Hush

is the seventh episode of the second campaign of Critical Role. The group plunges deeper into the gnoll mines, coming across an unexpected ally (guest Khary Payton), and wandering into a nest of dangers.

Pre-Show
There's been a slight delay due to technical difficulties. Tonight, we'll be having a special guest jump in, partway into the story.

Announcements

 * Tonight's sponsor has been our sponsor since the beginning and onward through the campaign: our friends at D&D Beyond. D&D Beyond now has open alpha access to the mobile app. Pit Crew can't display the links below Sam, so he has to read them out loud.
 * Sam also wrote a 1980s commercial jingle. You have to imagine the synthesizers. The rest of the cast really wants to make that an actual commercial now. Matt is sad that Sam is no longer a Bard.
 * A reminder: Amazon Prime allows you to subscribe to a Twitch channel once per month for free (Twitch Prime). So if you have it, you can subscribe to Geek & Sundry or any other Twitch channel you are a fan of. Matt's voice got really high for a second, so the rest of the cast starts repeating the announcement in Mickey Mouse's voice.
 * Talks Machina will be discussing tonight's episode next Tuesday (February 27, 2018) at 7:00 PM PST, with our host Brian W. Foster ("W. Foster, Esq.", when he dresses up nice).
 * Merch update from Laura: If you've gone to the Geek & Sundry store lately, there's stuff in there. Specifically, there are more Critical Role dice, if you've been wanting some of those. (Not the Vox Machina dice, those aren't back in-stock yet.) There's also stickers, keychains, t-shirts (lots of t-shirts, you should check 'em out), notebooks, and awesome pencils. Travis and Liam remind her that the art book is still in-store. There's also an apron for the Slayer's Cake. Just one apron...supplies are limited.
 * The podcast for last week's episode ("The Howling Mines") is now available on the Critical Role Podcast where all fine podcasts are available for download on the Internet.
 * It has been announced that at Emerald City Comic Con, the Critical Role comic will have a limited release (only 1,000 copies) of the physical paper copy of "Vox Machina: Origins #1". Travis displays one such copy, which the cast geeks out over. Sam urges Travis not to take the comic out of it's plastic sleeve because then it will no longer be "mint" condition. Travis insists that his hands will make it worth more. Taliesin tells them that the coolest part is the back. Travis flips it over to reveal Laura, advertising the Slayer's Cake apron.
 * Travis and Laura will be at Emerald City Comic Con too, so after you pick up your copy, you can tell Laura how much you liked her character.
 * "Vox Machina: Origins #5" will be released on digital platforms on March 7, 2018. So those who want to get to the next chapter of this six-issue arc without having to wait for the print edition (Travis does) can download it.
 * This campaign continues to push our amazing friends at 826LA. They are an amazing charity group that helps take underprivileged children and young teens, and give them a chance to learn in-depth creative writing. They do wonderful work, so check it out if you have the opportunity. You can give financially or with your time to volunteer and be part of the program.
 * Sam has one more thing: Carol is a Critter and awesome fantasy writer. She has been watching the new campaign, but she's feeling a little under the weather, so Sam wanted to wish her a speedy recovery.

Meeting Shakäste
The party follows the mineshaft tunnel downwards towards the woman's voice they had heard. They eventually find a second large chamber containing two hyenas, a skeletal gnoll, and two regular gnolls bickering over a small human child. An explosion from nearby makes the group pause before Nott, Fjord, Jester, and Molly initiate an ambush. Just as they are firing off their first attacks, a new figure enters the room: the cleric Shakäste, who has also come to help rescue villagers.

As Nott attempts to pull the child to safety, the nearest hyena attacks, knocking the boy unconscious. Jester, however, is able to stabilize him with her healer's kit.

Once all the gnolls have been killed, Shakäste formally introduces himself to the party, and they learn that he was responsible for the explosion they heard earlier. Together, they investigate the room. They find a woman, Herma, who turns out to be the mother of the young boy, Jules; a half-elven man, Petrov; and a number of bodies. They take both the living and seven of the dead back to the surface, to where Shakäste has a shelter with four more survivors. The party takes a short rest before heading back into the mines.

Shakäste sends his own familiar, a hummingbird called the Duchess, ahead to scout the tunnel beyond the second chamber. Learning that there are more gnolls, Nott and Fjord take point, sneaking ahead. Fjord slips and makes a noise, alerting the first gnoll, which comes to investigate. He and Nott kill it quickly, but not before it can signal the rest of its pack.

Three more gnolls come to investigate, prompting another scuffle. They are shortly joined by their pack leader, which charges ahead to kick Beau into a well in the floor. Shakäste holds the leader at bay with Command so that Jester and Nott can take him down. Beau climbs out of the well. With the largest threat eliminated, the remaining gnolls go down quickly.

