#and oh my god Cerrit

[ara-macao-cyanopterus]

Don't mind me, I'm just crying about the final moments of EXU Calamity for absolutely no reason

[marcussour]

EXU Divergence E03 random thoughts and bits

I can only imagine how chaotic was the ad recording session when they made all the ads for EXU:D

Sam Riegel, what the actual fuck? a fucking bug zapper man. What was he thinking man, I mean, shit was hilarious, I'm still laughing, but what is in that man's head

Is it me or the frames and the background are getting greener?

Look at that, Garen gained a feat instead of a level, so that was what the choice was all about

Kicking the shit out of anyone who rejects the notion of kindness? My guys

A grouse you say Brennan? Could it be a Greater Sage Grouse?

Oh, the notion of these remnants from a skeleton army just, wasting away, it's horrific but also, like the idea of nature reclaiming them while they still are alive in their undeadness, there's some kind of sadness to it

Gubbling the Goblin? Great NPC

"Well, if fate just ain't a bitch"

That was a great character moment for Garen, just, finding the block of stone that crushed his arm, and then, transforming it into something better

Oh, Erro

Add him to the long list of "Liam O'Brien characters that have made me cry"

Change is coming

Crokas you magnificent creature

Jasmine's finally rolling good

Seriously, that Nat 20 was so good that not only they found this amazing stash of things, but like, the odds of finding Erro's mother's shield

"This feels as impossible as meeting a moon man of Ruidus", OH YOU

Keep those nat 20s going

Why do good things even happen?

That's right, I actually hadn't make the connection that the bug from the Wildmother drove them there

See, even the hammer was from Garen's history

Agrupnin Vault? AGRUPNIN? Like Cerrit?

HOLY SHIT, THAT'S PATIA'S ORB!!

IT HAPPENED AND IT MATTERED!! HOLY CRAP, I'M HAVING A FLURRY OF EMOTIONS RIGHT NOW AND JUST, SOBBING (dammit Calamity was so fucking good)

Oh, so that's where the episode's name comes from

What's Liana's deal? Obviously something related to the Moonweaver

I like to see Brennan made the reminder not only of Nia's being the one that kept hope alive for everyone, but also, the amount of loss that she's endured, she literally lost people in every episode, of course she would react in that way

Also, Celia's acting, incredible

"Can you be disappointed in something you believe in, or is that a contradiction?"

Yeah, this debate, all around Nia, regarding the nature of faith and belief was, top notch, incredible stuff from both Brennan and Celia

Oh, so Liana was the Moonweaver's avatar

She kept her promise

Not strange, beautiful

I do have to wonder, is Liana the Moonweaver in the same way that the gods reincarnated as mortals in Downfall, or is this something different?

Is this the longer we've heard Crokas talk in a single scene?

Another Jasmine Nat20

Liam and Matt's faces when Alex spoke the name of "the orb of Avalir". Which actually, I think they only just realized that it was Patia's orb, because I don't recall them having the same reaction of recognition when Crokas first got a hold on it

Oh, so it gave Crokas a massive bonus in intelligence, which is why he's now so eloquent. Well played by Alex there

Took Liam a long time to figure it out and then... THE FLURRY OF EMOTIONS ALL AT ONCE

CERRIT AND HIS FAMILY!! PATIA!!!

Wait... Crokas is a monk, and he now has the orb, and the amulet from the Knowing Mentor, is Crokas the founder of the Cobalt Soul? Because we've all assumed since Calamity that the main theory of Patia's orb becoming the first stone, so to speak, of the Cobalt Soul, but seeing it now with Crokas, I'm starting to believe guys

Those nat 20s from Jasmine are the gift that keeps on giving

Downfall reference!

Something eternal wished to know the love of a mortal sibling

"I don't know if I like smart Crokas"

Oh, the Kephkedriel realization, hahahaha, and Garen changing his heart regarding if he likes smart Crokas

The march of the ents treants!

Would you like some magic nuts?

NUTS OF HEALING

DEEZ NUTZ

Man, the notion of a horde of unicorn going full Ride of the Rohirrim against an army of devils, Brennan was cooking there

Jasmine with a 4th Nat 20

One turn and Fiedra's already out

Imagine if Gubbling had been with them when they found the treants... GUBBLING DEEZ NUTZ

And now Nia's out. This fight is brutal considering how low level they all are

See, now Garen's out

"mash the nuts in her mouth", "put the nuts in her mouth"

NOTHING BUT NUT

"Laura Bailey would be so proud"

"the one in your mouth is not the only magical nut in this battlefield"

The unicorns destroying the devils is like, playing Robot Unicorn Attack Heavy Metal (which funny enough I was playing yesterday, because a friend reminded me it existed). Anyway, Blind Guardian's "Battlefield" plays in the distance.

