Description

Mission

The Crystal Chateau is both a top school of arcane principles and the center of the Allegiance's operations. Tuition is free thanks to subsidies from the city, in expectation that the graduates will contribute to the safety and global prestige of Ank'Harel. However, the university's programs are highly competitive, and anyone who wishes to become a student must first become a member of the Allegiance, which requires one to be referred by an active member, then reviewed by the Allegiance's leadership council.^[2]

Premises

The Chateau is in an upper-class southeastern quarter of the city called the Sigil District. The cobblestone of the streets around the Chateau contains traces of whitestone.^[3]

The Crystal Chateau is a large, multi-tiered structure made of a smoky quartz mixed with white marble, with grand, Marquesian-style domes.^[4][5] There is a large, heavy, white iron fence that surrounds the premises and a fairly well-kept garden grown around the chateau. A small stream winds through the trees in the garden, then flows under an opening into the the main hall; over the stream is a bridge off the main path that leads to the Chateau.^[6][1]

Inside the premises are at least two permanent teleportation circles in magnificent white marble atriums with arched windows, and most of the teleportation tablets made by the Allegiance are keyed to them.^[7]

Just outside the fence is the Emerald Ibis Relic Hall, where the Allegiance examines newly discovered artifacts, and the Scroll's Alcove, an apartment building mostly used by university professors and guest lecturers. Students study under the shade of a nearby sycamore in a courtyard called the Boughs of the Wild Mother.^[5]

History

Campaign One: Vox Machina

In 811 PD, Percival de Rolo asked J'mon Sa Ord who Vox Machina should trust to help them identify their powerful magical items, and J'mon directed him to James Cryon, head of the Crystal Chateau's program for arcane arts.^[8] Vox Machina visited the Crystal Chateau and flashed a symbol given to them by the leader of the city, but Cryon made the party wait for half an hour before meeting with them on what they insisted was important business. He gave them 10 minutes of his time, and only became cooperative when the promise of whitestone and especially residuum was proffered. He then expended his daily capacity for casting Identify and answered a number of questions about the Vestiges of Divergence, and expressed an interest in doing business after Vox Machina dealt with the Chroma Crisis—though he had no interest in getting involved himself, and felt that Ank'Harel was quite secure. He curtly declined an offer of assistance with the excavation of the Maw of Cael Morrow, and was touchy on the topic of the Den of Druja, which had involved a wayward Allegiance mage.^[9]

Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep

In Bazzoxan in 836 PD, the Player Characters (PCs) of this adventure may run into Prolix Yusaf, who is posing as an archaeologist but is actually spying on Aloysia Telfan, an agent of a competing faction called the Consortium of the Vermilion Dream. He is curious about the Jewel of Three Prayers, and invites the PCs to return with him to the Crystal Chateau when their missions in Bazzoxan are complete.^[10] If the PCs accompany Prolix when he uses his teleportation tablet to return to Ank'Harel, they arrive at the Chateau's Teleportation Atrium.^[11]

If the PCs choose to try to join the Allegiance, they engage in a series of missions for the faction that always bring them back to the Crystal Chateau. Their first mission involves returning a ruidium-corrupted Figurine of Wondrous Power to the Chateau's gatekeeper.^[12] The second mission might tip them off to a connection to a Chateau professor—Lymmle Wist, who is actually an infiltrator from the rival Sentinels of Memory—and leads them back to Prolix at the Chateau at the end. The third mission is set in motion by that professor trying to lead Prolix into a trap back at the Crystal Chateau, but expedition members can be questioned there, and the PCs may ultimately confront Wist. The fourth mission starts in the office of Crystal Chateau headmaster James Cryon, and leads to the PCs trying to find an adjunct professor of ancient literature at the Chateau, Galeokaerda, who is also an infiltrator, but working for the Consortium. The fifth mission both starts and ends in Cryon's office.^[13]

If the PCs instead choose to try to join the Consortium of the Vermilion Dream, their third mission involves infiltrating the Crystal Chateau to steal the Figurine of Wondrous Power, which leads to an interaction with the gatekeeper. It ultimately leads to the Emerald Ibis Relic Hall outside the university premises, but Crystal Chateau students can be found there during the day, and if they arouse any suspicion during the heist, they may be intercepted by Headmaster Cryon and his bodyguards.^[14]

Anyone who makes their way to the Allegiance's base camp in Cael Morrow can encounter Insight Acuere; most of her team has been recalled to the Crystal Chateau, and she's concerned about her friend Galeokaerda, who she doesn't know is a double agent.^[15]

Notable people

• Amkezne: Tiefling; as of 836 PD, a recent Chateau dropout who made a living as a charlatan "soothsayer" and seller of fine jewelry at an arcane shop called Mystic Pursuits, guarded by an invisible stalker she learned to summon at the university.^[16]
• Galeokaerda: High elf; spy from the Consortium of the Vermilion Dream working as an adjunct professor of ancient literature^[17]
• Grymond Trog: Elderly gnome scholar acting as gatekeeper in 811 PD^[18]
• Insight Acuere: Tiefling; adjunct professor of archaeology, heads the Allegiance base camp in Cael Morrow in 836 PD^[19]
• James Cryon: Elf; head of program for arcane arts in 811 PD;^[20] headmaster and one of two leaders of the Allegiance of Allsight circa 836 PD.^[21]
• Jor Raashid: Halfling; gatekeeper circa 836 PD^[1]
• Watcher Lymmle Wist: Human; agent of the Sentinels of Memory posing as a professor of antiquities^[22]
• Prolix Yusaf: Tiefling; masquerading as an archaeologist in Bazzoxan in 811 PD but actually spying on an agent of the Consortium of the Vermilion Dream^[23]
• Scribble: Kenku; research technician working under Professor Acuere^[24]
• Xot: Goliath; research technician working under Professor Acuere^[24]

Maps

Trivia

References

Art: