#in the words of matt mercer: 'you motherfucker'

[blazingstar24]

Mighty Nein x Pokemon AU

This time I will be detailing the Poke-team of our favorite floaty hot boi, Essek Thelyss! If you want to check out my other posts in this AU, look: here (That post is Caleb’s team) I know last time I said psychic type is the Dunamancy equivalent, but I do think some Dark types also match with it.

Like the last post: SPOILERS AHEAD

Let’s get started with the team of the former Shadowhand of the Dynasty:

Essek Thelyss:

Lycanroc (Midnight form): Evolves in the night time, so that fit the Underdark and drow aspect of his character. The Midnight form does have that “edgy” vibe to it that Essek does not, but I do think it suits him.

This form of Lycanroc are different because they don’t form packs and live alone. That’s Essek’s lonely life pre M9 meeting. Also only truly powerful trainers can hope to be able to control this Pokemon. That’s Essek’s prodigy status for you. Both in magic and in raising “elite” Pokemon. The rebellious nature of Lycanroc also plays into Essek’s whole “fuck you” to the religious traditions of the Kryn Dynasty.

Definitely had Lycanroc before meeting the M9. In the Dynasty, it would be seen as a sign of power to be able to properly train and work with a Midnight Lycanroc. But also why he doesn’t get along with many people. Since having a Midnight Lycanroc is also a sign of rebellion and standoffishness. Stands out but also leaves you isolated.

Sneasel- Dark and Ice type, for that dunamancy and Essek’s previously cold nature. Also this is the Pokemon that’s peak Poke-villain leader hints. The M9 really should have seen the betrayal coming lol.

Sneasels are known to steal. Perhaps things like several Beacons right under the Dynasty’s noses. I mean we never did learn how the hell Essek managed to do that, so I feel like having a Sneasel would make that a lot easier.

Despite being a Pokemon known to steal, this really is the only time Essek’s Sneasel steals. Most of Essek’s Pokemon pre-M9 are like him, very much composed. Or at least that’s what they portray to the world. So, his Sneasel is as bad as him when the M9 sees Dezerin Thane.

Espeon- I did say one of Essek’s Pokemon paired with Caleb’s. The classic Espeon/Umbreon pairing! Psychic type is an obvious dunamancy reference. Also the gracefulness and coloration of Espeon just felt like it matched Essek’s whole aesthetic.

Like Caleb, Essek also had an Eevee that hadn’t evolved for the longest time. He had friendship with his Eevee and none of the stone evolutions was something he wanted. Surprise surprise when his Eevee evolved the morning of his breakfast with the M9. (When Caleb, Veth and him figured out the spell)

This freaked out Essek because this is what tipped him off onto the fact that the M9 were melting that frozen heart of his. Or in the words of Matt Mercer: “You guys grinched that motherfucker!” It was the bonds of friendship and love that Eevee could now feel coming strongly from Essek that allowed it to evolve into Espeon.

Quite interesting in how Essek’s Eevee evolved in the morning and Caleb’s at night. Both bringing their respective aesthetics into each other’s worlds.

Gothitelle- Psychic type for dunamancy. Gothitelle is able to predict the future which relates to the time bending of dunamancy. They can also distort space with their psychic power, which is also reminiscent of dunamancy.

Essek would have had his Gothitelle from when he was young and it was a Gothita. As his prowess in dunamancy grew, so did his Pokemon. Starlight is the source of this Pokemon’s power. So the whole theme and aesthetic of the Dynasty is there.

Deirta Thelyss gifted his Gothita to him. But it’s different in the way Caleb’s family did. In the idea that a Gothita would be a basic, standard Pokemon for a child in the Dynasty practicing dunamancy. So, Deirta did it out of social obligation and tradition. Still, Essek and Gothitelle have a pretty good relationship.

Some lifespan angst added in the fact that Gothitelle can see the entire life and death of people around them. Usually makes them cry. So, you know sometime in the future, decades hopefully, Essek can be like “Ahaha mood”

Minior (Violet Core)- This Pokemon looks super cool but also like a little mini star! And when it’s purple, it’s basically the mini beacon they found in Aeor.

When Minior has it’s core exposed, they tend to fade out and die quickly unless put in a Pokeball soon. But even that’s not a guarantee. They fall from the stars above which is kinda like the Luxon. Felt like they were as mysterious as the Beacons, so this Pokemon would definitely pique the interest of Essek. And Caleb.

Essek would have caught Minior in the Aeor ruins. Miniors are quite rare, so finding it in Aeor is quite the find! Is it related to the Luxon? Perhaps. If anything, Essek definitely would come back with Caleb to Aeor to find more of them.

Togekiss- A surprising choice, yes! But I think Togekiss represents Essek’s character growth and the person he is at the end of the campaign.

Essek would have received a Togepi from Reani after he left the M9. The whole Togepi evolution line is about kindness and happiness. They will appear before a kind/happy person to bestow good luck. Due to the love and kindness, the M9 gave to him, Essek changed for the better. So post campaign Essek takes good care of his Togepi

Eventually throughout his years with Caleb, the M9, and beyond, it evolves into a Togekiss. A lasting symbol of his growth. Also Togetics can float without having to flap their wings. Essek can totally relate.

