An Open Window

is the one hundred fourteenth episode of the second campaign of Critical Role.

Previously on Critical Role
So, last we left off: The Mighty Nein, after making a deal with the Archmage of Antiquity of the Cerberus Assembly, Lady Vess DeRogna, to escort her to the northern region known as Eiselcross, to head towards what seems to be possibly an excavation for the long-lost pre-Calamity city of Aeor... You made your way northward to the very final precipice of the Greying Wildlands, chartered a ship known as the Midnight Hammer'', and made your way across the dangerous Frigid Depths. For days you journeyed with some chance encounters, along with an ambush by the apparently raised undead Captain Avantika, seeking one such item that you still carry, the last remnant required to unleash Uk'otoa. After she escaped with this artifact, you gave chase as orcas, and through some ingenuity and some quick movement managed to head her off at the curb, and in doing so, dispatched her undead form deep beneath the waves.''

Returning to the ship, you made your way to the final elements of this journey, and we left off as the Midnight Hammer began to slowly dock into Balenpost on the southern edge of Foren, the central largest island portion of Eiselcross.

Part I
Under Vess DeRogna's conjured green tri-diamond symbol of the Cerberus Assembly, the ship pulls into the rudimentary docks and is greeted by Wardlow Akron, the appointed overseer of Balenpost. The party heads into the fort, finding a primitive main chamber filled with a few rickety tables and chairs, and a few of the inhabitants. There, they encounter Dagen Underthorn, their hired guide for the forthcoming journey. They learn that Lady DeRogna plans to set out in about forty hours, after she has a few meetings in Balenpost.

Fjord asks Akron if he's seen a purple-skinned tiefling come through, but he hasn't. Lady DeRogna tells the party to take the day to prepare and gather supplies for the journey and they will leave tomorrow mid-day, weather willing. She heads upstairs to her quarters, saying she'll see them at dinner.

The party goes shopping for food, locating Oweda, a female goliath meat seller, and buy wolf and mammoth meat for their journey. She hasn't seen a purple tiefling, and starts flirting with an oblivious Caduceus after he makes a bad pun. After the encounter, Caduceus tells the party that romantic relationships just really aren't his thing. Jester builds a snowman and picks up a conversation with Kelan, one of the inhabitants who she draws into helping her and rewards with a pastry. Caleb tries to build one as well, but Beau starts a snowball fight. Caleb wins by casting Telekinesis on Beau to throw her into a snowdrift, and Jester demands he do it to her, too.

They return to the fort around dinnertime and find Lady DeRogna in the common room. She invites them to join her at her table, and tells them they will be going to the primary excavation site across the river of flame, the crossing of which she will handle. She anticipates the journey taking a week and a half. She reiterates the dangers of using teleportation magic, and shares that other forms of magic occasionally have unexpected aftereffects. She also reveals that the Assembly filters the information they give King Dwendal about Eiselcross, through Ludinus Da'leth. Veth "offers" to pay for the meal, and is incensed when Lady DeRogna graciously accepts and takes one of the bottles of wine with her upstairs to her quarters on the third floor. When they try to pay, however, they learn that the Assembly pays for Balenpost and there's no bill.

At DeRogna's repeated urging, the party also talks to a steadily-drinking Dagen Underthorn who gives a run-down of native beasts, including "Old Demorog", a mutated winter wolf. He introduces his axe, Sheila.

The party heads to their ground-floor rooms and Jester Scrys on Mollymauk/Lucien/Nonagon. She sees a warmly-lit chamber, with the purple tiefling searching through its contents, methodically looting. He turns; the eye on his peacock tattoo flashes and emits a dull red light. The tiefling looks directly into Jester's scrying orb and greets it as a return visitor, telling it that without their scent, he wouldn't have been able to follow "her". He'd been trying to watch "this one's" path for a while; he saw the threads and made a detour. As Jester watches, he finds a book and exults that he once more has what "she" took from him, then climbs out the window with the words, "To Alpha and Alpha, we trek till homeward bound we be." As he leaves, he ends Jester's Scry with a snap of his fingers.

