Critical Role - Still Blessed | 4-Sided Dive | Episode 23: Discussing Up To C3E93

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

Join Aabria Iyengar, Aimee Carrero, Liam O’Brien, and Matthew Mercer for an extra special Crown Keepers episode of 4-Sided Dive! Tune in as they pull questions from the Tower of Inquiry, discuss bringing the Crown Keepers to Campaign 3, pay respects to fallen heroes, and play Darrington Press’s very own For The Queen by Alex Roberts! Learn more about For the Queen by Darrington Press: https://darringtonpress.com/announcing-for-the-queen/ On May 14th, find For the Queen at our Darrington Press Guild stores, Critical Role shops , and other friendly local gaming stores. 4-Sided Dive airs one Tuesday a month on http://twitch.tv/criticalrole and http://youtube.com/criticalrole Twitch Subscribers and YouTube Members gain instant access to VODs of our shows like Critical Role, 4-Sided Dive, Candela Obscura, and Exandria Unlimited. But don't worry: 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 and YouTube Members also gain access to our official custom emote set and subscriber badges. "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

Hey there, Critter Podcast listeners. We have a special new membership service at Beacon.TV, where you get early access to all new podcast episodes, including Critical Role for the first time ever. Beacon members also get things like live event pre-sales, merch discounts, access to a private community Discord, and new exclusive series like Critical Role Cooldown. Think of it as our digital Critical Role land.

Head on over to Beacon.TV to check it out for yourself and start a seven-day free trial. Thank you so much for your support, for being a podcast listener, and for being a part of our community. Welcome to Foresighted Dive, Critical Role's monthly show featuring a roundtable discussion about the events and characters of our current campaign, alongside a heavy helping of hijinks. Foresighted Dive usually airs the first Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. Pacific on our Twitch and YouTube channels, with the VOD available on YouTube the very next day. And, of course, each episode releases right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network the following Friday. Let's take a dive, shall we? Hello, folks. Welcome to Foresighted Dive. I am Matthew Mercer, your 23rd tavern keeper in... What? Sorry, someone just left a box of used Billowy vests outside. Can we just hold for a second? I'll be right back. Hold on a second. What? Sorry, someone just left a box of used billowy vests outside.

Can we just hold for a second? I'll be right back. Hold on. Oh my God, that worked twice. Amazing. So why don't I take it from here? Let's start this over. Hey, Critters, welcome to Foresighted Dive.

I am Aabria Iyengar, your official 23rd Tavern Keeper. I will be spilling all the hot goss about having the Spider Queen go all Yoko on the Crown Keepers. But before that, let's talk about the big smiley bummer in the room. FCG heroically sacrificed himself to save his friends and finally kill Ohtohan Thul.

Thul? Thul? I don't watch this show, how do you pronounce it? Thul. Great, thank you. I knew show, how do you pronounce it? Thule. Great, thank you. I knew it, I just like when people yell at me. Hey, Odahan, when you get to the Hells, tell Xerxes I said sup.

Sam Riegel couldn't make it today, but his loving wife, Liam O'Brien, is here to chat about it and more. Oh yes, more. Because Orm is not the only crown keeper going through a dark time. Amy Carrero is here to tell us all about Opal and her full hot topic betrayer god makeover that we are all living for, except for Cyrus.

And speaking of Cyrus, Dorian is back and he's looking oh so good after losing all that excess brother weight. You're welcome. And when Matt realizes that the box of vests does not exist, he'll come back and tell us what Dariax had for breakfast or something. What a little guy. Okay, wait, what happened?

I went outside to look for vests, and all I found was a little box of Sam's old wigs, so. Hey, don't worry, buddy, I got this. Why don't you go sip some cocoa? Relax, we'll see. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Hey, do you want to play some For the Queen later and maybe just get some chicky nuggies?

Yeah, let's do it. That's what I'm talking about. Welcome to Foresighted Dive. Let's do a fucking show, baby. Welcome back. Let's begin the night with our open discussion segment. What the fuck is up with that? What the fuck is up with that, actually? Yeah.

Well, we got a menu. We have a little menu. Oh. So I'm just going to start us off for the table with just a little light discussion of FCG's fucking sacrifice. What happened? Why did that happen? We weren't there for that. We weren't there, but I can watch the moment.

Sam has a habit of doing ridiculous things that none of us expect and dragging the emotion out of all of us like a good friend does at the table. So fuck you, Sam. He strikes when the iron is hot. Yeah. Yeah. It was the exact right, like as much as I was like, oh, I'm emotionally devastated and I didn't expect to be just sort of crying in my office alone at night watching it.

It was the exact right emotional beat for that moment. And he is a sniper for that. It was so good. He did it with a smile too the whole time. If you were to watch it like on mute or whatever, it would just be him like, and then everyone going. Like, what is he saying? Yeah.

You guys did start doing like a, I got runner up in a beauty pageant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As he was going up. It's the Julianne Moore cry. Yes! Is that too old of a run on? I don't even know, but like. Not for us.

Never seen a more beautiful person cry so ugly. Yeah. What about Claire Danes? That's neck and neck. Oh, my God. Yeah. That was rough. When did you know it was happening? When were you like, oh, he's going to do it?

Oh, he's doing it. Oh, the words. I aimed the spell on my core. I remember at the top of the night, at the top of that fight, kicking off going, we are going to kick this woman's ass. We are leveled up.

We figured out tricks. We're going to work well together. I mean, I don't know about the rest of the table, but I specifically was feeling very confident about thrashing that woman. And, you know, have it coming at a cost, but not in what I think was one of the two or three times in the history of this show where we came close to everybody going out.

I gotta be so clear. I'm so proud of you. You beat the brakes off of them. And I was just like, you ever have that energy where you're like, God, I wish I could just send Matt video of me being like, I'm cheering for her! Damn her little backpack! Here's the thing. You've been doing this for a while, especially with you guys. Every new group has its own unique tricks, and with certain levels, the power that's at your disposal

kind of jumps. And so for me, learning the balance of each one of those jumps, it's its own kind of experience that takes a while. And a lot of it is trusting that you guys will find a way through. And when it comes to encounters, like with Odahan, which is meant to have a terrifying impact. This is a character that's been built up for the majority of the campaign. I don't want it to be a combat that is easily fought.

And you guys have, there have been many battles, especially as of late, that I'm like, this is going to be a nice, like, challenging test, and you just kind of wipe the floor with it, which is great, but that just means I have to make sure that I tweak it with enough surprises to where walking in with that sort of, I don't want to say arrogance, but confidence, can be met with a level of fear

that I felt is true to the character. And to be fair, I rolled really well for her that fight, and you guys had a rough time with some of the rolls. I rolled great. Oh, you rolled actually pretty great. You were doing great. Do you ever roll poorly? Sure. I don't remember that. All the time.

I don't remember you rolling poorly. Not that night, though. No. I don't remember that. All the time. I don't remember you rolling poorly. Not that night, though. No. I love the energy. It's pretty good. But it wasn't enough. No. So how do you feel about that? But it wasn't enough.

I'm sorry. One little halfling. I felt a lot of energy coming from you, and I just wanted to. Even when you nuked, when she slash you nuked Chetney at the top, I was still like, whatever. We'll pull it. I mean, we could get that wolf back up probably. This is fine.

It's fine. And it wasn't until the two-thirds mark where I was like, she's still got a lot of stuff left. Here's the thing. A lot of classes in the game have many tricks up their sleeve, especially as like, you know, sorcerers, druids, everything that has mass hit spells that do AOE or, you know, crowd control and stuff like that.

It's challenging to make a fighter character, a solo encounter that has a lot of utility to it. And so for me, the challenge of Otohan Thule, the entire campaign was to build a fighter class solo encounter that had enough utility that befits a dangerous fight against an entire group of seven characters. For sure. And find the right kind of kit balance with the narrative that'll make it work.

And so I went in making her very dangerous knowing that would be the case. It just so happened that when the combat did arrive, it arrived on the cusp of some of your characters having expended some of your resources from previous encounters. And a lot of luck, a lot of tactical things just worked out to be in a tough, tight scenario. And it was pretty close. I think at the end of it, she had under 40 hit points when FCG did make the sacrifice. So there still could have been a path where you would have won, but there might have been more than one lost

in that process. And if her, if your rolls had been slightly worse than my friend's rolls, it would have been slightly better. True. Well, I was rolling like, like pretty consistently around the tens mark, like averaging.

She just has massive bonuses. So good. I know with Orm, who's a fighter, and I know his rules real well, but it's all about focusing on one person almost always and whittling down one person. So to make a fighter be able to wipe the floor with multiple people at once,

you wanted her to have the weight of Fight with the Dragon, which she did. So she did her trick with 1,000 hits, and I was like, okay, there's the action surge is out of the way. And then you said, okay, for a second action surge, I went, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Had to grab my chair. And then when she pulled out a massive healing potion, Bad juice? I was ready to meet you in the parking lot.

That's valid. That was a special healing potion, too. That was supreme plus. That was for NPCs healing. I bet the group chat that night was... Wouldn't have wanted to be on it. Lots of laughs. I definitely want it. Just a sad sack group of... Oh, yeah.

But I do want to shout out, because you brought up something really cool, and I like the parallel between Aurum and Odahan specifically because I do remember one of my favorite things coming out of EXU Prime was watching how carefully and meticulously you had crafted your fighter like it is very easy for fighters who are like I do a hit with my weapon for that to get like really it'll get old fast and I was like how is he gonna come out of the gate at the top of a like three digit campaign and have that feel good and unique and your abilities as a storyteller to like infuse all of Oram's like actions and tactics on the map with like all of the immediacy of like an action movie that I

love to watch was so cool so it felt so right that this was the campaign where we have Odahan, who is that like bigger fighter. Yeah, exactly. Where you're like, Oh, this is the monstrous version of Orm's skillset and ability and just how lethal and terrifying he can be. So it was like, it felt very good in that way that there was like this bit of a foil between the two. And yeah yeah like you're right odahan stood with the same gravitas of facing down like the big monstrous threats of like a dragon uh and absolutely stomped and it felt so great to like yeah that was a harrowing fight but by the

end of it it felt exactly right for like the story of this campaign of like what it takes to win and like what you are all willing to sacrifice and who does it and who steps up here first like a faithful caregiver being the one so good i thought at best just a couple people were gonna uh before sam pulled his genius yeah 5d move um i thought maybe a couple people and not oram we're gonna make gonna make it away, and I didn't know what we were gonna do. I don't know if we were gonna... I thought we'd start bringing in a bunch of new characters.

That's what I thought. Really? I thought this was the closest we'd ever, ever come. I mean, there'd been a couple other times where it felt close, but I felt like this was the closest, because I could see you sweating towards the end of it as well. Yeah, it was definitely one of those scenarios where circumstantially,

you know, I set up an encounter in my mind with building a skill set for an enemy that I feel is dangerous, building an environment that has opportunities at its disposal for both the players and the villains to change things into their favor and try and like throw a bunch of tools and utilities out there. A lot of that just gets forgotten in the chaos and some things surprise me, some things surprise the players, and then at a certain point the scales start tipping

in a way that the nerves start hitting. I don't want to pull the punches. I don't want to put a scenario where I throttle off because then it robs the rest of our game of the stakes and the victories that you do get. And I trust, we all trust each other to know that no matter what happens, we can continue to tell the story. We'll find the meaning in these moments and these losses. And if, you know, I've always said before, if a character dies in a campaign

and a player is really upset about it, I've done it before, if a character dies in a campaign and a player is really upset about it, I've done it in home campaigns too, I will work with them to find a way to restore the character. But we also are the kind of players that, if it feels like a natural, satisfying end to that story, then we love and embrace that and we run towards it. And I could feel that, and I think we've all had conversations about it,

we all feel that way and excited at running at that danger, but I don't think anyone exemplified it quite like Sam did in that moment. I had forgotten about that unintentional Chekhov's gun when I mentioned this core was explosive. It was more meant to be a reference to all the other arcane cores

that were being utilized to source the power of a lot of the Basaran creations, but this is an Aeorian tech and is much more powerful. And I just like the idea of being like, you got a bomb in you. That's fun. Yeah. I'd forgotten about it. And in a very Sam- Oh, he filed that away for a rainy day.