That’s all for Essek’s Poke-team! Next up will be Jester’s. Hers was a lot of fun to put together. Like before, feel free to mention any other pokemon you feel might be a good choice for Essek.

[your-turn-to-role]

Feralness of the NPCs? If you like.

this one took me a bit longer, because as critrolestats calculated a couple months ago, across both campaigns, matt has over a thousand npcs, and we'd be here all year if i had to rank all of them 😂

but in my attempt to brainstorm all significant npcs from both campaigns (though i'm sure i'm forgetting someone i'm gonna immediately remember as soon as i post this), i've got gilmore, allura, kima, jarett, kaylie, cassandra, kynan, artagan, kiri, essek, dairon, orly, yeza, and pumat sol, so i can do those guys!

(not including villains, figures we don't know much personal about like the bright queen, or guest pcs, because they're still technically pcs. also not splitting by campaign because allura and artagan appear in both)

1 - kaylie motherfucking shorthalt. i adore her so much, and she is feral as fuck. granted, she's highly competent feral, she's good enough at the flute to challenge scanlan, and good enough at the violin to be a professional fiddler (which, i reiterate, takes so much dedication to learn), and aes adan/the meat man definitely didn't become as powerful as he did all because of scanlan. but also, is a thief and a conman and will 100% get in a bar fight with just about anyone, absolutely unafraid to speak her mind, and her approach to meeting her father for the first time was to work out all her grudges by trying to kill him with a knife. see also - her epilogue was deciding to finish the schooling she dropped out of, but at a really fancy academy so she could prove she's better than all the rich kids, just really rub it in their faces. i so wish i could have seen it.

2 - kima will fight you. kima will fight anyone. i don't know why all the short girls in cr are so feral, but like literally all of them are just pure feral condensed into three feet of girl, i love them. kima is no different, except she has a dragon god on her side and also is very gay and she's great

3 - artagan. now, feral in large part constitutes an unwillingness or inability to play by the rules of a functioning society, and that's all artagan's about. show him a rule and he will run the other direction until he feels safe and then come back invisibly and use that rule to fuck with people. he has the chaos part down too, and i was almost gonna put him in first place. however, feral also implies something of a willingness for violence, and artagan doesn't really have that? like he does to an extent, but in the words of mr matthew mercer, "even the nicest of fey are weird and have their dark sides". and as far as fey go, artagan has been shown to care about people a lot more than he's ever wished them harm. like he's still feral, because he's an archfey and the entire feywild is feral. but like... relatively tame feral. give the boy a pen and some paper and he'll leave you alone.

4 - kiri. she's adorable, and is baby, but is also a bird with a knife whose catchphrase has more or less become "go fuck yourself!". i love her.

5 - orly's pretty chill. but also, let's be real, there's a limit to how non-feral a tortle sailor and tattoo artist with bagpipes fused into his shell can be. also is just generally down for whatever illegal antics the m9 feel like getting up to

6 - cassandra. i debated for a while about putting her higher, because there's definitely an argument to be made for that, but you do have to take into consideration how well put together and fancy she is at nearly all times. however. cassandra at no more than maybe 13 was the only person to not get caught in the briarwood attack, rescued her brother from the dungeon where they were torturing him and keeping the bodies of her other siblings, guided him out, got nearly murdered, and lived in a whitestone full of zombies and villains and vampire mind control for five years. she's feral under the surface, she's had to be

7 - jarett. god i love jarett, i forgot about him last time someone asked me my fave c1 npcs but he's the best. anyway, captain of their guard, good at fighting, terrible liar, Definitely Has Never Dealt Drugs Before, will go kill a dragon with you. but like, as long as you're paying him. he's doing this for money, not just out of base feral instinct. Probably Needs A Break.

8 - dairon taught beau and earned her respect somehow, so you know they're at least a little feral. but also, widely respected expositor of the cobalt soul, competent spy, and at least moderately capable of keeping beau in line, so that knocks down their feralness level a fair bit

9 - essek is a fancy boy, and definitely is beholden to a lot of rules. the whole floating thing shows that, like, he's pretty damn far from feral for most of the time he's in rosohna. but i debated who was higher between all the wizards for a while, and i think just because essek is (or at least was) neutral evil and is so driven by his hunger for knowledge and to explore the darker parts of dunamancy, that does push him up the feral scale a little bit. there's very little essek wouldn't do when it comes to discovering secrets. (also, you know, his entire job as the shadowhand, we've seen involves some fucked up stuff, so he's far from squeamish or naive in that sense)

10 - allura is a wizard and a politician and a fancy person and generally rather chill. but as far as the wizards go, wins second most feral because she's been an adventurer. she took down thordak the first time. casually reminisces about how weird all adventuring groups are when vox machina are like licking the weird powder they found in the necromancer dungeon and mentions she was like that too. girl's seen some shit

11 - pumat is not an adventurer, and has no wish to be, and on the whole, is not feral at all. but also, pumat swole.

