Critical Role - Previously On…| 4-Sided Dive | Episode 11: Discussing Up To C3E52

Episode Date: March 28, 2023

It’s been a very topsy turvey few months with a whole lot of moony stuff happening but Ashley Johnson, Taliesin Jaffe, Liam O’Brien, and Marisha Ray are getting us caught up all the way through Episode 52! We also, of course, have The Tower of Inquiry and a very chaotic game of Moving Out awaiting you! 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. And a pickle is the same thing in its essence. Sure. But the effect in the end is very different. Do you like cucumbers or pickles better?

Better? Pickles. Pickles. It's apples and oranges with pickles and cucumbers. That's true. Thank you. I'm legitimately like, you know how people are always like, I go left midnight, it's midnight, and I had to go to the refrigerator

and I get the cheese with the olives. Mine's always pickles. It's always olives. I think that's your nighttime. It doesn't count. It doesn't. It delivers flavor. Somewhere in Texas, they put Kool-Aid pickles in Kool-Aid, and that's a thing.

You've told me about this. I've had it. It's a thing. What now? Putting pickles in Kool-Aid is very different than putting Kool-Aid in pickles. Like a syringe? Yeah. I told you about what we used to drink in high school in Kentucky called Kentucky Motherfuckers.

Oh, wow. Okay, so a Kentucky Motherfucker is when you take a two liter of Mountain Dew and you dump out like a third of it. Or drink a third of it. Yeah. Or half. And then you fill the rest up with an alcohol of your choice, like vodka or rye whiskey or probably vodka. And then you take a packet of Kool-Aid. Once again, flavor of your choice.

And you dump the Kool-Aid in there. That's pretty solid. Oh, my God. Please tell me you at least shake it up a bit so that the Kool-Aid disorbinates. This part, you have to kind of, you know. That's just a recipe for disaster. I'm just saying. Do a little bit of a wiggle.

Exactly. Because, I mean, there's nothing worse than for disaster. I'm just saying. Do a little bit of a wiggle. Exactly. I mean, there's nothing worse than like undissolved Kool-Aid. Awful, awful. Well, it gives you something to chew. Once you get to the end. Once you get to the end, you chew and spit. Chew and spit. I grew up thinking of New Jersey as the crusty booger of America,

but since knowing you. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh. Oh, boy. All right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh. Oh, boy. All right. Yeah. Oh, that's right.

Let's roll some dice. Oh, boy. That's too much. Oh, very exciting. Where are we rolling it, though? On the table or in? Should I hold it? In the box.

Yeah, but it's, okay. Maybe we'll go two at a time, since it's smaller. Is that weird? Yes, let's do it. Okay. Oh, no, I got a 14, but he turned it into a four. Which is weird? Yes, let's do it. Okay. No, no, I got a 14, but he turned it into a four. Which is it? Oh yeah.

I say it's a 14. Okay. Okay. Should we do this tiny one? Okay. Someone put it in there. Can I nail it? Can I nail it?

Oh. Oh! That's what you get for fucking with me. That's me. Oh, that's what you get for fucking with me. That's me. Oh, that's what you get for fucking with me. Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. Oh, dang it.

Golden girl. Dang it. I'll take it. I'll take it. Can you host the last one? Well, I've hosted once before. Once before? Okay.

Ice cold, no, I'm just not supposed to read that. Okay. Welcome back to Foresighted Dive, folks. I'm Ashley, your 11th tavern keeper, or am I? It's hard to say anything with certainty these days, given all the recent topsy-turvy events that have rocked us to our very core here at Critical Role. What is even happening? Nothing makes sense anymore.

This episode of Foresighted Dive isn't even airing anywhere close to where it should be in our programming calendar. I just want to know what the hell is going on. Does anybody fucking know? Ah! Ah! fucking know! I'm taking a breath and composing myself. Because that's what I'm told to do.

Look, it's been a long, long two and a half years since the last four-sided dive, and so much has happened, and I know you fine folks at home have questions, and good gods, we have questions too. But I solemnly swear, as tonight's host, that we will do our best to make sense of all of it.

And finally, figure out who stabbed Broomy to death! And now, a moment of silence for our fallen googly-eyed friend? Thank you all for joining me on that. And please welcome our new googly-eyed cleanup friend, Moppo! Moppo! Hello! Hey! You won a BAFTA.

You wouldn't know it. Oh, Moppo, you have some big shoes to fill. Oh, yeah. Some other stuff happened. We met Nana Mori. Ashley Johnson is here to fill us in on that. Taliesin Jaffe is going to tell us about Ashton's useful damage. Both Marisha and

Liam saw their campaign one and campaign two characters show up. The Applebee solstice has happened. The party has been split, and one half... I'm spinning all over the place. The party has been split, and one half is now in Wildemount,

where they met Chetney's ex, who showed up with a hot robot. Also, magic seems to be broken worldwide. You know, the usual stuff. Anywho, welcome back to Foresighted Dive. Let's fucking do a show. Oh, I'm not supposed to do it. Welcome back. Let's begin the night with our open discussion segment. What the fuck is up with that?

All right, let's talk about it. Okay. Let's do it. This is a show. One day we're going to make a show where Ashley's like a talk show host and it's going to be fucking great. It's going to be perfect.

No. All right. Let's talk about the Fey Realm. You know? The Fey Realm trip. So... Oh, this is starting off right with me. All the Nana Mori.

What was the process of creating Nana Mori? How much was Ashley and how much was Matt? How much was that birdhouse? What? The birdhouse. So that birdhouse, my... Wait, context for the people at home. The birdhouse. So that birdhouse, my... Wait, context for the people at home. The birdhouse, that.

I should have left it here. I brought it on stream. And then everybody did a beautiful... Yes. Yeah. My mother made a birdhouse and was part of... That was kind of some of the inspiration because I was like, this is cool. This is kind of some of the inspiration because i was like this is cool this is kind of

like a hag hut and then talking about um trying to get the character ready for exu and um talked about it with my mom and i was like what do you think she's like this would be cool this would be cool um so that birdhouse was actually a lot of inspo for the birdhouse preceded nanamori in her hut a little bit some she had already started it but once we had talked about it and and things i was toying around with for uh fern and for nanamori she's like i have an idea i'm gonna make this into a whole thing so that was some of the inspo was from that.

Matt, Nana Mori is, that's all Matt. Like the double face situation. And the ET neck. Yes! God, I love it. Yeah, that's all Matt. So you were just like, Nana Mori, she's a hag in the woods, and then he went.

And then I was like, whatever. He went ham. So did you not know that she had two heads until the rest of us knew? I knew. Okay. I knew. Yeah, I knew that she did because Matt and I had talked about it. Each time I would sort of come up with something

and I'm like, well, what if we did this? Oh, let me have this. And so I kind of just sent him a whole doc of ideas that I had for how the world that Fern sort of grew up in. And I was like, I kind of want it to feel like, you know, that a tree house, like a Swiss family Robinson style, but creepy.

What about Fern's menagerie of critter friends that we met? That's me. That's because I love animals. Like, I just love animals. And I just really was, I think both Matt and I were totally on the same page of wanting to create a just a strange little creepy fey world and but also fun and I also like I had France. And when I was there, we went to Versailles. And it was so wild to see in person because, I mean, it's crazy, but Marie Antoinette's bedroom, which I'm sure none of that was, I think there's only one piece of furniture in there that was actually real. It's all,

you know, sort of done up. Like recreation. Rec like recreation recreations okay but it was so over the top that i was like man fern would absolutely have a bedroom like this so i just kind of took pictures of the curtains and the tapestries and um so i just wanted to sort of i had ideas of of like something beautiful but when you get close to it, it's like, oh my God. Like it gives you the willies. Yeah, the skin curtains. So I just, yeah, I liked sort of the juxtaposition of the two of something creepy,

but also really beautiful. That's amazing. Yeah. Tangentially, one of my favorite things about Fern is whenever she changes into an animal, that animal is goofy as amazing. Yeah. Tangentially, one of my favorite things about Fern is whenever she changes into an animal, that animal is goofy as fuck. Yeah. Always so goofy. Yeah. I feel like I like

you know, being a druid is super fun. And I love animals, so I was like, if I turn into an animal or wild shape, I don't ever want them to be like a cool, badass animal. I think it's just like, you know, a blobfish. And you're like, well, this is what I got.

Like, I don't know how I can help the situation right now. I just think it's funny. Oh, the Shoebill? The Shoebill. The Shoebill was amazing. The Shoebill stork. Because they're so funny. They're so dorky.

They just look like they're out of another time. So is it just going to be like Island of Misfit Animals all the way down? I'm so excited. I've talked to Matt about some animals for future that I think... That wasn't the original plan. I think that's just what's kind of happened as we've been playing, and I'm like, oh, this is gonna be great.

What will the high-level weirdo animals be? Yeah. We've been talking about it, and we have, like, there's some ideas that I have, and I'm like, let's think of some fun things that they could possibly do. So we'll get there later. Keep it for off the air,

just so it's a surprise if it ever happens. Okay. Sec we'll get there later. Keep it for off the air, just so it's a surprise we never have. Okay. Secrets don't make friends. It will only be a secret to people on the outside. I'll tell you later. Destroying the key. The Aramads, the dragon. Oh.

Holy smoke. Oh, that. Man, a lot happened in the fey realm right we're pretty short amount of time we weren't really there for that long pure chaos what did your characters feel about the fey realm how did it feel to be there i think oram wished he could have appreciated it more it felt like they were on a on a clock they had stuff get done, but he loved it and regretted not being able to just hang out at Grand Memories and meet all your Hornbill friends.

Ashton loved it. It was somewhere new and the rules made sense because they didn't make sense. Oh my God. Everyone else agreed that chaos reigned. It was great. Yeah, I mean,

Laudna loves it because she loves weird, fun, scary, creepy things. And Grandma was amazing. Oh, Grandma is amazing. That was a level of love that, yeah, I just, it was. In fact, she had a little tiki bar. Oh god. Yeah.

It was great. Also, can I just say, the dream is to have two heads where when one starts to get tired and burnt out, can just pass out. You can go to bed. Yeah. And then tag in your other head. That's the dream. Pretty great.

It's pretty great. So much we get done. So much we get done. There's some other strange animals there that maybe we'll meet. There's one named Kathy. Good name. That maybe we'll get to. Okay.

