Critical Role Review: C2 Episode 82
By: I.Am.No.Man.
Episode 82: The Beat of the Permaheart
Oh Mighty Nein... why? Of all the crazy schemes and last second pivots, we somehow ended up here. INSIDE of the Dreadnought. "Let's just hold hands and peek inside the room", they said. "It will be fine, we'll run away." Uh huh, yeah. And they wonder why we have trust issues. Let's dive into this week's crazy session of Critical Role.
The action picked up on another intense fight. The Nein took on a monstrous abomination cloned from Halas. The awful beast was intimidating and rather horrifying, but the Nein handily took it down and smashed it to bits. There were a couple close calls, but nothing nearly as intense as the anti-magic golem fight from two weeks ago. The Frankensteined clone was able to do an alarming 6 separate melee attacks per round, which quickly took down a few of the Nein's squishier members. Nott, Fjord, and Caduceus all had experiences that were too close for comfort. Even after Jester seemingly got the kill shot, it's Deadpool-esque reanimation abilities still managed to create a rather dire situation for several extra rounds until Fjord burns it's heart out and Jester picks Caduceus back up.
The Nein manage to find the chamber holding the Permaheart. Halas appears to have shackled the heart in a magical prison while doing awful experiments on an eternal vessel for himself. This explains the horrible experiment chamber with the monstrous copies of Halas. It seems that the Permaheart corrupted the vessels in the same way the Laughing Hand was corrupted. The Nein manage to defeat the tentacled Permaheart, and in a later message with Allura, learn that the Laughing Hand seems to be quickly dying.
The exhausted Nein spent another long rest inside of the Happy Fun Ball, which means another week has gone by outside. Jester worries she will miss Traveler Con. Caleb takes some time to heal Little Willy, the automaton Golem. The Nein have some rather intense discussions about which room to travel to next.
Fjord (mostly Travis though, let's be real) has an intense curiosity about the Astral Dreadnought. Nott thinks the whole group have lost their minds for agreeing to "just take a peek" into the Dreadnought room. Caduceus and Jester have a bit of a Cleric battle over who's God will be more helpful. The Wildmother helps to narrow down some important information about Yussah, but it's the Traveller that comes in with the fact that Yussah is trapped in the Prison of Soot. With an endgoal now in mind, the Nein set off to find the most direct path there.
Somehow, the Nein get immediately sidetracked into visiting the Dreadnought. For all the warnings, Turn Back Now signs, Kill Bill sirens blaring, the Nein find themselves floating in the Astral Sea directly in front of the shackled colossal Dreadnought. Caleb realizes that the giant chains attached to the Dreadnought are controlled by the levers next to the door. He pulls the lever and the mouth of the Dreadnought is forced open. A quick Frumpkin investigation reveals another doorway inside the Dreadnought's mouth. Beau recalls that Halas wrote of a Ritual Chamber within the Dreadnought. Caduceus notices another door about 30 feet below them, safely away from the gaping maw of the beast... So, logically, the Nein hold hands and wander into the mouth of the Astral Dreadnought.
I think Sam Riegel echoed the voice of many critters during this last scene. The sole voice of reason in the sea of Chaotic Stupid that the Nein seem to have embraced. Mercer did reveal that the Nein are officially off the map, veritably lost somewhere in the hundreds of undiscovered levels still unmapped. This year's Halloween episode will be full of scares and screams for many different reasons this year. I know the Nein always manage to somehow find a way out of their predicaments, but dear gods above this is one hell of a show. It's almost Thursday!
Don't Miss It!
Episode 2 of UnDeadwood released on YouTube earlier this week. You can catch Geekly Grind's full episode review here. Don't miss episode 3 airing on Critical Role's Twitch channel November 1st.
Mini Primetime with Will Friedle premieres Wednesday October 30th! The first episode features Sam Riegel painting Nott the Brave. If the ads and spotlights are any indication of how entertaining this show will be, you'll definitely want to tune into this program.
Also, if you didn't catch this week's episode of Talks Machina, episode 130, it is 100% worth watching. It's a picture of absolute professionalism and highly informative....who are we kidding. If you enjoy the bi-weekly roast of Brian Foster on Yee Haw Game Ranch then you'll love the hour plus long, exhaustion fueled annihilation of Cabbage man. Plus, critter favorite Arsequeef makes a glorious appearance!
