Critical Role Campaign 4, Episode 24 Part 2 – “Good Tidings”
Date: May 12, 2026
DM: Brennan Lee Mulligan
Episode Overview
In this gripping episode, the party continues their tense preparations for the upcoming gala at the hallowed round, while also unraveling the last mysteries left behind by Hal’s late brother, Thiazi Fang. The team juggles revolutionary logistics, a complex web of political intrigue, magical forensics, and deep personal reckonings. A clandestine meeting with the enigmatic pigment-maker Hollis offers revelations and ambiguity about dangerous magics at play, all while the city prepares for its most important social event in years—a gala that will bring together nearly every faction for a night that promises fireworks, both literal and figurative.
Key Discussion Points and Developments
1. Setting the Stage: Business as Unusual
[01:09-15:42]
- The party wakes to a city preparing for Candle Feast, with celebrations led by the Quandesscent Creed.
- Administrative tasks dominate their day: the team discusses how to embed loyalists (“plants”) within the Sundered Houses and set up a discreet food bank for revolutionary sympathizers.
- Varen, a trusted contact, is assigned to coordinate worker infiltration and supplies.
- The team utilizes precious magical gems to fund their operations and create emergency support for those in need.
“A lot of today is probably just like dealing with Grotto’s illness...Varen is waiting for you at Falcon’s Rest that morning.” – Brennan Lee Mulligan [02:41]
2. Gala Preparations & Financial Maneuvering
[11:06-14:28]
- Bolaire sketches out a lavish masquerade ball, “Convivium Hereticarum” (“Banquet of the Heretics”), where guests will receive elaborate masks representing the fallen gods.
- The group agrees the gala is a chance for both social maneuvering and covert operations, staffing their cause’s supporters behind the scenes.
- Financial exchanges include converting magic gems into gold and budgeting for food, bonuses, and staffing for both the revolution and the gala.
"Each mask is going to represent one of the falling gods...We've killed the gods. Now we get to party because men are now the gods. It's gross, it's disgusting, and these people will love it." – Bolaire [12:09]
3. Underground Organization: Food, Loyalty, and Networks
[19:03-29:57]
- Plans are laid for a covert food bank hidden in a factory, managed via secure addresses and subtle symbols ("the bird" and the passphrase "Any good tidings?").
- Hal brokers funding and support from his partner Elodie Divine, who provides both resources and an emotional lifeline.
- Distribution of funds and careful selection of trustworthy insiders for key jobs reinforce the magpie network’s emergence.
“I want to help feed the people willing to draw a line in the sand as business goes south in Dolmakyar...Do you want to invest in the city's future?” – Hal [25:36–26:22]
“When we first got together, my grandmother ...made me make one promise...if you’re going to couple with an actor, you have to think now about what you’re gonna say when he asks you for money...” – Elodie [27:47]
4. Magical Logistics & Spell Glyphs
[37:13–47:47]
- Murray leverages dwarvish jeweler’s skills to craft magical “glyphs” for Shield and See Invisibility, prepping for whatever may strike at the gala.
- Gems end up at both the school and in the revolutionary cache, keeping the party’s resources flexible.
- Party members divvy up magical protections, balancing risk and resourcefulness.
5. Casing a Safe House & Investigating the Past
[54:48–83:05]
- The group tracks an address tied to mysterious pigment deliveries, uncovering a well-guarded, incense-filled atelier.
- They parley with the enigmatic halfling Hollis, longtime pigment-maker at “Knife and Palette.”
- Hollis reveals:
- The paints were never tampered with; Thiazi intended them as a gift but never delivered them personally.
- Information is currency—they barter requests for info with suggestions of introductions, especially involving the missing Lord Wakander Hailuvar.
- Murray and others scrutinize his shadowy invocation magic, and Hollis hints at “ruining something that deserved to be ruined.”
"You are not here pursuing a contract. You are not in the business of buying paints." – Hollis [67:09]
“It was never supposed to come to you in the manner that it did...he wished to give it to you himself. He simply ran out of time.” – Hollis [77:02–77:30]
6. Unraveling the Ritual: The Mystery of Blood Paints
[101:10–114:45]
- Murray and Bolaire sample the magical paints, conducting a forensic augury.
- The paint “tastes” of the same magic as the Stone of Nightsong, but as its negative—created from rendered blood, now transformed into dream-stuff and raw possibility.
