Dark Portents

"**Dark Portents**" (3x29) thumbnail featuring Ashley Johnson and Matthew Mercer.

### Episode

Campaign Three,​ Episode 29
(C3E29)

### Transcript

Transcript

"**Dark Portents**" (3x29) is the twenty-ninth episode of the third campaign of *Critical Role*. With a mother-daughter reunion interrupted by deception, Bells Hells must decide who they can trust and how to navigate the tides of dangerous new knowledge...

## **Synopsis**

### **Announcements**

* First sponsor is **Quip**, the smart electronic toothbrush, but Sam is ill and has to leave the table. When he returns, he seems subtly different, but convinces the table he's really Sam Rai-gul. He even knows which cheek Liam's mole is on.
* Second sponsor is **Shopify**, an all-in-one e-commerce platform.
* Next episode of **4-Sided Dive** will air Tuesday, 9 August 2022, airing henceforth on random Tuesdays.
* Laura has a Sprinkle neck pillow, now on sale in Critical Role shops along with vintage hotel key chains.
* The **Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn** is now available as a standalone PDF in the Critical Role shops. It's also nominated for an ENNIE award for "Best Setting" (Spoiler: It won) so go vote.

### **Previously on *Critical Role***

*So, last we left off: Bells Hells in the city of Bassuras in the Hellcatch Valley have been chasing down the individual known as Armand Treshi, who escaped from Jrusar after being tied into some very dark stuff.*

*You managed to uncover the fact that he was currently held in the Seat of Disdain. under guard of the Paragon's Call. Upon confirming his location there and putting it into your plans, you also discovered that Birdie Calloway, the mother of Fearne, was also travelling to town, and has been doing so for some business for some time. Along this way, you encountered an individual named Dusk who had an amnesiac history that seemed to tie with the Calloway parents as well. This chance meeting meant some interesting bonding, some tension, some awkwardness, but nevertheless, briefly inviting this bright-eyed individual into your found family for a time. Upon growing close to uncovering the means of getting to Treshi by entering the Deathwish Run, an extremely dangerous, deadly, and really fun race through all manner of streets and terrain around the city of Bassuras, you succeeded in doing so and made your approval entry into the Paragon's Call to pursue this thread.*

*The next day, upon traversing to Imahara Joe's place to turn in your loaner crawler, as well as possibly looking to get the other one repaired, you watched as a skirmisher-crawler rode up with Birdie Calloway in tow. As she stepped into the shop, eventually Fearne and the rest of the group began to approach, in which you had a sudden reunion with Birdie, then also noticed that Dusk was unfamiliar to your mother. At which point, Dusk reached out and grabbed both of your arms, and revealed that the form you know as Dusk to perhaps not have been the true form that you expected. Instead, seeing behind a somewhat opalescent, multi-colored skin upon pale white hair and dark, dark attire.*

### **Part I**

Fearne is terribly confused by Dusk's transformation and Birdie's obvious fear. Dusk apologizes for lying to her and asks Birdie if she wants to tell Fearne the truth, but Birdie only urges Fearne to leave and not get involved. Dusk points out that although they've had plenty of opportunities to harm Fearne and the party, they haven't. Birdie casts a spell and vanishes, but is unable to pull out of Dusk's grasp, and Orym immediately moves up behind Dusk and presses his sword into the small of their back.

Dusk tells Fearne her parents are charlatans and grifters from the Seelie Court and stole a precious artifact from the Unseelie Court. Birdie admits what they took wasn't theirs, but didn't belong to the Unseelie either and was better in their hands being used for a good goal. Dusk transforms into "the hottest half-elf man that you have ever seen" and tells Orym the invitation is still open, but Orym stabs them in the back until they let go of Fearne's hand. They introduce themself: Yu Suffiad. During the distraction, Birdie breaks free but Imogen and Ashton guard the exits. Both Birdie and Yu repeat that they have not lied to Fearne, before Birdie also stabs Yu. Imogen *Commands* Yu not to attack and the rest of the party, unsure at this point whom to believe, attempt to calm matters. Orym succeeds in disarming Yu.

Birdie explains that Fearne was born in Exandria under a flare of the red moon, Ruidus, before her parents took her back into the Feywild. Ever since, Ruidus has appeared in the Feywild where it never existed previously. Fearne then attempts to stab Yu, but misses, and a fight begins . Yu continues to assert that they didn't lie to Fearne and could have attacked or killed the party at any time, but didn't. If the group kills Yu, they won't get answers, and more assassins will keep attacking them. They will have to fight every member of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, and the Keeper of the Moontides.

Imogen then casts *Detect Thoughts* on Birdie, diving deeply, and Laura gets an exceptionally long and detailed whisper. Imogen urges Yu and the group to stop fighting and talk. Fresh Cut Grass casts a healing spell on Yu while Ashton grapples Birdie. Orym attempts to use the remaining Bead of Imprisonment on Yu but fails, destroying the bead. Chetney intimidates Birdie into standing down for the moment, and Imogen tells Birdie she knows she's trying to do the right thing, but she looks like the bad guy here. How does Birdie know the Nightmare King?