12 - kynan, wants to be feral? and then was, kinda, for a bit, and then severely regretted it. has had his moments, but on the whole is a Soft Boy

13 - gilmore. we're definitely getting to the definitively Not Feral end of the scale now. i mean, points for crushing a man to death with his mind, also points for "if you could find a way for me to become a dragon, that would be sexy". but gilmore is extremely concerned at all times with putting on that charming and excited mask, he puts a lot of value on his image and practically nothing will get him to tarnish it (even when thordak nearly killed him and he was still barely hanging on, he tried to use prestidigitation to make himself look better, like... those walls run deep). is also just a really genuinely nice person, cares a lot about people, is very empathetic, and again, refuses to show negative emotion if it will hurt someone else in any way. it's hard to imagine shaun gilmore as feral in any way, and if he did get close to that, it wouldn't be in front of other people

14 - yeza. now, points for the slightly mad scientist vibe yeza's got going on, it seems to be veth's type. but also, veth has 100% of the feral in this relationship and they both know it

[thequeenofmyownscreen]

Thirteen things I noted about CR2E23 "Have Bird, Will Travel" and the Talks Machina about it :

(the ten things thing is getting harder and harder to limit myself to)

Liam presented a sketchbook that traveled around the world in the Critter community, for the artists to draw in it. He was weeping, and rightly so, it's amazing.

The decision to go after the troll who has Febron's body, with the 100 gold (which is more important) is a risky one, but I understand. Plus, dynamite !! What could go wrong haha ?

If I had a nickel every time Sam's character went to put fire to something, only to realise in the moment he had nothing to light a fire with, well...I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice ! And now I want to watch that epic Scanlan scene again.

Alas, for all their warning, some members of the Mighty Nein do close combat, and with tgis troll, it turns into an almost catastrophe. Fjord ! Thrice ! Went down ! And was almost killed if it weren't for Slow !!

Molly is a shifty motherfucker who needs to calm down with the use of Charm Person. I love him, but he definitely thinks he knows better than everyone, in his own way.

Yes, talking secretely about your backstory in front of the bird who can only repeat words to express herself will go great, Nott.

I'm with Jester, I want to go to Hupperdook just because of the name.

Beau, a useless lesbian, trying to flirt with Yasha : "Your eyes are like the swamp. Super muddy (...) One's like the swamp, one's like the sky (...) It's... very diverse biodomes in your eyes." I also love Travis' comment at this attempt : "... How ?..."

The bandits are back !!! Those poor assholes, twice now they found the Nein and got scarred for life.

Hupperdook is amazing. I imagine it as Minas Tirith but with more industry workers. Matthew Mercer, you did it again.

Oh this is the moment ! The moment when CR became his own thing. They quit Geek&Sundry. Ok story time. When I first became more interested with tv in general years ago, one thing I loved doing (and still loves) was searching to understand how the industry was built. So when I came upon the story of the writers's strike in 2007, and the cataclysm it was in Hollywood, I started watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and then The Guild created by Felicia Day on Geek&Sundry. To this day, it's still a favorite thing of mine. It's just a very good webseries. And I also watched Geek&Sundry's rising, I watched the Wil Wheaton's series about table-top games. Just before I got distanced, because of the shit-ton of things to watch otherwise. Just before Critical Role started actually. Isn't it ironic ? All of this to say I know the history of the channel, being bought by Legendary Entertainment, and then slowly and sadly dying... It's visible in the background of Critical Role, by the way. To the plethora of shows there was in 2015, many of which Marisha Ray created, there is a visible rapid decline starting 2017, and since 2019, I believe the channel is in stasis, if not dead. It's sad. Geek&Sundry brought so much to the Internet as we know it. But Critical Role separating was a very good decision for them. History is being made retrospectively before my eyes, history in which I was a part as an early audience. Wow.

KIRI HAS ONLY 6 HIT POINTS stop bringing her into battles, the Mighty Nein, I beg of you

They discuss Joe Mangeniello's guest spot last campaign and his great love for D&D, and in the anecdote on how he waited barely 2 seconds at Matt and Marisha's wedding to talk about D&D and how his wife rolled her eyes so hard, I re-learned the fact that he is married to Sofia fucking Vergara.

[mollymeek]

motherfucking vess derogna you evil top 1% karen looking BASTARD i fucking hate you and your stupid obsession with old ass books so much. if i see you disrespecting one more person or exploiting their right to work in good conditions one more time im gonna SNAP.

vess derogna rat bastard if i see you on the street im gonna throw hands at you so fast you’re gonna look like a clown and get LAUGHED out of TOWN. court jester of the cerberus assembly, inhaling the dust off old books like it’s the only thing sustaining you, squeaky clown shoes wearing FUCK. every time your name is mentioned im stuck between the urge to drink and the urge to learn lucid dreaming if only to enter the CR universe and attack you in person. 

if matt mercer told me i had to either stop hating on you or stop watching critical role I would rig my pc to EXPLODE if the words ‘critical role’ ever appeared on my screen again. 

