#exu calamity part 3

[somewhatsentientspellbook]

What the McFuck am I featuring the ExU Calamity characters that I thought of when the combination came up

[sparring-spirals]

Placing such a hard time limit using the Calamity was exceptionally good and also inherent to the tragedy of it and im thrilled by it. Don't get me wrong, forced time limits in tragedies and doomsday stories are common for a reason. They work, and they work well. but just, within the context of EXU Calamity, its really getting me.

because its always about not having enough time, right? its about expecting that you'll have more. There's complacency with power, and mistakes, and wealth, but maybe what the Ring of Brass were most indulgent with was time.

(you always think you'll have enough time, more time, another replenishment, another deal, another broadcast, another batch of bright children. youll get another time to hash out an argument with your father. you'll get another time to stay home with your kids and get to know them. you'll get another time to apologize and explain and fix your broken relationship. there's just something else, right here, right now, that should get done first.)

The Ring of Brass were rich, in so many ways. They had power, and wealth, and a million responsibilities, and so maybe they would've argued they had ZERO time, actually, and they just needed to sort everything else out first, and they'd have enough time to figure everything else out later.

but that's the point, right? There's never really a good time for this. for the important stuff, or the end of the world.

(Laerryn was, perhaps, the primary person in the Ring Of Brass operating under a time limit from the get-go, trying desperately to get the Leyline working, because if it wasn't now, it would be never. Because Quay wouldn't live that long. But even she assumed that was the extent of the time limit, that for Everything Else, there would still be time.)

(And is that such a ridiculous expectation? Is that so foolish of her? Of all of them? You never expect the world to end. You don't have infinite time, sure, but- you've got tomorrow, or next week, or- just not now.)

And so it is tragic, but it is also weirdly satisfying, to see the way time got shattered and stretched and sped throughout that last episode. The first second lasted forty minutes. They get maybe two hours at the hands of a damned demon, and its the best blessing they've ever had. Rounds are six seconds. A broadcast is maybe thirty. A healing word, a Wish, a Wall of Force, all buying paltry seconds that make all the difference. The dawn is coming, Avalir is landing, there's so much that has to be done, and that won't get done. We watch them make hard decisions, over and over, and over, and we keep saying "there's not enough time". Because of course there isn't. There could never have been.

[fully-functioning-pigeon]

I’m debating whether or not I should stay up to watch the apocalypse episode live, it’s the hardest decision a European based critter has to make in this day and age

[encyclopediacr]

Wiki Survey results: Feedback Pt. 1

Some useful background: Encyclopedia Exandria is a fork of the Critical Role wiki from Fandom. We began initial work in April/May of 2022, and formally announced the split around the time that EXU Calamity aired (early June 2022). A wiki is a living document, so many pages originally created on the Fandom wiki have since been heavily edited, but others have not. Feedback on all pages is helpful, but this is mentioned to give everyone some context on some choices, stylistic changes, and inconsistencies.

Another thing we want to address up front: our editorship is fairly small, and this is a volunteer endeavor. Additionally, within the past year, Critical Role has added both Candela Obscura and Midst - both of which we cover - to their repertoire. Darrington Press has put out two new full games, both of which we cover to an extent; and there are three separate comic series. We are pretty much entirely occupied by keeping up with new content and have not been able to go back to older material in depth. It may put things into perspective that unlike many other fan wikis, we summarize at least 4+ hours of new material almost every week, year-round. The single greatest way to address the majority of this feedback is by becoming an editor - even an infrequent one.

To that end, we are thinking about ways to make editing easier based on some of the feedback we received. Also: there are no qualifications! You do not need to have an encyclopedic knowledge - you just need to be able to look things up and make a good faith effort in citing them. 

We also want to direct you to other fandom projects and official sources, as some of the items we do not cover can be found here:

CR Stats stopped adding new episode information as of the beginning of this year, but has full detailed statistics for Campaigns 1 and 2 and Campaign 3 through episode 81. If you are looking for specific castings of a spell, detailed stats by level, or other granular discrete information, please check out the years of great work they did!

The Omen Archive intends to take up at least part of the mantle from CR Stats and has recently gone live!

The transcript search is an excellent resource as well; we rely on it heavily.

CR's fan art gallery and cosplay galleries are great resources if you are looking for a place to start for fan art and cosplay.

Finally: some of these questions are answered or addressed via the wiki's policies. These are available in the sidebar menu under “Wiki policies and help”. We'll mention some specific examples.