The Nein are confounded, speculating that "she" is Vess DeRogna and that the tiefling has now recovered the book used in the ritual that resulted in his apparent death and Molly's inheriting of his body, and that his final clue mentioning the "Alpha" was given to them because he wants to be followed. Fjord notices that the map Vess DeRogna gave them has several locations marked with "A" and a number, where smaller chunks of Aeor scattered and fell: A2, A5, A?, and A4. A2 is northwest of Aeor proper; A5 could be on the way to the lava river.

Caleb casts Widogast's Nascent Nein-Sided Tower, and they go to their rooms. Caleb goes to talk to Veth, telling her he's not the leader of the group, but that it's an ensemble. She agrees, and they share a hot cocoa brought by the cats. Jester wants to read the copy of Der Katzenprinz in her room and is incensed that it is in Zemnian. She confronts Caleb about it in the morning and he agrees to read it to her some time.

They go to the common room where Beau approaches Yasha for a chat, telling her she realizes how hard it must have been for Yasha to have Trent Ikithon talking in her head at their dinner with him. They talk about Yasha's time with Obann, and Yasha tells Beau she doesn't know what she would have done if anything happened to Beau because of her. Yasha then confesses she wrote Beau a poem and gives it to her to read later.

Time wears on and Lady DeRogna does not appear. Jester and Fjord go up to the third floor to find her and knock on the door, but there is no answer. Jester Sends her a message, but again, there is no answer. Fjord intimidates four soldiers into getting Akron, suspecting a problem. The Nein decide to break in, finally realizing that the purple tiefling may have been breaking into DeRogna's room when they Scryed on him the previous evening.

When Veth picks the lock, they enter, and Jester sees a familiar open window. It is the one she had seen Molly exit through in her Scry. The room has been tossed, and the lifeless body of Vess DeRogna lies on the bed, streams of blood pouring from her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, and an expression of horror and pain on her face. On the right side of her neck is a red eye, and another on her palm and the back of her hand. All of her jewelry has been removed, and the party finds a total of nine eyes tattooed on her body which appear to be old rather than new, and which she had apparently kept hidden with a glamour. Caduceus casts Gentle Repose on her as a group of soldiers summoned by Akron arrives downstairs.

The Mighty Nein

 * Beauregard Lionett
 * Caduceus Clay
 * Caleb Widogast
 * Frumpkin
 * Fjord
 * Jester Lavorre
 * Veth Brenatto
 * Yasha Nydoorin

New

 * Wardlow Akron
 * Dagen Underthorn
 * Oweda
 * Kelan

Returning

 * Vess DeRogna
 * The Traveler
 * Mollymauk/Nonagon/Lucien (via Jester's Scrying)

Quotations
Yasha: Big time. Even I read it. Caduceus: Huh. Naw, I don't have time for that. That's all right. Veth: What do you mean you don't have time for that? We have forty hours. You guys could have sex forty times. Caduceus: Yeah, no, that's just not-- I get it. It's just really not my thing. Veth: Are you just not... not...? Caduceus: Naw, not really. Veth: Not into her, or just not into...? Caduceus: Oh, not into anybody. I enjoy what you all have going on. That's a lot of fun to watch. I mean, not... there... specifically, but the way you all bounce off each other is kind of great. But naw, it's not really for me. Yasha: Well, they should've.
 * Veth: Caduceus! She was into you! Did you not read that? She was into you!
 * Dagen Underthorn: "Sometimes, scavenging isn't worth what you find."
 * Mollymauk/Nonagon/Lucien: To alpha and alpha we trek 'til homeward bound we be.
 * Caleb: (to Veth) In the beginning, when we were traveling together, I was from side to side, top to bottom, a mess, and I think you were trying to give me a bit of confidence and help me get back on my feet. I have confidence. I am back on my feet. And I have surrounded myself with experts in their fields, very accomplished people. And I am confident to rely on them and not lead. I don't want to be a leader. I never have. But helping, I like, and confidence, I enjoy. So you have done me a great kindness and bolstered my resolve. You have helped bring me back into my own. And now, I am here. So let's just be here.
 * Beau: No one's ever written me a poem before.
 * Matthew Mercer: "I wasn't hired to keep her safe!"

Trivia

 * This episode was not sponsored by D&D Beyond, for the first time in the second campaignsince the COVID-19 Hiatus.