[estelanel]

Mighty Nein ep. 91, pt 1 (too much brain dump)

*8-bit harp music* Laura Bailey.

“Which society are you talking about?” - “The human one.” - “I’m not human. Speak for yourself.”

Essek started floating just to brag when he was young and dumb, and then later it was too awkward to stop?? I’m. Immediately relating to him, like, 200% more than before. (Also him sheepishly inviting himself over for dinner is kinda cute. In a shifty way. XD)

“Do you know how deep the ocean is?” - “Pretty fucking deep.” Sometimes I just gotta love Fjord’s take on things, especially when it’s connected to the ocean. I just absolutely adore his deep love for it, and simultaneously his deep, unfallible confidence that there are some things in the ocean that cannot be grasped, understood, or tamed, and are better left alone. (Which, I think, is a big part of why he threw the falchion away. I’ve been looking for words to describe this for weeks.)

So what I take away from this conversation is that there’s a decent chance Trent Icky-thong might just get eaten by the magical energy of poorly executed dunamancy spells?

I love how everyone has these, like, goals, some more personal (changing back to a true body), some on a larger scale (stopping a war, ending an Abyssal threat), but Fjord, right now, very explicitly is just like. I want to protect these other motherfuckers at all costs, so I guess I’m in for everything they’re in for.

Just gotta love how unapologetically horny all four of those ladys are at any given time.

That was a super nice, warm conversation. Also I learned that yes, Essek does have feet.

How did so much happen in that, like, one hour in the hot tub even after Essek left?? First Fjord and Nott coaching Jester how to better sell the Traveller, then Fjord just nailing out his last name... what the fuck? I’m suspicious. :D

Caduceus doesn’t believe in coincidences because he’s a man of faith. I don’t believe in coincidences because I looked at Matt Mercer’s face.

I think Yasha just kinda gently ripped my heart out when she asked Caduceus if she could sleep in his room.

[val-ritz]

I don’t feel bad about my DMing skills compared to Matt Mercer’s and Critical Role in general because Critical Role is a fucking unicorn. It is the Olympics of TRPG entertainment.

Look, if I play TRPGs for 30 years, THEN get a group of actual legitimate actors together to play with, THEN play for two years before streaming it to build genuine trust, AND THEN run a full-length story-rich campaign TO CONCLUSION

ONLY THEN am I allowed to measure my gaming experience to Critical Role. There is a trust there that doesn’t happen immediately, and it touches all aspects of the game. It’s that trust that lets you throw yourself into describing your secondary world earnestly and without reservation. It’s that trust that lets you play your character without thought for looking stupid or being judged. It’s that trust that kills the impulse to sputter or stammer or say the words ‘or whatever’ every time you try to talk about serious in-world matters. The cast have that trust in each other. They are willing, not just to sit by and let other people play the game, but to actively give them gifts that make their play richer and more fulfilling.

It’s like Elvin Jones said. You gotta be willing to die with the motherfucker.

I’m not there yet. But I will be.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E53 (March 5, 2019)

The DnDBeyond overlay has too much power in this realm.

This week’s guests are Matt Mercer and Sam Riegel.

Announcements: Talks Machina is now a podcast, published with a one-week delay. Starting tomorrow morning, TM will be re-broadcast each Wednesday morning at 9 AM Pacific. The Legend of Vox Machina Animated Special Kickstarter is through the roof at $4.7 million! More stretch goals to be added. Sam: "Every dollar that gets puts into this just goes into more animation, longer programming, more episodes.” (Also, Matt’s Twitter currently links several threads of smaller content creators’ Kickstarters, with special love for the #FundDiverseGames hashtag on Twitter.)

Time for episode 53: Cornered!

Stats: Matt has whispered to individual players 21 times this campaign, in addition to 3 reverse whispers. Sam realizes he’s not sure if he’s gotten a whisper in this campaign. Sam: “Maybe ever! DANI!” Dani: “...what do you think is my job?” Stats comes through: Sam’s gotten 5 whispers in total. Matt: “You should come play sometime.” Nott has used Mage Hand 34 times. Nott has also stolen 123 items so far.

Sam, tragically not that out of context: “What, I defiled the table by finger-banging it?”

Matt talks about the “contract of trust” between players and DMs in collaborating on backstory-centric PCs. It can be a great way to bring a player into the creative process. Matt tries to keep in mind the player’s intent while also considering unique and interesting ways to surprise them with it and have it be part of their character’s heroic journey.

Sam: “Nott is a sexual woman who can recognize a beautiful specimen, be it her species or another, and when that minotaur strutted by, with his... I don’t know, shanks? What does he ha-- what are his-- His gams? Hindquarters?” Matt: “Thirst away, guys. Apparently I know your types.” That reaction was partly Nott and partly Sam.