Another horse girl in the CR Family

I AM LOVED BY UNICORNS AND THE MOON.

BY ROAD'S END??!! OH YOU. Look, I wasn't expecting for the origin of Byroden to hit me so much emotionally, but here we are. It's probably the significance and importance of like, being the City that mostly reflects the collaborative nature of the storytelling between Matt, Aabria and Brennan, can't think of another city or town that has gone through different iterations, one building upon the other, like Byroden (and the idea of Brennan being the latest one to put his mark on it while, simultaneously, being the one telling its origin).

On a similar note, I wonder if Torm's Hill will eventually become another settlement

"Would you like some nuts?"; "What are you saying? OH REAL NUTS"

Merfolk!

Talking Key!

Key humor! Brennan is just the best when it comes to these types of characters

"I wish I was still dumb"

To Vasselheim, hopefully with some pudding there

Brennan's inability to remember the "Is it Thursday yet?" will never stop being funny

[katiefratie]

AGRUPNIN VAULT!!!!! CERRIT!!!!!! Oh my god

[nochi-quinn]

exandria unlimited: divergence: episode three: dynasties and dystopias

First time doing this in notepad++ bc Fuck All That Noise, let's see how that goes

(context is microsoft is putting notepad behind a paywall)

the way it's going is I managed to get pulled away from my computer for the EXACT length of the ads lmao

yk I guess I could have used Sublime Text. ah well, I'm here now

one-shot of keph's cult when

oh celia's top is Nice

so is alex's

SO IS LIAM'S EVERYBODY STOP BEING PRETTY (don't actually)

otto no

this is just the mafia. this is how mafias start.

fiedra hugging their knees

"DON'T LOOK AT ME" mood

you can't make me cry about the kids fifteen minutes in, it's illegal

the colors in nia's art are so tasty

like a claddagh but a locket?

knowing mentor? not knowing mistress? am I misremembering something?

crokas is her kid now. joint custody with fiedra

you can't make me cry about the mom twenty minutes in, it's illegal

fiedra

AH knowing mentor same thing, interchangable god name

(I have not read Explorer's Guide to Wildemount)

okay but fast forward twenty years and torm's hill has a guard force called the seven swords

garen be nice

erro puts the team on his back

turn into goldfish and throw yourselves off

you're (mostly) level one, you're practically gods, it'll be fine

skeleton crab bucket??

"bones."

she's little, she's hard to see

"DANGIT"

"you're all under arrest"

why do I drink things while watching this, I inevitably choke-laugh

garen be nice

CAPTAIN GUBBLING

captain gubbling one-shot when

I am the snow guardian, guardian of the snow

"with our crosSBOWS"

"who doesn't like joy? you sort of have to"

GOD I wish I liked D20, brennan's NPCs are some of my favorite NPCs

"he left a boot"

"or drag a hoe" BE STRONG CELIA

(one time my brother and I got sent away from the table bc my dad kept talking about a "broken hoe" and we could not. stop. giggling.)

"is this the sea"

what is liam doing to his character's parents this time

dead parents AND dead spouse, he's going for a hat trick

crokas no

"you can't breathe down there"

crokas rushes in

if the only fire is a candle, the meal was cooked long ago

thee shield

"there has never been a week like this week"

liam

nat 20 to stealth into the trap

I'M SORRY WHOMST

YELLS

crokas solve puzzle

gee crokas how come mom lets you have TWO vestiges

patia counts, shut up

meanwhile nia gets thrown off the mountain

liana throws herself off the mountain

I was joking

I was JOKING

I stepped away, is the moonweaver hiding in liana?

oh, moonweaver WAS liana

please read edda-earth

OH nia is the proof of concept for clerics!!

moon bone cheek light bone hook hand car door man

"yeah! yeah we will!"

my roommate's been playing avowed and at one point I just turned around and went "is that fuCKING MERCER"

I just remembered that the moonweaver canonically tried to murder artagan for being a fuckhead

you broke crokas

did the orb give him an int point

it gave him SIX points!! it DOUBLED!!

can't wait for them to need those 20s later

ORB OF AVALIR

I didn't even clock the wis bump!!

no shut the fuck up immediately I will cry on you

HE MADE IT

I WILL CRY ON YOU

I STILL want someone to play cerrit's great-great-whatever descendant

"boarding a ship" shut the fuck your mouth

"I'm gonna end up carrying that, aren't I"

crokas is getting used to knowing things

"I don't know if I like smart crokas. he scares me."

does matt realize he's still "holding" the hammer

"I just realized how weird kephkedriel is"

is anyone here old enough to remember when windows would ask you Where Would You Like To Go Today when you turned the computer on

still no respect for crokas

them's ents

"would you like some magic nuts" BE STRONG ALEX

LIAM

alex fought so hard and liam just dove straight for the low-hanging nuts fruit

aw, I was wondering if he'd take draconic from the thing, I also like this better

they had to get at least one

"that's for the theatre people at home" "I'm right here" "go home"

ah yes, the magic 8 ball spell

not. what I was expecting.

