Critical Role Review: Campaign 2 Episode 12
By: I.Am.No.Man.Missed last week's review? Find it here!
Episode 12: Midnight Espionage
[arve url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoZGMqCIRK8" /]
Recap
The Mighty Nein continue to plan their subterfuge with the Knights of Requital. They come up with a plan to gather the information and addresses of Lord Sutan that would be crucial in their plan to frame the High Richter Pruseen.Beau and Jester stake out Lord Sutan’s residence looking for any clues. Meanwhile, Mollymauk, Fjord, Caleb and Nott infiltrate the hospital where Lord Sutan’s son is a physician. They come up with the brilliant plan to disguise themselves as sick patrons of the hospital. Molly uses the hour of preparation to “leper up his dick” and make some fake vomit out of scrambled eggs, alcohol, and mayonnaise. Fjord disguises himself as a sick elderly man with a horrible cough that causes him to shart in his pants. Caleb and Nott use their old ‘Mother’s love’ trick and disguise themselves as a mother with a sick child. Things quickly become chaotic as Molly’s disguise works too well and sends the hospital into an uproar. There’s fake vomit, blood, a terrorized nurse, an attack kitty, and an involuntary incarceration ultimately ending in a violent, window-bursting escape from the hospital.Reconnecting after their missions, the group discover they haven’t been able to gather any useful information. Discouraged, but not defeated, they vow to use this mission as a practice warm up for the real breaking and entering they are planning for tomorrow.The next day, The Mighty Nein firm up their plan to break into the Lord Sutan’s and the High Richter’s homes. They sneak through the sewers into the Tri-Spires district where the rich and powerful live. There is a lively Gala going on in the center of town that works as the perfect distraction while they break into Lord Sutan’s estate. The group, with their contact from the Knight’s Requital named Ulag, grappling hook their way over the estate wall, break in through a secret trap door in the roof, and begin stealth through the house.Once inside, Nott and Ulag look for traps while Caleb searches the home for magical auras. Nott disarms several traps around the home allowing the others to move more freely around the home. While investigating a magical aura around a rug, they accidentally trigger the magic and the carpet comes to life, smothering Nott. They take a few frantic moments to try and free Nott while she screams in panic. Any damage they do to the rug also hurts little Nott. Beau, trying to wrestle the carpet off of Nott is suddenly swallowed up by the carpet as Nott comes flying out. A few more tense moments and a bit of sword slashing, the carpet lays shredded and defeated on the ground. Nott investigates the trap door and chest that the rug was guarding but accidentally triggers a trap and is left paralyzed. Beau and Jester hide the forged letters in a safe, grab the paralyzed Nott and attempt to escape the house without notice.Jester, who is weighed down by the paralyzed Nott, slips and falls off the roof and attracts a nearby Crown’s Guard. Molly tries to distract the guard but they guards are unconvinced and throw Molly and Jester out of the Tri-Spires. The distraction does allow the rest of the group time to escape and for Nott’s paralysis to wear off.Molly and Jester manage to sneak back into the Tri-Spires district and meet up with the rest of the group to continue with their plan to break into the High Richter’s home and plant more forged subterfuge evidence. In a ‘brilliant’ plan, Fjord and Jester disguise themselves as a guard and the High Richter herself and try walk in the front door of the home. The rest of the group breaks in the back door while Fjord and Jester do their thing and amazingly, they all meet up in the office room of the High Richter’s home. While planting their evidence, Caleb senses a strong magical aura coming from a scroll container and attempts to steal it. Fjord notices and angrily accuses Caleb of sabotaging their plan and acting selfishly. A Mexican standoff between falchion wielding Fjord, Nott’s crossbow and Caleb’s burning gauntlet’s leads to a tense moment that distracts the others from keeping a lookout.In a bout of bad luck, the High Richter has returned home unexpectedly and catches the Nein in the act of breaking and entering. She notices Ulag among the group and singles him out, saying she is glad she framed his wife and that she will rot the jail forever for his actions tonight. Ulag grabs a pendant around his neck and rushes towards the High Richter. Before anyone in the group can rush forward or react, Ulag tackles the High Richter to the ground, shoving a bead from his pendant into her mouth and holding her mouth closed. Suddenly, a massive, fiery explosion rocks the room. Caleb, who attempted to rush forward, is thrown backwards and knocked unconscious from the blast. The rest of the group, horrified by Ulag’s suicide bombing grab Caleb and flee from the home.In their flight from the house, Molly notices something out of the corner of his eye. He calls to the others to stop and they see a strange, black, vibrating orb at the base of one of the massive Tri-Spires towers. Another massive explosion rings out and the orb vanishes, collapsing the tower. Chaos ensues as townsfolk run screaming, a force-field surrounds the tower, preventing it from collapsing any further. Police-Mages begin chasing the two figures fleeing from the Tri-Spires, hunting them through the streets. The Nein make their way through the streets towards their sewer escape. As they turn the corner, a man runs towards them. A mage, flying overhead, sends a lightning bolt into the man, killing him. The Nein turn down a different street and run in another direction. A dark figure has taken cover in an alleyway they run down. He carries a grey, glowing orb in his hands and he clutches at a wound. The figure, dressed in intimidating black-spiked armor, speaks to them in Under-Common and draws his weapon, rushing towards them.
Review
What an episode! I had no idea what to expect from this week’s episode and it was completely the opposite of what I thought would happen. There were so many memorable moments from this episode and watching the group role play through the insanely unpredictable scenes was priceless. My two stand out moments that are must see are the hospital recon mission, where Molly, Fjord, Caleb and Nott try to gain access and information from the physician son of Lord Sutan. In a frankly unbelievable series of bad rolls and even worse decision-making, they manage to terrorize the hospital staff, destroy much of the building, and barely escape without being arrested. The phrase, “You took an hour to cosplay your dick” really got me.The whole end sequence of the Nein’s escape from the house and witnessing the larger attack on the city was another favorite moment of mine. The slow-building tension while the group tries their best to escape, the near fails, and the two simultaneous attacks on the High Richter and the Tri-Spires towers felt much more like the Critical Role that I love.While I will say that espionage stories and secret anti-government missions are not my favorite story lines, I am excited to see the conclusion of the cliffhanger we were left with at the end of this episode. I was happy to see Matt move the story along in a quicker pace and the surprise of a coordinated suicide attack and a possible bombing piqued my interest. I did agree with Sam’s sarcastic sentiments about this episode. He joked that this would be the most intense episode yet!—watching them look for documents and addresses. I was worried that the whole of the episode would be taken up by breaking into the High Richter’s home on their singular mission. Hopefully next week’s episode gives us a little more action and some fun new story plotlines to get into!If you're interested in watching Critical Role but feel like it is impossible to catch up, Geek and Sundry are now making Recap videos! Critical Recap, hosted by Dani Carr, reduces each episode to about a 4 minute video with a quick retelling of the action and various clips from the show. You can find Critical Recap here and here!Feeling superstitious? My review of episode 13 is live!