Of course he did. And in a very Sam-regal way, pulls that out of his ass last minute. And I was just like, you're gonna make me DM this, you motherfucker. Oh, I love it. It was so good. It's the equivalent of watching, I mean, not really, but when you watch, like we were talking

about SNL or something, and someone breaks character, and you're like, oh, they really know how funny this is. And just seeing people cry at the table, especially Matt, who I don't think I've seen, I could be wrong, I don't know. I've cried at the table a few times, but usually not in the, usually it's at the end of a campaign. Yeah, yeah, right, like not, yeah, I don't know,

but I just remember, I don't know. I mean, I know you guys, so I know that it really, it matters, but it's nice for the audience every now and then to peek behind the curtain and know just how much these characters mean to the people that bring them to life because it costs something and it makes something like that worth watching

and worth investing in if you know that it costs people something to let them go or to bring them to life. Watching the panic on everyone else's face at that table as they're trying to conspire to find a way to prevent it from happening, and it's already happening. Yep.

It makes it more heartbreaking. Yep. Yeah. The scramble. Fuck you, Sam. You know what's crazy? I remember before I'd ever really even heard of Critical Role, I knew that Sam,

because he used to be my voice director for Elena of Avalor, and so I knew of D&D through Sam, I knew you guys played, but I didn't know anything other than that. And I remember one day coming in to work and everyone at Outloud Studios where we like recorded it was so like bummed out. And when Sam walked in, they were like,

man, like Sam, like this sucks, man. And I remember thinking like, what, did somebody die? And he was like, yeah, Sam, this sucks, man. And I remember thinking, what, did somebody die? And he was like, yeah, one of our characters in Campaign 2 died. And then I remember it affecting people that I'd worked with for years and who knew, really were Critters at the time and really knew the game.

And I remember him having to console them a little bit. And now knowing he's the one that sort of pulled the plug on his own character is just ugh. But also like. It was the day after it had aired, it was like a Friday or something. Yeah, yeah, no, I remember that evening and morning after very well.

Oh my goodness. I think what I love about it too, for me as a GM and watching the dice tell a story and everyone's kind of following where it's gonna take us, but try and prevent the worst outcomes. Sam taking the opportunity to take control of that and kind of put the chapter close in his character's story in a meaningful way, it's a rare opportunity. Many characters die,

and characters have died, and even in our campaigns, that are just circumstantial. The dice wasn't in their favor, and the final blow took them, and it is a sad moment of loss and vengeance and processing. This truly was, like, the most prominent moment of heroic sacrifice that I've been able to jam in a long time, where the player was fully like, no, I'm choosing to do this. And with a sheet-eating grin, kind of brought his own end,

and I think that's why it got me. Like, there were multiple layers as to why it got me so hard in that moment, but it was the reality of the culmination of that character story then. It had to be FCG in a weird way, because he was like this kind of, this beacon of joy and comfort

and kind of this thread that kept a lot of these broken things together throughout, this beacon of joy and comfort and this thread that kept a lot of these broken things together throughout and for it to be him, I'm excited to see how, because there's going to be a lot more processing to come. I don't even think the characters have really had enough time to even talk about it. Liam's getting ready for those episodes.

I think all of them have like, yeah, well, we've cheered a little bit and we've had moments to talk about it, but I don't think you all have really had a moment yet to do that. We've been back on the planet for a couple hours or something. Well, Sam knows what we all know,

which is that characters die, but stories never do. Yeah. Beautiful. Great story beat. Yeah. So. Beautiful. Great story beat. It really was. Yeah. Proud of him. For the books.

Proud of him. Fuck you, Sam. Fuck you, Sam. Yeah, extra fuck you, because, hey, let me be so clear. We're gonna look behind the veil. We knew that this fun little crossover moment was gonna happen a little in advance.

So there was that moment where the episode dropped and I'm like, he did what? Yeah, he, he, he, he. Motherfucker! It definitely all went in. What energy have you cursed me with? What? Did definitely, yeah.

He really was particularly horrible for you. Bruh, to be like, what energy am I going to? Oh no. Yeah, it's like taking the baton and wiping your ass with it. Yeah, that's it. That's all you know. Cool, great.

Don't touch your eye. Yeah, this was sort of a narrative pink eye from my Ursoil husband. Yes, 100%. So good. This is payback for the calamity. I don't know. Yeah, he did do that to you, damn it.

Yeah, you did the same thing. That's right. Shit. Damn it, Sam. I am thrice fucked. I just stuck to your guns and just did like a pub crawl. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No acknowledgement.

Or like, the Crown Keepers are like at a resort. They're like, we're having a great time. Yeah, we're all back at the taste of the Tal'Dorei. Yeah, just vibe it. I need life to live and just fucking hanging out. But I do want to say, as we kind of talk about the transition point, also, the hardest part of that handoff was,

Kyle knows because I almost fell over listening to you send off that sending to Dorian. I was like, okay, I have to come in with big energy, but Liam's making me cry. I get so quiet. Yeah. What is he saying? I'm only getting vibes and they're all bad.

It's a little bit that monitor because we're all watching you guys as well going like, what? Yeah. What? It's that one monitor on the building. Well, we made you like word for word repeat during the break.

We're like, what did you say exactly? But no one does sad boy like Aurum. Aurum's sad boy energy really is like. Started off the campaign pretty good. Fuck you. Yeah. You said, I remember one of our first communications, you were like, I'm gonna play like a lighter character.

And then you sent me. He was though, he was. And then you sent me the back story and I'm like, dead husband? But he was okay. Is that okay? But he was over it. I wouldn't say he was over it, but he was okay.

He was in like a, listen, I'm the one in the skin. I know how I felt at the time and I felt like I was doing all right. I was like, or he was near, you know, finding acceptance with where things were. But then all the wounds got opened up. Yeah, yeah, literally opened up. Wait, she said that?

That was great. Was it? I'm so proud. It was, it opened a wound as you said it. And all the wounds were opened up. It was perfect. Right? Yeah.

But I think there is some, oh, go ahead. Just wanna hug him. In campaign one, when Vax was like, take me instead, I didn't think that Matt was going to flip that and put us on a roller coaster for the rest of the campaign. In campaign two, when we were preparing and I told Matt, I wanna be part of this wizard school where they just rotted his brain

and awful things happened because of it, and I didn't know that those people were going to be running the government and be at the center of the whole thing. Oh yeah, could you imagine? And in campaign three, I asked for being a part of your game. I talked about a sad thing that happened in the past,

but I didn't think that some asshole is going to be testing the Tempest to see if he could do all of this shit that's going on now. Luda. Listen. That's my boy. Matt's good at threading everything into the sky and then pulling the sky down. It's so good. My favorite.

I love watching. Well, Orm in particular, of all the characters, because we have a very kooky group in Bell's Hells. I was so like politelyitely, blithely polite. They're so kooky, and you're like, drama. Yeah, they're all deeply broken characters in their own unique way, and they're a colorful spectrum of broken characters that find a commonality and family between each other.

Orym is one of the rocks of that group, but his is the soldier's journey. Yeah. You know, his is the person who is called by duty. It was called duty imposed by others, imposed by himself, imposed by the memory of those he's lost and what it means to rise up to the heroism that you're being expected of. You know, it's being expected of you.

Yeah. But that takes its toll. And watching his journey is very interesting and relatable. And I'm very, I'm loving where it's been. I'm loving where it's going. And yeah, I'm excited to even see where a post-Otahan processing comes in, too. I think going right into the Crown Keepers gave a moment to talk about it, where a post-Otahan processing comes in too. I think going right into the Crown Keepers gave a moment to talk about it,

then return with Doreen to talk about it. I think I'm excited to explore the real meat now that the adrenaline is starting to fade from that experience and see what happens next and where you all end up going together for the real repercussions. Yeah. There is something very fun,

and then I'm gonna get into, like, god, everything with Opal, because you absolutely crushed this. But in the sort of planning of this, the like, Crown Keeper's little insert, there was an eye turned specifically to the fact that Orym is the one that constantly reaches out to Dorian. And having Orym this like really fun,

I don't want to call it a corruption or like a like degradation arc, but you do, you are like, it's fun to watch Aurum put things away in him for the duty. Like he has to keep making space for that. And it's crowding out empathy and kindness and softness like you are watching someone shave off his soft edges to be what the size of the fight as he gets a bigger and bigger view of the nature and direness of the threat like he's like oh I have to lose a little bit more and watching that is

so fun and it became like a really interesting, like, is there a way to like, so this into Dorian's experience coming back to Bell's Hells? So as I, like, as we were like planning and figuring out what to do with the handoff, a big part of that was trying to give a parallel experience to the sort of like ending of the crown keepers and going off of that, like perfect little arc where that you get, you gave like episodes and like ending of the Crown Keepers and going off of that like perfect little arc

where that you gave like episodes and episodes ago of the like Opal's getting pretty dark of like, ah, what, like what a little like gift will come back to you and then getting like snatch that out of the air and be like, all right, hey everybody, we're gonna be here for the equivalent of one episode. We don't have time to talk and get out.

Like it's a fight. So I just want to start off by shouting you out, Amy, for being so game for a like all on one PVP. You know, that's not new kid shit, right? It was so good. You crushed it. Yeah, but someone who perpetually feels like the new kid, I definitely like, I just love,

I know the mechanics are not like my strongest suit, but like as far as role playing, I feel very comfortable in the role-play aspect of it. And I knew that at the very least, because you mentioned it was going to be a battle, but there were going to be moments of maybe flashback and stuff like that. So I knew that I was going to get breaks, where I could touch back in with the confident point of me as a performer. So I knew that, I mean, what's the worst that can happen? She fucking dies, I don't know.

It would be very sad, but I knew that I was gonna make it out of the studio alive, and that's all that matters. I mean, as an actor, I'm like, I'm gonna live. That's good perspective. You know? Sometimes you just really just gotta, sometimes you just gotta think about, what am I gonna eat after?

I'm gonna get myself a nice little treat. I'm gonna get some Taco Bell after, no matter what. What was it like when you had to go sit by yourself on one side of the table? It was cold. It was cold. But also, I feel like it was a necessary thing to really show how Opal has even though she

wants to reach out to her friends she's like physically can't I thought it was a really cool way of showing that of of showing like how isolated she's become even if it's in her own mind yeah that is like so crowded so how could it be isolated but is so it felt it felt cool but it felt cold for real like physically but also I knew but I also knew that like you'd said something like oh do you want someone to join you

like I can get you a friend or something and I was like oh no they're only going to come here if they die so I'm cool sitting here by myself because I didn't want any of the groundkeepers to die That was my fun little like oh the whole goal is to like clear the bench for you. And then as I dropped people, I'd be like, do you want a buddy? Here's your accursed specter.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That would have been cool. But no, definitely not with any of my pals. But yeah, it felt cool actually. And it was cool to see. You were so good and like held a side of the table on your own in a way that, let me be clear, I don't know if they'll ever show your character sheet

or stuff, you beat ass with that build. We had a conversation about it. And I didn't build it for you. And I was like, oh, that's a lot of the stuff I was grabbing for Laryn from Calamity. Which is the ultimate compliment. I love that. But it was really fun to see, like, how absolutely menacing that build was.

And know that, like, you were going to be fighting tooth and nail. Like, the actual RP of it was, like, please don't make me use any of this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was such a beautiful, like, dichotomy of, like, the things you are equipped to do. And the, like, top of your intelligence. Like, I know how all of these players, like, tick. Yeah. of the things you are equipped to do and the top of your intelligence. I know how all of these players tick. There's a thing in fighting when you run games

and you're like, oh, if I'm just a random dragon, I don't know who the sort of easy button, who's the weak link here that if I take you down, then everyone else will spiral faster. But the idea that Opal and the Spider Queen and Ted would all have that intel and like really Like or trying to lean into I just couldn't knock bless off of Matt, which is so fucking upset I can't even look you in the eye right now

All the day all night you can not knock the girl from Ipanema out of that man's Singing the girl from Ipanema out of that man's head. I spent three days singing the girl from Ipanema. Well, the thing is, you roll so bad as Dariax. So he's gotta have something that keeps him alive. But he made every conject to keep, I was like, how? He's built for that. Warcaster of Dwarven Constitution. He's like, can't do much, but one thing I can do,

hold a spell. Yeah. Which, by the way, you saved Dariak's life. He was not gonna leave. Yeah. I was fully prepared to take a last stand there for Opal. I could never do it. I couldn't do it.

