Masquerade

is the fifteenth episode of the seventh chapter of Critical Role. As Vox Machina returns to Deastok to clear the Darrington family of their debt, Taryon has a talk with his family about the future. The party then returns to Whitestone where two strange individuals make themselves known, one of them possibly being more than he seems. ..

Previously on Critical Role
"Vox Machina had discovered that one of their companions—the most recent addition to their team, Taryon Darrington—had gone missing, seemingly taken by a bounty hunter who had masqueraded as a pastry chef and was retrieving him to be returned to Wildemount within the city of Deastok to the rest of the Darrington family.

"Upon heading them off at the pass and retrieving Taryon, [they] all made [their] way to Deastok and spoke with the rest of the Darrington family, and discovered that they have gone into serious debt. There's been a long-running agreement between the Darringtons and a criminal syndicate known as the Myriad that seems to be very prominent in Wildemount, and as the years have gone by that debt has compounded and compounded to the point that they were threatening to take everything from the Darrington family and toss them out onto the street.

"[Taryon's] father, Howaardt, told [them] that his plan to prevent this from happening was to marry [Tary] off to a very rich and powerful family up in the capital of the kingdom. [Taryon] decided to look for other options.

"[The party] went and spoke with a gentleman named Korshad who was within a secret bar beneath the Grumpy Lily tavern, where a bunch of Myriad and other lowlifes go to drink, be merry, and go about their business in a safer environment. [They] talked with him about a possibility of making some sort of arrangement, and an accord was made where if [Vox Machina] went and cleansed a nearby platinum mine of Herethas that had seemingly been overrun with some sort of awoken entity that had prevented them from mining the platinum and they're losing a lot of money.

"If [the party] were to destroy this creature or cleanse the mines of the threats to it, [the Myriad] would forgive some of the debt: they would still take the lands from the Darrington family, but they would leave the estate, they would leave whatever remains on that land, and would not mess with [the Darrington family] any further, thus ending the contract and still leaving a comfortable lifestyle for the family.

"[Vox Machina] agreed to this, made [their] way to the Herethas platinum mines, delved deep into the open sinkhole that seemed to consume a portion of its construct, and discovered what had awoken within: a strange, once-seeded celestial that had been awoken too early and too young. As such, its weird angelic baby-like form had withered and twisted, and in battling the celestial which manipulated the terrain around [them], [they] managed to defeat it and destroy it before it could escape.

"[They] gathered some of its remaining glittery ashes and proceeded to fly up through the sinkhole as the rest of the ankheg swarm that seemed to parade through the tunnels within began to swarm up the sides and spit acid at [the party] as [they] escaped out the top into the moonlit sky. Looking down below, [they] can see this swarm now crawling up and out of the maw of this mine."

Vox Machina

 * Taryon Darrington
 * Doty 2.0 (mentioned only)
 * Keyleth
 * Percival de Rolo
 * Scanlan Shorthalt
 * Grog Strongjaw
 * Pike Trickfoot
 * Trinket (mentioned only)
 * Vax'ildan
 * Vex'ahlia

New

 * Brownie the duck
 * Theobold Cans
 * Dualla
 * Lionel Gayheart

Returning

 * Bertholt
 * Howaardt Darrington
 * Mariya Darrington
 * Maryanne Darrington
 * Korshad
 * Sun Tree (used as transportation; did not speak)
 * Wence

Mentioned

 * Camilla
 * Doty
 * Kaylie
 * K'ryyn
 * Lydia Truscan
 * Allura Vysoren

Trivia

 * The Fate Die that Taryon used during his attempt to persuade his father was Sam's reward for winning.
 * When Laura got a whisper from Matt after a successful check on "Aes Adon", Matt told her that she noticed his shadow was shorter than his appearance would suggest.