Critical Role Review: Campaign 2 Episode 11

By: I.Am.No.Man

Miss my review last week? Find it here!

Episode 11: Zemnian Nights

[arve url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3JWNPcspoM" /]

Recap

The Mighty Nein take a couple of days to explore the city of Zadash Molly, Nott and Fjord drop by for another visit to Pumat Sol at his shop, the Invulnerable Vagrant. Meanwhile, Jester, Caleb and Beau sneak into the upper class part of town called the Tri-Spires. Jester finds pastries, Caleb finds a bookstore full of smutty romance novels. The three spend several long minutes perusing the shelves, finding stories like : Zemnian Nights, Tusk Love, The Enchanting Trist, Scent of the Sea, and Guard of My Heart. Caleb finds the banned book section, searching for something that would help him “learn something while being titillated.”

Beau, Fjord and Caleb meet up with the Resistance rebels, Knights of Requital. They ask for the Nein’s help in tracking down a man named Lord Sutan who is into some dirty business with a group called the Myriad. He is protected by a corrupt government official named High Richter Pruseen. They hope to use Lord Sutan as a turncloak against the High Richter and remove her from power.

That night, just before bed, Nott goes sneaking into Fjord and Molly’s room and gets cornered by the two of them. With no way out, Nott confesses to trying to steal Fjord’s letter of recommendation to the Academy. She wanted to give the letter to Caleb to help him get into the Academy and learn more powerful magic. She needs Caleb to become stronger to protect her from the dangers in the world. She reveals that she feels everyone is out to get her. Fjord and Molly try to reassure Nott that they will also do their best to protect their little friend.

The next morning, The Mighty Nein come up with a plan to infiltrate the Tri-Spires and investigate The High Richter. They disguise themselves as a band of high class merchants with a problem that only the High Richter can help them with. They meet the slight elf woman, Pruseen, at her grand estate and she seems to be a short tempered, prejudiced woman with a disdain for common class folk. The group agree that this woman must be taken down and accept the Knights of Requital’s offer of over 500 gold to take the job. They settle in for the evening, with the promise that ‘at dawn, we plan.’

Review

I don’t think I’ve ever been more interested in the erotic fiction of a made up DnD world. Although this wasn’t an action packed, or story filled episode, there was a great overall sense of world building and laying down threads for future story lines.

Some of my favorite, stand out moments from this episode include Fjord and Molly confronting poor, sweet Nott about snooping through their things. The subsequent interrogation and little peek into Nott’s backstory just broke my heart. Of course, the highly anticipated return of Pumat Sol was as amazing as you’d hoped. I can’t get enough of Matt’s mannerisms and voice as the jolly shop owner. By far, my favorite moment of the episode was the visit to the smutty bookstore. I couldn’t believe how in depth and planned out this visit was, down to the amazing book titles and descriptions.

I am feeling a little skeptical of this ‘take down the corrupt’ story line. It’s moving a little slow and scattered for me to really get into it. I am reminded of last campaign, when Vox Machina tracked down Ripley to clear their names of murder. I wasn’t too terribly engaged with that story at first but ended up getting sucked into the ‘murder mystery’ type side story that took place. Hopefully this storyline leads to some exciting action next week!

Side Note: I've been really loving the fan submitted music from Colm McGuinness that they play during the breaks and art montage. You can hear the whole song here.

Episode 12 is here, and so is my review!