Critical Role - Make Merry | Critical Role | Campaign 4, Episode 11 Part 1

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

Part 1 The Seekers reckon with the swift changes coming to Dol-Makjar while the Soldiers ponder stone, blood, and blade... New Episodes Release Weekly on Thursdays.Learn more about Campaign 4 at https://critrole.com/campaign4/   GET MORE CAMPAIGN 4 WITH BEACONWe're excited to bring you even MORE Campaign 4 with a Beacon membership! Get access to exclusive shows like our behind-the-scenes Critical Role Cooldown and ask the Campaign 4 cast your burning questions directly through our LIVE monthly Fireside Chats.You'll also receive NEW Beacon exclusive series, instant ad-free access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord.Start your 7-day free trial today at https://beacon.tv/join and get unparalleled access to everything Critical Role! OFFICIAL CAMPAIGN 4 CASTGAME MASTER Brennan Lee MulliganLaura Bailey as ThimbleLuis Carazo as Azune NayarRobbie Daymond as Kattigan ValeAabria Iyengar as Thaisha LloyTaliesin Jaffe as Bolaire LathaliaAshley Johnson as VaelusMatthew Mercer as Sir Julien DavinosWhitney Moore as TyrannyLiam O’Brien as Halandil "Hal" FangMarisha Ray as Murray Mag’NessonSam Riegel as Wicander "Wick" HalovarAlexander Ward as Occtis TachonisTravis Willingham as Teor Pridesire CREDITSProduced by Maxwell James, Steve Failows, & Kyle ShireSet Designed by Shaun EllisProduction Designer: Noxweiler BerfCharacter Art by Loren HontanillaEdited by Taylor Burke and Emily "Stevie" StevensonCritical Role Announcement Playhouse Editor: Vinny CelestiOpening Title Editor: Paul FoyderOpening Title Colorist: Peter KoocheradisWindow Effects by Christian BrownGraphic Design by Aaron Monroy & Jordyn TorrenceDol-Makjar art by Daniel Jiménez VillalbaMiniatures Painted by Payton Keo LacebalOpening Title Theme by Neal AcreeCampaign 4 Key art by Hannah FriederichsAdditional Art & Design by Hannah Friederichs Episode QC by Catherine Zimmerman & Paula FloresAssistant Editor: Gianna GencarellaPost Production Coordinators: M Swing & Bryn HubbardClosed Caption Editing by Margaret Dill, Nikki Kindelberger, Courtney Knewtson, Danielle Lackie, Eleanor Smith-Dufresne & Alice TsoiPost Production Supervisor: Tal Levitas HEALTH & WELL-BEINGDue to the improv nature of Critical Role and other RPG content on our channels, some themes and situations that occur in-game may be difficult for some to handle. If certain episodes or scenes become uncomfortable, we strongly suggest taking a break or skipping that particular episode.Your health and well-being is important to us and Psycom has a great list of international mental health resources, in case it’s useful: http://bit.ly/PsycomResources Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why, hello there. I'm Brennan Lee Mulligan, and welcome to Campaign 4 of Critical Role. Thank you for joining us on this journey as we explore Aramon, a world of fractured kingdoms, tumultuous rebellion, and sorcery that rises from the graveyard of the gods. You're listening to Part 1 of this adventure, with Part 2 arriving this upcoming Tuesday. Our episodes typically arrive on the Critical Role podcast network a week after our initial Thursday night streams, on Beacon, YouTube, and Twitch. But if you'd rather listen to a full podcast episode of Campaign 4, right when it airs, without any ads, consider becoming a Beacon member.

You'll receive access to exclusive content, discounts at all our online Critical Role shops, pre-sales for live events, and so much more. Start your seven-day free trial today at Beacon.tv. Now, without further ado, let's begin this episode of Critical Role. Three days of travel have elapsed, as your band has made your way east through the Dvarmar Pass,

through the ancestral dwarven lands of Cavros. Tall mountains peaked in snow. The wind whips through the mountains, especially as you begin your descent from the sort of summit of the pass, high in the middle of your journey. It's three days across the pass, and descending now the cold winds of Helvar

whipped up across the vastness of the endless night, the cold, frigid air of a land that does not know the touch of the sun, and of course the storm rack to your south, hearing endlessly the fall of eternal rain on mountains that have known a ceaseless storm for 70 years. Towards the eastern edge of the pass, what state do we find our

adventurers in making their way under heavy cloaks. Some of you disguising your noble lineage, unsure what dangers possibly await you here on the road. That's, uh, Julian likely looks a, I mean, not quite as rough as you probably, in realistic sense, but. Too soon. I know.

But I'd say at the very least, he's not gotten much sleep in recent days, trying to remain as vigilant as possible for a number of folks within this grouping and is showing a bit of wear on his face. As the cold wind hits, he kind of bundles up heavily. He's kept himself quite heavily obscured from any recognition. His markings of his house all removed and kept away from any passing eyes.

He's also been, I say, along the ride, probably helping keeping vigilant eye on the road ahead and kind of helping scout where in need be, though likely, probably challenged at times by other capable people. No. Probably not. At this point, I think we just kind of let him do it a little bit because he's got to have something. How's Tisha looking? I think the first two days were Tisha's morning period.

Every time she leaves Dolmachiar, she has to put down the version of herself that was with Hal and her kids and the world and family and life that she knew. But right around day three, especially with the storm and the cold and how uncomfortable she is now, this is the opposite of home and Tisha is becoming herself again. So she's actually a little more chipper. She's whistling bird song for like local fauna that's here and occasionally wants to go and help scout ahead, but you're doing a very good job. So she's going to let you continue to do that. And mostly we'll stay tight to Erinessa and will help keep an eye on her because she knows the other travel companions are a little more self-sufficient out here on the road. How's Vailas looking? Vailas sort of takes up the back of the group

and is constantly scanning, just never stopping. Very much used to traveling these parts and going on long journeys like this alone. So having companions here is weird and new and different. But the few days that I've spent with these people and seeing what they've been going through, she's trying very hard to maintain distance

and not get close. Aranesa bears the name of a house that rose up against the god of the sun. And I think that she keeps a polite distance as well. I think maybe she's a light distance as well. offered you to pour your goblet one of these knights at a roadside in, and that's about the extent of the warmth that she has shown. Octus. I think everything around Octus is in soft focus right now these last couple days as he's internalizing

and trying to understand what happened to him in the best way he can, which is intellectual actualizing it. And so unless someone directly speaks to him or is he has to do something, he's constantly dealing with what's new, the fact that he knows it's cold, but he doesn't feel cold like a person feels cold anymore. Like he's not worried that he's going to die from exposure because he's not going to. Just all these little things that keep popping into his head as he goes, where he, you know, his hands are cold, his, he doesn't see his breath in the storm, things like that. Looking down, the Duvalmar Pass is a ancient dwarven-made highway. It runs over the top of the mountains and is of sort of a strange type in that it is a gift.

