Lost Treasures

is the twenty-second episode of the second campaign of Critical Role. The Mighty Nein delve into the waters below the safehouse in an attempt to finish their first task for the Gentleman...

Pre-Show
The cast is still shouting dirty things at Matt. Those who were at the Stream of Many Eyes last weekend had a great time. Matt DMed the Force Grey game, and Deborah Ann Woll is an amazing DM.

Announcements

 * Tonight's sponsor is the returning partner in crime for the campaign thus far: D&D Beyond! As the cast make synthesizer noises, Sam reminds the audience that there's a cool animated ad thing that you should check out. As announced during the Stream of Many Eyes, new D&D adventures "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist" and "Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage" are now available for pre-order on Laura's phone and dndbeyond.com. Matt was one of the story/creative consultants for "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist". Sam emphasizes how D&D Beyond let's you just focus on creating...such as creating new monsters! Sam shows off some custom monsters he has designed using D&D Beyond and the stats of existing monsters:
 * a "bullette": a female pink-colored bullet that can only attack once...it's a very quick encounter (based on a bulette)
 * a "Despacito beast": same as a displacer beast, except it sings in Luis Fonsi's voice whenever it uses its "Displacement"
 * a "bowelbear": same as an owlbear, except it also has crippling IBS and has a "Shit Spray" attack
 * a "giant WASP": a white Anglo-Saxon *Person*...Sam is very proud of this one and swears that is what the "P" stands for (based on a giant wasp)
 * a "bone Dirt Devil": same as a bone devil, except it cleans up after every fight (Laura and Ashley like it)
 * a "Fantacore": it's a manticore with a Fanta can instead of its three heads...Matt is kind of down with the Fantacore (it comes in two "flavor" variants: "Dangerous" and "Well-Branded")
 * there are two other monsters Sam designed that he didn't have time to draw: the "Lin-Manuel Mirandaboleth" and the "Nick Frost Giant" (who always has a Human named "Simon Pegg" with him)
 * Matt has released some updates for the Blood Hunter class on D&D Beyond and dmsguild.com.
 * The standard edition for the "Vox Machina: Origins" TPB are still available on the Critical Role website and the online shops for Geek & Sundry and Project Alpha. The special edition is sold out.
 * Talks Machina will be talking about tonight's episode next Tuesday (June 12, 2018) at 7:00 pm PDT. A couple of the cast members will be attending to discuss the insanity with our fantastic host: Brian W. Foster. Don't forget to submit your fan art or GIF (SUBMIT) to submit@talksmachina.com.
 * A reminder to those with Amazon Prime: you can connect it to your Twitch account with Twitch Prime and get a free monthly subscription to the Twitch channel of your choice. It's free, and you get to support some of your favorite creators out there. Laura says that Matt sounded like Kermit the Frog for a split second, and she really liked it. Matt (as Kermit) says he just wants to get the announcements properly out of the way and play some D&D.

Previously on Critical Role
"Where we last left off: The Mighty Nein had been making their way towards Berleben and the Labenda Swamp, to tackle the first of their two tasks they had taken from the Gentleman in Zadash.

"Traveling along the way, you managed to save and make friends with a very young Kenku named Kiri, who has been accompanying you through your journey thus far. You managed to find an individual who could guide you through the swamp (who was summarily taken and probably eaten by a troll that was stalking you through the swamp). You found an ally named Cali (who was a dragon-blooded Sorcerer), who seemed to have aligned interests towards the direction you were traveling to find this safehouse - that belonged to the Gentleman, that had gone quiet. Upon hearing there had been some sort of attack on it, all of you went through the swamp, forded the dangers, made your way to the base of the tree - where it was discovered to be within and below the base of this large banyan tree on the northern side of the Labenda Swamp.

''"After investigating the scene and trying to pick up details about what had transpired, you found a number of bodies that had been put up: left to bloat and die as a warning for those who would make their way in. On the inside, it looks like the interior of the safehouse had been cleaned out and summarily dragged through a subterranean tunnel. Following this tunnel down below, you found these strange, twisted-looking merfolk (called "merrow") that seemed to have been living in this partially-submerged tunnel system, beneath the swamp. You engaged in battle, killed a number of them, and - upon sifting through some of the remnants of what was dragged out of the safehouse - you discovered Cali's quarry: which was a bowl that could speak to the Scaled Tyrant (Tiamat). You decided what to do and after a brief confrontation, the bowl was handed over to Yasha, who attempted to sunder it using her Magician's Judge (which succeeded). The item was left shattered into pieces. Cali - with her quest complete, and not wishing to put herself in any further danger - decided to leave...bidding you all adieu, and clambered back up through the strange dug tunnel that leads to the surface.''

