In Too Deep

is the fourteenth episode of the third campaign of Critical Role. The ball takes several unexpected twists and turns when dancing shifts to fighting and fighting shifts to fleeing...

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Previously on Critical Role
''Last we left off, our group of heroes under the watch and patronage of Lord Eshteross have been dragged into a masquerade ball being held by the mysterious Chandei Quorum, of which the intent was to both discover if possible any membership to the Quorum, which is maintained as anonymous, as well as place a replica of an enchanted ring onto the thumb of Lord Armand Treshi. You bought outfits. You presented yourselves to this event and arrived to where there were drinks and music and many, many upper-crust individuals in the society here rubbing shoulders, making deals, making snide comments and rumors. In the midst of this delightfully chaotic social environment, the Dance of the Crossroads began, in which you began to attempt to make this endeavor viable.''

''Through your quick wit, and... dedication to the goal at hand, you eventually managed to achieve the baseline of your goal. The bare minimum required of you. But the evening is not finished, as it is only part way through. After this ring was placed upon his thumb, the dance come to a conclusion, the machinations of other things transpiring seemed to been followed by Chetney, who wandered out to discover that Cyrus, the brother of Dorian was in attendance to the party, seemingly with his own ideas, and had wandered off further down the left hallways, deeper into the chambers beyond.''

''Upon searching for him, you also discovered that another figure that you had just met that evening, that seemed to have some communications with Cyrus and Lord Armand Treshi, known as his Lady Emoth Kade, had gone off to the side, looking a bit odd, a bit out of sorts, a bit ill in some ways, had been doing some sort of a burglary of her own in one of these chambers. And seemed to be in league with some of these shade creepers that you had encountered in previous moments not but a week or so before.''

''While this is happening, Ashton, who had created a mask in the image of the Nightmare King Ira Wendagoth, seemed to draw the attention of Lord Armand Treshi, who had some dealings in secret with the Nightmare King, who then notified the captain of the Paragon's Call that are present at this event. This General Ratanish approached you asking questions and pulled the mask off your face, in which you responded by slapping him square in the middle of this event. He slapped back and it is now seeming to lead to a duel, a fisticuffs throw down on the outside of this event, in which the hustle and bustle of the chamber has now shifted from their own political attempts at making deals, and now enthrallment with the coming violence that is drawing its way to the outside of the chamber. As the rest of you are gathered, the crowd, abuzz with conversation, excitement, claps, murmurs, begins to shift to the outside under the stars, just upon the grassed landscape on the exterior of the Chandei Quorum chambers. There, amongst the glowing pedestals with nightlights and the various carriages and carts and sillgoats that have brought individuals up through the entire evening then are placed off to the side to rest, there is an open space here the crowd seems to be already be aware is a common dueling ground when events like this transpire and people come to a disagreement. The crowd begins to shift and encircle the space as you feel this is where it’s going to happen.''

Part I
Imogen and Laudna stay inside away from the crowd, while the rest of the party follows the crowd outside to watch the fistfight. Ratanish invites Ashton to throw the first punch, and the fight is on. Since it is a fistfight and both participants are raging, little damage is done by each hit but Ratanish deals extra fire damage with each blow while Ashton's barbarian path skills are largely confined to fights using melee weapons. From the sidelines, FCG pumps buffs and healing into Ashton and the combatants continue to trade blows, reaching a level of mutual respect wherein Ratanish tells Ashton that if they want work, Ratanish could provide it. He then finishes the fight with a critical hit knocking Ashton unconscious. With permission, FCG heals Ashton while Ratanish does a sales pitch for Paragon's Call to the gathered crowd.

Gavis Aranda, the Face of the Chandei Quorum, is listening intently to a well-dressed human woman in her 50s (Mistress Orlana Seshadri) whispering to him, before she goes to Armand Treshi and begins having a quick, intense conversation with him as well, glancing toward Ratanish.

Chetney quickly explains to Imogen what he saw in the back rooms, and they pass the information to Dorian. Imogen recognizes that Emoth Kade and her minions sound a lot like Dugger and the shade creepers. Worried, she casts Sending to Cyrus, and he responds that he's fine; he's paying his debts.

Fearne tells Lord Eshteross they were successful in planting the tracking ring on Lord Treshi, and FCG gives Treshi's own ring to Eshteross. Fearne asks for and is given it, and immediately wears it despite being warned to keep it hidden. Lord Eshteross urges the group to leave the ball immediately now that their task has been successfully accomplished, but Imogen explains what happened with the shade creepers and Emoth, and that Cyrus is involved and might be in danger. Eshteross agrees to get the keys to their rooms on the premises in order to gain access to the back hallway but urges them to act quickly and quietly.