The dwarfs' roads ran deep beneath the mountains. They needed this path for nothing at all. But in sort of ancient times, created this road such that there would be a way for the Obridemian Empire to come and aid them at the western edge of their border. It was made for the human might of the old Obridemian Empire to come west. And thus, you know, this ancient part of it is much grander and filled with these sort of ancient dwarven statues. The last like 30 or 40 miles of it are kind of newer because it terminated far in advance of the ancient walls of Dolmakiar, where countless mountain battle sites watched dwarven and human allies crash against the orcish shield wall of

Dolmachiar for countless ages of war that occurred over over and over and over again. So interesting to take that first day's travel through the new pass built by the Revolutionary Council when the peoples of Aramon were united against the gods, and here you find the old pass for a different purpose and a different chapter in history. As the mountain pass winds down,

you see a dwarven statues. These ones less grandiose than the ones at the Guardian Wall in Dolmachiar. These ones are a little bit more stout and made of sort of blocks placed together. But of dwarven soldiers that mark the way to the west, and you see at the base of the statues, is the dwarven word for courage over and over again.

Looking down, snow gripping the road here, you see that, like the pass has many places, small inns, general stores, you can't really go more than an hour's journey. Even through parts of the wilderness, you'll travel for an hour or two, and another shop will be there or something else, because all of the wealth of Khad

and the sundered houses funnels like an artery through this pass. Looking down here, you see that there appears to be a snowfall or some kind of collapse in the mountains that is momentarily blocked the road. And you can see that there is a few dwarven guards that point up to an attendant pass off the mountainside directing people around the landfall.

Some people are moving through. It seems that there's still enough space for the main pass to be useful, but you do see some banners down there. Anyone who wants to do can give me a perception check. Yeah. Take it as a skirm. Mm-hmm. Okay, we're okay. We're okay. 17. 16. 16. 16. On a 16, on a 16, on a 16, on a 16,

On a 16, Taisha, you look down and see some banners of what looks to be the Revolutionary Council down there. Octus, you see one banner of your house flying down there. We don't go down there. They shouldn't go down there. Family. Why on earth would that be a problem? I'm just kidding. He's got it?

The first joke I've ever heard. Okay. Make jokes all the time. We don't know each other that well yet. Oh, right. You've been in the back. Do you recognize any family present? Not that I can see, but I do see the banner. Down boy. Mm-mm. Too soon.

I know what you want. If they were there, I'd tell you. I hope you would. Just be vigilant. I will as well. Do any of you read Dwarven speak or read Dwarven? Do I? No. No. You see some words.

I know. You see some words in Dwarven as you pass by and you see riding around, there's a small village, Adzar, Dwarven village that has a pass that joins the divine Balmar here and then a longer mountain pass that goes around that is not moving a little bit faster, essentially. It's a little detour to get around the collapse away from where this Taconas banner is flying. It will only add probably like two hours to your trip, but it'll get you away from where you need to go.

Moving through Odzar, which is a small little dwarven trading village and has some views of these storm-racked southern It might have been beautiful once upon a time. Now it's sort of a grim visage. You see here in this place facing the storm rack a massive dwarven cliffside that has several shattered statue bases around facing to the south here. And you see that hanging something some of them are like more than 100 feet up the cliff wall.

This place by the village is filled with lanterns. Silver, tin, some gold, bronze made of various different metals, some glass, some open. And there is dwarven writing all over this place. You see one phrase repeated over and over and over again, but there is a ton of dwarven writing all over the cliff, and many written on the base of the shattered statues. Are there any people in this little trading spot? You see that there is an older dwarven woman

who comes up and you see lights one of the lanterns and is praying at the wall. Yeah, I'm going to splinter off. I want to go talk to her. You go and talk to her. Are you wearing any... indication of being a member of the old path on you? I think when she lowers her hood,

she will have something around her forehead knowing that she'll probably only show her face in cold weather and very specifically has her cane. Gotcha. So these are some symbols of the old path, but not any super-recognized word ones. You walk up to the old Dwarven woman. I just realized I came in the middle of a...

It's like watching jump rope or you're like, I don't know where to jump in. She turns to you and goes, I'm so sorry. I didn't want to interrupt. She speaks to you in a sort of broken orcish, a broken cahadi. She goes, yes, you are lost to the pass collapse.

Oh, no. This path will lead you back to Tvallmar. Thank you. My name is Tisha. I'm a druid of the old path. You see that she sort of moves back for a moment. Can't inside check her? Yeah, give me an inside check.

16. 16. She withdraws, and you recognize that you are looking at someone of the faithful. Cool. Then I'm going to try to flag her. Sorry, I was just wondering what the phrase and I want to point at like, wherever I see it repeated enough so I can point out the pattern.

I mean, no disrespect. Come back. You see she looks up, and what does she see on Tisha's face as she says, come back? I think it's very quick, but it's not perfectly schooled. It's disgust. And then quickly, like, trying to look, it's almost condescendingly, like, neutral,

I think is the cover for what is a massive aversion. Yeah. She recognizes it, and she points to another line of poetry and says, not rain, but tears. And she turns to leave this place. Give me perception with advantage if you'd be so kind. Natural 20. These shattered statues of devotees of Trojana, goddess of the forge,

were shattered and you can see that there has now been writing and these lanterns have been left here as a mark of contrition, atonement, sorrow. On a Nat 20 perception, in the shattered basis of the statues, there's something hidden. You look and see behind this wall that where these statues, and it looks like these statues are centuries old

and were shattered about a little, you know, 65 years ago, something like that. You see behind them there is something in the base of this wall. And on a 20, you see a bit of writing in druidic, in a dwarven dialect of druidic, and recognized that this wall was a holy site of Tehanna.

who was the primordial of Earth, and that these statues were built to deface it. I don't think Tysha even acknowledges this woman anymore. She is going to storm back to the horse. I don't want to tell you. I can hear you breathe. I used to hear you breathe. Yeah, it doesn't really happen anymore.

