Critical Role - Silken Secrets | 4-Sided Dive Episode 1: Discussing Up to C3E18

Episode Date: April 12, 2022

Robbie Daymond, Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, and Travis Willingham discuss the events of Campaign 3 thus far... and play some Mario Kart! 4-Sided Dive airs the first Tuesday of every 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. Oh my goodness. Okay. It's the first episode of Foresighted Dive. We're doing it!

We're doing it! Number one. Yes. I almost got this done We're going in! Number one. Yes. I almost got this done in Q1. Almost. Close enough. But we're here, yeah. One is the loneliest number,

so it works better to do it in Q2. Sure. Yeah? We're all searching, searching, searching. The wits will come. First and foremost, we're going to roll to see who's the tavern keeper, a.k.a. our host for the day. Thank you, Danny. You're welcome. Serving us a, ooh.

Just like that? Just like that. Just like that. I'm going to take this purple one because it feels laudany. Or the blue one? I want the blue one. You've got to do blue. I want the blue one. I want the blue one. You gotta do blue. I'm gonna use yellow like Chitney's teeth.

Perfect, perfect. All right, we all roll it once? Yeah. We do? Okay. Let's see. And... That's right.

Oh, oh! Terrible! We're all pretty bad. Pretty close. But I think I'm taking the cake this time. Thank God. It was almost you, baby. Almost.

You have no idea what this show is. I have no idea. It would have been awful. It would have been a great show, actually. Maybe next time. Maybe next time. I will do this bitch with my natural 17. Here we go.

Are you ready for this, Kyle? Okay. I think we... Oh, okay. Sorry, I almost hit my husband in the face. Oh my god. All righty. Howdy-do, everybody,

and thank you for joining us on the first Foresighted Dive. I rolled the highest, which means I am your first tavern keeper. I get the privilege of moderating this discussion, moving things along, and reading this cold open from the prompter for the very first time. Right now. Really. This is true. I have not read this before, and the host is randomly chosen every time. I promise. Or my name isn't Travis Willingham. Tonight, we will be sliding metaphorically into the DMs of the MM, the DM from the way back when,

and find out what makes Matthew Mercer such a gem. Robbie Damon stole our hearts and fled to Kaimol before he could tell us how that squall got so silky. Nowhere to run now, Damon. Your silken secrets will be exposed. Marisha Ray, she's playing a dead lady with a rat, and we're going to find out what the fuck is up with that. And Travis Willingham traded in a silver fox for a pocket-sized werewolf. But is Travis for real this time, or is Chetney Pockipy just another fair-weather, wise wanderer with a weakness for worthers, waiting to wantonly ride away

with a whimsical wave goodbye. Wow. Wow. We'll wind out a whittle waiter. What? And waiter on, oh I see it, I see what we're doing. And waiter on will be playing Mario Kart. Now make car noises.

Mario Kart. Now make them sexy car noises. I'm so tired. Welcome to Foresighted Dive. Let's fucking do a show. All right. We're here. We made it, you guys. We did it.

We did it. Uh-huh. Yep. And we have a lot to discuss. So we are going to start with a round table style discussion about some of the latest, greatest, deepest, and dankest topics with related to Bell's Hells. With related. I don't know.

I'm just reading the proper. This is already paid evidence. This is the best. We call this segment, What the Fuck is Up With That? Yeah! Yeah! Smell it. So tonight, our topics of choice are going to be Travis and his two old men.

What the fuck was up with that? Oh. Robbie and Dorian's journey. What the fuck has been up with that? Laudna and her relationship to the Briarwoods. What the fuck is up with that? That's some creepy ass shit. Yeah.

And how do we actually feel about Werther's? Can I answer that now? No. Oh, I didn't know if we were saving it or not. Okay. All four of those are good. But first and foremost, Travis. What made you want to be old as fuck in this campaign?

I've just been so young and virile, you know, just so potent in the previous campaign. Oh my God. I thought, you know, time to break out the prune, the prune juice. Do old people drink prune juice? No, constipated people do. You'll know soon enough.

I'm thinking of grape nuts. By the way, when was the last time you had some grape nuts? They're great. They're the best way to cook grape nuts. What do you mean, cook? Cook grape nuts? Why would you cook grape nuts? Yeah, what are you talking about?

Why wouldn't you? What are you talking about? Yeah, uncultured. What? Grape nuts in a bowl. Milk in the grape nuts, just to the top where the milk's barely peeking through. Then you stick it in the microwave

with a drizzle of honey for exactly one minute. You got yourself a nice little hot breakfast cereal. Are you serious? Interesting. You're an old and you don't a nice little hot breakfast cereal. Are you serious? You're an old and you don't know this? Get it together. The proper way to eat Grape Nuts. I need to try and do this. Somebody back me up here!

No? Okay. Does it soften up the gravel? Yes, it makes it like a nice, almost like an oatmeal consistency. Why not just eat oatmeal? I'm eating Grape Nuts! This is a great start. Like an oatmeal? Almost like an oatmeal. Well, then why not just eat oatmeal? Well, then why not just eat oatmeal? Because I'll be eating grape nuts! This is a great start.

I think we've already set the theme for the next episode of this, where we actually have to try this on set. Oh, that's a good idea. You will thank me, it is delightful. It's gonna burn us. We're gonna burn ourselves making microwavable honey grape nuts.

Grape nut sponsor us, so we can immediately ruin your day. No, don't! No, Old people. I didn't particularly want to play fogies, but I wanted to play Chetney. And then we

knew we wanted a character that wanted to be there in the beginning and then bounce. And when we were talking about it in the beginning, we said that we could just make some old glass cannon wizard, but that didn't really feel right. I think we even made some art of just a basic character. That's right, we did.

And in doing that, we were like, what about 30 years later, Bertrand Bell? Yeah, we laughed and we went, I mean, it could work. It, we laughed and we went, huh. I mean. It could work. It could work. It's pretty good. It could work.

And then I didn't realize how much fun playing an older gentleman would be. That just kind of snowballed by itself. Goes to bed early, wakes up early, falls asleep. Retails his glory. Hopefully wakes up. Yeah. Too dark? Hopefully.

Too dark? Too dark? Oh, sorry. No, we were talking. At one point he was like, every night when you go to sleep, I should just make you roll for survival. To sleep? Just in case. Just in case you go too hard,

that's the end of it. How's the game going? Oh, my character died last night. Oh, what? What were you fighting? Inevitability? So you guys get your long rest. Travis, go and roll D20.

Come on, man. It's going to be a long rest. The great part about old jokes is that we all get to be it someday. In all circles, background, if we're lucky. Yeah, we're setting ourselves up for this. We know it. Yeah, this is just grim humor in the face of eventuality. Eventuality, yeah. We'll watch this back in 30 years and be angry. Yeah, this is just grim humor in the face of eventuality.

We'll watch this back in 30 years and be angry. Yeah. Is this the existential segment of the show? Yeah. Out of the gate. Out of the gate. I personally love it. I consider Chetney a little bit younger compared to Bertrand,

just because I think he's going to do, how old do gnomes get? Yeah, like younger in spirit? Yes. Like he is coming alive in the fourth quarter. This is the hottest he's ever been. He's playing with a full deck now. Have you said how old he is on the nose yet? I have not.

Cool. And you'll have to work real hard to get to that number. Does he still remember? Do you know? Mm-hmm. Mm. That was like a nod and a shake. How long did Gnomes live?

I'll figure it out. Hundreds of years. Hundreds of years, yeah. Hundreds of years? He's going for that fifth digit. That's all I'm going to say. Oh, shit. Wait, fourth digit.

Oh, shit. Whoa! 10,000! You killed your kid down the road. Dang! Put that on a smucker's jar. Happy birthday, Chetney. Your 10,000th birthday.

He was on the hill, all remorseful and stuff, in a croak of hands, and Chetney's like, what up, girl? Did I sleep through? Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Yeah, that's why. It's perfect.

