#i think marisha ray wants me to die <3

[grigori77]

Critical Role, Campaign 3 Episode 49

Full five hour episode? Whoooo ... that's not, like, foreboding or anything ...

Is Sam ragging on Tiltok now? Hmmm ... SOACE THUMBS!!! XD Ad genres? Oh ... Australian Batman ... oof ... Ray Ray? Okay ... that was ... BAD ...

Marisha: "Aw shit, YouTube, FUCK!!! We're gonna get demonetized!"

Yay Micaaaaaah! Love a good shout-out, especially for such an awesome lady! :3

Okay ... so what's that weird shit in the sky? Are we in trouble ALREADY?!!

The edge? The edge of what? Oh ... SAM!!! COME ON!!! EXANDRIA IS NOT FLAT!!!

Right, so is this like some kind of tropical Northern Lights kind of thing?

Matt: "Make an Arcana Check." Laura: "Oh yeah, I got really good Arcana." (Rolls) "3." XD

Spark up? Laura: "Yeah! Explode the ship!"

Wait ... did Ashton just open up a tiny Black Hole over his own head?

So what DOES Apogee mean? Laura: "We're so smart. We're all just so smart."

Laudna: "It's like a big fatty Solstice."

Oh yes, allies ... good point. Who's left?

Laudna still has Justi's big bag of drugs. Hmmm ... whoa, Ira? Really? You're sure about that?

Laudna and Fearne blanking on Percy and Vex's full names and titles are so funny to me ... XD

DORIAN!!! YES!!! GET DORIAN!!!

FCG just really wants to Mad Max this shit, doesn't he? It's kind of adorable.

The Nobodys. Hmmm ...

Sam: "Keep in mind, Matt has to change voices for each Sending." Matt: "Oh, I'm prepared."

Fearne: "You're gonna die anyway, so wouldn't you prefer dying doing the right thing?"

Chetney: "I think we should be making a list, and, y'know, checking it twice ..." Ashton: "Yeah, that was NOT OKAY."

FCG offers himself up as a suicide bomber. "MAYBE there's some way we could sort of ... reconstruct me? After the fact?" Yeah NO.

Can they get in contact with Imogen's mum? Is that a play?

Imogen tries to SENSE if there's anything out there right now ... it's a BUZZ? Static and white noise? Intriguing ...

Okay, contact Ira first then ... ho boy ...

Marisha and her REAMS of notes ... if ANYBODY can remember what Ira's all about it's HER.

Laudna (about Imogen's message to Ira): "That was so hot." XD

Okay. Sounds like Ira's not just on board but actually RARING TO GO ... okay ...

SIX DAYS?!!! OOF ...

Chetney's stank ... hmmmm ...

Inviting Ira on board the Silver Sun ... all righty then ...

Matt: "I can make a meteor storm any time, Liam. Mysterious cataracts suddenly coming on ..." Yeah, still no patience for the Flat Earth jokes ...

Capture a monster baby? Really?

Laudna: "Imogen, you're basically suggesting we fly in a baby and use I like an Etch-A-Sketch?"

Arcane cores as makeshift bombs? Hmmm ...

Chetney: "I think I might have an idea that doesn't involve anybody ... exploding." Marisha collapses into giggles.

Travis switches back to Chetney voice: "Every once in a while I just get my youth back."

FCG's really cryptic request for a bomb to Joe is PERFECT. XD Oh yeah! That's perfect, send the Calloways to pick the bomb up.

FEARNE tries to sense if they're being followed ... while Marisha just inexplicably has an inadvertent outburst! XD

Can Milo get the Nobodys together? We shall see ... depends if they can make it to Bassuras in 6 days. And Milo just thinks FCG is clowning.

Okay, this plan is devolving into chaos ... and Ashley's mad jumbled notes are a hilarity all their own. XD

Contacting Ebenold Kai ... Imogen checks in yo see zbout the Shadowfell job and tells him about Ryn being petrified ...

Oh shit ... they're STUCK IN RYN'S FIRE PLANE HIDEOUT NOW?!!! FUCK!!! We never even THOUGHT about that ...

Chetney suggests just CRASHING THE SKYSHIP INTO THE KEY ... oh boy ... like that flaming zeppelin bit at the end of Atlantis: the Lost Empire? REALLY?!!!

Oh wow ... they're putting actual serious THOUGHT into this plan ... ye gods ...

"Ryn and Imogen" becoming some kind of fast high pitched tongue twister ... XD

But yeah, that's right, they SERIOUSLY need to get Ryn out of there ...

CAN Imogen's mother be TRUSTED right now? Is she an actual ALLY? This really needs to be addressed ...

They're trying to work out who to message for the final slot ... and Matt asks them to roll a D20 for their first day if travel! AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! Travis saves the day ...

Orym messages Dorian ... "Opal's getting a little dark." WHAT?!!!

Matt: "There are NOT enough chairs at this table, Ashley!" Are you SURE about that Matthew? REALLY sure? Hmmm?

Imogen decides to try contacting her mother while she's dreaming, hoping maybe it'll work better. Hmmmm ...

FCG wants to bring Fearne and Orym along "because they haven't been yet". Oh, so that's like an actual QUALIFICATION right now, Sam?

Orym (to Imogen): "Hey, if I had a daughter like you some day, I'd be real proud." Awwwwww ...

AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! IT'S ALL RED AGAIN!!! THIS LIGHTING'S ALWAYS SO SCARY!!!

Whoa! There she is! It worked!

Wait ... so ... what ... is she actually ON BOARD with this potential nightmare? SERIOUSLY?!!! What the fuck?

Holy fuck ... is she trying to brainwash her own daughter right now?

No, no ... no, Imogen PLEASE don't start thinking about going down THAT path right now. That is NOT the way!

"All the burdens being pulled away ..." Hmmm ...

Imogen: "That thing up there's just a God Eater, it just wants to EAT. That's all." Yeah ...

FCG starts to worry about the coin flipping as they start questioning if their god is actually on the level ...

As usual Ashton and Orym are the two making the most sense right now.

Oh ... so the colours in the sky are PULSES along the lay lines leading to the Solstice? Wow ... that is SO AWESOME ...

Laudna gets sozzled with Ashton. :3 "Who are you, Ashton?" "I am ... a blank slate." "I was aline in the woids for 30 years. I made a dead rat my best friend so I wouldn't go fucking mad." Wow ... this conversation is getting unusually intense ... Laudna's right, our boy needs to lighten up ...

Oof ... Ashton backstory is HARROWING ... Taliesin really does love playing poor broken boys, doesn't he? To be honest I wouldn't really have it any other way ...

Oh gods ... "Sam's gas cam" ... sweet fuck ...

Ashton: "I need to stop FCG from ..." Laudna: "Exploding themselves?" Ashton: "Not just themselves, exploding EVERYBODY."

Fearne and Orym discussing what if Imogen goes to the Dark Side ... ouch ... Fearne: "We just gotta watch our girl." Yeah ... what IS "the Thing"? Orym: "The good news is that Imogen's only 5% of our problems right now." Yeesh ...

Bedtime then ... Matt: "And that's where we're gonna take our break!"

I'm sorry, Sam's ringtone still makes me pee myself laughing every time I hear it ... XD

Matt: "And welcome back." No chaos this time ... what happened, guys?

According to FCG, the coin flips didn't work because he was asking about the Changebringer herself. "Gods are mysterious!" Yes Letters. OF COURSE that's it ...

"Was she? Was she? She was." Um ... yes?

FCG sends to Pike ... here we go ... "Robo-buddy?" XD Yeah ... Matt: "You get the sense she's ... PROCESSING ..."

Chetney wants Laudna to Spiderclimb under the ship to paint the keel WHITE ... interesting ... then Matt asks how much paint they actually HAVE. Ah ... yeah ... not that much, actually ... nuts ...

Imogen Sends to Hexum ... "Drop my name on Yunis." Um ... okay?

Bomb. Arcane bomb. "Barcane?"

Chetney: "Everybody's got stacks! I've just got MORE! Don't be jelly!" Laudna: "He's overcompensating."

Ashton tries to wTch Xandis so he can learn how to drive the ship. Matt: "Roll perception." Taliesin: "Oh lord." Instead Xandis just decides to teach them how to pilot since it is technically THEIR ship ...

Imogen messages Morri ... oof ... so she's HURT after that fight? Okay ... so maybe, maybe not. Hmmm ... but she MIGHT be able to help cure Run after ...

FCG messages Dancer, just tells her to get somewhere safe on the Solstice. Awwww ...

Now he reaches out to D, even though they wouldn't technically know WHO this actually is ... Worth it to fjnd out more about himself and if there are more like him ... whoa, he gets AN ANSWER BSCK ... and THERE ARE more like hom out there? REALLY?!!! Awesome ...

Travis: "is your meat tongue rigid?" Sam: "It's engorged." Oh boy .. cue Matt's exasperation and additional smutty humour. Liam: "Hi 20 year-old Ronin!" XD

Oh shit ... a crap roll for the new day! And now there's A FUCKING DUST STORM HEADING RIGHT FOR THEM!!! HOLD ONTO SOMETHING!!!

Xzndis tries to fight the wind to keep from losing folk and one of the masts starts to go! SHIT!!! Ashton saves the day by just ANCHORING the masts with hid Genasi rockiness, while Laudna tries to repair it ... and then it's GONE!!! Nuts!

2 hours later and the storm is gone ... but they've lost a day! Shit!

Ashton is WAY too contrite in his sobriety ... and Laudna sees RIGHT THROUGH HIM. She calls him a softy. :3

Wow, the night sky is now GORGEOUS. Really.

Yes, still need to contact the Calloways.

Orym messages Dorian again. Things are TENSE back there ... oof ... the Opal sitch is just getting WORSE ...

The Calloways are getting ready. At least THAT'S working out all right ...

Oh thank the gods ... much better roll this time ...