Well, I mean, when I talk, I do have to breathe air across the vocal cords, which caused the sound of... Never mind. What's wrong? And I explain what I saw. It's not even her fault. She's just so desperate to go back to what? They remember even if it was worse. Yeah.

My eyes flick over in the direction that I last remember of Aylis being. I'm just staring this whole time. have been watching this whole exchange with Tysha. I'm never taking my eyes off of her. Give me a perception check. You can do so with advantage. Let's go. 24.

Let's go. You look at Tisha. You're not taking your eyes off her at all. You realize that a village that cannot force, you realize that a village that cannot help but be forced to see the storm rack would attract a certain kind of person. These are people that do not want to let go.

You can recognize that, I think, on that. Hop off my horse. You hop off your horse. I would like to walk through some of the shattered statues and sort of peek over to where Tysha was looking. Can you speak druidic? No. Can you speak Sylvan?

No. You see a script that you cannot recognize. You remember the shape of the letters. It is in a different script than the Dwarven written here over and over again. But you point your attention to it, some kind of writing. Probably it was part of the tradition of Trojna. I mean, that would make sense, wouldn't it?

What are you looking at, though? There's something here, but I can't read it. Hmm. I read Sylvan. Reading Sylvan, you see it's written in a different language than Sylvan, but it's close enough that you can get some kind of... The words around it are words, but there's a name here. And I think you recognize the name Tahana. Tahana in some ancient, you know, you had nobles education.

Tihana was the wife of Trojana, the Titan of Earth. verse. And I think you look at it and just see it only was revealed from the destroyed statue here. Aranesa calls out, I think we'd best go. And she looks out and sees the old woman dwarf speaking to, like, well, it's like a granddaughter. It says, best not to Terry. She looks at you, Tysha, Aranessa, and goes, we'll have chosen to live. in this moment, then we do them a courtesy and a respect by letting them live in it. And she gets her horse moving along.

And you continue down by passing the Taconas banner, making your way to Helvar, old Obridemia, the birthplace of the sundered houses. And we will see you next time as we begin the journey of the Seekers table. See all that comes out of critical role. And welcome to the Critical Role Announcement Playhouse.

Rush, you're up. Oh, wow. You should tune in live. That's right. Live, live, like actual live. Next Tuesday. I love it. I know, we're back, baby.

January 20th for the first installment of our new talkback show, Tailgate. Woo! It's spelled different though. It is, it's spelled like the tales that we tell, and then gate. Like water, like water, gate.

Exactly like that. It is hosted by Whitney Moore. I know. You can join the cast of the soldiers table as they sit down and spill the tea together on all things campaign four. Chris has tips. And, nope.

Nope. Not here, not now. But for our Beacon Bits, the Sauray will continue with the nightcap, an exclusive segment where we'll answer your questions from the Discord chat. Naked. Nope. What? I mean, it's our platform, so.

Nope. We could. Listen to the Fight Club Extra. He's got some good points. We'll run that by leadership. These will continue to air after each take. cable arc, but it all starts next Tuesday at 7 p.m. Pacific on Beacon, YouTube, and Twitch. And friendly reminder that if you want to chat with other critters tuning in for tonight's episode, you can head on over to our Beacon Discord. Many of us pop into chat each week,

so, you know, you might see us there. Maybe you'll see us there. Maybe you weren't. I don't know. But if you don't already have an account, you can start a free trial over at beacon.tv slash join. Wonderful. Liam, you're up. Oh, yeah, I got some Daggerheart news for you. We got the first episode of a new Daggerheart actual play series with Viva

Dirt League. It's out now on Beacon. You can join the party for adventures of Azuram using the Bees Fees campaign frame every Tuesday. Come in. Why didn't you do this voice for Hal? Huh? Tuesday. Go to do some Shakespeare.

Got to open up the theater, you know what I'm saying? All for a muse of fire. There it is. We got it. Tales and Goats. I think that includes our announcements of the announcement playhouse.

Let's get back into Aramon. We return. Tal said big titty Pikachu. With a pika at the end. We return. I'm narque, I say. I let the people know. Are you allowed to say the things

we throw at you before we start? Is that allowed? I'm a servant of the people. Okay, and you need to know what's happening to me back here. We return to the city of Dolmachiar, as our wonderful schemers have gathered around a table in the aviary of the Seven Stars Tavern, a lovely house of recreation and refreshment

here in the rookery at the eastern edge of the city. You have had quite a last 48 hours. In the last 48 hours, the Aussie Fang was executed by the authority of the Chamber of Lords Advisory of the Sundered Houses here in the city of Dolmachar. What followed was his Fara, an orcish funerary custom where treasures and prayers were gathered around his body, and you discovered that the plan to spring him at the last minute had been ruined by a betrayal from even within one of his criminal contacts and a former brother of the torn banner.

The soldiers' table headed north after the treacherous Casimir Gavindale and looking for Sid Pride Sire, Tehrer's brother. Your, in the past 48 hours also, not only did the young Lord Wakandar Halevar discovered that there is a monstrosity of a celestial chained up in his basement

and then flee the city, House Tukonis slaughtered all of the inhabitants of the Palazzo Davinos, declaring that the houses of Royce and Davinos would fall, and Octus Taconas was slaughtered on a table, his heart ripped out of his body, and replaced with an elven artifact known as the Stone of Night Song. That stone was removed by him in the afterlife, and by Murray Magnessen and Boler Lothalia here in Dolmachyar, in the Gry

the grounds of the Loy estate at four o'clock in the morning after way too much shit had happened. That sounds as well. Witnessing, witnessing, since the death of the gods, there has been no resurrection. And that remains true. Young Octus Taconas was not brought back from the dead. But he walks Aramon as something seemingly under his own. control. You are left with several questions hanging overhead. What did your brother get you all into? Why did he tell you that Bolleer had paint or to look after Murray at the Penteverell.

