#c3e85

[ariadne-mouse]

Most people when Imogen talks in their head unexpectedly: that's unsettling

Evon Hytroga: oh thank goodness, someone to whom I can air my petty grievances

[marvelousbelladonna]

“You should answer the pretty lady’s [Imogen] first question” -Laudna

[strolling-through-emon]

except for laudna who is still just as animated in her head speak.

[sparring-spirals]

god that last post really reignited the corner of my brain dedicated to Lovin Fearne hours.

Fearne is the Most Sincere Liar you will ever meet. Yes she is lying to you but she does mean it. Also she loves you <3 and that's why she's taking your wallet <3

[vethbrenatto]

I do look like a lot of people. A lot of people are always like, "You look like my cousin!" "You look like my sister's friend!"

[tatersdoesstuff]

Banishment

You attempt to send one creature that you can see within range to another plane of existence [...] When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each spell slot above 4th.

[porterprophet]

Imogen is so fucking smart. Yes, of course we’re still the Vanguard. No, of course we didn’t mean to hurt you. It was just the Willmaster! Absolute traitor that we were totally hunting down!

[fearnesbells]

happy thursday, here’s last episode in a nutshell

[immult]

imogen you can't just say I'M NORMAL HERE! :D about your mental powers when you've been ostracized for the very same reason in your birth town and expect me to not weep about it.

[redjademilktea]

Okay one of the few times that whole "PhD student in history" thing is going to be relevant to anything I post here but last night's C3 episode has me feeling some sort of wayyyyy.

Specifically the part where they found those incredibly ancient elven ruins within the cave they were exploring. After barely escaping near-death, and Laudna fresh from deliberately channeling the darkness within her, they stumble across these ruins. Deep within a dark cave where they sought refuge from the harsh storms that plague the unforgiving Ruidian surface. Geodes full of sharp and jagged crystal jut out from the walls of cold, ancient rock. A river coming from some unknown source pouring into a rushing waterfall, leading away further into the depths. Matt did a phenomenal job painting the scene.

There, in those ruins - in that tomb, that crypt - they run across a hauntingly serene sight. Bones from the presumable inhabitants are crushed into the walls, unmoving. Frozen. Sharing the same space in a wonderful, striking, tragic, serendipitous juxtaposition is an enchanted garden. There, in the derelict remains of this once-vibrant space, the vestiges of that past life hold strong. A small bastion of life and healing amidst the monument of death and destruction.

It's within this space of dizzying contrast - air thick with the practically tangible weight of past tragedies - that Laudna finds a doll. A simple doll, devoid of features beyond the bare minimum that helps identify it. A toy, a companion? A relic of some child from so long ago. Laudna likes dolls. She decides - after asking permission - to keep it.

Now within her possession is a ghost. Not a literal ghost, mind you, considering those are in fact a very literal thing in the world Laudna lives in, but a ghost all the same. Through that doll, a child from untold centuries before is reaching, grasping at Laudna. This child, whose entire life, history, and experienced are lost to time - trapped in the past - has managed to pierce that temporal barrier and make themselves known to her.

In addition to this framing of a ghost, the doll can represent another type of haunting. That of a reencounter. Through this doll, this mundane object that often is filed away under the folder of insignificance, Laudna is confronted with the complicated web of violence, trauma, and grief that wraps around both her and the space around her. Laudna loves children. She has a childlike innocence that constantly bubbles at the surface. Yet beneath that is 30 years of unfathomable pain and loneliness.

Laudna, much like the ruins, is at times also frozen. Both physically in her unaging visage and mentally in the way she seems to revert in response to intense trauma.

So, within the confines of this long-forgotten space, the woman who just hours before channelled 30 years of darkness, anger, and hurt into a spell that served to strengthen her tormentor, picked up a doll. A doll that in so many ways symbolizes the innocence and joy that Laudna embodies, surrounded by tragedy.

It was such a beautifully haunting scene.

**If folks are interested, I am referencing the wonderful works of Avery Gordon in her book Ghostly Matters (1997) and Crystal Baik in her book Reencounters: On the Korean War and Diasporic Memory Critique (2019)**

[masterqwertster]

So I know there was some speculation (complaint?) that Fearne should have been perma-banished back to the Fey Realm when FCG did the self-banishing to get away from Otohan.

Which, fair enough. She's a fey being and has lived over one hundred years in the Fey Realm.

But, technically, the Fey Realm is not her Plane of origin.

Fearne was very specifically and purposefully born on Exandria for the plan to make her be Ruidusborn.

So, assuming the spell interprets "Plane of origin" as "the Plane you were born on" and not "the Plane you currently have residence on/have lived longest on," it's actually following the rules for Fearne to be dumped in a demi-plane with FCG.

Also, while Ruidus is magically locked away for most things by a mini Divine Gate, it is still on the Prime Material Plane. So that's why FCG (and Fearne) didn't/couldn't perma-banish out of that fight.

[ariadne-mouse]

LUSH GREEN FORESTS??? CLOUDY GREY DAY??? NOT ON THE MOON ANYMORE?? FUCKING BACKDOOR TO THE MOON

[marvelousbelladonna]

Laudna finds an old doll

“Can I keep her?” -Laudna

“Of course” -Imogen

[annemarieyeretzian]

orym attacking a mind-controlled ashton and ashton coming back to themself after orym’s first strike but orym being such a swift fighter that he’s already in the midst of taking the second and the third strike,,, hot (bonus: and imogen shouting “he’s back! he’s back! ashton’s back!” and ashton shouting “ow!”)

[sea-buns]

LAUDNA NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO FEED YOUR TAMAGOTCHI

[clocks-divorcing-ticks]

Love watching an experienced DM work. Following the self-banishment, Matt managed to maintain the tension and the threat of his big NPC while still rewarding the creativity of his players being in cloud form. He established that their enemy is intelligent and capable, even though they were always going to get away.

He's very good at what he does, and I learn a little something about being a better DM every single time I watch him do his thing.