Between the Lines

is the seventy-eighth episode of the second campaign of Critical Role. The Mighty Nein return to Zadash, where lore and knowledge await those that know where to look...

Pre-Show
Why is Sam the way he is?

Previously on Critical Role
''So last we left off: The Mighty Nein, after making friends with the Bright Queen, after finding their way across the entirety of Xhorhas seeking some strange demon entity known as Obann, losing an ally to some sort of magic, and seeking information about this Laughing Hand figure, you made your way back to Nicodranas to head northward back into the Empire where all of this began. You met up and are currently that night spending the evening within some rooms provided by Marion Lavorre within the Lavish Chateau in Nicodranas. You Scryed on your friend Yasha and discovered that there was some sort of attack in the midst of happening in some sort of a library. Gathering your thoughts, you rested for the night as well as you could with this new information, and we begin with the familiar for some of you and welcome warm sunrise in the city of Nicodranas on the Menagerie Coast.''

Part I
The party meets up in the breakfast room, and Jester shares with Caleb her nervousness about meeting her presumed father, the Gentleman, in Zadash, suggesting that she could make herself look like her mother when she meets him. No one else in the party thinks this is a good idea. Beau shares that there are Cobalt Soul archives in Rexxentrum and Port Damali as well as in Zadash, and she believes they all have well-guarded teleportation circles. Marion greets them but is sad that they have to leave immediately. When she says goodbye to Jester at their departure, she gives her 750 gold that she has saved for her. Jester forges a letter from Archivist Zeenoth giving them permission to travel and they purchase horses and head north.

On the road, Nott makes two bola arrows. Caleb transcribes the two new dunamancy spells into his spellbook. Jester gives the traumatized Sprinkle lots of love, while Beau and Fjord work out together. At the Wuyun Gorge gate, security has tightened. Their forged paperwork fails to convince and the guards turn them away until Jester casts Charm Person on them, convincing them to allow the party through. They continue northward. Jester casts Scry on Yasha again, and sees her with the Laughing Hand and a cloaked and hooded figure, presumably Obann. They are in an area of grassless rolling hills at the base of rocky mountains, the soil dotted with multi-colored minerals and odd scrub brush, with occasional geysers shooting up. When she describes the landscape, Beau recognizes it as the area around her hometown, Kamordah. She can think of no reason Yasha's group would be interested in that area. Beau describes her father, Thoreau, to Jester well enough for Jester to use Sending to contact him, saying that Beau is an Expositor now and asking if everything's okay there. He responds that everything's fine.

They decide to continue toward Zadash, reaching Trostenwald, where they first met. They discover that Beau's sharing of the Baumbauch family's stolen letters with the Gentleman has resulted in the brewery shutting down. Beau buys the party two bottles of her family's wine and they find the dicks Jester had carved into the table.

They reach Alfield and learn that Bryce Feelid has been sent to Bladegarden. A day or so out of Zadash, Jester Scrys again on Yasha, seeing her with her companions in a Xhorhasian swampy plain. Jester also checks with Thoreau via Sending again, and everything is still okay there. At dawn, Caduceus and Fjord notice a thin trail of smoke a third of a mile off, and Nott and Frumpkin investigate, finding three massacred men and two dead horses, apparently killed by goblins and possibly something larger as well. Caduceus uses Speak With Dead but learns only that they were farmers traveling to sell produce and were attacked by a lot of small things and a few bigger. They continue on to Zadash.

Outside the gates, Beau puts on her Cobalt Soul vestiges, while the rest of the party either trades their Xhohasian clothing for more local styles, or uses disguise spells to achieve the same effect. Caleb uses Seeming to make Nott look like Veth. The guards at the gate look them over and admit them.

The Mighty Nein

 * Beauregard Lionett
 * Caduceus Clay
 * Fjord
 * Frumpkin
 * Jester Lavorre
 * Nott
 * Yasha Nydoorin (through Jester's Scry spell)
 * Caleb Widogast

New

 * Thoreau Lionett (through Jester's Sending spell)
 * Archivist Kethadok
 * Galesh

Returning

 * Old Edith
 * Marion Lavorre
 * Yeza Brenatto
 * Luc Brenatto
 * Obann (through Jester's Scry spell)
 * The Laughing Hand (through Jester's Scry spell)
 * Yorda
 * Thadeus Candleglow
 * Zeenoth
 * Essek Thelyss (through Jester's Sending spell)
 * The Traveler

Mentioned

 * Adelaine
 * Leylas Kryn
 * Reani
 * Twiggy
 * Archivist Madir
 * Avantika
 * Shakaste
 * Jourrael

Trivia

 * The phrase "To Zadash!" was said 11 times in this episode.
 * As of this episode, Caleb now knows the Teleportation Circles to the Cobalt Soul in the Empire's capital, Rexxentrum, as well as Port Damali in the Menagerie Coast. However, free travel through them is questionable since the Mighty Nein have been temporarily banned from both.

Quotations

 * Nott: To Zadash!