Cindergrove Revisited

is the forty-sixth episode of the first campaign of Critical Role. Special guest star Chris Hardwick plays Gern Blanston, a blue dragonborn wizard. With fire elementals emerging from the Elemental Plane of Fire, Vox Machina joins forces with the druids of Pyrah and Zephrah — and a strange scavenger — to seal the rift between planes.

Announcements

 * Many of the Critical Role cast members will be at WonderCon 2016 in the LA Convention Center on 2016-03-25.
 * Sam Riegel gets emasculated.
 * The first batch of Gilmore's Glorious Goods T-shirts rapidly sold out of stock. A limited second batch will be available for purchase for only one week, beginning on 2016-03-24.
 * A "Strongjaw Ale" T-shirt design, modeled by Travis Willingham will be available at WonderCon on 2016-03-25, then on Geek & Sundry's website.
 * Taliesin Jaffe provided a voice a robot companion in Fallout 4, now available in game.
 * The Nerdist Panel will be on Sunday at WonderCon, followed by a signing by Chris Hardwick.
 * Chris Hardwick posted the full, unedited parody debate of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump from his Comedy Central show, @Midnight.
 * Chris Hardwick's Comedy Central special, Fun Comfortable, premieres on April 30th.
 * Wyrmwood Gaming, a sponsor of Critical Role, offers free shipping through the code "critrole".
 * Laura Bailey is an extraordinary belcher.

Previously on Critical Role
''Our band of intrepid adventurers, Vox Machina, after having a horrible encounter with the Chroma Conclave — a gathering of chromatic, evil dragons that has just torn through the Tal'Dorei countryside, destroying cityscape after cityscape — the party has fled and has been seeking information on how to possibly eventually topple these creatures and restore order to the land of Tal'Dorei. They begin seeking these artifacts known as the Vestiges of the Divergence that promise ancient power from wars long passed that could aid them in this journey.''

After acquiring one &#091;Deathwalker's Ward&#093;'' with a near-death experience by Vex'ahlia over there, they begin the next step in their journey. However, as part of a recent scrying by Keyleth, the druid, they discovered that the Pyrah tribe of her druidic heritage, the Ashari, were decimated as their home of Pyrah was the portal to the fire elemental plane, that they normally guard, was where Thordak, the Cinder King, the great red dragon, tore through into this prime realm and managed to seemingly wipe out most, if not all, of the tribe.''

''Vox Machina made the relatively grim journey back to the mountainside, finding it now brimming with volcanic rock and volcanic activity that previously lay dormant. Upon climbing the side of the mountain, you found remnants of the Pyrah tribe still alive and making their way up the mountain, as damaged as they are, in hopes of sealing this now progressively swelling tear between the prime Material Plane and the Elemental Plane of Fire. Not just that; there was aid that came to the Pyrah tribe that involved a number of Air Ashari, one of which was Korrin, Keyleth's father. There is a brief, tearful exchange and reunion before the rest of you, steeling yourselves, began to walk in towards the center of the mountain's caldera, towards the remnants of the Cindergrove — the now-destroyed and -sundered petrified forest — in hopes of closing this rippling tear to the Elemental Plane, once and for all.''

Part I
Vox Machina makes their way towards the center of the caldera where the portal torn open to the Elemental Plane of Fire sits over a flow of molten rock pouring in three directions from the center of the mountain. They see four undead creatures aimlessly huddled at the base of a tree blocking the path forward. Cerkonos tells them that the Ashari need to divide their forces to handle the looming threat and asks them to handle this bit on their own. He and the other Ashari wish them luck and go forward into the caldera.

The party attempts to stealth past the undead, but Scanlan's clumsiness draws their attention. The party decides to try to kill them quietly. Vex and Vax quickly and silently kill one, but their master, a blue dragonborn wizard, arrives and accosts the group. He introduces himself as Gern Blanston, a magical candlemaker. The party agrees to take him with them so that he can get a body to replace the one that they killed. He introduces the other undead thralls: Coral, Stimpy, and Fatty Arbuckle. The one they killed was named Carol.

As the now-larger party proceeds to the rift creating a portal to the Elemental Plane of Fire, they encounter a small fire elemental. Keyleth transforms into a fire elemental and when the elemental runs, she pursues. It joins another fire elemental and a salamander-type creature which tells the elementals, in Ignan, "Go! He's not here yet! Alleviate this uncontrolled one!" All the creatures begin to swarm toward fire elemental-Keyleth. She intimidates them into returning to the Fire Plane rift in the center of the Cindergrove. The party follows, and Vex notices Gern stealthily reach down and pocket something he finds.