That mass suggestion was clutch. That was so good. As soon as you did that, I was like, oh damn. Yeah. He's gonna go. Yeah. He's gonna go. It's gonna go. That's the ultimate compliment. I was in the lobby yelling, kill them!

I know. Kill them! I could not live with myself, but. I love PvP. It would be so fun. It is fun if it's like a, I mean, it was fun anyway, but I feel like I would have really gone for it if it was like a one shot or whatever.

Yeah, it was bitch. No, I know, but not with these people that we've known for so long. You'll know them again. I just couldn't do it, but I did a lot of research on trying to find stuff that was like crowd, not crowd control, but like could and not dangerous, and I really wish I could have used that force cage.

I was so close to using it. Is that what it's called? Yeah, fourth cage. Motherfuck that one. Oh man, I was so ready to use it and I didn't have the time or the chance to, but the mass suggestion I was really pleased with and I knew going in that your wisdom

and Dorian's wisdom was not the highest. Nope, we're a couple fools. You know? So I was prepared for Erica and Ange to like, like not be whatever. Yeah. But yeah, it was cool. I felt really proud of it, but also I felt a little bit,

just kind of sad that I took you guys out so early. It wasn't that early. In the game, it wasn't? No, you're good. Okay. Yeah, and also- That kind of ties your hands behind your back, but you'll play again.

That's the thing. You know? It's okay. Don't laugh. Matt's gonna be fine. You're right. He's gonna be fine. You're right.

He's gonna be fine. That's okay. All I wanted to do was frustrate her with Bless. It worked. And I already accomplished that. It worked. Anything else was gravy accomplished that. It was so perfect. Anything else was gravy. I came in with so much red in my fucking ledger

because he killed my character the last time he ran for me. And I was like, I'm going to get his ass. This is the only one I want. I'm playing the Spider Queen. I'm Ted. I've got so much stuff. It's going to work. I can't get this Bless on this motherfucker.

And then halfway through, I'm also realizing halfway through, I'm like, okay, if somebody has to die, like who is like, you know, who's gonna really know shit about this game? And then I was like, and then you asked me again, like, who are you most afraid of? And I was like, Dariax, not true. But I knew that if Matt Mercer was on that side,

this side of the table, I was fucking wrapped. God, that would've been so fun. I was waiting. That kid on your side would have been bad. Yeah, that. God, that would've been so fun. I was waiting. Yeah, but that's cool. That kid on your side would've been bad. Yeah, that's true. He would've been in character. What are we gonna do?

It would've been so good. But I would've loved at the end where Dariax was at the pub. Oh my God, you got ghosted. You got ghosted. That was so heartbreaking. And that's the only reason that I wasn't like, what if I just come in as Denise right now?

I was like, no, it's too good. The moment is too good. But what if she like, that's the only reason that I wasn't like, what if I just come in as Denise right now? It's too good. The moment is too good. But what if she finds... That's in my fan fiction. As soon as that episode ended, he just got grappled by something he didn't see, and it was absolutely... Oh, 100%.

That's a post-campaign moment where maybe you can flashback. You've got to do a stinger. Totally. You can totally do that. Yes, yes. It was just too beautiful of a moment not to get in there, but yeah. In my head, when Dariax and Dorian had made it back to Kilith's

and Ereshari over there, and I was like, and then they got into Zephra's bar, and in my head, I'm like, okay. So in my head, I'm like, okay, Dariax can accompany him, probably with Bell's House, because he's not going to leave his side

at that point, so he can become kind of like a helpful side NPC maybe. Like in my head, I was immediately doing the math on like, well, he made it with him, how can I incorporate him in a way that feels natural? Okay, and then while I'm having to do the math in my head to try and rationalize the fact that Dariax made it with him here, then Robbie just full on

took care of it for me in the most heartbreaking way. Heartbreaking. I could like see it for me in the most heartbreaking way. Heartbreaking. I could see it play out in my head. I could see the episode, if it was a very special episode of the growing pains. Showing off for him. It played so well. And then dad just goes out for cigarettes.

Oh no. Damn. Damn, man. Yeah. But it did feel, as much as I was like, ugh, I wanna kill everyone and just send Dorian off alone, it did feel very good to be like, the main thing to accomplish,

and going back to the kooky bunch of trauma babies, is having Dorian reenter the campaign with the idea that you left Belle's house to save your brother. Yeah. And he's the only one you lost. Yeah, yeah. And now you arrive back, FCG's dead. Maybe if you had stayed, nothing would have been different with Cyrus, but maybe FCG would

still be here. And that feels like the perfect, not in a mean way, because I don't want mean things for these characters. I love them all very much. But like, when you want people to Yeah, you gotta show up with some of the same energy as the rest of the group. Yeah, if you guys have been doing like, we did like a pedal pub across Keimel.

It was super fun. You can't have a friend that's like, I just got back from Vegas. How are you all? Oh, you're all crying. What's happening? Yeah. And part of the reason I picked the Mass Suggestion too is because I knew that we were doing this to sort of deliver Dorian, or give him the opportunity to go back to Bell's Hells, and I knew that

he wouldn't just leave of his own volition. I just knew he would. That's not his character, you know? So I'm like, if I have a chance to use this, I would definitely use it on. And I looked for something that had like a high wisdom yes save or whatever that was um it was very good so i knew he would just i'd be forced to like walk but so that's not newbie talk thank you that's what i'm saying thanks you had the

perfect kit to hit the low wisdom characters and like i was sitting in the wings like everything that was like some of my favorite stuff with uh morgan was sitting in the wings like everything that was like some of my favorite stuff with uh morrigan was that idea that she like wanted to rebuild her character she's like i don't want to be a rogue she's like i rolled like in kymal and i want i want that stank off me i'm like girl say less i understand that vibe uh come lean into like being a paladin of uh the matron of ravens very fun. And then she was like, I cast haste. I was like, no. Not like this. Not this again.

I laughed from this side of the screen. I don't want to be on the side of it. In the back of my head, I'm just like. Dog. When she was building it, she's like, and I have daggers. I'm like, no! It's a sword.

It's a sword for no reason. Just please, please don't let it just be exactly that. Let's just say the matron's got a type. She's got a type! Hot, brooding, loves a dagger. Dark hair. Dark hair. Yep. Purrvon. Kind of a longer ear situation. Yeah. Yep.

Can't blame her. But knowing that like because Erica like locked in with the deity and Ange also was like, had like a cool moment with the Wild Mother, it felt like a really fun opportunity to talk a little bit about like the bigger themes of the campaign in the like, hey, it's getting real dark for all of the deities in Exandria. So even if you like have this sort of imposed difference

between the good, prime deities and the betrayer gods, when you are facing an existential threat, what is more human than the desire to persist? And what would a prime deity say in the face of like, hey, hey, hey, hey, I understand, she's a bad guy. She's the worst. Spider Queen, the worst. Huge bitch.

She's one of us. Yeah, however, I think maybe Opal will be useful. So maybe we won't let that happen. I don't know. She'll be fine. It'll be fine. And getting to toy a little bit with the idea that like the Wild Mother and the Matron of Ravens

might say like, just let her cook real quick. Maybe why don't you back up and like either help out and get into the fight and be a part of it, but don't like stop this from happening. Yeah. Felt like an interesting take and like an extra lever to have during the fight. And also I feel like that also goes with what you've been dealing with all campaign or most of it, which is like, do we fight for the gods or do we just let them fucking fuck off?

Like, I don't know. You know, that's the question and to have to have it reach even the crown keepers is a nice way to tie it in i think to the to the storyline of bell's house very much been dealing with so i hope that people were able to kind of see between the lines and at least like pick that up and so that it wasn't just like a our friend died here's the crown keepers you You know, like, there is a tie in, I hope it becomes clear. But yeah, it was really fun, it was really fun to do.

I like the idea that she's out there running around like Venom now, in service to the queen, and for the war or whatever it is that's coming. Yeah, there's a number of individuals that are in service to the gods as a unit, and everything is pointing one direction. Let's go. I love One Direction.

We're still around the contract, they're a little pricey, but we're gonna see what we can do. I feel like you can get them for a bargain now. It's a good idea. The reunion tour, it'll be great. Get the Spice Girls for sure. So gettable. So gettable.

Well, maybe not Victoria Beckham. Ooh, she's, I don't know, I feel like she's gettable. She's gettable. She's gettable. Oh, so gettable. So gettable. Well, maybe not Victoria Beckham. Ooh, she's, I don't know. I feel like she's gettable. She's gettable. She's gettable. Oh, yeah. But I'm very much looking forward to seeing what happens with Dorian and Amorum. Yeah. What do you mean?

What do you mean? Do you want me to say it? Yeah, sure. You all have to fuck before the end of the campaign. Why would that happen? What? Why would? How? Why? Yeah, sure. You all have to fuck before the end of the campaign. Why would that happen? What? Why would? How?

Why? Oh, I'm sorry. Hey, please smash cut to the pages of AO3 fanfic. Thank you so much. Yeah. And I've read some of it. I got nasty. Dorian's a charmer.

Got nasty quick. Okay, Aurum. Stop it. You're a charmer, too. You send the sweetest little messages? Are you kidding? We've been sending those messages for, I mean, it feels like months as it has been,

but really it's only been a few weeks. Yeah. And you said this thing, I think when we were prepping, or maybe you said it on camera, I don't remember, but it was like when Dorian turns on his phone, there's like 90 messages from Aurum and it's only been like a few weeks or whatever. Some of them were just like, are you mad at me?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Why aren't you responding? Why aren't you responding? Is everything okay? Yeah. They all bounce back. I'm on the moon, what you doing? They all bounce back.

Yeah. All coverage is down. Yeah. I just feel bad because I do feel like there was also like Dariax was trying to get in there too and it was just like, ugh. Yeah, what was happening? I wanna know.

Yeah, what was happening? What's the, clarify that relationship for us. Was it more like a brother kind of thing? Sorry. It was awfully flirty back in EXU. Yeah, I want to know like. All of y'all were flirting in EXU. True.

I will say from Dariax's perspective, I'm not discounting any sort of romance, but I think for him, he doesn't think about romance very often. He's very much a person that's kind of pulled by the winds. Any relationships that he's been in, any entanglements he's had, has usually been driven by others. Just like in that fanfic, I guess.

I'm sorry, you're going to sit here and say he's driven by the winds, like Dorian's not that whole vibe, and be like, yeah. No, I see what you're saying now. Do you see? Do you hear what you're saying? I ran into that one. No, I mean, I think Dariax sees Dorian as like an older brother figure. He aspires for that confidence

and that kind of comfort and ease that he walks through life. That's why he started going into Bard. That was also her. He wants to be like him. Could that have ever turned into a romantic thread? I don't discount it. I don't think he would be against it,

but I don't think he thinks about that stuff very often. I put him a little bit on the private asexual scale a little bit. Oh, fun. You know, he goes to the romance, but he's not the initiator. Yeah. Yeah, someone has to tell him, like,

hey, I like you, and he's like, oh, okay. Ah, Denise makes a lot of sense. Yeah, Denise makes a lot of sense. That's so perfect. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Guess what, we're in a relationship. Okay. We're pre-engaged.

Oh, sure, whatever you want. Ooh, a butterfly. Okay, I could do this forever, but I do think it's time for us to get into our sweet little tower of inquiry. So let's get some questions going. One of us is going to pull a block. We're going to pull a block from the tower and read its number aloud in the lovely, the effervescent,

the ebullient, Miss Jenny Carr. The effortless. See? Who 100% just smacked her thigh into the side of the table. I hurt so bad. I'm so fine, you guys. I didn't see it, so it didn't happen. You made it look effortless.

So in pain and effortless. Just laugh through it. I felt a sympathetic bruise on my hip after that. I'm sorry. I'm so great, you guys. Everything's fine. Oh no. I feel bad because you died,

but I do have to continue to read. No, please keep reading. Or I don't have to take home that box of billowy vests. They're real. They're outside the door. Oh God. I want a box of the billowy pan. Ooh.

