Critical Role and the Club of Misfits

Thumbnail, featuring Bunder, Andy, Ally, Claire and Brian, by Joana Carvalho from "**Critical Role and the Club of Misfits**" (Sx38).

### Episode

Specials,​ Episode 38
(C2E39b)

### Game system

Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition

"**Critical Role and the Club of Misfits**" (Sx38) is the thirty-eighth special episode of *Critical Role*. Five students at the magical school of Schmogwarts escape detention and learn that they're more than their 80s-themed archetypes!

As of July 2023, the episode was no longer available on the Critical Role YouTube channel.

## **Synopsis**

### **Pre-Show**

Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. This is Laura Bailey's one-shot. She's nervous as all hell, but it's going to be great! You have may have noticed tonight's episode takes place at the school of Schmogwarts.

### **Announcements**

* Tonight's episode is sponsored by **D&D Art & Arcana** from Random House Publishing and Ten Speed Press. Help support the show by grabbing your copy at critrole.com/artandarcana.
* The latest episode of Between the Sheets featuring Marisha Ray is now available on the Critical Role YouTube channel.
* You can tune in at twitch.tv/criticalrole next Monday for a one-on-one chat with Matthew Mercer.
* The all new episode of All Work No Play will debut on Twitch on Friday at 7:00pm Pacific.

### **Part I**

*It's a crisp autumn morning at Schmogwarts. It's a holiday weekend and all of your students at the school are off celebrating off at the local town of Schmogsmeade, celebrating their latest squidlach win or lamenting their team's loss.*

Five Schmogwarts wizardry students—Ally, Claire, Andy, Brian, and John Bunder—are in Saturday detention under the watchful eye of Professor Furbin. Furbin commands the students to write an essay about who they are. Soon after detention begins, Furbin is called away by an unseen person to attend to an "emergency." In Furbin's absence, the students hear a strange crying coming from behind the professor's office door. Upon inspection, they discover a bird cage filled with eight pixies who beg to be released. The students release the pixies who immediately attack them. A fight ensues, awakening an attacking plant in the process. Finally, the students succeed in defeating the pixies and the plant.

A conversation ensues, during which Claire appoints Brian her ward. The students decide to try to sneak out of detention. Attempting to head down one corridor, they are met by a pair of talking paintings who report that their professor rushed away in the other direction in quite a frightened hurry. The students agree to investigate and soon after, find Beedle, a house elf, hiding in a dark classroom. Beedle begs them for help, revealing herself to be the one who called Furbin away earlier, and finally asking the students to meet her in the kitchen. Beedle confesses to having collected the pixies and some spiders for Professor Furbin, who is interested in magical beings, but something has gone wrong. Giant spiders have now come to reclaim the ones Beedle kidnapped.

### **Part II**

*The Club o' Misfits heading down the spiral staircase to Beetle's lower levels. As you guys come down the stairs, nothing happens. You walk out. It's fine. You walk into a giant kitchen. It is a giant kitchen in the same shape as the Great Hall. It is humungous. There's lengths of tables like your house tables all the way down to the front, but instead of seeing your stage where your professors normally stand, you see lots of stovetops and cook prep. You have hearths on either side, three each, where they're cooking different types of stews and everything like that. You see a lot of house elves around. There's a ton of them busy working, getting ready for when all the students come back from Schmogsmeade.*

The students descend through a hole in the kitchen floor which leads to a giant wizard chessboard. Almost immediately, they are attacked by giant spiders. A chess battle ensues between the students, the spiders, and both sides of the chessboard. During the battle, Bunder is knocked unconscious, but soon revived. Eventually, Claire makes the killing blow against the last remaining spider, spattering guts all over Ally. Ally promptly turns into a badger and tackles Claire in an effort to spread guts on her.

After the battle, Brian attempts to cast command on Claire to make her grovel, but Claire reveals herself to have been humbled by the experience. The students share a brief moment of openness about their lives before Beedle shows up, urging them to return to their original classroom as quickly as possible. As they rush back, Brian takes a tumble. Claire, having made Brian her ward, invokes her ability to switch places with him. Eventually, they succeed in returning to their places before Professor Furbin returns, none the wiser. Brian quickly writes and reads out an essay addressed to Professor Furbin about who they are, stating that they are "a brain, an athlete, a honey-badger, a princess, and a criminal" who are "pretty tits at killing spiders."

## **Featured Characters**

### **Player Characters**

* Bunder
* Claire
* Andy
* Brian
* Ally

### **New**

* Professor Furbin
* Eight unnamed pixies
* Unnamed male talking portrait
* Unnamed female talking portrait
* Beedle
* Several unnamed house elves

## **Trivia**

* This episode is a 5th edition D&D one-shot set in the universe of Harry Potter with the basic plot structure of *The Breakfast Club*.
* Throughout the episode, Laura and the players improvise bastardizations of Harry Potter-specific names and places in order to avoid any legal ramifications.
* Brian's inconsistent accent is a running gag throughout the episode.
* Sam was essentially flying blind, claiming at various points throughout the episode to have no experience with either Harry Potter or *The Breakfast Club* beyond movie posters and Wikipedia.

## **References**

**Art:**

1. ↑ Thumbnail, featuring Bunder, Andy, Ally, Claire and Brian, by Joana Carvalho from "**Critical Role and the Club of Misfits**" (Sx38). Used with permission.