The elves have moved on, but Chetney. Yep. The elves have moved on. Oh my god. Well, Robbie. Oh no. Yeah? Sorry, didn't mean to spark another crisis.

Perpetual. Perpetual crisis. Dorian has had quite the journey. Yeah. He's had two transcontinental flights. Yeah, that's true. In like six months. All he really wanted to do was get out of his backyard,

and yeah, he's in for it. Yeah. How's true. In like six months. All he really wanted to do was get out of his backyard, and yeah, he's in for it. Yeah. How's it been? Oh, and we just also saw EXU Kaimou. Oh, is that? Yeah, that was another experience. What two different realms. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that's the biggest thing as a player and then as a character that was, like, fun and challenging is jumping out of one world and then literally it feels like it's all interconnected. And that's, to your credit, how cool all of that is because, you know, it does feel like this universe that keeps expanding, keeps expanding.

And then now to a bounce there, then there, then there, it was like first episode of EX Yukon was just sort of a, like a total jump into a completely something else, which was so fun because it's got this fresh and new feeling. So yeah, I think the cool part about his journey is that I never set out with that strong of an intention intentionally so that he was able to just sort of go with the flow. Doing anything other than that would have been

a little bit much, I think, as a first-time player. Yeah? Yeah, like if I had these grand machinations of what his future were to be, I feel like Matt would have squashed him in session one. I wouldn't squash him. I wouldn't use him against you. Yeah, that's right.

You're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't give him bullets. Well, we do talk all the time about when the Eye of Sauron, that is the DM, turns to you and puts that giant spotlight on you, and you have to go into all your character shit. Well, Cyrus was that in a big way. That was the thing most in early C3

that blew me away is when that character came to life because I'd written, and I say expansive, but I don't see what you guys are writing, so I don't know, but I feel like for me it was a relatively dense background

for a simple story, and Matt took a character that was meant to be a driving force and turned it into a real flesh and blood human. And I never expected it. I did not know that that would be that force in the campaign. And what fun. Like, that gasp you hear is real. I'm like, oh, whoa. Yeah. We're going to talk to him?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That guy was the guy I wrote about in Pretend. And now he's here for real. And I've got a role play with him. Really hope I remember my motivations. But super fun, as good as it gets, really. How was Matt's interpretation compared to what you envisioned? Different, but amazing once we started to roll with it.

Because, like, you know, with Dorian's Journey, I was very obviously trying to like, if I had any kind of mission at all, like above the table, it was to try and turn some tropes on their head, you know? And tropes that I love. Like, I love the noble who is

reluctant. It's like one of my favorite fantasy tropes. Like, I'm a huge Strider, Aragorn sort of fan, but it's always the same thing. And so I was like, I don't want to seek out my nobility. I must find myself. And less so for Dorian in the sense that, you know, he doesn't have those pressures.

He's leaving to find himself because he feels ineffectual at home, which is a different kind of reason for wanting to leave. And in my imagination, Cyrus was always this very stalwart, sort of capable, the perfect first son. So that's what always gave me the motivation to say, like, well, I'm going to leave home. Everything's going to be fine without me. So then when Matt brings him in and he's this lovable himbo that is like, I want to follow you too. I'm like, oh, shit. What do we do now?

We're both morons. I thought you cast a big shadow. You're a problem. Yeah, exactly. It's super fun. And obviously, like, you know, it's your world. So you've got to roll with it. And all for the better because I really enjoyed it.

I enjoyed what you brought to life in him much more than what was in my original backstory. Oh, cool. It's a fun one. I like to imagine that he's very capable in the space that he was raised to settle in. Yes. Like, when he's at the Silken Squall,

when he's amongst his people, when he's amongst his family, like, he very much embodies exactly what he was meant to embody, everything he's been trained for, brought up for. And I think it's because of once he saw Dorian leave, once he began to realize there was more possibility out there and that you took it by the reins and ran, and then found out that was a historical aspect of the family, he was like, well, I'm going to try it.

And that's when you realize he really just should only do that. He should only really do that. Real bad at everything else. Yeah, and that's so fun. You take that character out of their element and see what they become and who

thrives and who doesn't out in the big scary world. Yeah, it's kind of like the people that go to Rumspringa and then at the end of it go, no, I'm going back. This is not for me. Yeah. I have a question.

The bounty for Cyrus was 20,000 gold, but by the time you made it to Kaimal, it was 40,000 gold. So what the fuck happened on that boat? Yeah, I'm not sure where those numbers got crossed out. I feel like it was always 40, and then it was like, it's only 20. And they're like, no, it's 40 again. It's impossible to know.

But those numbers feel like when you're like, when Matt's nickel and diming us for $5 silver rides, $40K sounds insurmountable. Impossible. It sounds insurmountable. And so it didn't matter if it was $20 or $40. It felt impossible. Plus Cyrus was like, I got a bounty on my head. I guess it's like $20,000, $20,000 gold.

No bigs. Just no bigs. Well, I think, though, I think that, man, correct guess it's like 20, 20,000 gold. No bigs, like just no bigs. Well, I think though, I think that man, correct me if I'm wrong, might be rude, maybe it is no bigs for us back home. But like going off on your spirit quest and coming back with a 40 G deck exactly sounds like you did the best job at it.

You didn't use the parental credit card, right? It was emergency dollars. 40 K. Yeah, I had to use- What did you do? best job at it. You didn't use the parental credit card, right? It was emergency doll days. 40k. Yeah, I had to use the- What did you do? I used the black card because I was going to get murdered! Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I have no idea.

I have no idea what he did or how he did it, but we'll get him out of it eventually, maybe. Yeah. Hard to say. Yeah. Yeah. It was funny watching Kymal because, you know, Dorian had, we got to witness this great, like, Dorian kind of coming into himself and finding his confidence and being like the hero and the good guy.

And then you jump back in with the EXU, the Crown Keepers, and it's like, well, they're all bad influences. Full reverting. Yeah. It's funny you say that because it is also the most confident I've felt as a player. I think having a bit

of time to step back from C3 and then jump back into that world, it's night and day playing with those people and learning the things that I did in's night and day playing with those people and learning the things that I did in C3 and coming back. Because I and Dorian were both so,

so not overwhelmed, but like uncertain about what I should do and how to do it. And I felt like it was a lot easier to take the reins this time and like sort of do the things that I wanted to do. It was really fun. It's going to be a character alignment now, right?

You're going to go full evil. Character alignment. Dorian's going full evil now. Full evil. Lawful evil, maybe. Oh, shit. Lawful evil is more terrifying, in my opinion,

than chaotic evil. Very much so. Dorian, how'd the bounty go? I took it. Oh, no. Dexter, just pull Dexter. No, oh dear. Oh dear.

A lock of his brother's hair braided into his own. Whoa, whoa! Too dark? Too dark? He's taking trophies now. That explains the nice boots. You're supposed to be bros. We're going to not looking for it now

Oh man Don't worry that'll never happen That's hilarious I love it Well next on this topic is Ladna But it feels weird if I ask myself No be bad

Well this is like a round table, you know, so we can all ask away. Yeah. Marisha. We don't have the question. Lana and her relationship to the Briarwoods.

What the fuck is up with that? Thanks for asking, Marisha. You look really great today, Marisha. Thank you. Oh, you're done with your hair? Yeah, seriously, what the fuck is up with that? Laudna and her relationship to the Briarwoods. It was something that I, like,

Matt and I had to talk a lot about to make sure that, like, we weren't going to break canon or Briarwoods physics or whatever. You brought it up to me. You were like, could you maybe do this? Yeah.

I was like, let's talk about this. What came first, the character or the connection? So, full on, I had, this is gonna sound crazy, but I had a nightmare one night, and it was the flower girl like vision that i made when we were breaking into the moon tower and it did the girl without the jaw that rushed yeah yeah yeah i had that was a dream that i had where i couldn't find matt and i couldn't find omar and i ran out in front of our house and I looked down the street and there was that flower girl.

