Breaching the Emberhold

is the sixth episode of the first season of Critical Role. The party continues to wind its way ever downward, far below Kraghammer. Covering more ground in the endless night of the Underdark, Vox Machina eventually reaches a massive cavern, spires of jagged obsidian stretching out for miles before them. The group quietly passes through the fields of stone, making their way toward the duergar fortress, Emberhold, looming in the dim light of the cavern's many magma flows. With a little dash of gnomic derring-do, the group is able to sneak in through a secret entrance and, at long last, find the one they have traveled so far to rescue:  Lady Kima of Vord.​

Announcements

 * Matthew Mercer introduces the show.
 * The Critical Role intro video and the character bio videos air.
 * The Critical Role intro video was created by Zac Eubank, with mixing and sound effects by Alex Niedt, and music by Jason Charles Miller.
 * The cast that were able to participate, had a great time on International Tabletop Day, the previous Saturday (2015-04-11). Met some wonderful fans, including rusegofti, who made the t-shirt that many of them are wearing.
 * Marisha Ray announces the possibility of making this the first of many fan designed t-shirts made available for a limited run.
 * Liam O'Brien thanks Tim West for supplying jewels and dwarven coins from Fantasy Coin HQ
 * Matt announces the night's giveaway.

Previously on Critical Role
"Last we left off, the party had been travelling into the dwarven city of Kraghammer at the behest of the arcanist Allura Vysoren in search of a halfling paladin, a very revered folk hero, named Lady Kima of Vord. She had gone missing following a vision quest, somewhere beneath the city, supposedly for some great evil that was germinating there, festering and growing. After [ Vox Machina ] traversed through the dwarven city, [they] began to find [their] way down into the mithral mines of Greyspine beneath the dwarven town. After a few fateful encounters, the return of [their] gnome cleric, Grog having his proverbial brains temporarily blown out by an intellect devourer, the party then decided to make friends with a mind flayer, an illithid that had been cast out from its people seeking vengeance and possible return to its people. Upon making this alliance, they made an attack on the duergar warcamp that is threatening to rise up and attack Kraghammer from deep within the mountains themselves. The attack was successful, the general was interrogated, and some interesting information was gleaned from him before his brain was sucked out of his head by Clarota, the mind flayer friend. However this attack also announced to the local warcamp of [their] presence, and in the process of attempting to escape the druid was damaged and lost her eagle form and thus began a free fall of many party members. A haphazard attempt to use the magic carpet far over its weight limit led most of the party to crash land and nearly killed everyone. [They] managed to escape, walled themselves in, thanks to Keyleth's stone wall spell and after staying the evening in one of the deeper tunnels and barely avoiding a roving band of deurgar, managed to find yourselves in battle with two ogres carrying a strange mutated black pudding ooze contained in a glass container. The glass container shattered, of course, by an explosive arrow created by Percy and fired by Vex'ahlia at the very start of the battle. [This] led into a very rough battle [because] the strange mutating ooze kept splitting and splitting and splitting. Through some good team work, and crafty use of telekinesis and the nearby lava pool, [they] managed to survive the encounter. Making [their] way to the bottom of this tunnel, [they] found [themselves] looping back around to the large crevasse where the giant waterfall pools, where [they] had met Clarota, which allowed [Vex'ahlia] to retrieve [her] bear, Trinket. We pick up as [the party] begins to step down into the lower tunnels, the ones that are partially coated with a series of magma pools and falls that are trickling out of the rock side."

Part I
Vox Machina heads into the lower chasm, the temperature of the air grows steadily warmer and warmer, with a drier heat. Members of the party with thick armor feel sweat beads trickle down the side of their face. Pressing farther down, the hint of sulphurous smell in the air is now becoming stronger and stronger, deeper and deeper into this cavernous tunnel. The tunnel narrows and widens but continues in a steady descent and doesn't veer off. The small trickles, some of them pool and gather into magma cups. After a slight hill in the tunnel a larger portion of the left side of the rock wall has collapsed and a gargantuan pool of magma is pouring into the tunnel, essentially covering half of the tunnel.

Scanlan asks Keyleth "You don't have any way of getting any water?" "Oh, I do," says Tiberius and he pulls out an empty bottle. Vax asks Tiberius what the bottle does and Tiberius explains, demonstrating with two bottles, "Well, they're both empty, of course, but this one is an air bottle and this one is a water bottle."

Vax: "Oh, thank you. That clears that up." Grog: "Even I feel dumber now." Vax: "Does it make a lot of water?" Tiberius: "Oh, yes." [pulls out bottle] "This, if we ever need air&hellip;" [he opens the bottle and a small gust comes out] Vex: "Yes, but what about water?" Tiberius: [replaces cap, and swaps it for the other bottle] "This, if we need water&hellip;" ''[he removes the cap and tips the bottle. A never-ending stream of water flows out.]'' Scanlan: "It's like a piss stream." Vex: "Oh, nice." Tiberius: "And if you wanted a squirt&hellip;" [he squirts some water in Scanlan's face] Scanlan: "Hey." [wipes face] Vex: "Oh, okay." Vax: "Is that unlimited?" Tiberius: "Of course it is! Why would I carry a non-magical item? That's ridiculous. So, yes, Scanlan, we're fine."

Vex inspects the area for tracks and she determines that the area is heavily trafficked by duergar and other larger creatures, possibly ogres and trolls. She also notices several cave-ins caused by large burrowing creatures. Vox Machina stealthily continue down the tunnel and reach a gargantuan chamber, the Emberhold.

Quotations

 * Liam O'Brien: "I'd just like to point out that we're nine adults playing don't touch the hot lava."

Scanlan: "What? Trap door?" Vex: "Yeah. You missed a lot, Scanlan." Scanlan: "I was with you the whole time. Tiberius: Yes, but you were never paying attention. Scanlan: "I was drunk."
 * Vex: [Upon hearing the description of Emberhold.] "Oh, that's where the trap door is!