I mean, that's all I wear now. I love it. It's so good. The pandemic has taught me a lot of the billowy pan. Ooh! I mean, that's all I wear now. I love it. It's so good. The pandemic has taught me a lot of things about myself. Wear comfortable billowy. Yes. No, you're right. Okay, sorry.

Speed run. If the tower should fall, there'll be bad consequences for the person responsible. Absolutely horrifying consequences. Take it from me, the lady who had Cyrus killed by giant spiders. And I'd do it again. He died after a sad hand job.

Yeah. Never write after? Never forget. Never forget. Best use of a seven. A seven? Best performance check ever. Yeah.

Somehow there were teeth involved. I don't even know. Oh no. It's one of those things. You're perfect. Okay, Amy, you gotta go first. Way to go. You gotta go first.

I gotta go first? Okay, I think I did pretty well the last time I did this. But, okay. Are you actually good at a- Yeah, well, I'm gonna start, I mean, you know- Anonymous block tower game? Yeah, but I'm gonna set myself up for success. You can't do the top.

Why not? Oh my God, there's one rule. Okay. And whatever block you touch, you have to do. Oh, that's a new rule you put in just now. Doing okay though. Yeah, oh, all day, baby. All good. Yeah, you're good.

Five! Five! Huzzah! Congrats. Do I go now? You have to put it on the top. Oh, god, I've never played anything in my life. I've never played a game.

I've never played a game last night. You did this. Bye-bye. Glorious. Good job. So this one is from Ann Bell. Question. Oh. How do you plan pacing, both for your own story arc and the overall party?

As a player, do you have a rough idea of role-playing moments you will want to have throughout the campaign? Or as a DM, do you set up specific scenarios to push an arc slash interaction slash feeling? Is this for Bria? No, it's for you. It's for everybody. Oh, I thought everybody answered.

Tell me about how you plan the arc. I don't. No, that's not true. I think, you know, one thing I have noticed as a player is that in my mind, I feel like I'm going to have all the time in the world to, like, do moments or just, like, drop little bits of the backstory. But I always find that it doesn't go,

I don't have as much time as I think. So it's, like, better to just take the opportunity when it comes, when it feels natural. No big room energy. You know? Yeah. Yeah, so, like, yeah. That is, as far as the pacing goes, I always feel like, you don't have as much time

as you think you have. Yeah. And then what was the other question? This is one. Sorry. I think the other question. We've lost Dani. We've lost Dani.

She fully left. She left, she got to report by my answer. I'll do the follow up. And I think it's a permutation of other question. Nope. We've lost Dani. We've lost Dani. She fully left. She left. I'll do the follow up. And I think it's a permutation of that question. Was there anything like thematically that you like wanted to accomplish with Opal? Yeah. Yeah.

Or do you think you got to do it? I think I got to do it, but I think thematically, what I started Opal as really was just a function of me not being like an experienced player at all. So I'm like, what story would I feel comfortable telling? What's something that I've been curious about? And at the time, peak pandemic,

I was really curious about like coming of age stories. And so for me, I thought, okay, well I've been young before, so I know I can play that. B, I know what it's like to have a delusional amount of confidence before the first sort of life smack. Yeah, God. That's a special time where you're like,

I'm a God. It's a really special time, and it's just rife with possibility, and I knew that I'd have a lot of story that I could pull from, or at least I have a lot of opportunities and a lot of things that could happen to Opal that I could feel really confident in the role play of it all. So that's how I started Opal and I thought okay well she'll you know we'll just go through this story and whatever happens to her it'll just be like her

first few roadblocks into adulthood and it became obviously something very different which is great. I mean she got what she was looking for. First bad relationship really kind of puts a little crust on you. Yeah! So I think, and then in Kaimul, and getting to see her abilities sort of improve a little bit as my abilities as a player improved, and then finally in this last sort of chapter,

to see her lose a little bit of the shine. Because that's just what happens, unfortunately. As we get older, we lose a little bit of that delusion, which can be very helpful. I'm talking about good delusion, I'm not talking about psychosis. But that sort of good, sort of like, I can do anything. You know, that sort of naive energy.

It's a little heartbreaking when that goes, but it's also what it means to be an adult and to move forward into the life that A, you chose, or B, was chosen for you, or with Opal, maybe a little bit of both. And so I really wanted to see, I wanted the audience to see her grow up a little bit. I mean, she's still who she is.

She's still going to comment on how nice her hair looks and all of that, but I think ultimately... Take the girl out of Byroden. Yeah! Yeah, I mean, she's still who she is, but which I thought those moments that you sort of offered up to us of like Opal losing the stuff that makes her her

was like extra heartbreaking because of that, but if you ever see Opal again, which I don't know, but if you ever do maybe maybe she won't be someone you recognize anymore i have no idea but um i don't know so maybe thematically that's kind of what i wanted to play around with was like how does somebody become an adult and what are the heartbreaking moments that make that that shape that person i don't know so i think i achieved that hell yeah oh my Oh my gosh, yay. That's it.

All right, you Liam. I feel like, you know, as far as like, oh, I want this or that to happen and where things go, that playing character in these campaigns, it's always like a negotiation with you or whoever your GM is. Because I certainly, for all the campaigns, had ideas for where I thought things could go by the end. Like just one example with Caleb,

I thought maybe there'll be a way for me to storytell with Matt and find a way to go back in time and literally pull off the world's greatest magic trick. And by the end of it, I realized that that was the absolute wrong thing for me to do. I mean, it could have been the right thing to do depending on everything that happened leading up to it.

But I always feel like, all right, I've got 20 options ahead of me in the short term. And then I can like the matron of Ravens, I can kind of see two or three things going off in the distance. But there's, you can't see that far. You can't see into the future. And it's, it's just like life, right? I've got a month. I know what my month is like ahead of me. If I, if I run into my cousin, I'm going to talk to him about this. If I get pulled over for a traffic ticket, this is how I would. You think if I run into these things, I'm going to have this kind of talk with this person or this is the kind of decision I'm going to make.

Those things may or may not happen, but it doesn't mean you don't sort of role play them in your brain before they happen. With Aurum, I don't actually, I don't wanna talk about, I'd rather the campaign end before I answer that question for Aurum specifically. Yeah, that's a viable and awesome answer. Yeah, and he's a, not worried about you. About me? I, when I'm developing a campaign,

I develop like the overarching themes, the possible end points to like chapters or like the whole overarching, like I'd like to eventually end in this kind of a place, you know, I don't like define it all, but I like, I have loose ideas of where I might want to take it and stuff. And then I get the players' backstories

and can tell from when they talk about the character what things they might want to explore, whether their backstory has any significance to them or if it's just a starting point and they want to find their own venturing forward. And so what I'll do is I'll take their backstories or their characters' persona and I'll write questions to myself about them.

I have a master doc for each campaign that is kind of like, I call it the C3 narrative doc. In this I have a whole breakdown of my early campaign brain spewing of all the different ideas that I have and I'll beat out thin ideas of where I think the campaign can go and then I'll have a breakdown for each character with their backstory pasted in there from the player and then I'll have bullet points of questions I ask myself based on go, and then I'll have a breakdown for each character with their backstory pasted in there from the player,

and then I'll have bullet points of questions I ask myself based on that, which would be like, for Orm, I'll be like, who is responsible for the death of his husband and his husband's father? How does Keyleth see him? Where could his responsibilities take him? And when these questions ask to myself,

as I begin to beat out the campaign, I then answer those questions for myself. And once I have the answers, then when I'm preparing for the next session or the next series of sessions, I'll go back to that dock and see which answers of those questions might fit into the current story. So I don't plan it all out.

I just kind of feel it as it comes. That way I don't, I'm never pulling you guys in a direction. I'm kind of letting it come up if it feels natural. So yeah, like it's still very fluid and open. I just kind of put all the pieces there. And then when it comes time to prepare for a certain portion of the game, then I'll kind of be like a chef in the kitchen, kind of throwing stuff and spices in there.

It's like, where are things today? Yeah. And then I'll bake this cake. Exactly. Like I never thought I'd ever begin to explore Chetney's backstory in Wildemount, because I didn't expect us to ever go to Wildemount early in the campaign, but then when we had

the group split after the Solstice, it was like, well, I was talking with Aabria about what kind of character she wanted to play, and she was thinking about wanting to come back as one of Chetney's exes. Aw, little girl. And I was like, well, great, then I can throw them in Wildemount,

which means I can actually bring him close to elements of his backstory and make him confront, you know, the one thing of his backstory, the Santa Claus of it all. Fucking Travis Willingham. You made it good. I did the best I could. That's so impressive.

It's the silliest shit. It really is. But that was a question I asked myself from the doc. I'm like, I'm never going to get to that. And then eventually an opportunity arose to be like, well, okay, maybe I can spin this and have his past come back to haunt him in two ways at the same time and kind of make him shake for a little bit.

So yeah, that's kind of how my process works with that. Yeah. I feel, yeah, deeply, deeply same. I think I definitely start off writing with theme in mind and then it doesn't become story until you like have that inflection point with the table and you hear about the story that they want to tell via what they care about, about their like with their characters or just like my favorite subtle thing to do is to ask, especially newer players that I don't know that well, what stuff like what stories they like. So it's like asking about movies and TV shows and hearing like, oh, this is what you like from this last movie that you watched or this thing in this book that you're like, oh man, I wish I had, I was thinking about that more.

And you're like, okay, that's something that's sticking in your brain. So if I reach toward it a little bit, I know you're going to grab onto it because you'll see it for what it is as an opportunity to like explore something that you found like personally intriguing and now your character will go run with that too.

And yeah, that whole idea of like the questions of like that you make for their characters, like there's something really fun about figuring out the sort of pillars of personality from your perspective of like what makes these characters tick, and then you start limit testing, you start shaking them. That was the whole idea behind the gemstones of like, actually a really big shout out to both Liam and Sam.

Again, this man makes me cry. Like over on Candela, as I point to the other stage, and trying to figure out, like, in a world where, in the game where you die, they were like, what if my character doesn't die? And you're like, how do I figure out what's worse than death? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That idea of- That is so much worse than death. The idea of assaulting identity. Yeah. And really playing with this thing that has only ever sat back in the sort of back of house of like how you write for your table. And I was like, oh, what if we put that on the like forefront?

What if the thing that we're attacking isn't Opal's like hit points in livelihood? I mean, it is in a way because it is PVP, but the thing you're actually fighting to save is Opal's identity behind it. And we'll make it a physical manifestation on the board that thing is being like assaulted to. So starting off with the like,

the one question you would ask in character the most often across Prime and Kimel was like, where's Ted and what's her fucking deal? Dude, yes. Totally. And also, if I can piggyback off that, it adds a really great complication because if the whole bit,

or the whole thing is that we're trying to get, the Spider Queen just needs her champion, right? Like, Opal is persuasive enough, and her friends love her enough, and I don't know, we never really discussed this in the Crown Keepers, but, like, I would imagine that most of them, because of their ties to other deities, like, would be willing to fight for their own god or get on that side of this stuff.

So, like, you know, that could have been a real quick interaction of like, hey guys, like, you want to just like fight for the deities? Like we can all do it. And then they would've been like, yeah, sure. I would've done it anyway. But to add that complication of like, well, yes, but then you're losing your friend as you know her is like the ultimate,

the reason why everybody would stay to fight, you know? Yeah. So I love that. We got a lot of juice out of that tower brick. Yeah, Liam, go pull another brick. No! Thanks! Squeaky wheel gets the kick! And that's why no one brings it up,

even though they're shaking it on the teleprompter, like, go do the bit that we're doing. Have two, oh. Which one should I do, Nanny? Have two people. That's no good. Oh no, you gotta tap it first. Tap it, see the loop.

That one's good. There you go. Ooh, she went from God- Oh, it started loose, but then I felt friction as it went. Oh, it's got the pincher. Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. Turtle head poking out.

I'm giving it the shocker from behind. Oh bro, you ever been prairie dogging? You hate to see it. Oh yeah. You hate to see it. Nice, what's the number? Here's more water. Wait, what's the number? It's water. Wait, what's the number?