Manticore, Priest, and Baby
Jester checks the body of the fallen pack leader and distributes the gold she finds. Nott carefully notes where Shakäste puts his gold. While Shakäste is distracted by sending the Duchess ahead to scout, Nott lifts his pouch off his belt. Although Shakäste does notice, he chooses to say nothing.

The next, and final, chamber of the mines contains two bound, human captives and some manner of human priest wearing gnoll bones. As Shakäste watches through his hummingbird's eyes, the priest offers a third captive to the object of his devotion: a mother manticore and her newborn cub. The manticore consumes the human captive before much of anything can be done.

The party concocts a plan to sneak in, free the remaining captives, and run, collapsing the tunnel behind them, but their plan goes off script when the manticore sees them entering the cavern. Before Nott can finish untying the captives, combat is joined.

As the party focuses their fire on the manticore mother, Fjord gets paralyzed by the enemy priest. Badly hurt and helpless, he is only saved from the manticore's attack by Nott running ahead to threaten the cub. A single strike from Nott's sword kills the cub and attracts the mother's full wrath.

Beau runs in to drag Nott out of the manticore's range, although a final parting bite puts Nott unconscious. Meanwhile, the priest takes Jester out with Inflict Wounds. The fight only begins to turn around when Shakäste breaks the priest's concentration on the spell paralyzing Fjord. This allows Fjord to use a healing potion to revive Jester, who in turn revives Nott. Nott then uses Hideous Laughter to momentarily incapacitate the manticore.

While the manticore is helpless with laughter, the party focuses damage on the priest. Caleb strikes the killing blow with a Fire Bolt, and the sight of the priest's burning head triggers a flood of memories that make him withdraw into himself. Shakäste lands two final blows on the badly hurt manticore, finally killing it with a bolt of radiant flame down its throat.

The Saviors of Alfield
With all the enemies handled, Molly douses the flames on the dead priest's head and calls Caleb out of his withdrawn state. The rest of the party searches the room for any valuables. Molly and Fjord remove the manticore's head as a trophy.

Shakäste chooses this moment to address Nott's earlier thievery; he casts Fog and, out of the mist, whispers, "This was a bold move you made, and we wouldn't have made it. We wouldn't have succeeded without you, so I say you earned that gold. But make no mistake, be careful where you put your fingers." Nott replies with, "Yes, fog monster."

They leave the mines at last, returning to Shakäste's shack to reunite the final two captives with the other survivors. From there, they recover their cart and load it up with the manticore head and recovered bodies. Along with all the survivors, they travel back to Alfield to report to Watchmaster Bryce. Bryce asks what name to call their group, but they put off the question with "The TBDs".

Player characters

 * Beauregard
 * Fjord
 * Frumpkin (absent, mentioned)
 * Jester Lavorre
 * Nott
 * Yasha Nydoorin (absent)
 * Mollymauk Tealeaf
 * Caleb Widogast

New

 * Shakäste (guest)
 * Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna (guest)
 * Jules
 * Petrov

Returning

 * Bryce Feelid
 * Herma
 * Gnoll pack leader
 * Unnamed priest to Yeenoghu

Mentioned

 * Thadeus Candleglow

Quotations
Travis: "It's usually to the left, but whatever..." Sam: "Not from her perspective."
 * Matt: "The shaft curves to the right..."
 * Sam: "No, no! You can't have a better accent than all of us!"
 * Marisha: "I'm in love...what?" (after Khary describes Shakäste's appearance)
 * Laura: "I can't either!"
 * Shakäste: "I tend to look over the people who happen to be around here."
 * Laura: "You couldn't have rolled that for me?!?" (when Matt rolled a successful Wisdom saving throw against Jester's Toll the Dead, but rolled a failed Dexterity saving throw against Shakäste's Sacred Flame)
 * Shakäste: "I would like to materialize the all-inspiring sass of Estelle Getty..." (Shakäste summoning his Spiritual Weapon)
 * Shakäste: "This is what your problem is: maybe next time you'll eat something less human-like, baby."

Trivia

 * This episode's title, "Hush", was revealed in the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount to be the same as the alias that Shakäste goes by as a member of the Golden Grin.
 * Khary Payton's first roll of the episode was a natural one.
 * Khary Payton as Shakäste achieved the "How do you want to do this?" against the manticore during the boss fight. This is the fifth time this has happened for a guest star. The previous occasions were:
 * Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Zahra in and ,
 * Patrick Rothfuss as Kerrek in, and
 * ND Stevenson as Tova in.
 * The in-game date at the beginning of this episode was 21 Sydenstar 835.
 * Eventually, D&D Beyond not only recorded Sam's jingle as revealed in the Announcements for this episode, they created a whole animated advertisement from it: the D&D Beyond Official Theme on YouTube, which premiered in and ran in the break of most Campaign 2 episodes thereafter through.