Oh, that's cool. Standing at the end of the road. Are you sure it was a dream? Just saying. No. Especially when it's misty out there. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

And yeah, and then she rushed me and then I woke up. And it was one of those dreams where it literally like knocked me out of sleep. And I woke up and I was like, I want to be spooky for campaign three. No! And it kind of came from that. And I was like, there for a while, I was like, oh, do I play like, do I play a little girl who's been, she's like much more mature now. But she died when she was young in Whitestone in the Briarwood Incursion.

And I was like, nah, that could get weird. I'm going to make her grown up. And then, yeah, and then just through talking about it, it was like, what if she was on the tree and she was the Vex Double? Damn. I think it was, and then from that point, you decided you wanted to go with

multi-class warlock sorcerer. Yeah. And it was like, what are your patron, what kind of patron are you on? You're like, well, what if it was Delilah? And then it was like, cool, let's work on this. Let's workshop it a bit and see what we can do. How does that even work? Well, I mean, we're not going to get that part of it, though, for a while, right?

Yeah, I mean, I don't even know. You don't even know? Just the story that I wrote was that when Delilah did her big ziggurat blast, and essentially justifying it because Laudna already had magic abilities. That's where her sorceress, like, you know, she was naturally innate with magic abilities. So she wanted to try and learn and get better. And then that's how she got lured to the castle by the Briarwoods. Oh, my God.

And she thought, like, oh, cool, baby, I'm gonna get like a tutor. But nah, she was just there because she was naive and vulnerable and looked a little bit like one of the people they met. And looked a little like this woman that never crossed Ladna's path. And yeah,

when Delilah did her big like necromantic blast, whatever kind of innate magic was still in Laudna just kind of took hold and kind of, yeah, kind of took that spark from Lady Briarwood, and that's kind of all I know. So, now she talks in my head sometimes. Yeah, that's weird.

Yeah. Oh, jeez. I have a question! Yes! Alright, so when you're tying these threads together as a player and DM, and you guys have spent seven years building this lore and creating canon

through your publications and the games and all of that, you know, I know that fans in general love tie-ins and they love nostalgia. Like that's just one of those things that I think it's inherent in people. They're like, oh, I know that thing. I like that thing.

But I feel like, and something you're doing well, that I wonder how you navigate that razor's edge of like giving the cool tie-ins for the fans but also walking that fine line of not having it be all this, not getting into the realm of hokey. Because you could, easily. Relying on it. Yeah, and you lean on it too hard, and you're like, oh, we love Vox Machina, look how it's tied.

But it's got to be perfect, and I feel like those little seeds you guys are planting are so cool because it's a canon world. It has a timeline, and you planted the seeds and now you're just, just gently sort of harvesting them throughout this universe. I don't know. What's, what's that like? I mean,

what, what is that? Cause that discussion looked like when you were discussing the Briarwoods thing. Yeah, that is the challenge. And so I mean, she brought it up.

I was, it was, well, I wouldn't say reticence. It was just like, well, I want to make sure that we create something that doesn't hearken too strongly on an existing story to where it robs your character of her own unique narrative.

Right. You know, we don't have like a group of unique characters and then the Vox Machina tie-in character, you know? So it was very much like finding that balance to where it's fun to do nods. It's fun to have it, you know, sit in that world with realistic roots because Vox Machina did leave a big impact on the world and you can't dodge that too much but definitely don't want any of that past elements to overshadow it. So yeah, it's just

something I'm conscious of and it's part of that discussion if anybody wants to delve into those aspects. You know, like with Aurum for EXU, Liam wanted to tie that to the Arishari and some elements of Keyleth, in which case it was like, hell yeah, let's do that, but let's also ensure that this is your story and that this is your narrative and it doesn't become, you know, oh, your character is, you know, a guy that works with Keyleth. It's like, your character is this, your character's

about this, this is their history, this is their personality. And also at the end of all that, they also have a cool connection to a previous campaign character, you know, and that's kind of the balance that I like to keep. What? I'm just laughing. What? I'm just laughing,

because we have such a great mix of like, original characters, original storyline, each campaign. There are these great tie-ins that have loose threads to old campaigns. And then there's this asshole that tried to kill Santa. And Matt's like, looking at it, I was like, what if I played Chetney, but he was a werewolf? And I was like, fuck yeah.

Yeah! Poor Chet! Just shit hammer ass clown character. Oh man. We're making it happen. Well, I remember when we were at your house, and we were in your living room and we were all like, man, what are we going to be?

What are we going to do? And you brought up, you're like, can I be Chetney? And Matt broke all of us and he's like, just going to make sure that we're not breaking Exandria in some canon elements. And we were like, well, what do you mean? And Matt's like, well, there's no Christmas in Exandria. I don't want to make Santa and the elves canon in Exandria.

Two legs! Once per year. Once per year. When the moon is full on the 25th of December. There's no December! Travis is like, I'm going to make a candy cane time machine. Go back and kill Vox Machina. It'll run off of Christmas spirit.

Yep. Good thing we take ourselves so seriously. He fits right in. I've got no preconceived notion of Chetney. I felt like he's a charming little guy who just popped in at the right time and never, ever felt out of place, even though he totally should be.

It's kind of true, yeah. There was so great bonding as Bertrand with Dorian, and then as soon as I sat down, I hadn't thought of it until the moment you started talking. I was like, oh, he's going to hate Dorian. Oh, to the moment I started talking, you were like, oh, I'm going to hate you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're in this like, sure it's all RP?

Oh, yeah, I'm going to hate this guy for sure. Yeah, it was like, high energy affable thing. And I was like, oh, I got to flip it. I got to flip it. He's got gotta hate him I won you over in the end yeah

so good you got the first toy well yeah speaking of the old people again how do we feel about Werther's like actually

like do you all like Werther's original yeah well that's a joke yes that's a joke

actually so I went out And found Other flavors Just the original The green apple The green apple's weird It is a little strange

The coffee one Is actually Pretty good Coffee Yeah there's like A java coffee I forget what they call it That actually sounds

Amazing It's pretty damn good Really Yeah but do you ever Have coffee like Candies like hard candies Yeah Okay I'll try it Pretty good You really are committed To the old guy thing Amazing. It's pretty damn good. Really? Yeah, but do you ever have coffee, like, candies, like hard candies? Yeah. Okay, I'll try it.

Pretty good. You really are committed to the old guy thing, aren't you? Look, I'm just trying to make my bed now. Just trying to get nice and comfortable I can slide into the old guy thing. My grandmother had, like, dishes of candy around the house because I come from a big family. We had, like, 30 cousins. There was always candy everywhere. 30? On both sides, easily.

Dang. Combined? Combined. Not 30 on each. Oh, shit. Prolific parents. Yeah, there wasn't a lot to do in the 50s. And they would always have, like, the Werthers were like a

reprieve, because the hard candies were always in one dish and they were always stuck together as one giant murder device in glue. But the Werthers were individually wrapped, so you're like, if I don't want this sweaty old candy, I'm going to eat a Werthers.

So I like Werthers. I like it. Thumbs up. Individually wrapped. Great. Apparently after all that, somebody from Werthers sent us a bunch of Werthers. Yeah. And I've been. Apparently after all that, somebody from Werther's sent us a bunch of Werther's.

Yeah. And I've been snacking on it before games since then. It's great. Yeah. So thanks, Werther's. And we're still kind of confused on how Werther's got our address, right?

Hey, we pissed off Werther's. We pissed off Tootsie Pop. Like, we're coming for all the hard candy. Werther's is the original candy of the Illuminati. They're just connected everywhere. They're like, there's little micro-nano bots in the Werther's. Oh yeah. That's how they get you. Well.

It's going to start making the rounds on Facebook. I know it. Be careful. Dang it. Well. I feel like it's time, you guys, to pull from the Tower of Inquiry! I love that none of us joined you on the name. I was trying to remember what we were doing. That's okay. I don't need y'all.

