Critical Role - From Dusk Till Faun | 4-Sided Dive | Episode 5: Discussing Up To C3E29

Episode Date: August 16, 2022

Erika Ishii, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, and Matthew Mercer discuss the adventures of Bells Hells and play a goofy game of Code Names with a fun Q&A twist! 4-Sided Dive airs one Tuesday a month on http://twitch.tv/criticalrole and http://youtube.com/criticalrole Twitch subscribers gain instant access to VODs of our shows like Critical Role, 4-Sided Dive, and Exandria Unlimited. But don't worry: Twitch broadcasts will be uploaded to YouTube about 36 hours after airing live, with audio-only podcast versions of select shows on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & Google Podcasts following a week after the initial air date. Twitch subscribers also gain access to our official custom emote set and subscriber badges and the ability to post links in Twitch chat! "Let's Roll (4-Sided Dive Theme)" by Peter Habib and Sam Riegel Original Music by Omar Fadel and Hexany Audio Additional Music by Universal Production Music, Epidemic Sounds, and 5 Alarm 

Welcome to Foresighted Dive, Critical Role's monthly talk show featuring a roundtable discussion about the events and characters of our current campaign, alongside a heavy helping of hijinks. Foresighted Dive airs the first Tuesday of every month at 7pm Pacific on Twitch.tv slash Critical Role and YouTube.com slash Critical Role, with the VOD available on YouTube the very next day. And of course, each episode releases right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network one week after the initial broadcast. Let's dive into the chaos. If I sing Grease 2, it wouldn't get us in trouble. I think it actually would. Because I don't think anybody cares. You just sang every other note correctly.

The algorithm cannot catch it. I don't think anybody cares. If you just sang every other note correctly. The algorithm cannot catch it. I don't think anyone cares. I haven't seen Grease 2. Oh! Likewise, likewise. Okay. Oh, wow. Y'all are talking about Grease 2.

I wish I haven't seen Grease 2. I've seen Grease 1. No, you don't. No, you don't. You take that back. I will make y'all watch it. Grease 2, Grease Harder. Fair enough, that works out well.

But importantly. Oh, is it time? Oh, boy. We're coming into this now. I would love to talk about grease two forever, but y'all have to. Okay. Gosh, golly. Pick your poisons.

Everyone, pick the weapon that you will. I'll go with the pus yellow. All right. We'll be right. Okay. Go for it. Fuck me. Somebody, come be right back. Okay. What do it, what do it? Go for it. Fuck me. Somebody, come on, somebody, no!

Nat 20! Who the fuck is you, buddy? What a waste of a Nat 20. I love it! Fucking waste! Perfect. Percy came back to screw you. Yeah, just stop rolling all those high numbers, yo.

You guys asked for it, and now you're gonna get it. Apparently I am hosting this episode. Wait, you stand at a thing, right? Gotta go do the thing. We're getting out of the way. All right. Have fun. Thank you.

You're great. Oh no. Wait, you go to that one. Oh, it's that one, okay. This is amazing already. Actually, here, I can, it's even better. There it is, there it is. Oh, hi, I didn't see you there.

I was just thinking about how to welcome you to this four-sided dive. Since I am your fifth tavern keeper, how about a little math problem? U plus X equals betrayal. Solve for X, but make it sexy. Tonight, you asked for it, and you asked for it. That's right, we have changed the player

behind the changeling known as you, Erica Ishii, and her co-conspirator Matthew Mercer, motherfucker, to tell us all about how and why you did this to us. It's very confusing. Shit. Also, just because he was a nobody doesn't mean that he's not a somebody. Taliesin Jaffe is in the building,

slowly dying. And rounding out our dive for tonight... It worked. I have successfully beamed my consciousness back in time to deliver a very important warning. The connection won't last long, so listen carefully. The Kwakus, they look adorable,

but they're not what they seem. Don't trust them! Ashley Johnson just found out ferns folks hate the moon, but most importantly, we're gonna talk about how quokkas are the best and most trustworthy animals to ever exist. Welcome to Foresighted Dive. Let's fucking do a show already.

Yay! Well done. Well done. Welcome back. Let's begin this night's discussion with our segment, What the Fuck is Up With That? Yay! Hello!

Finally, the original. I know. Got to bring it around. I'm proud of you. Death Wish Run. What the fuck is up with that? Deathwish Run. Where'd it come from?

What were you thinking? Where does it come from? Where does it go? I was working with Bashir Gauss, who was my collaborator on the world building for the Hellcatch Valley. And we were working out Bassuras as a city after we had broken down all the different facets and sections of the city

based on his original outline. And we looked at it and we both went, what it's missing is a death race, essentially. We need to have automatons racing each other, aggressive explosions and deadly stakes just for the sake of the entertainment of the people that decided to live here in this hellhole. And so that was kind of where it came from.

And then it was kind of fun to seed it into the information for Bassurus, for both you and FCG, for Sam, people who would know about it and see if it ever came up. And as I was hoping, I was like, I hope it comes up, I hope it comes up. And I figured with a few mentions

and promises of the skirmish crawlers, the chaos ensued, I was like, I hope it comes up, I hope it comes up. And I figured with a few like mentions and like, you know, promises of the skirmish crawlers, the chaos ensued, I'm like, they'll probably wander into it. I mean, we kind of forgot everything else when we found out that there could be, in fact, like a death wish race. I knew I could believe it. Yeah. I could trust in all of you.

Abandon everything else. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah, that's just a trap. That's a giant honeypot. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I wanted to run it as much as I wanted you guys to play it.

That was so fun. It was a good time. You may as well give us airship combat at this point. It's just going to be full on. We're only in the 30ish episode. Airship combat. give us time. We've kind of had an airship battle, but not with another airship.

But not like, yeah. Across cannons. No, and like jumping to the other ship and like, you know. We did airship combat. In Escape from Bloodkeep. We did, yeah. Super fun. We'll see, we'll see what we can do. Super fun.

And there's definitely going to be the conversation about whether or not we can get our crawler on the ship. I look forward to these conversations. Like a Saturday morning cartoon thing where it just comes out the back or something. Where it's like the bat cycle being dropped from the bat wing or whatever it is. Or Kit coming out of the truck, whatever you need.

Yeah, yeah, just pick your reference. I do see the Thundercats crawler every time we talk about it, though. I will admit. Hey, nothing wrong with that. I like it. Yeah, no, I'm glad you guys did it. It was a fun time.

Did anybody have a favorite part? Did you have a favorite part? I don't know. My favorite part, I think, was after all the talk with All Minds Burn helping you out. They just threw a boulder down and didn't realize that really you were the only ones left, so it just fucked

you all up. Was that who did that? Yeah. Okay. Oops. Oh, that's hilarious. I don't know that you necessarily told us what the, that was a like, you know, go on my signal. And we're like, what's the signal? And you just wander off and then that happens.

What's the signal? There was no signal. That was just like, your high friends are going to help and then they just don't. Yeah. They're just like. We'll be there, but an hour too late. And we're like, yeah, what happened to the,

oh, I guess it's over, man. Yeah, kind of. Oh, did I miss it? You do okay? That's great. Oh, my goodness. Hey, you won. God, that was such a fun idea.

I couldn't. I mean, that was Mad Max vibes all the way. It's all the Mad Max I wanted. Yeah. I love those little things. And I really, I enjoyed the very beginning early skirmish where it was just lots of cars wrestling for the front. Yeah, the game rules for that were fun. Did we kind of get through things easier

than you anticipated or just about the right speed? I think a bit a little easier. I mean, here's the thing. Having FCG able to cast and be present was a big boon. I was like, I don't know how he's going to be part of this. There's only so many space on these crawlers. I figured maybe I'm more like one of the side missions or such. And so you guys decided to fucking glue him in instead of a wheel.