I love it already. That dragon was weird, though. Well, that dragon terrified the living. The fey dragon? The fey dragon was too. That was early. I love the fortress. I love, we kind of repeat, we do things.

We have kinds of episodes. Like we have shopping episodes. And we have like very emotional relationship-based episodes. But we also do break-ins. Yeah. I love a break-in. A good break-in. And I never know how we're going to do it.

And I didn't know how we were going to do that one until we figured some things out. I just like doing and moving and manipulating the world. I think we did pretty good with that one. That one went really well, I thought. It actually went pretty well. I thought we worked well together. Everybody kind of, you know, did their best. Not all break-ins are good.

That one wasn't too bad. The portable hole idea was amazing. The portable hole idea was a good idea. Was that yours? That was inspiring. That was genius. That was great. And it's an object that if you Yeah. That was inspired. That was genius. That was great. And it's an object that if you're not careful,

you can abuse. Sure. That's why you have to be really careful what you think about it, because you don't want it to like, but like that was so clever. Yeah, that was a good one. And so fun.

I'm trying to think what else we would have done. We would have, but it would have been noisier. Whatever we would have done would have been noisier. We literally bug spawning them. It was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. That's what that item is, is a Looney Tunes.

A little Looney Tunes. Either noisy or yeah, we would have just had to kind of go in guns blazing at a certain point. Man, we used it to kill a couple people

in a really terrible way. That's right. Oh, I feel a little bad about that one. Making it appear under the guard that was banished for a second.

That was also fun. That was a good idea. That was some wily coyote shit. Yeah. Love that dragon. Curious about the fey entity riding that dragon. Me too. Hoping we run into them down the line.

Oh, we are definitely going to run into that down the line. It's going to be a problem. I think we are too. Once we're on the moon. Can't wait. Once on it. I don't know what's happening next.

I will take any possibility of going to the moon. I'm very excited. I mean, we rehearse everything, but it's like the globe in Shakespeare's time. We get the pages

like day of, so we work them out like all day. So I don't really know what's coming down the line until, you know, until right before. Hours before.

Yeah, hours before. Making my way is code for line. Actually, what my job as lore keeper is to just feed you lines through an earpiece. Yeah. I mean, it is on Slack. It's true. And it's always funny when we get a Slack from Danny

during game and it's like, y'all, they're always like admonishing. Yes. They're always a little sassy of being like, are you kidding me? This just happened last game. You forgot already, you guys. I normally see those an hour later. Yep.

Ditto. Yeah. You definitely have health potions. What the fuck? They're always like that. It's sitting right in front of you. Look up. I love y'all.

We are idiots. Well, all right. The Apogee Solstice. Yes. Holy shit. Long time coming. It had begun. How do you think we did?

Well, all things considered. I think we did medium. I did too. They were right in the mediocre. Could have been worse. It could have been worse. It could have been a lot better. I was actually, well, I was trying to get, you know,

because I'm driving home with Matt, and I try to get... You're not going to get anything out of him. But I asked, I was like, where in the sliding scale were we? And he was like, pretty much right in the middle. Okay. Could have gone way better, could have gone way worse.

He was like, there were a lot of factors that could have affected it. Maybe if those straight D20 rolls had gone well for each of us. Uh-huh. Oh, boy. We're terrible. Oh, my god. For me and you.

Everyone, yes. They were all pretty rough. There were some rough rolls. Yeah, I feel like I was just stuck, because I was just like, I don't know what's going to happen. And then I just felt like I was standing there. Got to say, I'm glad i trusted my gut and continued to destroy the power sources oh yeah yeah because i think that helped it

absolutely did out there um i i think also too had we been able to get through to uh miss lillian tim moltz that would have been a factor that would have been a factor. That would have been a factor. Our campaign two friends being better, freer, would have been a factor. We got played pretty bad.

Talk to me about that. About Caleb and Beau? Talk to me about that. Oh, well. How did it feel seeing when Caleb and Beau showed up? Well, Sally, Jesse, Ashley. That was fucking wild.

I don't know, it felt like, I was kind of in a fugue state with it. I don't know about you. Fugue state for me came a little later. Oh. I was so, I mean, as soon as, way long time ago, when he started dropping Cerberus Assembly hints, I was excited because I know that that has been

Our thing. Their thing, that's what they've been doing all this time, continually. So I'm like, there's a good chance at some point it's gonna happen. And I was fucking happy when it did. I wish that I had rolled better. Yeah. It was like four or five times in every fucking time.

Yeah, they were just, it was just rough. It was just so rough. I so badly wanted to take Caleb and Beau out of the chains, but I was like, I don't, Fern does not know them. Yeah. Like it's so hard to say. The metagaming element. Yeah, where you're like, I don't, I don't, Fern does not know them. Yeah. Like, it's so hard to- The metagaming elements.

Yeah, where you're like, we need to help them, but it's trying to figure out, like, what your character would actually do. That's why, yeah, I'm enjoying playing a character who actually has a sense of strategy. It's like, they're the problem, get them out. And I'm like, ah, can't do that, fuck, following you.

We're also, like, can't do that. Fuck. Following you. We're also like relatively still low level. Yeah. Especially compared to like Beau and Caleb or everything else. Lewdness. Lewdness gotta be Oh God. Top tier. So it's like, it's not like we could even dispel any of the

magic. Like we don't have any of that yet. We are below mid-level um i love the sweet sweet irony of uh caleb being uh collared by a or tech and silence is pretty perfect it's pretty great yeah it's pretty great. Yeah. And I'm saying, like, I'm upset about those roles, but honestly, I love stuff going wrong. To have us, like, be on the precipice, and, like, we had a pretty scary, solid plan of flying a ship into the thing, and having things go wrong,

and having, like, these two heavy hitters from farther back in the story muzzled, and then, like then I was so excited about the idea to leap out and slash Otohan's backpack, and I was so frustrated in the moment. We were so close to that, too. But then on the drive home, I was like, no, that was right.

That was just right. Yeah. We spent so many, such a long text chain, so much time with that boat bomb idea We spent so many, such a long text chain, so much time with that boat bomb idea for us to watch it just explode by a first fall. We're like, this is gonna be epic. This is gonna be so cool. We took out a bunch of henchmen.

We did take out henchmen. So, you know. Well, on top of that, Keyleth was bait. Oh my god. And Vax is now a lance. Hey, buddy. Hi, buddy. Tiny Vax is back.

Oh, my boyfriends. When Matt talked about the feathers. And it was just, I was just like. Yeah, that was. Such a cool moment. There was a split second where I was just, I was just like. Yeah, that was. Such a cool moment. There was a split second where I was like, I'm going to watch one of my, at least one of my characters die.

Yeah, you both had two of your characters out there. I trust Matt. It didn't matter. I was short circuited from that moment on. I couldn't really talk for a half hour after the game ended. And then many of us, except for Sam and Travis, because they're robots, couldn't sleep that night. Just wrestling with all of it, thinking about it all.

Taliesin and I were up till like five. We did not sleep. No. No. Just kind of just. How are you? Like I was reeling for two reasons. One, I have closed the book on Vax. I'm like, Vax is...

That is a... Put a pin in it. That story, that curtain has fallen. I don't know what he's going to do with it, how much more or less or not at all there will be. I never, ever thought that he would make an appearance after that wedding, ever. So I was falling apart just from that.

And then once my brain started going backward in time towards the attack on Zephra and why these people were, and like, I didn't really, I did that when I gave all the backstory stuff to Matt about it, like I said that there, that wasn't my bit.

Like, I just said there was, there was some sort of an attack on Keyleth that led to the deaths of these important people to Orm, and the rest was up to him. And even in the early parts of the campaign, like, I didn't know why it happened, and Matt gave me the tidbit of saying like it felt like they were testing something. Yeah.

So I just started like connecting all the dots backwards and going, that motherfucker. Yeah. It was such a long game play. It was such a long game. Because I was thinking about that. I was doing the similar trace because I was like, how do they fucking know?

How do they know Vax would show up like that? And Matt was like, not the first time Keyleth's been attacked. And I was like, fuck! Like, oh my god. Like, and just thinking how long he's been sitting on this. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

What would you guys feel, what if one of your characters is dead? Okay with it, I trust Matt. Yeah, I think I'd be okay with it too. Who would you be okay with letting go of? I would be more okay letting Keyleth go. She's lived a full life.

Yeah, than Beau. Because I think Beau's still got shit to do. Beau still has shit to do. But Keyleth, I don't know, Keyleth can finally... Keyleth's worst fear was always that she was going to be, you know, the last leaf on the tree. The irony that she would be one of the first to go would be pretty heavy. Yes, it would. I also, I don't know why this is, but I feel like the end of the Vox Machina story,

I felt like that was the end of an actual novel, a story. That was a story's close. With Mighty Nein, I felt like this is a major chapter in the lives of all these people, but I didn't think of it as the final. Yeah. And I always imagined their future about spreading out, and I can imagine them coming back together for different reasons over the years.

Yeah, absolutely. If something happens to Beau, I'm going to lose my shit. I'm going to lose my shit if something happens to Beau. Yeah. We can't lose it. It's interesting. Yeah, Vox Machina feels a little more closed. Yeah.

Evidently not, though. Evidently not, though. Evidently not. I guess not. Still shit to do. That's still vexing. Percy's still Percy-ing. We're separated, y'all. I'm the only one from my group.

That's true. You all are together. That's true. Sorry, you can speak for the others. Theories on where you all are together. That's true. Sorry, you can speak for the others. Theories on where you all are at. I have nightmares about where I'm at, but... Well, we're within view. And you have to still be on Marquette, right?

Or at least that hemisphere. Assuming we haven't traveled in time, at least that hemisphere. Gotta be Marquette, because it's on the horizon. It's on the horizon. I think, yeah. at least that hemisphere. Gotta be Marquette, because it was on the horizon. It's on the horizon. I think, yeah. The time thing is messing me up too.

I, yeah. It's a win. I'm pretty sure it's just space, but we might've jumped forward a week or something. Maybe. FG Solstice was still going though. Yeah, we still have a few more days. It's gonna be going for a while, I think. I think it's only like three days.

