Spoilers for Critical Role Campaign 2 Episode 24 (obviously). Check out the recap for Campaign 2 Episode 23 here.
Go check out the full episode at GeekandSundry.com!
The Mighty Nein explore Hupperdook.
Previously
The Mighty Nein completed their first task for The Gentleman. They traveled into the swamps and cleared out the merrow that had taken over one of his safehouses. Along the way, they met Kiri, a Kenku child who was abandoned in the swamp. After finishing their business in the swamp, they traveled towards Hupperdook: a city known for its wild nightlife.
Now
The sounds of music and laughter begin to take the streets. Jester asks Risa what there is to do. She suggests that they stop at a tavern and buy her a drink.
Beau stops to buy some items for the celebration. She buys some sparklers, poppers, and a flower necklace for Jester.
Jester says they will likely dance tonight. Nott asks if they should choreograph something. Jester says yes and that they should get Kiri involved.
The group arrives at The Blushing Tavern. Jester immediately runs to the piano, saying that she is going to play the songs she learned at home. She launches into a rendition of “Chopsticks.” The pianist comes over to stop her. She continues to play, and he leaves.
Beau goes up to the bar to ask for rooms and order drinks.
Caleb casts haste on Jester. She quickly begins to play “The Entertainer.” The pianist comes up and insists that he play now. Caleb gives Jester a tip for playing. She gives him a kiss on the cheek.
Molly asks the bartender that will amaze him, baffle him, and make him forget where he is. He is given the first drink for free, so he pays for Beau’s. She unbuttons the top button of her blouse and tells them they will be a competition later that night: The Hour of Honor.
Fjord goes over to Caleb. He tells him that he thinks Molly might take over his room again tonight. Caleb guesses that Molly likely won’t be in the room much tonight. Still, he says Fjord is welcome in their room.
Nott sees a table over up. She and Risa rush over to the table. Two male gnomes stop Risa, saying the table isn’t for her. They tell her that the table is for working folk and to ask her father to make her one instead. Molly comes over and tries to intimidate them. However, he burps half way through his speech, breaking the intensity of the moment. One of the gnomes flicks Molly in the nose.
Molly uses a blood maledict to make the gnome go blind. Jester uses her tail to smack his butt. Nott jumps on the gnome and starts stealing from his pockets.
They scare the gnomes away and sit at the table. They ask Risa what the other gnomes meant when insulting her parents. She explains that her father was an inventor. Jester asks to meet him. Risa says perhaps tomorrow.
Beau brings around the drinks. Risa asks what they were doing in town. Fjord says that they are looking for work.
The music kicks in louder and the celebration amps up. The back doors open and gnome dancers emerge. The dance with rainbow scarves to the music. Jester tosses a silver. It is easily caught by the dancers. The others throw tips at the dancers as well.
Nott: “I don’t think we learn that dance.”
Jester: “I think we can do it.”
Jester and Nott quickly begin to rehearse some dance moves in case it comes up. Kiri dances as well. Nott asks Caleb to do some special effects. Caleb worries about how dangerous the magic will be during the dance routine.
They wonder what do with Kiri. Fjord insists that she go to bed, but Jester says she’ll come out of her room. Beau suggests getting her a child leash. Nott brings up that Molly said that they would send someone to the room. Nott says that, if they’re working anyway, they can watch Kiri.
Molly: “I have done some ridiculous things in my life. That might take the top of it though.”
Molly suggests asking Yasha if she would want to watch Kiri. However, Fjord goes up to the bar to ask how much it would be to have a prostitute stay in their room to watch Kiri.
The bartender thinks he’s coming onto her, but he quickly clarifies that he’s looking for three “companions.”
For an hour, three companions will run 20 gold. He says that he will consider and quickly walks away.
He tells the others about his findings. They ask why Kiri needs three babysitters and why she would only need to be watched for an hour. Fjord says he was just making things up and that it was all incredibly awkward.
Yasha agrees to watch Kiri. She says that Kiri is small enough that she can just hold her down.
Without Kiri, Jester and Nott need a third person. Caleb turns them down, so they ask Beau, who is irritated that she isn’t the first, nor the second choice.