"matt's running up to his bedroom"

yeet a tree onto the field

yeet a bunch of fire onto the field

matt just made me remember 311, I will be crumbling into dust presently

guys you're still only level one please

YOU'RE LEVEL ONE

GAREN ISN'T EVEN THAT

we love a tail attack

he remembered!!

BRENNAN THEY'RE LEVEL ONE

matthew

alex is in suffering

(matt and liam are having the time of their lives)

"laura bailey would be so proud"

do not say "mouthful of nut", do not say "mouthful of nut" -

dear The Dice please let him pull this off

shove IS a bonus action

aw, he can count now

"pelvically"

awakened shield!

"what time is it?" "it's clobberin' time"

dagger dagger dagger

well. crossbow dagger dagger

fuck yeah unicorns

these fucking nerds

I ship these old men so badly

thousand burning suns, etc

"flecked with white stone" I WILL CRY ON YOU

"I will cry as much as I am asked" "usually you have to pay good money for that" matthew

"I'm not carrying it"

ofc they made this silly moment heartwarming/breaking

alex you have to stop quoting stuff under your breath. I understand, I am that person. but also.

this is what breaks garen

big "ELVES CAME FROM SPIRITS" energy

"by road's end" BRENNAN

armley

his house is named sleevely

bc you keep your armleies in y- [giant hook yanks me off stage]

key's cursed

key punned, yeet the key

this is the lockpick thing merle had in balance

"I wish I was still dumb"

quick get fiedra a ukelele so she can apologize properly

MAH BOI

[elderly stammering]

garen get on that fucking boat so help me

GAREN GET ON THE BOAT

insight check the key

cross-examine the parrot

"whatdayisit"

[blorbologist]

Hi 👋 sorry to bother and I hope it's okay: I have a question about AooD (my brain decided to randomly scream Thoughts at me today)

Will characters fit into classic DND classes or are you planning to step away from that? I was wondering if Vex will still be a ranger/rogue or some other multiclass, like adding some paladin because of her close connection to divinity. Or maybe some other characters would have minor changes because they're living in a different age and society looks much different from what we know from VM campaign.

MORE than okay! I'm always looking to talk about this AU and poke at it more <3

I do want to broadly work with the constraints of the world; in Calamity characters still had classes, so I'll be sticking to that.

Here's where things get a lil interesting:

I'm sure you'll have noticed Trinket was not in that first chapter :)

Vex is a rogue/paladin in this AU! This was mostly inspired by Laura's responses to a question about alternative classes; she noted that she initially wanted Vex to be a rogue (but went with ranger so Liam could be rogue), and that the idea of late-campaign Vex being a paladin was pretty cool. The fact this exactly mirrors Vax's canon multiclass (bar the last level in druid) is also very intentional. ;3 However I'm letting Vex have ranged smite, because though everyone bickers that it'd be OP to allow... she's the twin of a god. Beastmaster was chronically underpowered in C1. She deserves this.

(Trinket is in the fic I repeat the boy is in the fic he's just not Vex's ranger companion!)

I'm a bit indecisive about Percy. Either he's an artificer, flavored that all his abilities are just gadgets and tinkering, or he's straight fighter like canon. He's 100% magic-free though, without any warlock abilities, and that definitely puts a chip on his shoulder in this mageocratic society. I fully intend for him to flatly call himself a diversity hire at some point. In much the same way that Cerrit has a bit of hubris for being a rogue keeping wizards in line, Percy has a lot of pride staked in doing just what these fancy mages can without any arcane abilities of his own, using SCIENCE!! to accomplish what they do. Not many people in Aeor who know him personally like him lmao.

As a hint of what's to come, most of the other characters remain the same class as canon, if potentially a different subclass or with a multiclass/different multiclass level distribution. Ex: Tary is either a pure artificer or artificer/wizard, Grog might be a zealot or giant barbarian instead of berserker... Ripley is still fighter/wizard, if an opposite split ;3

The one other major class change might be Pike, due to the lack of strong religious belief during the Age of Arcanum. Back in the day Vasselheim placed at least some importance in the divine, hence labelling attempts at ascension hearsay; see Calamity episode 1. But I don't think even they would be quite as zealous as they are in the modern day; Vespin was a mage, a titled archmage, within the city, and we don't know if Vasselheim had the amount of space devoted to temples it does now. She might be a Divine Soul Sorcerer with one level dip into Cleric, but I'll see how my Vasselheim arc shakes up.