Aha! Bassuras! Imogen: "Were we chased out of town last time?" NOW you ask?

Whoa ... and now they're being SHOT AT!!! Run to the Calloway Hideaway, then ...

No, the Hideaway's still there!

Xandis drops them off close by and flies off so they don't give it away. Okay, here we go ...

Yay! Hello again Birdie! Hi there Ollie!

And Hondir! I missed him! :3

Oooh ... weird ass blue arcane core bomb ...

AAAAAAND here comes the Nightmare King again ... eep!

I have missed Matt's extra weird creepy Ira faces ... that twisted grin goes a long way ...

Ira: "I want to destroy what they've built. I want to show them that I'm the superior designer." Ho boy ...

Imogen tells him they destroyed the Feywild key. Oh, this is interesting ...

Ah yes. Ashton's lens smashiness comes back to haunt us. Travis (incredulously amused): "Motherfucker."

FCG gets a long distance look at the site ...

Ah, so they're NOT Aeormatons. THAT'S interesting ...

Sam: "As I was looking, I was describing what I saw to the group in Mercer-ian detail ... but more eloquently than you did."

Ira: "You tell your friend, right?" Ashton: "I'm more comfortable with 'colleague' at this point."

Fearne tells Ira her Nana says hi ... oh boy ... Imogen (sarcastic): "Ah, young love. Nothing like it."

Stuff to do. Time to SPLIT THE PARTY!!! Even though you know you should NEVER do that ...

Wow ... Laudna is like TOTALLY flirting with Ira right now do she can butter him up. XD I love it.

Ira doesn't know what Predathos is? Ashley makes an insight check, rolls STUPID high ... WHISPERS!!! YAY!!!

YAY! I love the crawlers ... :3 And so does Ashton.

Group deception check ... with advantage ... hmmm ...

Yunis' shop ... oh, I love a good old fashioned D&D in-game shopping trip. And Ashton drops Hexum's name ... oh, that's interesting. Instant change! Fascinating!

Nice! Proper contraband stuff now! Cool ...

Healing Potions, always handy!

Yunis: "These are interesting. They're not cheap, but they're interesting." Ooh! Enchanted healing jewellery! Always fun!

Whoa ... that Circlet is some badass shit!

Belt of Momentum ... oh, now THAT is fucking SWEET!!!

Holy shit this is some EXPENSIVE GEAR!!! Whoa ... Chetney's throwing in? It really IS the end of the world! And then STILL don't have enough? Oof ...

Haggling! Laura Bailey your Vex is showing! :3

Yesssssssss! It worked ... Nice! And now they're broke! XD

Yeah, they do stand out a bit ... so, back to the Hideaway.

Hondir asks after the rest of the Verity ... yeah, I think it's safe to say they're definitely SCATTERED right now. It's a bit of a mess ...

Going against Vasselheim without proof is all very he-said-she-said, really ...

Painting the ship with the signs of the Cerberus Assembly ... smart! And they're off again!

Xandis is suitably TERRIFIED of Ira. Yeah ... "creepy tall man" (snort!) ... yup ... and he just hands the Nightmare King off on Khalil.

Oh gods ... that Bloody Apron again ... Chetney likes that WAY too much ...

Yes, give the amulet to Laudna. She gets fucked up WAY too often ... meanwhile Chetney throws the Butcher's Bib at Imogen and she get SPLATTERED ... yeah, no, give it to Fearne, she's PERFECT for that thing.

Orym messages Dorian again, tells them to just HIDE ... "It's a little hairy on this end too." Oof!

Another day ... Liam rolls BALLS!!! GAH!!!

Whoa ... freakish arcane storm? That's REALLY BAD!!! AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Oh gods, so this is gonna be like a total magical pot luck? Oh fuck ...

FCG gives Xandis some SERIOUS Guidance. Nice! Oh ... and now he's a total arcane lightning rod? SHIT!!! Now everybody's getting FRIED!!! Oof!

TWO failures? NOOOOOOO!!!

Chetney werewolfs his way up the sails to keep an eye out for breakage ... eek!

Orym turns Seedling into a makeshift lightning rod to try and protect the ship ... it doesn't quite work all that well ... ouch! FUCK!!! THE BOW OF THE SHIP JUST BLEW THE FUCK UP!!! And now they're DOWN ... great ...

No. The crawler WOULD NOT fit on the ship. Except that Sam just ROLLED IT into working after all ... fucking hell ...

They LOSE ANOTHER DAY getting the ship back up in the sky again! Bloody hell!

Imogen: "You'd think the damn gods would be more interested in helping out right now!"

FOUR DAYS LEFT!!!

Taliesin rolls a NAT FUCKING 1!!! OH MY GODS!!!

ANOTHER dust storm! Just a regular one this time but STILL!!! Oh wait, there's something IN THE FUCKING STORM!!! Wait ... IS THAT A FUCKING PHOENIX?!!!

Jesus Laura! What is WITH all these ABYSMAL rolls?

Imogen attempts to Command the Bird ... oh NICE!!! Thank fuck for that!

Whoo ... they BOUNCED!!!

Sinkholes? Hmmm ... oh, a ravine! Head for that!

Yeah, they're about to get ROASTED!!! Imogen tries to get it with a Lightning Bolt ... WHOO!!! 29 points of lightning damage! Oof! Doesn't do that much, mind ...

HOLY SHIT ... Fearne tries to Polymorph the Phoenix into a goldfish ... and now it's just GONE in the wind! Holy fuck that was AWESOME!!!

Thank you Travis, FINALLY a decent roll for the day ... smooth sailing again ...

There is a VIBRATING SEED in Orym's pack ... what the fuck?

Now they're trying to find a way to PLANT IT without any soil. Hmmmm ... FCG has Graveyard Dirt! Oh boy ...

A Message Bloom? That is so cool!

IT'S KEYLETH!!! AWESOME!!!

Vureeo ... a sect of Ashari betrayers? WHAT?!!!

Imogen messages Keyleth so she knows where to meet them ... Marisha sneezes LOUDLY right when she starts and Laura just cracks up. XD

Imogen: "We've got powerful friends." Orym: "Yeah. Be nice to meet up with them." Yes. It really will. :3

Nightfall ... okay ...

TWO ... DAYS ... TO GO ...

Marisha rolls GOOOOOOD!!! Phew ...

This shit is making the weather CRAZY!!! Thank fuck that was a good roll ...

Oooh ... Imogen and Orym heart-to-heart ... whooo ... I can't with this heavy shit ...

Imogen: "You telling the truth there?" Orym: "I always tell the truth, Imogen." :(

Laudna and Imogen cuteness to finish the evening out, then? Yes please ... or even just some serious soul searching? So long as they're there for each other I'm all for it.

Yeah, I can totally picture these two adorable lesbians raising horses in the country together ... :3 That's a lovely happy ending that would be so nice ...

Laudna: "We transcend words, our relationship." Oh my heart! Imogen: "You're my tether, Laudna."

"The better halves make a better whole" ... oh gods, yes ... that's these two in a nutshell! I love it!

And a very drunk Ashton has a massive argument with nobody ... yup ... while Chetney falls asleep with thd Bib ... Fearne plays her dulcimer ... nd FCG makes profiteroles. "Critical profiteroles."

An unusually chill end to the episode, this one ... intriguing. Is it the calm before the storm, perhaps?

[makosgotmoxie]

Critical Role Campaign 3 Episode 21 Quote List 

"Marisha 'Finger Blaster' Ray." "The Digital Dominator."

"You have a line. You have another line."

"And she's going to uh umm um um um fucking cast cure wounds."

"Why would we brave another room of death traps?" "Because it's covered and I want to see it."

"They T 1000 through that bitch."

"Adults. Look at all these adults."

"We're gonna die. We're gonna die." "You already did."

"Start engaging in some piggy back."

"Shit. Balls. Motherfuck. Bitch."

"First, I'm going to cast yassify."

"Who's Santa Clause now, motherfucker."

"You can't kill her while she's not here, Matt." "IIIII am just following the tactics of the battle field."

"It's not you, it's the cold universe." "Natural 20."

"Oh, cool. Another problem."

"And then I'm on top of a werewolf on top of a lion."

"You are unhinged today, Matthew. Tax season is DANGEROUS."

"Aw that's so sweet." "I want to live."

"You idiot."

"Ask Caleb."

"We've gone full Keyleth."

"Y'all smell like charcoal."

"Ohhh bye map. You were terrible."

"Half of my grandma's stories were bullshit."

"No, sometimes you just gotta hold a fucking grudge."

"Looks pretty cool. It's a good poop read."

"Oh, right. Ignore me." "I keep trying."

"It'll have to be a scorched earth campaign now."

"That is a man who has not been working 70 hours a week for the last 7 years."

"Fake beacon." "Fake beacon." "Turkey beacon."

"That's what happens when you get COVID. Your shit gets stolen."

"Grass, you're very perceptive, but I think this might just be your.. blind spot." *sips cup* "I'm going to hide behind my cup for a moment because I'm so embarrassed."

"No, you've got some good, you've got some good tots." "I'm not complaining."

"You all level up."