It's two. Woo! Doki. Let's see. From Yun, what would the evil mirror universe version of your character be like? Oh, so hot. Evil universe, who's wearing a goatee?

Super tall. So super tall. Super soft. Super soft. Boy, it would just shut off all the doubts and cut the ties and... I don't know, I think he'd be a pretty barren guy. Anyone jump in. No, I'm just imagining hot, sad Orym. That's great for me.

Tall, hot sad Orym. Mad, tall mad. Oh, you made him tall for like two seconds when we had like 37 people at the table. And it was so funny how quickly I was like, ooh, his energy gets bad when he's six. I didn't make him tall. That was Axford.

Shout out to Emily. Emily. Brrrah, brrrah. I think you would see lots of people, lots, he would just be killing a lot more. Ooh, this is all good for me. I mean, he's already at a point where he's doing, like, he's still trying to hold on to himself

and the person he started out as, but, you know, war grinds anyone down. But I think he would just, just like the character in The Abyss, when he gets the bends and he just starts trying to knife everybody. Oh yeah. Hot.

Yeah. Great. Is that Michael Bean? Is that Michael Bean? What's his name? I don't know anyone's name. Michael Bean, yeah. Thank you.

Sociopathic worm. Yeah, sociopathic worm. I mean, you got a little taste of what opal would be like. Yeah, I think it would be that. More goo if we could fit it in. Just a gooey bitch. Just all goo. Just all goo.

But the goo's are hot, don't worry about it. I don't know, I mean, I think Aabria set it up so nicely in EXU, the original EXU, which was about, it's not, you know, magic is neither good or bad, or whatever, it's like that when we. It's what you do with it. It's what you do with it and also maybe, I don't know, one of the themes for,

I don't know if it's like of this whole world, but it's sort of like what is good, who is good, who is evil, like is there an in between? Like fight for the gods, are they all good, are they all bad? Like I don't know, There's an ambiguity to it. I don't know. I don't want to tell you what your world is, but...

No. Magic is really just knowledge and power in action. Yeah. That's the same in our world. Knowledge and power just depends on what you do with it. I think the dark mirror image

is just someone who's just stopped caring, I think, really. That's the true evil is someone who has nothing left to fight for and is just... has nothing left to fight for and it's just has nothing left to fight

for and so they just do whatever the feels yeah right in the moment i think along that line like thinking of what the like dark version of deanna is just my one nice character i've ever played uh is yeah someone that gives up on the idea of, like, what do you come back for? Because that was sort of her arc word. And that idea that, like, actually death's not that bad. So I'm going to be real loose with the whole saving people part. Like, I think there is, like, a very dark paladin turn where she, like, turns away from the Dawnfather and says, like, everyone dies, including the gods and anyone in front of us.

And it's fine, because you all go to the ocean anyway. And becomes deeply agnostic about like tethers and ties and the reasons you fight to stay together and continue to live and grow and change. The Paladin Oath of Nihilism. Yeah, right. The Sunny Nihilist, like nothing matters. We all become a snowflake on the ocean.

Anyway, tell the water I sent you. Oh man, now I'm like developing the oath of nihilism. Man, Dariax, it would be. Oh my God. Oh never. Dark Dariax would be so good. Don't let him, don't let him. A narcissist.

He'd be a manipulative narcissist. Like that is the dark mirror to him. He lives to support and please others. He only feels happy when he belongs behind and with others. He doesn't want to be the leader. He doesn't want the attention to be on him. He just wants to facilitate others. And so the dark Mirror would be someone who is only wholly obsessed with the betterment of himself at the expense of others. And with a high enough charisma,

and a high enough skill in manipulation, he could be a very dangerous entity if he ever took that goal. So that I think would be the Dark Mirror. Oh my god, fuck we're very excellent. I still kinda want it! We were not ready! Don't kinda want it! Maybe in the future.

Buddy the ogre's corruption arc. Yeah, oh buddy! I would not have it. I simply would not have it. On one block? You want to do one more? Yeah, do you want to do it? You do it.

No, you do it. Oh, I'll do it, okay, I'll go. I'll go! She has the full power to tell me to do it. I just like that she gave me the opportunity to turn it on her. Tap it, tap it, tap it. Fully had everything ready for it to be done.

You guys fucked me, you fucked me. I was ready to move on, fuck you guys. Yeah. All right, well played, well played. Oh, that was cool. Eight, baby. Number eight, all right. Real world from Rebecca.

Wiggly. Real world locations often inspire fantasy ones. Where on earth have you traveled to that felt like it could have been right out of Exandria? Or if Matt is part of answering this, which he is. He is! What real world location have you been to that inspired you to add something new into Exandria? My very quick and easy answer is,

I'm like three days back from my first time in Scotland, and that Edinburgh entirely is just the most magical place. It's all castles and stone and every alley has three plaques with all of its history on it. I stayed in a hotel off of flesh, what was it, it was like flesh market clothes and I was like, they made what I believe is the red light district of this place. So fun and old timey. Flesh market closed. You're like, oh, flesh market, oh.

Hello, you're looking for something to flesh market? Pussy. I'm sorry, is this not the energy? No, it was exactly the energy. Oh, that's who FCG, or that's how Sam will come back. He'll come back as pussy. Come back as pussy. Yeah. From the flesh market.

From the flesh market! Fresh from the flesh market. Yeah, so I'm very curious as to like what, like the next thing that I build and the ways in which, like that sense of like history that persists and you still live inside of, but with a sense of modernity that runs through. I feel like Rome is very specifically like,

here's all of our ruins. And then over yonder where you don't look is where people live and where all the new things are. But everyone inside of Edinburgh is like, yeah, it's a piece of hut and we go to it all the time. And this building is 30,000 years old. This was built inside of a druid's butthole. And it also is a club on Thursday nights.

And you're like, cool. We will put pineapple on the pizza. We will! We will do it. And I just love that sense of like everything happening all at once, all the time. And I think Scotland was the first time I felt like, oh, this is how you get a world where there's like a dungeon and you're just sort of living on top of it. And you're like, oh, this is how you get a world where there's like a dungeon and you're just sort of living on top of it.

And you're like, the world keeps going. And this thing that like is old and decrepit and monstrous continues under you in a way that you're like aware of, but you don't worry about it unless you have a reason to worry about it. And that was like a very cool new feeling. Love that. Someone else go.

I feel like, I don't know, Matt, help. Is Marquette like where you would go if you were like in Spain? Like Mediterranean, but also maybe like Egypt, maybe like Morocco-ish? Some facets of the northeast side of Marquette maybe, and then the Menagerie Coast as well. Okay, so that's mine.

Love it. I would imagine, I would imagine if I went to Iceland, I would be like, wow, this looks like. Let's go. Let's do it. Let's go. I know someone who's from there. Of course you do. You are the most connected person.

You're like, I got three friends. I do, and I got all the tea, which I won't. It's not on Iceland, there's no tea, except everyone's maybe related, so they probably shouldn't be getting married. There's like 100,000 people. Sorry. To our 11 Icelandic critters.

No, but truly, I feel like from the pictures I've seen and my friends that have been there, it feels like otherworldly and what something from the map would be like. Yeah. That's pretty awesome. I like it. That's a great answer. That's a good answer.

Like, Tima Silra could have been in Iceland. Oh yeah. Iceland has that alien landscape Yeah. That could fit in many different fantasies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanna go there so bad. It's so like volcanic, but also like chilly. Yeah. Sorry, that's a stupid many different fantasies. I wanna go there so bad. It's so volcanic, but also chilly.

Yeah. Sorry, that's a stupid way to describe it. My answer's the Warner Brothers lot, which I put into a D. Yeah! That was a fun, god. It's a great game. Those were really good. Oh shit, end of answer.

End of answer. You get it? There is parts of the kind of the western side of the Dwendalian Empire, specifically around like north of Diastok and the mountainous region up there from where Beauregard grew up that was heavily inspired by a city called Rotorua in North New Zealand. Ooh! Which is this whole region that is just teeming with geothermal activity. They have all of these natural steam water geysers that go off every hour at least and spray

100 feet in the air. There are these massive pools of natural geothermal, heavily mineral-rich water that spill out in this heated steam that rises off of it that give the landscape these turquoise and orange alien world colors. The entire city smells of sulfur and other chemicals. It just has this wild. How dare you make a place that smells like a fart? Fart. Seems so cool.

The clothes I wore there still smell like a fart. That was nine years ago. I want to hang out with your fart outfit. Next time you come over, I'll let you two chill for a bit. You can catch up. Let's fight over it. Thank you. I have one of the scarves there still every now and then. Yeah, still there.

Yes, it's still there. But it was a beautiful town, but it just had that wonderfully weird, unique feeling, and that certainly inspired that locale, the Dwendalian Empire, as well as a few other areas as well. There's no place I've been that kind of looked like that. That's so cool. That's definitely one.

There have been many others, but that's definitely one that stood out. Ugh, amazing. I'll jump into past Warner Brothers, and it's for Candela, which is so far away from here, which was... It's right there. It's right over there. It was the west of... 20 feet away.

Over a year ago ago when Marisha and I started talking to me about running a chapter of Candela, I was like, I want to go to Ireland. Wait, did you run one? I done runned one. You ran the best one, cause I wasn't. Yeah, that's fair. Just kidding.

But it was fucking awesome. It was really fucking cool. It was so good. It was so, it felt like we were in a Martin McDonagh like place. Yes! You know what I mean? Especially when we went to that island. It was inspiration.

And I've visited, I've been to Ireland four times at this point, and the place where you guys ran around at the end of the first game in that chapter was largely inspired by a place called the Burren in Ireland which is these hills where there are, there's stone and grass. It just looks like wrinkly rhino flesh, almost white stone. And it's very alien looking.

It doesn't look like anything else in Ireland. And the man who sort of toured us around that area told us that Neil Armstrong had visited there at one point and said that it is the closest on Earth that he has seen to the moon. That's so rad. You mean the moon that they set up at the Warner Brothers lot?

Yeah. It all comes back to Hollywood. Just kidding. Just kidding. That's very cool. I love that. That's rad as hell. Amazing. Okay. Well, thank you so much it. Oh, that's rad as hell.

Amazing. Okay, well thank you so much, Annabelle, Yun, and Rebecca. And if you have a question for our Tower of Inquiry, you can enter it at critrole.com slash tower. Woo! Hooray! All right, guys, I think it's time for us to slide into the deep dive.

Dani, let's get some tankard action. Tankard. Oh, I want a some tankard action. Tankard. Oh, I want a tankard. Okay. You got a pretty mug. Get the mug out. I know. Get the mug out.

Danny, get the mug out. Danny's deep dive. Here's your mug. Here's your mug. Yay. You're welcome. Laxative? Was that you?

No, that was. Why would that be me? That was Ukkarsh. Oh, that was Ukkarsh. Why would that be me? Girl, I don't know. You like fart jokes. Laxative? Was that you? No, that was. Why would that be me? That was Ukarsh. Why would that be me? Girl, I don't know, you like fart jokes. I do. Let me see, let me see.

That's correct. Where's yours? Let me see yours. Aki, Denise. Beautiful, me. That's the greatest tattoo I've ever heard of in my life. So good. Yeah, mine's the little, the little sign. Oh, cutie.

God, Denise was a force, man. Denise was everything. I love Denise. They do have to find each other again. God. They force, man. Denise was everything. Love Denise. They do have to find each other again. They sure do. Just one stay-ler. Violent. But like in the fun way.

In the fun way, but it won't start off fun. I think she'll probably tear a page out of Deanna's just going for a punch, right? Yeah, yeah. The first thing you did was punch. Uh. It might have been a little slap. Oh, it was a slap.

A slap is worse. I've never slapped someone in real life. An open-handed slap is so much more humiliating than a punch. Yeah. You know, cause it's like, I don't even wanna, no. Yeah. One free slap.

No! Not on the show. Okay, not for free. But sometime. Stop. Even it out. Yeah. Just do one on each side and then.

Perfect. Garyax did take invisibility, so he could take another trick out of Dorian's book and be like, oh yeah, no, I'm just gonna finish dinner real fast and then we'll go and get some wine, honey. Yeah, yeah. You don't deserve her.

You don't deserve her, Dariax. Didn't use the dollar sign. Maybe he'll stick around, I don't know. Is she don't deserve her, dear Max. He needs the dollar sign. Maybe he'll stick her. I don't know. He's been through a lot. Is she there for that dwarven constitution? Yeah, let's go. Oh, my God.

I have so many follow-up questions. They both have it. We need Foresight to dive after dark. Yeah. It's not for now. It's not for now. No one's ready. Those dwarves can go for hours.

Hours and hours. They age so slowly, you know. Okay. All right. We got to play this game. We're gonna go around in a circle and take turns pulling some questions. That's yours. Everyone has their own cup. Help me! You don't mind.

I just did. You two are sharing one. Who's going first, you go first. I'll pull it out. You go first, you were already doing it. Here we go, Aurum's high perception, yes, is often the ability that keeps Bell's Hells the safest, as he can see the threats coming very often.

Does Orym feel any extra weight on his shoulders due to this? Everything's heavy. He weighs 50 pounds. He weighs 50 pounds? I don't know what he weighs. He's a little guy. Oh, Nancy. Oh, he's really.

Nancy. I think I weighed 50 pounds. I'm not kidding you. I was like four years old weighing 50 pounds. Yeah, I was. Nancy. I think I weighed 50 pounds. I'm not kidding you, I was like four years old weighing 50 pounds. Yeah, I was, yeah, look. That's why we got personality. That's why we're so funny.

You know, can I have a follow-up question for you with that? Yeah. I remember when I saw, I like peeked over when I was playing Denise and I saw your passive perception, it was huge, and you were like, yeah, I worked really hard to get, what did you mean by that? Did you just take certain like feats and stuff?

Yeah, yeah, and magic item. I have a magic item that helps a lot that came from EXU when we went to Gilmore Shop and we were given like a free gift certificate for anything Gilmore Shop. And I designed Aurum to be a protector and a guard and someone who was looking for threats, and so I knew of that item.

And after that, I was like, wow, look at that jump. How could I make this go higher? Yeah. That was the moment. And what is it, like 30 or something crazy? It's now 33, I believe. Just fart on his pillow. He'll get pink out.

Yeah, yeah, it'll be great. Party wipe. I think that Vex was the highest till now. Till now. I've surpassed that. Or I'm definitely surpassed you. That's fun, being able to be like, I'm gonna beat the high watermark of a previous character that was spec'd into a specific thing is a really,

that's actually really cool, and as someone who doesn't always get to play in continuity in the same place over and over again, that's gotta be really fun. Really. To beat your PR. And I mean, it's not even something that I have to think about that much. You have to think about it,

because you're oftentimes, I mean, you can do whatever you want as you're gauging the ebb and flow of the story, but you're factoring in often, probably not always, but often like, well, Orm's perception is ridiculous, so he's going to see things. And even though I'm not actively doing things in the moment,

it is still telling the story and it is still showing the character that I set out to make and I love it. Yeah. Can you imagine Orym, like, we're actually watching, he'd be like the shiftiest, like, just eyes darting all the time. Like, just so paranoid.

He would see you so paranoid. Oh my god. He would point to you in real life. Oh. He'd be like, Nancy, cool it. A halfling hummingbird. Yeah, just so apparent. He would see you so far and point to you in real life. He'd be like, Nancy, cool it. A halfling hummingbird. Yeah, just. As a GM, it's interesting because the first instinct

as a GM is like, I sometimes want to surprise my players. And then when you have a character like Orym with that high a perception, there are some ways around it, depending on the type of threat that's there. But you don't want to also undercut something that the player has built to be exciting. And instead, it's the perspective of going, it's more fun to create things that are trying to surprise them, and then to get to turn to Liam and be like, but you pick something up that no one else is far before the danger kicks in and

you have a moment to prepare or warn people. And because you've built a character to do that, I don't feel frustrated by that. Instead, it's like, okay, I'll start giving out information and then I remind myself what you're saying and I'll be like, but Orym, you pick up these additional details because of the way you've built your character, which might break the tension of a surprise, but what it does is introduce the tension of knowledge with only a moment to prepare. Yes. Which is a different kind of gift in its own right.

It's one thing to be like, and then out of the darkness something! It's another to go like, you smell and hear the scraping and scurrying of something metallic on concrete, and the slight cracking, curdling sound of a clicking insectoid voice. Nobody else hears it but you.

And that is now in your head, and your responsibility to do something with it, and that is a different kind of tension, which is equally fun, and is still gifting you, the player, and for how you've built your character to have that ability. Yeah, and mechanics tell story. Yeah.

Everything I chose from all the Battlemaster moves that he can do, it's as close as you can get to being a wizard without having any magic because they push and they pull and they knock down. And I don't, maybe people pay attention, I don't know, but everything that I do with him, I'm thinking about throwing myself in the way of things and taking damage. I don't know, he throws himself off of buildings to land on monsters to get in the way

of any of our casters constantly. I love bait and switch. I love running across the battlefield and nudging somebody out of the way. I love that Orm can go under someone's legs and then knock that person back to get them into safety. You know, it was great being Vax who was going in to stab all the time.

Not that Orm can't do a healthy bit of damage. And Caleb was so much fun. Wizards are so much fun because they can change the field. But I have enjoyed being a protector a lot. A lot. Been very gratifying. Have you ever played, like, look, I can't be the charges of my dumb jock upbringing,

but Orym's build and the way you play him reminds me so much of the people I hated playing basketball against the most, which was just a little defense oriented player that was just there to like stay in your shit while you're trying like especially as like a taller player like just confuse the legs a little bit yeah like when you're like don't make it less sporty playing as like a shooting guard when you've got someone that's like little and you just like

you're trying to like set up the rest of the group to be like can you please set a screen and get this little fucker off of me like that frustration of someone who will not get out of your way to let you move freely or act in the way you want to without getting a hand in there or getting a body in the way or like like swiping at the ball and knocking off trajectories. Like there is something that's so specific and I can envision Orym so perfectly through that lens and I think you really nailed it. I think basketball's pretty accurate

because it's like controlling the ball. Yeah, and he's always exactly where the action is and he's just doing the most, like he's the player that you're like, he's gonna foul out or take like a really big hit, but then he's going to be back in the next game. And you're like, God, please someone just concuss him. Like, he's just the one player that you're like,

I want a bad thing to happen to you. Fuck, you're very good at this. All this, very accurate. Yeah. I'm the person on the other side of that. Yeah. I was in for a little bit at level two and I was like, good God, man.

Campaign two, it was Beau. Campaign three, it's Orm. The upfront fighting martial kid that just is so sticky and so creative in how they come at it that I'm like, I can't get around. I have to just. Kick you.

It's great. Just go over there. It's fun. Be a wizard. It's a proud frustration. Beau had some sick moves. Hell yeah. Okay, pull. Are we going in order? frustration. Love it. Beau had some sick moves. Hell yeah.

Okay, pull. We're going in order? Pull. Or Kai. I hope it's one of mine, because we're sharing. There's a word here that I don't understand. Let me help. What is a dunamancy?

Dunamancy. Girl, English is my second language. What's that? Oh, that's for you. That's for you. Do you see my name next to it? Girl! I'll answer it.

No, no, you go first. No, no, no, you go, you go, you go, you go. I want you to go because my brain needs more comfort. Okay. We want to hear the question. Sure. What was the inspiration for Ted and Opal's backstory being wrapped up in Dunamancy and the Luxon?

Okay, so this is really fun because I always, like my dream of dreams that I think I didn't say anything to you until like seconds wrapped up in Dunamancy and the Luxon! Okay, so this is really fun because I always, like, my dream of dreams that I think I didn't say anything to you until, like, seconds before we went on the air. I was like, what if I could, like, do a little thing and tweak some of the existing, like, D&D lore and, like, bring it into Exandria in a way that has, like, a little legacy? And there's something in D&D called like a Kalashtar where it's like a sort of two-souled person. And that was the build that Opal was originally built on.

And the question of like, what's Ted's whole deal was always predicated on the idea that like eventually we would get to this idea and this like little lore in my head of like another group of people that found another beacon somewhere else in Exandria. And in their understanding of it uh like saw because it's just such a beautiful idea of like this entity that

wanted to understand itself so it kind of split itself apart and observed itself and how people interacted with it and like growth and change, and using that external, like I'm going to set an eye on myself and learn who I am via watching. I wanted to bring that into like the people that walk through Exandria. So yeah, there's this idea of Opal is a half of a soul and Ted's the other half,

and her mother was the same thing. Like it's a very like rare gift that only exists in a couple places in the world and like that culture is like it was a small sect that sort of lost the time but there is this like racial trait that exists in like a little pocket of Tal'Dorei of people who are born and their soul is split in half and as they like are raised and like going back to that coming-of-age tale, the coming-of-age, like, how do you learn who you are? You watch yourself.

Totally. So the soul is split in half, watches itself, understands itself, and comes back together. And then, like, the little idea of everything. I think Echo Knights are super cool and very good at killing stuff, so we love that. That idea that, like, the Dunamancy build of Echo Knights is tied towards this idea of,

Echo Knights are a possibility, a different timeline possibility. And I loved the idea that for this group of people, the Avalucks, that it's like, what if Ted had stayed forward instead of Opal and that's the like version of this Echo Knight. So like Opal walks through the world because Opal got to be the forward one,

but like the Echo Knight that you walk through the world with all the time is what if Ted had stayed forward and Opal was like the power behind her. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what happens now that she's, Opal has lost that memory of Ted? I don't know. It felt like just the meanest thing to do.

Well, it was, it was. So I wondered, is Ted still there? Ted is still there. So if she, when she comes back up, she's like, who the fuck is that? But I mean, like she's got so much stuff going on inside her anyway. Yeah, lots of stuff. I think it's less of a like,

I don't know who you are, and more of a like, I don't know why I care about you. Because the thing that like, if you go into the like, well, why didn't the Spider Queen just be like, hey, this whole group, let's all go save my life together. It's that idea that like, the Crown Keepers love you and they will fight to save you. So if things break bad in the big fight,

they're not gonna go like, let's all fight to the death for the Spider Queen. They're like, we're gonna fight to save Opal. We're gonna fight to save you. So if things break bad in the big fight, they're not gonna go like, let's all fight to the death for the Spider Queen. They're like, we're gonna fight to save Opal, we're gonna fight to save each other and like leave the battle. So you start kicking those like big pillars of personality so there is nothing left to fight for except for what the Spider Queen pours into you,

which is like a slavish devotion to her, for example. So yeah, that idea of like taking away your connection to Ted is one of those big things to be like, well, what do you fight for? Because your sister or the other half of yourself is not a thing that like registers with that emotional like resonance anymore. So you'd be just become a little more hers.

Is Opal in an ongoing horror movie? All the time, forever. And I think that's the cutest thing you can do to a character that's like, I'm Paris Hilton! Yes! Now she's in her DJ era, you know? She's getting that back.

She's in her Stars Are Blind era. Okay! Yes! Next Saturday, hit the Sahara stage! Yes. Christ Crown! DJ Christ Crown is a pretty good name. DJ Christ Crown!

It's a very millennial set. She only plays Sandstorm. Yeah. That's it. The recorder version. Shout out to her bards, baby. God. So good.

Great, amazing. Pull another one. Yeah, your turn. Make sure it says your name next to it. Okay. It says Amy. Yay. Oh, well this one, this kind of like a Make sure it says your name. Okay. It says Amy. Yay! Oh, well this one, this kind of like a,

kind of like yours a little bit, so let's go in. Okay. Okay. Oh, who was Opal's mother? She still has a lot of mystery surrounding her. You know, when I first started this backstory, I always think of, I don't know, one thing that I thought would be interesting

is to really give her a mother wound. That's not a crazy thing. We all kind of, when we build characters, we're like, how can their childhood be so bad? Because most of the stuff, you know, we go through. It takes trauma to push you into it. Yeah. Absolutely.

What makes you leave? Yeah. I'm well adjusted. Never. Never going to happen. And if it did, you wouldn't watch that show. So, yeah, I wanted to give her, and I wanted to explore my own sort of background when it comes to relationships with mother figures. And so I don't really know.