Oh. I lied. There's one more major class difference, but it's with an NPC, and that I'll keep to myself ;3

[hanaaria]

okay so! calamity thoughts!! (under a read more bc this post got pretty long)

first off all - god it was difficult to pick a favorite character. all of them were just amazing but if I had to go with just one I would say that my absolute favorite was patia. we love a queen who sacrificed her whole life for a city and her grandfather's legacy. also her telling loras to fuck off was glorious

two - WHY DID THEY HAVE TO HAVE CHARACTERS WITH CHILDREN IN THIS WHYYYY 😭😭😭😭😭 all of cerrit's interactions with his two children (talon to wingspan...........) and also zerxus' reunion with elias absolutely obliterated me. emotionally speaking

oh speaking of my emotions being destroyed - my tear ducts have been hurting since yesterday from all the crying I did while watching ep4. like that entire last hour? I was constantly crying. I haven't cried so much on a single piece of media in a long fucking time

what also really got me is zerxus' whole arc if you can call it that. like. he's a single father. he's a still grieving widower. he's the first knight of the city. he doesn't even like the city he's protecting. he tried to redeem asmodeus the lord of the nine hells. he gets tricked by the father of lies. he's just a guy. like damn bro holy shit

laerryn and quay's love story really was a masterpiece. faced with the apocalypse they went from bickering divorced couple to having an impromptu wedding in an underground chamber in the span of less than 24 hours. absolutely insane. also quay throwing away his chance to save himself just because he doesn't want to leave laerryn????? I'm gonna be thinking about that scene for a long time

nydas my man was amazing. him saying "fuck the golden ring!" and diverting all the airships to help evacuate civilians........... man. also his interactions with shak, alessander and the sphinx were all hilarious lmao

honestly it's wild to think that the thing that pushed me to finally watch calamity was finding a m9 meets the brass ring crossover but here we are, with me not regretting it one bit

[dropping-out]

AN ESSENTIAL ADDITION:

I’m listening to Exandria Calamity and truly HOW DARE HE OH MY GOD BETWEEN CERRIT AND ZERXUS

I’m like full on hiccup-sobbing in my room right now while Zerxus sees Elias again fuck

Anybody ever have a rough time watching D20 because Brennan does parenting in such a specific and painful way for people who have complicated relationships/feelings with their parents? No? Just me?

[trashyshrew]

“All things end - lives, stories, even ages.” 

[saystheonewithaguitar]

Spoiler-Free Thoughts on ExU : Calamity Episode 3

1. A MASTERCLASS in DMing, RPing and acting.

2. I’m going to need the entire week to process this.

3. ExU : Calamity NEEDS TO BE ANIMATED. And it needs to be AT LEAST 2 hours long. Do another fundraiser and TAKE MY MONEY!

[scurvgirl]

Finally finished Calamity

[adventuresloane]

[ID: A screenshot of a tweet that has been edited to look like it was posted by Cerrit Agrupnin (@seniorsightwarden07), with Cerrit's official character art in place of the original icon. The tweet reads in all caps, "The reason I've always felt so outcast in my friendgroup is bc apparently they're all in a polyamorous relationship and I didn't fucking know." End ID.]

[12pt-times-new-roman]

lore updates and commentary for the EXU:C finale brought to you by tears, destruction, and sweet, sweet tragedy

Brennan. Starting the finale in the exact same way as the first episode. I fucking love this trope and goddamnit it's so well done. And the way he's handling the explosion of the tree, the shattering of a spell the size of the entire fucking world, the sudden and immediate intrusion of beings of unfathomable power who have not set even a finger on Exandria in thousands of years? Impeccable.

This whole sequence (and it's not even over yet) is just incredible. The way that Brennan is able to take this moment and stretch it to the absolute limits of tension, to describe in such visceral detail something so incomprehensibly powerful and so incredibly fucking dark is just amazing and it breathes so much terrible, tragic life into these moments that I have no doubt that Brennan was the absolute best choice to DM this thing (besides maybe Matt himself, but honestly? With this? I don't know).

"My greatest regret is that, when I have gathered all the mortals and my siblings into my pit, I will only have eternity to punish them." Endless torment without death -- this is what he is here to do. Gods. I'm so glad that EXU:C didn't go the route of "the betrayer gods were misunderstood and they had a point, actually" and instead went for the "the gods are eldritch horrors more ancient than the world and their minds are fundamentally incompatible with human morality" idea

The Raven Queen's ritual didn't just erase her name and the name of the previous god of death from history, scripture, and the minds of mortals -- her ritual erased them from everything, including the minds and knowledge of the gods.