The “several kobolds in a trenchcoat” character was Matt having fun with breaking tropes with the “monstrous” races. He had the idea of a character who seemed like an ominous hag but had something else going on, then realized there were a lot of kobolds in the area. “What if the kobolds work for her? ...what if the kobolds are her?” Five kobolds, all with names in Matt’s notes.

If something happened to Nott, who would she consider the leader? Caduceus, probably. “Anyone but Fjord.”

The enchantment that Dairon was using was closer to Alter Self, so if she’d been unconscious, it would have faded (an illusion wouldn’t have held up as well to scrutiny for a spy). She wasn’t planning on joining the fight until Beau jumped in.

Gif of the Week: Travis getting scared by the kobolds. Matt: “I genuinely forget how much of a scaredy-cat Travis is.” They make him go first every time at haunted houses.

Nott’s given her impending reunion with Yeza a lot of thought; “it’s something she’s terrified about. There’s definitely a push-pull there.” She wants to rescue him, but she doesn’t want him to see her or have to have that painful conversation, because she’s not sure how he would react.

Matt really enjoyed being able to use Stunning Strike in the fight. He also liked the idea of having a mentor character for Beau that occasionally linked into the story; this happened to be a really good chance for an overlap, even though it was earlier than expected.

Nott still gets the “itch”, especially now that they’re back in a city. Getting the diamond back was just “It’s a shiny diamond! It’s valuable and shiny.” He points out that Nott probably doesn’t know that Jester needs that diamond for a spell, just that it seems important.

Dairon jumping into the fight was a lot of “what the fuck is Beau doing here”, along with worry for Beau getting into a big fight with dangerous people (she didn’t realize that Beau had allies with her). She didn’t have any way to communicate to Beau that Dairon losing consciousness would be so dangerous, so she realized she had to win and sort it out later.

Nott’s opinion on goblins has definitely shifted, especially after meeting Zorth. “I think she’s still anti-goblin, but is learning there is a spectrum of goblins from bad to not-so-bad. No good ones yet.”

Fan Art of the Week: The M9 with flowers everywhere.

Matt hadn’t practiced Madame Musk’s character voice in advance, and... that happened based on his notes. Sam points out that Matt’s been on fire with his NPCs lately. Matt: “Yeah, man, monster city. This is a good place to get weird.”

Sam: “I think, deep down, that Nott thinks she and Fjord aren’t that different, and that bothers her. I think she and Fjord are too similar.”

Search for Grog Spoilers Follow!!!

What’s Matt missed most about DMing for Vox Machina? “I miss how deeply steeped the camaraderie was.” He points out that the Mighty Nein are starting to get into that territory, just as VM did early on. “By the end of the campaign of Vox Machina, they were such a deep-rooted family. There’s something so beautiful about that, warm and comfort food-esque.” Brian points out that this kind of closeness really raises the stakes.

Matt emphatically did not miss the level 20 combat after being out of practice for a year. Fun, but definitely complicated. “Levels 3-15 are my golden levels in D&D.”

Matt comments on Sam and the mug: “Jesus Christ, Sam, what the fuck were you thinking?!” It had been sitting on the set since campaign one ended. Brian points out that they had to move it because it smelled so bad. There were solid pieces in there. 

The Scotch Incident is brought up again. Matt dies a little inside.

Matt still marvels at the Deck of Many Things pull. “We were just stepping into the sunsetting of the campaign, and that motherfucker...” 

“The more I was prepping it, the more I was like, ‘Travis, what the fuck did you do?’”

The Search for Bob is now a thing that’s happening. Matt has a lot that he had to trim from the one-shot for time. Sam: “I’m excited to, along the Search for Bob, trigger something else.”

Brian: “Just one Vox Machina one-shot a month, that’s all we ask.” Matt, strained: “You’re going to kill me.”

Sam missed singing the inspirations so much. “Maybe next campaign I’ll be some other sort of singer or something. The whole night felt like going back home.”

Sam goes on a tangent about what a great singer Matt is. “If he could sing every episode, that would make me happy.”

Matt decided on Percy actually losing his arm weeks before the show. “It’s fun to fuck with them, and because it was already established in a joking matter, I wanted to make them eat their words.”

Sam points out that he’s never seen Matt do anything like that before. “Does not fit in this world. But he’s doing this anyway. He’s just a goofball like us!”

It was always Matt’s plan to take away spell components as a unique challenge, but part of him just wanted a bit of a chance for Travis to play as Grog for a bit once they woke him up.

Sam: “Scanlan’s gotta Scan. Put that on a... t-shirt?” Brian: “Put it on a thong.”

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E29 (August 7, 2018)

Tonight’s preshow: favorite moments from the live show at GenCon last week. Y’all, Dani is so short in real life, I can’t even. Less adorably, I’ve burned my popcorn. Why must life be so cruel?

Music fades out, then hard smashcut to Brian passed out in his chair. Bless, he looks tired. Smashcut to Marisha and Liam also sleeping on the couch. Get these kids some rest, I tell you what. Tonight’s guests: Liam & Marisha.