I was like, I didn't see that coming. Okay. That was psychotic. Yeah, and I love it. I didn't see that coming. That was psychotic. Yeah, and I love it. I don't even remember whose idea that was, but it was amazing. Yeah. But that added his capabilities,

wherever he could look out of the periphery of his vision, to the fray. So I'd say you guys, both through cleverness, capabilities, kind of rocked it, honestly, to the point where I had some of the things that I had in the back pocket as possibilities, like the kagaronk. I was like, well, I'm definitely bringing them out.

Oh, man, the kagaronk was so cool. That was fun. That was awesome. A chase-based beast battle. He was so cute. He was very cute. It was awesome. And the mini that I used for it

was actually a Dwarven Forge Kickstarter mini that was designed by Crystal Sully, who does a lot of amazing dragon designs for us and for Wizard of the Coast. They're just amazing artists and it was a cool little thing to include. It was beautiful and amazingly fun.

I will say, I'm not sure who initially pitched the idea of FCG as the wheel, but it was more like a, hey, wouldn't that be funny? And then Dusk was like, well, there's a practical purpose to this. You should do it. And everybody's like, yeah, we should do it. And I think there's a moment where I did the office look at the camera

and be like, I can't believe I committed. Wouldn't that be funny is actually code in our game for, do I have a second? Yeah. Like, do we have a second? We have a second. All right, it's going forward. Just need one more person to raise their hand.

Wouldn't that be funny? Yeah, that would. Okay, we're doing it. Oh my god. That would be hilarious. Well, you guys still have a skirmish crawler, and you're riding with another one at the time of recording this. Yeah.

We'll see where it goes from there. Yeah. How fast do they go? I can't remember that. So they are a speed 60, if I recall. Oh, okay. So they're twice as fast on just the general movement, but the driver, at least in the race rules,

you can use your movement to move the vehicle, then your action to dash, which means you can go 120 feet around. If you use your bonus action, that's 180 feet around. So they can cruise. I assume that's like a nitro, though, which is why you can't do it all the time. No. It's intense.

They're very fast. They also die horribly if that front wheel is destroyed and hurt everybody inside their driver's seat, which is fun. It never quite happened, but I was looking forward to the possibility of one of your calls. We did have an explosive tied to us in the center of one of the cars. Yeah, I was waiting for that! I was like, this is a very dangerous thing to have there.

Mmm. I tickle. I got Danny. I know that look. Or somebody got Danny. You did. With my super cool Nasta. With your Fast and Furious reference. I love the Fast and Furious movies.

I've seen every single one in the theater. Sorry, I sounded way too passionate. Hey, never apologize for loving the stuff that you love. There's no such thing as a guilty pleasure. I agree. I agree with you. It's all for family. There's no such thing as a guilty pleasure. I agree. I agree with you. It's all for family. It's all for family.

God, the best. Guilt makes it taste better, in my opinion. But yes. Okay, well. All of it. Let's bring up the other problem. The other, not problem, I guess it was a problem. The other topic.

And that would be you. No, you. Me. But yes, other topic. And that would be you. No, you. Me. But yes, you too. You too? But you. You too's a problem. They are. You too.

You did this on purpose. Wait, they did? Yes. They did. You definitely did. Yes? No, it's you. Yes, exactly. This is my nightmare. So. S, no, it's you. Yes, exactly. This is my nightmare. So, at what point did y'all decide to...

Be assholes? Do this to you. Yeah. God, what a fun spin, though. Oh, man. So Matt and I started talking about this in October or something. That's right. I want to say.

And I said I'd been saving a changeling character. That's right. I want to say, and I said I wanted, I'd been saving a changeling character. I really wanted to do a changeling. And then I talked to Ashley. We were at a bar and Ashley was saying like, I just kind of want to be bad. I want to like, you know,

get like messy. And I was like, oh, I could, I could do messy. And I was like, oh. I could do that. I could give Ashley something messy to play with. And that combined with that, and then Matt asked, do you want to kill her parents? Well, the conversation was...

Do you want to kill her parents? So there are numerous narrative threads happening right now, and I kind of gave you a bunch of different things to choose from, and since you said you wanted to kind of lean into a Fae thing, I'm like, well, there are numerous narrative threads happening right now, and I kind of gave you a bunch of different things to choose from, and since you said you wanted to kind of lean into a Fae thing, I'm like, well, there are some Fae narrative threads in here, and I kind of explained the elements that were going on and said,

there are different ways you could engage with this, and you don't have to, but this would be an easy way to kind of directly go into the story. And then we said, I was like, I want to do, yeah, because I asked about changelings. I was like, you guys have never done changelings before.

Are there changelings? And this was before EXU Calamity happened, too. Yeah, to the point where when they were doing EXU Calamity, they were like, is it okay to have changelings? I'm like, Erica's already decided on one, so we're bringing them in. So, but then, yeah, then changelings, which meant Fae, which meant tying it to Ashley's backstory. And then also I wanted to make it so they had to figure out that I was a changeling as opposed to coming in as a changeling.

And then that idea of deceiving my friends sort of tied in naturally to doing wet work for the Unseelie court. I gave you all the information for both the courts and then the kind of factions outside of the courts. And I was like, what do you want to do? And you mentioned some of the possibilities. And I was like, well, if you go this route, there are these threads to go. And you said, what about Unseelie?

Honestly, Unseelie fits very well with one of the narratives. But the downside to this and the challenging side to it is that likely you're gonna be sent to kill her parents. And I was like, yes. That. That is an option. And then, honestly, Dusk

and that whole persona came like a week maybe before the shoot happened, and I had to throw something together because I had... You had to find the false identity. I shoot happened and I had to like throw something together because you had to find the false identity I did because I had to have different kinds of I had a bunch of different identities sort of ready to pull but just in case the one that I definitely we that we leaned on and um it was you guys so we were playing a second game essentially where it was you and I knew, but the characters don't know. The cast doesn't know.

And not even all of the crew knew. Yeah. So we like, so there were some email threads that were like highly under wraps. There was art that was happening behind the back of some producers. And then we had to play it out the entire campaign of doing it so that you guys, as well as your characters, didn't know. So in some ways, I created this sort of

silly, innocent character in the game and also for myself while I was playing. It's like, oh, innocent character in the game, and also for myself while I was playing. It's like, oh, that's Erica. She's just so chaotic, and, like, you know, look at her trying to scattershot seduce all of the cast members. That's so classic, Erica. I bet Erica doesn't know that elves don't sleep, you know?

That is to be forgiven. So we had to, we put in little clues along the way, but not... Little breadcrumbs. Yeah, little breadcrumbs along the way, but not tip our hand to you or the audience completely. And the moment that you had everybody go out so we can have our little one-on-one. I didn't know you were gonna do that, but it was perfect.

I still haven't watched it. It was, yeah. Go back and watch it. No, I'm gonna go back and watch it. I was just, you know, I wanted to like, make sure it's not gonna spoil anything, so no. Yeah, now that it's out in the open, the cards are on the table.

I think you showed me at the end of the last. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because you were like, wait, what happened? Yeah, I did not suspect anything. Not a clue. That's not a clue. That was one of my favorite moments of this, because we've never done a guest spot

that was antagonistic before. Yeah. And so watching different people at the table at certain moments, like, I could watch face reactions like Travis and maybe like Liam a little bit, when like certain things would be said and they'd be like.

You start seeing like the itch of like, this isn't adding up, go on. But they're like not quite grasping. And then when Chetney, like full on cold, like absolutely. I can believe it. It's Travis. Like as goofy as he likes to present himself,

he also like very much, him and Marisha have those, like, the full-on, always sunny, like, you know, Charlie, Dave, with the fucking board in the background. They have minds that go to that level of, wait, but all these things can come together and make it happen. Because we did. We left that.