Okay, okay. Okay, okay, ready? Time to pull a question from... The Tower of Inquiry! Why is it spooky? I don't know. It's got skulls on it. Oh, it does. Because it's got skulls on it. It's got skulls on it. That's all I know. Here's how this works, y'all.

We've compiled a bunch of evergreen questions from you, the critters, and incorporated them into a chenga tower, precariously made up of numbered blocks. At the end of each segment, or whenever the tavern keeper, me, wills it, one of us will pull a block and read the number, and Dani will tell us what the question is and who asked it. And if the tower falls, if the tower falls,

there will be dire consequences to whomever is behind its destruction. Oh, damn. Okay. And with that, who wants to pull, you guys? Robbie, you should go. Okay.

Yeah. Surely I can't screw this up on the first try, right? Yes, you can. Yes, I can. Don't rush it. Yeah. Believe in yourself. You can screw up anything if you really put your mind to it.

He believes in me. Wow. Are there rules for this? That's a tight tower. Is it a one-handed pull? Can you do two hands? Are you trying to rules me right now? I think the official Chang'e rules

are you can only use one hand at a time. You can use both hands, but you can't use both at the same time. Are these painted together? I just want to make sure Robbie Cheet and Dainty doesn't know. This is sticky. at the same time. Are these painted together? I just want to make sure Robbie cheating wasn't. This is sticky. I am putting force behind this.

Oh no. I'm not kidding you guys. You can't mess it up on the first try. Oh Robbie. Guys. Oh my god Robbie. Oh there it goes.

Okay, okay, okay. I'm hitting this hard! Oh shit. Okay. Oh shit. Oh! Oh! Oh, Mara, you okay?

Oh, what? Good luck! Sorry, sorry, Arn. No, it's fine. 32. 32? 32. 32.

Okay, let's see here. Go back and try. All right, here we go. Yeah, you can go back. Yeah, yeah. 32. 32. Okay, let's see here. Go back, Jai. All right, here we go. Yeah, yeah. What are the similarities and differences between your character and yourself

from a life of Riley on Instagram? Similarities and differences between your character and yourself? Yeah, that's a good question. Is that a question for all of us, or just Ra'Bey? Yeah, who else? Yeah. I will start.

I had a small obsession in the fourth grade with joining the Boy Scouts, which I never did. And I think at the time it was, like, the Weeblos. Those were, like, the young Boy Scouts, like elementary school. I think they were like Cub Scouts and then Weeblos and the Boy Scouts. But they sent a Boys Life magazine, which was like the Boy Scout magazine, and in the back there were always like ads for fingerless gloves

and pocket knives and magnifying glasses and you could build your own hovercraft, all this shit. And there was one that had like whittling tools. And so there was like that had like whittling tools. And so there was like a instruction manual for like how to whittle your own stuff. And so I like stayed on my mom forever, forever, forever. And she finally got me like a small pocket knife.

And I was like, I'm going to go whittle. She was like, oh, great, honey, you need some wood. And I got a stick out of the backyard and I started trying to whittle. And I realized it's impossibly hard and time consuming. Especially for like a fourth grader and I got like a couple pieces up and I was like,

fuck this. It was terrible. She came out and she was like, where's the pocket knife? And I was like, ah, it's in the backyard. So I gave whittling a shot for like three minutes. Three minutes and 20 seconds or something like that. So this is youriddling a shot for like three minutes. Three minutes and 20 seconds or something like that.

So this is your way to make up for it all these years later? Yeah, I might pick it up again, who knows? Just waiting to get sponsored by professional chiseling? I don't know. Who says D&D isn't there, bro? I'm working on that fourth grade Weeblow trombone. Oh, that sounds like something else.

I'm not a Weeblow. Good. That's so funny. What about you guys? Yeah, I feel like each one, like, you know, Keyleth was kind of tapping into my insecurities. Beau was kind of the opposite and tapping into more of my, like, my confident, arrogant side and then um ladna is just me at peak weird i guess

just weird as fuck um yeah i i'm enjoying ladna because if barisha does something weird, no one can clock me on if it's just me or if it's Ladna. So it's great. So all the weird shit that I just do, it's kind of forgiven. It's nice. Yeah, she's been fun to kind of lean into the irreverence a little bit more. It's nice.

You're you, though. You are you as a DM, right? Yeah, there's a lot of characters. I don't know if I can answer this question. Dariax. Yeah. Dariax? Yeah! Oh, how are we similar? Or not similar.

Or not, yeah. We can both be a little flighty, depending. We can both a little flighty, depending. In social settings, I can lose focus and forget what's going on. Yeah, we don't have a terrible lot in common, other than maybe a love

of spontaneity. And kind of just going with whatever's happening in the moment. You fully embrace that that to be sure. Yeah. Oh yeah. And like, I can see the joy on your face when you let go.

It's so, it's like so cool getting, getting to have experienced you in two different ways as a player and a DM, because you know, you are, you are, you are just tracking a million different pathways at once when you're DMing.

And Dariax is just, seems like he's on a straight line, but it's one way. And it's so fun to watch you just act on impulse and do whatever you want. It's pretty cool. Thank you. That is a big difference between the two of us, is the level of responsibility. Yeah. Matt? Yeah.

Perpetually crushed under it. Darius, got none, don't care. Liberated. God. Release Val. Yeah. It's wonderful. Oh, man.

What about you, Robbie? I really want to try to play something kind of away from myself. Similarities are hard. Yeah. Like, I feel... I, as Robbie Robbie generally feel pretty confident and outgoing in social situations

like I feel like I thrive when I'm around people so I wanted to experience someone who's not that and see what it was like to play the whole other flip side of the coin can you be charming while being insecure and hopefully the answer is

yes because that's a very important stat for a bard. But the way that we're alike is that even though I love people and I love being in social situations and that sort of stuff is I have always kind of felt like I've been on the outside

looking in. So in 13 or 14 when I left and I said, you know, I've always felt like I was on the outside looking in and you guys made me feel like I've been a part of something bigger. That was a little bit of Robbie, a little bit of Dorian. Because, yeah, I like to bring people in closer to me, but sometimes it's safer to sort of be on the outskirts. And I would think of all the things that, not many things I share with Dorian, that would probably be one of them for sure.

Yeah, it's nice. Do you feel like you learned anything about like, because you're talking about trying to experience people who are a little bit more insecure. Do you feel like you like walked away with any new knowledge? Sure. It's a very vulnerable feeling to have anxiety and to be truly insecure.

We all have anxieties and stressors, but to have a bit of social anxiety, which I really sort of wanted to give over to, not leaning on jokes or being charming or all the things that you try and lean on when you're making new friends or when you're trying to make a group of people laugh just being vulnerable and not knowing what to say among a new group of people it's incredibly frightening and it's incredibly uh vulnerable so i think that's why at times dorian lied. I don't find myself to be a liar, especially in socials,

but I found myself lying as Dorian all the fucking time. That's fascinating. And after a while I had to go, why am I lying to these people? They're my friends. And I don't know, if you're using role-playing to sort of, not using it, but if you're participating in role-playing to open up aspects of your personality and find out things and bond more with your friends,

new and old, it's such a great way to get a different perspective than yourself. Yeah. Hear, hear. Yes. Amazing. Jeez, that was like a college lecture. That was amazing.

I could do that into a thesis, though. Can I do it in my master's degree? Oh, my God like a college lecture. That was amazing. I could do that and do a thesis, though. Can I do it with my master's degree? Oh, my God. Hey, duh. My reverse. Leaning on jokes again. God damn it. And we're back.

We're back, baby. Can't help it. Well, thank you at alifeofriley on Instagram. And if you have any deep, dank, evergreen questions for us. Dank. Yep. Instagram and if you have any deep dank evergreen questions for us dank yep you can enter your questions for the tower of inquiry at critworld.com slash tower

I think it's time to move on you guys oh we only do one block yeah okay I know production talk moving on to block B production talk that's definitely like well above table. Yeah, yeah.