I don't even really remember what I put in the backstory other than she left really early on of her own volition. And I remember that being the thing that it wasn't like she died or, or, you know, she left because of something that happened to her that she had no control over. It was like, what would happen to someone if they're, you know, one of their parents just was like, you know what? I'm going to actively leave. And how does, what does that do to a person? And I think for Opal, it sort of made her,

it brought out a curiosity in her that I don't think will ever be squashed no matter how much the Spider Queen does that. And that's where her sense of adventure comes from, I think is from her mother, and from never really knowing where she went, why she went. I mean, now we kind of know why she went, right? She was whatever, but at the time, I just thought that was interesting. So yeah, that's kind of like the long and short answer to it. I just, I thought it might bring up some cool stuff for Opal and Ted to kind of talk about and ruminate on

And that's it It just occurred to me one Champion of the matron and the champion and spider queen both born and raised in Byron. Yep Yeah both twins you gotta get that was That was a purely coincidental by the way. Who was it? One of a twin. I swear for me it was. Hell of a champ.

The universe. The universe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very interesting and cool. Because you never think. A little town called Byron. By the road. The pies, man.

The pie. That's how you distract. It's people. You gotta sneak in. You just put in there. The pie. That's how you distract a war. It's people. You gotta sneak in. You just put a pie under a box. And she's in there. Yes. She's the Spider Queen in a matron with a string

out to a cardboard box with pies in it. We're just doing all this spink. Hey buddy, get that pie. But no, there is something about people that grow up in isolated areas, they tend to leave, you know what I mean? They want to see what's out there. And people that take big swings usually end up in big positions of maybe, I don't know.

I mean, the idea that you were literally, like Opal was literally raised under a statue of Exit Back. That's just generationally enough time to be like, oh, I'm a little twin running around this city looking up at these two and they saved the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, how do you not have that inform everything you could be as a little kid? Totally. And then the moment you hit, like, I am technically an adult with a child's heart and an adult's

ease of moving around the world, how do you not immediately run into the adventure that you were raised under the shadow of? And it's such a fun legacy. Yeah, wanting to be a part of that legacy. And also there's, I think, a little part of Opal that maybe thought, if I can be as important, or just famous enough for maybe my mother to hear my name, and maybe she'll come back into my life.

I've heard famous that don't, like famous people that maybe have one parent or whatever, they say that. Like, you know, maybe when I find a certain amount of success, they'll come back. Or they'll know where I am. I don't know, something like that.

It's heartbreaking, but I think that applies. It's the mother wound. It's a motherfucker, man. It's a good one, man. It's a good one. It's a good one. Yeah, the information you gave me about your mom was,

she left of her own volition, and Opal knows that, and she has heterochromia. That's right, that's the stupid. And my favorite thing was, I gave you heterochromia in time one, you're like, what, what that's about? And I'm like, no, no, no! Read your backstory!

It's not what it is! It's not what it is! It's really amazing. It's really amazing the shit you forget. That you write into your backstory and then you're like, oh wait, that was so meaningful! And then like, after the fact, just... Just sob.

There's nothing wrong with that when it happens. There's just something funny when you're the DM and you're like, I bet you've been thinking about this as much as I have. And you're just saying, and you're like... And you're like, that's cute! You're like waiting. Crickets. Yeah, you're just like, no. Yeah, there it goes.

My moment. Bye! Damn, okay. Well. Oh, I got to do it. Pula. Pula! Matt, Kraviris is a fascinating city

built on half-remembered dreams. What was it like creating that city, and what inspired it? Man, part of it, like a lot of things come from dreams. Like I don't know if it's, some nights I have dreams I don't remember, some nights I have extremely vivid dreams that I wake up and I start writing things down. I think Kravir is like the image

of the giant central glass pillar and the city kind of built around it and that cavern space. things down. I think Kravir is like the image of like the giant central glass pillar and like the city kind of built around it and that, that cavern space, uh, I had a, I don't remember the specifics around it, but I remember that visual in the dream. And I wrote that down like a year ago. I didn't know where I was going to put it. Um, but as, uh, I was developing kind of the, the culture of Ruidus and the people that existed there, that made perfect sense for me. Because I was like, the surface of Ruidus is so rough. What cityscapes would be there would be constantly battered

by the weather and the winds and the dust and the rocks. So they would be primarily like shell surface societies and probably the lower end of society to have to be forced out of there. And that means the bulk of its society would be within the actual moon itself. And that's kind of where the two married together. far as like the dreams i was just trying like when i was developing ruidus what drives these creatures to be so separate from the entities of exandria it

makes them covet exandria it makes them feel familiar as much as they are separate it's that their culture is based on the idea that they don't dream themselves when they sleep. They kind of witness the dreams of Exandrians, different Exandrians. So their entire culture is based in their inspiring dreams are the dreams of others that they see at a distance. So it comes through their architecture. It comes through their art. Everything is inspired by something that's not their own. And so the city itself has such a variety of architecture that they call their own, but it's all inspired by something that's not their own. And so the city itself has such a variety of architecture that they call their own, but it's all inspired by something that's from the world above,

the Blue Promise, as they call it. And so it was just this. Blue Promise! Blue Promise. Oh my god. And so, and there are many people there that look at it and wonder and beauty and see it as this incredible thing. But culturally, those in charge covet it

and they resent it. And there's an aspect of Pardathos and the Entity that subconsciously drives those in power, especially the Weave Minds, since they've connected with it, to hate aspects of Exandria and to want to be a part of it, to return and take what's theirs, to rid it of the gods that keep them away. That's really what it is. The Rydians, those who know the truth of Prodathos, there is a heavy thread of, you're locked here with me because they're afraid. Would you like to be free? You know, some interesting facets there.

Follow up question. What is Pridathos and how many hit points does it have? How hot? Totally out of nowhere. How hot? We'll find out. Oh, so scary. It's very scary.

I like it. I mean, I have a follow up question, if we have time for it, but like. We have infinite time. I'm the boss of this and no one can tell me anything. Truth. Whenever I see DMs or I'm in a game or I watch something, I always, I can't help,

and maybe this is where my own mind goes, to use that or maybe take it as a commentary on what we're living through as a society, you know, and how, so how much, because when you say that, I think of all of the cultures that, for better or worse, probably maybe for worse, like, as Americans, as, like, the United States, we've westernized or we've colonized through ideas or influence their own cultures and how that sometimes can breed inspiration and sometimes breed resentment because it sucks up all the air out of everybody else.

Do you think about that when you're coming up with themes for themes? Sometimes, yes. Sometimes subconsciously. I mean, it's hard to not have society historically or in the moment influence the stories you want to tell because it influences us all across the spectrum. I myself have grown up a person that has,

I'm still wrestling with the sadness of my American identity because I grew up around a lot of friends who had, who were deeply steeped in culture, like centuries or thousands of years of culture. And I had none to claim from my own. And even my Scottish heritage, I'm getting connected with in more recent years,

but even that I feel very removed from. So there is an aspect of living in a space that everything that is my culture is in many ways claimed from other cultures and changed. And what is purely American culture feels In many cases vapid or embarrassing not all of it. There are some there are some things I cherish about travel You know you you get other people's perspective of what we look like to them and that to me is really what kind of clarified It it isn't until you see the world outside of yeah, you know your own and for me

I'm out of America that you really have more of a perspective here and like, you know I I'm appreciative and thankful that I've had the life I have here by you know, your own. And for me, I'm out of America that you really have more of a perspective here. And like, you know, I, I'm appreciative and thankful that I've had the life I have here by, by, you know, a lot of means I'm not like hating on America, but there are a lot of challenges with our history and, and what we identify as, especially when it comes to American exceptionalism. And so, yeah, those themes are consciously and subconsciously weaving into a lot of the stories we tell because, uh, it's partially important for our own and for my you know uh processing of this as a person but also it's an important thing for all of us to think of and consider and kind of you know face in subtle ways or not so subtle ways depending on the story that's being told so yeah no i i'd say probably

very definitely so it's very cool it's my favorite part of like being a player is to get to you know play out those those themes and those things from a place that feels safe that feels like well this is a fantasy world and yet yeah you know i love that you can feel that little like just a little tether yeah uh ryan laughs because i have a little tell when you like go and describe something new and i'm like into it i'm like a vibe and he waits for it, like if you get to the end and I yell, a bop! Click! A bop!

He knows that you've like brought something together that I'm like, oh, what a like fully cogent idea that has like, it's like thematic root. It's just, yeah, it's very cool. And you're just like, oh, it feels like a song. And you're like, oh, that's a little hit song right there. Well, I've experienced it from all of you also. Yeah.

Yeah, so it's, I mean, it's very cool. As a player, very cool. Never trying to run a game. Oh God, fucking no. That's like, God bless you. Hey babe, you know your baby said that in the window. Hurt my fucking- No, I could never.

I can't even read Dunamancy, okay? How the fuck, my vocabulary is five words. To be fair, dunamancy is a very specifically nerdy word that I make. No, no, no. But I love that people love it. It's like when you go to a restaurant and a sommelier comes around and you're like, you know, I know a little bit about wine. I know enough to know what I like.

But I love that someone else knows what everybody else likes. Hell yeah. I love that. I love that you can taste what side of the mountain this fucking groom on. I don't have that skill, don't want it. And I'm so glad that you got, love that for you. If you like it, I love it.

I love it for you. Just yell pet nat and then just sit back and be like, is that enough or are you impressed with me daddy? Okay, we need to do the mountain. Do the mountain, it's good. That's Sam's experience. Challenge is this boy. You've never watched this, though. Yeah, he's never watched it. I love it dunamancer. Dunamancer, it's good. Everyone but Sam's experience. Challenge is this lawyer. He's never watched this, though.

Yeah, he's never watched it. Love it. Pull another. This one. What does it say? How does Orym feel now that Dorian is back? What was it like for Orym to see him again? Oh man, he's been thinking about him,

you should get closer. A lot because, I'll see you in a little while. Because the story and what they're dealing with has gotten harder and harder and harder. And I don't know, it's just been Dorian's personality and their time together and just thinking of him has been like one little light that he carries around

when everything else is getting so grim, and the people he's traveling with are struggling just like he is. Now Dorian is arriving to us, dealing with massive, immediate grief. Oop. Whoops. You're welcome. It's not a matter of what. So we'll see what the chemistry Oop. Whoops. You're welcome. I'm just trying to match a vibe.

So we'll see what the chemistry of him rejoining the group is right now, but things were simpler when Dorian left, so he's just been thinking of like a happier or easier, it wasn't easy, like Eshteross was killed, but things were so much smaller scale, it felt like at that point. Yeah.

I don't know, it feels good. I'm nervous, Orm's very nervous because he's been talking through a one-way phone and they keep coming back saying, Message not delivered. Message not delivered, cell service down. He obviously has feelings for Dorian. He has no idea. He doesn't think that Dorian returns any feelings.

He doesn't? He thinks he's done your quieted, he thinks. Hold on. Do we know? I don't know. I don't know either. But Dorian did tell me. No, I'm kidding.

He didn't say he did. As his GM. He told me to not tell you that he would love it if you just smooched him under Ruidus, that would be so romantic. What if we kissed under the moon with an evil monster in it? Oh, that's hard. But, and he also doesn't know like He's very shy

Oram's very shy after His everything Yeah it makes perfect sense And it is that like sort of sweet and heartbreaking Idea of like You have mytholog- like Oram has Mythologized Dory in a way that makes Sense and gives him like a thing to

Connect to a simpler version of Like a solvable problem of like, yeah, there was, it was a simpler struggle back then. So like, I'm very curious to watch you guys be your full selves and like how long it takes to get to the like, oh, we've both gotten much messier now. Like what's still here and what's the nature of our friendship or if there's something more.

It's very cool. Yeah, it's hard to know what'll happen. Yeah. Now they can trauma bond. Yay! Which is the healthiest. It's the healthiest you're likely to get. And okay.

Indeed, indeed. That's the only kind you get, baby. Do you wanna pick yours? No, you go first. Okay. All right. This episode's gonna be 96 hours long. No, I literally thought that it was just one round of four,

but it says four. Yeah, yeah. Okay. We can lighten your ride. Just about everything, okay, lightening your ride. Just about everything, Opal is not alone. Having Fiat Arrai with her now, how does she still feel about,

how does she feel to still have Fiat Arrai at her side? Well, I think it was complicated at first because I didn't really know what that meant, so I was just trying to get her to go. Because you don't want to condemn your friend to like a lifelong you know whatever on to the spider queen but it sounds like she's now under the patronage of the well I don't know she's not a full champion but she's working for her yeah so chosen if she's a child. There's a word for it.