Why did he send your former life partner and Nistill, close loved one, Tysha Loi, off to retrieve a cobbled together coffin of a deceased halfling celestial from the Fonadus in the east. How long has a sentient mask been interested in your theater company? And all of you look at a city, strange goings on of whatever theazi Fang was up to, that rests increasingly under the thumb of the sundered houses. A new dean presides at the Pentevral. The cormorays are asking about changing wings

at the Arcanade, moving the Loy Wing from its primacy here at the Revolutionary Museum. House Einfossen has relieved more than 60% of all of the Revolutionary Guard within the city, of their duties as some mercenary company of the Candescent Creed waits with sign-up papers outside. And Hal Fang has just sent his eldest daughter to go live with her half-sister as he wears a liar's blade on his side. Busy couple of days. Here at the table, all of you return and and have much to discuss,

Lockmere. The proprietor leans his head in and says, we'll have plenty of privacy up here and feel free if you need to send word to anyone. There's some pigeons over there and all their cages are labeled, so feel free. But could you do me a favor, Lockmere? Could you bring up equal?

equal amounts of whiskey and coffee. Ah, the night begins in earnest, yes, absolutely. I'll bring up some fresh-brewd, a fresh-bood pot of coffee, and some, I'll get the, are we looking for taste, or are we looking for volume as concerns whiskey? Both. Ooh, well, I'll start a tab, and he retreats downstairs. It's because I'm paying a tab now.

You can afford it. I certainly can now. Oh, good. I'm exhausted. I think I'm still on adrenaline. The exhaustion is going to catch up eventually, but here we are. Running out of time.

The walls closing in and the rug being pulled out from underneath us. And I made a list of things that I'd like to bring up. Maybe we should just leave. Maybe we should just abandon the city. Abandon ship, just run for the hills. Mary, you know you would never do that. I know. Where would you go?

I'm too stubborn. Well, before the exhaustion actually does catch up to us. I'd like to at least report what I observed today. This is the most organized, I think I've ever seen you, all right? You have no. You have no. You're just listening so slow. Although, yes, you want to speak quickly.

I'll try to slow down. Lists are good. Proceed. Okay. That occurs to me that I should have probably made copies of the list and handed them out, but I guess maybe for next time. So earlier today when I arrived at the Brethren Hall,

what I witnessed was Lord Einfosssen dismissing the majority of the Revolutionary Guard. All of them angry at this sudden dismissal. And as a result of that in protest, another number of the Revolutionary Guard resigned. Waiting outside was a mercenary group under the Candescent Creed banner waiting to recruit them. A very convenient way to poach the Revolutionary Guard

that's meant to protect the city. Do we have access to money? Strangely, I believe we do. Can we siphon that money? Oh, very much so. Go over the number for me again. How many of the protection? of this city have been cut with the majority of them.

Absolutely more than half, maybe three quarters. I told you this is exactly what I said, what would happen? It is, it is, it is. I just didn't expect it to happen as quickly. Immediately. It's happening immediately. It's going to go very quickly. I thought this was going to unfold over the course of weeks, maybe even once.

No, it's happening faster than I could, any of us could have imagined, but we need to stanch the bleeding. And I have an idea that I want to propose if we have access to funds, I think we need to give those that have been dismissed somewhere else where they can go. Like a, talking about a street game? Like a shell mercenary company, like a shell mercenary company that can be at least held there temporarily. They're desperate, their livelihoods

that have just been ripped from them. And of course, the Candestine Creed is waiting to recruit them. What would we have them do outside of just paying them to not go elsewhere? I think at the moment that's enough pay them to not go to the enemy. And then we can figure out what else we can do.

You have to set something up and I... One second, one second. I don't have deep pockets to pay for a militia. I don't think you do Belair. I don't think. Well, things have taken an odd turn in my reality. You remember that terrible interruption we had earlier with Lady Amara.

Well, your family's wing of the museum is going to be destroyed and folded in to another wing. They want the entire collection moved. To what purpose? In my estimation, to steal, to take, to make it more difficult for people to know what's missing, what isn't,

to gain more control over every bit of magic that exists in this city. It's violent. Do you think it's about the control of artifact, or do you think it's about rewriting history? And why not both? Yeah, I mean, we're talking about a coup here, right? Clearly.

Halovars rammed through the execution of my brother. Taconas pulled the movie. It pulled last night. We're learning about what the hellovars have in the basement. They want to plunder up. A hundred-year-old weaponry. They fired the police force and are going to absorb them into the Halevar.

Mm-hmm. There's only one. They've already planted one of their own into the college. I think that we, they haven't just dismissed Revolutionary Guard. Murray, at the Pentevereal, they must have dismissed. Our professors, other students have lost their position.

I think that right now, while people are being dismissed, we need to act. We need to provide some way to organize them because what we're doing right now is we're beginning a movement, at least continuing one, perhaps reactivating it. Walk before you run. I know we're going quickly, but... So I've been given a blank check to move everything to the other wing as quickly as

possible, which is just going to be chaos, and they said they will give me whatever I want, which, at the speed they want this, I will be capable of hiding a lot of funds. What are you sitting on over there? You said a blank check. Ooh. I love a little fraud. I love a little embezzlement. I already do a bit of fraud and embezzlement.

And trust me, even with this chaos, we have to be careful and frugal. Is there anything in the collection that you would mark for siphoning off? Honestly, it would be a shorter list to tell you what I wouldn't. How quickly do you think we can make replicas, hide the real ones? They already exist, but they'll know. Obviously we have two wings that are being folded into each other,

which means that it's going to be very political. I'm going to be fighting an entirely different curator who wants to keep their job, wants to make sure they're sucking up more, and I assume it's whoever's more malleable to this situation, situation will be the one who doesn't get removed. What I'm a little confused about, why are they moving so fast? It's borderline reckless.

It is reckless. Not borderline. It's like they're racing. Why? Yeah, I think before we raise an army, we might try to find out what's going on. Let's talk about who we can ping. Who do we know?

What do we trust? Who can we talk to? I don't trust anybody, but let's say I have a few people who work for me that I at least know that... I know that they know what side of their bread is buttered and want to make sure that the wing still exists. I have a couple of fence contacts for moving arcane artifacts illegally either to me or from me, thanks to your brother. We should cross-reference our list, but we have a few of the same people on there. I'm sure. And then we have the donors, but of course,

and just to put it to you, is I can get them in the room where they're gonna want to meet you. You are right now just candy to people who give museums money. You are an artist, you're a hot shit, and now you are the brother of a traitor. Everyone's gonna want to,

to know that they had dinner with you. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Sorry. What else was on your list? Well, it's unavoidable. I don't mean to suggest that we raise an army, but I just want to give them an alternative because the enemy is going to absorb them,

but also in addition to that, I think that we should make contact with some of those former Revolutionary Guard that hopefully we can use to be use to be our own eyes and ears inside of their organization. I know somebody that I trust that I think can help us handpick some of those that have been recently dismissed, not to recruit ourselves, but to, well, I guess to recruit in the sense, to have them be moles for us.