The following addresses constructive feedback from the survey, but thank you to everyone who left positive notes as well as to everyone who provided information on why and how they use the wiki!

The Feedback, Part 1: Existing Pages

The one to address first is quicker updates for new episodes. This is a volunteer endeavor, and the editor who writes the summaries works full time and lives on the East Coast of the US. The summary usually up within 36 hours of the episode's start (ie, by 7 am Pacific time on the following Saturday), and is often up within 24 hours. With the exception of current PC pages and relationship pages, which require some degree of analysis, most pages judged to be relevant to the latest episode are updated before the VOD drops on Monday. If there is someone who has a schedule such that they can immediately write the summary and would volunteer to do so that would be great, but until then, this is a turnaround we are satisfied with.

Relationship pages have recently been updated! These are difficult to keep up to date, and more editors are highly encouraged, especially since relationship pages are one of the more likely sources of bias and so multiple editors and perspectives are helpful in trying to avoid this.

Official images vs fan-created/galleries: All of our images are at this time from official sources (though many official artists are also fan artists). While in theory we would accept fan art and would distinguish that from official art, in practice we have chosen not to. The main reasons are that we want to prioritize canon depictions rather than pushing forth a specific fan's interpretation (with the understanding that there is variation even in official depictions), and, again, time. It takes time to seek out fan art, acquire permission, upload it, and post it. It can become outdated or even in contradiction with canon if we learn new information, and keeping up with permissions can become difficult if the fan artist leaves a social media site or the fandom. We love and support this fandom's artists and hope you check out their work - and our RSS feed on the main page is a great way to get to the fan art gallery - but we have decided not to pursue posting fan art for the above reasons. For more see our Image policy.

Google Search Priority: FANDOM is a for-profit business with an entire SEO team. We are a small group of volunteers. We would love to appear above them in Google searches, but FANDOM's entire business model is ensuring they appear first; they often appear above official materials for various fandoms. We do however own the domains EncyclopediaExandria.com and criticalrolewiki.com, and you can access us through those (which will redirect to our main page).

Style inconsistencies, page length, etc: different editors do different summaries, and have different thoughts re: relevance. The same editor may try new things. The nature of the episode also drives the exact stylistic choices: an all-combat episode will necessarily focus in more depth on the round-by-round combat since that is the content of that episode, whereas a brief skirmish in a more RP-heavy episode might be summarized more succinctly, even if neither combat is particularly heavy on RP or plot. If a difference in style seems to indicate a bias, or if you feel something isn’t being adequately covered in the summaries, please let us know; but as anyone can edit and is encouraged to do so, expect some variation.

Showing the abilities of magical items in table form: We are unsure of the benefit of this, particularly as many items are not terribly complex. If you'd like to elaborate, please feel free to follow up.

E69 or episode 69 or c3e69 not pulling up the episode: C3E69 (and other capitalizations) should work, as does 3x69, so if you have run into issues (especially recently after the server upgrades) please let us know. E69/Episode 69 will not, because if you don't specify a campaign, there are three episode 69s (nice). To make this a bit clearer, imagine you search on episode 1: at this point this could mean the first episode of three different campaigns; the first episode of four Candela chapters; the first episode of two TLOVM seasons; the first episode of three Midst seasons; or the first episode of three EXU miniseries. With that said, we can make a page on episode code conventions if that would be helpful.

Navigability in general: CirrusSearch has recently been turned on and is being stress-tested, so that may help with searching, but we'd love to hear more. We have improved some of the categories, but we’d appreciate more specific feedback.

Covering no longer available content: people are working through old Talks pages. It is a long and ongoing project, and as with everything else, your assistance and patience are appreciated, but it is actively being worked on! We also have a summary of the Feast of Legends, and a number of other since-removed one-shots such as Bar Room Blitz. See above regarding one-shots generally. Summaries for removed one-shots are of a higher priority of this lower-priority group.

Articles that don't correlate with fact or read like meta: This is something we take seriously, and if you could provide specific articles so that we know what it refers to, that would be a major help (the response did not provide any examples of articles) especially because this was an identified issue when a similar survey was run for the Fandom wiki. You can also flag these yourself if you wish; see the Neutral POV policy here, which includes instructions on how to mark a page as needing review.

Requests for a spoiler free option: The choice to not hide spoilers is a conscious one and is outlined in the policy here.

Thank you everyone, and we'll finish up our report of the survey results tomorrow!

