Deadly Echoes

is the thirteenth episode of the sixth chapter of Critical Role. Vox Machina and their allies travel to the island that Raishan fled to, but to reach her they must find their way past numerous obstacles and undead threats.

Announcements

 * Sam and Ashley are both out tonight, Scanlan will be run by Marisha and Taliesin
 * Patrick Rothfuss is joining in via Skype
 * The show is sponsored by Loot Crate and Liam did a Loot Crate ad featuring Irish poetry
 * Matt shouted out Blue microphones for setting them up with mics.
 * Laura showed off new socks in the web store
 * Matt, Marisha, Travis, and Laura will be at Anime Milwaukee in February. Patrick is excited they'll be in his home state.

Previously on Critical Role
"The adventuring group of Vox Machina had been battling the Chroma Conclave, a collection of ancient chromatic dragons that had terrorized the Tal'Dorei countryside, ruined a number of the villages and cities, their leader, Thordak the Cinder King, lording over the capital city of Emon for a number of weeks at this point.

"In order to prepare themselves for this battle, they've traversed the Planes and all across the world to acquire Vestiges of the Divergence, these powerful artifacts, and upon acquiring them and gathering allies, they made an assault with the help of these allies upon the city of Emon, defeated Thordak the Cinder King, and—after making an alliance with one of these Conclave members, Raishan, the Diseased Deceiver, to aid them in this battle—they ended up battling Raishan as well, within Thordak's lair beneath the city.

"Raishan nearly annihilated the entirety of the group Vox Machina, kept at bay only by them summoning one of their allies, J'mon Sa Ord, the powerful brass dragon and secret leader of the city of Ank'Harel, enough of a threat to push her away. Raishan took the corpse of Thordak—apparently via teleportation—as well as two of the eggs that remained in the lair, and vanished.

"Upon wrestling [their] way outside of the lair itself, [the party] came upon a number of allies who had fought their way to the center of the city, as well as Patrick's character Kerrek, who had brought a number of his ragtag adventurers from the city of Westruun to aid. Kerrek joined [Vox Machina] in [their] return to Whitestone and has now agreed to aid [them] in [their] search for the current whereabouts of Raishan.

"Through the use of some rather rapid Scry magic, and the dragon's spent capability to defend against it at the time, [they] found the location of Raishan, apparently a distant island to the far south in the Lucidian Ocean, one that once was the lair of Thordak before he was sealed, and before that, apparently, belonged to a necromancer named Opaash.

"[Vox Machina] then spent [...] the day in Whitestone preparing to rest for coming conflict, giving chase to Raishan in hopes of stopping whatever her plans are before they come to fruition."

Part I
Upon waking up in the evening, Vax goes to Vex get the Boots of Haste back and he gives the Sword of Dragonslaying back to Percy. The warhammer that was found in Thordak's lair is a Dwarven Thrower warhammer for Grog, and the boots are Boots of Elvenkind that can make someone much more stealthy. Kerrek asks Grog about the Dancing Sword that he got from the Deck of Many Things and Grog takes it out of the Bag of Holding. Grog immediately has a sharp headache and the blade turns to rust. [See note in "Trivia" section below] Pike tries Greater Restoration on Grog, but there is no effect on the curse. Keyleth and Vax loan Kerrek the Displacer Cloak and Ring of Invisibility.

Pike prepares a Heroes' Feast for Vox Machina and friends. Allura has a much more intense look on her face than usual, and she confirms with the party that they are ready to move. Vex gives Kima the Boots of Elvenkind and the party moves to the Sun Tree for Keyleth's Transport via Plants spell. A moment later they emerge on the Island of Viscan in the midst of a partially-ruined jungle. Further inland, they see the top of the mountain and can see that the trees look more and more withered the closer to the mountain they are. They begin to stealthily move toward the mountain and Keyleth notes that the trees look like they've been here petrified for a very long time.