Yeah, I like this. I hate trust. But we have to. But Azune, he's very well liked. You're a very respected person in the Revolutionary Guard. you're gonna have to flex that. I know. I have a couple of the things that I, on my list

that I need to immediately take care of. And that's one of them. I would hire them as a pretext to having security for moving all of the objects around, but I have a funny feeling they're gonna want their own people. Turn their eyes away if they take anything. Well, maybe we can do a little bit of both there. That's actually not a bad idea.

Maybe Azune can recommend some people from the candescent creed. Whatever this new mercenary group is, maybe we can kind of double dip there. I'm a little hesitant to suggest it, but I might have someone inside the Einfossen machine as well. You do? Well, there's someone in the company whose sister is an attending maid in one of the houses here, and She is easy to miss and hears a lot.

But I don't want to put her in danger. I think it's a little late for that. Oh my God, we really are so alike. I hate it. Are you ready for this? How? No. No, I'm not. I also know that one woman, Beteen who visits our salons on occasion from House Taconas.

This woman likes to hang out with Bohemians from time to time and visits on Belair in my little social club. And she is a terrible gossip and a horrendous flirt. I like a gossip. I'd spread some rumors. She's already told me more about her Taconis husband. Conis' husband then is probably decent, so that is maybe another possible in road. You also have a family name that you can lean on for quite a while. It's going to get you into some doors.

And with everything that's happened to your family in the last 48 hours, my God. Well, that's also a question, because I'm known throughout the city, but I don't know what these people think now of The Aussie's brother. I don't know. You won't until they talk to you. Right. I think Bolair's kind of right. It's exciting for them to rub shoulders

with someone who's a bit of an outlaw. And on the lower end, they'll be wondering, the people who did work for your brother will know that you had nothing to do with it. He made that very clear to anybody who would listen. People are going to be wondering where my sympathies lie. Very much. And if they're not wondering, it means they know.

The thing about rich people, too, is they kind of get their rocks off by rolling in the mud, The rest of us pigs. Troublemakers. I literally have my bathroom. Back in my apartment, I don't, but it would be hilarious if I did. Hal.

This person that is married to a Taconas, I think we can use that. There's already word traveling around that something has happened potentially to those that at least work at the plaza de Meadows. The people that work there haven't come home. There's like some word on the street. a little bit about wondering where they might be.

Of course, there's no way that Taconas would let something spread about what they've done unless they have a leak in their own family with a wife that has a big mouth. I can't wait a meter. It doesn't matter whether he said anything to her. I think that we need to start to get them to question who they can trust,

within their own ranks, within their own families. Where's Lockmere with our whiskey? Peek outside the door. Lockmere! As you do, you see that there are a few people down in the main area of the Seven Stars that are dressed in a lot of finery that appear to be excitedly telling a story

to some friends at the bar. You see that they're dressed up. One of them has a sort of porcel and Emerald studded half mask on a wand, a larger sort of very frilled evening gown. And next to her, like, swallow tails, silvery epaulettes on a blue coat. Orchish gentleman, who you see is wearing

a long black wig with several strands of like metallic gold hair throughout it falling down, are both sort of speaking to one of the servers behind the bar, shrugging and looking excited is Lockmere walks up with a big, tray of whiskey and coffee. Far more finery than we're used to seeing in this place. Uh, inappropriately dressed for this place.

Even for being a little bit closer to the style, these are people that are dressed for a gala. Oh, God, they're pre-gaming. Oh, no. Who are the peacocks down there, Lockmere? Hmm? Who are you entertaining? Who are the birds? Uh, well, I know the gentleman as Oris,

but the young lady I haven't met. Hi. It appears to be a recent paramour. Ors says, comes from a wealthy merchant family. Apparently, they just got turned away from something to do with a party tonight. I forgot about that party. I haven't slept.

I never forget him at a party. So it's pregame. Post, post, not pre. It's awake for a part of, yeah. Combined. Have you heard anything else? What are they saying? Let me go ask and get some information for you.

Yes, please. You see he deposits the drinks. Turns around. We didn't ask though, it's not from us. It's not just be curious, just be casual. Who asked? Correct. And he walks up.

He's not an actor, don't confuse him. Well, I will say I do think it is important if we have a few eyes and ears inside some of these rich people's houses. Yes. However, I think it is going to be important to tap the other side of the caste system, and I think that that's something that I can tend to. Here's the thing.

Rich people have always thrived off of the backs. of the working class. That's not going to change. They can't do any of this stuff without a few working hands. So you can reach out to some of my contacts and the underbelly, the Thieves Guild, Black Market. They're going to need resources, right?

So there's going to be some sort of movement of whether it be magical items, whether it be money, there's gonna be something going on. They can't. We don't know what we're going to need, which means we need every option available. Yes.

Who is the man who wanted to talk about skulls at the Ozzy's wake? I got you. Thank you. It's somewhere on my note. For the second I was like me. No, let's see who can get it first. It's had an interesting idea too.

I think was this DeVrazigant? I believe it was. That sounds DeVrazzi Gant. I'm putting whiskey in my coffee while this is happening. Oh boy. Yes. You see Lockmere comes up a moment later and says, appears there's been some very exciting news from the Palazzo de Vinos.

Ores and his companion, a young Camilla. and a young Camilla were invited to their first, had their dance cards already, were headed to the Palazzo, which is absolutely enchanted with no sight of the Divinos or more to the point of the Royce anywhere. Fairy lights all throughout the castle

and perhaps a feast laid out Everyone's saying, help yourselves a goodbye feast, courtesy of the Royces on their way to ferry. Perhaps the doors have reopened. Perhaps it's a banner day. So it appears they're planning to host a party in celebration of their leaving the city. And didn't denounce it as such.

Apparently the invitation was one simply of them being in a state that they were in residence at the Palazzo de Venus, which is not typically normal, nor indeed for a member of the Royce family to be in attendance. They don't even have a manor here in Dolmachia. But I suppose they came as part of the trip to ferry. It's exciting. So the party's on.

