Recap / Critical Role 001 Curious Beginnings

Curious Beginnings

Curious Beginnings is the first episode of Chapter 1 of Campaign 2, A New Beginning, as well as the first episode of Campaign 2 overall.

Starring:

• Travis Willingham as Fjord ^note Half-Orc Warlock (Hexblade)
• Marisha Ray as Beauregard Lionett ^note Human Monk
• Taliesin Jaffe as Mollymauk Tealeaf ^note Tiefling Blood Hunter
• Ashley Johnson as Yasha Nydoorin ^note Aasimar Barbarian
• Sam Riegel as Nott the Brave^note Goblin Rogue
• Liam O'Brien as Caleb Widogast^note Human Wizard (School of Transmutation)
• Laura Bailey as Jester Lavorre^note Tiefling Cleric (Trickery Domain)
• And Matthew Mercer as the Dungeon Master

It’s 20 years after the events of Vox Machina. We’re on the continent of Wildemount, in a town called Trostenwald, in an inn. We meet Caleb, Liam’s Human Wizard, and Nott, Sam’s female Goblin Rogue. They’re a pair, and have been traveling together for a bit. Down in the tavern, they meet Laura’s Tiefling Trickery Cleric Jester, Marisha’s Human Monk Beauregard, and Travis’s Half-Orc Warlock Fjord, another group that has been traveling together. These two groups chat and converse, when Taliesin and Ashley’s characters blow through. Taliesin is playing an ostentatious Blood Hunter Tiefling named Mollymauk, and Ashley is a gruff Barbarian named Yasha.

Molly and Yasha engage with the two parties, inviting them to the circus that has come to town. Molly is a fortune teller, which delights Jester, so he gives her a tarot card reading. After Molly and Yasha leave, the two groups talk abut magic and the Soltryce Academy, which Fjord wants to join to learn more about magic. Caleb shows off his familiar, a cat named Frumpkin. The two groups decide to spend the day together, as there is safety in numbers. Matt describes an absolutely riveting circus performance. For the last act, a raging Devil Toad is brought in on chains, and a young Dwarven girl appears at the top of the tent, singing beautifully and calming the beast. Matt pulls off an amazing sound cue for this as well.

As the singer performs, an old man in the audience begins changing into a horrible undead monster. The crowd freaks out and tries to leave, while the party leaps into action. They fight the transformed man, who kills a woman in the crowd, causing her to transform into another undead monster. Magic is flying, swords fists are swinging, and our squishy party members deal and take some damage. Yasha Rages and destroys the first undead monster, while Beau takes out the second with Flurry of Blows, for the first HDYWTDT of the new Campaign. Now that the threats are down, it’s time to deal with the town guards. No one can explain what happened, not even the people in the circus. The Watchmaster arrests the circus members, including Molly, meaning Taliesin is two-for-two on starting campaigns in jail. The group gives the guards both real and fake names. Yasha manages to trick a guard and escape without getting arrested. The party bemoans the fact that they are being punished for helping, but the Watchmaster makes it clear that if they flee, she will find them...

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Tropes in this episode:

• Borrowed Catchphrase: How we learn Yasha’s class.
  Ashley: I would like to rage.
• Double Entendre: The book Caleb gets reserved is titled ‘Jamison’s Hoedown’
• Foreshadowing: Kylre is covered in chains during the performance.
  • This exchange:
  Jester: Caleb, are you going to go to the Academy?
  Caleb:...That’s silly.
  • Caleb in general acts pretty nervous whenever the topic of Soltryce Academy gets brought up, and is also the only person who doesn’t clap during the fire dance at the carnival.
  • Beau also offhandedly mentioned that she’s ‘not used to things working out well’.
• Living Motion Detector: Nott instructs Caleb to stay still so Jester won't notice them, reasoning that tieflings can only see movement. The cleric agrees with this statement, though it is possible she was joking.
• One-Steve Limit: Beauregard is called Beau for short, but the circus also features a performer called Bosun the Breaker who is also called Bo for short. This sparks the occasional confused exchange between the Nein and the circuspeople, as well as the Crownsguard.
• Our Zombies Are Different: These ones don’t even need to touch you to infect you, and leak sand from all their wounds.
• Phony Psychic: With the exception of Jester, group is suspicious of Molly's tarot reading, due to Molly's generally shifty demeanor and vague answers. It's not helped by Caleb casting Detect Magic during the reading and finding nothing.
• Rule of Three: Downplayed, but there are an unnatural number of threes in this episode, which does segue nicely into the later nine/nein motif. There are three major nations in Wildemount (The Menagerie Coast, The Dwendalian Empire, and Xhorhas), and the party is split into three groups, one of which is a group of three. There are also three acts in the carnival, which each foreshadow one of the three demigods the group comes across during the campaign, and three major brewery families in Trostenwald.
• Saying Too Much: Caleb accidentally lets slip that Nott is a Goblin because he thinks the others are onto it, when they actually hadn’t made the connection yet.
• Tarot Troubles: Subverted. Molly gives Jester a reading, but it’s heavily implied he’s forging it, and thus all the cards have suitably positive meanings.
• Vocal Evolution: Most obvious in hindsight, but the party’s voices here are much different from what they’d grow to be. Caleb’s German/Zemnian accent is much lighter, and Nott speaks with a bit of Cockney. Yasha’s almost completely lacking her Nordic accent, and Mollymauk’s Irish accent is noticeably stronger.
• You All Meet in an Inn: The Nestled Nook Inn, to be precise.