I think Travis is the only cast member I'm aware of that actually, like, figured it out. Fucked it, yeah. Or the rest of you are so good at keeping it under wraps. Oh, no. Not a clue. You all were, because there were so many times, too, like during the course of my run that it was, I left things out there,

and I think you guys, it was a combo a combo too of this whole meta game of like we've known each other for years we've played together for years and so I would not have done this is another thing too that's important to mention is that normally in games you want to have these discussions about lines and veils

and boundaries and like what you know going in especially as an antagonist, but I feel very grateful that we kind of knew that everybody would be, it'd be a fun surprise. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there was a brief like, you know, like, these are things that are probably, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

Yeah. Yeah, I would definitely not recommend coming in as an antagonist to the rest of your party unless you really know everybody from a long time of playing together and you all know that you're here for that sort of role play, which is what we had here.

Because otherwise, you want to have these conversations in advance to make sure that you don't end up ruining anybody else's time. Or for you as the antagonistic character to not be able to play the element that intrigues you about this sort of story and see where it can go.

Yeah. Even we weren't sure where it was going to go either. We didn't know. We had no idea what was going to happen or how you guys would react or if any of you would figure it out beforehand. And it could have gone so many different ways because by rules as written,

it's almost impossible for a level eight character to take on a bunch of level seven, level six characters. Yeah, that would have been tough. Yeah, 1 versus 7. But we had a couple of things that might still mean... Mean the play. There were a couple of items at your disposal

that were intended to level the playing field if it did actually come to blows. And yeah, so there was that and then I... She could have been a boss battle. I could have been a boss battle. Oh my God. Or like if, I didn't want to kill anybody's character, but if I decided to like. You wouldn't have been the first.

I gave her permission. I was like, if it makes sense, go for it. Yeah, if it happens, it happens. But like there are so many times where I was like, oh, I could definitely get somebody off on their own and kill them and replace them. Like, that could happen. Yeah, thinking back on it now, like, once you made that reveal, and then I just, I was, like, going through everything. Like, memento.

Oh, my God, yes. Yes. Because it all made sense. We, I did, like, it seemed like I was being very chaotic, but I would say about 30 to 40% of what you says is true or has some grain of truth to it. And 60 to 70% is like terrifying manipulation. Because like there's those things of like going after Laudna or like coming. Oh, yeah. And it's like still up in the air whether or not there's sort of genuine feelings or where that would go. But absolutely, it was meant to like Matt. It was like the stirring the pot bit.

Whereas like, it was crazy just pulling at different threads and playing the game too. Also the meta narrative of wanting to do uncomfortable and sort of boundary pushing things as this character and for your character, finding your character's limits, but then also out of the game, making sure that you all felt comfortable and were having a good time.

I will say I felt a little called out for another game that's not on this channel. So I was like, wow, okay, turn around, I suppose. That's fair. Shit. What was interesting, too, as a part of the meta narrative, there were a lot of things that you were doing, I suppose, that's fair. Fine. Shit. I will say, well, what was interesting, too, as a part of the metanarrative,

there were a lot of things that you were doing, that you and you was doing on the side. I love it so much. Oh, man. Where you'd be texting me, like, I'm going to go ahead and try and stealth over and listen to this conversation, or I'm going to go off and do this thing on my own, or try and pay attention to these things.

I'd be texting you back, like, go ahead and make this roll, and then keeping tabs on numbers versus other people's passive scores and stuff. So like we were like, and there were times where you had a whole thing going and then like something else would jump in and like knock you off. You'd be like, oh yeah, totally. What's going on? I'd be like, all right, well, you got waylaid.

Sorry. I'm just over here doing absolutely nothing. Yeah. It was like a small mini chess game within the usual game. How cool. It was really like doing chess, like having to think multiple moves ahead and being like, what can we pull within this game?

And what would the character know? What would these characters... Like Chetney, it makes sense for Chetney to figure it out, you know, after seeing all these different things. Oh, yeah. Marisha started to figure it out, too. Like, I don't know if Lana did necessarily. I'd love to ask her.

Yeah, but I'm sure Marisha. Or Marisha should be, like, pacing at home and be like, there's something off about this. Is this, is this, is this? And I'm like, mm-mm. I don't know. Fuck! I always like post-games with Marisha

because I can always tell in-game when both of us are like, wait, we're onto something. And then at the end, she'll just be sitting there and then just like, okay. And then she'll go through her notes and we'll be talking just for 30, but what about, what about this? We're going to figure this out.

It's my favorite thing. It's the best notes. Yeah, she takes the best notes. I have a little throwaway question here. Favorite fictional parental figure? Like, do you have? Since this is a show where you like with the nameings. Oh god, you're screaming for it. Best choice, you won! a show. Gomez and Morticia Adams. Oh, God.

That's choice, you won. You got it. Out of the gate. Yeah, you won. Fresh out the gate. Specifically the Raul Julia Gomez. Specifically. Oh, yes.

I mean like Angelica Houston. Is there any other? Just to counter that on the other end, I'm going to say the parents from Spy Kids. I love their parents. They're great. They're wholesome. They're wholesome.

They support their children. They don't swear. They're great. That's a pretty good answer. Thank you. That's good. Oh, man. That is such a good answer.

That is. That was a. I still, just, they're perfect. They are perfect. They're perfect in every way. And they are just so horny for each other. Oh, it's the best. Like, I look at that, and I'm like, love is real.

No, that is the perfect relationship right there. Yeah, no, that's what we strive for. Of all the fictional stories that I feel affected me growing up, that relationship was like, that's what I want. Yeah. That's what I want. All the rest, like, the romance movies, I'm like, that's what I want. Yeah. That's what I want. All the rest of the romance movies, I'm like, nah, fuck that shit.

Give me the Addams. Give me what the Addams have. That's what I want. That and a giant slide that goes to the basement. Yes. That too. I'm there for it.

God, what a good answer. While we're talking about Addams Family, completely on topic, I still to this day think that in Addams Family values, Joan Cusack,ack was a standout. Oh my god. She was a little bit of inspo for Fern.

Really? Oh wow. I can see that! That's fucking great! That's with Adam's Family Values. I love that so much! Yes, that was one of the first... There was like five characters that Fern is like very sort of loosely based on. I love that. is one of the first, there's like five characters that Fearne is very sort of loosely based on.

I love that. Yes. We'll find out as we go. We'll find out, because in the meantime, before that happens, it is time for the Tower of Inquiry. Oh shit, there we are, we're at this moment. One of us pulls a block from the tower, reads the number, and Dani tells us the corresponding question, and

who or whom asked it. And if the Tower of Inquiry falls, there will be dire consequences for the one who ruins it. Sad, disgusting consequences. Oh, we're getting up there, too. That thing's looking janky. And with that in mind, Matt, you had to say something,

so why don't you pull a block? Shit! Since you have so many opinions. I'll be the victim. It's fine. All your life. Okay. Yes! You already touched it.

No, no, no. Is that how it works? I was told that's how it works. Not anymore. No? No. It's my rules. It's my rules.

You can touch what you like. What's your rules? My rules is you can... It's when it moves. Like when you start moving it. Once it starts moving, then you're committed. Once it starts moving, you're committed?

Okay. Well, let's see. Do we know what happens if it falls? Because I'm not scared of any consequences. I genuinely don't know what the consequences

of falling will be. What is the... Maybe we'll find out tonight. It is a sticky set. That is our secret word. What is this? You have to pull from the tower next, aftermath. Sticky?

What? All right. Oh, wow, we have crazy lighting too. Can I get a duck falling from the ground at least? I would like a duck coming out of the ceiling. If we're going to do this, I insist on tradition. It's okay. At least, oh, God. This is're gonna do this, I insist on tradition. It's okay. At least at least Oh god. This is

awful. Come on, man. Just pull one so I can get it over with. They're attached! Maybe there's a reason for that. Just pull hard. I did that one where I just yanked it. Just yank. Why are they so That's the way to do it. You just have to

pull real hard. Okay. I can't make you suffer anymore. They're glued. We might have glued it together. Oh, you might have glued it together. Oh my god. You sons of bitches. Games within games within games.