I don't know. It sounds like perhaps this is a version of being sent to a farm in the north. I think they may be gone, gone. This is a lot of drugs. People are going to be very interested. This is a terrible, terrible idea if you're trying to not raise suspicions or why. They did mention that there were no,

there were lights, that food was laid out and there was no, but there was no representative of the, of their houses. Of the house, it was empty. And is the public partaking? Did they? I've noticed something like this. Are people there?

Having a party? The food was laid out. my understanding, my understanding is that the Lady Camilla wished to stay and that Master Oris left. It was, he seemed to think there was an unusual time. There were some commoners arrived and caused a bit of a ruckus. Sure. Searching for. There was a man outside the plaza shouting through the gate being asked to a

I'm barely looking for someone. I want to hear this from the horse's mouth. I was about to say. Stream out the door. Head down there at the bar. Yeah. Okay. Sir and lady, I will buy you this round and the next

if you'll take me to where it is you are going because it is better than here. You see that Lady Camilla turns out and says, my goodness, pleasure to meet you. My name is Camilla Blushthras. Charmed, I'm sure, and this handsome devil? Ores Blade. It's nice to meet you.

I'm peeking around the corner to watch this. I want to see, was there a moment of recognition? Do either of them know who this is and they're just being polite? Give me insight. I don't require this. Where's my... Yeah, everything's working.

There we go. Insight. Come on, don't be a jerk. Natural 20. Camilla knows exactly who he is. Yeah. And you see It's every little sign within, basically in the moment

that she clocks him, her ring studded hand finds itself resting on the outside of his upper arm. If I'm gonna be honest, you're a little overdone for the seven stars, not that we're complaining. Do you think I would have had two handmaidens straining away at this corset to come to the seven stars? No, not at all. Our night's been absolutely ruined.

Ruined. do tell. Well, all I'm going to say is I think if you're secretly planning to have a party on the other side of the doors to ferry, the least you could do would be to invite me. Lockmere, line them up, please. You have it, Mr. Fang? And she goes, would that be Mr. Hallandiel, Fang. There we go. It would indeed. I have been watching the shows at the Lyceum for years. And I hear tell that there's, to be be truly a grand theater instated at the old abandoned amphitheater at the bottom of the city?

You know, believe it or not, you must be coming to my shows a lot because I thought I recognized you from across the room. You are a lover of the arts. And I thank you for it. Pat her hand. Well, normally I would say guilty, but these days, that seems like something that shouldn't be said too loud. Oh, Jesus.

You see that Oris is just sort of, you know, staring off into the distance. I'll say, too, as she sort of refers to the place at the bottom of the hill, she is a young human woman. And Oris is, with the last name, Blade, Orris is like either local or like from west of here in Kahad. Yeah, I'm going to make a cool. Toned up. I'm at this point, I think this is a moment to plant a seed. I'm going to, as drunkenly with as much, like, attempts to hide Flair while giving Flair as I can.

Make my way over to you. And Hal, if you have a second, we have to come back. I know that everything's a mess, but we really need to make sure that everything opens. If you need to make changes to the script, that's fine, we can do it, but we have to, oh. Oh, I'm so sorry. I see you're busy.

We have to talk about this. This is just too much to deal with. Belair. This is a patron. Oh, I'm so sorry. You heard nothing, please. We'll discuss this later. Everything's fine.

You see that she looks at you and says, are you one of Mr. Fang's performers? I wish I had such a talent. No, just a very big fan. Oh. You see that she looks down at the mask in her hand and looks at you and says, you're not a, but you, and you see that Orr says,

Camilla, this is one of the most Fasters of the Arkanaad. In the silken leather. You see that she says, this is, is this one of the most cultured taverns in the city? I thought the rookery was a little bit of a hodgepodge. You see, Orris shakes his head, side to side and says, the rookery is home to some of the city's finest eateries and establishments. It's just a hike to get up here. You see, he nods and says, the locals like it that way. Less thoroughfare, less people on their way somewhere else. Makes it worth the journey.

Mm-hmm. I'm so sorry. I let you both get back to this. We will discuss this. As much as I love telling stories, I love hearing stories. Where are you going tonight? You see that she says,

wow, I love to meet you, Master. Oh, Blair, hello, yes, pleasure. You see, she says, you really do know everybody. That one is an artist through and through, Believe you, me. She said, I should think so. The work on that mask is exquisite. You see that she says, well,

where are we headed? I certainly don't know myself. We were to spend the night dancing at the Palazzo de Vinos. What happened? Wouldn't you want to know? And don't we all? We arrived, thinking that there would be a chance

to dance and enjoy the hospitality, some fine, tell, more in wines, and instead, we found ourselves walking through fireflies hanging in the air, some sort of ethereal music on the breeze, the parlor tricks of a house steeped in sorcery. Sure, sign me up. Found the banquet tables laid out and a massive banner flying high above some tapestries, saying, our final feast hosted in the city of Dolman. May all have safe passage to the realms beyond.

We await our brothers and sisters in fairy. They've done it. Now, what I want to know is this. Why say you're having, I mean, just either do it or wait for us all to get there and do it in front of us so we can at least see it. Do it at the end of the party. Capstone, a reward for those that have been burning

their heels in these ridiculous shoes. I helped me understand. And were you alone? How many people showed up at this? What, you see, Oris looks and says, we arrived fashionably late and there was some 80 people already there. By the time we left, there were some two, three hundred. But many were leaving as fast as they got. The food was a fine spread, but there were no servants,

no anyone dancing. Scandalous. I think so. Go ahead and give me an insight check yourself, how? Mm-hmm. D-D-D-D-D-D-D. That is really low. That is an eight.

On an eight insight, you see Oros just shaking his head, seeming sort of put upon. Are Murray and Azune close by? Is this happening or no? No. No. I was going to be maybe at the top of the stairs listening in, but I don't want to be seen. And I will have at some point tugged you

to have a conversation with you. And I, and I, and I, I definitely walked by a little bit, but I'm still trying to listen, but. Either of you give me a perception or an Arcana, your choice. Okay, I was like, okay. You have exhaustion. I do still have exhaustion, so this is a disadvantage.

Would I be able to do this too if I have a gone on the way up there. You can give me Arcana perception. Did you just drink an Irish whiskey though. Yeah. There you go. I don't think it helps. Natural 20.