Birdie explains that although Ira has done bad things in the past, he's the only person who could help them. Although the fey are beings based on whim, this is bigger than all of them. She will explain more if they promise not to allow Yu to tell "the rest of her kind" what they're working on. Normally, only Catha appears in the Feywild and Ruidus is not present. But seven or so years ago Ruidus "began poking through," offering odd boons the Unseelie were eager to utilize. The Unseelie began working with unnamed Exandrians to build a device that would increase the new "boons" from Ruidus. Because Oleander Calloway had had visions of the red moon tearing through the Feywild leaving devastation in its path with Fearne in its center, the Calloways tried to warn against this, but were not believed. The Calloways eventually stole the Moontide Crown to prevent the device's completion. They left Fearne behind to protect her, and Fearne is now apparently significantly older than her mother. They began working with the Nightmare King in an attempt to build an arcane construct utilizing the Crown to combat the danger of Ruidus.

Yu shows them a hand mirror created by Ira, which holds corrupted shadow assassins that target a person the mirror is activated and pointed at. She has not used it, but any subsequent assassins won't have such qualms.

Laudna tells Birdie that Ira was killing children, but Birdie didn't know and is sure he was only doing it at someone else's behest. They were all trying to raise money for their project to build a device to discern the true nature of Ruidus "and why everything's overlapping." They have about a month until the 21st to the 23rd of Fessuran, when there will be an apogee solstice. Morri Calloway was making them one of the things Ira needed to finish the device, but Hondir will have to explain further. He's a scientist living with members of Grim Verity. Whatever it was, it should be being sent along shortly.

Yu says the only thing that will stop the Court sending more assassins is the return of the crown and the death of the Calloways. Birdie notes that at least they don't know about Fearne, but Yu admits she told them. She was just doing her job.

Fearne offers that if the Court will give her parents a month, she'll go with Yu back to the Feywild, but is talked out of it by the others. Yu counteroffers that she will protect Fearne from the Courts, but Fearne feels safer with Bells Hells. Birdie reveals that Morri isn't an actual blood relative, but just a close family friend, although Fearne believed she was her grandmother. When Yu mentions the Gnarlrock, Imogen *Commands* her to stop talking but fails, and tells Laudna telepathically that Delilah Briarwood is listening to this conversation.

Fearne remembers that Morri had given her a small green gem to give to her parents when she found them, which FCG *Identifies* as a Weave Lens allowing someone looking through it to see the patterns of magical energy in the room and the runic languages they contain.

After much discussion, the group decides that if Yu will give them a month, the Calloways will return the Crown and accompany Yu back to the Feywild. After some thought, Yu agrees. As Yu readies to leave, Orym uses their sword to slash their sleeves before returning it to them, and Birdie holds the door, slamming it once Yu is gone.

Birdie collapses, apologizing. Fearne's father Oleander Calloway is in their hideout about 45 miles east of the city, and she needs to get back there, but first she needs to speak to Hondir, who is in Bassuras. They exchange introductions and Birdie also apologizes to Imahara Joe and passes him some coin. He gives her a heavy satchel containing glowing blue items, presumably power sources. Joe also can get the party's crawler repaired in a few hours for 110 gold, which Birdie pays. She reveals she pickpocketed from Yu the ring that tracks Fearne. They cautiously head out the door toward Hondir.

### **Break**

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### **Part II**

Birdie leads the way while they talk. At their out-of-town hideout, the team is her, Oleander, and Ira, but they get advice from Hondir in Bassuras occasionally, who is doing similar research and has a much larger network of individuals. He's recently gotten into some trouble and is laying low in an underground hideout near one of the city cisterns, and is initially very suspicious but eventually admits the party to his well-booby-trapped room.

Birdie and Hondir explain that the ley lines crossing Exandria seem to be shifting, a sign of an impending, incredibly powerful Apogee Solstice. The solstices strengthen the nexuses of the ley lines even further than normal, and the recent shifts indicate the upcoming solstice will be focused on Marquet, with three possible nexuses: the Panagrip Sands, the ocean north of the Oderan Wilds, and the Hellcatch Valley. However, the researchers had found themselves getting their funding pulled, their departments closed, and being told to walk away from the research. While they'd continued privately, anyone connected to the work has either gone missing or dead.

Orym asks if Grim Verity means anything to him, and it does. He is one of its members, and he knew the Lumas twins. He also is familiar with the Gray Assassins sent to kill them, who have removed at least half of their members. Orym is sure these are the same assassins responsible for the attack on Keyleth that he is investigating, but Hondir cannot suggest why she was attacked.

Birdie is involved in this because the Calloways came to Exandria's Prime Material Plane so that Fearne would be born in the Verdant Expanse of Tal'Dorei. The night of her birth, Ruidus flared. Since the red moon did not exist in the Feywild, they learned what they could of it and those born under it. Oleander then had a vision of the moon following them, and its redness eating away at the Feywild. Ruidus suddenly began appearing in the Fey, briefly at first, but the Calloways discovered that Unseelie magic was being used to keep others from paying attention to it, and that the Court was meeting with Exandrians to design a machine focused on Ruidus for an unknown purpose. The Calloways took its shiniest piece, the Moontide Crown, to disable it, and were now, with Ira, attempting to build a machine which Ira told them would gather information about the red moon.