Announcements: Tonight’s sponsor is Dwarven Forge, who’ve recently launched their kickstarter for the Cavern’s Deep set. See more at critrole.com/dwarvenforge. Honey Heist 2: Electric Beargaloo airs this Friday at 7:00pm PST (on top of the regular episode on Thursday). They actually shot it last night, and it’ll air unedited on Friday. Liam: “No audience, no fucks left to give.” Marisha and some of the others will hang out in the chat Friday night to share the experience, and Brian will be posting some behind-the-scenes photos and videos at the break. The Mighty Nein shirt is back in stock and available at critrole.com. 

CR Stats! The MN reached 159 “9″s this episode, which includes all rolls ever. The 150th 9 goes to Beau--dex save against the fire trap. Beau dealt 147 damage this episode, the most for anyone in any episode in C2 so far. Liam: “This is the class you were born to play.” Marisha: “I’ve never been a Grog before. I’m so excited, you guys.” In Episode 7, the Bust of Estelle Getty attacked twice and hit both times. In Episode 29, the Bust of Nefertiti attacked four times and missed all four. Lorenzo’s last action was Cone of Cold; after that, the party dealt 117 of their total 146 damage. The 6 rounds of this fight is the longest fight of this campaign.

Sam’s outfit? Liam: “What are you going to do next year?” Sam’s panicking. Xenomorph? Cthulhu? Matt Mercer costume? Marisha: “What, are we talking prosthetics? Long hair and a henley aren’t really amping it up.” Liam: “He could wear a vest.”

Liam likes both the intimacy of being around the table and the live theater’s energy. Seeing people cosplay as their characters chanting and screaming is unreal. It feels like a bottle rocket going up next to them. Brian always cries at live shows because of the impact that it has on people--reading tweets is one thing, but seeing the love in person is beyond words.

Liam wasn’t surprised at all at how useful Frumpkin was as a spider. “I don’t know why anyone would think it would be a bad idea.” Marisha: “I got shit for the things I turned into for THREE YEARS! It’s my turn to make fun of other people’s animal choices!” Liam: “#thankskeyleth.”

Beau’s newfound confidence with ladies is both luck and Molly’s influence; she’s always been a bit of a flirt, but Marisha thinks “disaster lesbian” is totally accurate. Liam pitches a 70s exploitation-style spy movie on the spot. Marisha talks about a few times that she almost pursued something with Yasha/Ashley, but then she left and Marisha didn’t get the chance. Brian commiserates. 

Beau waited until Keg could walk off into the sunset to avoid morning-after awkwardness.

Caleb’s first impression of Caduceus is “he’s really ready to put his life in danger. There’s that. I mean, he wanted to get out, so he could have taken a train ride through Alaska, but instead we invaded a compound.” Beau doesn’t have impressions yet. She’s been so desperate for help that any help was a win.

Caleb doesn’t enjoy having power over others. He has an ability to think critically and get things done, but hasn’t been in that position for a long time; he has big plans but no ability to achieve them. He wants to just start getting comfortable again. “Caleb is a mess of contradictions. I change my mind as to what he thinks or I think any given moment.” He wars with liking people and needing to walk away from people because what he’s doing is “more important.” He isn’t sure which part is lying to himself--he just knows that as he lies to himself, he’s still doing something completely different.

To an excellent question about character development by Brian, Marisha talks about finding ideals for a character that you have to go all in on, while still knowing that the world is going to go in on you at the same time and that you’ll change whether you like it or not. Some characters are more stubborn (Caleb); Beau is a little more vulnerable to outside forces of change, such as the death of Molly--she’s never had someone die that she cared about before.

Liam talks about how Caleb has that ability to bring back some fundamental aspects of the person he used to be, in part because he’s now forming connections with people he doesn’t want to admit to even himself. However, what happened with the Shepherds made him angry in a way he never anticipated, plus losing so much of the party... ”I want to do the impossible. If I can’t do this?” The Caleb at the beginning of the campaign was happy to sit back and skulk; this new Caleb, who has been angry, and who is now one of a very small party, cannot skulk. “There was no hanging back. Decisions had to be made.” He doesn’t want to be a leader, but he’ll get things done if he has to.

Beau doesn’t and will never feel vindicated for Molly’s death. BWF: “Revenge and closure aren’t always the same.”

After the live show and Keg, Taliesin told Marisha, “Molly would be so proud.” One of the things that lingers with Beau is that she put on a front in her last conversation with Molly while he was trying to be totally genuine, and then he died before she ever opened up. She’s processing the fact that she missed that opportunity, which is why she jumped on that opportunity with Keg. Marisha also talks about the documentary about Glow on Netflix, where the woman who played the “heart” of Glow talks about her regrets of being in love with the producer but never telling him, and now twenty years have gone by and she’s still in love.

GIF of the Week: @seraphinedreams, which is a Star Wars-style scroller about the Anti-Wheaton Ashly Burch and all her 20s/19s/18s from the live show.

BWF talks about one of the theatre workers recognizing Brian and pointing out the Tal outfit was “worse than last year’s.”

