A Walk to Warmer Welcomes

is the one hundred twenty-fourth episode of the second campaign of Critical Role.

Previously on Critical Role
Last we left off: the Mighty Nein, upon traversing a majority of their journey across Eiselcross to reach the ruins of Aeor on the cusp of their final day of travel alongside the Tombtakers and Lucien, the original pilot, it seems, of Mollymauk's body before you met him.

''You encountered a final challenge in the wilderness, as the ancient white dragon Gelidon, the Nightmare in ivory, had come across your scent and swooped down for vengeance, recognizing those who had not too long before encroached upon her lair and stole from her hoard. After a battle in which Gelidon was unexpecting the sheer voracity of the response and the volume of trained and experienced individuals that were counter-assaulting, fled within an inch of her life, and you were all left successful in fighting off this dangerous entity.'' ''Continuing your trek into the night, as the sunlight vanished and you found yourselves in one final evening of rest, you made your way into Caleb's tower, and upon plotting out what you were to do in the days to come, realized that the Bag of Holding that Fjord had been carrying was no longer on his person, realizing it had been taken by Otis in the middle of the fray with this white dragon. In searching for the whereabouts, they had already left the tower and had made their way into the dark, snowy evening.''

''You all gave chase and managed to catch up to them a little ways past where you had set up for the evening, and a battle took place that very quickly turned in their favor. Scrambling to gain some ground and eventually just escape with your lives, you managed to begin to outrun them, not with the Bag of Holding you lost but at least one of the two threshold crests that had been recovered, that as far as you knew they required to complete whatever it was they were attempting to do in the ruins of Aeor.''

Part I
The Mighty Nein are just barely ahead of the Tombtakers, pursued by their magic, and heading roughly north-northeast through heavy falling snow with Lucien shouting threats of pursuit behind them. Caleb turns into a giant eagle, dropping Beau's mammoth form, but scoops up both Beau and Fjord. Yasha's wings fade and she begins running along with Veth, falling slightly behind. They are still being hotly pursued. Owl-Jester is hit by an Eldritch Blast and tugged back ten feet, but flies onward. As the party banks to the right, Veth creates a Silent Image of herself in the other direction.

The Tombtakers continue following. After several minutes, owl-Jester picks up both Veth and Yasha (along with the threshold crest and Caduceus) to try to avoid leaving tracks in the snow, but it drops her to half-speed. Jester tries and fails, twice, to drop Yasha onto the flying eagle-Caleb. He eventually scoops Yasha up from the ground, but it drops him to half-speed. The party decides to head for the mountains to try to buy enough time to hide in order to get a rest, and eagle-Caleb drops Beau, who begins running. When Jester's spell ends, she re-casts Polymorph to change from an owl to a black eagle.

They fly on, becoming exhausted. When they reach the end of all of Jester's Polymorph spells, they have reached the mountains and a small ledge. Caleb flies on and finds a wider camping area and begins ferrying the party to it. While they wait, they look through the Tombtakers' backpack and discover that the threshold crest is indeed inside, along with four more intuit charges to join the one Veth found previously in the ruins of A2. They bury the threshold crest in the snow of the ledge.

Caleb casts the hut and they spend an uneventful night, getting a long rest. In the morning, after much discussion they decide that even if teleporting the crest goes off target or damages it, it would be out of immediate reach of the Tombtakers. Jester Sends to Yudala Fon in the Rexxentrum Archive of the Cobalt Soul, saying that they're going to try to send it to them there. Beau realizes her cold weather gear came from there, so to increase the accuracy of the spell she borrows a dagger from Veth to cut off a piece of her coat's lining. Jester notices that Veth becomes hostile and possessive at the suggestion that Veth let Beau borrow her Corecut Dagger.

Caleb sticks a label on the crest saying "Care of Yudala Fon" and casts Teleport. The crest disappears, but they don't know whether the teleport succeeds or not. Caduceus notices some dark shapes at the foot of the mountain, and they eventually recognize the Tombtakers. There is an explosion as something is thrown by the Tombtakers (possibly one of Beau's fireworks from the stolen Bag of Holding) starting an avalanche. Jester, Caleb, and Yasha become eagles, grab the rest of the party, and fly off toward Aeor.

Break

 * Clips from.
 * Merch Alert! Doom Eternal: Assault on Armaros Station PDF adventure for 5e available for download in the U.S. shop; Nott the Brave Flask and Vox Machina and Mighty Nein Chibi pins in the U.S., U.K., and Australia shops; Critical Role face masks and Mighty Nein Chibi decals in all shops.
 * Taliesin invites everyone to the Twitch Subscription Zone.
 * Critters' art montage.

The Mighty Nein

 * Beauregard Lionett
 * Caduceus Clay
 * Caleb Widogast
 * Frumpkin (not mentioned)
 * Fjord
 * Jester Lavorre
 * Veth Brenatto
 * Yasha Nydoorin

Returning

 * Lucien
 * Yudala Fon (via Jester's Sending)
 * Essek Thelyss
 * Dagen Underthorn
 * Artagan
 * Wensforth (via Jester's Sending)

Mentioned

 * High Curator Loman Turray

Quotations
Essek: Indeed.
 * Lucien: Run all ye like! We'll be right behind!
 * Essek: (to Caleb) If [a Luxon Beacon ] were to be found, and channeled and unlocked in ways that we have not even possibly considered, think of the possibilities of how we could manipulate the fabric of time. Not just forwards. The ability to perhaps undo mistakes.
 * Caleb: (as the party leaves Essek) I catch him by the forearm, last one out, and say, "Just breathe. (Essek exhales) Just... breathe that fresh air," mindful of the people about. "Time. (pause) Time. Not weeks, not years. It takes time."

Trivia

 * The party leveled up to 14th at the end of this episode.