The bartender comes over, asking when she should send the three companions to Fjord’s room. Jester interrupts, saying he’s already been with The Ruby of the Sea and that should just cancel the order, but Fjord nervously stammers out that he wants to put down a deposit. He puts down four gold to reserve his “reservation.”
Fjord: “Did you just say I’ve been with your mom?”
Jester: “I know. As soon as I said it, I knew it sounded really creepy.”
Jester offers to stay in the room and let the companions know if they’re any good or not. Fjord changes the subject, saying that they should explore the city. Yasha takes Kiri to her room.
As they walk through the city streets, Caleb keeps an eye out for a bookstore. Molly looks for bright lights and colors.
As they explore the shops, one closes upon seeing Nott. Beau tries to protest, but they close down anyway.
Nott asks Beau how she knew about Hupperdook. Beau explains that, before adventuring, she worked in a library for The Cobalt Soul. Nott pries more, and Beau explains that her parents are protective and she was rebellious. As they would go through towns, she got involved in illegal trading. She siphoned her parents’ wine and sold it on the black market for half the price.
Nott: “You were bootlegging your old man’s hooch?!”
After her parents found out about her activities, they arranged for her to be abducted by The Cobalt Soul and work for them instead.
Their attentions turn to Fjord and his upcoming appointment. However, during the conversation, Caleb notices a sign that says “Bent Binders.” Caleb rushes over to the store and looks in the windows for books. Inside, he sees a few books and some machinery for book binding.
Jester sees someone selling flowers. She rushes over and buys some for a copper a flower. Jester buys a bunch of flowers. She asks the little girl selling flowers how old she is and where she lives. Jester offers to bring Kiri around the next day to play.
They decide to head back to the tavern for The Hour of Honor. Caleb suggests to Nott that she makes sure she is adequately disguised before dancing. They discuss their plan for dancing. Jester uses her wand of smiles on a random townsperson. Beau ties the wand to the end of her belt to make it a ribbon of smiles.
They enter The Blushing Tankard once more. Molly puts 10 gold into the pot. This creates a bidding contest that tops out at 30 gold with Molly’s bid.
The Mighty Nein begins to drink, taking on Old Blemmy and his crew. Jester admits she’s never been drunk, so they guess she should sit it out. Nott says she’s never had a drink in her life. Jester is grumpy that she is kicked off the team, but decides that she can be a distraction for the other team. Fjord quickly plans who should compete when. The loser is the first to lose (pass out or barf) during three rounds.
Molly is up first and wins his round. Beau is next, but, despite putting up a good fight, loses the round. Next is Caleb who wins despite skepticism. Jester and Nott dance to distract his opponent. Fjord sits down across from an intimidating component. Still, he ends up easily winning.
The Mighty Nein win with the majority. Old Blemmy, angry at being bested, demands that they go double or nothing. Caleb says that they’ll do it for 100 gold. Blemmy says it’s too much. Jester decides the group will continue on anyway and go double or nothing. Nott goes up to take on the challenge. Used to a great deal of winning, she wins the round. Blemmy passes out. They get their free drink tokens and 48 gold after the house cut.
Fjord goes upstairs to use the water closet and passes out. Jester pulls Caleb onto the floor to waltz. The others join in. After dancing, Jester puts Caleb to bed.
Molly brings Beau up to her room and asks if he can try something. Beau says that she knows she’s very attractive, but he cannot try to kiss her.
Molly: “Whatever team you’re on, I’m not sure I play for that one.”
Molly uses a blood maledict to see if he can preemptively cure Beau’s hangover. He sobers her up a bit. She angrily declares a party foul.
They eventually all get to bed. When checking on Kiri, they see her and Yasha both sleeping.
They wake up the next morning with varying levels of hangovers. Beau sees that her coin purse is missing. Jester checks and she still has hers. She runs to the other rooms to yell at the others to check their coin purses. Nott, Fjord, Molly, and Caleb are all missing their coin purses. Caleb happily finds that his books and spell components are still there.
They think back to when they still had their coin purses. They had them when they split up the winnings. Fjord accuses Kiri of taking their money.
Nott: “Kiri, did you steal our money?”