Block me. This phase of the Foresighted Dive is referred to as the Deep Dive, where Lorekeeper Dani Carr serves us with some juicy questions. Dani, can we get a round of questions for the table, please? Put it on my tab. Sure, I guess. Do you have a tab? Yeah. Can you put all questions for the table, please? Put it on my tab.

Sure, I guess. Do you have a tab? Yeah. Can you put all this on our tab, actually? Oh, snap. So cool. Yo! Nice.

Nice. Nice. This one's for you. Nice. Oh! They look great. That's rad. Turned out good.

Oh, yes. Get out of here in the lonely, no-flip room. Thank you. You're welcome. All my shit. All right. One by one, we will be taking turns pulling questions from our tankards and giving our best attempts at answering them succinctly. Shout out to Flip This Bitch, by the way.

Yo, yours is gnarly, man. Isn't this awesome? See my little fatty pâtés at the bottom? Look at that boy. You've been eating good. Yeah, thank you for these incredible tinkers, FlipThisBitch, who of course also built this set and

also built our gaming set. They're just the best. Love you guys. They're the best stuff. And you know, since I'm the tavern keeper, I'm gonna kick it off. Oh! I'll do it. I'll You have fallen on the sword. It's down there, yeah. I'll do it.

I'll do it. Do the question. Go. Okay. Marisha, that's me. How does Laudna feel about working with a group of friends for the first time in her un-life? Her un-life? Her, yeah.

Good work, Danny and Kyle, who made these questions. That is a good question. She's enjoying it greatly because she's lived a very, very insular life, just very much a life of solitude for nearly 30 years. And then Imogen, of course, came into her life a couple years ago and has been her best friend. But this is like the first time Lavna has had friends, no doubt, since she was a young girl, realistically.

And it's great. I'm just glad she hasn't driven everybody away or terrified people or given them nightmares. I mean, all those things actually probably still stand. Campaign's still young. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're just NPCs. Yeah. Yep.

I have so many questions. I feel like Imogen, or Laudna, has like a little flight of the Navigator going on. Did she try and find her friends when she was alive? 30 years later, did she try and go find them at their houses, but they've all moved? Sure, sure.

I mean, I think there's no way. Like, I don't know. Maybe there's a few people from Laudna's life that are still alive, but. Dang. I feel like there are probably a lot of them that are dead now. Be honest, are you too young

to get the Flight of the Navigator reference? I do not know. We can remedy that. It's so good. Classic. Manzi's dad's in it. It's a classic. That's right, Manzi's dad.

That's right. Compliance. We'll talk. All right. And Sarah Jessica Parker's in it. Yes. With some makeup. With some makeup. With some hair.

Boom. I only remember because I just showed it to Lennox. Oh, really? With some makeup. With some makeup. With some hair. Boom. I only remember because I just showed it to Lennox. Oh, really? I did. Hell yeah. Loved it. It's a great film.

It's a good one. They did a genius thing. The opening credits, remember when they used to roll credits before the movie? Yeah. It's just five minutes of dogs catching Frisbees. Yeah. Just sat there like. I was like, genius. High five.

Don't do that at all. It's genius. That's why we always have the kid. It was like one of our favorite parts. Yeah, of just sat there like... I was like, genius! I don't think that's that at all! I was watching this as a kid, and it was one of my favorite parts. Yeah, of course! Because there are dogs catching prismas! Slow-mo, all slow-mo shots, so great. Speaking of, look at our boy over there. Giving some lungs. He's getting the pets. He's getting the petses. He's a good one.

Just being a good onset doggy. Who's pulling next? Um. Hey, don't you have to delegate, or condemn someone to pull back? Condemn someone. I'll make Matt be a pull. Oh, okay. I should've not spoken up. No. You saw the heck of it.

Keep your head down. Greasy wheel, greasy wheel. Haven't you seen Jurassic Park? I know. Freeze! Matt, why did you choose to explore a new city in Marquette for this campaign, as opposed to somewhere like Ank'Harel or Shamal? That's an interesting question, actually. Because I wanted to try something different. I wanted to show other facets that we hadn't seen and show different sorts of topography. The continent has so many variations on the type of atmospheres that you can find on it, like in many spaces in Exandria.

So I wanted to like to show off how different it can be and how the cultures can have similarities, but also have, you know, many different differences based on the mix of cultures that create those those areas. And I wanted definitely to start it in a heavy metropolitan area. We haven't really spent a lot of long-form narrative in a singular city location. So they've always kind of acted as hubs or destination points along a larger journey. And so, yeah, I just wanted to build Jussar to be just that. And also for similar reasons we discussed,

I didn't start it on Corel or Shmall because I didn't want it to feel like it was already tethered strongly to a pre-existing campaign. It can definitely create something new and fresh and unique to this story and these characters on its own. So those are kind of my reasons. I wonder if we'll go to Encorel, though. I'm sure we will. I'm sure Pass will take us there at some point. If the story calls for it at some point, maybe.

There's a lot to explore on this continent. A lot of really cool places that are being written by myself and a lot of other amazing people that are collaborating with me on it. Yeah. We do get chased out of those hubs pretty quickly. We do. We show up and we're like, yeah, everything will be fine. A couple days, we're like, we gotta get the fuck out of here.

Yeah. We gotta go. Yeah, I guess the closest thing has been Amman, but that was at home, in our home pre-stream game, where we kicked it in Amman for a little bit. Yeah, Campaign 2, we were pretty nomadic. Yeah, you guys were roaming. Yeah. Well, the size of the world in Campaign 2 in comparison to Campaign 1 was just crazy.

That's true. We were globetrotting. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think most of us want to just get out there and explore everything outside of Drusara as fast as we can. When that map hit the table, that map is huge. That's one region.

That's true, it's just a regional map. It's just the O'Deeran Wilds. It's just one section of Marquet, there's many others. We should have fanned out. We should have broken the party up into six individuals. Hell yeah. That's fun fanned out. We should have broken the party up into six individuals. Hell yeah. And just fanned across them out. Just single.

Split the party across time zones. Yeah. I'll see you in four days. Holy shit, Matt, how's your hair that gray? And cut back to the woods. Never know if you don't cry. Chetney's eating a gopher and I can't remember. Oh, definitely eating some gopher.

Oh, yeah. Oh, my goodness. She's eating some ore. Yeah, and I guess, too, with, like, Campaign 2, you got really far away from Campaign 1, but we've kind of, we're dabbling in Campaign 1 a little bit more. Well, I intentionally wanted Campaign 2

to be something very separate, which is why I made a very early rule of, like, try and keep any connections very minimal to campaign one. Yeah. And then now that we've done that, I feel a little more comfortable leaning back a little bit more, you know? There's just so much. There's like, it's just so... There's so much to play with, too. Well, it's hard whenever someone plays a full campaign of D&D, and you play another campaign afterward to not feel nostalgic for your

old characters and be like, I want to play the son of my previous character, you know, because there is that kind of nostalgic love and connection and I wanted to make sure

I used campaign two as a way to kind of definitely show that you can create really amazing characters without leaning on something you've already created. Yeah. And so now that we've done that,

campaign three, it's like, you guys know what you're doing now. Have fun with it. Travis. Pick a question. Oh, yeah, me. This cup is... That's a really cool cup.

I love the little head. Okay. 7,000. Travis, how do you feel about Bertrand's lasting impression of the group? Oh... Can I just say, the most depressing part about all of it was as the chat was going,

they were like, oh, Bertrand died with his dick out. I was like, look, guys, if you pee in an alley, you don't have to describe putting it away before the climax of an episode. Apparently you do. Apparently. He shakes it thrice. It is the most unplanned, unanticipated, unworthy thing for Bertrand to have struck

like such a chord with the group. I know. And to be like the basis of the name, but that old sap, he did it. He did it. I had no idea what kind of dynamic he was gonna have. Can I also just reiterate that Bertram Bell was designed to die in the search for Grog.