What if we bounced back a couple days? And we get a second chance to try again? I don't know. That's crazy. Yeah, but... I love it. It's crazy. I feel like we would go at it so much harder

if we did get a second chance. Man. I already know what I would wanna do. Yeah? I feel like I already... what I would want to do. Yeah? I feel like I already, things that I wanted to do that I didn't, because I was, it was one of those where we were just like,

okay, what's happening? What's he going to do? I don't want to do anything just in case. Yeah. But, yeah, I was timid, just because I didn't know. It was very overwhelming. it was an overwhelming situation yeah but they also brought

in Keyleth who is you know as close to a god as it gets with all our characters because she's timeless and leader of her people and has like all of this presence and weight and they they fucking Scorsese curb kicked her they circled and were like just wailing on her.

Yeah. Not cool, man. It didn't feel very favorable. No, no. For any of us. No. Also, I was still like doing the math in my head from playing Keyleth for so long.

And I'm like, okay, she's got like 120 hit points with her Earth Ellie form. Okay, she's gonna, and then after that, she probably has another like 150, and then she's got, oh God, she's, oh my God. Oh my God, she's almost dead. One round. That was terrifying. Did you say your Earth Ellie form?

Earth Ellie, yeah. Get on the moon. Get on the moon, Ellie. Ellie, get on the moon. Get on the moon, Ellie. Ellie, get on the moon. Ellie, get on the moon. Oh my god. It's weird not having you guys there. Yeah.

Especially you. Especially Orym. Taliesin and I were talking about this. The only sort of moral compass of the group yeah everyone else is kind of a super villain or at least

like yeah like we're tears it's a game of Batman I used to think it was the X-Men now I think it's a game

of Batman villains and you I think it's like the Suicide Squad yeah that's actually better right everyone's outlandish and strange,

and I'm the one guy. It's so great. Come on, we're supposed to go over there. All of us could- Save that person. All of us are one bad day away from turning real hard, though, that's where like, and we were saying like, you've got real Joker energy. Like any, you do things occasionally.

I'm like, we're going to die. Yes. That is true. Keeping you all on your toes. Oh, yeah. If I walked in and you were literally pouring poison into my drink, going, what? And I'm like, ah, God.

What's wrong? It's true. The amount of times that we have to be like, burn. Burn. What the fuck? It reminds me of your line that gets me so hard in season two of Legend of Vox Machina when you're like, Grog, for fuck's sake. For fuck's sake.

It's just like your delivery is so good. I think about that, but now it's all about you. Burn, for fuck's sake. I think people probably maybe think that you guys have the better end of the deal because you were all being gremlins in this campaign. But I love the challenge of doing all the same things that Keyleth did, really, a lot

of the time. But everyone is grog. Yeah. And of course, I, Liam, love the gremlin activity. I want you guys to be as hardcore gremlin as possible, but I'm still inside the simulation trying to make it work and trying to save the world while everyone is to be as hardcore gremlin as possible, but I'm still inside the simulation,

trying to make it work and trying to save the world while everyone is jamming their fingers into electrical sockets. God, it is great. While still trying to save the world. Yeah. We're all in. We're multitaskers. It's happening. There's a part of me though,

that feels like you're gonna make like a 180 on us. Like you're hiding something that's gonna come out where it's like, oh. Oh, don't do that face. I don't know about Orym, but Liam maybe. Yeah. Fair enough. To be fair though, with your guys' group not having Orym,

I do think it worked out perfectly that you all ended up with uh christian and brie's characters especially christian hotbots yep who hotbots hot hot hot hot hot that's good too yeah i mean deanna and frida deanna and frida because fr Frida seems very, like, straight and narrow. Yeah. Yeah, so that's, at least we have somewhat... Spreading the good word of Sunny D. Yes. Spreading the good word of Sunny D.

And how wonderful to have them at the table. I'm so excited to be playing with Aabria. It was fun to watch. It's also so fun to see Aabria do this kind of character. Yeah. Because Aabria normally, of course, played a lot with her, with Calamity, as Laren, who was definitely borderline supervillain territory. Maybe not even borderline.

So seeing her also be like... Tragic villain. Just a sweetie-peaty. Just a little sweetheart so cute she was pitching it to me backstage before they went on

she was just like they are not ready they are not ready for me to be playing this straight in she's like I'm here to just fuck everything up

yeah just killed me but that's what's so great about playing with Aabria is she's so funny.

Yeah. But she can turn on a dime, and it's so dramatic and serious where you're going from laughing, and then all of a sudden you just have tears in your eyes because you're like, oh, my God. And Christian. Christian. Oh, my God.

The two times we've played with Christian, I feel like the characters that he's made are not typical at all and not what I would've expected. Yeah. Yeah. Just the idea behind Frida is so interesting. Well, you kind of have Deanna, who felt a little bit built to fuck with Travis,

and then you have... A little? Okay, carry on. So Travis. And then you have... A little? Okay, carry on. So good. And then you have Frida, who's kind of built to fuck with Sam. Yes. That's pretty great. I'm excited to keep playing,

to see what happens there. I can't wait. What was it like for you all to watch from afar instead of at the table? Were you jealous? Always. Yeah, I watched the first half of that episode backstage. Okay. Because I knew that I wouldn't have time in my schedule to...

Fit it in somewhere else. Fit it in somewhere else, which has been true of the second half. I've been just grabbing it in pieces as I can um but they're two really good friends i wanted i i want to play with them too yeah i always i don't know once again it's always so strange watching our show this is probably going to be a little circle jerky of me, but every time I take a step back and I get to just watch her show, I'm always like, damn, this is good.

This is pretty good. This is pretty watchable. This is good shit. This is pretty watchable. And it's always so engaging. And so I always love actually being on that other side. And as a viewer. I wasn't going to watch it.

I was going to go full method and just be like, I want to find out later from the player characters what happened. And then that didn't happen. I ended up sitting and watching and then was like, well, I got to go home. I can put it on the car and just listen to it. So Rego played almost to the end. We like playing these games together.

Yeah. It's fun. It's fun. And then when you watch from afar, too, once again, you have that viewer experience. I remember when Ladna was dead and I was watching, and I was like, does Travis always make these faces?

Oh, because you're sitting next to him and you don't see it. Because I sit next to him and I don't see it. And he emotes so much. You lose the most from the people to your left and right. 100%. Facing forward. 100%.

So watching it, and yeah, now that Sam and Travis are in your all's group, you get to see that angle. I love now being close at the table and playing and watching everybody play because I love actors. I love watching people perform. And yeah, zero poker face.

I love when everybody just gets into it and I'm like, everybody's so good. It's fun. It's so fun. It's just, it's fun. It's so fun. It's fun. It's fun to watch. Hey, do you know what time it is?

Yeah, it's about. It's time for the Tower of Inquiry. Tower of Inquiry. It is time for a pull from the Tower of Inquiry. It's been a minute. So I'm going to remind you fine folks of how this works. So one of us pulls a

number block from the tower, reads the number out loud, and Dani tells us the corresponding question and who asked it. And if the Tower of Inquiry falls, consequences will follow, and the one who ruins it... Nope.

If the Tower of Inquiry falls, consequences will follow for the one who ruins it. I apologize. There you go, nailed it. Cold, conniving, and cruel consequences. And so with that in mind, Mara Sheree. Oh! It is a fresh tower. Pick your ass up there and pick a block. Fresh tower. Fresh tower.

New tower for this. Done. Get it, get it, get it, get it. Smack it, smack it. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. You'll feel real silly if you manage to knock it over. No. Oh, there we go. There's a it over. There's a good one.

Oh man, now I want cheap pizza in pole position. Thank you for that. 45. 45? 45. 45. From Fleabitten, what has been your favorite scene your character wasn't a part of? That's a good one.

Favorite scene. I have one. It was with you, Ladna and Imogen. When it broke the rock? Yeah. I mean, yeah. It's a good one.

Because that was just so devastating. That was rough. It's like, Oh! that was just so devastating. That was rough. It's like, oh! I loved Chetney's random woman that he ran into that got real weird and dark way back when. It was like the shopkeeper.

Oh, yeah. I just remember sitting going, what the fuck is happening? Yeah, that blew my mind. The one where he was a werewolf or the one where Orym was there and they were talking and it started getting intense? I remember sitting going, what the fuck is happening? Yeah, that blew my mind. The one where he was a werewolf or the one where Orym was there and they were talking and it started getting intense?

Werewolf, it was just all by his lonesome. Yeah, just went off and became a problem. I don't know that I'd wanna, it's not that I wanna be a part of them, but I've always loved the Fern and Shetney sexual tension scene, It's always good. Those are great. A few that stand out in my mind,

there was always, I may be a little biased, but when a lot of great moments when the group was going through the Laudna darkness sunken place realm, and especially the Ladna darkness sunken place realm. And especially like, you all talking with Delilah and Travis slash Chetney and his whole like,

basically calling bullshit on Delilah. That was pretty good. Yeah. Also you as a Quokka. You as a Quokka running through the keep. Oh my god, that's right. And all the guards that were like, Aren't you the cutest thing? They kept shoving you in their lockers and shit. Oh, that was magical.

That was great. That was hilarious. I mean, it didn't really help, but I was like, well, it was funny. I got some pets. Yeah. It helped us through

that day, probably. Oh, boy. I got some pets. Thank you, Fleabitten. Yeah. And if you have an evergreen question for our Tower of Inquiry,

you can enter it at critrole.com slash tower exclamation point. No. Is the exclamation point there, or that was just, I'm supposed to say it was as? It was as. You're Ron Burgundy-ing.

Also, one pull would get off easy with just one pull. Do you want to have somebody else pull again? Critrole.com slash tower. Yes, I do. Okay. I'm getting off easy. just one pull? Do you wanna have somebody else pull again? Poororoll.com slash tower, yes I do. Okay. I'm getting off easy, all right. It's super easy, well, no one's gonna fail. We all do it, right?

Unless you punch it. We all do it. It's however many people you want, Ashley. Okay, you leave. So we could just keep doing this? This could be the rest of the night. Please don't, though. All right, I won't.

Oh, right there. That is number 50. 50. You just gotta put it on back on the top? Have you ever played Jenga? How dare. I will put it. Well, you gotta put the number down.

Oh wait, no you don't. Why would we notice? Okay. I'll remember where that is. Yeah, I'll remember where the 50 is. Yep. Oh yeah. From Annalisa M.,

what have you discovered about your character that has surprised you the most? While in RPing and playing? Oh. What have you discovered about your character? I knew it was gonna be, mine was easy, which was that I went in knowing it was going to be hard to figure out what punk means in Exandria,

because things are just, even with things being bad, they're just better than they are here. And the things, it's true. It's the things that would make someone that angry are harder to find. And I was like, what is, like the chip is there, just why? And eventually figuring out what it was, it took a little moving around.