[nochiquinn]

campaign 3 episode 18: aggressive gardening

I'M HERE I was playing persona

!!

now I get to watch everyone spell ashly's name wrong for two weeks and die a little inside every time

(the searchable transcripts do it too which gets. confusing.)

the power of Imagination and Crab

not over matt in a ponytail

I also have a weird affection for Big Scary Monster Noise Face Matt

me trying to tell my partner about the bags but he got a new phone today so I don't exist until at least tomorrow afternoon

"most fairies deserve it"

oh right at the top?? I'm just gonna sleep through this episode huh

MAP

TREES

Big Fanged Thing With A Fairy Tail

I don't know enough about Fairy Tail to dispute that

imogen is the andrenaline jolt that wakes me up out of almost-nightmares

matt stick your hand back down in the map cam I wanna look at your nails

aw he didn't say toothy maw

OH WAIT I didn't get my bingo card brb

a WHAT attack

it WHAT

"I'm going to. shit."

poison bleach spray

"I knew I should have brought the sage"

EXCUSE ME

sometimes flavor text is simply unneccesary

"like you're in young frankenstein"

fcg: help it's again

social link rank up

taliesin: that's a lot of dice

matt: that's is :)

"you can do anything you want, just not move or attack"

"oh it's a PARTY monster"

"it's about to shit another fairy!" "that's how fairies are made"

ashton sounds like me when I fell down the stairs today

"metabolism is off the FUCKING charts"

Shards of Muck

ray of frost should do extra damage bc it's a plant

you split those hairs laura

mala: laura bailey knows her rights

is that rain in the set background? it looks like petals

return of jester

alternately, jotun imogen

OH it was snow, matt's phone made it snow

"that was AMAZING. what is HAPPENING."

laura's been binge-reading the phb huh

I'm just picturing an Ochu from final fantasy ngl

travis trying to whisper at laura across the table before just snatching up his phone to text her

TWO LEGENDARY ACTIONS

"it doesn't mean it's legendary it means I had to buff it to make it fair against you monsters"

did travis "broke not one but two stress balls" willingham SEE a kid chew a pen to death

the return of flaming minxie

pizza hole

"WHAT'S A PIZZA"

what the fuck's a samoflange

"don't go to plantdick.com" alright who's already purchased it

look it's a higher number than 0 and therefore it's useful

pretty sure travis meant "chlorophyll piece of shit", not "chloroform"

"that literally made my eye twitch"

I didn't note marisha saying "I don't have time to make a third character" earlier but I'm noting it now

"roll a d6" ".....why?!"

"it's just acid"

marisha coming out of her perch and almost also out of her chair

"because I'm undead motherfucking BITCH"

"do you see visions of whitestone andy flash before your eyes"

"did you see whitestone andy's cameo in legends of vox machina?" "yeah, he was the next rope over"

laura beating liam up

looking forward to this art

"I died AGAIN"

the spidercrawl

NO EAT ROBIT

I gotta step away, nobody die

werechihuahua

what did travis put on marisha's cup

I enjoy the visual of this as a final fantasy limit break

I've said from the start this campaign makes me think of final fantasy, this is the logical extension

life needs liquid to live

"you gotta trust your instincts" "I don't know if I should"

if there is an animal ashley will give it scritches, even if that animal is one of her teammates

yes hype your girl up

"the power to turn blue"

"I've got so many weird rocks on me!"

chetney change back for the love of god

what is An Imogen

despite everything, it's still you

taliesin apologizing to the audience

liam

"last thing I think of before I die"

laura looking at matt like "I see what you're doing and I'm not impressed"

fearne discovers maple syrup

imogen cosplayers swearing up a storm as they order blue body paint off amazon

you could say they're.........turning the air blue

matt's face

"you should totally get some titty tassels"

laudna makes titty tassels with bones on them

travis "push the button" willingham

"this is not a real place, we're fine"

these were apparently done by kami, who did the c2 intro and the d&d beyond video!

oh, huh. missed this at the top of the show

OMAR

that looks like the exact amount of chaos I was missing

but do we get comfy matt back

I enjoy that they have the "glorious" voice line bc they know they're gonna be making gilmore merch forever

AS THEY SHOULD

adder dragonborn ADDER DRAGONBORN

"will it help if they actually sing something entertaining right now" "if it were anyone but sam I'd say yes; it's too easy"

I love that this is just how firbolgs sound

just openly begging fearne not to steal

taliesin

"if you're looking for a book repository......we're in a fucking swamp"

sam broke them all with his gas can

oh she has Rey hair

chetney cannot be trusted with this task

just get one room. you know better.

I am suffering the curse of a high-octane first half: no attention span for the second half

at least !uptime says there's only about a half an hour left

manufactured sideburns

"you couldn't afford me, honey"

"doesn't know where to put them or how to put them back" I am called out

"you're gonna fight the old guy" I mean that's what happened last time

[the-big-nope]

While I’m certainly nowhere near ready for the story of the Mighty Nein to come to an end, I am also a D&D nerd and there’s a new sourcebook coming out soon with a bunch of new subclasses in it. By the time Campaign 3 of Critical Role gets underway, that book will be published, leaving a wealth of new options for the cast members to choose from, so why not entertain myself by making barely justified predictions of what the cast is most likely to pick for their next characters! (Disclaimer: Some of the new subclasses have been confirmed and some haven’t, so for a few of these picks I’m just going off of what I think is going to be in the book).

Travis

Cleric (Tempest Domain): Travis has been playing lowkey EMT since campaign one, and Laura’s already confirmed that Travis almost went cleric for campaign two. Between Grog with his barb-boosted movement speed to get around the battlefield so he could shove healing potions into his squishier teammates, and Fjord multiclassing into paladin and lovingly tapping his friends with single hit points to get them back up, it would be delightful to see him fully jump in and embrace the classical healer role. Of course, this is Travis, so I don’t see him picking a cleric domain that doesn’t allow for at least some whoop-ass, and Tempest Domain brings plenty of it. You get proficiency with all armor and weapons, Divine Strike at level 8 for boosted melee damage, you can use a reaction to inflict lightning or thunder damage against any enemy within melee range that’s hit you. And if you climb up high enough in levels, you gain a flying speed equal to your walking one whenever you’re outdoors. Pretty nifty, and makes for a fitting subclass for a guy that’s voiced Thor on multiple occasions.

Blood Hunter (Order of the Lycan): I mean, come on. The only reason it isn’t number one is that it was already widely assumed this would be Travis’s pick for campaign two, and I wouldn’t put it past him to surprise us again. But still, we saw him get a taste in Liam’s one shot and he was clearly having the time of his life. Besides, we lost Molly far too early to really see the blood hunter’s potential come to life; it would be damn cool to see someone else take a crack at it, and Travis is enough of a D&D gambler to not shy away from the class’s riskier features.

Artificer (Armorer): Speaking of Marvel connections, if Travis doesn’t lean toward fantasy Thor, then fantasy Iron Man might catch his attention instead. Artificer is an official class now, and since it’ll be reprinted in TCoE by the time campaign 3 gets underway, it’ll be a lot more visible as an option. The Armorer sits in almost a perfect middle ground of what Travis has done before: tanky and a frontliner, but also still has spells and tricks to help the party. Plus, you get a badass suit of power armor out of it. What’s not to like?

Marisha

Bard (College of Creation): After Hazel Copperpot, we all saw the pure magic that was Marisha Ray playing a bard. I know she implied that Hazel was supposed to be her campaign two backup character, but I hope this doesn’t discourage her from making another one. There are quite a few bard subclasses, a number of which I could see her being drawn to (Lore, Glamour, maybe even Swords), but I really vibe with the idea of Creation. I can’t exactly say why; maybe the idea of the ‘dancing object’ feature in Marisha’s hands is very funny to me (remember Keyleth’s adorable “Be Our Guest” moment? That, but this time it’s a walking wardrobe beating the shit out of the enemy).

Paladin (Oath of Vengeance/Conquest): As of yet, no one on Critical Role has ever played a paladin from the start, only multiclassed later down the line. I think this would be a cool departure for Marisha. Both campaigns she’s played characters that were either suspicious or at least indifferent to faith and the gods. Paladins are typically associated with deities, but they’re not tied quite so closely to them as clerics are. It would be fascinating to see what she did with it. As for the subclass, I just think Marisha’s earned her turn on the Goth Character Carousel, and while I know Conquest paladin is very unlikely given its moral grayness by default which might cause undue conflict and that Vengeance is a much more likely and acceptable pick, I just think it would be a sexy character choice. 

Wizard (Bladesinger/Graviturgist): This is a much more pie-in-the-sky, wishful thinking pick on my end, but not impossible imo. Marisha has experience with heavy spellcasting already, so she probably wouldn’t shy away from a wizard, but like Travis I suspect she likes a bit of oomph to her characters, and probably wouldn’t play as support heavy as Caleb does. To that end, Bladesingers get a bit more survivability and some modicum of physical prowess alongside their spells, while Graviturgists are definitely on the more aggressive side of the spectrum for wizard subclasses, with unique dunamancy spells to boot. I’m not sure how restrictive Matt would be about Xhorhassian characters in the next campaign if it takes place on another continent, but hey, you never know. Plus, she picked one of Matt’s homebrew subclasses for the current campaign; it would be cute if it happened again.

Liam

Druid (Circle of the Shepherd): At some point before Critical Role comes to end (hopefully far in the future), I know Liam’s gonna play a druid, I can feel it in my bones. He's too big of a Kiki fan not to. However, while Circle of the Moon might feel obvious given the potential for homage and how much he likes turning into animals, I feel like he might regard it as getting too close to old territory (also, I don’t know if Circle of the Moon is like an exclusive thing to the Ashari tribes, and if it is that would be rather restrictive for building a backstory). If that’s the case, Circle of the Shepherd feels like the next best bet. It has some great support options via the totems you can put down, and rather than becoming badass animals, you instead just get really good at summoning a fuck ton of them. It’s like Frumpkin, but ten of him. And they’re bears. (Honorable mention: If Circle of the Moon would feel like treading old territory then I’m certain Circle of Wildfire would too, but I’d bet my dice collection it would at least be tempting). 

Cleric (Unity Domain): Listen. The pure sap potential that would be at Mr. O’Brien’s fingertips with this subclass is incredible. The domain all about strengthening and protecting the bonds between friends and loved ones?? The domain with the Channel Divinity that can spread damage taken by one creature across the party however the cleric chooses to distribute it to lessen the blow to the individual??? The domain that used to be called the Love Domain???? I’m practically gagging on the soft moments and unspoken devotion conveyed through spellcasting already.

