Arlo Black

Official art of Arlo Black, by Lizzart.

**Arlo Black** is a young woman in Newfaire. She is played by Laura Bailey.

## **Description**

### **Appearance**

Arlo has dark hair and eyes, and is well-dressed befitting a young woman at the turn of the century. She generally wears one glove, concealing a hand that has cracked gray skin and black nails. Along her forearm are deep scratch marks that look old, but not healed.

### **Personality**

Professor Margrove described her as a diligent student, "astute and keen to parse out the details of a person." She grew up in upper class society, with "a certain path set in front of her, but when she was confronted by a devastating paranormal event, she became quite a different person. Because of what happened, she basically lives half in a ghostly realm and half out, often distracted with the activity she sees that others are unaware of".

## **Biography**

### **Background**

Arlo lives with her parents in Newfaire. The family is wealthy enough to have servants, including Mr Tellbrook. She was a student of Professor Margrove's, and they have worked together on at least one prior assignment for Candela Obscura.

Arlo was engaged at some point to a young man named Eddie Easton, who was interested in Oldfaire relics and may have done "some bad things". One day Arlo came to see him and found him being pulled through some sort of portal by a strange gray-skinned creature. In her attempt to save him, her arm went through, turning it cracked and gray and causing her to wear a glove permanently on it.

In addition to Eddie himself, his entire family and staff also disappeared at the same time. Arlo has heard rumors that it was connected somehow with the clandestine procurers and dealers in Oldfairen artifacts known as the Red Hand.

### **"Candela Obscura: The Cold Embrace" (CO1x01)**

Arlo was sitting alone and silent in her room when she received a message from a fedora-wearing person who told her Candela required her assistance. Arlo told the family butler Tellbrook she'd be going out for the evening and met the other members of the new Circle of the Vassal and the Veil. Alexandra Elise O'Neill, a Lightkeeper, assigned them to investigate the death of Donald Kinzel from a chunk of strange exploding coal. During that investigation, Arlo used her bleed detector to find bleed residue in the room where Donald died, and when his spirit appeared, used her ability to Let Them In to learn that a dark entity was released in the explosion. She then lit a small fire to draw the spirit toward it and allow the group to escape.

Investigating the foundry where the coal originated, Arlo used her bleed detector several times. When she slightly gashed herself on ice, she saw a vacuous void of nothing in her skin. She also found and started a vehicle, crashing it into the doors, but they didn't fully open and she was hurt in the process. Arlo's damaged hand pulled her toward a rune-carved cylindrical obsidian object hidden within the coal, but as she inspected it a shadowed hand emerged from the center of her chest from behind, and she took another bleed but soaked it up with her ward soak necklace. When they found grooves in the runic carvings, Arlo filled them with her blood, which seemed to warm them, and they burst into a red-orange glow. The shadow creature attempted to flee the runes but red tentacles pulled it into the chunk of ancient obsidian. Arlo then wrapped the obsidian object in her coat and took it.

### **"Candela Obscura: Ravage of Red Lamp" (CO1x02)**

When the Circle received their new assignment from Alexandra, Arlo asked if she had anything that would defeat shadow beasts and received a corked vial which could be applied to the edge of a bladed weapon. While investigating the hotel where a strange creature was seen, Arlo distracted the guarding Periphery officer by pretending to faint. Using her name allowed them entry to the estate of the missing Chamberperson Onette, where while interviewing her husband, Arlo mentioned her similar experience with her fiancé Eddie Easton going missing a few years ago. When Arlo inspected a strange wound on the husband's hand, she felt a strange hunger and urge to pull it toward her, taking a bleed and worsening the existing damage to her gloved hand. As they left, Arlo suddenly told him, "You should cut your hand off." Outside, Arlo displayed the injury to her own hand, a weird void or black hole. She explained how it had happened when Eddie disappeared into a portal. Auggie asked if she was single now, and Arlo referred to an earlier ruse when Auggie called her his "woman", saying they were now engaged. Arlo also asked about the Red Hand (which Eddie had had some dealings with).

The emerald apparently causing this situation was purchased at Dorna's art gallery. There, Arlo again used Let Them In, finding an ancient, undying hunger in a being older than anything she had seen previously. When they followed the creature into the sewer, Arlo told of an Oldfairen myth that heinous criminals were punished by being bound to a shard of Gredarn, a demon of endless hunger, and speculated that the emerald was one such shard. When they encountered the creature, Arlo removed her glove and drew runes in the dust in a Forbidden Ritual. As her arm sank into the stone, the creature was held in place as it started falling apart, the magic of the emerald now destroyed. Arlo's hand was intact but she had trouble standing, and Howard helped her out. She noticed the gray tinge to her arm had now reached her shoulder and neck, an immediate bleed scar from the Ritual. She lost Sway and gained Sense.