I would move around a little bit in the world, and then I would go and kind of listen to people on the internet. Not on the internet, but, like, people talk about how they feel, like, in the punk movement and, like, what led to it. And then I would go back and forth until I was finally like, okay, okay, I've got it now, and took a little tuning. That was tuning. What was it?

Yeah. It was, honestly, this is interesting. It was, life's not fair, and you either believe that it's not fair because life is chaos, or you believe life's not fair because there's a bunch of interventionist assholes above you who have decided that you don't get to be a winner for whatever reason. Which is why we ran into that fucking cult,

and I'm like, oh, oh, wow, this is apparently the entire theme of this fucking game, is, is it, is it, is it a world where there are winners and losers, or is it a world where there are winners and losers, or is it a world where there are, you know? Interventionist gods. Interventionist gods who are like, you, not you.

Like, which is it? It's fascinating. We've been unpack some of that shit at some point. I think point I think oh yeah I got a lot of opinions I think there's some tank questions oh boy

also for the last question you're the both both of the conversations that you guys have had yeah leaving the place

when you the return getting the ring mm-hmm and then this last the last one on the ship I love this relationship i've been

hilariously that was probably gonna be my answer like the thing that kind of discovering with laudna because like i wanted laudna to just be very like well it is what it is about life and and i've been like this for so long that i've just accepted it and you just have to kind of like roll with the punches and eventually just fuck it and have fun with all of it. But being around Ashton. We are like two sides of a very, it is so fascinating the parallels are really fucking strange.

Yeah, you bring out the parallels that are like hard to deny with Laudna, that Laudna even hard to deny with Laudna, that Laudna even wants to deny. Yes. Because she really wanted to be past this. And now here's Ashton being like, Oh. Poking and it's like, stop poking me.

I was better. How dare you be past this? You're a fucking liar and I can prove it. Fuck you. But here's the thing. How dare you be past this? You're a fucking liar and I can prove it. Fuck you. But here's the thing. How dare you? Here's the thing, and here's what's fucking frustrating is,

she can be past it, and then you can just not believe that she is, which somehow turns into this like, well, if I have to suffer, so do you, motherfucker. Well, because it means that something's wrong with me. 100% it does. But there isn't. You're the problem.

And he means you, Marisha Ray. Yeah, I mean you, Marisha Ray. That is another thing about Ashton is like, you get these points where I'm like, you're frustrating Marisha, and I have to really separate Marisha from Laudna right now. Low charisma, man. Very low charisma character.

It's amazing the way you are obviously projecting. Yes. Oh, yes. Oh, that's all of it. Obviously projecting. It is utter projection. And then, but it gets to a point Not always wrong, though. where it's not always wrong, but like most of it is. Yeah.

But then it almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yes. Oh, you get me. Yes! That's what I've discovered about Laudna! Therican session. Oh, thanks for saying that. That's what I've discovered about Laudna! They're a concession. Oh, thanks, Miss Laudna. That's everything I wanted. What about you?

Um, I, uh... You're so magical. You're the Sailor Moon of this game. I think it's how much I think about Orym's backstory. I'm really taken with all the stuff that you guys don't see. And on days where we're just chugging along, Orym and I am thinking about Will a lot and Derig a lot and all of the rest of the family that we may or may not meet someday

and what Zephyr was like and growing up there and uh his pocket of that community training as a tempest blade and um uh you know i kind of fell in love with zephyr after campaign one and i want to live there and um i go there in my mind palace a lot i want to go to there too yeah do you have a mind palace i have a mind like uh hollywood single apartment no i'm white stone white stone is my white stone is my mind palace and specifically three or four places within Whitestone are like mine. Yeah.

So I know every single inch of the library in the castle. I know the garden. Thank you for helping with that, by the way. I know the clock tower intricately. And I know the ruins to the east very, very well. And I can walk there and I can walk back and walk through them blind. I love that city.

I love it so fucking much. I don't know all of it, but there are parts that I know really, really, really well. That's cool. I have synthetic memories of Derek teaching Orym when he was a kid and falling in love with Will. And I have synthetic memories of Will looking beautiful,

training on the hills of that place. Look at Danny. Danny is like a queen. With cherry blossom petals falling everywhere. I have synthetic memories of Aurum's mother. Yeah, it's all mine. They've all got a, yeah, I love putting a little quiet private moments for everybody in my head.

Yeah, for sure. What about you in terms of things you've discovered? Well, I don't know if it's so much. I feel like every time we play, something new comes out, or it's like, oh, that's a fun aspect to sort of explore with the character. But I think, I mean, if anything, I feel like what I've learned myself is that for some reason I really enjoy making you all very uncomfortable.

We know. We're catching on. We know. What can I do to get like I love the reaction of like no, no don't even or when I can feel Laura

just like starting to look at me and I'm like, like if I had a tail, I'd be wagging. It is that. It is full like the dog that knows. It's about to gag us. It's my little girl. I'm going to steal something. Wait, you mean I can?

Well, now I don't want it. Yeah. Oh my God. I think most of the time the table is like, oh, here she goes. But there have been one or two times where I feel like you've done something to the table that's like, no! No, do not!

I love it. This isn't the time for that! I love it. Not right now. Stealing Iris' spyglass was the one for me. I was like, no! What a fucking fool! Don't you do it! I love it. Oh, this? And I love when I'm like, they think I'm gonna do this, but I'm gonna try,

I'm gonna do something else. Yeah, but I'm going to try. I'm going to do something else. Yeah, that's all I've learned. You are the most grog of us all. Yeah. You've really taken the Chaos Gremlin to a new level. The Chaos Gremlin is really getting turned. Which is funny because sitting next to Travis, I don't know if you catch all the times whenever you go to do something. And Travis will be like,

oh, Jesus fucking Christ. Yeah. Like under his breath. He's the one that I'm always like, if I can get a reaction out of Travis, I've won. Because we're both, we both have that thing.

So I'm like, if I can get him, and if he goes, Jesus, I'm like, yes. Sometimes it's just an inhale. He'll go like,. Yeah. Makes me so happy. That makes me so happy, and also, when I get a laugh out of you,

because you're hard to get a real laugh. Very rewarding. Like, when I can feel her gut laugh, I'm like, oh, it makes me happy. Tielson. That's funny. You wanna pick a block? Fuck yeah, I do. Oh, pick a blocker.

Pick a block. Blocker, blocker, blocker, blocker. Hmm. Where do I wanna go? I thought you were gonna pick that one. I'm just making some decisions. Okay, great, that's a good one. Was it?

You touched it, you have to do it now yeah yeah 36. 36 i know you did it yeah i know you have to make it right from hippocroctopus excellent name we all know oram starts the day making everyone else feel lazy. Do the other characters have their own daily routine? Does Oram have another routine we haven't seen? Oh, wow. You mean the 200 crunches he does before everyone wakes up?

So annoying. I know. I wish I was that person, but in life. To be fair, he's that person on graph paper, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to catch up. You're doing better than most of us. I'm trying to catch up.

I'm trying to catch up with this one. I've seen glimpses of Flodna's, but she'll assume pretty much every night that she gets out her little house that Chetney made. She tucks in sashimi. She tucks in sashimi. She tucks in pate. Maybe does a little dance with them. Plays dolls for a minute, essentially.

And then puts them to bed properly. She has her little night-night routine with her fake pets. Does that mean twisting each other? I think the real one now. Just a little bit. night-night routine with her fake pets. Does that mean twisting each other? I think the real one now. Just a little bit. Night-night. Just got to make sure, you know.

Pate has to die every night. That's fair. In fact, I sleep better knowing that now. You still? I'm still not. You still hate that rat. I do. I love it so much.

I just don't trust him. It's time for night night. Pate, though, one of my favorite characters in the campaign. It's fantastic. Just in whatever he peels the rib wings open, and he goes. It's so funny.

Which is why I know when it finally, when Pate finally does that heel turn, it's going to be Ashen's last words are, I fucking knew it. It's going to come at you like a facehugger. Oh, I'm getting hit first. I'm well aware. Yeah.

I am well aware I'm getting hit first. Well, it's funny because he's dead, which is why I feel and why Laudna has no problems being like, No! What's the worst that's going to happen? Yeah, nothing bad can really happen to him. Boy, at some point I have questions. Well, Ashton has questions at some point

about that whole relationship, but that's for later. Good night, Wesley. I'll most likely raise you in the morning. Does Ashton have a routine? It's less of a routine, and it's mostly just like, oh, man. Mental preparedness for the day? No, it's, oh, boy. Get drunk in the morning, get drunk in the afternoon.

Take the, I'll call it, it's medicinal, which is a terrible thing to say, but it's pain management. Well, yeah, because you're someone with chronic pain. Yeah, so it's very much pain management, and then at night it is, do you stay up a little bit too late getting angry and talking to helmets, or do you drink enough to pass out,

and then in the morning just have another little drink to take the pain, like, to take the edge off. It is not healthy. It is not healthy. This is not a healthy character. Don't try this at home, kids. But yeah, it's just not,

not okay. It's a very, very unhealthy wake up and not a fun wake up. Yeah. It is that eyes of like, well, I guess I'm back. I will say,

I love that you are playing someone and representing a character with chronic pain. Thank you. Part of it is having a character with chronic pain. Thank you. Part of it is having some chronic pain. Oh, yeah. Which, yeah, you all know.

It's not, yeah. It's not fun. I know people who have it worse, but yeah, it is definitely a, like, and, like, it also helps with the, you know, why are you so angry? Like, oh, here's a really good reason. Yeah, exactly. Ugh. Nothing works right. You were built poorly yeah sorry yeah too real too real too real just like oh god yeah i i haven't really uh yeah

doesn't fit right it's just it doesn't fit right be on camera for this but yeah i've talked to you a little bit about it but it actually means a lot to me personally, based on my own chronic illness struggles, my own chronic pain struggles. And so it's been very emotional to see that represented in you. And I know how incredible it is for you to have this catharsis as well, to get to play him. And it means a lot to me to be able to see their journey. Thank you. It was interesting because I wasn't always this way. It just slowly lot to me to be able to see their journey. Thank you. It was interesting because I wasn't always this way. It just slowly started to happen.