Fighter (Rune Knight/Psi Knight): Liam has yet to play a tank in a long-term campaign, and while I’m more enamored with the potential of the above classes, it would be novel to see him play a character with an actually respectable amount of hit points. However, I feel like if he was gonna commit to a straight frontliner, he’d probably want something a little more unique than a Champion or Battle Master (especially since he’s played those already for one-shots). Rune Knight has some fun options and built-in flavor, and with Psi Knight you can basically be a Jedi. Not bad options at all if you ask me.

Taliesin

Warlock (Fiend): Yeah, it might be expected, or Percy might have been too close to warlock anyway to feel like there’s new ground to cover, but hear me out. Both Percy (who, let’s face it, was a warlock multiclass in all but the actual mechanics) and Fjord were the classic reluctants. They got in over their heads without really knowing what was going on, and once they did they wanted out, cutting ties with their patrons and getting clear with only the scars remaining. I want to see Taliesin commit to a warlock in a way I imagine only he could manage to pull off. How fun would that balancing act be, to have a character that has no intentions of breaking their pact, who’s here for the powers, and is willing to work that delicate balancing act between keeping what he’s got and not letting his contract holder get the better of him? Give it to meeeeee.

Sorcerer (Psionic Soul): Psionic Soul has a bit of that eldritch flavor that vibes with Taliesin so much, with the added interest of introducing a brand new feature to 5E, the Psi Die (with this subclass, using them can do things like letting a sorcerer learn a spell they don’t already know for a few hours, allow you to cast spells without needing verbal, somatic, or material components, and can give you telepathy). Taking both Percy and Molly into account, it seems Tal likes to lean into those unique additional mechanics, and while Psi Die aren’t as risk-heavy as Gunslinger or Bloodhunter, they do add a layer of variability and unpredictability that seems to match his style.

Rogue (Swashbuckler): We only got a little bit of time with Molly, and so missed out on the opportunity to see Tal play a more cavalier character this time around. If he feels like leaning away from spells next time and back toward martial, I think a high-charisma, high-swinging swashbuckler from Tal would be a delight to watch.

Laura

Barbarian (Path of the Ancestral Guardian): Laura deserves to hit things, okay? Yes, spellcasting is great and comes in clutch frequently and Jester’s amazing, but you can tell Laura misses doing fat stacks of damage to the enemy in a single round. I personally think it would be amazing to watch her just cut loose and go full rage machine. As for the subclass, I’m not glued to the idea, but Ancestral Guardians are pretty kickass, have decent support capabilities for a barb without detracting from their DPS at all, and it doesn’t tread on any previous characters’ toes or their aesthetics.

Rogue (Scout/Soulknife): Laura deserves to play her favorite class at last, okay? She’s been class poached two campaigns in a row, and though that resulted in both Vex and Jester and I wouldn’t trade them for the world, Laura has earned first pick. Seeing as she already dipped into Assassin as Vex and Sam took Arcane Trickster, I could see Scout being a viable subclass choice. It’s in the classic sneaky vein, relatively simple in concept, but comes with features that grant easy-to-understand benefits that you can never turn your nose up at (boosts to movement, advantage on initiative, giving advantage against a target to everyone else in the party, etc.). If she’s looking for something a bit flashier, Soulknife has the benefit of retroactively dunking on Vax by taking the basic knife-rogue and making it better, with psionic knives that you can manifest with a thought, that can teleport you around Whisper style, and cranking up that stealth to ridiculous levels by just being able to turn invisible for ten minutes, no concentration or spell needed. The psionic die mechanics are a little funky of course, but I don’t imagine it’s any trickier than learning to manage all those cleric spells.

Monk (Way of the Open Hand): Between Beau just being super cool and her brief stint as Farriwen Breeze, monk wouldn’t be a surprising pick from Laura. An Open Hand monk might be the definitive version everyone knows, but you can’t deny it’s a solid subclass, and between previous overlap and the concepts of the other subclasses just not seeming to fit, I could see the classic being what she went with. But hey, it’s Laura Bailey. She could surprise us with Way of the Drunken Master or something.

Sam

Ranger (Monster Slayer): Let’s be real, I don’t think this would be his actual first pick for a Campaign 3 character, but the amount of shit-stirring he could achieve by making a character with the aim of pissing off Laura Bailey specifically would be hilarious (and since Matt isn’t completely opposed to UA and acknowledges that PHB ranger has a lot of issues, I wouldn’t be surprised if they went Revised Ranger this time).

Warlock (Genie): Actual first pick here, Pact of the Genie Warlock is confirmed by now, and the potential of a warlock in the hands of Sam Riegel is pretty vast (for some reason I’m imagining he would go the ‘spoiled sugar baby’ route). The subclass doesn’t matter as much, but the Genie one is nice in that, depending on the type of genie patron you pick, you can get a wide variety of extra spells, you get a container like a classic lamp or lantern that you can bamf into for short rests, and you get a limited Wish ability for your capstone, all features I feel like would especially appeal to Sam.

Barbarian (Path of the Wild Soul): I want to see Sam play a fairy barbarian. ‘Nough said.

Ashley

Fighter (Eldritch/Echo Knight): Ashley really seems to vibe with the crushing power of martial classes (she does love her brutal kill descriptions), so I could see her sticking with it rather than going back to full caster. However, I do see her picking one of the magical subclasses for some variety after Yasha. Eldritch Knight is a classic and reasonably easy to manage, but tbh I’d LOVE for it to be Echo Knight. And think, if my wishful thinking came true, with Ashley picking an Echo Knight and Marisha playing a Graviturgist wizard, they could link up their backstories and be a traveling Kryn battle duo that left their homeland behind to explore the world!

Sorcerer (Draconic): If she does want to go back to full-time casting, Sorcerer doesn’t require near as much bookkeeping as a cleric, druid, or wizard while still having decent variety, and the Draconic subclass is a bit beefier than the other subclasses. Also, it would be the third campaign in a row where Ashley Johnson’s character eventually got wings, soooo...

And tbh I have no idea what a third pick might be for Ashley, so I’m just gonna throw a dart or two at the board and say either College of Whispers Bard or Way of Mercy Monk *Shrug* We can only wait and see!

[drinkingdeadpeopletea]

OK, here's a question for when you wanna kill some time in quarantine: For each D&D class, who is your fave character of that class in any D&D actual play?

oh INCREDIBLE question. and VERY needed. let’s do this. in alphabetical order. under a cut because fun fact there are fourteen D&D classes and i’m incapable of just saying my opinions without explaining them.

Artificer: For a second I thought I’d have to put Taryon Darrington despite not actually being up to those Vox Machina episodes yet, but then I remembered–my sweet boy! Gorgug Thistlespring! brilliantly pulling off a late-game multiclass that feels in-character, develops a side of him that had been coming out throughout the whole season, and is clutch in those last couple episodes. and got us the Hangman back! stan artificer gorgug and gorgug in general. 

Barbarian: honestly, it feels like a little early to be making proclamations like this since it’s only been 3 episodes, but King Amethar of House Rocks is up there. an old solider who loves his troublemaker daughters and misses his sisters and hates being in charge? who’s going to need to learn who he can trust and what it really means to be king? yeah…….plus i like storm herald. 

Bard: Figueroth Faeth-the-Insatiable, baby!!! power of MUSIC power of REBELLION power of FRIENDSHIP power of BISEXUALITY power of LOVE and that is how you play a BARD!!!!

Blood Hunter: i only know one blood hunter so Mollymauk Tealeaf wins by default. i think it’s how he’d want to win. 

Cleric: there are so many clerics who i love so much, but….Kingston Brown from Uptown beats them all. the quiet leadership, the devotion, the love for other people. the responsibility and the taking of responsibility. the self-sacrifice, not in grand gestures but in little things every single day. don’t get me started or we’ll be here for hours. 

Druid: Moonshine Cybin!!!! the druid by which I measure all other druids. the character by which i measure all other characters. again we’ll be here for hours if I get started talking about Moonshine but anyway things that don’t belong find a way of belonging when she’s around......

Fighter: this made me realize what a varied class fighter is. Like, Percy de Rolo and Theobold Gumbar and Fabian Seacaster are all fighters. that said, my favorite is the most beautifully basic fighter of them all, Hardwon Surefoot, who I would not have expected to be my favorite based solely on character descriptions but who rolled up in Episode 1 drinking in the sound of the fiddle and caring deeply about the Green Teens no matter how much he tried to hide it and i was in love. The Tender Emotional Bullshit Of One Jacob Penn Cooper Hurwitz--

Monk: brief shout-out to loml sofie bikes, but it has to be Beauregard. I loved Beau from the second she stumbled into episode one as a rebellious, impulsive, self-described asshole and immediately started flirting with the first big strong woman she saw, and I have only loved her more and more the more she has grown and changed and developed. marisha ray KNOWS what she is DOING and it is a pleasure to watch her work. i love beau so much. 

Paladin: Beverly Toegold V. like, the “joke” description of Bev is “a very good boy” but like....[SPOILERS] this kid got thrown off a tower, watched his dad almost get executed, watched his home get destroyed, has been mind controlled multiple times, has almost died multiple times, saved his dad, killed his dad, watched his friends die in front of him, accidentally helped kill his own god, had to see his boyfriend dead in front of him and then watch him get kidnapped, and he is still good. he is still trying every moment to do the right thing. “what an honor. what an injustice.” 

Ranger: oh, no contest with this one, it’s Vex’ahlia. best and most underrated member of Vox Machina, lady of Whitestone, champion of the Dawnfather, glue that held Vox Machina together, good-aligned always, light of my life, queen of my heart,

Rogue: Riz!!! Gukgak!!!!!! a lawful good rogue, baby. i love detectives and i love kids who are trying so so so hard at everything all the time and i love protective characters and i love intelligent characters and i just love riz, okay? 

