The Frigid Doom

is the eighth episode of the fifth chapter of Critical Role. Back in Whitestone to debate their next move, Vox Machina discovers their return from the Feywild may not have been as clean cut as it seemed. Their attention turns to Draconia where the destruction wrought by the Conclave again leaves the party to search for allies amongst the scattered survivors while coming face to face with the cost to defeat them.

Previously on Critical Role
"Vox Machina, in their search for the Vestiges of the Divergence to gain artifacts powerful enough to rival—hopefully—the power of the Chroma Conclave, a group of chromatic dragons that have been terrorizing the countryside of Tal'Dorei&hellip;

"The party has just finished their journey through the Feywild, a strange, magically-overgrown realm of fey creatures, illusion, and apparently corrupt tree-bros. After a fight with this long mentally-disturbed fey, heartbroken and driven to vengeance in soiling the land around him. [Vox Machina] defeated him, and took from him the bow Fenthras, of which [ Vex'ahlia ] had been seeking. [&hellip;] [They] then gathered hands and, through the magical capabilities of Keyleth, the druid of the Air Ashari, [they] managed to Plane Shift the rest of the party back to Whitestone itself."

Part I
Vox Machina has returned to Whitestone from the Feywild. Unfortunately, Grog and Percy both retain no memories of their time there. Vex is distressed about Percy not remembering what he did so Scanlan uses modify memory to give Percy ten minutes to remember, although he alters it a little to his own liking. He remembers that he titled Vex'ahlia even though the reasoning is different in his mind. He also still has all of the sketches he did during his time there. Vex gets the onyx dog statue from the bag of holding. She also shows them her new bow.

The party runs into Jarett who greets them. He tells them that the barrier is now up and they notice the shimmering barrier in the sky. Allura, Drake and Kima have all left to gain information on Raishan. He says that Whitestone is trying to work to build up armed forces and reaching out to bring in other allies. Assum has appeared in the city just hours before Vox Machina and is currently meeting with Gilmore and Cassandra in the castle. They bid farewell to Jarrett and head to the castle. seeing a glimpse of Gilmore and Cassandra talking to Seeker Assum. Assum looks like he has some heavy acid scarring but he is alive.

They ask what happened to Assum and he says he made out better than many during the fall of Emon. Cassandra hugs Percy and the group apologizes for their appearance as they are still covered in black tar. Vex hands the bow over for Gilmore to take a look at it. Cassandra congratulates Vex'ahlia on her title and says she'll have it officially put down. Assum tells them the state of Emon and the nest that Thordak has amassed. He says that he thinks Thordak might be crazy and gives direct orders to his wyvern guard to communicate with other members of the Conclave. Gilmore says that he and Pike have been working on the barrier. Gilmore has been trying to see the other dragons and has had little success with Raishan. But he says that the place Vorugal attacked was Draconia, which has been razed. He says there was surviving Dragonborn but they are not in a good state, their home is now icy and cold.

Suddenly guards call out for Cassandra and the group can hear a shrieking roar in the distance. Keyleth tells Cassandra to get the citizens underground and the party keeps Keyleth from skywriting, as it could alert their presence. They exit the castle and they can see shapes flying in the distance. Vax, Keyleth and Percy see a dozen shapes in the sky being led by one that is much larger, one that is white in color. Unsure of what to do, Percy tells them to hold and they watch as the dragon passes over the west side of the city. It goes past the castle and lands at one of the peaks of the Alabaster Sierras. The dragon is looking out, not directly at the city.

They start evacuating people under the castle and under the tunnels below the Sun Tree. Guards try to keep people quiet as they move. Keyleth starts digging out the tunnels more, having to make a path around the Ziggurat. The dragons take off and coast around, disappearing into the distance they came from. They find Pike in the temple of Pelor. They eventually let the citizens out once it is clear. Pike remembers the Feywild and tries Greater Restoration on Grog to see if she can bring back his memories. It works and Grog gets all his memories back. She also uses Restoration on Percy, giving Vex Percy's glasses to hold, and he also gets his memories back, making him realize that Scanlan gave him a fake memory. Vex is wearing his glasses and hands them back over. He thanks Pike and Keyleth, threatening Scanlan as well.

Assum asks if they have anyone else allied to them and they tell him that Syngorn is building an army as well as the Emon soldiers with them. They could also call on the remnants of Grog's herd. Assum confirms with them that they killed Umbrasyl. They suspect that Vorugal was retaliating after Gilmore scryed on him. They also think that there is a possibility that Raishan has taken on a human form. Jarrett comes up and Vax insights Assum, as he is one of the survivors of Emon. The group heads into a nearby empty tavern to talk. Vax'ildan pulls Gilmore aside to check in on him.

Gilmore mentions that he grew up in Marquet, as they discuss their next steps. Percy says they have to stop thinking about this as a battle and instead as war, avoiding fighting the dragons in Whitestone. They need to move fast to bring their battles to the Dragons' territory instead. Grog still suggests using Scanlan as the spy, who is still against that plan. Percy says they should set up an evacuation plan in case there is another fly by. They also want to plan to have meetings near the Ziggurat so they can't be spied on or any glamours can't affect them when they are having war meetings. They discuss where to head next. Gilmore can teleport them to Marquet and Keyleth can scry then use a tree to get them to Draconia. They discuss how to try to get the dragons to turn on each other. Keyleth suggests creating shrines or statues of the other dragons in the other territories. Since Vorugal is vacant right now, Grog wants to go to Draconia and try to accomplish something while the dragon is gone.