I remember I had friends when I was a teenager who had chronic pain. But being a teenager, I just thought that they were assholes. And I joke, but I don't. I was like, no, I have a migraine all the time. And I'm like, oh. It's hurting. Oh, yeah, I would not want to, like, deal with people either. When you're in constant pain

and it's like, I either want to be screaming or I want to be asleep or I want to be throwing up, then you have to just deal with whatever you're getting right now. Yeah, I just, and like,

if you don't know what's going on a lot of the time, it's just like, why are they always just, oh, okay, now I know why. Yeah, fully. So, okay. It's just,

for someone who does deal with that and everything, it's just, you're doing a great job. Oh, doing this. Yeah, fully. Okay. It's just for someone who does deal with that and everything, it's just, you're doing a great job. Oh, thank you. Yeah. I love you a lot for the journey that Ashton gets to go on. I do, too. I'm enjoying it.

I think it's really important. I'm working some shit out. It's nice. Yeah. I think we're all working some shit out. It's all therapy. Yeah. It's all therapy.

It's a little disturbing for... The gym of the mind. For you. I'm gonna go pick a block. Pick a block. I is a little disturbing for you. The gym of the mind. For you, you prefer? I'm gonna go pick a block. Pick a block. I'm gonna go pick a block. I'm gonna pick one.

You can't go over here, Danny. I'm gonna pick a block. Pick a block. 14. 14. That's not. Aw, it's your NordVPN. That accent that I always forget.

Okay. Oh boy. From... Ryskov on Twitter, Ryskov36 on Twitter. Ryskov? 36. Ryskov. Do you have any favorite spell or class feature that you love using? Which one is the most fun? Form of Dread.

Form of Dread is cool. Druidcraft. Because you get to tell people you love them. Flight of Hand. You're going to steal things. I heard Flight of Hand for a second there. Flight of Hand. What the fuck is Flight of Hand? I thought I've been steal things. I heard flight of hand for a second there. Flight of hand. What the fuck is flight of hand?

What? I thought I've been paying attention. I love your favorite thing is your one point in druid ability, or in rogue ability. That's literally so stupid. In theory, I should be able to keep up with you, too, and I never can. For some reason, I always roll like shit

when I'm trying to pickpocket you. I mean, I've got a pretty high whatever you're rolling against. Perception. Yeah, perception. I have a pretty high perception. But my sleight of hand's pretty solid. It just doesn't ever... Look at us.

God fucking damn it. Just what a pair. Look at us. Look at us. This is us. Hey, thank you. Annalisa M. Oh.

Hippocroctopus. Hippocroctopus and RiceScout36. I'm really sorry, I'm saying these wrong. And if you have an evergreen question for our Tower of Inquiry, you can enter it at createrole.com slash tower. Oh. Tower. Tower. Tower.

And now it's time for, and with that, and now it's time for, and with that. Natural. Let's slide into the deep dive. Dani, did we remember to dust off those tankards? They seem pretty clean. You took a leap of faith on those words that I'm not hearing. I did! You really ended it clean. They turned on you so hard.

I was trying to be natural with it and try to be good. And I should have just trimmed off that first part. Oh my god. Thank you, BB. Better not, you do. Aw. Here you go. Mm.

Thank you. Closest to you. I bothered the two people who were doing things. Thank you go. Mm. Thank you. Closest to you. Well, well, well. I bothered the two people who were doing things. Thank you, though. Liam, I think you should go first. You're gonna catch this flight of hands? Liam. Okay.

Let me find the right piece of paper. That's it, that's the one. I got it. We're gonna take turns pulling questions from our tankards, and since I am the tavern keeper, I will be kicking this off, never mind. I'm the tavern keeper, I will be kicking this off. Never mind. I'm talking to you probably. We all need to get you to go.

I'll hold onto it. No, you know what? Yeah, fuck the prompter. We are going first. You run barter town. I'm Michael Cools. You are the tavern keeper. I'm the tavern keeper.

You decide. I'm Spartacus. That was my wife. Liam, how's Orym feeling? Knowing that he is the one who called Keyleth in for this mission with the Ruby Vanguard, and that he now has an answer for why Zephra was attacked. Well, he feels played.

He feels like all of his people got played. He feels like Keyleth got played. To be fair. To be fair. To be fair. To be fair. I don't think the blame can solely rest on Orym for this. This was clearly a long-term goal.

On the other hand, will Orym- I don't want to make sure. That's not what I was implying with that question. I don't feel like the person is on board. Will Orym feel like the blame falls on him, though? Because you were a part of the initial attack that started this plan. And then, of course, Keyleth mentioned

the turncoat that they had in the Ashari. A cult. The cult that was in there. So I think they must have had many, many fail safes to make sure that she ended up there and you were just one of them. I worry that I have a connection to the cult. That'd be cool. Of course the cult. That'd be cool.

Of course you do. That'd be cool. You're Taliesin Jaffe. Why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't I be connected? Not me, but like Ashton would have a connection to the cult. In my defense. Interesting.

I'm just a little guy. No, you're not. I'm just a little guy. He's the big bad. I'm putting it out there. Yeah, everyone loves to say like, wait till Orm turns, wait till he turns. Hey, Delilah, is that you?

He really is just that wholesome. What if... Are you in there? He's just a wholesome boy. Delilah's in there now. Delilah's in the rest. Delilah's everywhere. Delilah's in the flowers.

Delilah's in the birds and the bees. Maybe Delilah's in the glass head. Yeah? Taking a trip. God only knows what the fuck's in the flowers. Delilah's in the birds and bees. Maybe Delilah's in the glass head. Yeah? Taking a trip. God only knows what the fuck's in there. God only knows what the fuck is in there. All right, Ash. All right.

Is Fern worried about how her own magic, since things seem a little topsy-turvy? Yes. Yeah. Yes. Very much so, because I don't know. Well, we did have a fight,

and Fern was still able to use Scorching Ray, but, yeah, I'm curious. I'm curious to see how that pans out. Yeah. And I feel like Fern is just kind of, we'll see, I don't know. I think Fern's panic is more that Orym is not there. I feel like that's more of the worry

because she's not on a leash anymore. Yeah. Or Imogen. Or Chetney. There's no one there to be like, hey, no, no, no. Dog walker is not present. Yeah. Your magic is also,

it's not divinity based. So maybe it'll be okay. Yeah, maybe it'll be okay. Oh, that's a very fair point. Clerics. Clerics must be. I just realized that your handle is the... My hammer?

Yeah. That's so cool. Chisel. Did you... I'm trying to remember, with any magic you used, did you have to do a D100 roll at all? No. No.

I didn't do any... I think... Yeah. I think that's what it is. I think it's just divine magic. Yeah. Means I'm safe, too. But didn't Imogen...

Imogen had the roll, didn't she? Imogen does... oh, well. Yeah, but she gets her ship from a moon god. From the Rylora. Century, kind of, from the Rylora. And she's already doing chaos. There was already a chaos magic D100 role. Predathos?

Have a flower. Although, I don't know. You're right. Yeah, she was already running chaos magic. It was also all sending magic. What is sending? Like what's school? What is the school?

Liam would know. I'm the one with the Google. I'll be back. Rock and roll. Well, then we're fine because that will never die. Caleb had keen mind. Please save us, Marisha. My brain is a sieve.

While Danny finds the answer to that. Marisha, that's me. What was it like for Laudna to watch Imogen struggle with her choices? Did Laudna ever feel a similar conflict regarding the Ruby Vanguard you know Ladna's always going to be there to try and validate Imogen in her feelings

and she should be like validated especially for something like this and like the whole conflict well this is kind of what I was talking about the whole conflict between like do we need interventionist conflict. Well, this is kind of what I was talking about, the whole conflict between like, do we need interventionist gods? And...

Boy. Or do we just want to be punk rock about it all? Boy. And I think there's like, and I was trying to get this across in-game and also I, Marisha, also believe this, of, like, no, we can, like, absolutely talk about, like, if there's pros and cons to all of this.

Yeah. And everyone, yeah, very much was trying to validate Imogen that, like, it's okay to have these thoughts and these questions about, like, what if the Ruby Vanguard is right? And what if we would be better off without divinity and gods? And is this, like, basically a toxic, unhealthy, cyclical, cyclically abusive relationship. Is cyclically a word? I don't think it is. Cyclical.

Cyclical. Ooh, wow. Anyway. Cyclical. Cyclical. Cyclical. Cyclical. That's the rest of the show.

Cyclical. Sending is an evocation spell. Evocation. I evoke a message. Evoke. But yeah, so, but Laudna's biggest concern, and also mine, was like, we can all sit here and do a nice big thought experiment about what the world would be like without gods.

But that thought experiment doesn't necessarily include all of the consequences of the Ruby Vanguard's plan. And I think that it was important, or it still is important, to separate those two things out, which is like a world without gods, not necessarily a bad thing. Unleashing a god-eating, elder, old one-type being

may be a bad idea. Worse. Maybe a kind of path of destruction it will cause, right? Also, not to forget that for Imogen's point of view, Liam loves it. Liam loves her leaning into the dark side. Yeah. And Aurum understands it completely. However, several of your friends, including this woman who means so much to you, were killed by these people.

So it makes it pretty stark. Yes. And it is interesting that nobody ever reminded Imogen that it was a god who brought Laudna back. Like it was the blessing of Sarenrae that is what was able to bring Laama back to her. That's true. Oh. Pike, I guess.

Yeah. I would argue, well, not me, I agree, but Ashton would argue that it wasn't, but... Oh yeah, and you could argue, you could easily argue against that. Or was it just Pike's ability? Was it Pike that did it? Or was it the group's ability by Was it Pike that did it? Or was it the group's ability

by separating Delilah? There's easy arguments for that, but it was interesting to me that it never got brought up. It was a god-hater who took Laudna out, and it was a god-lover who brought Laudna back.

That is true. You can think anything you want about the gods, ignore them. Caleb certainly did. He felt like, I'm just a rat and they're not paying attention to me.

You can ignore them, you can love them or hate them. I played a bloody clerk. You can't deny their existence. They're like the government. Caleb certainly did. He felt like I'm just a rat and they're not paying attention to me. You can ignore them, you can love them or hate them. You can't deny their existence. Like the government, they're there. They're going to have an impact on your lives. No, I mean, Percy was as close to an atheist as you could get in a game like that. You cannot deny the existence of the gods. Yeah, they're there.