Where was this earlier? King go. Wow. I was gonna say, my spider since it's been tingling. Yeah. So can Murray, as I'm like up at the top of the stairs with the Zune, I pull out a little mirror compact and I take the little sponge and I kind of like,

oh my god, the dark circles under my eyes. And I dab them and I cast C invisibility. Hell yeah. So can I do this roll with C invisibility? Yes, you can and that will cancel that disadvantage. You don't cancel a disadvantage, okay. Because you're specifically looking for hidden Right?

Yeah, or if anyone's being nosy. You're nosy. Natural one. Oh, boy. I give up. That's a great time to roll a natural one. You do not see anything invisible. You don't see anything unseen.

You don't see anything present in the space. Did that 26 Arcana do anything for me? It did a lot for you. Hell yeah. Walking away, you see that Oras, there are a number of names names that are super duper common orcish surnames. Fang is one of them. Blade is another one, Klaw is another one.

Basically a lot, like Shaper's War was 70 years ago. And prior to that, orcish custom under the horrifying tyranny of the conqueror of the god of war meant that a lot of family names were basically just these short, guttural like warlike names, Claw, blade, bang. Looking at

Oris Blade, you wonder if you'd see, there's something about him you recognize because he got mentioned as a merchant, mercantile. You recognize some of the stuff on his as being, you've seen it before on your way to, hold on one second,

to Potter's Field. You've seen it before. And you recognize Potter's Field because you realize his family is a huge ceramics merchant, pottery merchant family. Not that Pottersfield sells pottery, but just the name triggers something for you. And looking at Orris, you see him

sort of absent-mindedly fidgeting on that Nat 20, and he has a breakable spell glyph in his hand, much like the one on Azune's person. And I still have it. You still have it. Can I talk about it? Can I tell what it does or just that it's a glyph? On a 20, Arcana, you can tell that it's a spell.

26, yeah. 26, or Nat 20, 26. Nat 2026. On that, you see that he's sort of moving it over and over again. Wouldn't you know it? It's see invisibility. Shit. Okay.

That's fine. But I'll say on that that 20, even though that's Arcana, I'll throw some insight on there just to reward that Nat 20 as well. There's something kind of trustworthy about a paranoid person. The thing he's covering in his hand is that he's not as delighted as his date is. I think that he seems to you maybe a little bit rattled, right? Yeah. Something's going on.

Something's going on. And you can see him speaking to you how, so you get that on that Nat 20. Would we get a perception? That check it here as well. Do do, do. That is a 15. 15. You don't know what the spell is,

but you see him moving some kind of spell glyph in his hand. But you can't, from this distance, you can't see what this. I just kind of whispered. Oh, go ahead. Oh, sorry, go for you. You go first. I was going to say to how. Yeah, Camilla just looks at you going

an absolutely devastating evening, and I'm in this dress with that will take at least, you know, 20 minutes to get out of and know where to get out of it in. Well, you find yourself in good company. We're just rolling in. Why don't you spend the evening with us here? Lovely. Is there any band to strike up?

Are there any enterprising bars that would like to play a merry jig for us? There's something from a musician yourself, aren't you, Mr. Fang? Well, I'm not carrying this evening. Maybe if somebody put something in my hands. You see that she looks around in the corner and says, or puts your hands on something. And she looks in the corner and sees shoved into a corner

that there is a harpsichord. And she says, do you know how to play? Passing fair. And she says, well, and you see that she looks out the window. There's a couple bars on this block, and you see that there's some people outside. And she calls off and says, Jenis, Yulia, come, come inside.

And you see that she calls out to some friends and turns around, you see Lockmere shrugs and points to it. Sure, I head over and I look up at Murray as I pass and just mouth the words, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. If you do not have proficiency with this instrument, I will ask for instead a performance role at disadvantage.

Sure, because no, I play many instruments and this is not one. Okay, performance. Performance. You said performance, right? Yes. Performance. That's a natural 20.

Natural 20. Disadvantage though. Oh, god damn. You can only twice, buddy. You got it. I hate to do it to you. Come on, come on. What do we got? What do we got?

That's pretty good. That's all right. That's a 19 total. Nineteen total. You are, you have a, you have a number, You have never played a harpsichord before, so stuttering through the first keys as you kind of find the scales out, you are able to pick out a very simple melody

that it basically just alternates between a couple of notes over and over again. It's a little tavern ditty. A little tavern ditty. And she starts to dance. Dear gods, what is he doing right now? This is actually brilliant. You see that Orris comes over to you

and says, Mr. Fang, for, as you finish the song, you see that he puts four gold pieces on the harpsichord saying, not that you need it, but out of pure respect for the craft, I can't imagine any Dolmachia orc has come up and asked you to play the harpsichord before. And you see this harpsichord is covered in dust

with like a blanket over the back half of it. Lockmere shrugs and says, I like it. And he goes, thank you. for humoring, Camilla. The song is over? The song is over. I want to walk in to make sure that this group hasn't split up quite yet.

No, there are a number of different nobles. And I would say not even know it was like gentry. This is the weird place where like these are the merchants that are looking to marry the fourth children of vassal houses of the Sundert houses, right? that weird blurred line where the money starts grabbing little fringes at the end of aristocracy. Yeah.

Still room to climb. Still room to climb. For the rest of you, what are you doing? I just kind of dig out a little bit of like towel powder out of my eyes. I'm so tired. It's the magic's not even working. My eyes are so bloodshot. Do you, look, you have done so much.

Do you need to take a break up here? There's clearly work that can be done down there. Looks like the party's here. I feel like there's some more we have to talk about. Yeah. I'm heading down. Well, while this is happening, I'm getting into this conversation. Okay, I have to tell you something.

One of the things on my list that I was going to keep to myself is that I think that Einfoss sent is on to me. He knows my history with the Falconer's Rebellion, and I think that he, in not so many words, has made it very clear that my loyalty might be tested. I need you to remember this name. Varon. Varon. Varon what? Cadorn. Cadorn?

Yes. K-A-D-O-R-N. Okay. He is a guard for one of the Sundered houses, and he is a former Falconer's Rebellion fighter. He goes to the Falconer's arrest on a weekly basis. I see him there. He is very trustworthy. He is who I would approach to try to get some of the revolutionary guards

that he trusts together to be our inside people. I want you to know his name in case I don't come back tomorrow. You're gonna come back tomorrow. We don't know that. What do you have planned? Are you gonna go do something stupid? Probably. You shook your head no and then said, probably.

