Fleeting Memories

is the fourteenth episode of the second campaign of Critical Role. The Mighty Nein find themselves creating dangerous allegiances, and uncovering more about the past of one of their own...

Pre-Show
Laura Bailey is staying home tonight. She got the "con plague" and she's pregnant. She will text the group if they do anything wrong with Jester.

Announcements

 * Tonight's sponsor is D&D Beyond, helping you keep track of your important stuff. However, the cast still keeps losing track of one important thing: Ashley Johnson. To awards show music, Travis gives a thank you speech, Taliesin sings a song, Marisha recites a poem, and Liam gives an Irish blessing. Sam also announces the 826LA Charity Campaign! For the next four weeks, D&D Beyond is partnering with Critical Role and Wyrmwood Gaming to raise money for 826LA.
 * Critical Role has partnered with Obsidian for the upcoming Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire in which many of the cast do voice work. A free DLC is available with custom voice sets and character portraits of Vox Machina, including Gilmore, to use in-game.
 * If you have an Amazon Prime account you can link it to your Twitch Prime account so you can subscribe to a Twitch Stream of your choice free every month.
 * There are new Twitch emotes for the subscribers to the channel, plus a "Nein" emote at the $10 level subscription.
 * Critical Recap provides recaps of the first 13 episodes of Critical Role on YouTube, hosted by Dani Carr.
 * Talks Machina is hosted by Brian Wayne Foster Tuesdays at 7PM Pacific on Twitch and Project Alpha.
 * The podcast of the previous episode is now available for download where all fine podcasts are available.
 * The final issue of Vox Machina: Origins Series I will be available for download April 16th on Dark Horse's digital download platform for comics, ComiXology, and many other places.

Previously on Critical Role
"Last we left off, the Mighty Nein had gotten caught up with some interesting folks, the Knights of Requital, who had hoped to help shift some of the political balance of the city: remove, through the framing and forging of materials and letters, some of the corrupt individuals in the local government. They had gone out in the evening, infiltrated a few of the homes and left this information behind, got in a few scuffles, leaving one of them, the High Richter, dead. Shortly after, there was an attack on the Tri-Spire by two Xhorhasian assassin-type individuals.

''You met with one in the sewer in trying to escape from being seen by the local guard during this confrontation, and did battle with what seemed to be a Crick warrior of some kind. You subdued it, removed most of its equipment, and conflicted over this strange artifact, this beacon that it was carrying. You sent it on its way. However, it was quickly caught by the guard and killed. You met, on the surface, the guard that were bringing the corpse and the object along. You managed to spirit away the strange dodecahedron from the grasp of the town guard and absconded with it.''

''You met with Dolan and Horris who were currently trying to figure out what to do in case they were somehow implicated with the events of the evening. You [Fjord] took Horris under your wing, promising Dolan that you would somehow smuggle him out of the city that's currently on lockdown during this investigation.''

''You all then managed to, trying to find some sort of lead on what the next step would be, went toward The Evening Nip, apparently to seek, possibly, this individual known as The Gentleman who you had heard of previously. As Kara, one of the Knights of Requital who had vanished, seemingly had some sort of connection there. So, you entered The Evening Nip, gave the previously discovered words - the code words - that allowed you entry, and were led down a long, spiral staircase beneath the establishment into a subterranean bar. Upon which, after immediately stepping into the space, a black-furred, female tabaxi approached Mollymauk and, with a look of recognition, said, 'Lucien,' and embraced him."''

Part I
The tabaxi woman, named Cree, breaks away from Molly to find a table for the group. Molly turns and whispers to Fjord, "This is my nightmare. Please just go with it? It's Lucien." He asks him to pass it on to the others. Yasha appears, saying that the group passed her at the Evening Nip, and she followed them down the staircase. The tabaxi woman calls the group over to a table, apologizes to Molly for using his old name, and says "Nonagon, it is a pleasure to see you again."

The tabaxi asks him what happened, since "we watched you die," and Molly evades by asking what it looked like from their side. She tells him it went belly up two years ago. Lucien told their group to scatter and vanish if things went wrong and wait till he returned. They buried him in the woods outside the hideout. "That spell-spitter lady from the capital" took "the book" and left. Their group was all part of the same order at one point and splintered off, going north to Shady Creek Run and starting the Tombtakers.

At that point, the Gentleman calls them over, and Fjord tells him they mean to be of service. The Gentleman wants to know how they found him, and Beau says that Demedan was clumsy with his information. Since they now know the direct path to his domain, the Gentleman requests vials of their blood in order to be able to locate them (Cree's specialty), and they reluctantly comply. He also wants to test if they are lucky or not by playing a card game, Gambit of Ord, and Fjord agrees. They play, with an eventual 600 gold pot, and Fjord wins.

