Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Crystal Palace

is the forty-six special episode of Critical Role. Investigators Alexandra Elise O'Neil, Hanako Hayashi, Septimus Goodfellow, Ida Codswell, Dr. Mason Pocket, and Captain Bentley Badger attempt to survive this harrowing scenario that is set in a decadent 1890s London.

Part I
Set in the late 19th century 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. Bentley uses the sword concealed in his cane to remove a plaque from the fountain, revealing a time capsule. The red stone they find is familiar to Alexandra. She has been working with Tibetan monks to contain a monster called "The Village of the Hungry", and the monks have such a stone in their possession. Septimus checks the rooms they enter for presences from the other side. Alexandra warns him against looking too far: "the things I've seen you wouldn't wish on your worst nightmares".

The statue of Isis in the Egyptian room 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. 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.

Player Characters

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

New

 * Rupert Merriweather
 * Joseph Waylon

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.