Hi! We're Project Derailed! Making nerdy content on the internet!

Critical Role Recap: C2E19 – “The Gentleman’s Path”

Spoilers for Critical Role Campaign 2 Episode 19 (obviously). Check out the recap for Campaign 2 Episode 18 here.
Go check out the full episode at GeekandSundry.com!

The Mighty Nein are offered new opportunities outside Zadash.

Previously

The Mighty Nein have become increasingly tangled in the politics of the empire while in Zadash. Recently, the king declared war on Xhorhas. They were offered a place fighting for the empire, but they left to find supplies after discussing the matter.

Now

They make their way across the Penta Market down into the interior of The Evening Nip tavern. Below, they hear the familiar sound of tavern music, but also shouts, cheers, and something skidding across tavern tables.

When they enter the subterranean tavern, they see the bar goers crowded around two other patrons fighting, much to the delight of everyone else. They see that one of the fighters is Louis, one of the people who ran from the research facility. The other is Thed, who originally informed them in the sewers where to find The Gentleman.

Thed manages to get his boot on Louis’s neck, knocking him out. The crowd cheers and carries Thed off. A few others bring Louis back to consciousness.

Jester immediately tries to get Beau to fight her. The crowd turns and starts to watch Beau and Jester.

Beau: “What are the rules?”

Jester: “Just hit each other!”

They both charge into the center and fight one another.

Caleb casts haste on Beau. He doesn’t try to hide his actions.

Jester punches Beau in the face and casts inflict wounds. A series of blood vessels in her face and neck suddenly burst. She recoils briefly.

Fjord [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][disguising his voice]: “I have five gold on the horny one!”

Beau, upset that her friend isn’t just hitting her with her fists, unleashes her full fury on Jester. She repeatedly pummels Jester in the face and ribs. Beau hits Jester in the base of the spine, locking her muscles.

Fjord walks to the other side of the crowd.

Fjord [disguising his voice]: “I’ve got ten gold on the one with the bandages!”

As Jester is stunned, Beau continues to punch into Jester. She knocks the wind out of the tiefling before continuing to lay into her. She knocks Jester unconscious before she is able to get another hit off.

The crowd cheers for Beau as Jester falls to the ground.

Nott: “Um, guys. She’s my healer, so could someone… She’s dying right now.”

Someone splashes water on Jester’s face. She wakes up and tells everyone how cool the fight was. As they talk, the haste fades and Beau instantly becomes extremely lethargic.

Caleb sends Frumpkin over to Jester to lick her face. Jester announces that Frumpkin is an evil creature to drinks blood.

They go over to talk to The Gentleman. He reminds them of the current political climate and the war that has just recently started. However, he says he is uninterested in political endeavors. He says that he has a few more jobs for them before they get involved with the King’s Hall.

He reveals that he has friends to the north he hopes to reconnect with. He tells them that his friend is Ophelia Mardune, and he tells them where to find her. He suggests they go to Shady Creek Run to help Ophelia in her current predicament. He offers 5,000 gold for this task.

He adds that his safehouse and storage facility in Barrelbend has gone dark. Some of those who investigate have not returned. Others are simply refusing to investigate further. He gives them a contact to meet at a tavern. He offers 250 gold pieces up front with a total of 1,000 gold pieces later.

If the party completes both, there may be a bonus for them.

Nott asks The Gentleman if he can match the offer made by the crown. He refuses, saying that he is not necessarily making a counter offer. Jester adds that the crown was willing to give them healing potions and supplies in addition to payment in gold. The Gentleman agrees that this is fair. Caleb asks specifically for high quality paper and ink.

The party grabs a table and begins to discuss their options. Nott points out that taking these jobs will lead them past Hupperdook, which makes Jester excitedly advocate for taking the jobs. They decide to take the swamp job.

They go over to inform The Gentleman. He tells them that if he they do not accept both jobs, the other will be reassigned. They agree to take both jobs.

The Gentleman recommends a route other than the river for the swamp job. He warns them that taking the underground river with such a large group may attract the attention of foes.

He gives them their advance of 750 gold pieces. He also gives them two vials and explains that they are vials of greater healing and cure disease. The Gentleman also gives them parchment and ink, but Caleb doesn’t think he can transcribe spells using it.

They leave, exiting the tavern and going back into the city. They make a stop at The Invulnerable Vagrant for Caleb’s paper and ink. He asks for incense as well.

Beau looks for something to buy, but she is sticker shocked by the prices on some of the magic items.

Caleb suggests a frequent customer discount before leaving.

As they leave, Caleb tells Beau that he was the one who cast haste on her. He tells her that since she did a favor for him, he can do one back.

Caleb poofs Frumpkin onto Yasha’s shoulder while he transcribes. Jester asks if Frumpkin dies or goes to another plane of existence when he’s kicked. Caleb asks if she was read stories about The Feywild as a child by her mother. She says that her mother didn’t read her stories about it, but The Traveler told her all about it.