Sorcerer: I think it’s Pete the Plug, actually! I was high-key skeptical about Pete in the early episodes, because he really was slinging extreme power around like it was nothing, and also selling drugs to teenagers, two things which now that I type it out seem very connected. but watching his growth and development over the season, watching his relationships with Nod and Kingston and the rest of the Dream Team and the way they changed him…..yeah. Pete is very very good. 

Warlock: FJORD. i have loved this texblade from episode 1 and i love how far he has come and how many hidden depths there are to him and how he is flawed but still good and protective and loves his friends so much and is low-key holding the M9 together even if none of them realize it and. listen. i love Fjord so much. 

Wizard: and last but not least, my baby girl Adaine Abernant, who has come SO far over the past two seasons while also remaining exactly who she is. who has learned to channel her rage, how to extend forgiveness but also exact brutal revenge, how to be the Everyone Oracle. “maybe there’s hope for us yet,” indeed. (also I did seriously consider putting Alanis for this one even though she is....not a pc.....which should say something about how much i Love Her)

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E54 (March 12, 2019)

Four years ago today, Critical Role premiered!

This week’s guests are Marisha Ray and Travis Willingham!

Announcements: Gen Con: live show Friday, August 2nd, with a panel on Saturday! VIP Tickets on sale 3/19 at 10 AM Eastern, GA the next day. The cast will also be at ECCC this weekend! The Kickstarter has broken $7m (and more specific goals)!

And it’s time to discuss Episode 54: Well Beneath!

Stats for this episode! It’s been 117 days and 38 episodes since Beau last trained directly with Dairon. Beau has used 132 ki points. Fjord has cast Misty Step 11 times via the Summer’s Dance falchion.

Despite the loss, Beau feels pretty good about her and Jester’s display in the Four Corners; as soon as Dairon revealed herself, “she was like, okay, yes.” Had Dairon been revealed, Marisha suspects they either would’ve had to fight the whole bar... or undertake a second rescue mission.

Fjord’s interested in the ways in which Caduceus interacts with the Wildmother; part of that is wanting a deeper understanding, and part of it is knowing he’s probably going to need some sort of godly help with his current situation.

Marisha has been waiting as a player for Beau to have a bit of a moment of realization about her motivations for doing good; the encounter with Dairon was ideal for that, and they were one of the only people from whom it would really sink in.

Fjord’s reaction is “pure panic” every time he sees orcs. “There’s almost a false expectation with Fjord. He wants to sit down and have a drink with an orc.” He has a lifetime of questions for them---there weren’t a lot of orcs around in Port Damali---but hadn’t realized how many of them aren’t big conversationalists.

Brian: “Does part of Beau respect when someone calls her out?” Marisha: “100%. She’s a bit of a bully, and she knows it, so she’s going to respect people when they push back a bit. I’m not saying that’s healthy.” Brian brings up the contrast with the more archetypal beginnings of the VM characters. Travis points out that they’re still fleshing out the characters. “Why would you want to do everything safely and properly from the get-go?” Marisha brings up how D&D is a safe way to experience that kind of risk-taking and failure, and builds empathy. Marisha: “I didn’t like people like Keyleth---I didn’t undertand them that much---until I was Keyleth for... four years?”

Dairon was the first authority figure “who didn’t give up on Beau and think she was too difficult to be worth investing time into.” Beau deals with abandonment issues with her parents, and that definitely comes through with her interactions with Dairon.

Talks Machina exclusive reveal from Creative Director Marisha Ray: “Turns out, Beau? Uk’otoa the whole time.”

Fjord feels more comfortable in The City of Beasts---despite feeling very out of place---than somewhere like Port Damali, just because the focus is off of him for now.

Gif of the Week: serious table vs. party table.

Is it upsetting to be only 2 HP away from a victory? “Since I didn’t get my mentor captured by the opposing army... I... appreciate it... for story beats,” Marisha says, completely convincingly. “WHY THE FUCK, THOUGH?”

Brian asks if there’s any mistake they made in the show that they still dwell on. Marisha: “My meltdown during the Kraken fight? That was tough.” Travis found that fight especially hard, too. Brian points out that, while there’s a bit of a reset button for mistakes because they come back in to play the game every week regardless, it can also be tough because “this shit lives on the internet”.

Everyone reminisces about the goldfish incident from campaign 1.

Beau’s affirmation to Dairon that she only “kinda” trusts the M9 was accurate, knowing them. She doesn’t think there would be malice involved, but...

“Vandren would often say, ‘Nobody cares. Keep going.’” A lot of Fjord’s tough-love approach to interrogation comes from Vandren (although part of the intimidation was Travis belatedly realizing he has a pretty high intimidation bonus).

Fan Art of the Week: super cute fanart of everyone!

On Beau processing Dairon’s advice to not get attached: “I don’t know, man. Still unpacking that one. That’s going to take a bit.” Brian talks about how that’s an interesting part of the mentor archetype: at some point, you disagree with your mentor, often because of the lessons they taught you. Marisha notes that Beau was a little shocked back at Dairon’s level of contempt for the Krynn; that was the first crack.

Is Fjord actually yelling “Eldritch Blast!” in battle? “You bet your ass he is! He is a Dragonball Z fan, and that attack cannot be loosed without the proper wordage!”

Everyone’s looking forward to a full Beau arc! Marisha’s had time to flesh things out, “but there’s also the truth that Beau’s young; she’s human, in her twenties. Only so much can happen to her.”

Beau didn’t tell Dairon about the Beacon. “Beau is weighing all the information she has, ‘cause she knows it’s valuable.”

Bonus Search for Grog Questions! SPOILERS ENSUE

They both loved revisiting their characters. There’s pictures somewhere of everyone staring at their old character sheets before the show---Marisha in particular had pages upon pages of stuff.

Sir Bertrand Bell was “100%” inspired by Gilderoy Lockhart. Runaway Bride was also on TV, and Travis grabbed some inspiration there as well: “Richard Gere’s a handsome little son of a bitch.”

Marisha and Matt had talked about how they didn’t want the whole one-shot to be “a bummer”, so Keyleth chose to take this trip as a distraction and an excuse for compartmentalization.

Reaction to Liam’s character? Marisha: “Oh, FUCK YOU, bro. Fuck you.” She wasn’t actually mad, but in Keyleth’s eyes, it was a walking reminder.

Travis never thought he’d top the Kevdak moment, and it’s still at the top just for the importance to Grog’s character, but the odds of those natural twenties at the end... “I’ve scored touchdowns that didn’t mean that much to me.” It was the same die he used in the Kevdak fight.

Apart from their own characters, which were they most excited to see again? Percy. The massive damage, the Percy one-liners... Scanlan’s songs. The first time Vex said “Darling.” Pike saying “Grog?!”

Also, Brian desperately wants to host The Bachelor. “ABC, I know you’re listening.”

Brian just sort of wanders off with Henry until Max shuts down the bit. “Okay, that’s it.”

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E42 (November 20, 2018)

Dani was actually goofing around quite a bit here, but this still makes me think of some glorious 90s band, so I’m keeping it.

Anyway! The inimitable @eponymous-rose has done more than her share of recaps lately, so here I am picking up where I’ve been slacking off. Tonight’s guests are Marisha Ray and Laura Bailey (with special guest appearance from Ronin! Awwww), so I can hardly wait. We’re discussing Episode 42: A Hole in the Plan.

Tonight’s announcements: Brian is bursting with an announcement he’s not allowed to reveal for another six months. His favorite guess: something about him stealing all the money from the company and moving to an island, but that’s actually his long game, not the short one.

Throughout November, they’re raising money for Operation Supply Drop, Travis’s favorite charity, which supports both active and retired military.

No episode of Critical Role this week due to Thanksgiving. There will also be no episode of Talks Machina next Tuesday; instead, they’ll be airing Sam’s Fireside Chat! This was a reward from the Critter donations to the Pablove Foundation.

Critical Role hoodies are back in the store; the print is very similar to the original with a bit more embellishment on the text on the back.

“Honey Heist 3: Tova’s Honies” airs this Friday at 7pm Pacific! Marisha: “It was bear-nanas.” Laura: “Oh, no.”

CR Stats: Jester has cast Blessing of the Trickster 31 times; 15 of those times were on Nott. Jester technically won her bar brawl with Sorris! She dealt 16 points of damage to his 15. Beau continues to have the most natural 20s with 49. She also has the most natural 1s, womp womp. Marisha: “Well, I roll a lot, you know?” Brian: “Well, your husband is also a tyrant and not to be messed with.” Marisha says she thinks Gil’s die is cursed and everyone gasps. How dare.

Does Brian feel the pressure of following Dani, who was such an excellent host last week? No; when he went through the potential list of fill-ins, the only one that made sense was Dani.

Marisha sees Darktow as a super-abusive socialist society, which does not sit well with Beau. It’s a silk trap.

Jester’s conversation with Caleb was triggered by Fjord’s kiss, especially with her wondering if it really meant anything to either of them. Laura thinks of her high school crushes and how hard you crushed & how devastated you were at every perceived slight; Jester only has the view of romance through her mother, which means physical affection is very different from emotional affection in her mind. On Brian’s asking, Laura’s high school crush was Han Solo. When Laura’s sister was 12, she paid her $15 to paint Han and Leia in a dip kiss, which she still has framed in her current house. I’m dying, this is adorable.

Beau doesn’t exactly trust that Fjord is going to do the right thing, but him sleeping with Avantika doesn’t trigger her red flags in terms of “looking out for each other, keeping each other in check.” She’s looking more for them bullying someone when they don’t need to, being violent when it’s not necessary. “Pursuing power to endless depths and fucking hot pirates, that’s fine with Beau. She just doesn’t want to kill children.” Brian marvels at how this fits into Jester & Caleb’s conversation about killing people from the most recent episode.

Jester can tell Caleb is tortured, and more than anything she wants people not to be sad around her. She just wants desperately for him to be happy.

