New Homes and Old Friends

is the one hundred eleventh episode of the second campaign of Critical Role.

Previously on Critical Role
''So, last we left off: the Mighty Nein, after heading their way towards the capital of Rexxentrum to meet up with Lady Vess DeRogna of the Cerberus Assembly, you discovered that there was interest in the north, the region known as Eiselcross, within the perspective of Vess, and she wished to hire you as both bodyguards and co-delvers within these apparently lost ruins of an ancient pre-Calamity mage city known as Aeor, to the Frozen Wastes in that way. You agreed to this, and upon exiting her tower it seemed that another member of the Assembly was aware of your presence, as a letter was sent to Bren, inviting him and his friends to dinner at the abode of Trent Ikithon.''

''So you went, gathered some supplies, dressed to the nines and showed up to his tower, where you had a very tense dinner with Trent and the two childhood trainees alongside Caleb as he grew up, Eadwulf and Astrid. This tension-laden dinner, while the food was delicious, led to many conversations, some darker reveals, and some harsh truth from Caduceus to cap it off. But upon exiting, drinks were had. Escaping to a nearby inn, you were all brought to your chambers, specifically going into one chamber that was rented by Caleb, who was assuring that there was a place to stay that would be comfortable. After paying to have a piece of furniture much like a closet of some kind brought to the room, you prepared a spell and briskly you watched as the space within this cupboard-like closet began to shimmy, and then reveal the interior. And as you all step through, invited by Caleb into this space, tell them what they see.''

Part I
Caleb welcomes the party through the shimmering doorway, saying, "Welcome home." They find themselves on the ground floor of his magical wizard's tower, a nine-story, nine-sided extra-dimensional dwelling. The ground floor holds soaring stained glass windows of each of the nine schools of magic, and a hole in the ceiling allows one to look all the way up to the top of the tower lost in darkness and distance above. Thinking the words "up" and "down" allows visitors to float through the central holes between floors, which open and close with brass irises.

They explore the tower and its massive library and salon with a fireplace under a stained glass window reminiscent of the colors of Mollymauk's coat. When an impressed Fjord asks Caleb how long he's been working on this, Caleb responds that it was since he was not able to stop Fjord, Yasha, and Jester from being taken from them.

Each party member has an individualized bedroom with carefully-thought-out details designed to make them comfortable and happy. The kitchens are staffed with cats of all sizes with prehensile tails who do the cooking, serving, and cleaning up, and also provide background music. The party has a late dinner together while planning what to do next. Jester polymorphs into a cat and explores the network of visible and hidden cat-sized ramps connecting the various rooms.

Caleb waits an hour beyond when everyone else goes to bed and opens the iris leading to the eighth floor with the Zemnian phrase, "Fort, doch nicht vergessen" (loosely, "Gone, but not forgotten"). The floor contains nine closed doors, and behind the sixth is what is presumably a re-creation of the stone room where the residuum crystals were implanted into Bren, Astrid, and Eadwulf. It holds three straight wooden chairs with leather straps and trays of instruments and gritty green dust. Caleb sits in the center chair, looking at his arms and thinking about their dinner, and eventually falls asleep.

The next morning, the party uses Teleportation Circle to reach Yussa Errenis's Tidepeak Tower and Nicodranas, where Veth collects Luc and Yeza and they Teleport to the Cobalt Soul Archive in Zadash. While the others head to the Invulnerable Vagrant, Beau, Yasha, and Caleb stay and try to research Nonagon, Lucien Nonagon, Eyes of Nine, or the Tombtakers, but learn very little new.

The rest of the party head to the Invulnerable Vagrant, where they are greeted warmly by Pumat Sol. Veth re-introduces herself and her family. Caduceus gives Pumat his armor to add a +1 AC enchantment to it - it will be ready in four days. Veth arranges to have a flask enchanted to hold endless chilled rosé. Fjord buys an Ioun Stone of Fortitude, and Veth buys Luc a ring that creates unlimited temporary spinning tops. Pumat knows nothing about the Eyes of Nine, or Lucien/Nonagon, or Aeor.

They say goodbye to the Pumats and rejoin the rest of the group.

Break

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 * Critters' art montage.

The Mighty Nein

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

Returning

 * Yussa Errenis (via Jester's Sending)
 * Wensforth
 * Yeza Brenatto
 * Luc Brenatto
 * Zeenoth
 * Pumat Sol
 * Clive Bens
 * The Gentleman
 * Cree (via Jester's Scrying)
 * Mollymauk Tealeaf or Lucien/Nonagon (via Jester's Scrying)

Mentioned

 * Jenna Iresor

Quotations
Yasha: I go peek under the canopy. "That’s going to be useful." Beau: "You're my best friend, Caleb!" Beau: But how does that work once they're dead? Caleb: We don't know unless we try, Beauregard. Fjord: We might get User 1, User 2, or the Admin Profile.
 * Caleb: (about his Tower) Right now we are about one centimeter off of our current reality. It's funny - we're actually very small right now. It doesn't feel that way, but we are.
 * Caleb: (showing Beau her bedroom) "Go lie on the bed. Okay, there is a blue sash or rope hanging just above your shoulder. Pull it down. It actually slides forward." You are immediately looking at yourself in a mirror built in to the roof of the four-post bed. "We are friends, you and I?"
 * Caleb: Well, that’s an interesting question, asking Molly what he knows, because according to Molly, he was dead more than once. So who knows who inhabits the home of a dead man’s skull when there have been several personalities in there?
 * The Gentleman: (to the party) If she [Jester] comes back with but a scratch, I will destroy you all.
 * Caleb: Mollymauk didn't know anything, but Nonagon might have. And it's the same person.

Trivia

 * The other names on the vials of blood held by The Gentleman that Jester was able to read were Milos, Milodan, Lech, and Jasna.