[quipxotic]

I have a lot of thoughts about episode 60 of Critical Role, but I’ll start with this one. I’ve had my own issues with the frequent retreading of the “maybe the terrible people are right/would getting rid of the gods be so bad.” For one thing it’s been done...and done and done and done with barely any new ideas or arguments being added to the conversation. From a story perspective, for me, that’s not very interesting.

But Campaign 3 doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The events and relationships between characters and the gods in C1, C2, and EXU: Calamity are still there, still valid, but Campaign 3 is providing context to them. I think Matt is intentionally bringing Bell’s Hells into contact with people who are antagonistic to the gods to show that this is a very common point of view for a lot of people in Exandria, particularly people on the margins or without power. I don’t believe for a second Ludinus cares about helping these folks, I think he’s just after more power for himself, but he’s tapped into something real. So saying “but that’s not how the gods are” misses the point. That’s how they are to these people in this moment. Everyone is an expert on their own lives. It doesn’t make them right in the big picture, but they don’t have access to the big picture.  We the audience do have access to that big picture, which is part of why the argument seems so very strange to so many Critters.

[renatogpadilla]

SO LEMME GET THIS STRAIGHT:

The Luxon came to Exandria early on and ATE TWO GODS, so everything in the world that was currently fighting went "Aight, truce, let's lock them on the moon" and MADE A MOON OUT OF A CONTINENT TO TRAP THEM so now they're using Ruidusborn/Exaltants to get out.

Imogen's mom is (presumably) working with the Cerberus Assembly, and thus is now DIRECTLY IN BEAU AND CALEB'S CROSSHAIRS.

The Assembly and the Unseelie Court have joined together to construct giant devices in 3 different planes to do Something™ to Ruidus in hopes of either setting the Luxon free or controlling it. ONE OF THESE PLACES IS THE RUINS OF FUCKING AVALIR FROM "EXU: CALAMITY", the other is in the Feywild and the third is in the Shadowfell, WHERE VOX MACHINA KILLED DELILAH LAST TIME?!?!

DELILAH WHO WAS ALSO PART OF THE CERBERUS ASSEMBLY BEFORE SHE WAS KICKED OUT?!?!

Fearne's Grandma can help, but she's essentially a GIANT BABA YAGA who will 1000% ask for something horrible in return...

Both Ira Wendagoth and Liliana Temult could be an in for the Hells in the Material Plane, but good luck with that...

And finally, Planerider Ryn implies she's gonna call The Mighty Nein to help with this and tells BH to call in any favors (VOX MACHINA) they can possibly pull for the final assault!

DID I GET ALL THAT RIGHT?!?!?!

Man...

Taliesin REALLY picked THE WORST POSSIBLE EPISODE to miss, huh?

Side Note: Anyone else think the black thing that Thull uses to prevent resurection is sending souls to the Shadowfell to work on / guard the machine there and IF SO is Orym gonna have to fight Will and Derrig?!

Side Note 2: FUCK I gotta finish Campaign 2. Haven't even met Essek yet and that Nott's kid spoiler was something I could have done without...

Edit: I have, since posting this, learned that the Luxon came before the Gods and the Primordials, and thus can't be the same entity as Predathos... Apologies for the confusion!

[12pt-times-new-roman]

LORE DUMP LORE DUMP

Ludinus Da'leth leads an organization known as the Ruby Vanguard. The group may align loosely with the Verity, but is diametrically opposed to Vasselheim. They, or at least this mage, appear to venerate and revere Da'leth as a near-god himself.

The Vanguard's goal -- Da'leth's goal -- is to release Predathos to hunt the gods and destroy them. Their justification is that Predathos is the natural predator of the gods, and releasing it would therefore restore the natural order. They believe that the gods impose their will unfairly upon mortalkind, and that the only way for mortals to be free to do as they wish is if the gods are dead.

There are many gears in motion to free the chains that have bound every mortal life since the beginning of time on this planet. You walk in the shadows of the supposed creators, and have since the very beginning. Imagine if we all had the freedom to walk as we wish, undriven by fate, untethered by the wills of things that came far before we did and have lost the right to call themselves gods... from what we've understood, and have been working towards under him for some time, everything that ever existed is part of some cycle of life, an ecology. To the smallest scale, the tiniest insects to the mightiest beasts. There is prey, and there is predator. The gods we have been told from the beginning are the top of all life -- where did they come from? If they founded this world, they came from somewhere. And wherever they came from, they aren't the only ones. Everything has a predator that hunts it... and when the shark finishes eating the fish, it doesn't go after the plankton.