Laudna has seated herself alone at a table and attempts to make eye contact with Mistress Seshadri. Eventually she uses her Unsettling Presence to draw Orlana's attention and introduces herself as "Lorelei de Rolo". Laudna tries unsuccessfully to pump her for information about members of the Chandei Quorum. Meanwhile, three members of Paragon's Call approach Ashton and invite him to converse privately with Ratanish. Ratanish questions Ashton about the Nightmare King mask, but Ashton tells him only that the reason they were at the ball had nothing to do with the Call. Ratanish accepts this, but advises Ashton that in the future, when they are involved in the destruction of property within Jrusar, such as the Moon Tower, not to immediately show their face in the center of its politics.

Fearne approaches Ashton and FCG, filling them in on the situation in the back bedrooms. FCG convinces her to let him go with her to investigate.

Chetney notices two people dressed in functional green talking familiarly to the guards in back before being admitted to the rear bedrooms, and Dorian identifies them as members of the Green Seekers, well-known detectives with a strong moral compass working in Ank'Harel, the Oderan Wilds, and the Hellcatch Valley. Chetney and Dorian move to follow, trailed by Fearne and FCG, and Fearne and Dorian are admitted but are escorted to the bathroom by one of the two guards.

As Fearne chats up the guard, Dorian casts Minor Illusion to create the voice of a woman screaming from the bedroom Chetney had indicated. This draws both guards away to meet up and investigate, followed by Fearne. Chetney and FCG seize the opportunity to head into the darkened hallway as well. Fearne reaches the slightly open doorway the guards had entered and hears strangled screams, gurgles, and wet chittering from within, followed by heavy dragging and non-human conversation. FCG goes in to investigate and sees two blood trails leading into the adjacent chamber. He calls in the three others and they hear noises coming from the other room.

Suddenly, they hear a creepy voice: "What are you doing in these chambers?" It comes from Emoth Kade in her transformed monstrous form, crawling above them on the ceiling.

Break

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Part II
Laudna, Orym, Imogen and Ashton are still in the ballroom and have noticed the rest of the party is missing. Lord Eshteross has collected the keys to their suites, and they decide to go see if everybody else is dead. They head toward the currently unguarded doors.

Back in the bedroom, Lady Emoth drops to the ground, blocking the exit, and the battle begins against FCG, Fearne, Dorian, and Chetney. Dorian casts Dissonant Whispers on her, forcing her back out into the hallway. Chetney reclaims his chisel from inside FCG and imbues it with flames, then runs to the doorway leading further inward and sees the two wounded guards lying on the floor within, along with two shade creepers, soon joined by two more. As the fight continues, Fearne summons Little Mister in the room with the wounded guards, causing them additional fire damage as well as damaging the two creepers there.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party arrives in the hall from the ballroom and hears the commotion. They start running toward it and join the fight. Chetney uses his special poison resistance-granting healing potion to keep one of the injured guards from dying, but the other one expires. The party continues to hit the shade creepers, gradually killing them and trapping the last one under a fallen bookcase, where Ashton puts it out of its misery by dropping the bookcase on it again.

Badly wounded, Emoth dashes for the interior room and the hole leading down into the depths of the Core Spire, muttering, "She'll help me," as she goes. The party follows as best they can and unleash attacks at her, trying to kill her before she can escape, but she disengages to avoid opportunity attacks and vanishes into the hole in the wall.

Chetney drops his werewolf form, and confirms with the surviving guard that he will tell the authorities that the party came to his rescue rather than causing the mayhem. They learn the room was assigned to Gryz Alakritos. Orym attempts to explore the hole through which Emoth escaped but it is deeper than his rope.

Just then, they hear Cyrus's voice outside in the hall, protesting that "they" have the wrong person. Dorian and Laudna run out and see a shackled Cyrus being escorted by a guard and the two Green Seekers. As the party runs out after them, Imogen tells the injured guard that the party is named Bell's Hells.