Asmodeus left Avalir to the "Emperor and Empress," referring to the titans beneath the city, before leaving to a newly-built Ghor Dranas where he met Gruumsh and planned to storm Vasselheim. "I have help from some old allies of ours" presumably refers to the primordial titans, as the Betrayers fought on their side just before the Schism.

And just like those long nights spent in the line of duty, you'll still never get to hear children's laughter in this home. Cerrit's children got out of that scene but my heart did not

"I love you more than the stars, and the moon, and life itself." Moon. Singular.

Evandrin exposition! He volunteered to go through the leyrite instead of Laerryn, because he wanted her dream of traveling the realms of the gods to come true. When he got there, he became anchored to the other realm -- "the tree did not kill me, Exandria was killing me. I was a foreign thing, not of that world, and the tree was pushing me out." Zerxus got sent to the same place because Asmodeus sent him to a place between life and death as he made his decision, but eventually, Zerxus would need to go one way or the other.

There is no god that could walk the earth that I worship more than your heart. And there is a power beyond the stars that you alone can find, and though you may be his by working a foul magic, I bear your name. I bear it on this stone. And one day, I will bring you home. Goddamnit, all this talk and the star motif and the beacon in the intro, it means something and I gotta know what. I beggeth thee. (timestamp 12:02 am EST)

Oh my god. Oh my god. Zerxus casts Cleansing Touch on Vespin Chloras of all people, and with a 34 persuasion roll -- "I am going to turn back, I don't have the power to stop this. That mace, you know what it will do to you come sunrise. In life, I was an infernalist, I thought-- I thought I could do it, I thought I could do it and the world would remember me as its greatest villain... listen! I will turn back, and I'll cast myself far away from here but you don't have long! Do not bother with my name. I saw in the darkness that my name would be destroyed, and I wanted nothing more than for my name to be remembered. I am sure the Lord of the Hells will give me that. I am a fool... I am a fool, and I have brought ruin onto the world. Pray your name will be forgotten." Vespin Chloras, without an ounce of prompting aside from that first plea for magic, altered Zerxus' contract with the literal fucking devil to give him one more night apart from that creature, one more night in exchange for the moment that Zerxus gave him-- cast a ninth level Time Stop and gave Zerxus enough time (with help from Quay and Laerryn's ether stone) to cast Revify on Quay and Patia.

And the contrast. The way Brennan said that Zerxus could see the mortality in Vespin that he would never see in Asmodeus, the way he used that absolute devastation and shattering of belief and used that to instill that tiny shard of realization and understanding in Zerxus. The image of the mace actively writing Zerxus' contract, scribing the clauses that eternally keep him from deliverance, as the man steps out from the broken body of the tree that once protected Exandria with that same action.

"There's something magical inside you that you don't know if you'd survive releasing it... it's not Infernal, it's from the tree." It's a wish spell, bet your ass. (timestamp: 12:22 am EST) Update at 3:28 am EST: CALLED IT.

If the Primordials escape, "there is no new dawn for Exandria in any age of the world." And they will escape if Avalir touches down. And Laerryn has a working astral leyrite, with a tuning fork, during an apogee solstice, with no Arboreal Calyx in the way. Her plan is to use that to target the Primordials and move them to somewhere else, but either way, Avalir will eventually touch down or be forced down.

The Hells and the Feywild had an ancient pact that essentially bound Asmodeus to warn the fey of impending doom, effectively saying "this does not concern you, get out or be caught in it." This warning made the courts of the Feywild appear to all the fey in Exandria, offering a path home. And Quay stayed. I'm sorry, my lady, but I love another more. "You choose the woman and the world."

Quay's last broadcast ;-;

The stained glass from the intro is in the astral leywrite room!

Holy fuck. The Taxmen deal damage proportional to the highest spell slot level the target has available, and they can steal spell slots from people, and they have a short anti-magic cone, because they were made with a war in mind -- a war with Aeor. Indicating that Aeor specifically was a worry for Avalir -- not Zemniaz, Kethesk, or any other flying city (or even any other major terrestrial city, like Vasselheim or Shattengrod), but Aeor specifically.

Patia using the stained glass to cast a wall of force, glass shattering into this wall that protects her and Laerryn from the greatest villain in Exandrian history, inside the room with the astral leywrite and near-perfectly mimicking the introduction. gods. the cinematic potential of this entire thing is insane.

"You know me. I'd never have let my guard down like that. I took those blows." zerxus. zerxus. p l e a s e.

That's two failed death saves for Zerxus, minutes before sunrise.

With her dying breath, Patia sends a wish spell into the astral leywrite, and the city's batteries charge to 100%. and Quay's readied healing word saves the goddamned world.