Now, of course, this sounds very much like the teachings of the Luxon -- I'm pretty sure Essek literally, word-for-word, said that the Luxon allowed its followers to "break free from the destinies the gods left for them." We also know that Ludinus was in extended contact with 3 separate beacons as of 836 PD (the two they stole and the one from Pride's Call), that the beacons were being studied by Aeorian mages trying to destroy the gods, and that Aeorian artifacts were the cause of Molaesmyr's destruction (of which Da'leth was a survivor).

And since wizard hubris is timeless, this of course also sounds like the talk we heard in EXU: Calamity about mortals being on-par with the gods. But there's a distinctly different tinge to this, I think -- to me, this feels like Ludinus is being manipulated by Predathos to release it, similarly to how Obann was being manipulated by Tharizdun.

Also, as others have pointed out, the machines he's building are called "malleus keys," so they may be related to the "factorium malleus" -- the name of the Aeorian god-killing weapon the M9 found in Aeor.

Ties to others:

Ira: Ira has been a "loose thread" for a long time, presumably since the Apex War. The mage says that Ludinus should know that Ira is still "out and about," so it sounds like they want to get rid of Ira because he knows too much.

Otohan: Otohan is another devout follower of this ideal and a member of the Ruby Vanguard. She's been part of the organization for a long time, but it still sounds like she reports to Ludnius, like he's above her in rank.

Unseelie Court: The mage hasn't been working directly with the Unseelie, but Otohan and Ludinus have been.

[utilitycaster]

So I wanted to cover that bit about the "not everyone gets the same amount of Christmas presents" that I mentioned here. The original quote from the EXU Calamity Wrap-up is:

"I didn't want it to be like Christmas where it's like, 'Everyone gets the same amount of presents.' (...) There's some people in this Brass Ring that are up to an asymmetrical amount of shady shit and that's realistic and that's going to create fun dynamics."

I think with actual play, there can be this artificial expectation that every does get the exact same amount of presents - focus, plot, items, etc - that we don't have as much for scripted works. Some of that is that in D&D, a few of these things are objectively quantifiable and some aren't and people struggle to evaluate equivalence (my endless struggle to get people to understand that the fact that some sorcerers get more spells is not game-breaking or unfair is indicative of this). Some is also that I think people take their own experience of playing D&D, in which you are deeply attached to your character and often see them as the main character of their story, and struggle with their favorite PC not being obviously the main character of the story on screen.

Critical Role gets this more than other shows, and I think some of it is that most other shows either have significantly smaller (3-4 people) parties or in the case of D20 are often more heavily plot-driven. Critical Role is also alone among the more popular shows in its lack of editing, so if one player is in focus, there's no way to condense all the little hems and haws and backtracking that is typical in D&D and so the plot focus seems longer. Its particularly long runtime means that a ten-episode arc focused on a character you're less invested in will take 3-4 months in real-time and 40-ish hours to watch. And finally, I think Critical Role's fandom has groups of people with pronounced preferences for certain actors that at least to me have little to do with acting/d&d skill or recurrent themes explored, and I have not seen this phenomenon elsewhere.

Getting to the actual topic though: the fact is, different characters require different stories! I think a prime example is Fjord having a particularly cool sword; he is a hexblade, and having a sword is a fundamental part of that class and serves as a symbol of the source of his powers, and on top of that he grew up having very little and so the possession of a special material item is meaningful to him in a way it wouldn't be to (for example) Beau, whose story is much more about overcoming the self-hatred she learned from her father's abuse; finding a position in the world she loves and in which she can excel; and in finding family in the Mighty Nein, in the Cobalt Soul, and with Yasha. Percy's story is deeply tied to a particular location and enemy such that it belongs in a self-contained arc with largely background development afterwards; Vex's story is a highly internalized one of constant slow progress with notable and consistent beats but no specific clearly defined arc throughout the entire campaign; and Keyleth's arc is a mix of concrete trials and ongoing personal growth. Or, going back to Brennan's original statement, Patia, Nydas, and Laerryn have background information that isn't present for the rest of the party because that's the story being told! It doesn't mean that Zerxus, Loquatius, and Cerrit don't have compelling backstories; it means that they are differently positioned within the city and the story and have their own specialized knowledge. In fact, giving these characters the knowledge that Patia, Nydas, and Laerryn had would significantly change the intent of those characters from what the players had planned.

