The Ruined Sliver

is the one hundred fourth episode of the second campaign of Critical Role. Seeking answers, the Mighty Nein continue to delve into forbidden areas of Rumblecusp in order to learn more about their powerful foe...

Announcements

 * No one knows how to pronounce Ravensburger yet, but Wonder Woman is here to tell everyone about a new game, Wonder Woman: Challenge of the Amazon (and to lasso Ashley with her actual golden Lariat of Truth). For a chance to win a copy, enter through 3 August 2020 at @RavensburgerNA on Twitter. Or buy a copy at bitly/WWChallengeoftheAmazons.
 * Second sponsor is D&D Beyond, who have just launched their new Android and Apple character app to allow you to track your character from wherever you are. Check it out at https://www.dndbeyond.link/crapp.
 * Content alert! On Tuesday, August 4th at 4:00pm PDT on Twitch will be Mini Primetime: After Dark, a special one-off featuring the cool vibes of mini painting.

Previously on Critical Role
''So, last we left off, the Mighty Nein, upon arriving at Rumblecusp in hopes of setting up TravelerCon in the next week or so... You’ve met some individuals. You’ve discovered that the people that already exist here on the island have lost their memories, it seems, and have come to enjoy a rather simple life here in the village of Vo in the shadow of some sort of a fire god known as Vokodo. You, with the help of one of their druidic spiritual leaders, traveled to meet with this Vokodo, and seemed to have suspicions that it’s not a god but some sort of malicious entity that is itself affecting and controlling this island, robbing memories and requiring those that live here to bring all their goods and precious things as gifts, to mine from the island and gift everything to this entity.''

You managed to make your way out after making some offerings to it, and through the use of a Greater Restoration'' spell return the memories of the druid leader that you had traveling with you, discovering that they were named Vilya, apparently from another continent known as Tal'Dorei. You then, together as a team, transformed some of you into birds and began to fly across the island for faster and mostly safer travel, making your way towards the eastern side where the Heavens Falls exist. A little bit of a bumpy landing but nevertheless you found yourselves searching the exterior of these falls and coming to a night’s rest. The next morning some of you did begin to lose your memory, but after cleansing these with spells, you began to inspect the falls. Some pearls were found, some accidents were had, but after briefly separating the falls themselves and discovering the illusion behind it, you found a cavern which held numerous, numerous boats and ships from all different ages there, crowded and left in the shadows.'' ''As you began to inspect the interior of this cavern, Fjord, you noticed the entrance to a torch bloom-covered subterranean water tunnel. Caduceus, you went to inspect it, and found yourself suddenly affected by some sort of strange compulsion to find out what’s at the end of these tunnels. You began swimming feverishly into it. Fjord, you attempted to stop him through multiple grapples and spells thrown. You were left blinded and kicked backward, as Caduceus thus has vanished from your grasp, eyes left to darkness, as you swam to the surface and shouted for aid. The rest of you guys, hearing this, gather towards Fjord to discover how best to deal with the recently vanished Caduceus. And that is where we left off.''

Part I
Fjord hurriedly explains that Caduceus is being compelled to swim toward Vokodo. With Caduceus getting further away with each moment, Caleb casts Expeditious Retreat on himself and swims down toward the tunnel in pursuit, while Jester casts Freedom of Movement on Beau, giving her no penalty for water movement and a total potential speed of 150. Both Caleb and Beau feel Vokodo's wave of influence but are able to resist it.

Beau manages to discern which way Caduceus went and catches up to him quickly as Caleb trails behind. She immediately hits Caduceus but fails in her attempt to use Stunning Strike on him. She hits him again, and this time, succeeds, and begins dragging him back out of the torch bloom-lined tunnel and within sight of Caleb, who casts Cat's Ire and uses the cat's claw to drag Caduceus just to the tunnel entrance. Beauregard swims after Caduceus and punches and stuns him again, and Caleb uses the claw to drag Caduceus out of the tunnel and up to the surface. When Caduceus recovers from his stun, the compulsion to join Vokodo has passed.

The party all gathers on the deck of the nearest ship, a fishing vessel called the "Fiona", and take a short rest to somewhat recover. They discuss what to do next. Jester proposes having a Heroes' Feast, but they decide to postpone that until evening when they're sure they will be confronting Vokodo within twenty-four hours. They decide to explore a few of the ships surrounding them, finding that they have all been stripped of anything remotely of value. The largest ship, the "Eden's Horizon", contains ballistas which excite Veth. It looks as though it was a shipping vessel and is sixty to a hundred years old, but in good condition. They decide they'd like to take it with them when they leave the island, and Veth suggests they could rearrange the letters of its name to rename it the "Nein Heroz" (with a "D" left over).

While they rest, Caduceus decides to try Divine Intervention again. To everyone's massive surprise, it succeeds, and the Wildmother sends him a vision of Vokodo, fleeing through its home in the Astral Sea in a desperate attempt to escape from something. As it crashes through the planar boundary, it drags shards of other places with it, and lands on the island at the base of the volcano. The volcano changes it, and Vokodo in turn changes the surrounding island.

Caduceus shares this knowledge with the group, and they discuss what it might mean and how they could use the knowledge. When their short rest ends, Caduceus has lost his cooking pan. They decide to explore the Ruins before facing Vokodo, since that location is forbidden to the villagers and therefore may contain an item or knowledge useful in defeating the creature. After much discussion about the merits of using the waterspout at the entrance to shoot them into the air as giant birds, Jester regretfully decides to play it safe and uses Control Water to part the geyser. They all make it out of the cavern safely. Vilya, Caleb, and Jester transform into giant owls and after a three-way game of roshambo to determine who goes first, Vilya seizes Fjord, Caleb takes Beau and Yasha, and Jester has Veth climb on her back while gently cradling Caduceus in a cupped claw as they fly toward the Ruins.

Break

 * D&D Beyond animation.
 * Check out the new D&D Beyond Android and Apple character app here.
 * Merch Alert! Button-down Mighty Nein weapon shirt, Mighty Vibes sticker, and Nott the Brave flasks are now available in the U.S., U.K., and Australia critrole.com stores.
 * Pumat Sol invokes the Subscription cantrip to reach the Twitch Prime dimension.
 * Critters' art montage.

The Mighty Nein

 * Beauregard Lionett
 * Caduceus Clay
 * Caleb Widogast
 * Frumpkin
 * Fjord
 * Jester Lavorre
 * Veth Brenatto/Nott the Brave
 * Yasha Nydoorin

Returning

 * Vilya

Mentioned

 * Oracs

Quotations

 * Matt: You suddenly see a silver gossamer sky, swirls of strange clouds and sparkles. A familiar space. You’ve been here before, briefly. You stepped into a creature’s mouth in a space like this, and here you sense something. You sense fear. You sense something fleeing, something desperately trying to escape. You sense whatever this Vokodo was, and is, but was, running, running from something. And as it crashes through the silver, it crashes through the boundaries. It crashes into this island, and the impact of it crashing drags shards of other places with it. You see as it lands at the base of this volcano. The volcano changes it, and it changes the island that houses this volcano. You don’t fully understand what this is, but you know it's not from here. It has origins somewhere in the Astral Sea, and it came here to hide.
 * Matt: (after the three-way roshambo) How have you all survived to Level 12?

Trivia

 * Sam's flask read, "Me trying to figure out what will be funny in the future", a nod to their pandemic shooting schedule recording two weeks prior to air.
 * This episode took place on the in-game date of 19 Unndilar 836.