"At that point, you guys were left to think about what the next course of action was...before Fjord had made a brief swimming excursion into one of the far-off tunnels, that led to a larger chamber and seemingly a base of operations where more of these merrow live and (from the outskirts of what you can see) more remnants of what was taken from the safehouse, further in..."

Part I
Fjord suggests that the Mighty Nein all rest up. Nott is worried that there are other "fish-men" (and possibly "fish-women") down there that could come up and kill them in their sleep. Caleb starts threading an Alarm spell over the entrance Fjord swam through.

He brought a rope with him and was able to retreat undetected back to the group, despite a terrible stealth roll. The group decided to follow Fjord through with Nott staying behind. Then began the first combat encounter.

Break

 * D&D Beyond animated add
 * Good Fortnight Kevin add
 * Spellslingers new season add
 * Starter Kit: Phoenix Dawn Command add
 * How To Play: Sheriff of Nottingham
 * Art reel
 * Matt gives a quick hello to Babs Tarr: an incredibly talented comic book artist and Critter who visited the studio that night.

Part II
The party rushes to pick Caleb off the ground. The Mighty Nein are all beaten and battered from the fight. Jester uses her Pearl of Power to regain a 3rd-level spell, casts Prayer of Healing on the party...and Laura rolls 8 total with her 3d8. (Laura claims D&D is going to send her into labor.) Caleb and Beau both remark how bad they look. Beau admits that Caleb's shave looks nice.

While looking through the pile of objects, they find a number of holy symbols, mostly of gods that are forbidden in the Dwendalian Empire. Fjord picks up one of the symbols of The Strife Emperor and throws it at the pool of water he previously noticed had a yellow glow to it. Jester asks him why would he do that and goes to grab the symbol out of the pool. She feels a strange sphere in the pool as well as the holy symbol.

Fjord's Vision
Fjord touched the orb before Caleb could finish casting Identify on it. He immediately entered a vision. He saw himself in a different place wearing different clothes in a human body. Standing over the body of its previous owner, Fjord held the yellow orb in his hand. The right hand in the vision summoned the same falchion Fjord has. He heard a voice in his head say "Potential". He felt uncontrollably hungry then pushed the orb into his stomach. It went into him painlessly as the voice said "Consume". The hunger went away. Suddenly feeling exhausted, he fell to his knees. Fjord looked into a nearby pond, and saw Vandren's reflection instead of his own. The voice said "Reward". Fjord came back to his own body looking into the pool where the orb was found, but orb was gone. The rest of the Mighty Nein saw Fjord take the orb and push it into his stomach. After coming out of the vision, Fjord felt exhausted.

Fjord told the group about the vision and about how seeing Vandren in it confused him. He also told a little more than previously about the ship he worked on being sabotaged. Fjord had never seen Vandren with an orb like this or a falchion similar to his, yet Vandren did in the vision. Fjord realized that Vandren in the vision looked younger than Fjord remembers him, implying he may have seen the past.

The Mighty Nein

 * Beauregard
 * Fjord
 * Frumpkin
 * Jester Lavorre
 * Nott
 * Yasha Nydoorin
 * Mollymauk Tealeaf
 * Caleb Widogast

New

 * Vandren(in Fjord's vision)

Returning

 * Kiri
 * Fjord's warlock patron

Mentioned

 * Asmodeus
 * Avandra
 * Bane
 * Calianna
 * Ioun
 * Kord
 * Melora
 * The Archeart
 * The Traveler
 * Tiamat
 * Vecna

Quotations
Jester: "Well, I have a couple level ones left. Blam, blam!" Sam: "Did you just Salt Bae them?" Matt: "I think Salt Bae cleric is my new favorite idea for a character."
 * Caleb: "Whatever we do, Beau and I are really fucked up"

Trivia

 * Sam's giant flask bears a "First World Problems" meme that reads "LOST MY BEST FRIEND/OVER A BOWL."