Well done. Well done. This is... Okay, yeah. I was like... An inception of trust. I feel like such an. Missing. Okay, yeah. I was like, I was like, I feel like such an asshole right now. What have I done? Well done.

Well done. This trust has been broken. The rank betrayal. Oh, wow. Is this like a, a carefooker? Oh, we have a new one. So does Matt have to pull first

or do I have to pull? This one's not sticky. First things, sorry, this is a process now. We have to get eight out of these. Okay. So I'm going to ask for both of y'all to come up. All right, all right.

And pull eight. Eight, okay. And then I, and then yeah, we'll go from there. All right, there's one. Two. Three. Four. We ficked.

This way. Ten. We might topple it while setting it up. That would be extremely on brand. I'm here for it. I have concerns about choices that have been made. While setting it up. That would be extremely on brand, and I'm here for it. Perfect. What is this? This is six. I have concerns about choices that have been made.

There you go. Six. Two more. Oh, no. Oh, no. I'm going to step away because I'm gonna step away because I'm scared Seven

Oh boy So is this my official poll? No this is the eighth one and then it's my poll and then it's you Wait this is how many polls is not gonna last? Y'all screwed yourselves

These ones are already on here Okay Alright Oh wow you're I'm seeing what's going on here. I'm not coming. There are some options. A little higher.

You can pull up high if you want. That's true, that's true. Don't feel limited. All right. How am I helping you? Because you're you. Okay. Now it's my turn.

And now... Now the game... Oh, so this is the first question. Correct. All right, well, I'm going to go sit down then. Oh, man. It's one hand, right? Usually? Sure. Oh, so this is the first question. Correct. All right, well I'm gonna go sit down then. Oh man. It's one hand, right, usually? Sure. So the fun is just making sure that in future episodes

it's somebody's already ruined. Yeah. Yes. Well, that's because we had already, we don't reset it, so. We had already ate before in previous episodes. Oh sure. So. Hey. Oh, you.

Wow. Number 51. 51? All right. Sure. So. Oh, you! Wow! Number 51. 51! All righty. So, number 51. Yes? How much of your backstory do you like to write, and how much mystery do you leave for the DM to fill in?

From Paige Hellbomb. Thank you, Paige. I give a lot of my backstory to the DM. Pretty much all of it. I'll start. Okay, yeah lot of my backstory to the DM. Pretty much all of it. I'll start. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, you go. This is actually the first character where I didn't do that. I try to only give backstory from the perspective of my character.

So anything I write is just what my character knows and what my character thinks. It doesn't have to be true. It's just their perspective on everything and then just leave the rest to the dungeon master. Like, if I don't know the motivations of somebody who messed with my family, I don't know them. I don't know what the hell happened.

This is the first one where I had a little bit of a build that's just a little bit beyond my character's understanding just because it was kind of complicated and I wanted to, I had something a little specific in mind. So I wanted to make sure had something a little specific in mind. So I wanted to make sure that I locked in a few options of like, it's going to have to go this way. So you think. So I think, I know.

You work hard at just subverting everything. It's important to find. Now that they know what you're capable of in terms of deception, I don't know how much they're going to trust you for the rest of this campaign. They never trusted me. No. To begin with. Really?

Well, no. Let's be fair. It is a combination of absolute trust and continuous teetering mistrust, and that is why I like it. I mean, and that's the thing. It's like, if you have a very clearly defined set of boundaries you can do whatever

the hell you want within them they know I'll never do anything to harm them to traumatize them to rob them of agency yeah but I will fuck with their expectations and twist things to

make it interesting and fun for them based on what I know about them. And that just comes with experience of knowing these people, of loving them and playing with them for so long. It takes time to earn that sort of trust and understanding, so you can't expect it at the beginning of a table by any means. That's where lines and mails conversations come in really handy.

But yeah, that's where I like the fucking thing. From some perspectives, a surprise birthday party is a kind of betrayal, that's probably the puppet. From some perspectives, a surprise birthday party is a kind of betrayal if you think about it. I think about that constantly. Yeah. Like, all of my nearest and dearest got together and kept a secret from me and schemed and produced things

and, you know, that could have been an assassination attempt and I would have had no idea. I mean, yeah. would have had no idea. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Kind of rude. Yeah. Are you going to plan a surprise party for me?

No, it was going to be an assassination attempt, but if it's a party you want, then like. Right, thank you, Paige Hellbomb. Do we all answer the question, or is it just for, we all answer the question? Yeah, I'm so sorry. No, no, no. Take a stab.

Gosh, you. No, not me. You. Oh, God. Me? You. I feel like, I don't make a very detailed backstory.

Like, in the past, I have not made super detailed backstories. Like, I feel like yours, I see pages and pages and pages. A solid two pages, you know, depending on the, but like, you know, text. Yeah, I don't do a lot because I think I have ideas for things. There's even some stuff that I've been thinking about for Fern that, for later, that I'm sort of tinkering with that I will eventually talk to Matt about. Which is a cool note, just to jump in here real fast. Like, your character can continue to evolve

and percolate throughout a story. Yes. It doesn't have to be, like, all written before session zero, and it's immutable. Like, it's a conversation as you go. It is, and I feel like Sam, most recently when we were doing campaign three, he was writing stuff down, and he was like, I'm going to give Matt some new stuff.

He was like, oh yeah, I always add to my backstory. And I was like, wait, what? It's not set in stone, just right from the beginning? And then, I don't know. For a lot of people it is, and they like it that way, but as long as it's not radically altering your character or contradicting things you've already established, there's no reason to not

continue to explore what nuance inspires you as you go. Yeah. I mean, it's all collaborative storytelling that's in the day. It is. For me, it depends on the campaign, because other campaigns I'm in are like, I've said this before, but playing D&D in a live stream or on camera is like you have to be both an actor, an improviser, a writer, and a producer. Because I have usually a set number of episodes that I'm contracted for.

And in that time, I have to come through with a whole arc, a whole backstory, and drop all the things right at the right time and still interact with and improvise along with everybody else in the campaign. So most of the time, I will write out everything. You know, I just have to have everything. Like for this one, I gave you quite a lot. We left it open-ended in terms of how we would react to things, but in terms of backstory, we had it all pretty much nailed down

both for you and for Dusk. Which we had to specifically for the purposes of this story because it's a very challenging, what you attempted to do with this character is a very difficult thing. Yeah. And so it required a little bit of that preparation. Right, and so the whole,

I always do love the trope of like, born sexy yesterday, you know? With like, you know, like Lulu in Fifth Element or any of the like sweet, innocent little babies that have no idea how to live in this world. I'm just a baby. I'm just a baby. Help me. And one question that you did have that I can't answer,

well, I don't know, should I, because like, I don't know if. Now, if it's an I don't know, then you hold off. Well, yeah. If it's an I don't know, you hold off off. Well, yeah. If it's an I don't know, you hold off. That's true. But I will say that the whole concept behind Dusk was, and in some ways the character that I played as me, the player, is, like, get somebody to underestimate you. If you put yourself in a position in which people are like, oh, they're just a little baby, they will absolutely not see it coming.

Yeah. I'm a big fan of They will absolutely not see it coming. Yeah. I'm a big fan of undermining people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I also like, I keep interrupting you. No, it's good, it's good. Keep talking, let's go. We're here to talk about this shit. Talk about it, there you talk about it.

Get it out, girl, come on, come on. I also feel like, for me, so much of the, I like having a, not a very detailed backstory because there's still so much of the game. I like to be surprised. That's the game for me. So I know because we're obviously doing this in front of an audience now and we're streaming it. So there's a certain element of like, okay okay you have to see where your character is going but i still i love matt's storytelling obviously i think we all really like what he does so that's so fun sitting at the table and just being like yes and i just matt and

i looking at each other being like we're completely making up the story together right now, and I'm just yes-ing and just seeing what shit comes out. And Fern is so ephemeral, it's not like you can't just at any time going, oh yeah, that's what happened. Yeah. I forgot, it really wasn't that interesting. It's just like, keep going.

