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Mighty Nein, ExU Calamity, and D20’s ACoFaF-inspired prints in my shop! Part two:

Great fun doing the art history deep dive on art styles and finding my own vibe with it.

12x18” and mini prints available here

Part one of this series posted here

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Critical Role EXU Calamity-inspired art prints now in my shop! Part one:

These were a blast to research and draw. I was going for a floating world woodcut print style but as I went on I deviated a bit more from convention.

12x18” and mini prints available here

Part two of the set posted here

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Our journey with the Bells Hells is ending tomorrow! Now feels like a good time to do this.

39 looks across 25 different characters, and that’s not even all of them!

From the moment I started working with Critical Role, I’ve been keenly aware of the privilege of my position. Not many artists get to experience the joy of seeing their designs cosplayed, drawn, loved, or even hated at the level I have. Every pitch, every sketch, every hour banging my head against every long render- it’s all been such a gift.

I’ll be eternally grateful for the years that the Lucky One was Me.

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More mighty nein doodle dump. I'm on episode 46 now and the pirate arc has been INCREDIBLE

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Calamity and Downfall: Super OP level 20 characters

Divergence

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In celebration of me finally reaching M9 reunited, here's Beau in Marisha's outfit!

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-Critical Role Campaign 2, Episode 140, "Long May He Reign"

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CR can make the animated m9 show however they want but one of the things they cannot touch is caduceus absolutely roasting trent at that dinner in 110.

Not only that speech needing to be word for word but everyone's reactions and Astrid and eadwulf just awkwardly having to react and respond to the m9 asking to have a drink immediately after

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It's so interesting rewatching the Mighty Nein. I didn't know too much about DND when I was originally watching it and I'm on episode 50, where they are in the worm tunnels heading towards Xhorhas, and they get attacked by two ropers.

And it's very clear (at least to me now) that they absolutely BULLDOZED that encounter. Matt had those monsters and they had four attacks with their tentacles each plus a reel-in and a bite, and there were TWO of them.

And in a single round, even when grappled with attacks at disadvantage - and remember they're only level 8 - Beau managed to stun one, Caleb slowed both, Jester banished the unstunned one, they whaled on the stunned/slowed one until it died, ran forward till Banishment ran out, then unleashed cantrips until the other one was dead.

That's. Insane.

The Mighty Nein are built different and I'm only really appreciating it now, I'm looking forward to watching the other fights going forward now that I'm seeing them in a new light

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It's been interesting coming into Campaign 2 as a newcomer whose been hanging around in the fandom for a minute because it means I'd heard the criticisms of the early campaign as being "directionless", but eight episodes in it's really ringing as untrue? Like the Mighty Nein have had clear goals and motivations the entire time, even if they're as simple as "Caleb wants to visit a large city with a good bookstore" or "Jester wants to find her dad but in the absence of concrete leads (though she does have a ledger of her mother's clients, of which her dad was one) has decided to make it her mission to help Fjord reach and enter the Soltryce Academy" or "Beau thinks the Baumbauchs are dicks so she stole their mail and found herself fascinated by this one contact called 'The Gentleman'".

What I think people were clocking about these early episodes, and describing as "directionlessness" was actually the lack of a big central Plot Goal that all the characters were working towards. The Nein at this stage of their careers aren't working to stop any wars or cults or slavers or sentient cities, they're traveling together because being together is convenient and all their individual goals are pointing them in the same direction (or no direction in particular so might as well stay with the group). Whereas the early episodes of Campaign 1 had the Plot Goal of "find and rescue Lady Kima" and, once that was achieved, "help Kima recover the Horn of Orcus". The individual members of Vox Machina had their own personal motivations that intersected with this common plot goal, but it served as something the whole group was reaching towards. The early Mighty Nein episodes don't have the same sort of overarching plot framework, as Matt opened up the world after the initial run of episodes in Trostenwald and left it to the players to decide where the pursuit of their individual goals would take them.

But every character pursuing an individual goal did give the early Mighty Nein a direction; they were all pulling towards something and making choices in hopes of being brought closer to it, even if those goals varied between the group's members. The absence of a Plot Goal didn't result in the group having no direction. Indeed, as Campaign 3 would later demonstrate, the presence of a Plot Goal doesn't guarantee a group will have direction. It's the ability of the characters to turn motivations into goals and actions that creates this momentum.

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One of my favorite aspects of Caleb is just how many particular but consistent little quirks he has. All of the M9 have their eccentricities of course, he just seems to have a lot of them to the point of standing out. Having to count money out loud, referring to people by their full names rather than nicknames as a term of endearment almost, his tchotchke habit (which was a big reason why him turning out to be a Chetney fan was so perfect), hand flapping when he’s really happy, and as seen in this episode for the first time, how sing-songy he gets when he’s very nervous.

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Keyleth redraw from 2022 🍃

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naptime 😴😴😴

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The Mighty Nein; On Hope.

@/mumblesplash // “Episode 76: Refjorged” - Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham // “Episode 46: A Storm of Memories” - Marisha Ray // “Mighty Nein Reunited: Uk’otoa Unleashed” - Liam O’Brien // “Episode 120: Contentious Company” - Matthew Mercer // “Episode 93: Misery Loves Company” - Laura Bailey // “Episode 112: The Chase Begins” - Matthew Mercer and Travis Willingham // “Episode 30: The Journey Home” - Sam Riegel // “Mighty Nein Animated Intro - Your Turn To Roll” - Kamille Areopagita and Kevin Areopagita // “Episode 94: With Great Power…” - Taliesin Jaffe // “Episode 69: The King’s Cage” - Matthew Mercer and Travis Willingham // “Episode 86: The Cathedral” - Taliesin Jaffe // “Episode 140: Long May He Reign” - Laura Bailey and Matthew Mercer // “Episode 97: The Fancy and the Fooled” - Liam O’Brien // “Long May He Reign” - Laura Bailey // “Episode 141: Fond Farewells” - Laura Bailey and Taliesin Jaffe // “Episode 131: Into the Eye” - Ashley Johnson // “Fond Farewells” - Matthew Mercer // “Long May He Reign” - Taliesin Jaffe

insp.

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Yes I like fictional characters a very normal amount. Don’t look at my blog.

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caduceus talking to plants with nothing but vibes is still funny to me