Just to confuse you, I hope it worked. It's, um, it's easy to go to, shall we join them? And I start to head down. Listen, I was saying, I want, I grab his hand. We're probably heading back, depending on, unless you... I want to finish up. Listen to me. With, uh, with Orrb.

with Oras, but I don't want to interrupt here. Oh. You and I are in the same boat, okay? I know. Dean Cora is also very much on to me. And I think one of the first things that I'm gonna have to do as part of this grand plan that we're all planning is I might have to go

and apologize. It's the worst. It's the worst thing. I hate to have. So I'm gonna go. I'm gonna kiss her ass. Mm-hmm. So we're gonna have to be,

we're gonna have to lay low on the inside. It's the only way any of this works is if we pretend to be one of them. Yes, I know. And that's gonna be really hard for you. I know. But you could do it. Marie,

one of the best things about you is that you're so you, that they don't deserve to see that part of you. Don't show them the buttons that they can press. You have more experience eating ass than kissing it. Okay. As Hal finishes up the song, because you're preparing to return to your companions.

I'm doing a little thing once you're done, because I want to plant one or two more. I want to plant a big seed when you, well, I'll just say that as I'm winding down and Camilla is dancing with her friends in the middle of the tavern, and Oris has just hand me that coin. As I'm finishing and winding down the song, Hey, you know, I know we're making Mary here. But the reality is it's getting hard out here.

I watch her dance around with their friends. Make merry well we can. Let me ask you, what do you think was going down at that place? Do you think they really moved on? Seems pretty abrupt. He shrugs and says, with respect, Mr. Fang, why are you asking me?

Your brother, I mean, we all knew thee. I've freaked. every ark that grew up in the city, New Theazi, that knew of him. He was married to the lady of the great house. Did she ever say anything to you? I don't mean to act like I know your business, but you're a famous actor,

and your brother is even more, it was a war hero. So I'm sorry to know your business, but I had questions for you, frankly. Sure. My brother liked to keep me free and clear, and no, this is news to me. So it's given me a bad feeling, and I'm just wondering. Two days after, I can't imagine what you're going through, but I'll let you know that I might have come into some money, but I'm not like any gestures to the sort of dancing, capering people, and he just goes, they killed one of ours. I know he was yours, but he was yours, but he's not like any gestures to the sort of dancing, capering people, and he just goes, I, they killed one of ours.

I know he was yours, but he meant something to a lot of us in this city. He meant something to a lot of us. And we left because when they were trying to dance to that twinkling music or whatever it was, you couldn't dance to it, and everyone was just standing around laughing and continue just saying, I can't believe it, I can't believe it over and over again. There was a man, more than a couple, but there was one of them. There was a dwarven man who was screaming and crying at the gates, not being let in who was asking where his daughter was,

saying that she worked at the Palazzo over and over again. There were the rather working folk outside who had come looking for people that hadn't come home. And they dragged him off into the shadows, and he was screaming, he punched one of the guards. I'll be my place to say, I know you just met me, but former brother's sake, if you catch wind of anything, will you get word to this place to me?

You can leave it here with Lockmere? Yeah. As you say that, you see he suddenly gets a look in his eye as he, you can just see it's very clear on his face. He's wondering if he's stepped too far. He's wondering if he can trust you. And you just hear a little snap in his hand as he breaks this spell glyph.

Azana, give me perception with advantage here. Perception or arcana. Perfect. Perfect. The, what did you get? 15. As he snaps, so you see he looks around, and you see he just sort of paranoid,

see if anyone else is watching. He says, I'll leave word here if I see anything. I take his hand and kind of tug him in closer to me. I'll listen for the Falconer's call. I see this ending and I'm going to gracefully glide in and break this up because we have work to do. work to do. We should say goodbye to the lovely, lovely young woman really quickly. Do your work. Oh, oh. Pleasure. She's having a time of life. Oh, yeah. Dear, just say goodbye very quickly.

You see, says, Master Belair, thank you, and Mr. Fang. I'll see you at the hallowed round. And as I take you away a little too loud, we're going to have to talk about those edits. I'm not saying they're not great, but it's a big controversial, don't you think? I know you're upset. You might I'll be a long ago there. You walk away, and you see Orris looks at you, thinks about what it means that you said, and you can see leaves with some degree of perhaps resolve and trepidation mixed together.

But then again, isn't that what you're feeling? You see, as you watch him snap that, Kuzonay. I see it. You have, on a 15 perception, you see he triggers the glyph, snapping it in half. Something's wrong. Something's wrong.

I'll say I'll whisper that if Burry's near me. Something's wrong. I'm going to go for the glyph that I have. I'm going to try one more time to do something. As he says, something wrong. I'm just going to kind of rub my forehead a little bit, and I take my fingernail with the quail tip, and I just kind of trace it around the corner of my temple

and carve a little glyph kind of under my head and cast Detect Magic. You cast Detect Magic. The magic looks out. The illusion on the glyph has faded on the false glyph. The illusion of the false cliff has faded. And on that detect magic, you see the sea invisibility from Oras fade away into the distance.

As you guys return to the top of the stairs, standing in the doorway to the aviary, the smell of coffee and whiskey through the door here to this little garden, hanging flowers and bird coops. You pull the glyph out. It's unbroken. If it's unbroken, how did Theazi know it was fake?

The Ozzy died before he even tried to use this. I'm not getting any magic from it. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm replaying that in my mind. The sequence of events as was expected. He didn't even get a chance to use this. It's supposed to break for it to work, and he never even got a chance to break it.

It would stop him. Somebody else got to him and killed him in a different way before he died in the public performed way that we saw. You know hands behind his back, where you scanned for it in his coat. the perforated central line of the glyph. If he had pressed his wrists into the back of it,

arched his back, pressed. This should have broken. So something stopped him from doing that. Oh, he just never did. That's all for this chapter of the Schemer's story. Why? You're so much. We got to do.

Oh, you sure do. You sure do. We'll talk about it again another time. Fuck. Fuck, bugger. That's where we'll take our break. We'll see you on the second half as we conclude our soldier's story. See you there.

And that's where we'll leave our story for now. Part two of this episode of Campaign 4 drops this Tuesday. Thanks for listening. And we'll see you soon for more Critical Role.