Divergent Paths

is the twenty-fifth episode of the second campaign of Critical Role. The Mighty Nein head down into the Gearhold Prison to destroy the clockwork Gear Warden, and hopefully help a family in need...

Pre-Show
Sam makes noise from his phone. Critical Role is down two players tonight...because Travis and Laura's baby can't wait. There's a new addition to the Critical Role team! Matt is glad that he already worked out a narrative exit for them...that they can't be here for. Seriously, the cast loves Travis and Laura: they're amazing. Taliesin is just saying that Laura could've held the baby for five more hours: then Matt could've shared a birthday with "the new one". Liam is Skype-ing during a visit with his nephew. So much is going on: Liam is having the best day!

Announcements

 * First off, a big thank you to our returning fantastic sponsor: D&D Beyond.
 * Sam didn't know this: the discount code for the Legendary Bundle on the D&D Beyond online marketplace ("826LA") is still active, but it will be expiring soon. The site will be undergoing some maintenance tomorrow (Friday, June 29, 2018) starting at 7:00 am PDT.  The site will be in read-only mode for a few hours.  Adam Bradford (Product Director of D&D Beyond) will be hosting a live-stream on twitch.tv/dndbeyond during maintenance at 9:00 am PDT, with some exciting announcements.  Not lost on the fact that Travis, Laura, and Liam are all gone from Critical Role, Sam pays special tribute to "Little Ashley", who will also be leaving for a little while.  So he sings a song he composed for Ashley, in the style of her favorite band: Boyz II Men.  Ashley may play a geek on NBC, but she's one in real-life with all of them here at Critical Role.  Sam hopes that Blindspot will let Ashley play with them when the Mighty Nein visits Xhorhas.  Until then, Sam will be hoping every week that this is the episode where Patterson is killed off.  Sam discovers that singing is hard to do in a mustache.  Marisha thought that the Burt Reynolds costume was just part of Sam's opening gag.  Sam declares that this is what he wore in the first campaign for Episode 25, so that's what he's going to do for this campaign!  Liam is dumbfounded that on the night when Ashley is about to leave, "Baby Baileyham" has just been born, Liam is in the woods, and Critical Role is about to move to its new independent studio...Sam decided to wear that?!?  Sam did not decide: Sam made this a thing, and now he can't unmake it.  Taliesin can't remember whether the monkey is Smokey or the Bandit.
 * Because of the move, there will not be a Talks Machina on Tuesday, July 3rd or Critical Role on Thursday, July 5th. The Talks Machina for tonight's episode will be on Tuesday, July 10th at 7:00 am PDT, then hosted by our fantastic host: Brian W. Foster.  The following Thursday (July 12, 2018) will be the next episode of Critical Role, where a guest (maybe even two?) will be joining the cast.  Sam asks if one of them will be a baby?  Matt says no.  Despite being a phenomenal Dungeon Master, Matt admits that he's not very good at teaching others how to play Dungeons & Dragons.  Also, language is an important barrier to teaching an infant.
 * Critical Role announced on social media the launch of a Kickstarter, in conjuction with Steamforged Games. It is a short-form Kickstarter for Critical Role's line of Vox Machina (including Trinket) and Mighty Nein (including Shakäste) miniatures.  They are highly-detailed and super-high-quality plastic tabletop minis.  There are Kickstarter-exclusive rewards for Pumat Sol (and his three simulacrums) and Taryon Darrington (including Doty).  The Kickstarter will be up for another week, ending on Friday, July 6th at 12:00 pm PDT.  If you can't afford the $60 right now to become a full Kickstarter backer and unlock those rewards, you can just donate $1 now and Critical Role will have opportunities for you to purchase those rewards later down the road.  For how high-quality and collectable these minis are, Matt admits that $60 is a pretty fantastic package.  Help make it happen...more (because the initial fundraising goal has already been blown out of the water).  Marisha says the boxing is so cool.  Matt hasn't seen the boxes yet, so Marisha decides not to spoil that yet.
 * Marisha is so emotional: so much stuff is going on. Every day feels like a year.

Previously on Critical Role
"So last we left off: The Mighty Nein - in making their way northward towards their eventual goal of Shady Creek Run, to complete their second mission that they accepted from the Gentleman in Zadash - had been traversing the countryside and made their way to the city of Hupperdook: the largely Gnomish-cultural city there of industry and (currently) construction of war machines to send towards the conflict with Xhorhas to the east. There, you saw the very hardy work atmosphere of the Gnomes...and then the evening's *very* crazy *party* atmosphere, in which many of you dove into some hard drinking: a hard drinking contest.

"You won the title of the Blushing Tankard Tavern - beating out their old champions - and woke up with terrible hangovers...and realizing that most of your gold had been stolen. Upon doing some sleuthing around the town, you had bullied a couple of bullies that were pushing Rissa around and had been a problem for a while, sent them peeing their pants and rushing.  You spoke with Rissa's father in his kind of tinkering inventor's store, in which you discovered a shiny object: a fantastic, experimental hand crossbow construct of his - that he would be interested in relinquishing without payment, if you do him the favor of correcting a mistake he made a while back.

"Apparently, he crafted (on the request of the Starosta of the city) a powerful gear-keeper: a construct-like entity that was meant to help the Warden within the prison...that went crazy, killed a bunch of people, then they sealed it off, and it's kind of just been there (forgotten) ever since. So, you said you'd take a look at this.  Eventually, you discovered that the money you had lost had been taken by four children, who currently are without parents and have been kind of living on the streets here, in the city of Hupperdook...while their folks had been sent to the prison six months before for being caught worshiping unapproved deities within the Empire.  You - after having this conversation with them, retrieving your funds, and leaving Kiri with them for the time being for safekeeping - decided to see if you had the possibility to prevent them from being sent to an Empire-run orphanage, in the hopes of freeing their parents in some way, shape, or form from their binds..."

The Mighty Nein

 * Beauregard
 * Fjord (controlled by DM and Marisha)
 * Frumpkin
 * Jester (controlled by DM, Taliesin, and Ashley)
 * Nott
 * Mollymauk Tealeaf
 * Caleb Widogast
 * Yasha

New

 * Warden Poppen Drokrushen
 * Gilda Schuster
 * Wallace Schuster

Returning

 * Kiri
 * Austin Schuster
 * Gail Schuster
 * Jude Schuster
 * Layla Schuster
 * Clef Tinkertop
 * Rissa Tinkertop

Mentioned

 * Ashton
 * Fitz
 * The Gentleman