Which is in fact another part of this issue: overall, I think most characters get a decent number of "christmas presents", but sometimes the fandom response goes further not just to quantity but also a belief that everyone should get the exact same things, too. I still recall people asking me about TLOVM and whether Vex and Keyleth had comparable screentime with each other, or if they had comparable screentime with the men in the story. These remain among the more baffling questions I've gotten - and I've gotten some weird ones - because it's such a profound lack of understanding how stories work. One would hope that all D&D characters get the same amount of development overall, but that does not necessarily mean the same amount of screen time.

Anyway: the questions to ask are not "who gets the most presents" because most people aren't great at defining what a "present" is or which presents are equivalent in the first place; it's "is this character getting developed in the story in a way that makes sense, and is the plot compelling to other characters around them even if it is for the moment centered on them."

[exandriacityshowdown]

Semifinals Poll 3 of 3

Rosohna, Wildemount: Rosohna is the capital of the Kryn Dynasty in Xhorhas. Due in part to the sunlight sensitivity of its majority-drow population, the city’s mages maintain a blanket of eternal night in the sky above the city. This magical effect is seen as a hallmark of the Kryn Dynasty, especially as it is also cast at contentious points along the Dwendalian border to reduce the disadvantage to drow soldiers fighting during the day. Rosohna is built on the ruins of the calamity-era city Ghor Dranas, the capital of the betrayer gods’ alliance during this conflict. Sometimes Rosohna is still erroneously called Ghor Dranas, especially by political opponents of the Dynasty. Rosohna is the centre of the Dynasty’s secret religion worshiping the Luxon.

image from the postcard merch by pretty useful co

Avalir: Avalir was a pre-Calamity flying city made out of the top half of the mountain Ygora. The Ring of Brass (ExU Calamity's PC party) lived and worked here, and by a certain definition it could be said that the Calamity began here, with the destruction of the Tree of Names beneath the surface.

image is official art by clara daly/eldritchblep

[demigoddessqueens]

Main Masterlist III

Critical Role - multi party dancer!reader // multi party Father’s Day // little one afraid of storms // there was one bed 🛏 // modified memories // Song: Insider angst // saying I love you to them // sacrificing yourself for them // snowball fight

Vox Machina - Percy and you expecting // sick Percy // Percy and Vax wedding // Percy angst // sister of Everlight // writing, kiss prompts with Percy // prompt ask for Archibald // close call with Vex’ahlia // layers of clothes // supportive Vex’ahlia // Percy in the rain // baby first word // facing a meltdown // one year birthday // siren seduction // baby on the way // Orthax horror // Percy confessing to childhood friend // in the acid room // sibling helping with proposal // yandere Percy + Trevor // perchalia smut // Percy drabble // selkie reader // if baby VM cried // ticklish Baby VM // sacrifice for them // vex and shy reader // ADHD reader // vampire reader // scanlan soulmate // love song // vax’ildan angst // Vax saving you // telling them they’re the best // surviving with Archi and Percy // playing with Little One

The Mighty Nein - cowboy traveler // Caleb taking care of you // close call headcanons // caleb leaves you // Caleb and librarian reader // Caleb saving you // expecting with Caleb and Essek // Molly with reader and kiri // Marion and babenon with poison master // Fjord with familiar // Fjord as a father // Cadeuces with aroace reader

Crown Keepers/Bell’s Hells - birthday baby // secret crush on Orym // Dorian and Ashton expecting // reader saving Cyrus // Will and Orym proposal // hugging crush // unwanted visitor + MN // poly with Dorian + Dariax and Orym // bell’s hells baby antics

EXU Calamity/Rings of Brass - Loquatious headcanons //

Dune - Paul atreides HC’s

The Martian - mark watney smut

The Dragon Prince ✨ - Soren + maid!reader // Chitty chats

The Sea Beast - letters from the sea 🌊

Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit - boromir angst

Exophilia 👹 - shadow monster

Star 🌟 Wars ✨- ahsoka + Ezra + Rey headcanons //

Spider Man NWH - yours, mine

Arcane/League of Legends - jinx angst headcanons

Blood of Zeus - heron headcanons // bubbly personality with ⚡️//

Assassin’s Creed - Christmas with the crew 🎁

Castlevania - drunken mishaps with VM and Cass // kissing headcanons // at the fair // pregnancy headcanons

Alucard - hollow knight sequel // dragon reader part 3 // season 4 Alucard // playing with Alucard’s fangs // hollow knight p3 //

Trevor - fatherly Trevor // Trevor vs wolf //

Hector - dragon reader //

Isaac - love story //

Genshin Impact - drunk headcanons // on your period // fluff + smut fic // pregnant headcanons // yandere scaramouche

Nezha Reborn - love at first punch

[a-couple-of-notes]

So I've seen a bunch of people talking about why it's so narratively perfect that Cerrit was the only survivor, and while I don't disagree, I did want to chime in about why.