Marisha has thought a ton about what Beau would have said if Jester had come to her first about the kiss, especially since it was Jester’s first kiss (Marisha assumes, and Jester answers in an adorably non-committal not-not-a-negative). Beau would have been game for it. She doesn’t know if Beau would have given good advice, but she would have tried her best.

Brian spills that Mary’s character’s CHA in their home game is 6. They discuss Nott’s score of 5 and enjoy themselves mightily at both of their expenses.

GIF of the Week! By @ropadoper, it’s Liam casting Reduce and then the Wall of Fire at the end of the episode, both of which involve Marisha falling out of her chair to the floor in reaction so that only her forehead is visible. Everyone is being so cute this episode I can hardly stand it.

As a reminder, an international shipping facility has been created in the UK. Laura asides to tell Travis the keys are in the diaper bag. Literally everyone is in the studio tonight except Sam, EVEN ASHLEY.

Jester thinks the Traveler always gives very good advice, but his suggestion to trick Fjord was the first time ever she felt a little hesitation to follow his advice. Brian: “Is that because he’s never been wrong or because she’s never been allowed to disagree?” Laura says it’s always been amazing advice so far, much more a best-friend relationship, but this was the first time she didn’t want to take his suggestion wholesale because she wasn’t sure it’s how she wanted to get Fjord to like her. Marisha really likes the dynamic of finding out your childhood best friend is a god.

Beau finds herself still being careful with her walls--Marisha imagines Beau was put in a lot of, like, pageant dresses as a kid--so when Jester commented on her hair and then laughed, she felt a little of that “wait, what, do you actually care? Do I look like shit?” Laura says she laughed, not Jester, because it was the most random thing to compliment Beau on.

Beau’s haircut came into being because it was cool & because Marisha wishes she were brave enough to try an undercut.

Brian’s convinced Fjord’s got gills. Dani: “What do you think Fjord is?” Brian: “Obviously a water man. Water genasi. What are water genasi?”

Beau wasn’t surprised Allison rejected her; she’s used to it. Ack. She was looking for an ally against Avantika, Big Brother style. “Instead she just shat in an alleyway with Nott.”

Laura’s not perturbed the Traveler hasn’t mentioned Fjord’s god; he doesn’t really talk about/care about other gods or patrons. Brian suggests he’s actually the Dongfather in disguise. This show’s collective mental age is smaller than Pike, haha. 

Beau felt like such an interloper when Sam asked her to help with Fluffernutter, like the best friend trying to be in on a joke without really knowing what’s going on. Marisha also takes a moment to praise Laura for her Jester over the last few episodes; she’s digging into the metaphorical popcorn every time Jester & Nott start going off. (Me too, bud.) Jester’s description of the insect carrying a piece of bread is one of her favorite D&D moments ever. Both Marisha & Laura are agog at how many little plans they’ve tried have gone disastrous and then circled back around to being mostly okay again.

Beau was a little hurt when she wasn’t asked to help break into the captain’s quarters, since that’s her specialty, but it was eased by being able to help with her knowledge anyway. However, she knew since she didn’t have any magic, she had no escape plan aside from jumping off the boat. She laughs that that’s what they ended up doing anyway. 

Jester views sex as a transaction, which is why she’s not particularly bothered by Fjord sleeping with Avantika.

Fanart of the Week: @jdillustrates, with a lovely portrait of Caduceus.

Jester’s warring between the logical part of her brain (he was saving her life) and the romantic part of her brain (did he want to kiss me, though?).

There are reasons Beau learned Deep Speech--not as complicated as most people think--that will be revealed eventually. “Nerdy reasons, not because she was kidnapped and turned into a cultist.”

Fjord/Avantika does make her jealous, but it’s also serving a purpose. Laura compares it to telling the high school crush to go hang out with a best friend, only to have them start dating.

Marisha doesn’t feel like Beau’s plans were overly shot down this episode--it’s something she hadn’t even noticed until this question. Marisha feels like it’s so much of a group effort with everyone trying to get to the right plan that it’s hard to pick out who contributed what part of which plan.

Brief interlude to examine a portrait of Brian that looks like George Michael.

In re: the Molly disguise: Beau felt like there was just a wall of regret walking towards her, because it was the friend she let die and the one-night stand. Beau never felt it was actually Molly, though. Jester picked Molly because when Nott said “Keg,” she instantly associated it with “someone who is really cool--who’s also super cool?” Everyone commiserates over how into the night’s shenanigans Molly would have been.

Beau was frustrated while being detained, but she also knew it was going to happen, so it wasn’t a huge issue. She felt like that was where the challenge began for her--anything to get the guard away from what was going on. 

Another brief interlude where everyone experiments with how to make power vaginas with their hands. “This is the car salesman power vagina.” I feel like wherever the rails are for this show, they’re so far gone they might as well be little stars in the sky.

Laura thinks Jester’s reaction to Caleb’s backstory would be much different than Caleb imagines it. Both Laura & Marisha talk about how Caleb’s convinced the moment people realize, they’re gone; there’s also the complication that Beau’s “comforting” is not actually that comforting. “She’d say, ‘you know, they won’t care,’” (which Marisha points out, Caleb would respond--how could someone not care about this?) when what she means is, “They love you and won’t abandon you over this.”

Laura and Marisha are both pumped about Caleb’s Wall of Fire--the walk to the dock was like “getting called to the principal’s office, except the principal is going to kill you.” Laura’s immediate reaction was regret she’d tossed the gems, but she loved his decision since she was panicking IRL & her heart was legit pounding. They also both get super enthusiastic bashing Nott’s plan to dump the haversack in an alley. “It’s bright pink! Someone would have definitely seen it!”

Marisha really misses Professor Thaddeus, but is convinced she’ll never see him again. Dani: “He’s your Nymeria, your Arya.” Marisha, tearfully: “He’s gonna come with his flock of owls and gouge out everyone’s eyes but ours.”

Laura’s convinced Sprinkle is magic, since he definitely should be dead twice over.

Quebec is for Lovers: After Dark edition

Neither Laura nor Marisha are cooking this year. Laura & Travis have no Thanksgiving plans at all this year. My gosh, if they were here my parents would be stuffing them full of turkey yesterday, even though they have no idea who they are.

Brian teases Max over messing with Trinket & carrying him back and forth in his car. Dani wants one TM where Brian isn’t mean to Max. Max, offscreen: “I’m FINE. I’m GOOD.” Marisha laughs that Max was okay with Brian’s teasing but shooting daggers at the TDs laughing.

Brian gives Dani an A for amazing and adorable, but not asshole.

Dani ships Percy/Vex, Keyleth/Vax, and Fjord/Jester. Close after is Kima/Allura & Caleb/Jester. She would be surprised if it happened, but wouldn’t object. Marisha asks, as a shipper, what does Dani look for in a quality ship. Dani likes clear feelings with clear reciprocation, canon connections; she doesn’t ship a ton of subtexty stuff.

Laura has been relistening to Vex’s playlists & crying. Both she & Marisha really miss Vex & Keyleth. Liam texted Laura the other day a fanvid of Vex & Vax that made her cry.

Marisha gets emotional seeing fanart of older Keyleth because it means that she’s living on & being happy. Noelle also came up & thanked Marisha for giving Tova a purpose after the latest Honey Heist, and everyone talks about how many hours they’ve spent creating and living in these people.

Marisha can’t listen to Tokyo Sunrise by LP anymore because it instantly makes her cry.

Beau is not a mindflayer. Everyone’s convinced, Marisha.

If Laura had Jester’s paint set, she’d draw home improvements. She’d draw a door for her bathroom into Ronin’s nursery. Marisha would draw more producers--”Not to undermine the ones I have! We’re so overworked!”

Brian looks to Max for the time left, only to have missed Dani literally just giving him the signal.

Brian starts to say he’ll see us next week, but Dani tells him not to confuse us since there’s no TM next week. Brian: “We’ll see you next week this Thursday Critical Role on youtube.com, Logan Paul guest starring, along with Paul Rudd, Rudney Dangerfield...”

Max, as the sound fades: “Okay, please...”

And that’s it for tonight. See you next time, everyone!

[wuffielover]

NERD NOTES- LIveblogging Critical Role Campaign 2 ep 7 PART ONE

Fjord is at 25/30 hp i’m pretty sure not 30/30

Also he used his spell slots so that Hex shouldn’t have gone off lol. They DID NOT short rest at the end of the last ep ETA NVM I just remembered Hex lasts an hour after casting, don’t mind me...

Oh god Khary’s character is squishier than Caleb... well at least he has less HP but his AC is probably better so they might be about even.

Traumatizing children, it’s a group tradition!

Ah the struggle of not having darkvision and having to light it up wherever you fight... risk giving away your position or take disadvantage on EVERYTHING

And Khary introduces his character with a voice of PURE SEXUAL CHARISMA.

Man as front-liners Molly and Fjord really need to pick up some better armor ASAP. Molly’s at 16 which... ehhhh.. but Fjord’s at what, 14? That, frankly, sucks. My BARD had better AC than that at lvl 3 and she’s not even proficient with medium armor.

NOTT YOU’RE OUT OF SPELL SLOTS TOO STOP THAT no seriously she used Shocking Grasp & Hideous Laughter last time and she’s only got 2 slots at lvl 3. She knows 3 spells but ONLY HAS 2 SLOTS so that Shocking Grasp should have been a no go ETA I LIED I LIED I’M DUMB Shocking Grasp is a cantrip!! I got it mixed up with Burning Hands...

AAAAND their great childcare record CONTINUES...at least Matt didn’t instakill the kid and is giving them a chance to heal him before he croaks.

Hyena down the gnoll hole.

Lol Jester is SO MAD that she has to SAVE THIS STUPID CHILD instead of KILLING THINGS a bloodthirsty girl after my own d&d group’s heart...