They succeeded. In the end, they succeded, and the leywrite constructed a way out of this world for the Primordials. They were gone. And as the magic flows, energy erupts. The ground shakes. And the leylines angle up into the heavens. You hear the ground trembling... "What have you done?! No, no, no! If Domunas is the smile of Exandria, then let's shatter her teeth." In these final moments, there are many things that you do not see, but it would be right for you to know. A ship of sorcerous children flies from the city of Avalir-- I don't know how to describe what Exandria would have lost, and instead, all of those children are taken away.

Though the continent of Domunas becomes the Shattered Teeth, the titans are bound to a barreling leyline, thrown through as many realms as the astral leywrite could send them, and they do not join the Betrayers. Because they do not join the Betrayers, one day, the people of Exandria will triumph, and the Calamity will end. This eruption, of the titans destroying Domunas, will cover Exandria in ash for a hundred years, marking the beginning of the Calamity.

In Nydas' last moments, he hears his brother. "Nydas, this is Edilas. We're on the flagship, where are you?" "Yes, brother. All will be well." He got the kids out, the ships to those people. And he thinks that it's alright that no one will remember his dream, because it was real for them, and for those who survived it will inspire them to dream of things far better.

Zerxus knows that salvation is there for everyone, and though he goes to serve at the hand of the Lord of the Hells, Elias and Evandrin are reunited by a starlight griffin. And Evandrin swears that he will find this place beyond the stars where Zerxus lies, and will bring him home. And having given this world of Exandria a chance, the fire of Zerxus' love for Evandrin burns brighter than any fire of the Hells ever could.

In Patia's last moments, she sees that Laerryn did it. She succeeded. She remembers the words -- selfish, selfish, selfish. And at the end of the city that defined her, in that moment, she remembers her grandfather. "If a time will come when you should choose between the Por'cos and Avalir-- we built Avalir. We can build it again. What matters more? The dream, or the dreamer?" Her final thoughts are that there are many more dreams to come. She hears the voice of a young girl. "Dad? Dad, it's Maya, I've got some kind of orb, I've got--" She knows that the new paths don't have to trace the paths of the old.

Cerrit hears his stone. "Wingspan? This is Cleareye. I'm here." "I hear you, Cleareye." "What's happening?" "You sound so afraid. Don't be. Are you with your mother?" "Dad, this is Talon. We're back--" "Darling. We're in Jrusar, all is well. Wingspan, I'm here. They're both here. They're both here. Tell me you're fine." "I'm so sorry I was never there, I'm sorry I never saw you or them. If I can, I promise I will make it up to you." "That's a promise, dad. That's a promise." "Darling, is this goodbye?" "No. No. Those children are the best thing we ever did, and it's gonna take a lot more than this to stop me from getting back to them and you." "Don't feel regret. Moments feel like they're gonna last forever all the time. You look for problems, and I know you saw the moment you wanted there. Our children love you, I love you, you're a great man, and I don't know why--" And Cerrit survives. The last member of the Ring of Brass flies for weeks over oceans choked by ash and soot. You don't get to give your kids the world that they deserve, but you get to give them the world they fight for with you.

Quay and Laerryn are alive, for now. Together. Married, embracing, as a labyrinth collapses around them. "This isn't the most romantic place in the world, but it sort of looks like a church... I've been able to become anyone I want my whole life, but I just wanna be with you." "You're the best thing that ever happened to me, and I have lived my life in defiance of the gods but I know that meeting you is a miracle, and so I know they're real."

There's something so satisfying, bittersweet, and beautifully melancholy about a really, really good tragedy. 'Cause like the Greeks have said, character is fate. These people had a thousand chances to fix this, a thousand chances to change it, to alter the course of history. And that would've been a nice story. A nice story about people coming to their senses just in time to save the world. But that's not this story. No. This story is about, are you the woman who doomed the world, or the woman who saved it? Are all of you the heroes you strove to be, or the villains you might have been afraid you were becoming? In a world with this much power, what can be said to be the difference?

Why do we tell stories? To make sense of a world that's complicated and enormous. In Exandria, I can't promise what will happen to Cerrit and his family, or to the children of the Sorcerous Academy, or that your stories will be remembered... But the Calamity, because of you, will not be here forever.

Every single member of the Ring of Brass could, in some way or stretch of the imagination, be blamed for things that led to the Calamity. And yet, as their world is burning around them, Nydas takes his armada of ships and automatons to gather the citizens of Avalir and bring them to the surface. Quay makes one last broadcast to instruct the people on how to get to those ships, and makes a last-ditch effort to get their names to be remembered. Cerrit has already saved his own children, and now aids a friend in saving his. Zerxus, with his final hours in his own mind, saves his child, and makes sure that the children make it out of Cathmoira first. Patia sends her life's work, her life's memories, to a clever little girl who could use it to better the world around her. Laerryn takes her own life's work and uses it not to raise the city above all others in wealth, power, glory, or knowledge, not to save its image or its name, but to save its people at the expense of all of those things. And this, I think, gets to the heart of what this story is: a story of mortality and immortality, and about the worlds of difference that exist between the human morality of mortals and the alien morality of elder gods.