And can I express, like Ashley, we had you for as much as we could get for Vox Machina, and Pike was such a wonderful heart for that story, and I'm excited that we get to develop her more in other facets because we didn't have you for as much time as we wanted to to really kind of give her what she was due. And then with Yasha, when we finally did get you back,

we got to kind of really dive into that story and those relationships, and as we got to kind of really dive into that story and those relationships. And as we got there, it was a very, you know, tragic and in some ways introverted character that part of her story was coming out of her shell. And the way that you were finally getting able to sit in it. Oh, it was totally lining up with where I was in life too. So watching you come to,

I've said it before, watching you be unleashed as Fern, like, and I'll say it, I'll say it again, and it continues to just add on to itself is one of my favorite joys of this campaign. Oh, dude. Those moments. Those moments of, I don't know what the fuck you're doing,

but we're going to follow them and see what happens is the best. I feel like you and I sometimes will be on a tightrope and we're like, I don't know where we're going to go. You move and then I'll go with you. It's really fun. This has been such a, I've said this before, of like a character to play

especially after these past few years of just being dreadful. Yeah. And just being just kind of light and fluffy but yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I'm finally done.

No, it's okay. You had something to say, and yet, to be fair, we also are interrupting you, like, so you gotta finish your talk. That's how conversations are. And if you have a hot and ready evergreen question for our brand new, totally not sticky yet, Tower of Inquiry,

you can enter it at critrole.com slash tower, exclamation point. Woo-hoo! Tower. I have to do it. I have to do one? Yeah. The tower, he points to his own device.

Now it's your turn? Yeah, because you used the pull. Because you now pull, okay. Because he said the secret word. Oh, he said sticky. He said sticky. Yeah, he said the word sticky. Yeah!

A very well-oiled machine is our brand. This set here. What are you going to do? This one is not glued, I promise. I believe you. He has backed me into a corner here. Yeah, buddy. You helped set this up. It's true.

It's not my fault that I take a challenge. Look at it. 19! 19. What is 19? Oh, I love this question. Ooh! Okay, here we go.

If, I mean, I love all of the questions. Let me make that very clear. If Kiri spent a day with your character, what phrase would she pick up and mimic? This is from Fae. Fuck, fuck, shit, fucking, fuck, fuck, shit. Yeah, that's true. Don't touch me.

Don't touch me! That one's easy. Oh, God. Maybe like, I was just lying Or like That's good I don't know God what would

Don't you fucking touch my shit Yeah there would be a few That's a good one that's useful You can use that all the time Don't you fucking touch my shit I'm like how are you feeling Don't you fucking touch my shit It's practicallyly. I'm like, how are you feeling? Don't you fucking touch my shit. It just means,

it's practically the word smurf. You can use it for anything. Yeah. I feel like. You have two options. Man,

because it's fun to, under normal circumstances, I think Dusk is probably one of the longer cons for you.

I feel like, because I can, because you can truly be anything. And they are, so there's no real, heck, there's no even real set voice, really. Very Skrull. Fun, yeah. Yeah. Is there a particular phrase within Dusk's skin that you think would be helpful for Kiri to pick up on? No, I think that that's the thing. Nothing to grab onto.

Yeah, there's nothing to grab onto. To keep it. Yeah, which is the fun thing, because I really wanted to play a changeling, because it's in a lot of ways just representative of the things that I always want to be, just like a fully fluid experience. Be anything, do anything, say anything. But then the flip side of that is you can do, you can be anything that other people

want you to be, too, for better or worse. That's like a scary and interesting thing. I just had a stupid party trick idea. Okay. You could have a changeling pretend to be Kiri, and then that would be the trick, is trying to remember only the phrases that they already had and not fuck up. Right?

That would be a lot of fun, because then it would just be, if you just slip once or twice, like, just hope no one notices. Getting a nosebleed trying to conjecture. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The math behind that. That would drive me insane.

Man. As far as NPCs go, we haven't spent too much time with Captain Xandis, I don't know if I have a quote there. No. Probably Eshteross. Yeah. In Drusar. Be like, The cookie's all ready.

Yes. I love that you've made a baker. I don't know where that came from. I don't know either, but it's- It's so wonderful. It made sense. The more you got to know- Was that in the moment? Yeah, because he is a deeply paranoid, weathered warrior who has seen,

been through some shit, and is holed up in his estate for the purposes of keeping himself safe while he sends out his network of information gatherers and such to stay on the beat of trying, trying to be a force for good in society. And in the middle of this like stocky kind of older Bruce Wayne type figure that he emerged to be,

it made sense for, in his soft core, to have a hobby. And baking is just a, it's like, he gets to host so rarely because so few people come within his spectrum of trust that like, I imagine he'd be excited to be able to host. And so the baking thing kind of came out naturally just as that was evolving.

I love him. It's just that never quite getting to the great Kraghammer cooking, baking show. I know. It's just rough. Thank you, Faye. Remember, submit your evergreen cues to critrole.com slash tower!

Exclamation point. This brings us to the next phase of our four-sided dive, the deep dive. Danny, what's on the menu for today? I don't know why I'm talking that way. I like it. I don't either. Okay.

Oh, it's time. Yes! We get caught. Muggies, muggies, muggies, muggies. Muggies. Here's your wonderful, pitts mug. You're gonna be able to add

your little drawing to that. Thank you. Thank you. Oh my god, your mugs are so cool. It's mugging for the camera. So cute. We're gonna take turns pulling questions from our tankards,

and since I'm tavern keeper, I'll be kicking this off. Okay, that's fine. Thank you, camera, for telling me that. I'm just a puppet. They pull my strings. I have no free will here. Help. What's your question, Taliesin? My question is, with Ashton learning more about their memories and the night they fell how does he feel about not having found

any nobodies yet it's been a little it's been a little busy there hasn't been a lot of time for stuff and I will admit there's like stuff that I keep like I'm gonna okay there's no time for that right now so I'm putting off a few things and a few conversations

which will be coming up soon. Honestly, he hasn't even really gotten to that point yet. There's still so much brewing and going around that hasn't been processed that looking up their old friends and seeing what happened hasn't really kicked in yet. There's a whole bunch of stuff that you gave me in the museum that's still kind of kicking around

and I'm hoping to have a conversation about it with somebody. Yeah, we'll see if any of that ever comes to fruition. Yeah, that really threw me, so that'll be exciting. And that requires a conversation with a couple of players that has not happened yet, because we've been doing some shit. Well, next time you're traveling abroad or have a beat, and Ashton's feeling it.

Yeah. Yeah, and God only knows where the rest of them are, but yeah, now I'm thinking about it. Yeah, that's something a couple people who might know what the fuck happened. It'd be cool. That'd be cool. Are we going...

Is it clockwise? Counterclockwise? Clockwise. That would mean you. That would mean me. Okay, I'm pulling. Right. See what the question has here.

You revealed, me, I revealed that FCG is a Neormaton and that Dancer is alive. Can you tell us a little bit about both of those reveals? How much did Sam already know and what did you keep secret? So with Sam, when he decided he wanted to be an Eormaton for this campaign, the aspect of it being specifically Eor-related and kind of tied to those elements. I think he mentioned it in passing

before he finished Campaign 2 and then never came back around to it. And so in the back of my head, I just kind of kept that thread as something that might reveal itself down the road. It's like he was obsessed with Davexian. He was. When we all were like,

dude, who's this hot robot? Yeah. And I think I mentioned... That's the way to Yeah. And I think I mentioned after that session to you guys, I'm like, well, shit, you just unlocked, you know, automatons as a race in Exandria, essentially. And so for me, it was waiting. I wondered if you remembered having that conversation about wanting to play one of those before, those long before FCG was a full twinkle in his eye. But I was kind of held onto that thread and then was just waiting for the right moment for it to reveal, for him to run into somebody who had a history with enough automatons in their general history to be able to acknowledge which parts of that were. So he didn't know much about that unless he played Koi which is what he does

as far as Dancer being alive he left a lot into his backstory kind of open and so I think he was he'd say stuff like mess with it all you want change it this is just my character's perspective

and I don't want to know and just kind of, you know, take it from there. And so I think the dancer reveal was a little bit of a surprise as well. We had a session zero. There was clearly things had gone down, which I find, like,

we were there. We saw it. Yeah. And interesting. Oh, you very much, you saw some shit. We saw some shit. Like, yeah, the cameras weren't there, but we, like, Sam and I saw some shit we saw some shit like yeah the cameras weren't

there but we like sam and i saw some shit when that happened yeah so so uh so yeah it was it was a fun a fun tethered reveal that i was just wondering when the moments would arrive because both of your characters had such a strong backstory tied into the hellcatch valley once we began to head this direction i was like okay i'll see wonder when we're going to start running into old familiar spaces. Opposite ends of that spectrum, let me tell you. Yeah. Of what happens in that town. Yeah.