They make their way through Zadash to the northern wall. Clusters of townsguard escort Righteous Brand members to the east wall. They step out of the city onto the dirt road. They glance around and take a deep breath. To the east, they see thousands of soldiers marching towards war. They start their 75 mile journey down The Amber Road. As they walk, the city disappears behind them.

Jester tells Nott that they are likely to be attacked in order to scare her. They look for a place to stop for the night, but nothing sticks out to them as providing any cover. Fjord suggests simply sticking close to the road.

They set up a campsite near the road. Jester and Fjord take the first watch. Yasha and Beau go next.

Beau asks Yasha if they should huddle together for warmth. Yasha says that with Frumpkin and her cloak, she is plenty warm. She tells Beau that this is the farthest she’s been from Xhorhas. She likes the grass, she says. Beau asks Yasha what her favorite part of Xhorhas was. Yasha says she doesn’t have a favorite part.

Molly and Nott take the last watch.

In the morning, the shake the frost off and get back on the road.

Jester asks Nott if they will pass by her hometown. She explains that they didn’t necessarily have a hometown, but, instead, they lived as nomads further south. She tells them that living with goblins is awful and the rumors are all correct. Caleb and Jester tell her that their mothers used to warn them that goblins would take little children who were bad.

Nott: “All right, so that’s true. It doesn’t really matter if you were good or bad though.”

Jester is horrified and asks if they would eat the children like her mother said. Nott says they would, and they would share with the rest of the clan. They ask if Nott is joking, and she insists that she is being very serious; goblins are terrible. She promises them, however, that she has never personally eaten a child. They cannot tell if she’s being truthful or not.

They ask about her parents. She explains that they don’t have parents quite like other races do. She isn’t sure who her parents or siblings are, but she assumes everyone is related somehow.

Fjord asks if she ever craves eating children. She says that she doesn’t. She does, however, crave rats, cats, and other animals. She likes meat, not flesh.

As they travel and ask Nott about her life, Molly spots smoke in the distance. They continue onward towards the smoke. As they get closer, they see that the smoke is rising from a small shack.

Yasha goes up to the door and knocks. A few heavy footsteps fall from the other side of the door. The door opens a few inches. Inside is an elderly full-blood orc. One of his hands remains out of sight. He asks Yasha what her business is.

She replies that they saw smoke and wanted to make sure everything was fine. He says that it is. Molly explains that they’re trying to avoid the rush of soldiers to the east. He asks if the orc has any wares for sale. They are allowed inside, and the orc takes his hand he kept out of sight off of his weapon.

They enter and see freshly stained hide armor. They offer the orc 16 gold pieces for the armor and two pounds of meat. He accepts the offer.

They wish him a good day and go on their way.

When they get back to the cart, they try the meat. It’s good and will keep, but they can’t figure out what type of meat it is.

At the end of the day, they find a wooded area just off the road to make camp. Yasha finds some posies and presses them in a book.

As Caleb and Nott do their watch, a poisoned arrow flies out of the darkness and hits Caleb. A cluster of goblin-like creatures, wolves, and two ogres emerge from the darkness.

Beau, nudged awake by Caleb, runs towards an ogre.

As they come closer to the group, The Mighty Nein realizes that the creatures are definitely goblin. Nott, knowing their language, hears them shout commands to one another.

The goblins loose more arrows. One hits Yasha, but she isn’t affected by the poison. Another hits Jester. The goblins hide behind the nearby trees after firing their arrows.

Caleb casts slow on one of the ogres.

Fjord casts hexblade’s curse. Then, as he runs forward, he casts eldritch blasts at two of the goblins. One misses, but the other one hits particularly hard.

Molly draws his scimitars. He cuts through one of the goblins. He goes through another, but his scimitar lodges into a tree. He quickly pulls it out.

One of the ogres pulls out a javelin. It chucks it at Caleb. The attack hits and the javelin sticks into Caleb. He still manages to maintain the spell.

Nott yells “modern literature” to Caleb. She rushes over to the goblins and fires towards Caleb. She fires her crossbow, and hits the book under his arm. He falls over, pretending to play dead.

In Goblin, Nott tells the other goblins to loot the horses and cart while she holds off The Mighty Nein.

Jester yells out to Caleb, who she thinks is dead. To the others, it looks like Nott has betrayed them.

Jester casts cure wounds on the “dead” Caleb. He continues to play dead. Jester begins to cry and yell out to the others. She tries to drag Caleb away from the fire.

Yasha, also horrified at Caleb’s death, uses necrotic shroud. The campfire dims instantly. Two large, skeletal black wings emerge from her shoulder blades. The white tips of her hair and her eyes go jet black. She strides forward with her sword.

She goes into a rage and attacks the ogre.

