Yug'Voril Uncovered

is the ninth episode of the first season of Critical Role. Vox Machina overtakes the duergar queen, Ulara, before she can make a thrall of Grog. After slaying her underlings, the party presses her for information about K'Varn. It is in that instant that K'Varn speaks to them, through the lips of the duergar queen, urging Vox Machina to find him in the city of Yug'Voril. They proceed on, finding a vast island in yet another massive underground cavern, and take to the water. Pausing at a craggy beach as they make their way to K'Varn, the party goes looking for trouble and does indeed find it.

Previously on Critical Role
''"The party was given a quest from the capital city of Emon to find the missing folk hero Lady Kima of Vord, a halfling paladin, very well known, who has gone missing on a pilgrimage, vision quest, over the past year. She had been missing for a number of weeks, nearly months at this point, and [ Vox Machina ] was sent to the dwarven city of Kraghammer to find and bring her back safely. After going into the city, [they] discovered that she had delved into the mines seeking some sort of extremely dark evil that was seated somewhere deep beneath Kraghammer proper. In searching for her, [they] managed to find [their] way through the mines into the entrance passage into the Underdark, which is a very scary place. [They've] encountered a number of subterranean beasts and creatures, some of which are unnaturally mutated or altered by some sort of magic [they] cannot place. Upon going through these caverns, a few battles with duergar, the ashen-skinned evil subterranean dwarves—further subterranean dwarves, you could say—and encountered [their] first mind flayers, illithids, which seemed to have allied, strangely, with the duergar. Normally enemies by nature, they're working together under what [Vox Machina] discovered since is a common enemy referred to as K'Varn. Nothing really is known of K'Varn other than it has a great power and has united these two forces for some nefarious purpose. Apparently these abominations, these strange mutations [they've] encountered, these experiments, also seem to have been created by K'Varn, though no one knows quite why or how.''

''"As [they] traversed down, [they] managed to befriend an arcanist mind flayer that was cast out from the colony named Clarota, who has aided [them] under the intent that [they] would help him free his people of the slavery of K'Varn and release the mind flayers to their normal state of mind. [They] made [their] way to the duergar fortress, Emberhold, found and released Lady Kima, who underwent many, many weeks of torturous experiences to come through still firm of mind and ready to kick some ass. Through a very painful battle in the Emberhold [they] managed to pull the party out, only a few of them turned to stone, and with a foot burned off, and Grog being dominated and Grog-napped by the surviving queen -- duergar Queen Ulara. The party then, in trying to locate Grog's position, found their way delving past the lava-fall based element of the obsidian rock duergar Underdark, deeper in, discovering this cursed pit of undeath, bone shards, and glass. Upon traversing it they encountered one of these abominations that [they've] seen traces of left before—this weird, partial-elven, partial-tentacle monstrosity that slashed through the party, nearly killed Trinket, but was defeated by [Vox Machina]. [They] managed to make [their] way across this bone field and discover what appears to be a camp across a number of pillars in the distance. Vax went ahead and stealthed up, looked over and saw that there was a camp of duergar, and apparently the surviving Queen Ulara giving them orders next to Grog, who is currently bolted by iron bands to some sort of a cart that they've been dragging him through this tunnel passage with."''