I made him to die quickly so that if and when, hopefully, we got Grog out of that gem, I would only have one character, but that didn't happen. All of a sudden there was two, and he lived, and he boned Left Yell, so. You know, he's finally full circle with this guy. I love that everybody kinda just, he kinda served as like a little catalyst,

which was great. And, you know, everybody kind of came around and made an impression on him and changed the way that he related to people. And I loved, I loved Dorian and Bertrand's vibe. I mean, that was really, really great. And with Imogen, Like the whole spying, the spy duo where he thought he was like the stealthiest,

you know, stealth that's ever lived and she just wasn't picking up on any of it. I loved it. I loved it. Oh, good times with that guy. Yeah. Oh, Bertrand. Robbie, you haven't pulled one yet, right?

I have not. Let's do it. I shall. Mine is a do it. I shall. Mine is a little narrower. It is. I got some feet paws. You got to grease the upburst, boy. Oh no! What is one lesson, only one, that Dorian learned

while the bell's hells with, what? These are barely words or I can barely read. It's one or the other. One lesson that I learned that I'll take with him on his future travels. Oh man, that's tough. There's

I want to give like a joke answer but there's so many real answers. Yeah. I always take a spa day. answer, but there's so many real answers. Yeah. Always take a spa day. That's a good lesson. Man.

Trust, probably. I think that was the biggest one. Maybe he had some trust issues. Not even necessarily about trusting other people, but about trusting himself with other people. So I think the group brought out a lot. It was a really supportive group,

even in their dickery. Their outdickery? Yeah, yeah, yeah, dickoutery. Yeah, one or the other. Yeah, I can't. But yeah, everybody seemed to like, for such an eclectic wild group of people to get put together they were also

supportive and I guess that's the nature of of a D&D party that I know it doesn't have to be but everybody delivered it in different ways you got no nonsense Ashton you've got you know I don't know if you got a big brother if you got a big brother, if you've got a big brother

that's like in this position, you never get that big brother experience of getting noogies and getting your ass kicked and all that stuff. He got that a little bit out of Chetney. He got, you know, some romantic vibes around the table from other things, though he never really he kept a distance at it.

Okay. Okay. What did I do wrong? What, what, what, what? I was wondering. I was wondering. What was the one lesson that Dorian learned? Just one. You're gonna need to expand on that. The Tower of Expansion.

Look at Danny's face. Are you gonna deny? I am not on camera right now. Oh, man. I can pick another one if you want me to save you. No! Yes! No! Save me! We have that down again because, okay, okay.

Spill the tea. Because I was like, is he crushing on Imogen? Is he fucking crushing? Imogen, that's interesting. I'm glad I know your ships. Yeah, seriously. What's your question, Matt? No!

No, you son of a bitch! Should we guess? Bell's Hells have left the big city of Drusar in the jungles of the Oderan Wilds. Tell us about what that shift has been like as the DM. This is a quick one. Yeah, it's been awesome. I love being in the city for a while, but after a while, you're like,

let's go see some fun, weird, dangerous, open expanses of unknown nature. in the city for a while, but after a while you're like, let's go see some fun, weird, dangerous, open expanses of unknown nature. So, yeah. I mean, it also was helpful to not have to constantly have four million NPCs at the ready at all times based on whatever weird shit

you guys want to do in the city. I have like nine pages to the left of me that breaks down all the spires and all the possible places that I can think of you guys go to. And everybody, you look for things that aren't on the list and I have to make up weird shit on the spot, which is fun. But it also is a nice little like reprieve to be like, you're not going to run into NPCs for the next hundred miles. It's just going to be monsters and weird ruins and interesting challenges and, you know, dangerous sounds. And like, let's get into that for a while.

See, I like that. I was worried once I realized there were multiple spires and we're taking trolley cars and shit. I was like, I can't really transform into a werewolf without, I don't know, a general population being like, Oh! This might have been a mistake.

I was glad to get on the road. Oh. Oh. Worship, look at this fluke. Sweet boy. Are you kidding me with the bow tie, too? Yes, it's his critter bow tie.

What a little gentleman. He wears that all the time. You know what Omar's question is? Who was Dorian crushing on? Travis, pull one! Yes. Do I get another one? Yeah, yeah. I'm not going to lie, I barely heard your answer at all.

I barely had an answer, it's great. I was just thinking about who Dorian is crushing on. For sure. Travis, what was it like to keep the werewolf secret from everyone and then to finally reveal your werewolf self in game? It was amazing it was great i think there were only a handful uh of people that that knew that was going

going on laura knew you knew yeah and then everybody else especially liam with that choice was one game before two games before where he was like oh you could have been a you could have been a known werewolf you blew it that's right i was like as soon as i heard that i was like, oh, you could have been a known werewolf, you blew it. That's right! I was like, As soon as I heard that, I was like, don't look at him. Just keep looking down. Do not confirm. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Do not show it on your face.

No, it was great. And I, you know, I've really recommitted myself to this character and I've taken to rewatching all of my favorite werewolf movies so that each transformation will have its own flavor. Its own flavor? Oh, yeah.

I'm just going to slowly rip off one body part at a time and try to work through everything. No, it's fine. I mean, I've loved werewolves since I was tiny. Like, the old Lon Chaney movies were the number one thing I went to along with Godzilla movies and the blockbusters. I would just get all of them until I had seen them all. And I think we might have told this story once before.

I was so obsessed with them along with Teen Wolf, Michael J. Fox and Teen Wolf, that there was a Teen Wolf cartoon in the 80s, Saturday morning cartoons, and my mom came out one morning and I had taken a brown Crayola marker and I had drawn hair all over my body, cut little paper triangles and taped them to my fingers.

That is so cool. I came into her room in the morning and just like, you know, my tighty-whities like covered in Crayola hair. She was like, ah! What are you? And I was like, I know, my tiny whities like covered in trail hair. She was like, ah! What are you? And I was like, I'm a werewolf. That is so cute.

And I had a little bit of Wednesday Addams vibe because we would go to church when we were young. I had a hard like plastic figurine Lon Chaney werewolf that I took to church with me. So like we'd walk in and they'd be like, good morning. like plastic figurine Lon Chaney werewolf that I took to church with me. So like we'd walk in and they'd be like, good morning. This is my werewolf.

That is so cute. So I love them, I love werewolves, always have. Waiting for the chance to come around. Ever since they first showed up in campaign one, seeing your eyes light up when you guys encountered the werewolves in the Feywild and it was like, oh man, one of these days. What was his name, guys encountered the werewolves in the Feywild. It was like, oh man. One of these days. What was his name, that pack of werewolves?

In the Feywild. Yeah, I'm trying to remember. Dani, remember the name of the werewolves? I just pictured someone in chat right now, furiously typing. It's only because I absolutely had to write that name down a few weeks ago, and now I feel awful. Yeah, same. I remember reading. I remember that was. It was Lord something.

Too much in the brain. That was the first time where I ever walked up to the edge of the D&D cliff of going like, I'm just going to make that son of a bitch bite me. And I didn't do it. And then after we left, I regretted it forever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hated myself afterwards. I was like, go get Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hated myself afterwards. I was like, go get bit by a werewolf.

So now the itch has been scratched. Delightful. Garak? Gaelic? No, that's the dog. Hang on. Omar, what are you trying to eat? Omar, bring it here. Bring it here.

Bring it to mom. I'll trade you. It's a small mouse. What you got? Bring it here. What is it? His name was Ukarat. Ukarat. There we go. Thank you, Danny. I had to look it up. No, I'll trade you. It's a small mouse. What you got? Bring it here. What is it? His name was Ukkarat. Ukkarat! There we go.

I failed. I had to look it up. No, it's all good. Lord Ukkarat. Thank you, Lord Ukkarat. Thank you, Danny. What the hell is this? What did you find? How many of these are we supposed to pull out of these glasses? That's a good question.

