Dubious Pursuits

 is the fortieth episode of the second campaign of Critical Role.

Previously on Critical Role
Last we left off, The Mighty Nein, in pursuing a thread of a mysterious orb that seemed to connect in some way to the entity in which Fjord has somehow connect[ed] himself to, and as such been granted these strange eldritch powers, led you southward from the Menagerie Coast after commandeering a ship called The Mist, turned into The Mistake''. Followed it through some dangerous reefs to a pirate ship called the Squall-Eater, and there on the captain, Avantika.''

''You made a pact with her, where the choice was to either die, to help aid her and a companion she hired for this to help navigate this island. This kind of strange, seemingly dangerous or cursed island, to which you made your way through the jungle of this Urukaxl. Managed to avoid lizardmen. Managed to barely sneak through a ancient city of yuan-ti. Making your way to the top of this temple and through the interior. A series of battles later, an encounter with a strange lightless internal orchard in which two of the fruit within had been eaten by two members of your team and have been dripping balls ever since.''

''You made your way to the bottom, subterranean, guardian chamber, where you met a yuan-ti abomination that was laying guard to the true guardian: a large hydra. The hydra had turned around and laid waste to much of your party, but you managed to, through a series of clever choices, uses of fire magic, and some rapid assaults, managed to cleave all the heads from its body and kill it just in time. Its corpse now lying fresh on the ground, Captain Avantika seeming pleased and impressed by the display of the strange, new compatriots that have now come to work under her. You now sit in the stillness of this chamber, able to now finally take a moment to look about and see what secrets or mysteries it holds.''

The Mighty Nein

 * Beauregard
 * Caduceus
 * Caleb
 * Fjord
 * Frumpkin
 * Jester
 * Nott
 * Yasha (DM-controlled)

New

 * Jeremiah Willowhisk

Returning

 * Captain Avantika
 * Jamedi Cosko
 * Bouldergut
 * Vera

Mentioned

 * Vandren

Quotations
Matt: "You, yeah." (Fjord and Caduceus  stare at each other; Fjord awkward and Caduceus dubious as the former crawls into his bunk) Caduceus: "Sleep well with your bad decisions."
 * Taliesin: "Can I figure out what happened just by looking at him?"

Trivia

 * Sam's flask bears an image of a mostly-naked McCree riding a mechanical bull, with two Nott stickers above it.
 * At the end of this episode, the Mighty Nein reached level 7.