They put a giant tree in your hometown. You would be a lunatic. You would be a lunatic. You'd have to lunatic. Yes. You would have to be like, you'd be like a flat earth. Yes. I know you're not watching, Sam. Yeah. It's madness.

So all you can do is be really resentful of it. Well, and to your point, Liam, I think that's what I was trying to get across, and I think I did. Hopefully I did with the conversation between Laudna and Imogen. Almost said Limogen, which is such a cute celebrity couple name.

That's really cute. Limogen Manor. It's a good drink, too. I'll pick the Limogen. Yeah, the Limogen. Limogen. Let's have that for the next board, Kyle, the next drink special.

Aw, good. But yeah, it's that like if Imogen wants to live and lead a simple, carefree life where she is still free

to like have her own um fuck, what's the word I'm looking for? Path? Journey? Yes, yes. Cyclical. Cyclical.

Cyclical-y. She can still, agency is the word I was looking for. She can still have her own agency regardless of the existence of the gods or not. Yeah. At least, that's what Laudanum believes. Who knows if it's actually true? Boy, boy.

I can hear the Ashton devil's advocate on that one. But I don't even know if Ashton would believe it. He would say it, but I don't even know if he would believe it. What would he say? I want to save it, actually. Okay. Just in case if it comes up? It may.

There's going to be a lot of yelling when we finally get to us. So I'm not happy. He's really not happy right now. Well, and Ashton was very quiet through a lot of some of those conversations. Oh, yeah. It was just blowing everything up because that's an opinion that's not healthy. What? That you can have your own agency? You have to have your own agency because if you don't, what does that mean?

Yeah. It's like, what does that say about the gods and what does that say about you? This is what I'll say that is just a tiny piece of what does it say about the gods interventionist pantheon of gods when there are these people pulling the strings of fate and they decide that your fate's fine that that just that just in a place where things were happening, that's just fine. I mean, I know what the Lord of Whitestone thinks, which is fuck them.

But he would also not turn on them on that level because, you know, he's rich. But, yeah. You know, scaling is hard, and there are a lot of people on Exandria. It's hard to cater to all their wishes. No, I mean, there's... Sorry, Lana. No, but it is the punk rock view of that.

It is that very, like, on-the-ground punk rock view. The gods are the 1%. Yeah, they are. I mean, in a world like this, that's kind of... I mean, like, we had a game about it, practically. Yeah, we did. Like, it is kind of that place of these people, like, just being horribly manipulative from a certain point of view. Yeah.

Well, they're mega aliens. Yeah. They're mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty morphin' Power Rangers. Mighty, mighty, mighty boss tombs. Yeah. Well, yeah, Clay would absolutely disagree with the whole thing, so. Mighty, mighty, mighty boss tom. Yeah. Well, Clay would absolutely disagree with the whole thing, so. Sure.

Yeah, it's interesting. I have a lot of people in my... Don't we all? I want to see Caduceus. I want to see Caduceus in all of this. It's all I keep thinking about is what Caduceus is doing right now. I know.

Because I don't know if our paths will cross with Caduceus. I don't know. And paths will cross with Caduceus. I don't know. And I would have to have a long format trying to run the Caduceus would be a poor boy. My mind palace is the Blooming Grove. Wow. That's your mind palace, Blooming Grove?

No. God, Blooming Grove is fantastic there. I love Caduceus Clay so much. It's why in Crankup Animated, I had him hug me at the end of it because I just really wanted a hug from Caduceus. so much. It's why in Creep Up Animated, I had him hug me at the end of it because I just really wanted a hug from Caduceus. Clay hugs are the best hugs. Blooming Grove is delicious.

It is perfection. Yeah. That's another place I go. Dead People Tea. Dead People Tea. Can you please pick a question out of your tankard, please? Yeah. All right.

Moving this along. Yeah, that's right. We were just talking. Taliesin and Marisha. Woo! Oh, shit. You both had a long-awaited conversation about your deaths and loneliness.

What was that heart-to-heart like for both of you? Hmm. We touched on this a little. We did touch on it a little. Yeah. I've been waiting on a lot of that for quite a while. So. It was good.

This has been consistent with every single one of your characters in every campaign where you are notoriously the person that whenever I get done having a long conversation with, I go home and I think about it and I think of like a dozen other things that I wish I could have said or said differently or better. You are always that person in the games. I sit at home quietly and figure out what I'm going to say

months in advance. Yeah. Well, no, but... Do you? No, no, no. Ages come day of. Play is the only character where I would actually like have to sit down and actually work out a theology. Like, we'd be at cons, and I'd be, like, in my hotel room, like, writing down, like,

okay, this is a perspective on the world. This is a perspective, like, where I had to actually build it because it was not natural for me. Yeah, yeah. It was in there, but it wasn't. Do you feel like you were more close, Taliesin is more close in ideology and personality to Percy or Ashton?

Now or at what age? Or Caduceus. Or Percy. Or Molly. It depends on the day. Or Molly. Fuck you, four. Oh. or Percy or Molly it depends on the day or Molly fuck you four oh

depending on age it would have gone Percy Ashton Molly Clay Molly Percy

I'm full circle oh okay yeah you were Caduceus rising yeah in your wow where are you

what is your astrological talent thank you but I love thinking I'm the only adult in the room that's Percy

we should try to figure out cause Danny you kinda know some of this oh so smart we should figure out like the astrological signs for these characters

where are you going do you already have this I'm coming onto the stage or wait we would have a whole different thing in I'm more interested in figuring out my astrological signs for these characters? Where are you going? Do you already have this? I'm coming onto the stage. Or wait, we would have a whole different thing in Exandria. I'm more interested in figuring out

my astrological palisade. Yeah, we would. This is why we had a Oracle deck and not a Tarot deck is because Tarot decks wouldn't make sense in Exandria. Yeah.

Because the symbolism's all wrong. But yeah, I just needed to get out how angry I was at you that your death was better than mine and that you know and that people are okay than you are no it was like just proof that it was proof that people love you and it was proof that people don't love me oh because he woke up after the most traumatic experience the second most traumatic experience of his life, alone, pretty much.

Everyone just, like, if you can imagine, you woke up and... Except for Milo. Except for Milo. But Milo wasn't there at the beginning. Like, that was not the... That was a later found family. Like, if you had come to consciousness, and it was just Orym,

and everyone else had just peaced out... Sure. Like, that would have thrown. Yeah, for sure. Like, that's damage. And then, you know, make sense of it. You put it together. You finally, you're fine.

And then you watch the exact same thing happen. But it's all good. And like, oh, fuck you. Fuck you. That's sad as fuck. Yeah, it's really sad. And the worst part is, is it's like not a good anger. That's sad as fuck. Yeah, it's really sad. And the worst part is,

is it's like not a good anger. It's not a healthy anger. It's so fucked. But that's what I like is you're doing a lot of stuff that's like not healthy. No. Like the projection or the thing of like

it's such a real thing of people, the stuff that you're doing. Yeah, being jealous over someone else's death is so fucked up. It's so next level. It's so fucked doing. Yeah, being jealous over someone else's death is like next level. It's so fucked up. I'm like, I know there's stuff in there for you too

and I just want to like keep poking you because I want to see it. Yeah. That's Taliesin speaking. I just want to, I know you. I know that there's layers inside that cadaver. Those are colors we want though. Yeah.

The insecurities and like Jealousy. Petty secrets, we want, though. Yeah. The insecurities and like jealousy. Teddy's secrets, jealousies, faults. Yeah. Faults. Please give me faults.

That's the good stuff. Yeah, and boy, I hate having something to lose now. It's really uncomfortable. Having what? Having something to lose now is really uncomfortable. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's just gonna happen again. I'm gonna wake up and everyone's gonna be gone again. Look what just fucking happened. And it just happened, yeah. Yeah'm gonna wake up and everyone's gonna be gone again. Like, what just fucking happened? And it just happened, yeah. Yeah! Everything that Ashton is mad at Laudna for, jealous of,

if Ashton, if they were in Laudna's situation, would find a whole new menagerie of things to be mad about. See, I don't know. Like, clearly, but, like, I don't know. Like, I... Clearly, but, like, I don't know, just because it is that question of, like,

I don't know what your first trauma was. I know what Ashton's first trauma was. Yeah. I think if you changed out those traumas, I don't know.

There was the interesting... A lot of abandonment. Like, one of the things... Yes, and I do remember one of the things that stands out for me about that conversation was the very misguided assumption that ashton knows loneliness more so than ladna and that

was about the time that ladna slash me was like fuck you i, motherfucker, right here, right now, if you think that that is true. Yeah, the only thing I think that Ashton knows probably better than anybody else is abandonment, just because there was so, it is the theme. Recurring theme. It is the never-ending recurring theme of their existence. Yeah. Is everything leaves.

Everything leaves the moment you care. Everything leaves, but now you have something to lose. Yep, which is why you shouldn't have anything to lose. Why you shouldn't care about anything. You're not supposed to have something to lose because then you can't lose it. Caring about people is hard. Yes. It's very hard.

And it's painful and it can go very poorly. It's that Matt Mason lyric off the most recent album, How Good It Must Feel to Not Love Anything. Oh, God, that's so... That cuts me to the quick. True. Yes. True.

Wouldn't it be easy? Life's hard. Life is very hard. Hey. Life is hard and you turn to stone. This has been a very introspective and serious episode. Yeah. You know, I'm getting some therapy done with this character.

Hell yeah. A four-sided dive. Oh, well, I'm getting therapy done with this four-sided dive. Maybe there's a question about pies in my cup. Yeah. I can make a question about pies for you. Let's see. Pie of pie.

Liam. Oram kept Dorian in the loop on everything occurring with the Apogee Solstice, but learned that the Crown Keepers are dealing with a tense situation regarding Opal. Is he worried about his friends until Dory? Of course he is. They've got a really full dance card at the moment.

So it's a little bit like being worried about your friend on another front in a war while you're getting shot at. Yeah. But he is, of course, worried about them. It's so funny how much simpler and humble the adventure with the Crown Keepers seems in light of the moon breaking or whatever it is that's happening right now.

That's going to be, I bet the solstice is going to have a very interesting effect on Opal. Considering she's got a, I want to know what's going on with her. Got a crown of a god on her head making her a little bit kooky. I am genuinely,

I cannot wait to find out what the fuck's happening over there. I actually have a theory about what the solstice is going to do. I think it's going to turn the 2D circle into a sphere. Ah. This is it. Take that, FCG. Wow.