They continue forward through the flattened forest to the source of the molten river, an extremely bright rift surrounded by two fire elementals and two salamanders focusing a steady beam on it which seems to be tearing it slowly wider. Gern sends Fatty Arbuckle forward with an Ice Storm candle, triggering combat. Fatty survives the ice storm and an attack from the creatures, but is destroyed (along with the salamanders) when Gern casts Cone of Cold. Scanlan destroys one of the fire elementals with a Thunderwave and the other flees into the rift.

Break

 * Check out International Tabletop Day 2016-04-30. More information available at tabletopday.com, Geek & Sundry's website, and through "#TabletopDay" on social media. The Doubleclicks played the music and sang the message. Geek & Sundry will feature a 24-hour livestream on Twitch on 2016-04-30 hosted by Ivan Van Norman and featuring Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton.
 * Hosts Jesse Cox and Jessica Marzipan introduced their show Super Fun Awesome Party Game Time: Bloody Operation, which features hosts and guests playing classic board games. In this episode, guests Dave Reynolds and Chris Bramante of Robot Teammate joined the hosts to play the game Operation.
 * Critical Role Fan Art from 2016-03-24.

Part II
As Vox Machina moves forward toward the rift, creatures begin pouring out of it: an efreeti (fire genie), a large salamander, and four fire elementals. Keyleth drops her fire elemental form, but the salamander notices them and combat begins. Gern is set afire by one of the elementals but does significant damage to the salamander and elemental with a Cone of Cold and has Coral extinguish the flames on him. Scanlan casts Otiluke's Resilient Sphere on the efreeti, trapping it, but it remains floating above them. Keyleth casts Tidal Wave, destroying two of the elementals, and on her next turn casts it again to take out the two remaining elementals. The party then concentrates on the salamander and Vax gets the kill with a sneak attack.

That leaves the encapsulated efreeti. Gern reveals that he has a flying broom and manages to push the sphere down toward the rift. Grog pushes it further but Gern tumbles into the the lava and Vex rushes over towards him. The sphere holding the efreeti breaks, releasing it. It flies upward, but Scanlan Counterspells its attempted cast of Invisibility. Gern wades out of the lava, handing his broom to Vex so he has hands free to cast Disintegrate, hitting for massive damage, which the party follows up on. Scanlan uses his Ioun Stone of Reserve to cast Lightning Bolt for the How do you want to do this?. Grog beheads it for good measure.

Vex comes over to congratulate Grog and as she does so, shoves the flying broom into the Bag of Holding unseen by anyone. She tells Gern that it accidentally fell into the lava and he believes her.

Keyleth sends a Skywrite spell up as a signal to the Ashari, who arrive quickly, as the portal to Elemental Plane of Fire widens even further. All of the Ashari gather around it, attempting to seal it, but they are not strong enough. Gern sends Coral forward with a Blink candle and it succeeds in greatly reducing the rift at the cost of Coral's existence. Keyleth casts a Plane Shift that shrinks it even further, and Vax uses the Cape of the Mountebank's Dimension Door ability to envelop and destroy it completely. He falls into the lava below but Keyleth's Grasping Vine pulls him out before he suffers serious injury.

Korrin approaches Keyleth, tells her how proud he is of her, and urges her to complete her aramenté. He plans to stay with the Fire Ashari to help them rebuild. Vex heals Gern. He reveals he uses dragon scales to create his candles and wanders off to collect more as Vox Machina camps for the night.

Vox Machina

 * Keyleth
 * Percival de Rolo
 * Scanlan Shorthalt
 * Grog Strongjaw
 * Pike Trickfoot (absent)
 * Trinket (absent, mentioned only)
 * Vax'ildan
 * Vex'ahlia

New

 * Gern Blanston
 * Carol
 * Coral
 * Fatty Arbuckle
 * Stimpy

Returning

 * Cerkonos
 * Korrin

Quotations

 * Scanlan: (singing to the tune of "Turn, Turn, Turn") To everything -- Gern, Gern, Gern. There is a season -- Gern, Gern, Gern. I just like to sing your name, Gern Blanston. Did that help?
 * Korrin: (to Keyleth) The road before you, Keyleth, is hard and fraught with loss and sadness. To live is to struggle against the void. But it's those moments of darkness that define the joy of the world around them. Learn from the loss and push forward as a beacon of perseverance, of hope for life after pain. This is one of the pillars of strength of a leader. One that I have learned with the loss of your mother. But you are my beacon of hope. And to many more than you even expect.

Trivia

 * Vex'ahlia's alignment was originally neutral good, just like Keyleth and Scanlan, but shifted to chaotic neutral due to many behaviors and actions culminating in the theft of Gern Blanston's flying broom and then lying about it.