And even then, you guys have been kind of, you know, oriented around specific goals and running around some spaces, but there's still a lot that hasn't been explored and, you know, I figure, I don't know, I'm curious to see where it goes from here next time you guys swing back around. The all burns mine thing.

Mm-hmm. I know that's going back a little bit, but that was so cool. Yeah. Like the hive mine? I'm very curious. Yeah, the hive mine thing, I'm very curious with that. Yeah.

I want to know more. You should go talk to them or something. Oh, should I? I don't know. That's how you figure it out. I'm not going to tell you. I don't know. We won. Right? Play the game. Roll. That's how you figure it out. I'm not going to tell you. I don't know. What do you want?

Right? Play the game. Roll some dice. Thank you for reminding me. I have a personal question to ask you when we're not on camera about things. Well, now you've got to ask. No, not here.

This is going to be a surprise for everybody. I just want them to know that I'm doing it because that's how the magic happens. Come talk to me, boy. Oh, yeah. Anytime. You're up. What you got, Erica?

What you got? What do I got? Let's see, what do I got, what do I got? Oh, Chetney caught onto you's secrets early. What went through your head as he laid out your plan? What did you say in the Whispered Insight check? Oh yeah. I'm actually curious about that. Oh yeah.

Actually, yeah, I'm actually curious about that. Oh, yeah. Actually, yeah, I probably said, I told, well, when he clocked me, when I was made, I could tell that he was still sort of guessing because he didn't,

he wasn't like showing his work. Kind of dancing around it. You know, and it makes sense for Chetney to have figured it out and it also makes Chetney to have figured it out, and it also makes sense for Travis to have figured it out.

But I wasn't going to give up the ghost that easy. Yeah. I still, so that's why we had the insight roll off. And I whispered in his ear that I'm totally going to kill her parents. I'm absolutely going to murder them, I think is the exact word. He played it so cool. I can see Travis just going, cool,

and then sitting back down. Yeah, pretty much. And like, the thing is, is that, you know, I feel like we knew it was kind of, because you had said, oh, we knew it was kind of, because you had said, oh, we're going to possibly go meet Fern's parents,

you know, at the end of today. And so I was like, the jig is up. We got to do it. And so that's why I started dropping things, like, really rapid pace, like the Lay on Hands reveal, which is fine, but everybody would see my character card. There were so many hints. And there's cards that, yeah,

it's, if you go back and watch it, there were plenty of things that I said that are technically true, but when sort of twisted another way, could be something else. Somebody has probably gone through and marked everything just to make life more easier.

Probably. Yeah, probably. Thank you, everything just to make life more easier. Probably. Yeah, probably. Thank you. Please, people who help with the wiki, please. But I told him, and it was kind of a gamble. And then immediately going and crying to Fern to control the narrative is such a dick move for us to do. He was like, you're a parent. And I Being like, he said he was going to kill your parents. And I was like,

oh no. I know, you're like, but the funny response was, you're like, oh, he's probably just joking. We joke like that. That's just how we have fun with each other.

Oh God. I was down to kill parents. I'm sad that they did that. But yeah, but that's the thing. And I'm curious about what everybody else thought about it, you know, when they heard that. And was that like, oh, what a weird stab in the dark for Chetney to do? Yeah, I was a little bit like. He says shit like that all the time.

So it's kind of like, he's just being weird. Yeah, kind of boy cried wolf type scenario. And I sort of like, well, you built in a bunch of those scenarios. So, like, if the different people, like, threw off Imogen by, you know, buddying up with Laudna. And so even you, you were like, oh, are you jealous, you know? Yeah, just trying to figure that out. Yeah, trying to figure that out sort of a thing. And if, like, she said, like, oh, Dusk is bad news,

it could always be played off as, like, she's never liked me. Yeah? Sort of a deal. Yeah? Yeah. God, no. When Cheney brought that up, I was like, huh. That's right.

We didn't question any of that. It's true. I got away with so much of it and I was uniquely positioned to do so as a guest and as somebody who is known and played with you guys for so long, I think. Just because there's a lot of stuff that I did

that if any other guest had done it or if an NPC had done it, you would have nailed my ass. Well, NPCs definitely. NPCs definitely. Because we've learned to be mistrustful. Right, but... Sorry.

Never a guest. No, no, I mean like... But you never had a guest. I think almost all of your guests have been like sweet angel babies, you know? With the exception, like Joe was like, I'm evil. And your guests were like, great, cool, absolutely.

But you knew it up front. And should we have an aligned goal type of scenario? At that point, the stakes are so high that it's like, individual morality doesn't matter. We need to work together to make the greater good happen. But this was the first real, like, guest deception. Yeah, we had some bent ones, but no one did a full U-turn. Yeah. Mary Elizabeth was a little bent, but only a little.

Yeah, a little bit. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Delve into the mushroom cup. Okay, what does Fearne think about the revelation that Morrie wrote the postcards and is not actually her blood-related grandmother? Okay, so. She had so much dumped on her. I know.

Wow, this is so much information. I think that in EXU, when Abrea so beautifully, when we met you know, another version of Fern, and, another version of Fern.

And this other version of Fern said that the postcards were from Grandma Mori. So I think Fern has always sort of had that in the back of her mind, but it's the only thing that she has a connection to her parents. So she's still holding on to hope that maybe that's not true and also likes to show it off. That like, oh, look how my parents thought about me so much and sent me things. So I don't know why I just put that back in there.

I was about to say, that doesn't help anybody. Yeah. And as for not being blood-related I I'm excited to see how that pans out because that's very possible and to see how everybody ties in together again that part of the backstory I was like here's some ideas

have well thankfully face shit isn't you know too tangled it's usually pretty straightforward. Yes, but we have a little bit more up our sleeves. It feels what you get. You see what we mean? You know what we say? Yeah, but we've got a little more

to tinker with and play with with that. Okay. Are we still going? We're still going. I'm all done. We're still going. Pull questions, yeah. All right, I'm pulling multiple questions.

I had stuff planned for you. I know. I was aware. I was really sad. I could tell. We still could. Yeah, that's true. We'll see what it is.

Just kill him in his sleep and then leave the story just to piss off Taliesin. Taliesin, roll another character. I'm starting to build one just in case. I don't think I'm not.

So it's not a bad idea for all of you. Yeah, it's true. What is it like showing Bell's Hells around Boceris? Does it compare at all to Percy showing Vox Machina around Whitestone? It is a very different experience because I made Whitestone on a certain level. I kind of created the vibration of it, the style of it, and that was a little bit of my own creation.

I've had a hand in involving it to where it is now. Whereas Bosphorus was just like, all I knew was it was the shithole I came from. This is the shithole where you grew up. Clearly there had to be some good shit, but it was mostly you left for reasons. In my head it was kind of and apologies to anybody who this might cross. I don't really mean it this way.