Poor Liam is rolling such consistently bad attacks... that Fire Bolt will work eventually, and when it does...he’s going to roll a 1 on the damage dice lol

Oooo I think Nott has a cruuuush.

I like how the child they saved is now just an it, lol... 

Yeah take a stroll down the hole, the goal is the gnoll ....

Seriously that gnoll is worth 60 gold go get it. That’s a healing potion + extra 10 gold.

God Shakaste’s so intense... i’m digging it

THANKS JESTER for asking the IMMEDIATE question that I wanted to know. If there’s no other survivors this crew needs to BAIL for now.

As an aside while they’re looting this room, I love Liam’s dedication to the German accent/Caleb voice, even when he’s telling Khary what dice to roll for his damage lol

Nott DEFINITELY HAS A CRUSH

Hey, they successfully rescued some people! And a child even! Although he’s probably traumatized for life...

PLEASE TAKE A SHORT REST ... Fjord needs his spells back plz

OK FINE DON’T LISTEN TO ME DO WHAT YOU WANT JEEZ Just RUN back in the mine...

Shakaste laying out some smooooth talk... Nott “I’m not interested in a relationship right now!” LOLLLL

OH GOD Fjord and Nott... YOU GUYS JUST HEAD BACK TO THE GROUP GEEZZZZ nah go with your gut, improv is great, take some risks!

Plus I think half-orcs should always have a bit of a tendency to recklessness, personally... that’s how I play mine at least! She’s level headed UP TO A POINT, then before you know it she’s spitting blood in her enemy’s face with one HP left but still going for a kill instead of running away...

But don’t take too many risks you’re only lvl 3 guys! ...Guys?

OK OK OK if Matt lets y’all retcon a short rest in there then go for it! TAKE ADVANTAGE OF DM GENEROSITY WHEREVER POSSIBLE (I learned that when my lvl 1 druid got taken out by a Nat 20 attack after the DM at first wasn’t going to hit my squishy lvl 1 butt and I said, and I quote “No, it’s fine, I won’t die unless you roll a crit!” .... yeah when your max HP is 9 and you take 32 damage, that’s INSTADEAD.

Missed the end of that quick fight while I gave the animals their nightly treat...

The crew is plowing through this dungeon, nice job guys! Go til someone gets knocked unconscious, that’s my motto.

Hey Travis remembered to make a Con save after he took damage! So honest, what a good dude.

Honestly Khary/Shakaste’s natural charisma is too much, he could take charge and just lead everyone else around by the nose and they would thank him for the privilege!

“Cool it” OH GOD Fjord was that a dad joke when you cast that? Was that lame enough for a Dad Joke??

They still aren’t putting up the temp hit points for Armor of Agathys, Fjord’s at 30 right now not 20.

Ooo Frostbite’s nice. A little more damage than Vicious Mockery and has the same ability to impose disadvantage as a bonus!

Ahh cursing at people when you can’t think of a clever thing for Vicious Mockery... classic.

HOLDING ACTIONS in D&D: technically when you HOLD an action, you give a specific trigger that has to happen and then you will do a specific thing. Marisha used it correctly here as in “I will hold my action and when there is light I will attack the gnoll in front of me.” BUT you can’t use it like “I’ll hold my action and just randomly do something whenever.” You CAN hold your whole turn and say “I’ll take my turn after so-and-so” but that permanently changes your initiative order for the rest of the combat.

OH NO THE BIG GUY’S HERE!! BE CAREFUL SQUISHY BABY PARTY!!

I missed it on the screen if they added the temp hit points from Aid but they still haven’t added Fjord’s Armor HP properly...

Jester’s tanking so good! Good job girl! Use that shield!

Yeah nice deflect Beau! Our poor monk tanks all the time in our group too...

Yayyy Molly hit with both his attacks! Maybe the group’s shitty attack luck will change...

Nice one from Nott! ANND they did add the points from Aid, Shakaste’s total went from 18 to 23. STILL NOT THE ARMOR POINTS THO C’MON GUYS

YEAH NICE ATTACK ROLLS GOOOOO CALEB! NICE Scorching Ray!

The boys charging up Marisha before she rolls Acrobatics LOL

C’mon MAKE THAT SAVEEE with Advantage! DO ITTTT

....or not. Well could’ve been worse!!

Good news so far in this fight is everyone’s doing OK on hit points! Bad news is the big baddie hasn’t really taken a swing at anybody yet and HE’S GOING TO

OR NOT nice use of that spell Shakaste! Keep that big guy from hitting cuz he’s gonna hit hard!

Yay Jester and Nott teamwork kill!! I love them together so much...

Well at least they added Fjord’s HP gain from the Hexblade’s curse but he’s STILL 10 ABOVE THAT FROM THE ARMORRRRR

Beau’s bounces back from her gnoll hole stroll...

And Caleb’s attack mojo is officially back too!

Beau comes through with a clutch attack of opportunity to finish the last guy, yeah team! Cleaning out this gnoll hole like pros...

On to the break! And then Part 2!!

[kennedydevin-blog]

OOC WEEK: DAY THREE

RAPID FIRE:

Tea or coffee? Tea. I get this really great tea from this place in the farmer’s market here. I currently have an iced lemon cake & a Hawaiian Sunset tea. They’re amazing. 

Stars or planets? Planets. I’m a planets person! 

Sun or moon? Moon. I love the moon with all my being. 

Black or white? Black. I look much better in black than white. Plus my cat is black, so that cat furr totally 

The zoo or the aquarium? Animals living free away from human interference. Neither, to be honest. I love animals too much to put them in captivity like that. 

Drama or comedy? A difficult decision, but drama wins by just a hair. Mostly because a lot of what I watch has drama in the title. I watch more crime drama than anything else. 

Thriller or adventure? Adventure. 

Short walks to the fridge or long walks on the beach? I love to walk, but like... not really on the beach. 

Indoors or outdoors? Although it depends on the day, to be honest. I love being outside. 

Animals or plants? I cannot keep plants alive to save my life, but it’s always been a dream to have an apartment with white walls, & plants hanging on every nook and cranny in the place. 

Time alone or time with others? I love being alone. I mean... as long as my cat is with me.

Introvert or extrovert? I think the above question answers why I’m an introvert.

Silence or music? Both, really. There are times when I just like to listen to the sounds of the house. But there are also times where I love listening to music. 

Darkness or light? Except when I’m trying to write or read. 

Cats or dogs? I know I have a dog, buttttttt.... my cat is the love of my life. If she were an actual person, I’d marry her. 

Dancing or being the wallflower? Although it depends on the people I’m with, because I will dance if I’m with certain people. 

Right or left? I write with my left hand, so I guess left. 

Werewolves or vampires? Both are good. I have started to have an appreciation for vampires because of the Lore podcast. The first episode was about vampires, but there have been several on people that transform which are ALWAYS fascinating. Literally this podcast is my life. Check this podcast out, you won’t be sorry. My favorite is this episode about lighthouses.

Dressing stylishly or dressing comfortably? I say as I’m sitting here... in my Grace Potter shirt, my Hamilton sweatshirt, sweatpants, & neon socks.

Sunrise or sunset? I think the sunset colors are prettier.

Lead or follow? Yikes, depends on the situation, but most of the time, leader. 

Optimist or pessimist? There’s no doubt about that.

Staying up late or waking up early? I say... as I go to bed before midnight every night except Thursday.

Speaking up or staying silent? I’ll often get into fights for just saying what I feel in a situation, especially if something is disgusting. 

White lies or brutal honesty? I mean... I’m a compulsive liar, but... I normally tell the truth to people... most of the time. Depends on the human.

Ask for permission before doing the stupid thing or ask for forgiveness after doing the stupid thing? Kind of neither. I don’t really do anything that others would consider stupid. 

LONG FORM:

Pet peeves: human existence. I mean, I don’t get annoyed by people often, unless they are just being assholes. Like for instance the people that ask “how can you be vegan & pro-choice” LISTEN ASSHOLE, you’re asking for a fight. Other than people asking questions that are obviously just looking to pick my thoughts and opinions on stuff apart, I am super not annoyed by people. 

Bad habits: I pick at my cuticles, so a lot of the time my fingers start to bleed.

Favourite scents (your amortentia!): Burning wood, Sunkist ( like oranges are good, but sunkist smells amazing ), my cat, lemons. A few of my favorite  scents. I also like lavender, mint, & rosemary. 

Favourite animal: Cats, but don’t tell my dog. I have a lot of favorite animals, but cats are so adorable. 

Favourite colour: Green is my favorite color. 

Favourite place to go (local or otherwise) (photos get bonus points): Honestly, I don’t have any local places that I go because the area I live in is sort of... boring. In New York, there’s this comic book shop I always go to. So probably that’s one of my favorite places. I’ll post some pictures at the bottom.

Favourite meme: ??? I’m not up to date on all the memes, so I don’t really have a favorite. 

Do you have any creative or artistic abilities? Yes, I do! Besides writing, I do watercolors. I can’t draw as well, but I love watercolors. Also, sometimes I knit & I’m learning to make my own soaps because a lot of homemade soaps aren’t vegan??? 

Talk about something that made you happy today, yesterday, this week: It snowed over the weekend! We were supposed to get 7 inches, though it turned out to only be about 4 or 5, but it snowed. I live in North Carolina, so snow doesn’t always happen every year, or not a big snow at least. I just love winter weather so much. 

Talk about an experience that made you feel proud or confident: To be honest, I don’t really know what to put here. I’m not a very prideful person or confident for that matter. 

