We start off with some backstory on why Percy wants to shoot this woman. It turns out she was an ally of the Briarwoods who tortured him when he was young, and threatened to do the same to his sister.
In the present, Percy shoots but doesn't kill her. Dr. Anna Ripley is her name.
The adventurers have noticed that Percy has been emitting weird smoke at certain times. Pike senses that something is clouding Percy's soul. Percy says he'll sort it out once the Briarwoods would be dealt with.
The group interrogates the doctor, who explains that the Briarwoods are planning on enacting a ritual on the ziggurat that the group saw mention of in the tome.
Anna says she can take the group there.
When he retrieving Anna's bag, Percy sees she has a half-built gun. He dumps it on the floor.
Elsewhere in Whitestone, the rebels (wielding weapons enchanted by Pike) attack the palace.
Back in the dungeon, Anna leads the group through a tunnel that leads to a massive cavern. They pass into a crypt containing dead members of the De Rolo family... who are now zombies.
Pike turns one zombie, causing it to explode. The group wipes out the zombies, and enters a secret passage.
Percy sees that a new name has appeared on the barrel of his gun - Cassandra De Rolo. Uh oh... She goes to seal herself behind a glass wall, but Vax slides in after her. The Briarwoods are there. Silas immediately takes magical control of Vax.
It turns out that Cassandra is one of the Briarwoods now.
The room starts filling with acid. Keyleth uses her go-to spell, wall of thorns, to attempt to shut down the acid-spewing tube, but it backfires. Scanlan summons the floating hand and the group climbs on.
In the base of the pool of acid is a drain and a lever that opens it. Grog... dives into the acid... and swims down. This show is so fun.
The plan actually works.
As the episode ends, we get a look at the ziggurat.
What can I say? Another great episode. Did they do a long series of sessions based on each character's backstory?
I am wondering what Critical Role fans think of this show. I imagine a TON of stuff had to be trimmed out of the sessions to fit this format (each episode of this animated show is about 25 minutes long).
All I can say is that, as someone who is largely unfamiliar with the story as it played out on Critical Role, I really like this a lot.