- A crucial connection is drawn: these paints, the stone, and the ancient powers of crossing the veil are part of a centuries-old ritual apparatus. Terms like Govzidra surface—hinting at shaper (god) means of passage, flowing river imagery, and echoes of old celestial tragedies.
“It was rendered from blood. It is no longer blood, but it's like they rendered the paints from blood to create stories, to create dreams, to create figments, to create things that are not real...” – Murray [109:20]
7. Emotional Reckoning and Doubt
[117:13–126:09]
- Hal, Azune, Bolaire, and Murray process a wave of grief, secrets, and frustration sparked by their findings.
- Hal grapples with his brother’s choices: “Why didn’t he tell me anything?...I am his family.” [117:37–118:51]
- Friends debate whether Thiazi was trying to thwart or further something dark, or if everyone is simply improvising in the shadow of lost gods.
“Lies die with you. But they don’t. They just... move themselves in on everyone around you.” – Bolaire [119:20]
8. The Gala: Arrival and Rising Tension
[128:09–162:01]
- Gala preparations culminate: masks, hidden alliances, party assignments. Verin provides a short-list of loyalists embedded with the Sundered Houses.
- Guests arrive—King Augustus and retinue, Yanessa Hailuvar (the Fotarch), and all the main noble houses.
- Political currents swirl as Augustus immediately confronts the Fotarch about sedition and unrest, escalating tensions (see below).
- Bolaire detects (with a nat 20 Perception [160:53]) a crossbow being drawn in a corridor near the private chamber where the King and Fotarch are arguing, signaling an imminent assassination attempt.
“On a nat 20...you hear the unmistakable click of a crossbow string being strung up and notched into place just around the corner...” – Brennan Lee Mulligan [160:53]
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
-
On the Masks and the Gods:
"We've killed the gods. Now we get to party because men are now the gods. It's gross, it's disgusting, and these people will love it." – Bolaire [12:09]
-
On Revolution:
“You are providing a service for me... Because it's worth a lot of money to know what needs to happen. The less I know, the better.” – Elodie [28:31]
-
On Blood and Paint:
“It has the same signature of the Night Song, but almost as if it's the negative of it. Like it's the photo negative energy of the Stone of Night Song...” – Murray [109:20]
-
Grieving in Frustration:
“Why didn't he tell me anything? Why did he wait until the city was falling? I don't understand. I'm unprepared. I work in the fucking theater.” – Hal [117:37]
-
On Risk and Secrecy:
"Was he bad? Was he good? Did he realize that some things were worth the cost? And were you all part of that cost? What if you were? And that makes him an asshole, but doesn't make him wrong. This is a big fucking mess." – Brennan Lee Mulligan [124:45]
Timestamps of Major Segments
- Candle Feast & Revolution Prep: 01:09–15:42
- Gala Logistics: 11:06–19:03
- Magpie Network/Funding: 19:03–29:57
- Contracts, Spell Glyphs, and Administrative Progress: 37:13–47:47
- Hollis Meeting & Paint Investigation: 54:48–83:05
- Blood Paint Ritual Forensics: 101:10–114:45
- Grief/Shouting at the Gods/Tree of the Hallowed Round: 117:13–126:09
- Gala, Political Swirl, and Approaching Violence: 128:09–162:01
- Combat Cliffhanger: 162:01–end
Cliffhanger Ending
The episode closes on a high-tension note:
- King Augustus and the Fotarch are mid-confrontation in a side room.
- Bolaire hears a crossbow cock outside, shattering the ambiance of celebration—combat is about to break out.
- The surprise round begins as the show cuts to black.
"I'm going to need everybody here to roll Initiative...and that is going to be all for this episode." – Brennan Lee Mulligan [162:22–163:00]
Takeaways for Newcomers
- The campaign is at a peak of intrigue: revolutionaries lay groundwork, the city’s powerbrokers circle each other, and the boundary between mortal and divine is dangerously thin—physically and metaphorically.
- The upcoming gala is set to be explosive, with magical, political, and personal stakes entangled.
- The group is battered but determined, prepared for desperate measures in desperate times.
For Next Time
- Will the party defuse—or survive—the imminent assassination attempt?
- Will truths about the paints, the gods, and Thiazi’s last moves come to light?
- What will happen at the gala, with so many factions and mysteries colliding?
End of Summary for Critical Role Campaign 4, Episode 24 Part 2: “Good Tidings”