(Under the cut, it got long.)

I think there's a case for "Cerrit was the least selfish and therefore the dice gods/Brennan reward him," though some of that discussion slides a little too close to "more moral = more deserving of life" for my taste. (Death as comeuppance for being bad and survival as a treat for being good is, like, the least cool way you could view this story.)

I think there's also a (stronger) case for "It's poetic that Cerrit, the one with no magic, was the one to survive the fall of the age of magic." It's definitely a dark kind of poetry - life survives after the loss of a great and terrible thing.

But my favorite read on why Cerrit's survival is so narratively perfect is this:

The great fault of the rest of the Ring of Brass - Laerryn, Nydas, and Zerxus especially - is that they reach too far. They dare too much. Brimming with hubris, Laerryn and Nydas want to wrench a part of the world up and claim the stars for their own; Zerxus tries to redeem the Lord of Hells with a gentle touch. Patia believes she can ignore what's going on and acquire knowledge from the Tree of Names; Loquatius, that he can protect Laerryn if he just stays by her side.

Cerrit doesn't have that foolish hope. He keeps his head down. Does his duty. Doesn't look up. When Laerryn shows no sign of caving, he caves and goes to protect what he can. Cerrit is mundane in a city full of wizards; Cerrit is also humble in a city full of hubris.

So there's the story, right? The Ring's hubris backfires in an explosion of magic and blight, and the one with humility gets to fly away.

Not quite.

See, there's this reversal that happens in episode four. Everything is destroyed in fire. The Ring of Brass has caused the Calamity in all their pride. But instead of humbly bowing their heads and lamenting their foolishness (literally - Laerryn says, "There's no time for self-flagellation"), everyone immediately turns around, gets right back on their pride bullshit, and tries to save the world.

And that's a foolish, impossible dream. To defy the Lord of Hells? To look at the inevitable ruin and say no? To reach out a doomed hand and try to redeem Vespin Chloras? To redo the Astral Leywright in half an hour, and then use it?

If the Ring of Brass had been cowed, had left like Cerrit in episode 3 (and to be clear, I'm not blaming Cerrit for that choice), Exandria would have been doomed.

So now we come to Cerrit's last-ditch survival. Here's a character who doesn't have the foolish hope that doomed his friends. He doesn't have Laerryn's ambitions or Nydas' big dreams or Zerxus' overriding convictions. Maybe that's what saved him.

Except now, at the end of it all, in the face of inevitable fire and ruin, Cerrit decides to do the impossible. Literally. He wants to fly up out of the crumbling labyrinth, past shrieking devils and waking gods, and get back to his family on another continent. To believe he could do that is a foolish hope.

But he does it. With aid from his friends, he beats a DC 30 - a setting for truly impossible things.

And that's why I think Cerrit's survival is so narratively perfect: because it perfectly caps off the duality of EXU: Calamity. Laerryn's Leywright led to the coming of the Calamity; it also saved Exandria. Zerxus pulled the Lord of Hells through with his unwavering belief in redemption, but he also saved Vespin Chloras with the same act. And though trying to achieve the impossible may have doomed his friends, it is what saves Cerrit.

[chungledown-bimothy]

my craziest trw take/theory on matt was that he was actually kind of nervous taking it on (like, brennan swooped in and delivered exu calamity. doing the semi spiritual followup would be intimidating) and defaulted to more of what he was comfortable with which is more of that default narration that washes across your head. cuz i have seen him be way crazier and sillier on cr, i have seen him enable shenanigans of his chaotic players (most recent example of this is actually emily's guest pc in campaign 3!). between that, the lack of box of doom, and some of the ruling i think we can agree he wasn't the best part of the season. i like him fine as a dm, and he wasn't a drawback to my enjoyment of trw. but i know there is an alternate universe out there where he meshed better with the d20 style if u get what i mean (of course there is just dm style preference but i'm giving my thoughts as someone who's seen more of him). adding onto this nightmare length of an ask thank you for making ur criticisms in good faith. i probably know if i sent this take into the wild i'd prob get shot at by both cr and d20 people alike lmao

iirc in the last adventuring party he straight up said he had a big box of doom note but was so nervous he forgot.

interesting, and good to know! it for sure makes sense, and it is a bummer that there was that potential that didn't quite make it to the table

thank you for joining this convo with your perspective with more cr experience!