Allura says that she did some research on the island while the party slept. There were once thousands of indigenous people here but after Opash came they were never heard from again. The island is now rumored to be cursed, and there are accounts of people sailing here and never returning. As they approach the base of the mountain, Vex spots a section of sand on the ground that has a slightly different coloration than the rest. She warns the party away from it, and they move on, spotting several more such areas on the way. Grog tosses a rock onto one of the patches and after sitting on top for a moment, it quickly sinks beneath the surface and out of view.

The twins notice that the texture of the mountainside is different in one particular place, and they notice a large boulder that is jammed into an entryway. They also notice a number of strange holes around the surface, and Vex notes that there are very large claw-marks all around, as if the boulder had been moved in and out of the hole several times by a very large dragon. Vex uses her Primeval Awareness to detect dragons, and senses three sources of dragon life force within the mountain.

Grog quickly pulls Vex aside and tries to trade her a Periapt of Wound Closure for the Deck of Many Things. She tells him to promise not to take it out of the pouch and then slips him a fake pouch for the Pariapt. Keyleth uses Stone Shape to make a small opening between the rock and the mountainside, but it's too dark for her to see into. Vex fires an Oracle Arrow inside and sees a long tunnel that drops about 100 feet in. Percy borrows Kima's Holy Avenger sword, it being magical and difficult to break, and has Grog use it to pry the boulder from the opening. With Pike's help, he pulls it a small way out and the party uses their two Immovable Rods to hold the boulder in place, though it seems like it may be a bit too heavy for them. The party quickly ducks inside.

In the tunnel, Vax notices several shards of bone peppered about the floor, many of them charred. Keyleth notes that they've been there for a few years but are not as ancient as the dead trees outside. Vax lights up the Flametongue Dagger for Kerrek and Percy who cannot see at all, but then Keyleth and Grog offer to walk them through and he puts it back out. They press on, and the tunnel appears to open up after a while. There are several shelves on the walls with books, bones, and a mummified creature. Kerrek uses Divine Sense and is able to detect an undead presence nearby to his left, where they see two burned-down candles and a skull. Kerrek stuffs the skull in a sack and places it facing the wall, in case it is being used to watch them.

Farther into the tunnel, it widens into a hexagonal chamber with ancient stonework on the floor. Forward progress is sealed off by a large iron door, and in the center of the chamber there is a pillar of dark green marble with a rough-hewn iron bowl atop it. To the right is a large tome and an unburnt iron brazier with tinder in it. Vex scrapes some residue from the bowl that appears to be dried blood. Vax knocks the book off with the wings from his Deathwalker's Ward and Percy tries to read the text in it, but it keeps getting smaller and smaller and he can't make it out. The same goes for the title on the cover. Keyleth lights the brazier with her flaming hands and its contents immediately explode, burning everyone nearby and destroying the book.

Vex tries to pour her vial of basilisk blood into the bowl, with no effect. She cuts her hand with a dagger and bleeds into the bowl. Her blood sinks through the basilisk blood and out of sight. Grog walks over toward the door and it begins to shift and open. Just then, they all begin to hear laughter from both in front and behind them. Pike surrounds them all with a Holy Aura spell as they see four floating, flaming skulls approaching.

Break

 * A short Loot Crate ad is played
 * A Critical Role fan art reel is played
 * heartman_ in the chatroom won a Wyrmwood Zebrawood complete dice tower system and a "nice leather band"

Part II
The party makes quick work of the Flameskulls, but not before they are able to hit nearly everyone with four simultaneous Fireball spells. They sit down in the chamber to rest and heal their wounds from the encounter and Vex's Primeval Awareness can still sense the same three dragon life forms. Scanlan sneaks off a bit and takes another hit of Suude and feels a new magical power come over him.

At the end of the hallway, there are stairs leading down. Vax stealthily leads the way down, where he sees the hallway drop off and a very long spiral staircase leading downward. He flies to the bottom and sees several long-dead bodies impaled on spikes at the bottom of the staircase. Seeing this, the party shuttles everyone down on the flying carpet and Vex's broom. As this happens, Scanlan sees a rune begin glowing in the ceiling and quickly casts Dispel Magic on it, turning it inert again.