Kiri: “Go fuck yourself!”
Jester says she has locate object, but the spell has limitations. They first ask Irena if she knows anything. When they go downstairs, they find that the bar is empty except for Risa and Irena.
Jester: “Irena, did you see anyone taking all of our money last night.”
Irena says that most people only take a few coins out while drinking. They go to the crownsguard outside to tell them that they wanted to report a theft. The crownsguard offers to investigate and says that it happens sometimes, but it’s not a huge trend.
They go to interrogate Risa. They find out that Fitz and Ashton, the two gnomes who were bothering her, came back into the bar last night. They decide to go to her parents’ place and cast locate object along the way to see if anything pings. She casts the spell on the drink tokens.
Risa leads The Mighty Nein to Tinkertop Inventions. It’s a small shack with metallic siding. She knocks on the door, saying that she has some friends who have been thieved.
On the inside, they see hundreds of clockwork objects. They see an older gnome with whitish gray hair. He wears a leather apron over his clothes.
Jester immediately asks if there are any toys Kiri would like. Master Tinkertop hands her a music box with a tiny metallic bird inside. Kiri begins to imitate the sound of the music box.
Jester asks how much it is. She pays three gold pieces for it.
He shows them his invention which he hopes will turn things around for him. It’s a hand crossbow with some clockwork elements. He says it’s about 2,000 gold, due to the magical enchantments. He calls it the Tinkertop Bolt Blaster 1000.
Fjord asks about why they have lost favor with the town. Tinkertop explains that he made a clockwork warden for the prison that he was very proud of. However, on its first run, it was completely uncontrollable and had to be sealed off from the rest of the prison. The townspeople haven’t been able to let it go. He is still paying off the fine.
Jester and Nott immediately offer to take care of the clockwork warden in exchange for the crossbow. While negotiating, Tinkertop lets Risa’s full name “Risanya” out for the rest of the party. She quickly rushes the group out.
They make their way to Ashton and Fitz. They immediately begin to intimidate them into revealing information about who could have taken their coin purses. Fitz begins to cry, but Ashton holds it together, though he is clearly scared. Neither know anything.
They ask about Blemmy. All they know is that he’s an “ice sailor from up north.” Caleb offers to their boss to pay their daily salary, even double it, if they agree to help them. Their bosses agree and send Ashton and Fitz to help The Mighty Nein solve the robbery.
They head away from the forge and discuss their options. They decide that Blemmy is their biggest suspect. Jester casts locate object as they pass into his neighborhood. Behind her, she senses the tokens. Jester immediately turns around and start running towards it. Eventually, they reach their destination: a boarded up building that says “butcher.”
They circle around to guard the entrances. From the roof, Beau sees four unmoving figures inside. They burst inside. They see that the figures are children guarding a pile of gold. Fjord immediately tries to calm them, saying they aren’t in any danger.
The children introduce themselves and explain that their parents were arrested for false worship. They said that, because their parents owned a butchery, they had enough food to keep going for a while. Then, they went to begging. When that didn’t work, they resorted to theft.
Fjord asks if they would be willing to leave if they broke their parents out of prison. The kids wonder how it’s possible, but agree.
Fjord appeals to the party to help the kids. Nott suggests just taking the children with them since they already have Kiri. They discuss if they have time to break their parents out of prison. They decide that, despite their mission, they will help the children.
Molly hands them one of his rings. He says to try to hold onto it and to stay within 100 feet of The Blushing Tankard and hide if there’s trouble. They have Kiri stay with the children. Jester explains that Kiri is a little girl rather than just a pet.
Fjord: “You take care of each other. You’re a temporary family now.”
Caleb puts his silver string around the room. He explains that he will know if any of them leave, but that they are allowed to leave if they need to.
They leave for their next adventure.
To be continued…
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About the Artist: Nick Uroseva (@Nick_Uroseva)
Nick is a professional graphic artist from Youngstown, Ohio. He has a BA in Multimedia Technology. When he isn’t doodling for one thing or another, he spends is his time writing and Dungeon Mastering several D&D games, enjoying craft beer, shooting zombies with Nerf blasters, and tweeting about #CriticalRole. Buy him a coffee!