[captainofthetidesbreath]

Welcome back to Marquet and to the post-Divergence! It's been quite a long time because of our trip to the Age of Arcanum—if you haven't watched ExU: Calamity yet, I cannot recommend it more. There's the playlist. In the meantime, here's a call list for today's episode of Campaign 3: 46 items, most of which are in the examples above, all of which are below the cut. Grab your own card at BingoBaker. Notes:

ToT is Taste of Tal'Dorei, the buffet place. It is such a long name for a bingo square.

Whitestone, Zephrah, Emon specific menu item is for MENU items. A station at the buffet (and we learned some of these station names in ExU: Kymal) does not count.

Pie is ideally that pie exists, but I'd allow it if Orym inquires about pie.

"precise location" or lack thereof for Treshi is like, a specific building. "That general part of town" or whatever is not precise.

As always, I love to see your bingos and almost bingos, even if I don't always remember to react or respond to them. I do like seeing them and they help me tweak the call lists.

bribe paid

bill paid only in silver

attempt to steal from Dusk

Fearne tries to steal from NPC

Fearne tries to steal from Ashton

Ashton tries to steal from Fearne

Cloudtop drink

Bread drink

a drink costs more than 1 gold

Ashton used to work at ToT

Ashton knows someone working at ToT

Whitestone specific menu item

Zephrah specific menu item

Emon specific menu item

Chroma Conclave reference at ToT

pie 🥧

precise location for Treshi

no precise idea where Treshi is

Greymoore State Home mentioned

Greymoore State Home seen

someone recognizes FCG

Treshi appearance

no Treshi appearance

Nobodies mention or appearance

Vox Machina mention

Little Mister

Pâté

Detect Thoughts

Telepathic Speech

Open Mind

healing spell cast

Maneuver

failed lockpick check

successful lockpick check

Deception check

Perception check

Persuasion check

Insight check on PC

Insight check on NPC

Intimidation check

Investigation check

Sleight of Hand check

individual Stealth check

group Stealth check

initiative

no initiative

[hazelcephalopod]

So that Handir, a researcher and hermit member of the Grim Verity, mentioned some ancient texts supposedly from Vasselheim which a now deceased member stole from there. The ancient text indicated that-

A) Ruidus didn’t exist during the Founding -when the gods found Exandria and made the various people of it. Catha did.

B) At the beginning there were two other gods in the pantheon who have since been “forgotten” and are no longer part of the pantheon.

C) Ruidus appeared around the time those forgotten gods disappeared.

D) Those last two events occurred sometime close to the Founding, near the beginning of the world.

E) Based on this there is a strong hypothesis that the two events are connected and speculation that the two gods could have become or been trapped in Ruidus. But that latter half (unless I have misremembered something) is speculation, little else is known of the moon and less about the forgotten gods.

This text is said to be one of the oldest records from the Founding time period, it’s supposed to be from Vasselheim, specifically the Temple Vaults beneath the Temple of Erathis -the Lawbearer- in the Quadroads. There is confirmation that Ruidus existed by the end of the end of the Age of Arcanum, and does not appear to be a new feature (based on Exu: Calamity and peoples behavior towards Ruidus). We also know that there is a red storm on Ruidus which seems to be a constant feature of the moon (from the telescope the BH looked few several episodes ago).

What exactly forgotten means could hold more or less weight depending on what precisely does that mean, for instance-

• was knowledge of them wiped from existence? A: certainly not completely enough that this text couldn’t exist.

• were their names obliterated, in a magical sense so they *can not* be known? A) unknown Handir implies the text may name them but his knowledge on them is somewhat limited.

• could they have since been “remembered” in some way? Possibly without most people realizing that? A) unknown.

Other information to consider-

Neither Handir nor the BH have seen this text, so all information is based on what Handir has heard about it, and he doesn’t know or remember all the specifics. As a member of the Grim Verity, Handir is involved with historical research which could be considered blasphemous. Such research is what led the group to steal the text and develop such an interest in Ruidus which is the subject of much speculation. Many members of the Grim Verity have also recently been killed, at least some by “the Gray Assassins” and Handir believes Vasselheim is the assassins origin and source of their orders. Currently the text is in Yios with unknown members of the Grim Verity.