The Nefertiti lamp was a loan from the Egyptian Room of the Murat Theatre.  Khary saw the lamp and went off about how much he needed the empowered figure. Liam: “Thank God we had her, though. Really turned the tide of the battle.”

Going into this fight, Caleb was still furious at the Iron Shepherds. Even so, even during the fight, Caleb was telling himself, “You need this, you need this,” so that he can go to the next thing.

Marisha likes Matt’s revision to the Cobalt Soul class. She’s still figuring out the right things to ask but is liking it much better in terms of expertise costs.

Liam: “I don’t think many moments in my life will rival the impossible moment of that motherfucker dying, on stage, with so many people watching. It was bewildering [to have so many people watching] and it made that moment of blind luck so much more amazing.” Marisha’s not sad at all that he’s dead. Everyone talks about the crazy energy of the HDYWTDT in front of 2500 people.

Brian isn’t apologizing in advance for or after the Honey Heist. Consider me piqued.

Beau cares about Caleb’s mental health. She’s sympathetic, especially since she’s starting to care for the rest of their group. She still believes in the importance of keeping teammates healthy out of both care for them and selfish concern for herself in a fight.

Marisha talks about how emotional she got when Shakaste talked about them being good people doing good things, leaving places better than they found him, especially since Khary’s not caught up on the campaign. Now Beau has to think about the themes that keep cropping up. Caleb knows what they’ve done here is good, but still thinks that the universe is pretty random & that even if they saved an entire orphanage, Caleb will still find himself unforgivable and terrible. “Nothing will erase what he’s done.” BWF: “Nothing?” Liam: “Nothing.”

They hid Khary the whole weekend to keep him from the critter crowd. “It was like telling a 12-year-old in Las Vegas that they had to stay in the hotel.”

Fanart of the Week: this lovely piece by @emtousi12 on twitter, featuring all the guests of the campaign so far.

Caleb/Liam regretted the invisibility scroll casting even before he cast it. He was stressed, the haste was a dud, and he was almost totally out of spells. Liam commiserates with Marisha about having planned very badly on selecting his first level spells for this fight-- “I had a bunch of spells I couldn’t do dick with.” However, he really, really, really didn’t want to die, so even though he desperately wanted to save the scroll, he wanted to live more. 

Neither Beau nor Keg think they plan to make this a recurring thing. “Hit it and quit it.”

Liam’s asked again about why he dedicated the kill to Frumpkin & not Molly (same question as was asked at Gencon). Liam starts talking about how Caleb had a girl cat as a child (also named Frumpkin); later, he recreated his cat using magic, except this one was male (oops?). This--boy, this is a lot very quickly. Marisha: “Is this something you worked out? Is that a narrative beat you thought of in your head?” Liam: “That was a ‘yes/and’ improv thing because Liam also had a cat named Frumpkin as a little boy, and that cat was a girl. But I decided when I was creating my character that Frumpkin was a boy. But because I have real memories as Liam of the cat as a girl, I kept messing up the gender of the fucking cat in the game, so then I retooled my story. So the first part of my answer is that Frumpkin is more important than a magic spell. Frumpkin is a piece of his lovely childhood, his wonderful childhood, and he wanted to have a piece of that in his miserable existence. The second half of that answer is that [the kill] wasn’t dedicated to Frumpkin. Caleb was exhausted and bleeding out, on the verge of death; that line was the equivalent of ‘fuck this day,’ and to say [points emphatically] ‘That was for Molly’ is too--on the nose! I mean, they were all thinking it. They’re all weighed down by it. There’s no need to say it--the day is awful, and what’s more, Molly’s dead--for all they knew in that moment, the other three are dead too, they don’t know! This is a torture chamber! They’re in a Saw movie. They don’t know how the other three are. So maybe they’re all dead. Certainly Molly’s dead. So no, it was not dedicated to the cat.”

Beau felt the same thing, especially since Nott already went into the cage and had the moment with Jester. They were all feeling it and thinking it--it was there--and no one felt the need to say it aloud. “To quote Scarlett O’Hara, ‘I can’t think about that right now. I’ll think about it tomorrow.’“ Liam: “The bottom line is that Caleb is in love with his cat, and the shippers need to focus on that. Send me fiction about that.”

Everyone dreads telling Jester, Yasha, and Fjord what’s happened to Molly. Marisha thinks Fjord will be pragmatic, Yasha will be angry, and Jester will blame herself.

Marisha hypothesizes that since Lorenzo seemed interested in capable fighters, he might have been creating almost Winter Soldier-type slaves that he could use to fight for him.

Everyone’s relieved Sam didn’t fall off the stage in the rollerblades. Apparently he had a dry run out of costume that...did not go well.

Marisha loved the stunning strike moment and the HDYWTDT moment for each of them. Liam loved Nott’s kissing Caleb while he was invisible. BWF does NOT encourage this behavior and we should NEVER DO IT AGAIN and he does NOT WANT THIS IN THE FUTURE but he laughed pretty hard at whoever yelled “It’s High Noon” at Matt towards the beginning of the show.