Talk about something/someone that makes you feel relaxed: Dungeons & Dragons is the only thing that really relaxes me. I have two characters. One of them, Nico Thornbrush, is a halfling ( basically they’re hobbits, but they’re only 3 feet. ) fighter, that recently started to become a paladin -- or holy warrior. He’s only 20 years old, barely old enough to leave home, but he’s just so good... just such a cinnamon roll. But he’s dumb & doesn’t reallly believe in death. My other character though... is a whisper gnome named Ludovic Silvermist -- he goes by Ludo -- ( because I wasn’t allowed to name him Ronald without getting judged ). He’s a trickery cleric, that isn’t very devout to his goddess -- he kind of hates her. He’s all about them lies & deception to get him ahead. He used to be an orphan until a priest took him in. He has a rat named Scabbers that he occasionally talks to because it’s his best friend.

Talk about something you’re yet to try for the first time but want to: Skydiving. 

Who are your role models & why: Okay, so I have a lot of role models. But I’m just going to put a few here, since I don’t want to write novels. 

Matthew Mercer - Matthew is such a great person. I could probably go on & on about the things he’s done that have really inspired me & made me think he’s such a great person, but it would be a novel. If you have played more than one video game, chances are that Matt was a voice in it. He’s got over 300 IMDB credits. Seriously... & his fiance Marisha Ray is very involved with getting better working conditions for voice actors. Matt is that over achieving person that you just want to deck in the face, but he’s so sweet you just can’t bring yourself to do so, but he’s also an evil genius, so there’s that. He always reminds everyone to have faith that everything will work out. Even if it’s about his game, it still translates into real life. He’s created so much & done such a good job at inspiring others to create that I just look up to him for that reason alone.

Practically the entire cast of Critical Role is a role model to me in some way, so I won’t talk about all of them in detail. 

Obama - I think just saying that is enough. His farewell speech was just so amazing & really says everything about why I look up to him. 

Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie - If you don’t read the series The Wicked + The Divine, I highly recommend it because it’s really good. I’ve met Gillen, McKelvie & their colourist Matt Wilson. They’re all really cool people. They’re doing what the love to do, but not only that, they have brought forward political and social issues into a comic series like I’ve never seen anyone do before. I love how these three are doing what they love, while being very aware of what they are creating & how important diversity representation is in media. I mean seriously, read WicDiv. There are themes of sexism and racism. And cultural appropriation v. appreciation is a huge deal as a whole in the comic. Seriously it’s such a diverse comic, I can’t even begin to describe. Not just with sexuality, but gender as well. I look up to them as a reminder that people are capable of change & even our generation can be pressured into thinking things that aren’t true because of media. 

Basically WicDiv is about these pop stars that are actually gods, but instead of living forever, they only have 2 years to live. Then in 90 years, it happens again. Basically, we’ve been told everyone is going to die by the end of the series. Which means my trash son is going  to die :/

Mara Wilson - seriously, just scroll through her twitter. She tells it like it is. I’m so glad Matilda grew up to be such a wonderful adult.

Talk about something you want to do this year: die. Hmm, I’m not sure. One of the biggest things on my list is to try and go to a live Critical Role show, if they have one. I think it would be really awesome to be able to see this show live. I mean... it’s live every week, but they stream from California. Maybe also one of the Night Vale shows. 

Would not recommend going on a Wednesday if you’re ever in NYC. It’s pretty scary with all the people getting all the new comics. 

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E12 (Apr 3, 2018)

Happy 60th episode, Talks Machina! Take that, only-12-episodes-of-Critical-Role! (NB: Brian made the same joke like five minutes into the episode. I don’t know what this says about me.)

Tonight’s guests are Pillow Matt Mercer, Matt Mercer, and Marisha Ray!

Announcements: the first five episodes of Key Question are available on Alpha, Dani Carr’s Critical Recap will be on Thursdays before the show, C2E12′s podcast will be available this Thursday (”How neat!”), Wednesday Club will be on tomorrow, Critical Role will be attending C2E2 in Chicago on April 7-8.

Matt names all the episodes (he now comes up with a name right after the episode, which may or may not match his working title for the session) and Dani writes the descriptions (for early episodes, it was Taliesin).

@critrolestats for this episode:

Sam held his pose for 12 minutes and 12 seconds. Travis’ thumbs-up moment in C1E61 was 7 minutes and 51 seconds.

Episode 12 had the first point of damage dealt by Frumpkin.

This was the first time this campaign we’ve had a friendly KO.

There were 21 bird calls made in this episode.

This campaign has now passed 1,000 d20 rolls. 1,052 total!

This campaign has also now passed 50 natural 20s. 55 total!

Joe Manganiello pops up on FaceTime, calling from the very fancy Gary Gygax Memorial DM Chair. As one does. There’s a brief discussion about amazing minis and casting him as Wolverine. Brian: “Dude, can you believe... that guy’s a nerd.”

Had Beau been involved in the infirmary debacle, Marisha suspects she’d be a lot less nice than Fjord.

If the team hadn’t picked up Ulog, he would’ve tried to infiltrate the High Richter’s house by himself partway through, and possibly could’ve ended up in an altercation with the party. There was also the chance of developing a rift with the Knights of Requital if things had gone badly in a different way.

Beau can step up to a leadership role when the group’s goals are in jeopardy, but it’s still generally rooted in selfish reasons.

Was the Rug of Smothering revenge for the magic carpet-related antics in the first campaign? Matt: “In hindsight, subconsciously, maybe?”

There was another chamber with some extra information they could’ve acquired, there were some challenges they avoided, but Matt doesn’t want to get into specifics in case the party decides to go back at some point.

Gif of the week: a valiant struggle against a flying foe.

Matt briefly considered having the Metagaming Pigeon make an appearance to drop a hint about mage hand, but decided it was more fun to bring it up after the fact.

If Fjord and Caleb had been actively in combat when she arrived, the High Richter would’ve turned around and brought in the guards instead of coming in alone. Many of the group could’ve wound up being arrested.

Matt is enjoying being able to space out the intense moments and give people a chance to explore their characters, especially after the constant intensity of high-level D&D at the end of the last campaign.

Everyone is delighted at the second username of the night that ends with a “69″.

Marisha suspects that Beau and Fjord might have similar morality beats, although Fjord’s better at holding his cards close to his chest.

Ulog’s item was a Necklace of Fireballs with only one use left. His final fatal attack was a last-ditch secondary plan in case things went south.

Marisha points out that Beau doesn’t know yet that Ulog’s dead.

Fanart of the week: a glimpse at the events at the end of the episode.

Matt placed the scroll purposely as an invitation for character drama: “I put it there knowing it was going to cause a ruckus... but I didn’t think it was going to cause that much of a ruckus.” Marisha: “Fuckin’ reality show director here.”

Marisha’s reaction to the ending was: “Wow, that escalated quickly!” Beau’s still in shock over all this, and right now her only thought is, “Run.”

Matt is a little defensive over people pointing out how many towers he’s brought down between the two campaigns (there’s a great back-and-forth where he points out that one of them was the party’s fault, but Marisha insists that they were inspired by a previous tower falling, and I’m really dodging spoilers here so let’s get out of this parenthetical). Marisha gets into how a tower is generally a symbol of power and established order.

Marisha points out that the whole party is trying to keep in mind that they’re just level 3 and they’re not established heroes, so they can’t run towards the problem the way VM could. Brian points out that VM was also already at will-die-for-each-other levels of loyalty at their big crisis point, whereas MN are still begrudging allies for the most part.

Matt, on the players now knowing to look for plot clues in smut: “I am so excited for them to be hoarding all the smut and have none of it inform anything for the rest of the campaign.” Later: “Please... please don’t keep doing that.” He loves the idea of some ultra-powerful future-seer in-universe hiding all this stuff in smut.

Matt is continually surprised at the weird parallels between the campaigns that keep creeping in here and there, like the intra-party conflict right before the big upheaval.

Marisha tries to RP her combat and find in-universe reasons to do new things. She’s looking forward to having the Cobalt Soul abilities really start to kick in. Matt points out that the Cobalt Soul abilities are situationally useful.

Asked about Lord Sutan being from the same family that lost the Plate of the Dawnmartyr in a game of cards last campaign, Matt says: “...maybe.”

Matt put in a few red flags for Ulog to see if the party would pick up on just how desperate he was (like giving away his life’s savings to the party).

There was an alternate plan out there for the party to learn about the Crick (that they can still avail themselves of), but the smut plot was made up on the spot as a tease of information.

Who does Beau trust the most in the Mighty Nein? Marisha: “Probably Jester, believe it or not. Jester’s the most open book thus far.” Brian asks to what extent she trusts what Jester says. “Beau thinks that Jester believes what she believes, and that’s enough for Beau. She sees her as being 100% forthright.”

Matt is enjoying being able to bring in these lower-level enemies he didn’t get a chance to use in the last campaign.

Dark Times at Talks Machina High on Alpha:

Pillow Matt is the true power behind the throne and gets his own splitscreen.

Matt had a plan in mind if the party had opted to turn in the Knights of Requital. They would’ve received a reward, gotten in good with the Crownsguard and the High Richter, and probably would’ve been invited to the Gala. It was possible that they could’ve taken plot hooks that took them further from the tower, and they may have only heard about the events of that night the next day.

Marisha feels like, compared to the other team, she and Jester did “pretty fuckin’ okay” at casing their building, and they even managed to retain their dignity.

Of everybody, Matt most fears the notion of Jester getting her hands on a Deck of Many Things.

Matt’s priority as a DM is always to keep his players excited and engaged. He finds D&D to be a great exercise in renewing friendships and relationships. Marisha has really come to appreciate the problem-solving aspects of the game.

Matt’s moving mouth has been superimposed on Pillow Matt. “What have you done.”

Information about VM is not common knowledge in the Empire, especially since Wildemount either wasn’t directly involved in or didn’t really believe a lot of the threats they faced. It would be a history roll for the current characters to learn more about them.

Matt does an alarmingly good Keyleth impression when Brian points out that Marisha’s perfect attendance means Matt’s never had to play her character.

Marisha recommends getting Dwarven Forge by running a D&D game at your work as a corporate team-building exercise. Some talk of tax fraud gets bandied around. It’s fine.