Winter's Crest in Whitestone


 * For the celebration after Vox Machina liberated Whitestone, see Winter's Crest.

is the thirteenth episode of the third chapter of Critical Role. It's time for the Winter's Crest Festival in Whitestone! Contests, prizes, and revelry abound as we wrap up our year with a nice bow.

Recap
"The intrepid group of adventurers known as Vox Machina had made their way to the city of Whitestone, a town that Percival grew up in and had taken from him and his family five years ago, most of his family, the de Rolos, being murdered in the process. The Briarwoods, who had taken the town, rather quickly and covertly held it for five years, had now been building towards some sort of a ritual, some sort of event that the party was investigating. They incited a rebellion within the city of Whitestone, gathering the remaining members to take up arms and fight against this undead scourge that had kept them locked down for so long, oppressed for so long. After managing to take out some of the various operatives under the Briarwoods' regime, they made their way into the Castle Whitestone itself, saved Percy's sister Cassandra, thought dead for a long time, and got vengeance upon a number of individuals that were on his List—except for Ripley who got away.

"[They] fought their way down underneath the city of Whitestone, fell into an acid-based trap, made their way to the Ziggurat, this construct beneath the city of Whitestone where some ritual was attempting to be completed by Lady Delilah Briarwood. It was discovered that it seems the patron that they spoke of, the "Whispered One", has been in the previous bits of history spoken as Vecna, a powerful lich of ancient history that had attempted to ascend to godhood at some point in the past. They managed to tackle the Briarwoods, destroy Sylas, defeat Delilah, and, dragging them back, decided to interrogate. In the process of trying to extract information, Percy's dark harbinger, his dark passenger if you will, pressured to incite the vengeance that apparently the pact he made with this entity required. Upon fighting its will, it was jettisoned from his form and the party battled this deranged greater smoke demon-like entity in the center of this cavern.

"During this fight, Lady Briarwood attempted to escape, however found a dagger in the middle of her back thanks to Vax. Stripped of her possessions, and then Cassandra dragging her into the nearby acid vats, tossing her body within to leave her story to a definite conclusion. Scanlan, being very astute apparently in some observations, and as convincing as he can be, managed to wrestle Percy's weapon, his List, his pepperbox, from his grip and toss it into the very acid pits, destroying his greatest creation, and in doing so seemingly breaking whatever hold this shadow demon had on Percy's soul.

"Upon returning to the city of Whitestone, they found the rebellion was successful. The undead hordes have fallen to the blades of the surviving rallied warriors of Whitestone. Keeper Yennen, who currently was essentially the leader of the rebellion while [Vox Machina was] going into the castle, met with [them], and [they] were brought to the center of town where [they] began to see the rest of Whitestone emerge—the families, the children, the people that had been too scared to go outside, finally came out to celebrate victory; the first real breath of free air they've had in five years since the Briarwoods took the city. Some justice was doled to a few survivors of the Briarwoods' regime, and [Vox Machina was] asked to stay behind to help rebuild and to prepare for the coming Winter's Crest Festival, of which [they] agreed. A few... awkward moments, and a few delightful bits of interpersonal comedy brought [them] to this point."