Imogen asks about the meeting the Calloways overheard. Was one of the participants Otohan Thull? Birdie recognizes her as one of two Exandrians involved; the other was an older male elf. They share she is in Bassuras running Paragon's Call and Imogen describes her dreams.

Hondir hesitantly tells them that a Grim Verity member in Vasselheim discovered ancient texts beneath the temple of Erathis from as far back as The Founding, thus drawing the ire of the powerful temples there. These texts seemed to indicate that Ruidus did not always exist but came later, and further referred to two gods that don't exist in the Pantheon and have been forgotten. Grim Verity theorizes the appearance of Ruidus is connected to the disappearance of the gods. These ancient texts are currently secretly with Grim Verity members in Yios.

Ashton asks if other planes of existence are also having issues with Ruidus. Hondir replies that another Grim Verity member, Planerider Ryn, specializes in crossing between the various planes and might know more.

When Imogen asks if Hondir knows her mother Liliana Temult, he knows her from about twelve years ago at the Yios Seminary. She was one of the volunteers for their Ruidusborn study, one of the incredibly gifted who could affect the world around them. Imogen telekinetically picks up a bottle, and Hondir confirms it's the same gift as her mother had.

Birdie explains that Morri helped raise her, as well as Fearne. Morri's "fane is her domain, and she can tweak and stretch things out as she wills." It's possible this explains why Birdie was gone for six years, but Fearne experienced it as over a century. Fearne thinks that Morri probably made the postcards that were supposed to come from her parents.

Hondir asks if he can come with them when they leave, since he now feels compromised in Bassuras, and they agree. They decide to pick up their repaired crawler and meet back up at A Taste of Tal'Dorei. Hondir starts packing. When Birdie and Fearne hug goodbye, they mutually pick each other's pockets but return their takings.

They discuss the fact that they were supposed to meet with Paragon's Call and move in there today, and decide to make a day trip out of the travel to see Oleander and Ira's device first. Stopping at Imahara Joe's, they have him attach a rickshaw-type contraption to its rear before heading to the restaurant and meeting Birdie. They roar off out the gates and out of town into the Hellcatch, before doubling back to get the momentarily forgotten Hondir.

## **Featured characters**

### **Bells Hells**

* Chetney Pock O'Pea
* Fearne Calloway
* Fresh Cut Grass
* Imogen Temult
* Laudna
* Orym

### **Returning**

* Birdie Calloway
* Imahara Joe
* Yu Suffiad

### **Mentioned**

* Balan and Zeyar Lumas
* Delilah Briarwood
* Dorian Storm
* Ebenold Kai
* Ira Wendagoth
* Keeper of the Moontides
* Liliana Temult
* Morri Calloway
* Oleander Calloway
* Otohan Thull
* Roe Estani
* Planerider Ryn
* Sehanine

## **Quotations**

* **Orym**: Somebody's got to start talking or we're going to start fighting. So I urge that to start happening now.
* **Yu**: I'm going to die here and you're going to have no answers, not from your mother, not from any of the assassins that will come with much worse intentions than me.
Fearne: Then I guess we'll just have to keep killing every single one of them.
* **Ashton**: (shouting) We're all sitting down and calming the fuck down!
Birdie: You don't know what you're doing!
Ashton: Elaborate!
* **Yu**: *(to Laudna)* Don't you have a lady talking to you in your head, and nobody's really asked about it?
Laudna: I do have a lady talking in my head, and you know what? She sounds a lot like you do right now.
Yu: Why, because we have the same sort of accent or what?
Laudna: No. Because she knows exactly what to say to get me to do her bidding.
* **Yu**: *(after Orym slashes her sleeves)* If you wanted to get my coat off, all you had to do was ask.
Orym: Hard pass. ...
Ashton: Take your basic-ass looks and get the fuck out.

## **Trivia**

* This episode took place on the in-game date of 17 Sydenstar 843 PD. The projected Apogee Solstice will take place on 21 Fessuran, 36 days away.
* The character of Sam Rai-gul in the opening sponsorship announcements was played by Ryan Manuel, who appeared as Replacement Candidate Thirteen on the Who Will Replace ME? talent show event streamed live on the Jerma 985 Twitch channel.
* Sam's jerrycan has a plastic cup labelled "Scream Jar" for people to pay into when they scream.

## **References**

1. ↑ See "The Shade Mother" (3x16) at 1:02:06.  Chetney used only one of the beads to capture Emoth Kade.
2. ↑ See "**Dark Portents**" (3x29) from 29:50 through 30:30.

**Art:**

1. ↑ Fan art of the standoff with Yu, by Lap Pun Cheung (source). Used with permission.
2. ↑ Fan art of Fearne and Yu, by Kaitlyn Leeds (source). Used with permission.
3. ↑ Fan art of Hondir, by Kiera James (source). Used with permission.