Moving on, they come to a very large chasm that extends both above and below, about sixty feet across, with a rope bridge built across it. Vax tries to fly across, but as he's over the pit his wings give out. He throws Whisper at the far cliff face and instantly is at the far side. Vex tries to follow with her broom, but as she's over the pit she notices the broom behaving very strangely and she turns back. Percy attempts to carefully cross the bridge and immediately becomes disoriented, but his Boots of Spider Climbing hold him to the bridge. Allura points out that the gravity over the pit is flipped. Percy makes his way across using the boots.

Vex begins upside-down flying Pike across the ravine when they notice a figure falling upward past them, then another, then several more. They are nearly-skeletal humanoid bodies. One of them falls upward near the broom and reaches its arms out, grappling them and knocking Vex off of it. Both begin to fall upward but Keyleth barely catches them with a Grasping Vine. Dangling upward from the chain that holds her to her broom, Vex can now see the top of the ravine, where hundreds of undead bodies are hungrily reaching for her.

The vine pulls them tight against the far cliff face and Pike uses her Turn Undead ability to destroy the zombie that's still holding Vex. Allura grabs Kima and uses Dimension Door to cross the ravine instantly. Percy hand Vax a rope and uses it to rappel up the side of the cliff to get to Vex and Pike. Kerrek and Keyleth cross on the flying carpet, but a mob of several zombies fall and hit it, sending it careening upward. They manage to hold on and begin lifting Vex and Pike to the lip as the people on the other side pull on the rope. A huge mob of the undead figures form into a giant hand, reaching downward toward them. Kerrek uses Turn Undead and destroys all of them instantly.

Vex gets Trinket out of the Raven's Slumber necklace and flies back across the ravine to Scanlan and Grog, dodging more zombies on the way. Grog agrees to go into Raven's Slumber and Scanlan rides on the broom with Vex. As they cross back, a giant face made of zombies emerges and tries to swallow them. With the aid of Vax's Bless spell, Vex narrowly dodges out of the way and crosses to safety.

Just inside the entrance of the cliff face, they see a fountain with water pouring upward from a statue of a ghastly humanoid face. The water is pouring onto a green gem embedded in the ceiling. The path continues on past the fountain; after some deliberation, the party decides not to touch it and continue forward. There the path splits around a large column of earth and there is a light source beyond.

Grog, still fixated on the fountain, asks Allura what she thinks it does. She takes a jug and covers the fountain's stream with it, and it is carried upward to the ceiling with the force of the water, covering the gem. This apparently reverts the gravity back to normal in the ravine as hundreds of bodies can be heard falling down it.

Vax sneaks ahead and peers around into a large chamber where he sees the two dragon eggs and Thordak's corpse. Beside them, reading from a book, he sees Raishan in the form of a green-haired woman.

Vox Machina

 * Keyleth
 * Percival de Rolo
 * Scanlan Shorthalt (controlled by Taliesin and Marisha)
 * Grog Strongjaw
 * Pike Trickfoot (controlled by Laura and Liam)
 * Trinket
 * Vax'ildan
 * Vex'ahlia

New

 * Four flameskulls
 * Numerous undead, mostly skeletons and zombies

Appeared

 * Kerrek
 * Lady Kima of Vord
 * Raishan
 * Sun Tree (did not speak; used as transportation)
 * Thordak (corpse)
 * Allura Vysoren

Mentioned

 * Shaun Gilmore
 * Opash
 * Drake Thunderbrand

Trivia
During the previous episode, Matt mistakenly thought that Grog had pulled the "Key" card from the Deck of Many Things and awarded him the Dancing Sword. The card he actually pulled was the "Euryale" card, which bestows a curse of -2 to all saving throws. This was corrected at the beginning of this episode.