The Gentleman tells them they've been keeping an eye on their activities, and that the party (at least a pretty good physical description of Molly and Beau) are wanted for the murder of the High-Richter. He could make the investigation go away, but in return he wants them to investigate a newly-discovered abandoned underground research facility his group has recently uncovered on one of their shipment routes.

Since they passed his tests, Nott wants him to pass one in return. She requests three empty glass vials, and fills one with acid and two with booze. She then mixes them, and the Gentleman correctly identifies the acid-filled one and drinks it. While it apparently hurts him, he is mostly unfazed, and the Nein are impressed. They agree to clear the research facility if the Gentleman will get Horris safely out of the city as part of their reward, and he agrees.

Beau questions some of the Gentleman's minions who investigated and fled the facility previously. They encountered little lights with a shocking jolt coming out of the walls. Molly re-questions Cree, and is told that he (Molly) had acquired the tome with the ritual spell that he required to attempt to reach the city. The lady spell-slinger from the capital came and performed the ritual for him, and at the end, he wasn't breathing and their group buried him and scattered.

Caleb confronts Fjord about his wager in the card game with the Gentleman. Fjord says it was his funds, not the party's, and Caleb tells him he is okay with calculated risks. Yasha shares that she is from southern Xhorhas and has only been in the Empire about a year and a half. They question Kara; she works for the Gentleman and they had nothing to do with the Kryn attack. Ulog and Dolan don't know she's been a part of the Gentleman's team. She's in it to potentially become a middleman between the new High-Richter Dolan Thrym and the underworld. Caleb introduces himself, Nott and Jester to the other bouncer, an ogre named Kutha: Nott tries telling him a joke and when he doesn't get it Jester uses her Wand of Smiles on him. Satisfied for now, the Nein head back out into the city.

Break

 * 826LA video
 * Journal Promo for "We're Alive: Frontier"
 * "Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire" Critical Role promo
 * Starter Kit promo
 * Key Question promo

Part II
The Nein meet Horris back at the Leaky Tap and tell him the plan for his escape. They send him off and confront Molly. He says he woke up with no memory, buried in the ground, two years ago. Jester casts Zone of Truth, covering the whole group except Beau and Fjord. Molly remembers nothing of his life before he woke up, and doesn't want to know. It wasn't him. He was taken in by the circus right after he woke up, not speaking, except the word "empty" over and over. Soon after, he realized his blood powers with his blades. Most of his tattoos are new, except the red eyes that are not tattoos but have been incorporated into them. Those, he had when he woke up.

They take a night's rest at the Leaky Tap. In the morning, Fjord attunes to the Waste Hunter Blade. Caleb, Yasha, Nott, and Fjord head to the Invulnerable Vagrant, where they buy two vials of holy water, a protection cloak for Fjord, two healing potions for Yasha, and ink and parchment for Caleb. At a blacksmith, Yasha buys twenty throwing stars for Beau, losing one on the way home.

They go back to the Leaky Tap and pick up the rest of the party and Horris, escorting him to the Evening Nip where they meet back up with Molly and send Horris on his way to Berleben via the Gentleman's network. The Nein are blindfolded and escorted into the network of underground tunnels to a dock on an underground river, where they are given two boats and begin traveling down the tunnels into a pitch black cavern.

The Mighty Nein

 * Beauregard
 * Fjord
 * Frumpkin
 * Jester Lavorre
 * Nott
 * Yasha Nydoorin
 * Mollymauk Tealeaf
 * Caleb Widogast

New

 * Dweez
 * The Gentleman
 * Hannah
 * Kutha
 * Louis
 * Rodel
 * Sorah
 * Therad

Returning

 * Clive Bens
 * Cree
 * Kara
 * Horris Thrym

Mentioned

 * Demedan Baumbauch
 * Otis Brunkel
 * Jurrell
 * Zoran Kluthidol
 * Dayana Prucine
 * Dolan Thrym
 * Thuron
 * Ulog
 * Tyffial Wase

Quotations
Fjord: Oh. No, I was actually only gambling my funds. Caleb: Do you know, I would be all right if you had? I am a fan of calculated risks. Fjord: Good to know. Calculated risks. I’ll keep that in mind. I thought you liked to play things close to the chest. Caleb: If the reward is good and it’s not stupid. Fjord: Sometimes you got to get a little stupid, though.
 * Caleb: Yeah, I’m wondering if you just wagered the party’s funds. On a very calculated risk.
 * Molly: Joy can fill an awful lot of a person's life.
 * Molly: People are looking for a path. And I’ll tell you – and this is true – I did my best in every town I went to. And every town I left, no matter how they treated me – and a lot of them treated me with deep disrespect - I left every town better than I found it.

Trivia

 * Sam's giant flask bears a message saying "Laura, if you are watching, I'm totally using your dice tray" in this episode.