The Family Business

is the ninth episode of the fourth chapter of Critical Role. Vox Machina returns to where much of the group's history began:  Westruun. But all is not well! Not only has the Chroma Conclave decimated the area, but another strangely familiar threat has taken hold of the city, as well...

Pre-Show
The following pre-show promotional videos were shown on the Twitch stream, but they are not included on the final YouTube VoD:
 * International Tabletop Day promotional video:
 * This video was played multiple times, and it featured tabletop gaming scenes with cosplay at Game Häus in Glendale, CA.
 * ITTD is 2016-04-30.
 * Find participating locations near you at TableTopDay.com.
 * Preferred Partner locations will also get some variety of limited ITTD game pieces, which are themed after Geek & Sundry's most memorable moments, for:
 * International Tabletop Day call for store partners (presented by Ivan Van Norman):
 * This video was played multiple times.
 * Submit your one-minute or less video of you saying your name (or your store's name), talking about board games, reminiscing about games, or playing games all across the world.
 * Deliver to Geek & Sundry in a high-resolution file (720p or higher) in a .MOV or .MP4 format.
 * Submit either through WeTransfer or Dropbox to [mailto:preferredpartner@geekandsundry.com preferredpartner@geekandsundry.com].
 * Submit by the deadline of 2016-04-15.

Announcements

 * Sam Riegel is running late.
 * Liam O'Brien is joining via Skype from his family home.
 * Sam arrived.
 * Matthew Mercer and Marisha Ray will be guests at Tekko in Pittsburgh on the weekend of 2016 April 8th–10th.
 * Tomorrow, 2016-04-01, is the last day to pre-order the Gilmore's Glorious Goods T-shirts from the Geek and Sundry webstore.
 * Two new shirts are available for pre-order from the Geek and Sundry webstore.  One is the "Dagger Dagger Dagger" design, and the other is the "Strongjaw Ale" design, both of which were created by Kennef Riggle.  They will be available for one week.
 * Critical Role is trying to find vendors that offer a greater range of T-shirt sizes.
 * Sam Riegel voice directed a cartoon called Home, based on the movie Home, and the studio just announced it today.
 * This is the 47th episode—three episodes away from the 50th episode.
 * The 50th will be a regular episode, depending on where the story is at the time.
 * There should be a couple surprises.
 * There will be a big Critmas event on the 50th episode, after which the on-stream Critmas tradition will go on hiatus until the holidays.
 * Wyrmwood Gaming partners with Critical Role, offering free shipping with the "critrole" discount code.
 * Marisha Ray's last episode hosting Signal Boost will be Tuesday (2016-04-05), before the host rotation begins.  She will continue producing the series.
 * Liam O'Brien is currently in the kitchen of the house in which he grew up—the same room where he played Dungeons & Dragons for the first time as a child, now playing it as a professional actor.

Recap
"Vox Machina, having to traverse the world in search of artifacts known as the Vestiges of the Divergence—ancient items of power used in massive-scale warfare in ancient moments of history—had acquired one from a sunken temple to the Champion of the Raven Queen, taking the life—thankfully not permanently—of Vex'ahlia. The party then retrieved their first artifact and then made their way towards the Pyrah tribe of the Ashari druids, the fire guardians of the gate to the Elemental Plane of Fire, which apparently Thordak, the Cinder King—the great red dragon that helms the Chroma Conclave that has torn through all of the civilization of Tal'Dorei—emerged from.

"The party went there, found a surviving faction of the Pyrah tribe including Cerkonos, their headmaster, as well as a few members of Keyleth's tribe, the Air Ashari, and her father. They went towards the remnants of the Cindergrove, ran into an... ally, a strange blue-scaled dragonborn by the name of Gern Blanston, master of necromancy and candle-making, and combining the two for interesting effect. They fought their way through the Cindergrove, tearing through elementals, encasing ifrits in hamster balls and holding them aloft for extended periods of time, and then managed to seal the gate with the help of the druidic tribes there, Gern, and the intrepid adventurers known as Vox Machina. After which, they went to spend the evening there on the mountainside, to rest before continuing their journey to wherever that next step may be."

New

 * Reginald ("Reggie"):  A farmer whose daughter was abducted by a group of half-orcs, goliaths, and others.  Horus took pleasure in torturing Reginald occasionally, and referred to him as "Reggie".
 * Horus:  A goliath from Grog's herd, younger and smaller than Grog.  Horus's name was given by Kevdak in ridicule.  Grog killed Horus with Craven Edge.
 * Kohl:  Accompanies Horus in patrolling the fields.
 * Zanror:  Grog's cousin; Kevdak's son.  Mentioned only.

Returning

 * Cerkonos:  His left arm, destroyed in Thordak's escape from the Elemental Plane of Fire, is in the process of regrowing now.
 * Kevdak:  Grog's uncle.  According to Horus, Kevdak swore fealty to Umbrasyl.  Mentioned only.
 * Wilhand Trickfoot:  Mentioned only.
 * Abjurist Noja:  Mentioned only.
 * Margrave Atrix:  Mentioned only.  "Margrave" is a position and title, and Atrix is the current Margrave.

Quotations
Laura Bailey:  "Which, to me–" Matthew Mercer:  "Would that be, like, midnight tonight, or...?" Laura:  "See?!?  That's exactly what I was asking Travis–" Travis:  "Listen–" Laura:  "–and he–" Travis:  "–you smart son of a bitches, it's so simple!  Tomorrow at midnight." Laura:  "Is, like, in a few hours." Travis:  "Oh my god.  Oh my god.  I'm gonna rage before the show even starts." [...] Laura:  "So is it ending tomorrow night, or is it ending tonight?" Travis:  "Holy shit." Matt:  "I don't know; you should order tonight just in case." Laura:  "I'm scared it's actually ending tonight, and he thinks it's tomorrow night, but I think it might be tonight." Matt:  "To be safe, make it tonight, but it's probably tomorrow night, but to be safe, make it tonight." Laura:  "It's probably tomorrow night.  He's gonna murder us all.  Very shortly." Matt:  "Save it—save it for the battle.  Save it for the battle, Travis." Sam:  "What do you mean, 'last'?  You just started!" Marisha:  "Yeah, we rotate hosts out." Sam:  "Oh." Marisha:  "Because it's, like, our favorite things–" Sam:  "But you're the best host!" Taliesin:  "Of all the hosts they've had, she's certainly the best [...]." [There have been no other hosts.] Sam:  "She is; she's number one!" [...] Marisha, with cheerful sarcasm:  "I'm glad my friends support me!" [...] Sam:  "Just tell me:  am I one of the hosts?" Marisha:  "Do you wanna host?  Do you wanna do it?  Yeah!" Sam:  "Just tell me—just tell me when, and... I will probably be twenty minutes late."
 * Travis Willingham:  "Tomorrow at midnight is the deadline."
 * Marisha Ray:  "My last episode of Signal Boost is this Tuesday–"
 * Percy, to Scanlan:  "I think your penis may have more names than I do.  I'm kind of horrified."