It was kind of Milwaukee. Which is I say with love. Don't take this the wrong way, but specifically screw Milwaukee. Well, no. I'm kidding. Milwaukee is this place in, yeah, you know, it's got the, you know, it's got some other, like, heavy Mad Max vibes, but it's, but it is, like, that place where you're, like, I don't really want to go back. Everything was kind of shitty, and you get there, and you're, like, guys, there's these four bars that are really fucking good.

Yeah. And, like, you just have that moment of, it's, it's, it's, it's, like, getting into the, into the shower. We're like, I don't want to get wet. Okay, now I'm wet. This is nice. I don't want to get out. Right, right. So, she made a put it. I love that.

No, it was just like, I cannot believe I'm fucking going back to this place. I cannot fucking, I cannot believe. I have this old friend who used to sell drugs. I bet she's doing real well. Hold on. Yeah, like, we're going to go ride cars. Taliesin, your description and the way that Ashton interacts with your friend, with Justy. I was like, Taliesin absolutely described former friends of his. Every single person who Ashton has in contact with that I have created is based off of someone I know.

I know who some of them are. Yeah, there are people who are not hard to peg down, but there are a few who were before your time, any of you. Uncanny. But yeah, that was... Back in the aughts of... Yeah. 18, I don't know.

1649. Back when it was a wee... 1658. Down the streets was a wee. 1658. Down the streets of Santa Monica. Cromwell was, yeah, okay. But I think actually the dates line up on that one. Anyway. Yeah, so it's interesting because I did get that big packet of stuff before we got there.

You're like, here's everything. Tell me if you want to add anything. And I did. And it was like, who do you know? And I was like, here's a list of names of people I might know and I gave you a bunch of I have a list of names of interesting people that Ashton might know in any one place

and I try and avoid the most ridiculous of them because I went real Dickensian on some of these names yeah you did the good news is a lot of them were part of the nobodies a lot of them scattered to wherever ends they needed to after a botched job. There's a few that I will never use because they're just too ridiculous for Exandria.

You say that. Yeah, that's why I'm not saying them out loud. It's just in case. I'm like... Yeah, one for my mistakes. We've gotten to these names. Or they're just... It's like...

Mick Hunt? What was that? Oops. You can ship your pants. Nearly eight years in. I can ship my pants right now. I love that. I literally just last night was like, speaking of those types of names,

Brian was watching Better Call Saul, and I was like, Saul Goodman. Oh! After all these years, and I was like, Saul Goodman. Oh! After all these years. Wow, I just got it. Oh my god. Wait, did you just get it too? I just got it. Oh, thank god. Really? That's awesome. I just, it didn't register,

and Brian paused it. He was like, are you serious? I thought I just got hit by a boomerang. Yeah, right? Oh my god, I'm so glad. I'm so glad. I love it.'t wait to tell him it's me. I love it. I've never said it out loud before. Yeah.

I was like, bing! Let's see. My gut. Mm. When you say it out loud, you know. There have been a lot of strange coincidences surrounding Bell's Hells and their connections to each other. Is fate a theme in this game, or are there

other in-game reasons for those coincidences? That will be revealed in time. Coincidences. I'll get that in there. I'm making another question. It's like, how do I answer this? Watch our campaign. I mean, it's possible. I have a lot of themes running around. There are a lot of facets in this campaign that are based

around coincidences. There are some that are elements of unique fate, and you're not sure which is which. Those might be revealed or disproven with time. I'm excited there are facets to this campaign that have been brewing since campaign one, and I've been waiting for this campaign for a long time. Patterns arise from chaos, is what he's saying. Yes. Chaos can disguise patterns. I've got another quick question, because I couldn't really answer that one.

There's so many questions you can't answer, Matt. I know. There's so much I can do. I'm sorry, I'm trying. I'm sorry, I'm trying. I just have one word to answer. This is my question. Yes, maybe. That's real great. I'm sorry, I'm trying. I just have one word answer. This is my Chris Walken. That's real great.

I sound so much like you. I love it. That's your nice character. That's your backup character. Is he doing okay? I really just want to do a stand-up show that's just all of my impressions that are awful. Well, now I'm worried.

It's Chris Walken, all right. What else do you got? I don't know, guys. We'll see. They all sound exactly the same. That's a pretty good Elvis you got there. I love it. Give me your Richard Nixon.

I'm not a crook. That's pretty great. I'm front row. I'm warning the meet and greet after. It's going to be great. Michael Fassbender. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. That was pretty good.

Shame is a great movie. Anyway. I got it. Sorry. The Calloways are a little more morally ambiguous than Fern's recollection might have made them to seem. Thieves are working with Lyra. What inspired the characterization?

How is it getting to reveal Birdie? It was really fun to reveal Birdie. That was so fun! A lot of long lead up into that and kind of playing with the mystery of the memory of your parents. As far as their morally ambiguousness,

look at Fern. I mean, to a certain extent, very much chip off the old block to a certain point. Absolutely. chip off the old block to a certain point. And you still don't know a lot about Birdie, but there is definitely an element of, well, I am a creature of impulse, and if something gets in my way, I move around it,

like water to a rock. Morals? So I'm excited for us to explore more of what that meant, what they've been up to, and what their relationship is picking up on, as there are some unique discrepancies between a few aspects of your history and their understanding.

Just a few. Just a few. So I'm excited for that. Inspiration characterization, I mean, part of my characterization for Birdie is based off of what you've established for Fern because now me having to create the parents of facets of your character you start considering what things would you

especially since you only have youthful memories of them might have led to threads of it kind of like mannerisms if not the voice which is probably I assume Fern's like presentational persona is probably a little more pulled from Mori than anybody because you spent the most time with her. Yes. But there is still like a little bit of memory lineage between the parents.

So, yeah, it was a lot of fun to develop Birdie and I'm excited to see more of those interactions as you're now, you know, screaming off into the desert to see where all this leads. You were telling me that you didn't really anticipate the group doubting Birdie as much as they did. No. No, I did not. Yes, I wonder why they did that. Because you fucking messed with their minds. It was awesome. That was a room full of people with parental issues.

Oh, yeah. They'd definitely be like, well, we know we're going to not all agree to knock out this one, so let's do that one first, because then we can all agree to knock out the other one. It was just, that was literally, it was like, hmm. Yeah, it was a combination of the right setup of mistrust,

the lack of aggression. Honestly, with how we had set things up, and especially the conversation that you had had with some of the Unseelie members and, like, kind of all on the same page to follow this wherever it goes, no matter how violent or intense or weird it gets. We're all cool. And if anyone gets uncomfortable, like, you know, let anyone know. Old ex-guard, yeah. Exactly.

We had that before that last session. And so all that talk and you wanting to push for that, I was like, oh, man, Erica's going to go all in on this. And this might be a very intense, you know, violent act. And then you turned it on me to a point and and

and whereas Birdie from her point Birdie this is not the first Unseelie individual that she's encountered and knows exactly she has all the context

that you do not and is acting out of the need to survive which the way that you set it up and the rest of the characters

especially with what Imogen picked up by reading her thoughts initially and seeing a flash of Ira in her mind set her, you know, as Travis goes, woo, alarm is off. She really came out looking bad with Dusk not fighting back

and with, you know, all of the information that she'd been withholding. I would have been content to knock everybody out and then figure it out later. It's honestly very Ashen of you. Yeah, it's very Ashen. I could have definitely, and there's still a lot of my spells and stats and items

even that hadn't been that haven't been revealed that I kept in reserve because I decided to go with like pull on all the different threads that I'd set up. That's the entire. That's, that's the one sad thing is we've never actually, we never actually had the opportunity to knock a guest unconscious and take. I know. And I was really excited to take all your shit. Well, we had conversations when she was like clipping her character. I was like, based on where this is going, I cannot give you anything

that I do not want the party to eventually have. So there was definitely a balanced conversation. She's like, can I have this? I'm like, no, we'll find a lesser version of that just in case they kill you and take your shit. I really don't want them to have this. Not yet. So we're running a bit long.

