Escape from the Underdark

is the thirteenth episode of the first season of Critical Role. The week before it aired, the special episode aired instead of a normal story episode.

With K'Varn killed and the dread god Orcus's machinations put to an end, the party struggles with what to do next. Before a decision can be reached, several illithid glide into the chamber of the elder brain, and victory quickly yields to impending doom. The immediate threat is eventually dealt with, but the real danger is still coming. Before they are entirely overwhelmed, the party flees the pyramid as a sea of illithid surge up its sloping walls. Catching up with Tiberius, the rest of Vox Machina quickly scrambles toward the portal that he opened on the far shore...

Previously on Critical Role
''"The party, as they ventured deep into the Underdark beneath the Cliffkeep Mountains in the dwarven city of Kraghammer, sought and discovered Lady Kima of Vord, a folk hero, a paladin of Bahamut, who had been captured and tortured by the duergar that live beneath. After saving her, they discovered that there was an even deeper, darker, more dangerous evil brewing beneath the surface. There was an illithid, or mind flayer, city of Yug'Voril deeper within this cavern structure, and currently the elder brain of the colony was under the control of an entity known as K'Varn, who they came to find out was a self-mutilated and advanced beholder who had come into contact with a dark artifact known as the Horn of Orcus that was actually gifted many, many, hundreds upon hundreds of years ago by the god of undeath himself, Orcus, to one of his avatars. Somehow it found its way to this beholder and gave it enough power to where it gained complete dominion over this colony and these caverns as a whole.''

"The party fought their way through, made a few allies including the ousted mind flayer Clarota, seeking to return to his colony, has been fighting alongside them, as well as Lady Kima, the paladin they came to save. Upon finding their way into the final cavern, they used their magic carpet to completely go around the giant city of Yug'Voril, perch on top of the temple in the center of the city, and, using a Polymorphed fomorian giant cascading hundreds upon hundreds of feet through the glass structure on top, managed to break their way into the temple. After which a very dangerous battle with K'Varn the beholder took place. A number of very close calls, they managed to take him out, using Tiberius' Telekinesis tore the horn from its forehead, and the beholder fell to the ground, unmoving, and finally killed as opposed to its undead form."