Flatixandria, no longer. All right. I'm going to do this question. How did Fern feel listening to Ludinus' justifications Flat Alexandria, no longer. All right. I'm going to do this question. How did Fern feel listening to Ludinus' justifications for his actions while in Sumal's office? What was that experience like for her? Oh, yeah. Oh, that was a good moment.

There's so much that I wanted, that I thought, that I wanted to do in that moment. But, and I think Fern is terrified of lewdness. I think there's something there that, or it's the first sort of seeing what he did to Sumal. And I think that that kind of put a lot of fear into her, which she doesn't really know that feeling, because seeing something like that and somebody just being gone, it's a scary thought.

But I think she's very scared of lewdness, and I'm very curious to see how that pans out when we see him again. Yeah. curious to see how that pans out when they when we see him again yeah um lutas is about as dangerous a mortal on the planet as you will meet yeah 100 000 years of dedicated planning and spite and spite yeah yeah thousand years of of holding a grudge. It's a long-ass grudge to hold. God. Okay, mages of the Age of Arcanum, get rekt.

Watch this. This one is for me and you, Liam. Something else we talked on a little bit, but what it was like having Beau and Caleb show up and the fact that for a moment, all three of our campaign characters were sharing a map. Within 100 feet of each other for about five minutes. For about, yeah.

Unreal. You both have three characters out there. Yeah. Bonkers. Yeah. Bonkers. I'm sorry. I was, because... What was it?

I think it was Laura that was like, why is Immersion in Liam's characters that keep showing up? And I was like, well, I habitually keep making characters that have an issue not working and just won't retire, so they just keep doing things

and maybe that speaks more about me than it does anybody else. Everyone else lets their characters rest and go to sleep, and maybe that speaks more about me than it does anybody else. Everyone else lets their characters rest and go to sleep, and I don't. I mean... I don't know why. Beau's going to be constantly working. I don't know why I'm like this.

When we go to see the Council of Tal'Dorei, if X will be there, then everything's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Just got to go see the Council. Yeah. It was fucking emotional. That was see the council. Yeah. It was fucking emotional. That was an emotional moment.

I couldn't do anything but stare, gate mouth, for a couple of minutes in the game when it was going on. Before he got used like a monster energy drink for... It was just so unexpected. Because I think Caleb and Beau were there. Obviously we knew Keyleth was going to come, but it was not at all what I,

like, so different than what I thought was going to happen. It's wild because, like, I mean, we talk all the time about how these characters kind of transcend beyond us and take on a life of their own beyond our brains and our own creations. You know, they live outside of us at a certain point. And I think that those, like, that moment was very indicative of that feeling.

Because then it feels like, it feels like a dope cameo or like seeing a friend that you haven't seen in a really long time. And you're like, it's like the same feeling when you waited through a bajillion Marvel films to finally hear Captain America say Avengers assemble. Yeah. And then everyone was like, what? Yeah, it's exactly what it feels. I'm getting chills just thinking about it again. But yeah, it's like that one, just a

very gratifying moment that doesn't feel, it's personal but also like it's representative of not just all the things that we've built but like the eight years of us being a company

and this game and this world that we've built. So many layers to it. So many layers. Yeah. All culminating in that moment. The fact that it was the anniversary episode. And it was the anniversary episode.

Yeah, that landed at a really cool time. It really, I couldn't believe, yeah, it made no sense that it hit. Just, ugh. Your turn. Your turn. It's fair. Oh, Ashton referred to themselves as having extremely useful damage.

What is their relationship like with their abilities? Well. Kind of touched on this. Kind of touched on this. They are conscious that their abilities are a metaphor. They are conscious of that. They are conscious of that. They don't understand them. Asht conscious of that. That they don't understand them.

Ashen does not understand how they work. They've never put any effort into trying to understand them, or to do so would possibly lead to things they don't want to know. They are unpredictable. They are unmanageable. But on the other end, it means that no one else can. A plan like what happened that we just witnessed could not happen to Ashton.

Because there would just be no way to prepare, if that makes sense. If you don't even know what you're doing, no one else can either. Which is, I know, a weird way of putting it, but like, very, very useful. It's a person who is, once they have decided

that something matters, they will do stupid shit to keep it safe, which is why they ran screaming following you into that pit, even though did not think it was a good idea. It's because that wasn't the point. The point was you had to come back.

So people come back. Got shit to lose now. Fuck. So saw you go running and was like, you need muscle. Shit. So if there's anything in there, we're fucked. And is just, counts on being unpredictable.

That is, it is very essence. And the fact that there's weird things in their head when they went in now scares them to living piss. God. Is that there's multiple versions or something. Like, that was not a comfortable... Oh, yeah. I cannot wait to see what that...

That was not in my character build at all. Like, I gave Matt... I gave Matt a bit for this character. I gave him more with Ashton than I think I've given him with any other character, and he still surprises me. I kind of sometimes think of this group as like these three strange witches.

You know, we don't talk about the three witches, right? And they're three really weird bodyguards and a robot. The witch tier. That's true. The bodyguard tier and our heal bot, 9000. Yeah. It's the witches and squires, witches and squires. That is true. It's witches and knights. Witches and squires. That is true.

No, it's witches and knights. Witches and knights, that's fair. I feel like we have another level or two before night, but I'll take it. No, y'all are knights. Should we do a speed round? Yeah. Let's do a speed round.

Speed round. This one. Liam and Taliesin, Chetney directed Orym and Ashton to kill the Paragon's call halfling who surrendered. How did this affect them? If Ashton hadn't stepped up to kill him, would Orm have done it? Or, oh, this is a speed round.

Orm would have done it. It would have eaten him up. Matt decided to throw a locket on that one, on the mage. I wish we had gotten to talk about that locket. Right. Orm took that for a reason. War sucks.

War sucks. It's awful. Yeah. So he took that to not ever forget the cost. That locket is actually why Ashton killed the other guy. It's because he knew that there was no getting him back. And that, as far as I can tell, that was the only person who had really seen our faces.

That was the only witness. And Ashton knew that the kid in that locket was dead. That was not a dad waiting to go home. That was a dad who was there because they lost something. And so that was not an orphan being made. That's an interesting thought. That is an interesting thought. Either way, it still humanizes.

It did, and Ashen does not feel good. Ooh. And with what's at stake, there's no second guessing. There's only going forward. Yeah. Which is hard. Yeah, there will be some quiet second guessing, but it was,

outside of D&D where we're, it's not like we didn't just kill 15 people. It is one of those things where it's going to be that mix between, it was the right call, but also, oh, God. Yeah. Anyway, speed round.

Game on. But, love that. Super serial episode, guys. Super serial. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Shit just went, shit just went. It's going to be heavy. Applebee's, Applebee's solstice.

But man, what an interesting take on that locket. Yeah. That that's where you went with it. Why else would you want to kill the gods? Unless you were given a shit deal. That's why you were there, is that you were given a shit deal. It's the only good reason to be there. What do you think about that?

That could be it. It's somebody's parent. Yeah. That's true, too. Or spend all his time thinking about his father, Derrick, who was his father every day. So this was a parent who had a kid

presently or in the past. I think Ashton was identifying way too hard with some of those people, which is part of it. It was just that these are all people who have nothing to live for. I was going to say, Ashton's been on that side. Oh yeah. Nom nom nom nom nom nom nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom.

What does Fern think about Ira? You know, I feel like Fern is kind of neither here nor there. Like, I feel like Ira's just a regular old schmo to her. Just like, regular old fellow fae. Like, I feel like Ira's just a regular old schmo to her. Just like, regular old fellow fae, like, nothing, nothing special. Just, oh, this one over here,

who's just a little wild and, um, I think she likes him. She likes him. But, you know, certainly gets frustrated with not answering questions outright,

but also understands it because she does the same thing. But yeah, I think she likes him. Just a regular old pal. Follow-up question. What does Loudna think of Ira? My spoopy boyfriend. Very spoopy. I do want to clarify.

It's like, not even like, oh, I've got this romantic physical attraction. I just think that Wadna thinks that he's so cool and is kind of taken by him. Like, he's so confident in his spoopiness and that's why she's like I want to like impress you. I want to make you proud. Those 800 year olds are all so together. So together. Had all the time to just get it together.

He only has his duck skulls in a row. Speed round. I can blast through all three of mine. Oh shit. Are we doing that? Very quick in this speed round. I am. Well, I can ask you questions later

as y'all are playing games, but that's up to you, man. Whatever, I'm doing it now. Laudna and Imogen are each other's tethers. Even though we've only seen Laudna for a moment, how does she feel not knowing where Imogen is? Hates it. Awful. What was it like experiencing, no wait.

How are you enjoying having Pate as a familiar? Love it. What was it like experiencing Imogen's dreams with her? What would have Laudna have done if she had been able to act more within them? Just held her hand. Aw. Aw. Your turn.

I'm not doing three in a row, man. That's crazy. The look at me after you blast through my questions like that. The look at me. The look at me after you blast through my questions like that. Don't look at me. All of this is like super short. What did Ashton mean when he said that FCG

was dangerous in a way that they don't understand? What does Ashton think of FCG's desire for Mardinum? I was wondering that. And you found faith in the Changebringer. Wait, let me see that.

Yeah. You read it very quickly. I'll slow it down. When you said that, I was like, I want to explore that more. It was dangerous in a way that they don see that. Yeah. You read it very quickly. I'll slow it down. When you said that, I was like, I want to explore that more. It's dangerous in a way that they don't understand. Oh, FCG thinks that they're dangerous because they're going to have a nervous breakdown turn and kill everybody.

Right. Sure. No. FCG is going to kill everybody by trying to, they're going to just keep running into robots face forward, and then everyone is going to try and save them and die because they insist on being helpful in the most self-serving way possible. It's a monstrously selfish robot. FCG?

Yeah. And they don't understand that they are. Which is why Ashton will not leave that fucking robot for it. You know, like, being away from that robot is terrifying because this is a savable system. Man, I am so excited to hear

your takes on some of these things because they're not what I thought. Yeah. No, that's one of the reasons why, like, that's just a little fucking cinnamon roll of a robot, and it's so fucking broken that, like, how could Ashton not be immediately drawn to somebody who is that good and that kind and that fucking broken so you can kind of feel superior, but at the same time. Yeah. Yeah, it's like the perfect mix. And it is terrified, just terrified of what will happen

if someone gets hurt because of FCG trying to use themselves as a human shield when they're made of paper. Yeah. It's just, yeah, just like, what will even happen to FCG if they have to deal with the fact that they did something? How hard are they going to snap? Yeah.