Liam had a great time playing exhausted--yes, it’s awesome to have the amazing moments, but he loves the fun of the failures too. 

Travis made it to the actual studio today and got a round of applause. “It’s like seeing a hologram of Tupac.”

After Dark: They’re So Tired I’m Tired For Them Edition

Oh, God. Twenty minutes in I realize my video froze during the break and I had no idea. I wondered why it was taking so long. Where are we? I’ll fill it in in a second.

Would BWF ever allow Sam to pick his outfit? He doesn’t know if he has the guts. Sam’s closet is full of ties and sneakers according to Liam.

Liam loved two critters cosplaying as gelatinous cubes at GenCon this year--he recognized one of them as one who came as a beholder last year and applauds her creativity. Marisha loved how their swords were floating around them.  Liam swoons over all the Vaxes with functioning wings; Marisha loved Opening Title Sequence Matt; BWF gushes about the pair who came as him from Signal Boost and Liam Las Vegas; Marisha loved the Percy with the Orthax shadow. There was also a pair of little girls who did the twins one day and Yasha and Beau the next; all three get a little fluttery.

Most of the panel from GenCon is up on Critical Scope.

Marisha would prefer to face a party of wizards over a party of monks. Liam would prefer avoiding both, but if forced would take the monks since they have range requirements.

Thanks, broadcasting.

Liam isn’t bitter the two clerics didn’t heal him. Not at all. Not bitter at all. He was at two hit points before he healed himself with the potion.

Marisha started tearing up when they found the party members in part because the game is very real to them, and they miss Laura, Travis, and Ashley so much. Sometimes the very real reactions catch them off guard. Liam points out that they’re family and it never feels good with part of the family gone.

Live show was the best thing they did at GenCon, but seeing the booth was pretty cool too. Everyone was “cranky” Sunday morning. BWF: “Oh my God, you’re being so nice right now.” Marisha was annoyed from the moment the makeup artist knocked on their door the next morning to get Matt ready to be Pumat. The entire group didn’t say a word to each other over breakfast except to snipe at each other. “Do you know what time it is?” “You’re looking at your phone.”

Liam talks about some cool oversized minis he got for his daughter’s Ravenloft game at the Privateer Press booth. BWF got some new dice (as did Marisha for both her and Matt at the Level Up booth), a Wyrmwood box, and some Iron Kingdoms books.

BWF admits he is a deep nerd and loves Warmachine; he could have talked to the Privateer Press people for hours about the lore if he didn’t think they’d have chased him off.

Did Vax take Molly to the other side? Liam doesn’t know. He has his own ideas--Ariana, their official artist, did a picture of Vax on an obsidian throne & surrounded by obsidian, with white antlers growing out of his shoulder & holding a raven skull, and that’s what he feels his afterlife is like. He does like to think that Vax took Molly to the other side. “He was so colorful and full of life. I’d like to think so.”

The VOD of Matt’s Fireside Chat is up on the critrole Twitch! BWF: “He’s so articulate.” Marisha: “A living bard.”

That’s all for today! Is it Thursday yet?

[teafueledcat]

Video Game Asks

tagged by @bi-texx​! yay video games! thank mew, furriend!!

1. Favorite game from the last 5 years?

The Last Of Us

2. Most nostalgic game?

Castlevania IV

3. Game that deserves a sequel?

I would really love to see Until Dawn expanded, but it’s unlikely

4. Game that deserves a remaster?

RESIDENT EVIL 2.

5. Favorite game series?

Life is Strange, Castlevania, Final Fantasy and Resident Evil

[More after the break!]

6. Favorite genre?

RPG

7. Least favorite genre?

I actually don’t really like horror, but i have a few i like

8. Favorite song from a game?

“1,000 Words” from FFX-2, i cry EVERY TIME

9. Favorite character from a game?

i have too many

10. Favorite ship from a game?

Aeon [Ada/Leon]

11. Favorite voice actor from a game?

SO MANY, but Matt Mercer gets a special shoutout.

12. Favorite cutscene?

either when Yuna and Tidus kiss underwater or Ada kisses Leon when she is “dying”

13. Favorite boss?

Castlevania’s PS2 games have some pretty sweet looking baddies

14. First console?

Sega Genesis / NES

15. Current console or consoles?

PS2, PS4 and a 3DS

16. Console you want?

currently happy with the PS4

17. Place from a game that you’d like to visit?

i’d seriously like to go hogwild around the Elder Scrolls universe

18. Place from a game that you’d like to live in?

see above

19. Ridiculous crossover that would never happen but would be super fun?

animal crossing and overwatch, let it happen you cowards

20. Book that would make a good game?

i got no idea

21. Show/Movie that would make a good game?

see above

22. Games you want to play?

The Last Of Us: Part 2

23. Have you gotten 100% completion in a game?

yup

24. Have you cried over a game?

yes, because i am a emotional motherfucker

25. What power-up or ability would you want IRL?

Max’s rewind, so i can revert my fuckups