There's a lot of them in there. Yeah, you'll have to go through all of them. We're trying to hit a fair amount. Yeah, it's more looking at the clock, but let's do a few more, and then we'll pull from the tower again. I'm going back in! Oh, I know what your question says.

It says, hey, Robbie, what? Who were you crushing on? Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. You can say Chetney. What was the reason behind Dorian's decision to leave behind Chetney's toy sky? Oh! Oh, that's a good one! Good query! Dorian's decision to leave behind Chetney's toy Sky King? That's a good one.

Good query. That is a good one. That's a good question. It's a two-part answer. Is it? It is. It's for two reasons. It's because, and you said it out loud, you got my intention immediately, and that is that toys are made to be loved by children.

Not to be, not, listen, if you're an adult and you like toys, it's cool, I like toys too, we can collect toys. Yeah, we got it. Oh yeah, we've seen your collection. Just to be clear. In line with the feeling. You have me.

The varkos. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But mostly toys are made for kids, and I thought the most loving thing you could do, Yeah, yeah, yeah. But mostly toys are made for kids. And I thought the most loving thing you could do, the most loving thing Dory could do for Chetney, even if he never knew, was to give his toy to a kid. And that was the character motivation.

The second motivation was I just kind of wanted to leave because I knew in that episode that I was leaving, I just wanted to leave an image behind. And I thought it was a nice image. It was so good. It was pretty good. I'm getting choked up just thinking about it again. No, it was. It was really good. It was so sweet.

Oh my goodness. A little kid just comes up and is like, Mm. So cool. Come on! I thought about it. I thought about it. There is a little bit of history for that. I'm going to pull. Oh yeah. Do it, do it.

Let's see what's up. I feel like your hand's going to disappear every time it goes inside that. Ah! It's so terrifying. All right. What'd you get? Tell us more about your inspiration behind Pate de Rolo. Ooh! Yeah, yeah.

Both yours and Laudna's perspectives. Yeah, this is a funny one. Yes, please. This all just came out from trying to figure it out in the character design, and Hana came back with the scissors and the yarn and stuff on her belt, and I'm like, this is cool. Really liking that. Scissors are weird.

And I was like, I kind of feel like she needs something dead. She needs a dead thing. Like when Taliesin dresses you for Ren Faire, and he always says, you need more dead things hanging off of you. Is that what Taliesin says?

Yeah, I remember him telling me that once. Taliesin always says, you need more dead things. It's true. He told me I'm more baggy. He was like, make it baggier. Nothing tight. I'm like, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, he's your Renunefair stylist, that one. And then she came back with the rat, and I was like, oh, but it's got to be crafty. So, oh no, buddy, what? Buddy, why are you crying? Come here. Come here. Come here, buddy. Want a treat?

Here we go. Yeah, then I was like, can you put a bird skull, can you put a raven skull on the rat? Laudna just got bored and had craft time one night. And then, yeah, I came back, and then I ended up naming Pate first, way before I knew what Laudna's name was. I knew. Really?

I knew, could not figure out her name, but I knew that that dead rat was going to be named Pantay Norillo. Mainly just because I wanted to fuck with Allison. That's kind of it. Oh my god. And then, yeah, it was later on that I was like,

can I puppet the rat? And then that just kind of, I don't know, that became a weird thing. I was kind of feeling that one out in the moment. Can I puppet the rat? As if it would ever be met with a no. But the real question is, when was the moment you decided that they should be horny? That's...

I don't know where that came from. I don't know where that came from. I think it's... I don't know. That's one of like... I think that was one of the new matte visages of Camp A3, just the like, Yes!

That's my wife! You can have that question, you're allowed. Oh, you've eaten questions? He's eaten questions now. Oh, yum. It's rice pudding. Good boy, good boy. Let's do like one more, who wants to pull the last one? Sure, let's pull. Me?. Good boy. Let's do like one more.

Who wants to pull the last one? Sure. Travis, you want to do it? Yeah. Do it, buddy. Do it. Oh, sorry. That was not for you. Did I grab two? So selective. How is it playing what is essentially a rogue slash blood hunter

multi-class without the multiclass? Yeah. Do you think Chetney might ever multiclass if just to get expertise and sneak attack? Yo. Yeah, I was looking at this, especially after we leveled up. It might behoove us all, and him as well, just to get a little rogue in there. He has some roguish items. Some items that help with all the stealthy, lockpicky stuff.

Did you also put some, like your points and stuff into stealth and whatnot? Fuck no, nope. No, well! What? His dex is like his second one. So it was like strength and dex, because I knew he was gonna be a blood hunter. But I'm just feeding the werewolf

and then like i was like well he also needs to be able to do some of this stuff if we're gonna sell sell the road yeah so luckily there are some there's some magic items i don't know why i'm keeping them secret but i might as well for a little bit longer um i'm sure somebody will figure it out and then uh i think i Curl's stats already has you pegged. Do they have it? Yeah, they have it all. Yeah, that's not surprising. Yeah.

I think I've seen it a couple times. I'm sorry. But I think it'll help everybody if we just get some of that other stuff. Expertise. What does expertise do? Expertise, you get to choose a couple of your skills and you double the proficiency bonus on it.

Oh, shoot. That's how rogues get stealth rolls of 30, you know, and stuff, is they get crazy bonuses to a couple of skills. Do you have to take several levels in rogue to get up to expertise? I'll double check, but it's pretty early in. I think it's level one you get one. No, it's not. Level one, you get one in expertise, and then I think level six.

I could be wrong on level six. I know you get it again later. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I wanna get up into the higher classes of Blood Hunter because somebody needs to do it. Sorry, Taliesin. I love you, Taliesin! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Who's at the bottom?

Oh, he's gonna kill me. We're level five, Taliesin, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Who's at the bottom? Oh, he's gonna kill me. We're level five, which is where we lost Taliesin, right? Yeah, last campaign was level five. He was in level five when he died. I'm just gonna make it to six. So you gotta make it to six, yeah. Celebrate that six birthday,

and then it's all bets are off. Yep. The new top of the leaderboard. All bets are off. And then I'll hop in and get some roguey rogue. So funny. He's gonna kill me. Why don't we pull from the Tower of Inquiry again?

Okay. Matt, why don't you do it? Oh God. Good luck! I think it's been a minute. All right, I will do that. It's sticky! Hopefully, yeah.

It is. All righty. Oh man, you took a side one too, which makes it much harder. You didn't go center. You think I'm gonna take it easy on you? Yeah, well... No. Yeah. Oh god!

Oh god! Okay! I am feared. Oh! Why? I did use two hands. I realized that was what I'm not supposed to. That's okay. I totally broke the rule you get one

You did you get one while we're learning how to play no no put it back What are you do the thing that might be the only other loose black man? That's true I'm gonna do this right look I play by the rules Please go down. I know just like continue through trying to cheat in Jenga the episodes. Yeah, it stays in there Good stay forever. I think yeah, I think it'll go Some tech to it. Oh Cheating Jenga. The episodes? Yeah. It stays in that state forever? I think, yeah. I think it'll go until it falls. It's got some tech to it. There we go.

Number 34. Okie dokie. Oh, wow. We've got 32 and 34. How exciting. It was meant to be. From Graphic Paps. Okay. If your character were an author, what kind of book would they write?

If your character was an author, what kind of book would they write? If your character was an author, what kind of book would they write? Probably like a book. A lot of them would probably write a book on like composting or like... Yeah. Sustainable forest life. Sustainable forest life. Yeah. Foraging and composting. Maybe like some house repairs. Yeah. You know. Sustainable forest life. Sustainable forest life, yeah. Foraging and composting. Uh-huh.

Maybe like some house repairs? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just basically like a handyman book for living alone in the wild. Yes, yes. I put out a whittler's quarterly. Ooh! Not a book, a magazine.