So it's just a giant clusterfuck waiting to happen. Jeez Louise. It's a bomb. FCG does have this tendency, like you said, very martyrdom. I love it. Yeah. To be like, well, I'll just do it.

It's okay if I blow up. Like, wanting to use themselves as like a bomb on the ship. And then not, and then like, on the ship that everybody's on and like trying to pull the cord and like, we're still here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is more about you than it is about us. In fact, it's all about you and not about us. Well, obviously, there's going to be some like, Oh, it's so deep you and not about us. Well, obviously there's gotta be some like... Oh, it's so deep.

Dramatically trying to make right things that happened a thousand years ago. Well, and it's sandwiched, which means there's gonna be like 15 fucking layers to it. And I just wanna peel them. Yeah. Peel them open. Leave the skin on, leave the skin on. Just the tongue.

It's time for another pull from the Tower of Inquiry. Oh, yeah. Liam, would you like to go? Sure. I'm not worried about this tower. It's brand new. Let's see. I'll try to make it harder on the next person. Yeah, no. I would expect nothing less.

Hey, nice pull. 39. 39? 39. 39. 39? 39? 39. 39. We went from Minnesota to Irish so fast. From Omri Gold. Right.

If you could spend one day with your character, how would you like to spend it? What would y'all do? Go to a concert. Gym. There's like 15 bands I want to see. Maybe a couple hours at the gym and then we'd finish off going to see the ballet

at Lincoln Center. Aw. Ooh. That'd be lovely. Like spending the day with them in the Exandrian world or like if they came into our world? It's not clarified, so you can choose. Maybe go to Byrden then for the fair.

Taxidermy class. Nice. I want to craft with Laudna so bad. Oh wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Craft day with Laudna. Some tea.

Disneyland and music. That would be a I want to take Ashton to Disneyland. Ashton would have so much fun at Disneyland. I fucking love Disneyland. Oh my god.

I want to take Fernda to Disneyland then. Disneyland too. We'll do a double Disneyland. A double date. I wanna take for to Disneyland then. Disneyland too. We'll do a double Disneyland. Double date. I feel like you would do a two-parter with Chetney and Loudon because you go out with Chetney and you kill a bunch of animals

and then you would put all those parts together to make things in the second game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That sounds good. That does sound good. All right, Taliesin. Go pick a block. I'm gonna go pick a block.

All right. I don't need my glasses for this. Pick a block. I'm gonna pick a block. I'm going to go pick a block. All right. Pick a block. I don't need my glasses for this. Pick a block. I'm going to pick a block. Thank you, Omri Gold, for that question. I'm just being so fucking nice here. Oh boy.

Oh boy. You made it a lot teeterier-er-er-er-er-er than it were. 43. Look at that. 33. Oh boy. Here we are. This, 43. Look at that. 43. Oh. Old boy. Here we are.

This question is anonymous. There's no credit. Okay. What would you or your character's room in Widowgast Nation nine-sided tower look like? Room structure, entry room with stained glass, extra room, bedroom. Oh, let's go back to the tower.

Me or Ashton? Tower's one of my mind palaces. Oh, let's go back to the tower. Me or Ashton? Tower's one of my mind palaces. Oh, I love it. Yeah. I almost brought that up earlier. Yeah. So it's like that mind palace. So you designed each of our rooms

with such love and care. So perfectly. Absolute perfection. Role playing is a language of love. Good. And pain. I mean, I feel like we know what Fern's gonna play. A, B. Yeah. Yeah, me or, I feel like we know what Fern's room would look like.

Yeah, me or I'm gonna go with Fern. I feel like we know what Fern's room would look like. I think I would just want to build off of Fern's room and expand like the weird, spooky Swiss Family Robinson treehouse situation. Just

one pocket dimension where we get to build a dope treehouse. I Just one pocket dimension where we get to build a dope treehouse. I would probably, I don't know, my immediate thought for Ashton would be like a mid-90s, 16-year-old kid's room.

Like very comfy, very cozy, like Pillow Fort vibe. Like clear and deep arrested development. Awesome. Do you, like very like,

like they're hiding their pot somewhere in there. Posters of like the cure on the wall. Oh God, it would be so bad. Yeah. Yeah.

I think that Hervit or Gast would understand that this group has less walls between each other. So they would not be segmented off

as individual rooms. The one would connect to the next, to the next, like a winding tunnel. Oh, that'd be cool. So you'd go through one person's room to get to the next. Down to the tree. I'd be very down for that. I'm in.

Yeah. Like the Children's Museum in St. Louis. I've never been. It's amazing. It's amazing. I can't even, it it's like it's the children's museum but like it's for everybody it's a crazy incredible art piece if anyone is in st louis you should go the city the city children put it on the bucket list anyway okay pick that blocker pick that block oh stiff i stiff. I was sitting here for too long. I wanna go back to the tower.

I know. I love that tower. I love that tower so much. Dream about that tower. This will be pretty wobbly for its first towers day out. Blame Liam the Chaos Gremlin. Wow. Wowzers. Yeah. Go, Lottie. Oh, okay, okay. There you go. Wow.

Wowzers. Yeah. Go, Lottie. Oh, okay, okay. Lottie, Lottie, Lottie. And so on and on. 11. 11.

11. One, two, three, four, five. Six, seven, eight. Nine, ten. Josh C., can you share a particularly, I can't talk. Can you share a particularly, I can't talk, can you share a particularly immersive narrative moment or moment in the story that brought you to the surface of Exandria? The last eight years. Things that made you really feel like you were there.

Eight years. That brought you to the surface of Exandria. I mean, one? I know, right? Oh, yeah. Ah. One? I know, right? Oh, yeah. Ah. Just all I can think of, like, there's so many moments, I don't even...

The entire trudge through the snow with Lucien. That was one of my favorites. Every moment of that was very harsh and real, especially not being Molly. Oh, yeah, sure. I got to be such an outsider for that, and it felt so good. Like, never had, like, Clay said some, like, sharp stuff, but, like, never did I feel more like Caduceus

than, like, those conversations of just beating Lucy into a pulp in that, you know, just with the conversation. Yeah, it's hard to choose just one. Because, I mean, it happens every week. Yeah. There's a lot of them. You know, there's some that are just one. Yeah. Because, I mean, it happens every week. Yeah. There's a lot of them.

There's some that are more potent. Yeah. I've always remembered going to Rexxentrum when the rain was pouring and there were griffon riders in the air and we arrived at that church and shattering the stained glass windows. Oh, yeah. Oh, sure. That's super potent. that church and shattering the stained glass windows.

Oh yeah. Oh, sure. That's super potent. One of the more recent ones that stands out for me is us traveling through the jungles to get to the Heartmoor and the night camping out in the jungle when Laudna and Oram had the conversation where Laudna revealed to you what happened to her. And her being... Worst things already happened.

Yeah, the worst thing that we were really able to use some of the lighting cues and the projections on the set that we'd worked so hard on for, like, a year. And we were able to use, like, the jungle settings with the fireflies and the rain and the rainforest and everything all green and lush on the set just really cemented that moment in my head in a pretty crazy way. I feel like still one of my favorite parts that we played was in Eor when we went down. And sort of seeing everything because it felt like, oh, this has been here forever. Yeah. This has been here for so long

and has, you know, collapsed and restarted again. And I don't know, there was just something about that time, that playing that and going around in that part of the world that just, something stuck with me. I'll never forget, sorry as you go back. No, keep going.

The matron arriving on the steps in the last game of the first campaign. No, no, don't. Oh, that pissed me off. Don't start, I can't deal. I'm still not over it. It doesn't even feel like a game to me. Like I remember, I just, that was such a moment nailed in time. I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday

than I remember every fucking moment of that day. And his follow-up, Percy and Vex's wedding. Yeah. The ceremony. The visit after. 24. 24. We get maudlin. The goldfish.

The goldfish. The goldfish. The rest of the trick votes. We're getting our last one, last tower of the day, on a fun, silly one from Jackie B. What would your character's favorite movie genre be favorite movie genre I think Lana's

surprise probably surprise people probably romance I think she would love romance novels or in movies or whatever because it's not

I feel like she'd be like really into Regency romance yes oh my God yes just Regency romance sick day is watching the the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice absolutely yeah it's got all of our favorite things like her weird obsession yes with like princesses and then romance that's what she would be into 100 crushing tiger hidden dragon errol flynn nice nice princess bride love me some zero um i feel like fern would be super into soaps. Yes. Like, Bold and the Beautiful.

Days of Our Lives. Just the drama. That's amazing. Just dripping in drama. 100%. What's the horror soap? What was it called? Passions?

No, like Nightshadow? Passions? Dark Shadows? Dark Shadows. That was it. Passions was amazing. Passions was bonkers. Passions was wild.

So bonkers. Yes. Yes. I just forgot about Passions was amazing. Passions was bonkers. Passions was wild. So bonkers. Yes. Yes. I just forgot about Passions. I just don't trust that Roger. I know. Roger.

That Ridge Forester, my God. Passions would be documentaries. I knew it. Yeah, no, like what else? Docs, yeah. Like, it would just be docs. Can't fucking sleep putting on a doc. Yeah, just, you know,

about any fucking thing on Earth. Wouldn't matter. Gonna watch this dock on World War I. Trench warfare. I was actually gonna say, we're watching something about the Calamity. Just shut the fuck up. Motherfucker's talking.

Shut up. Well, thank you. Omri Gold. Anonymous, whoever asked question number 43, Josh C. and Jackie B. Thank you so much. Remember, if you have a tender and jiggy little question for our Tower of Inquiry,

a delectable dollop of rippling curiosity, an evergreen jaunt through a field of queries, a wobbly wonder of what-ifs and wouldn't-it-be's. If you have one of those, you can enter it at critrole.com slash tower. And just like that, folks, you know, you now know whether or not I, the host, read the outline before the show. We're gonna take a quick break, but don't go too far, because when we come back, we'll be playing Moving Out on the Switch.

Break, break, break. I'm moving out. 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 criticalroll and youtube.com slash criticalroll, 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.