The wolves rush in to attack Jester and Caleb. Beau hits one with her staff as it passes.

Jester shoots spells at the wolves, killing one in the process.

Beau does a flurry of blows to the ogre.

The goblins fire back at The Mighty Nein.

Caleb casts sleep on the goblins. Jester reacts with shock when she sees Caleb is alive.

Molly carves one of the goblins in half. He swings towards another, but the goblin is ready for the attack and blocks it with his blade.

Jester casts sacred flame on the wolf in front of her. The spell hits. Then, she summons her spiritual weapon.

Yasha points her blade at the ogre and grab his shoulder. She pulls him forward, skewering the ogre on her blade and killing him. She attacks the other ogre, but he remains standing.

Beau leaps towards the remaining ogre. She hits it with her staff. She uses flurry of blows, but she is unable to kill him.

Seeing the ogre fall, the goblins begin to run away. The Mighty Nein let off attacks on them as they go.

Fjord fires two eldritch blasts at the ogre. Both impact him in the chest, and he falls over, dead. The rest of the goblins run away. Molly kills the last wolf.

One of the goblins tries to run away with loot from the cart. Caleb takes him down with five magic missiles.

When the fight ends, Jester asks Yasha if she’s an angel. She says that she isn’t and that she can’t fly. In Celestial, Caleb asks again if she’s an angel. In Celestial, she replies she’s an angel of sorts.

Caleb: “Well, I figure you’re going to have to explain this a bit now or later.”

Jester starts to lick her spiritual weapon. Caleb points out to Yasha that Jester is getting impatient, and they should talk about her angelic ancestry.

Fjord thanks Caleb and Nott for warning them of the danger. Beau asks if Nott recognized any of the goblins, but she didn’t. Jester asks if it was weird to fight other goblins.

Nott: “It was very rewarding.”

Jester: “Oh. You liked it?”

Nott: “Yes. I’m only sad that one got away.”

Beau asks if the hate she feels towards goblins she feel towards herself. Nott tries to change the subject back to Yasha’s wings, but the others press on. She says for her whole life, she hasn’t felt comfortable in her own skin. She says she doesn’t fit in with other goblins and like she should be in a different body. She insists that she does like herself, but she doesn’t like what she sees when she looks at her body.

Nott explains that she was assigned job after job, but she didn’t fit in anyway in her clan. In the end, she was assigned to be the torturer’s assistant. Once, while raiding a halfling village, she was instructed to kill a halfling. She didn’t, and she instead talked to him. The other goblins didn’t like this, but she gave them valuable information about the halfling village. They became friends. When they got all the information they could, Nott created a distraction so the halfling man could escape. However, they couldn’t escape together.

Jester suggests going back down south to see the halfling man. She tells them she is scared of the villagers attacking her for being a goblin or running into her old clan.

Fjord and Beau tell Nott that she has earned her comma, turning her from “Nott the Brave” to “Nott, the Brave.”

Nott: “Let’s call it a hyphen for now, and maybe we’ll move to an ellipses or something.”

Nott still insists to the others that she’s the exception to goblins and not the rule. She believes goblins should be killed on sight.

Nott: “This is not me. I don’t want to be this. I’m never going to be cool with this ever.”

There is a clap of thunder and it begins to rain. Molly and a few others put their beds under the cart.

Caleb and Nott finish their watch.

Caleb tells Nott that if she ever wants to talk more about her past, the door is always open for her.

Nott: “Thank you, Caleb. I tasted a baby once. Just once. They were handing around a bowl, and I didn’t know what was in it.”

Yasha takes the next watch.

Eventually, the morning comes. The rain reduces to a drizzle. They gather their things and head back to the roadway.

To be continued…


We have a shiny new Patreon! Your support can help us create more awesome D&D and nerdy content for everyone!

Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter to see when we post and for all kinds of other cool nerdy shit.

Remember to tune into Critical Role Thursdays at 7pm Pacific on Geek and Sundry’s Twitch Channel.

And don’t forget to check out Talks Machina every Tuesday at 7pm Pacific on Alpha or on Geek and Sundry’s Twitch Channel.

Is it Thursday yet?

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![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Fiona L.F. Kelly (@FionaLFKelly)
Fiona L.F. Kelly is a writer, editor, and podcaster. She has published numerous articles about all things gaming and pop culture on websites all across the internet, was also a writer for Trinity Continuum: Aberrant 2e, and has been published in books and magazines. She is an editor for the pop culture and media website GeekGals.co. In addition to her writing and editing, she has also been a guest and host on several podcasts. She hosts the Project Derailed podcast Big Streaming Pile, produces and performs on Fables Around the Table, and plays the githyanki pirate Rav’nys on Tales of the Voidfarer. Buy her a coffee: ko-fi.com/fionalfkelly

Share This

Copy Link to Clipboard

Copy