Magazine, yes. A zine. Quarterly, quarterly. That's a commitment. That is. Yeah, got to make it through all those woods. Different techniques. Oh, man.

Maybe like a collection. I don't know, man. That's a tough question. It's a good one. Like a collection of poetry, but like where the sidewalk ends. Ooh. Yeah, like Shel Silverstein.

Like kind of a little spooky, maybe for kids and adults. Uh-huh, uh-huh. I like that. I could see that. Yeah. With really bad doodles. Yeah, Dorian doodles. Mm-mm, not great.

I'm going to pull one from the tower. Are you going? I'm going to do it. Wow, just like that? We answered that one pretty quickly. Chetney, what would your book be? Oh, I said I would do Whittler's Quarterly, but I also wanna add that I do the 70s retro design

where it's all big hair and really short shorts on the guys with big tube socks. Hell yeah. Yeah, yeah. Man. In it to tube socks. Hell yeah. Man. In it to win it. Brick. Oh!

Okay, okay, okay, okay. Wow. That was dramatic. Okay. Number 24. 24? We're in the 20s now. I should have gone before you.

Also, I don't know why I set the precedent of stacking them out to be safe instead of putting them on top. They are supposed to be on top. That's right. No, you're right. Sorry. There we go.

There we go. Okay. What is your favorite way of adding flavor to your combat? From Philip Martinez, Marty Sama on Twitch. Favorite ways of adding flavor to combat. I love describing stuff. It didn't exist, well, it existed a little bit in campaign one, but Grog was just always about

the graphic savagery. It was usually in how do you want to do this, but if you get spells or transformations, I feel like that's where you get to do a little kickflip. Do all the stuff, Yeah, yeah, yeah. But once again, the more you play, the more comfortable you get, the more we get to expand in those spaces. I think Liam as Orm is definitely showing how creative you can get as a martial class.

Yeah. Those descriptions. Goading attacks. I know. Battlemasters are great for that in general, but then also he just brings an extra level of flair to everything. And I'm like, yes, please, more of that. Here's the question. Is he going for

it more in this campaign than he has in the past when it comes to the descriptive stuff? Is he really enjoying the fighting aspects of it? He's always been pretty stacked. Yeah. But he played a full wizard previous campaign, so most of his things were magic-based, which already had a more cinematic,

mind's eye, descriptor, insertion point. Qualifier. Yeah. But classically combat, unless you're a person who really watches a lot of combat-centric media or is a martial artist or really into different forms of combat, it can be a little challenging to think of how to make it more interesting beyond I attack twice and do this much damage. And so whenever anybody gets the inspiration to take it beyond that and really show how cool and dynamic in our imaginations combat can be, as a martial class, it just makes you really happy

because it helps hopefully inspire other people to do the same. Well, that's exactly what it was for me in EXU. Like when we played the first few test games and Liam jumped in and I saw what you could do in terms of describing combat, I was like, oh. And it took me a minute to figure out if that was just him being extra or if that was something that you could do that was cool and celebrated. And once I figured out that that's part of the thing, I was like, oh, cool. Let's paint some pictures, baby.

I love it. Yeah, yeah yeah i really enjoyed that because because you gotta remember like you're unique in the sense that you're doing this for an audience so like not only is it for you as a player but like what a treat to be able to that's just like a moment that's just like getting teed up whenever it's a how do you want to do this or wherever it's like when someone says well describe it you go yeah yeah yeah that This is for me and for you. Let's figure out something cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Definitely Liam for me was like a big inspiration. That's awesome. It's good stuff. It's good stuff. What about you, Marisha? Same thing. I think it's just in terms of like magic. You've got the descriptions of the spells in the book, but how does it manifest from your character

and how are they unique? And I just like kind of trying to mix it up from time to time, but I think it's always that balance of being descriptive, kind of like what Travis was saying, kind of in your bigger moments moments as opposed to every time. Yeah. So try and pick and choose when it feels special, I guess.

Yes. But yeah, I don't know. Laudna has a lot of weird, undead, necromantic shit. Just a little bit. But it can't be like, like what you're saying, but it can't be like every moment.

It can't be like, I walk down the hall and the room thunders with every sound. Nobody gives a shit. Just walk down the hall. After a minute. Calm down. You know, I mean, we had Fjord, too, in campaign, too,

with all those Eldritch Blasts, but we're wanting the Laudna's Eldritch Blasts to look and feel a lot different from Fjord's. So, yeah, I don't know. Part of it, I think, is just binding some identity with it. Yeah. I think when you start playing role-playing games, too,

when you're learning the rules, you're learning how the game's dynamic works, it's very common to let the descriptions that exist in the game set the tone and really let you know how it should be. And then the more comfortable you get, quicker for some people than others, you can begin to realize that the rules can be the same,

but the flavor can be whatever you want it to be that fits within your character's theme. I think it's like Imogen, you know, Laura's character, was based on a Sorcerer's Hub class that is a really, really cool mechanical class, but the theming of it in the book is very, like, dark tentacles and alien... Arms of Adari.

Yeah, very cosmic horror stuff. She's like, I love what it does, but I don't want to be that. It functions pretty much the same, but we just reskinned some of the spells, we reskinned some of the abilities and made it her own unique thing, even though it operates the same as the class and the rules in there. And I love when any player feels excited to just take something and go, how can I make this more mine? How can I make this more

unique to what I've built and want to play? And I think she's done a great job with that. But isn't that the pitfall of, like, all the... a lot of the framework, too? For maybe a less experienced player, for someone like me that's just coming in, is that, you know, if you've got a preconceived notion of what a barbarian is, then where do you go first? You know, like you go to like this, stereotype's the wrong word, but you go to that one idea that's sort of universal. And I still love that classic fantasy. Like the idea of the knight or the paladin and that they're just straightforward.

That is awesome. But like hearing about someone seeing a class and then choosing to play it a different way for their own enjoyment. That's so cool to me. Yeah. And when you say it's a pitfall, I agree in the sense that it just comes with experience. Yeah. And sometimes,

it's really fun to play what's in the book, too. Yeah. The archetypes are archetypes for a reason, and there are some times you're just like, no, I want to play

a beefy barbarian that just gets angry and hits shit real hard. Sometimes I want to play an old wizard, an old wizened dude who gets bumbly with his spells but still is helpful.

You're like, those archetypes are fun to play if you've never had the chance to. And then once you have had the chance to, then you have permission to get a little weirder with it. And you can see as the campaigns progress, all their characters just get fucking weirder. Yeah, weirder.

Looking at you, brush cut grass. Take four of it. Take four of it. I love it. Well, thank you, Graphic Paps and Philip Martinez. And if you have an evergreen question for us, you can enter your questions for the Tower of Inquiry at critrole.com slash tower.

Whisper, whisper. Good boy, good boy. You used your inside voice on set. All right, folks, we're going to take a quick break. I think Omar needs to go potty. So we're going to take a quick breather, but stick around because when we come back, we're going to play some motherfucking Mario Kart.

Oh, shit, it's going down. Uh-huh. Let's get some drinks. See you in a minute. Drinks. Woo! All right, buddy, you need to go potty. Let's get some drinks. See you in a minute. Drinks. Alright, buddy. You need to go potty. Well, let's go potty.

That's it for the podcast version of this episode of Foresighted Dive. In the video version, we wrap up each episode by playing some games, which don't always translate well to an audio-only format. Honestly, it's mostly yelling, truly. So be sure to check out the rest of the episode via the VOD for the full chaos. If you've enjoyed this deep dive into the campaign, be sure to drop us a rating and a review on whatever podcast platform you're using. Your thoughts may just encourage a new critter to take the plunge. Foresighted Dive airs the first Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. Pacific on twitch.tv slash Critical Role and youtube.com slash Critical Role, with the VOD available on YouTube the very next day.

And of course, each episode releases right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network one week after the initial broadcast. We'll see you again next month. Buh-bye.