So, could we actually know the deities mentioned? Maybe, that really depends on exactly how forgotten they are and if they could have been remembered since they disappeared or not.

Note I’ll be calling the two forgotten deities in the text the lost gods going forward.

But this isn’t an academic paper webbed site! This is Tumblr! So… For fun here’s several deities I’ve considered or seen mentioned and likelihood they are trapped in Ruidus somehow (again that is speculation not fact) or or one of the “lost gods”-

1) Vecna: the god of secrets, recently ascended. Massive asshole. Likelihood he’s in that moon: 2/10. Banished from Exandria. He could not be one of the lost gods, as he only became a god recently -unless he somehow replaced one of those gods which… could be worth consideration.

2) [REDACTED], the old god of death. Was replaced by the Matron of Ravens during the Age of Arcanum and their name was obliterated from existence, but they are known to have existed. Their name was obliterated so thoroughly that even other gods have forgotten it. What exactly happened to them is unclear, but Ruidus still very much existed by this point. Likelihood they’re in that moon- 3/10. Certainly not one of the lost gods because they existed long after the Founding until the end of the AoA.

3) The Observer, from Nirdal-Poc. Is a god -though a lesser one probably- worshiped in the hidden city of Nirdal-Poc. Don’t have a lot to say about this one, they certainly exist. Dariax probably spoke to them? Seems chill. Likelihood they are in that moon- 1/10 (Dariax talked to them maybe, also nah); likelihood they were in Ruidus: 2/10 (maybe they escaped?). Likelihood they are one of the lost gods: 3/10.

4) The Chained Oblivion. So, the big bad. The meanest guy around feared by Prime Deities, Betrayers, and most people alike. Plague of the Underdark, master of madness. Etc. Seems obvious that it would be connected to the weird psychic moon, but! The history there is a bit more complicated (I’m not going fully into that here maybe later). Likelihood it’s in that moon- 5/10. We know it was sealed away at least twice, it was released during the Calamity and then sealed back away wounding The Knowing Mistress in the process. Likelihood it’s one of the lost gods- 5/10 (being generous), the entity is often considered alien, an Elder Evil, and possibly older than the gods. When they arrived isn’t clear so hard to say if they could be one of the forgotten deities but possible. If so they have since been remembered and can affect the world.

5) The Luxon, deity worshipped in the Kryn Dynasty who is believed to be older than the gods, and to have found the world before them. It also appears to have dissembled itself on a quest for self discovery before the arrival of the pantheon. However, they’re veiled in a lot of mystery and religious lore, while it’s beacons power to reincarnate souls, so they remember their previous lives in adolescence, is unquestionable. The origins of the beacons is somewhat questionable, and The Luxon themself remains quite mysterious. Likelihood they’re in that moon- 6/10 (I’d say it’s more complicated than that if true based on the existence of the beacons but the beacons could be not quite what the Kryn think they are too). I could speculate endlessly. Likelihood they are one of the lost gods- 7/10. Because, if it’s a deity we know of than they are most likely to be one imo.

6) unknown! By which I mean, entities we have never heard about before. I could say 10/10 for both and leave it there for the joke. But, in all honestly I’m torn on the one hand, entirely new entities is an opportunity to world build and open up things and explore new ideas. On the other hand, the world already has a lot and bringing back old ideas in a new way is also very cool and very fun. So honestly I think it could go either way. Maybe new gods will be introduced, maybe we will learn more about ones that are already known. Who knows?!

[blackbird-brewster]

Tagged by @agent-snowflake (on this thread - I just prefer to make a new post for these)

Favourite Colour: royal purple, hot pink

Currently Reading: Fooled Around (and Fell in Love) - Part 3 for edits and tweaks.

Last series: Currently watching Stargate SG-1, listening to EXU: Calamity

Sweet, Savoury or Spicy: Sweet forever. But I also love spicy stuff!

Currently working on: Fooled Around - Pt 3!

Taglist (no pressure)

@gaelic-symphony || @phantomhag-666 || @the-kazoo-kid || @tedwinisconfused || @penelopetheconartist

[gobliiine]

critrole announcement wishlist:

- exu calamity part 2

- live show

- live show IN MY CITY

- series of more m9 oneshots

- exu crown keepers part 3

- ROBBIE DAYMOND FULL TIME CAST MEMBER GOD PLEASE IM BEGGING AAAAAAA