[stickandthorn]

OH MY GOD that hit of Cerrit’s child messaging him in the middle of a murder investigation that will soon precede the end of the world - oh god. That’s so painful. Ahhhh Brennan you madman. 

[honourablejester]

I haven’t watched Critical Role in a while, but since ExU: Calamity is going to be a shorter campaign, I thought I’d try get back in the swing. So. Um. Impressions.

I like Brennan’s style. Very fast moving, very intense. Let’s open straight on the apocalypse, yessir!

I also really, really like Zerxus. Like. This poor paladin gets immediately shoved in the deep end, visions of the end days, his dead husband, his child-as-was fishing in the void, and then a skyscraper tall devil god falls at his feet and he tries to help it. Just. Instinctively? And, I know, Asmodeus is likely playing with him, luring him in with visions of lost loves and playing the victim, but I still love that, even for a devil, Zerxus instinctively tries to protect him. From a god. Like, if this paladin falls out of kindness, that’s … going to be something. And if he proves kindness worth the risk, even more so.

Also, though, we’re all of ten minutes in and this poor guy already needs to be bundled in blankets and taken care of, holy shit.

And then … everybody else. Oh my god. They’re all assholes. Absolutely amazing assholes. I love it.

Laerryn is … my platonic ideal wizard. Favourite. Immediately. The whole … I am the chief engineer of this goddamn starship, and none of you even know what I do, but without me you would all be pancakes, so shut up and get to the point already. Move this along, I don’t have time. I love her. And she is going to do something incredibly foolish with this apogee solstice thing, tuning to the celestial plane, this is going to go … oh yeah, but I’m here for it. And how petty … She uses haste just to get down a stairs fast, the kids will get off the landing gear or they won’t, what kind of hairstyle check do you need from me … I just love her. Favourite cosmic wrench-wench, absolutely idiot mad scientist, Girl Genius sort of vibes. Perfect.

I honestly love how they’re all assholes. And they play it. To the hilt. They’re all so casually hoity-toity, better-than-you, listen, listen, we all know who’s the important one here. They’re going to fall so hard. They’re going to fall so hard. It’s gonna be amazing.

Laerryn and Loquatious are just amazing. Their whole dynamic. Both the incredible pettiness, the bitterness, the jealousy, but also the fact that they still work together, they still function perfectly well among their team, that whole tiny moment with the inspiration … Poor Travis not being safe on this side of the table, it’s amazing.

Speaking of Travis … He is a noir bird detective in an apocalypse movie, and it’s actually perfect, because this is Cthulhu style apocalypse, eldritch entities and the end of the world, and of course the detective is the one who finds the weird cultist corpses and the obliterated summoning circle and the one who gets jump-scared by the baddie in the closing minutes of the episode.

(I also absolutely adored his little ‘I think I’m in the wrong class’ after our apocalypse opening, both for the hilarity but also … you’re playing the rogue detective in an apocalypse campaign. You came into a horror campaign playing the pointman class. ‘I think I’m in the wrong class’, honey, you did this on purpose)

(His and Aabria’s reactions to everything are incredible, and I love that they’re sitting next to each other)

I just … I keep coming back to this, I love everyone’s arrogance. Cerrit and Zerxus are the mildest of them that way, they’re keeping it broadly professional, but every magic user in this party is topping the arrogance charts professionally. Between Loquatious throwing himself into everything like the world’s most obnoxious studio host/marketing director, to Patia’s casual ‘divinity seems such a hollow title’, to Nydas being all ‘how dare such a lowly peon approach me in person’, to Laerryn just not having time for literally anyone. They are such dicks. But, and this is the key thing, such competent dicks. Amazingly competent assholes. Who are likely just competent enough, at exactly the wrong moment in time, to bollocks the universe up entirely.

