Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Crystal Palace

is the forty-sixth special episode of Critical Role.

Brought to you by our friends at Chaosium, this special Call of Cthulhu one-shot features Keeper of Arcane Lore Taliesin Jaffe guiding investigators Marisha Ray, Erika Ishii, Phil LaMarr, Travis Willingham, Ashly Burch, and Liam O'Brien through a horrifying adventure.

Part I
Set in 1890 in London's Crystal Palace, the Cat Club is hosting its annual cat show. Several nights before the show, a meeting for the owners is held. Six of them have actually entered their cats with the ulterior motive of gaining late night access to the Crystal Palace. They have been hired by Rupert Merriweather, a young American man with an interest in the occult, to sneak into the Palace's closed exhibits and retrieve an ancient casket for him. The casket has been moved to the Palace by Dr. Pocket, who managed its paperwork, upon Mr. Merriweather's request. Merriweather's butler, Bentley Badger will also be accompanying the group. The group of six consists of Mason Pocket; Bentley Badger; Alexandra O'Neil the adventurer; Hanako Hayashi the socialite; Ida Codswell the engineer; and Septimus Goodfellow the celebrity spiritualist.

Merriweather pulls all six of the group aside during the Cat Club meeting. He further explains to them the specifics of the job at hand, and tells them they probably have up to five hours to search. Since the Palace's exhibits are in disarray due to refurbishment, and the cat show is taking up some space, Merriweather cannot say precisely where the casket might be. He assumes no members of this group have met before, but assures them that each were selected because they are the best in their field.

The group takes some time to introduce themselves to each other. Alexandra and Hana actually do know each other, Alexandra has read Mason's historical pamphlets, and Hana has heard of Septimus from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Mentioning Septimus's profession brings up some differences in the group, as Ida and Bentley are the only members to declare themselves non-believers. Upon introducing themselves to each other, the group then describe their cats, and Alexandra, Hana, and Septimus takes bets on whose cat will win the contest.

Merriweather tells the group to meet him back in the room they are currently in after they retrieve the casket. They then head into an unlit and unoccupied area of the Palace. They meet a guard named Joseph Waylon at the guard post, whom they convince to let them into the closed exhibits and to give them his lantern. They look for a way to turn on the lights in the Electrical Arcade, but Ida is distracted as she finds an electrical generator of her own design on display under the name of the man who stole it from her. The group looks for the fuse box, switch the lights on and decide to investigate the room. Hana finds in one of the display cases an elekiter, a Japanese electrostatic generator invented by Hirana Gennai in 1776. Hana decides to reclaim this item and takes it with her.

The group goes on to explore the exhibits. They find several interesting objects and notes, but not the casket. Septimus checks the rooms they enter for presences from the other side. Bentley uses the sword concealed in his cane to remove a plaque from the fountain, revealing a time capsule. Inside is a red stone containing a black onyx pentagram. This is familiar to Alexandra. It is a red iris stone, used to channel power, usually in the form of heat or light, and is said to protect arcane doorways. She has been working with Indian monks to contain a monster called "The Village of the Hungry Night", and the monks have such a stone in their possession; though theirs contains a spiral, not a pentagram. Mason notes that red stones appear throughout mythology in connection to many cults. Septimus warns that touching the stone is a risk, and Bentley returns it to its bag to carry. Alexandra speaks to Septimus about "the other side" and warns him against looking too far: "The things I've seen you wouldn't want to wish on your worst nightmares".

Ida asks Hana to see the elekiter. In inspecting the object, she discovers a key, marked with a symbol of a cult of Gylcon, a Roman deity depicted as a snake with human hair. She also discovers a false bottom on the elekiter box, and inside finds a small black mirror. Mason remarks that red stones, black mirrors, and green glass are commonly found together in relation to cults. The group heads to the Egyptian Court.

The statue of Isis in the Egyptian Court is holding a black sun instead of red, which Mason notes is unusual. He asks Bentley to boost him up to look at the sun. It has writing on it that he can't quite read. He removes it from its pedestal, but Bentley is suffering from an old war wound and cannot keep him steady. Mason drops the sun and it shatters on the floor. Moments later the lights flicker out.

The group takes the extra lanterns they find in the Egyptian room, and Ida takes the worker's tools she finds there, and the group moves on to the Roman Court. Mason checks the crates, but they do not find they casket. The group decides to split up. Ida and Septimus remain in the Roman room, Bentley and Hana go to check in with the guard, and Alexandra and Mason return to the Egyptian room.

While searching the Roman room, Ida hears a tapping sounds, but finds no source. She does finds a silver chest in the Roman room, with a snake skin pattern in the metal, and three stone inlaid on top: red, black, and green. They key she previously found unlocks it, and inside is another red iris stone, this one containing a snake symbol.

Bentley and Hana find Waylon at his post, but he is staring out the glass, not looking at them. When they speak to him, he only responds with one repeating phrase: "Nothing to worry about. Go about your business." Bentley follows Waylon's gaze out the glass, but notices that Waylon is casting no reflection. Bentley is shaken by this and develops the compulsion to check his own reflection in every mirror he passes.

Meanwhile in the Egyptian, Alexandra reveals to Mason that his theories are correct. The monks she works with have a red iris stone, a black chalice, and have sent her here to find a jade planchette. She advises Mason that it is probably best that the general public believe his theories to be fiction. He argues that truth is important, and that they must know what they are protecting themselves from. She agrees, but argues that such information is meant for people like them, not the masses who would likely panic. They pair hear a tapping sound behind the statue of Isis, and notice two figures standing behind it, facing away from them.

Player Characters

 * Bentley Badger
 * Ida Codswell
 * Septimus Goodfellow
 * Hanako Hayashi
 * Alexandra Elise O'Neil
 * Mason Pocket

New

 * Rupert Merriweather
 * Joseph Waylon
 * Harrison Weir

Trivia

 * This episode functions as a tie-in prequel to the published Call of Cthulhu adventure 'Edge of Darkness', from the Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Starter Set. In both adventures Rupert Merriweather gathers the PCs together and initiates the plot, although he appears to be in the prime of life in 'Shadow of the Crystal Palace', but is elderly and dying by the start of 'Edge of Darkness'. As Taliesin explains at the beginning, Chaosium (the publishers of Call of Cthulhu) originally suggested they use one of the published adventures in the Starter Set. To avoid spoiling a published adventure for listeners, Taliesin instead wrote 'Shadow of the Crystal Palace' as an original story that could act as a tie-in.
 * The internal layout of the Crystal Palace with its various 'courts' displaying art and artefacts from various time periods corresponds in broad strokes to the real layout of the Crystal Palace after it was relocated to Sydenham Hill in 1854 (having originally served as a temporary exhibition building in Hyde Park in 1851).
 * Likewise, the Crystal Palace really did host an annual cat show from 1871 onwards, and Harrison Weir (whose resignation as cat show judge is mentioned by the Cat Club chairman at the beginning of the adventure) was a real person, later dubbed the 'Father of English Cat Fancy'. This means the one-shot can be dated to 1890, the year in which Harrison Weir resigned his judgeship in real life.