In the ballroom, following Cyrus and his escort, Laudna casts Darkness on the ceiling as a distraction but it is quickly dispelled. Dorian throws a smoke grenade at the guards holding his brother and dashes into it. When he bumps into one of the Seekers holding Cyrus, he successfully Charms him, but the other Seeker is holding Cyrus's other arm. Just as she sees Dorian, she is whacked on the head by Lord Eshteross's cane as he appears out of the fog. With a natural 20, Dorian convinces the Charmed guard to allow him to take Cyrus away and Lord Eshteross whispers, "House. Now."

Laudna uses her Form of Dread and shouts at the partygoers to get out, creating massive confusion but alerting the guards. As Dorian escorts Cyrus toward the edge of the smoke cloud, he casts Invisibility on him and they succeed in reaching the outside unnoticed. FCG and Imogen cast Calm Emotions on all but one of the remaining guards. The uncalmed guard is having none of their protestations of innocence until the guard Chetney saved during the fight comes in and vouches for them, but they are still being regarded with suspicion and the guards will remember them. The Seekers begin searching for Cyrus.

Imogen casts Sending to Dorian and learns they're at the carriages. The rest of the party joins them and with a very tense Lord Eshteross, they travel to his manor. Once there, Dorian reveals the invisible Cyrus, who explains that one of the Hubatt Corsairs occasionally worked for Lady Emoth, who had worked with Dugger for a while. Emoth hired him to help her steal things at the ball in return for part of her "great treasure". Emoth spoke often of a business partner she worked with that she referred to as "Mother". When he was arrested, however, the guards thought he had been involved with the recent destruction of the Moon Tower by the party. The group realizes the authorities are confusing Dorian and Cyrus. Cyrus is in despair and offers to turn himself in, since he can't go home like this. Eshteross offers to smuggle him out in his skyship to Emon, but points out the guards will be looking for "a certain type of person", staring pointedly at Dorian. Reluctantly, Dorian agrees to go with Cyrus to help him. The party unhappily say goodbye to him, and over wine, they toast to their new name, Bell's Hells. Many farewells are said. Dorian realizes that, due to the way he last left Emon, they really shouldn't go there, but move on as quickly as possible. Both Fearne and Orym give him money to help him on his way, and over wine, song, and stories, they enjoy each other's company until it is time for Dorian to leave.

Laudna asks Lord Eshteross if he is mad at them, and he tells them he's actually proud of them. They accomplished their objective.

As the carriage holding Dorian and Cyrus pulls away, left floating via Levitate is Dorian's toy airship. A child on the street runs up, snatches it, and runs down the street.

Bell's Hells

 * Ashton Greymoore
 * Chetney Pock O'Pea
 * Fearne Calloway
 * Little Mister
 * Fresh Cut Grass
 * Imogen Temult
 * Laudna
 * Orym

Returning

 * Ariks Eshteross
 * Armand Treshi
 * Cyrus Wyvernwind
 * Dorian Storm
 * Emoth Kade
 * Gavis Aranda
 * General Ratanish
 * Evelyn Wress

New

 * Gus
 * Olly (unnamed)
 * Orlana Seshadri
 * Russ and Dunot, Chandei Quorum guards

Mentioned

 * Gryz Alakritos
 * Captain Xandis, captain of Lord Eshteross's skyship

Quotations
Chetney: Now I'm confused. Cast: (recoils) Robbie: Yeah yeah yeah, I'm just poking everybody. Travis: He's a bard! Laudna: To the Bell's Hellions. Imogen: To Bell's Hells. Chetney: To Bell's Hells. Laudna: Bell's Hells. FCG: I'm not holding a cup. Laudna: You are a cup. FCG: You're right.
 * Travis: [So] I checked there, and he wasn't inside... (OOC) Goddamn it, it's so Southern now. Holy shit. Fuck Santa! Okay, here we go. I'm back in it.
 * Ratanish: (to Ashton) You know, if you're looking for work, there are... opportunities. You have some skill, and I like the fact that you do not give a shit.
 * FCG: Fearne told me that Imogen told her that you told Imogen that you were in the bathroom with a monster lady, and she attacked you while you were trying to pee. Is that what happened?
 * Matt: As you both manage to get out of the way before it can completely engulf your eyes and nose and ears and any sort of... open sensitive spaces...
 * Laura: (to Dorian) So you're gonna stick [your sword] in her, pull it out, stick it back in her, pull it out, and then stick it in the [shade creeper]?
 * Dorian: (to Cyrus) So your bounty was for being falsely accused of stealing from a Mahaan house, and you thought the best way of paying it off was to literally steal from another Mahaan house.
 * Dorian: Cheers! To...