Critical Role One-Shot: Kobolds, Catacombs and Dragons (Oh My!)

The thumbnail for "**Critical Role One-Shot: Kobolds, Catacombs and Dragons (Oh My!)**" (Sx29), featuring Liam O'Brien, Jennifer Hale, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe and Matthew Mercer

### Episode

Specials,​ Episode 29
(C1E115k)

### Game system

Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition

"**Critical Role One-Shot: Kobolds, Catacombs and Dragons (Oh My!)**" (Sx29) is the twenty-ninth special episode of *Critical Role*. Join Liam O'Brien, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Jennifer Hale, Taliesin Jaffe and Matthew Mercer as the GM doing a *Hearthstone* one-shot.

## **Synopsis**

### **Pre-Show**

*Tonight we have a very special one-shot. The fantastic folks at Blizzard have come together and asked us to do a Hearthstone one-shot in celebration of the upcoming expansion, Kobolds & Catacombs. For those who aren't aware of it, it's an upcoming expansion for the card game, Hearthstone, that brings the classic fantasy dungeon crawl element to the awesome, existing card game. It incorporates a bunch of cool, mysterious magical items, nine new legendary weapons, some of which you'll recognize if you've played World of Warcraft in the recent expansions. There's unidentified magical items that you can find in the game, so this has definitely more of a D&D, classic-dungeon-crawl feel. There's spell stones you have to power as you go through. It's got a lot of really cool new mechanics that add to the game. They have a single-player dungeon run mode now, where you're actually doing a dungeon delve with your Hearthstone deck, playing through a storyline, making choices. It brings a whole new kind of tabletop element to the game.*

### **Announcements**

* *Kobolds & Catacombs* extension coming out December 7th, 2017. Go to to their website to learn more.
* Escape room organized by the people at Blizzard for the release of the game with live-streaming players and personalities from the community on December 5th, at 4:30pm Pacific, on Twitch or YouTube.
* **Merch Alert!** Critical Role notebook with artwork on the cover now available at the CR shop.
* The third issue of the Critical Role - Vox Machina: Origins comic is available.
* Matt will be at the Paradise City Comic Con in Miami January 12th to 14th, at the Otafest in Calgary May 18th to 20th, and the A-Kon in Texas June 7th through the 10th.
* Travis and Laura will be at SacAnime the first week of January.
* New episode of *Sagas of Sundry: Madness* is out!

### **Part I**

The party accepts a quest from Wental to find his lost candles that were stolen from his storage room by someone. Upon investigating, Quazirat Tolluz discovers that the storage may be a place that at some point was used to store candles. Meanwhile, Lokhor Windfallow finds that the lock was broken and there is a set of small footsteps behind the storage. He follows them to a nearby cave. Following the footsteps of Aerwin Whiteclaw, who easily blends into the darkness, they close on a group of kobolds who are in the process of mining something and are also in possession of the stolen candles. As there are a total of nine kobolds, battle is inevitable.

Despite the kobold leader's self-destructive use of dynamite, the party handles the threat with ease, but does not find many of the candles, so they threaten Reeksus, the only surviving kobold, to lead them deeper inside. On the way, they run into the eccentric mushroom merchant Mushhuckster Max and buy orange and blue mushrooms for a high price. The orange one is a bust, but the blue mushroom provides a buff (advantage on perception and investigation checks) to Lokhor Windfallow. They also run into two troggs who are high on shrooms and Quazirat Tolluz, who manages to convince them of everything and the opposite of it. The emotionally confused troggs have no way of noticing the rest of the group sneaking past them. A mysterious figure calling themselves Aluneth shows up and tries to recruit Greldamine Clypso for something.

### **Break**

* Trailer for the new Hearthstone extension *Kobolds and Catacombs*. Theme song by Hearthstone.
* **Tonight's giveaway!** a Zebra Wood Tabletop Dice Tray from Wyrmwood Gaming with the code word: Delve.
* **How to Play!** Flamme Rouge from Stronghold Games, hosted by Becca Scott.
* The Chronicles of Exandria Vol. I: The Tale of Vox Machina on sale now.

### **Part II**

The group arrives in a chamber with a broken bridge and two exits, and two figures hiding in the middle. Aerwin Whiteclaw investigates first and finds they are already long dead, but just barely manages to flee back from a fire elemental emerging on her approach. The elemental seems to have limited movement, so Greldamine Clypso manages to fly across the chamber while sticking to its walls and finds a powerful-looking sword that is then given to Quazirat Tolluz. The "Thrillseeker" may be a powerful weapon, but has the downside of making its holder unable to flee from an opponent. Greldamine then successfully casts *Charm* on the elemental and gains its permission to pass. The next chamber has a dragon sleeping inside it on top of a mountain of treasures, notably a beautiful dagger that Lokhor Windfallow reluctantly gives up on. They then try to sneak past the dragon one by one, with little success: Greldamine and Lokhor nearly die in the process, then Aerwin gives in to temptation and tries to steal the dagger, waking the dragon. They immediately try to flee into the catacombs for their lives, just barely managing to get away, pulling their unconscious comrades behind them and falling into a crevice created by the dragon's stampede.

They take a 20 minute short rest to heal up a little and for Aerwin to familiarize herself with the "Kingslayer". They also discover that they are actually in the candle storage room of the kobolds with the only way out being through the throne room. Greldamine's *Fireballs* disintegrate most of the kobolds inside but unfortunately, also the candles, but hey, it's the wax that is important, right? King Togwaggle also quickly goes down under their combined efforts, but manages to call forth Rakanishu, a fire elemental worshipped by the kobolds. The few remaining kobolds, the furniture and any remaining candles burn and melt in the ever-growing flames of Rakanishu. Greldamine manages to buy a minute of free time using her *Sleep* spell and the group quickly collects some molten wax then jumps into the nearby river to flee, with the exception of Quazirat Tolluz who is overcome by Thrillseeker's suggestions and stays behind to hold back the elemental. The strong stream of the underground river washes them back to the town, though two of them almost drown, and they are brought back to consciousness by Bundle's last remaining spells. They return to Wental with two bricks of wax, charred, bruised and damp all over, hardly victorious.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Player Characters**

* Bundle, a dwarf priest.
* Greldamine Clypso, a gnome mage
* Quazirat Tolluz, a draenei warrior
* Lokhor Windfallow, a human paladin.
* Aerwin Whiteclaw, a night elf rogue.

### **New**

* Wental (candlemaker)
* Reeksus (kobold)
* Mushhuckster Max (kobold mushroom merchant)
* King Togwaggle (kobold leader)
* Rakanishu (fire elemental)
* Aluneth (sentient staff)

## **Trivia**

* Both Aluneth and Kingsbane appear in Hearthstone as well as in World Of Warcraft. Aluneth is a legendary mage class artifact and Kingsbane rogue class.
* Adventurefury, Blesssed Blade of Thrillseeker is a parody version of Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of Windseeker.
* Matthew Mercer voices Aluneth in World of Warcraft.

## **References**

**Art:**

1. ↑ Fan art of Bundle,Greldamine Clypso, Quazirat Tolluz, Lokhor Windfallow and Aerwin Whiteclaw, by Hugo Cardenas (source). Used with permission.