There’s also an interesting intra-party vibe going too. That whole last half, at the party, you can see how they all come together, but also how they all separate apart as well. There’s levels of involvement on different fields going on, and when the shit hits the fan you can see the layers start to separate slightly. Laerryn is completely locked on to her own thing, her apogee solstice, she’s the epitome of the mad scientist wizard I’m gonna do the thing. Nydas and Patia are playing a much more political game, him working up and Patia working down. Loquatious weirdly seems a little pathetic towards the end, just because of the shape of the investigation and the way it didn’t directly involve him and how he skated lightly around it. Weirdly for the bard of the group, the social animal, he seems oddly out of the loop. Him and Zerxus immediately chase down the outsider for information, because they’re also slightly outside. There feels a little bit like circles in circles: Patia, Nydas and Laerryn on the inner circle, Patia holding the court, Nydas holding the field, Laerryn holding the raw magical power, and then an outer circle, Cerrit, Zerxus and Loquatious, being relied on for information but not quite the direct power movers the other three are. Politically, anyway. I don’t know, it could just be the way the events themselves directly went down, but there felt like there was a slight separation there.

But they’re all also interestingly connected to each other. Nydas and Zerxus having that almost brotherly connection, Nydas’ family taking care of Zerxus’ kid, the way Zerxus clearly does trust the group enough to reveal … apocalyptic visions to them. Obviously Laerryn and Loquatious, divorced and petty and bitter, but still working together and almost instinctively giving each other little moments. Patia and Nydas’ political sympatico, despite the fact that she’s the highest of the high and he’s an ex-pirate who happens to be stupidly wealthy. Everyone just leaning on the fact that Cerrit is rock solid and will give them the heads up they need, and will scope out their potential enemies for them. It’s such an interesting story, this group of movers and shakers who gravitated together because they work together, they function so well together, to the point that people are starting to take note and infiltrate them, because they are good at what they do and this is a cut-throat mage city where you need to be. That guy from the Circle of Silver noting their little unofficial name for themselves, the Circle of Brass, the way they’ve been noticed, because they are so well positioned to hold the actual physical, political, informational that they do.

And then, because of idiot mages poking betrayer gods in ill-advised rituals, perfectly positioned to be stuck right in the middle of an apocalypse.

(I’m assuming, and I have not kept up on lore for Exandria at all, but I’m assuming Vespin Chloras was trying to get a betrayer god out of its prison before killing it and taking over its domain. Because a) you have to get them out to reach them to kill them, and b) you have to get them out so that when you kill-and-replace them you don’t get promptly stuck in their prison in their place)

Also, this whole episode, the pacing was amazing. Brennan as DM, it’s really just hit, hit, hit, hit, hit. Open, wham bam, apocalyptic visions, but then he just guides us on this whistle stop tour of the party and the city, hits the lore in every stop possible (helped by things like Cerrit’s ridiculous rolls), and it’s all moving. Technically, nothing much happened. We met everyone and we went to a party, and then some stuff sort of went down, but it was all seeded in from the get go, and there was so much … intensity and interaction along the way. Also, he does portentous very well. “If you look down and see the stars, what will you see when you look up?”

Um. In summary? I am enjoying this. I’m looking forward to see where (and how badly) this goes. Definitely.

And even if she wrecks the entire universe in one move … Laerryn is still the wizard I would want to be. Platonic wizard ideal. Absolutely.

[redxluna]

In all honesty, with Travis and Luis establishing their characters’ families so firmly I’m really stuck thinking of the impact of those that are left behind. Particularly in those that aren’t even in the city like Elias or even Cerrit’s wife, who are going to be left frantically trying to remember the last thing they said (even more so with Elias, oh my God, I am not prepared).

[arclundarchivist]

EXU Episode 3 Spoilers!

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Stares at the literal Devil walking right into the heart of the city Oh…oh they truly are fucked.

I knew, I knew it was gonna be Laerryn.

So the Tree of Names, has well had ties to the Feywild, the Seelie knew of its importance, the Queen who is currently after Fearne in the main game urged Quay to stop what was happening…

God I am so worried for what happens next.

Is Zerxus gonna get slaved? How are the rest going out?

I just…I just…I just want Cerrit’s kids to get out alright even if he can’t.

Laerryn talked about being remembered. But they’ve all been forgotten.

Laerryn Who Pushed To Far.

Nydas Who Heeded What He Hoped Was False.

Loquatius Who Prepared to Risk it All.

Patia Who Wanted it Know it All.

Zerxus: The One Who Kneeled.

And Cerrit The One Who Walked Away.

The Harbingers of the Calamity.

One question I have…and shit maybe it will be answered next episode, but are Rau’Shan and Ka’Kort still down their in modern Exandria, or are we about to see their cage also crack the fuck open.

Edit: Seeing some “Druids and Wizards are equally at fault” going on and I just…yeah the Druids could have been more honest. But does anyone truly believe that if they’d known the mages would have left that tree alone for even a decade?! In the literal “Age if Unbridled Hubris!” This is the era that spawned: Vecna, Halas, the Somnovem, Aeor. Nothing was off limits to them the character said so themselves time and again. They would have ushered in the Calamity far sooner in my opinion.