As everyone heads back to the castle, Percy grabs Vax to bring him by the Raven Queen shrine he has been having Zahra work on. Percy says he has had his fill of gods but he knows that might still need them, and he wants Vax to have this here in case he needs it. Vax says he is still angry with him and Percy says he understands and deserves it. Vax tells him that he has always liked him from the beginning, a sentiment that Percy returns. Vax'ildan says that he wants to be friends with him again with the condition that he respects that Vax's forgiveness when Vex is involved is thin. Percy says he knows this. He says he titled Vex'ahlia because he could tell she was being limited by her past experiences with her father and poverty, that the title was an easy fix. Vax doesn't agree that being titled better than their father will fix this and Percy says he knows he doesn't. He promises that he will not hurt her or any of their friends intentionally. He wants Vax to never trust him and keep his eyes on him; that is the best friend he can be to him. They head back to the castle. Keyleth tries to wait for Vax to come back, but she doesn't hear him come in and goes to bed.



Part II
Vex has a rough sleep, still thinking about everything Saundor said to her. Vox Machina awakes and goes down to breakfast. A lot of them want to check up on Tiberius as he is probably still in Draconia and they haven't heard anything from him. They put it to a vote of their next location, but they are deadlocked. They flip a coin and decide on Draconia. The party decides to disguise themselves as Dragonborn.

They head up to the giant's lair so they have a safe place to Scry from. They try to scry on Tiberius, but don't get a connection. They manage to find Lockheed who is on the side of a snowy cavern, alone. They tie themselves together with a rope and use Transport via Plants to go to where Lockheed was. Scanlan and Vex'ahlia fly through and Vax manages to hold onto Keyleth using his wings. The rope that Percy and Grog are using is severed when the portal closes and they fall, with Grog catching Percy, keeping him from being hurt. Vex manages to spot Lockheed who flew up after being startled by the group. The group beckons him and he gets closer to them, cautious. Vex uses some food to lure him and he latches onto her. She keeps feeding him and tries to talk to him using Draconic.

Percy looks out of the snow-covered ravine and can see wreckage in the distance of the fallen remains of Draconia. There are some humanoids scavenging in the distance. Scanlan casts Seeming so they all look like metallic Dragonborn with tails. Vex talks to the survivors who accuse them of being traitors because they have tails. They drop Seeming and explain their situation to the group of scavengers led by Skork who agrees to take them to take them to Tooma. They are Ravenites, the tailless slaves of the Skyward Dragonborn, who are currently serving under Vorugal. They manage to convince the Ravenites' leader Tooma of their mutual goals and form a shaky alliance. She is worried that the resources and hunting the Ravenites provide to the dragon will not continue to satisfy it. She wants to defeat the dragon so it will not ruin her people and they have a chance to be truly free. They agree they will return in two weeks with word or else the Ravenites will go to Vorugal. They visit the lair of the dragon and find one of the spheres akin to those they saw in Brimscythe's lair, but don't touch it. They see many Dragonborn with tails who were killed in the initial battle. After inspecting the lair and gaining a bit of semblance of a plan, Percy asks if it is possible for them to take one of the bodies.

The Ravenites take down the body that he points out and he confirms his suspicions that it is the body of Tiberius, killed in battle. The party doesn't know what to do with their fallen friend as his home is in shambles. They consider bringing his body to their keep but instead they decide to leave him in the wreckage of the library they saw outside of the city, planning to properly bury him when they finish Vorgual. They place him in the books as their Ravenite companions keep a respectful distance, understanding that they are mourning. Grog pours water for Tiberius, remembering how he didn't like ale. Vax silently thanks the Raven Queen for helping his friend pass on. Keyleth drops to her knees and begins to cry, with Vex putting a hand on her shoulder. Vex lets Lockheed down to say goodbye. After taking a moment, they close off the rubble. They leave behind a grove of trees and part with the Ravenites. The group, still in shock, return to Whitestone and go to rest after the hit they just took. Keyleth goes and knocks on Vax's door and asks to stay with him.

Featured Characters
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Vox Machina

 * Keyleth
 * Percival de Rolo
 * Scanlan Shorthalt
 * Grog Strongjaw
 * Pike Trickfoot (absent; DMed Controlled)
 * Trinket
 * Vax'ildan
 * Vex'ahlia

New

 * Three unnamed Whitestone soldiers
 * Skork
 * Tooma

Appeared

 * Jarett Howarth
 * The Sun Tree (present but no interaction)
 * Tiberius Stormwind (corpse)
 * Shaun Gilmore
 * Cassandra de Rolo
 * Lockheed
 * Raishan (disguised as Assum Emring)

Mentioned
}}
 * Unnamed plant-based crocodile fey creature
 * Tofor Brotoras
 * Assum Emring
 * Garmelie
 * Lady Kima of Vord
 * Saundor
 * Thordak
 * Drake Thunderbrand
 * Vorugal
 * Allura Vysoren
 * Spireling Shenn

Quotations
Vax: I don’t fuck anything up with words, and I open the door.
 * Scanlan: (On laying Tiberius to rest) Goodbye, old friend. We’ll come back and we’ll fix this. Because this is… poppycock.
 * Percy: I do not want to die who I am. I would like to live long enough to be someone else.
 * Keyleth: (the night after they find Tiberius's body, to Vax) Can I stay with you tonight?

Trivia

 * The death of Tiberius Stormwind marks the first permanent death of a player character, although his player, Orion Acaba, had long since left Critical Role.
 * This is the fifth overall player character death, and the second one to occur off-stream (Pike's pre-stream death being the first).
 * For half the session the players continuously confused the Black Dragon Umbrasyl for the White Dragon Vorugal.