### **"Candela Obscura: The Collectors" (CO1x03)**

When the party was investigating the cabin where the now-faceless Kara had been taking refuge, Arlo's bleed detector revealed the secret contents of a note there, leading them toward the warehouse district of Newfaire. Before they left, they were attacked by the root creature. Arlo used Play the Bait to draw it toward her, removing her glove as the others ran to the window and began jumping out. When Arlo tried to join them, the creature interposed. While Charlotte held off the creature, Arlo snatched up Kara and carried her out the window with her, taking a Body. She took a bleed while handing her torch to Howard, but used Let Them In to see a vision of a dark realm beyond The Flare filled with screaming voices. She realized the creature's will was not entirely its own. Later, she consulted her tome to find information on The Snatchers, former humans who had been changed beyond The Flare into collectors of faces.

At the warehouse, Arlo threw a vial of combustible liquid created by Howard into a corner to create a diversion, then turned on all the lights to cause pain to the attacking root creature and force it to drop Charlotte so the party could flee. When they reached the tunnel to the underground temple in Oldfaire, Arlo took two bleeds from proximity to the bleed trail there. At the temple, they discovered a glowing portal resembling the one through which Arlo's fiancé Eddie had disappeared. Lycus stepped through, saying that "Edward" was beyond the Flare. When the root creature appeared, Arlo performed a Forbidden Ritual, taking a scar in the form of her right eye turning completely black and the void in her hand being replaced by an orange eye, but succeeded in shattering the portal. She used Play the Bait to pull the creature from Howard but was herself seized by it, and was knocked unconscious with a scar as her face was taken by the creature.

Howard was able to find Arlo's face and pull it off the creature before being knocked out. Arlo regained consciousness, the only member of the Circle still standing. She used a ritual to fill the room with brilliant light and dropped a flaming sconce onto the creature, both her eyes now full black but able to see into other realms. As the creature burned, the faces faded, leaving only Edward, now free but lost in the Void. He reached for Arlo and smiled as the cinders took him. Arlo was left with three scars; with one more, she would have to either retire (possibly as a Lightkeeper) or die.

As a consequence, Laura moved a point from Control to Survey.

## **Character information**

### **Notable items**

* Bleed detector
* Ward soak necklace

### **Abilities**

* Cunning
* Intuition

## **Appearances and mentions**

* Candela Obscura
	+ "Candela Obscura: The Cold Embrace" (CO1x01) (first appearance)
	+ "Candela Obscura: Ravage of Red Lamp" (CO1x02)
	+ "Candela Obscura: The Collectors" (CO1x03)

## **References**

1. ↑ See "Candela Obscura: The Cold Embrace" (CO1x01) at 1:26:08.
2. ↑ See "Candela Obscura: The Cold Embrace" (CO1x01) at 1:00:04.
3. ↑ Laura Bailey in "Critical Role's Candela Obscura Gazes Into the Darkness", by Linda Codega published 5 June 2023 at Gizmodo.com.
4. ↑ See "Candela Obscura: The Cold Embrace" (CO1x01) at 0:59:54.
5. ↑ See "Candela Obscura: Ravage of Red Lamp" (CO1x02) at 2:35:10.
6. ↑ See "Candela Obscura: Ravage of Red Lamp" (CO1x02) at 2:37:50.  See also at 2:42:52.
7. ↑ See "Candela Obscura: The Cold Embrace" (CO1x01) at 1:12:07.
8. ↑ See "Candela Obscura: The Cold Embrace" (CO1x01) at 3:02:56.
9. ↑ See "Candela Obscura: The Cold Embrace" (CO1x01) at 2:39:55.
10. ↑ See "Candela Obscura: The Cold Embrace" (CO1x01) at 2:39:55.
11. ↑ See "Candela Obscura: The Collectors" (CO1x03) at 0:49:28.

**Art:**

1. ↑ Official art of Arlo Black, by Lizzart (source). This file is a copyrighted work. Its use in this article is asserted to qualify as fair use of the material under United States copyright law.
2. ↑ Fan art of Arlo's hand, by JadeQ (source). Used with permission.