.
One person Soldiers Table will travel to Dol-Rungja.

That is it for Episode 31 of Critical Role!

FINAL THOUGHTS

• PHEW that was a big episode with SO MUCH REVEALED! Let’s go Shadow Thjazi!
• Teor’s death boons were given to Wick and Thimble. Wick’s charisma increases to 20 permanently and Thimble’s strength is now 19.
• The afterlives were officially NOT destroyed in the Shapers War – this has huge implications for all of Aramán!
• What is next for our Schemers, Seekers, and solitary Soldier??

Catch Episode 32 of Critical Role Campaign 4 on Thursday, August 27th 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?