Sorry. So we'll add our leftover tankard question to our game after the break. For now, it's time to pull another question So we're running a bit long. Sorry. So we'll add our leftover tankard question to our game after the break. For now, it's time to pull another question from... Drum roll. From where? The Tower of Inquiry! Oh shit! Oh god.

Who's pulling it out? I feel like it's you because I think if it's gonna, I think if there's one more pull, there's one more pull after this, right? I'll do it. I believe in you, Ashley. Okay, I think there's one more pull left. You can knock it over. So I get to be the one.

I wanna make sure you get the worst one. Yes. Thank you. I think it's only fair. Yes. You know my history. I do. I'm just trying to give you what you want. That's true. You always know what I want.

What you got? Oh, look at that discerning eye. I am so sorry for what we've handed you. I'm not. All right, and as she goes in, she's looking over the top of the tower. You can see she's twiddling her fingers, which is a technique of gripping the exterior.

Oh, center corner, bold move, bold move. It's tweaking a bit on its axis. Doesn't look too great. You can see in her face, there's a little bit of apprehension for the choice she's gonna make, but she's going to the left side. Center corner, bold move, bold move. It's tweaking a bit on its axis. Doesn't look too great. You can see in her face, there's a little bit of an apprehension about the choice she's gonna make, but she's going to the left side. Apprehension is totally justified.

If we look at how Ashley has acted in previous Jenga games, she's definitely not one to just be poking and prodding. She'll go for it, she'll go for it, but right now it seems like she's playing it safe. Oh, she's doing a one-handed pull. She's whistling in and out. This is a way to keep her calm. Oh, you got to keep breathing. You need proper oxygen. And the wiggles are in.

Oh, Danny, look out, just in case. Oh, I think she's going to. She's got it. No, I'm not going to do it. You got this. You got this. There! That's how it's done! got this. There you go! That's how it's done! It is a 20.

That's how it's done! A natural 20. A natural 20. Ooh! Respect on that! That is how it's done, I'm so proud. That was, and the flowers are still standing. Yeah.

Yes. Stepping away, stepping away. That was such a win, that was such a win. I'm so glad we got to witness that. That was away. That was such a win, that was such a win. I'm so glad we got to do this. That was awesome. That was great. What facet of your character would annoy you the most if you got stuck living with them

as freshman college roommate? Oh, God. That's a great question. From Heliophage. Thank you, Heliophage. What a great question. Oh man, everything. I mean, everybody's had a roommate

who's stolen their shit. Yeah, I was gonna say. Yeah. God, it's just. Where did you put the? Yeah. I've just, I haven't. Did you take my? Oh, is that yours? I hadn't put it together. This is like, Ashton's almost an amalgamation of every

terrible roommate I've ever had. Oh my god. Or at least just the worst parts of every roommate. I've had a lot of roommates. Except for that one. Oh, we don't count that one. That one's, yeah, that one doesn't count. They've been erased from memory. But yeah, even the good ones, just the little bits of like, of just, yeah,

just why are you awake at this hour and why did you decide that this is the hour to turn on the stereo? Really, did you need it? I'm aware that you're drunk and I'm aware that you've had a bunch of coffee and it's four o'clock in the morning and I'm aware you don't have to work in the morning,

but I do. Can you just please take it to the fucking basement? Okay. There's some leftover pent-up aggression there. They moved away. I haven't had time to actually, yeah. I love them, but there's definitely some stuff that has to be said.

Ashley. Yeah. Yeah, I think it would be the things going missing constantly or things just. And, you know, with Fern, it's the weird shit. Like, Fern doesn't take anything that's necessarily expensive. It's just literally so much of the stuff, because I think it's so funny that in Little Mermaid, she would brush her hair with a fork. And always since I was a kid, I was like, oh my God, this is so funny.

A dinglehopper. A dinglehopper. A dinglehopper. So Fern just keeps things just stupid shit that you're like, where are my salt and pepper shakes? I had them. You don't want those back. Oh, I thought you were throwing them away.

Just left them on the table. You just left them out. What do you think? I mean, as somebody who has had a housemate who gaslit them, I would say it's that. Yeah, yeah, no. it's that's not like yeah no yeah like you dusk even dusk would be if it were just purely dusk it's dusk is a lot and just would like be like smashing things all over by accident but like you is truly terrifying because like that was such a change you wouldn't even know that they were like manipulating you or that they hadn't maybe paid rent in a couple

of months or something because it's just... Yeah, you would be the worst roommate ever because you don't even know if you're going to, I don't know, survive the semester maybe. Yeah,

that's my answer. That's a good answer. What NPC? God. I don't know the big one. Yeah, that's my answer. That's a good answer. Yeah, it'll do. What NPC? God. I don't know the big one. I don't have a player character. Well. We could keep with Eshteross.

Eshteross is done. Eshteross is Tytroga. Yeah, so we don't have to stick to this campaign. We can get weird. That's true. What'd you feel? Essek. Essek.

Essek. Essek. No, I already see it. Yeah, I feel it,k. Essek. Essek. Essek. No, I already see it. Ooh. Yeah, I feel it, too. Yeah, I already feel it. I think it would be... I'm curious. A person that constantly... constantly sits around and mopes emotionally and needs support and help,

but will never, ever, ever let anybody in to try and help them. The person that sits there and goes like, no, don't worry, I'm fine. Oh no, buddy. Like, you want to talk about it? No. Like, well, if you're going to be like this,

you really need to talk about this. Does he label all of his food in the refrigerator? Oh, wow. He feels like a labeler. He kind of feels like a labeler. I think at the beginning of being roommates, no. But then them realizing that the food can get mixed up, then they start labeling everything.

Because they're used to being on their own and having a roommate is such a shift they don't necessarily like. I know you've had my orange juice because I put the tape right at the level of the orange juice don't necessarily like. I know you've had my orange juice because I put the tape right at the level of the orange juice and now it's lower

and I haven't had any orange juice. That is, I've had that roommate and I know Essek would very much become that roommate. I look forward.

It's fine. It's fine. You can have the orange juice. I just wish you'd tell me. And to be honest. I just want you to know how much you're drinking of mine.

I think Caleb probably fits in a similar category, so I think actually... I was going to say that first. They live together pretty well. Caleb would be super passive aggressive. That's great. Yeah. I think together they...

It's so well labeled. Yeah. It works really well. Their whole home is going to be like the home edit. Right, right. Like, everything's very organized. And, like, glass containers. Glass containers. My dream like, glass containers.

My dream, like, matching labels. Yes. The idea of, like, seeing Killa in the back and reading a book and Esther's going through a box and just goes like, does this bring you joy? Yes, yes. Thank you. Oh.

Insane. I want the whole fan fiction of that. Them clearing clutter out of their homes. Yeah. Thank you, out of their homes. Yeah. Thank you, Heliophage. I think I said that right. God only knows. Remember, if you have a thick and friendly question for us,

you can enter your questions for the Tower of Inquiry at critrole.com slash tower! Exclamation point. Favorite kind of question. Thick and friendly. All right, folks, we're going to take a quick break, but don't go too far because when we come back, we're going to be playing Codenames

and probably mess around with you a little bit more. I don't know, we're going to talk to you about it. It's time for a break. Let's do a break. Let's do a break. And break. Popcorn time. That's it for the podcast version of this episode of Foresighted Dive.

In the video version, we wrap up each episode by playing some games, which don't always translate well to an audio-only format. Honestly, it's mostly yelling, truly. So be sure to check out the rest of the episode via the VOD for the full chaos. If you've enjoyed this deep dive into the campaign, be sure to drop us a rating and a review on whatever podcast platform you're using. Your thoughts may just encourage a new critter to take the plunge.

Foresighted Dive airs the first Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. Pacific on twitch.tv slash Critical Role and youtube.com slash Critical Role with the VOD available on YouTube the very next day. And of course, each episode releases right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network one week after the initial broadcast. We'll see you again next month.

Buh-bye.