Yeah. So I think it's cool that, you know, she's got her back or I feel like Opal feels comfortable and confident that Fyodorai is like on the same team because she was afraid of her the most. Yeah. So that's really cool. And hopefully a little tether to her previous life.

So I don't know how it's gonna play out, but I think that Opal definitely feels relieved, but a little guilty, because maybe she could have gone on and had another kind of life. She could have found her sister, she could have made amends, I don't know. So there's a little bit of guilt

that comes with dragging her along, but also I just don't think Fyodor and I would have, unless I would have put the force cage on her, she would have come anyway, so. She might have been able to get out of it. She rolls, ugh. Yeah, she rolls so well. She has all these fucking dice.

But I mean, like, it's like, because it's charisma save to use magic to get out of it, and I think she had something sneaky to do. It doesn't matter. Yeah. It would have taken something like that, and I just think also as a player, like I, you know, as Amy,

like looking at my friend and trying to figure out like, what do you want to do? Like as a player, you know what I mean? Versus just like me being like, no, don't come. And it's like, well, maybe she wanted to, I don't know. So yeah, I think it's cool. I think Opal thinks it's cool, but she does feel a little guilty.

I like the story it tells about the gods because it means that Wildmother and Spider Queen are sitting across, around their Clash of the Titans galactic space table going like, at each other. And that was- They don't typically truck with each other,

at least not recently, I don't think. Yeah. I want to see that reality show. But that idea that like, yeah, before everything that like, put them on opposite sides of things, like there is a bond between them. Was it sibling-like?

Was it a friend group? In the same vein that you said, like it was a little way to reach back to like Opal's previous life. I think that's what like eventually made the Spider Queen relent. She was like, oh, this collab, this group project. It's a good one. Does remind me of like the bond I may have shared with the Wild Mother back in the day.

So like, let's let it go and let's trust this. So that was like the small concession to Opal's influence that I wanted to give to the Spider Queen. That's really cool. Which was, okay, I'll trust this one. Wild Mother is romantically intertwined with the Law Bearer. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. Hot. Spider Queen was a blast. Bro, I do, I think I said something as the Spider Queen like shit talking her. I was like, fucking Law Bearer. And I was like, you can read that however you want. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember that.

I know what I bring to the table and it's sexual. No, I literally wanna see. They were all fucking. I wanna see like the real world, real world Road Rules Challenge of like all the gods. it's sexual. No, I literally want to see. They were all fucking. I want to see like the real world, real world road rules challenge of like all the gods. Like I know I just want to see it.

Run it, Matt, Matt, Matt. You go ahead. I'll see if we can get the rights to the real world. It's viable. It's gettable. Like challenges like you eat the spider first or not the spider in

this case, a roach or like some shit like. Spider Queen's like, I don't know, you eat the spider first. That'd be pretty in this case, a roach or like some shit. Spider Queen's like, I don't know, eat the spider first. Go ahead, huh? That'd be pretty great, actually. Yeah. I'm gonna answer a question before I keep talking

about them all fucking. Yeah. Oh, I got one for me. What was it like to take the reins for such a short amount of time in the middle of such a hectic period for Bell's Hells? Stressful. There is something really funny about the like,

oh, there's a tension, a palpable tension at the table. Here's the opposite of that for now. That's really like, it's a little stressful. There is something really fun about coming in for a short burst and you're like, hey guys, we haven't played in a hot second. And I know there's so much conversation you would all love to have with each other. None of that. Here's just a fight and we'll find moments

to take those spaces and breathe and talk about what you mean to each other. But there is something really fun about just a little scramble down a hill. Just taking a hill at a run and you're like, maybe you fall down a thousand times, but you're just kind of screaming and going like, we're out in four hours, let's go!

That felt very good and fun. And it's just like a, it's a fun, different energy. You're like, there's no time. There's no time. What we're doing, just go, go, go, go. It's a challenge, I'm sure. Yeah. It was a fun format to like,

to have the opportunity mid combat to grasp memories and then define what those memories were and then watch them be taken from us. Beyond just the mechanics of a fight and to have varying goals throughout the fight, but now to have these moments to role play, to fill in the gaps, to have these explorations that we wouldn't have had the opportunity to do so with the time that was given, and then understand that this is something else we're also fighting for, beyond just the stakes that we've come to understand.

It was a really, really fun way to bring all those meanings and all of those various stakes into that burst of time. Yeah, really cool. That was so fun. And they all looked like little dicks in the ground. And they were all little dicks! There was a moment. This, I can lay at Darlene and Danny's feet,

where we're like, we have to make sure these are visually, like that they stand out enough because everyone's gonna be kind of looking at it. And I was like, what if we put them like in a little grouping so she could see it? She's like, what if it's a little dick? And I was like, I have critical road. It could be a little dick.

It could be a little dick if we want. We put three of them together in a little triangle and I saw it and I immediately said, hey guys, that is basically a penis. So if you just add one more, they'll be able to see it. And you know what? I was right. I travel.

Yes, I do travel. Yeah, the entire time the battle's happening, somewhere in the woods, somewhere floating above is a hooded traveler, Artagan just looking down going, this is fun. Yay! Turns out I was the traveler's chosen whole time. You're the traveler you would see in the world.

True. All right, Matt, I'm going to give you, yeah, okay, go. No, you're good. You're perfect. Matt, why are the Weave Minds so focused on bioengineering? Are we to be willing to join with Ludinus if they have a world they themselves control and craft?" That's some very good questions. Well, bioengineering is an interesting thing to pursue when you have limited resources. When the majority of what you have to work with in a relatively barren world, and you've essentially mined the majority

of the useful resources, is biology. That is a realm to expand and develop and mutate, especially when you are trying to exhibit more control over the world that you do have, is how do you best tailor them to be useful? How do you tailor them to be functional within a society as you're designing it? And the Weavemind is definitely

like the evil tech bros of Ruhid. I was just about to be like, do they all listen to those alpha male podcasts that are like four hour work week. I sleep for 43 minutes at a time and then I snort some just raw coffee beans and lick butter and then I'm good for a day and a time. And then I snort some, like, just raw coffee beans and lick butter. And then I'm good for a day and a half. All meat diet.

All meat. Don't cook it. Dinks in here. I mean, there's, as far as to why they're working with Ludinus, I mean. Luna! Every time. Hey, I got to. So good.

There are many things that work here, and there's a lot of goals that all align towards a handful of specific moments and events that could transpire. So I think, and more information may reveal itself in the campaign, but the Weave Mind and Ludinus definitely see each other as a mutually useful arrangement that whether or not they like or even trust each other is to be seen, but they-

It's like the end of Chicago. I mean- That's no business like show business. That's pretty much what inspired campaign. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just Velma and Roxy just doing it. I was hoping it could be a big reveal, but it got me. Yeah, there we go.

Thanks, Sabrina. Edit this out. I was thinking more so like US and China, but that's like pretty, that's better. That's better. It's better. Rolls off the tongue. It's all Chicago all the way down.

Every time. Amazing. He had it coming. All right. Okay, hold on. We're gonna do another pull from the Tower of Inquiry. You're gonna take it. Okay. And you have a walking question that I'm gonna ask while you go. So go ahead and speed on over. All right, all right. Okay, hold on. We're gonna do another pull from the Tower of Inquiry. You're gonna take it. And you have a walking question

that I'm gonna ask while you go. So go ahead and speed on over. And my question is, how hot was Ludinus Daleth when he was younger? Daleth! Daleth, could he get it? I think he could have, but I think it was beneath him. He had more important things to focus on.

There's nothing more important to focus on. There's nothing more important. There's nothing more important. The larynx just jumped out at me like, what do you mean? That's Luton. Luton has suffered a lot of trauma at the tail end of the Calamity

and it very much informed his layer of goals and importance. So you're saying he was alive at the end of the Calamity? I think I've alluded to that already and it couldn't be me. Yeah, but there's a difference between alluding to it and actually saying it out loud in front of these cameras. That's what the show's about, hey guys. Exactly!

Hey! All right, let's see what we got here. There we go, that'll slide up. Oh, that was so slick. All right, that's a 47. 47, I didn't even know they'd go that high. We all got like,. Doo doo doo doo.

From Caboodle Junior. Caboodle Junior. On Twitter, I'm not calling it that other name. What can you share about the logistics behind bringing on surprise guests? How do you avoid cross-contamination with having everyone in the studio? Have there ever been close calls

of the primary players discovering surprise guests? Well, there's normally a couple days of rehearsal where we map everything out. Yeah, I send you all your scripts ahead of time. We write the script and, no. To a certain extent, Marisha usually knows because her production team has to coordinate schedules with the actors, though she won't have more information beyond the fact that we're bringing these guests in.

We try and keep them very separate and have call times staggered in a way so where the players have begun recording, they can come in and arrive after the fact and kind of sit in to hang out. If it's not that big of a deal, then we can be a little more lax, but that's the intent when we do sort of like guest crossovers to surprise the rest of the players. So, yeah, it's a challenge, but our production team does a really good job of reaching out to folks and figuring out what scheduling and timing works for the episodes and who's

available and make sure that we can do it in a way that makes sense. And then we feel it out from there. That's basically. Kind of like a magic trick, honestly. It really is, but it's also, a lot of it depends on the availability and willingness of you guys to come and play too. So I'm always thankful for y'all being flexible.

Oh, I will drop everything. Everything. Everything. Sometimes some of your players are pretty stupid and know they're supposed to be sneaking in and when they park, sometimes Liam will be going to his car in the parking lot and I'll get out of the car and wave at him and then go, I'm a secret and duck behind the car and go,

I don't know if that worked or not or if he saw me. Hey, what are you doing here? I'm just picking up a t-shirt. Oh my gosh, it's here. I waved so I was like, yeah! No! Incredible. Anyway, Deanna was a perfect surprise.

Look, to finish answering that question, it's very much like the parents trying to hide their Christmas presents, but you know their kids are still looking for them throughout the house. And they'll find them if you're right. They'll find them eventually, yeah. Like, you do your best. You do your best.

Sometimes you don't do your best. You do your best. Sometimes you don't do your best. Do I pull more blocks or are we good? Yeah, let's pull another block. You go. My turn again? Yeah! Okay. Go. Make us proud. I'm going. Go for the bottom, coward.

All right. Yeah, dude. Ooh! That's a digital you have to go again. Oh! She's got a beam! On a center beam! Let's go. All righty.

What could possibly go wrong? Nothing. Nice! All right, all right. This is precarious. Yes, so is my bladder. I have to pee, but I'll wait. Don't make me laugh.

From L-O-T-L 42, Lottle, I guess, Axolotl. From Lottle 42 on Discord, what do each of your characters believe is the best case scenario for how their adventures will eventually end? What do each of your characters believe is the worst case scenario for how their adventures will eventually end?

Ooh. Orym thinks the best case, and very hard to pull off, it would be to stop Luda in his tracks. Luda. The worst case, and Orym's been frustrated with people around him, it's because he hears again and again, just like,

well, the gods don't always help us, and he's not super religious. But people sound so sure that everything could be fine when the people they're dealing with, their track record so far has been pretty awful, and there's no guarantees that they're in control, especially if you've got, and Belsalz could kind of tell this a little bit,

that Ludinus and the Weave Mind are two separate parties following their own aims. control especially if you've got and bells house could kind of tell this a little bit that lewdness and and the weed mind are two separate parties following their own aims there's no guarantees that anything's going to end well so i think orm is like the worst case scenario is that they're going to intentionally or unintentionally rip open the sky or bring mass levels of destruction on ordinary people, on all people. And nothing that anyone can say is going to assure them that that's not going to happen. And right now, to him,

it seems like the much more likely scenario. Oof. That's rough. Damn, that's great. You have to answer twice, because you got two guys. Okay, so for Opal, best case scenario is if there's ever a battle, she does her duty, and then maybe convinces the Spider Queen to let her go. After she-

Save my life, we can talk, babe. After she serves her time, and then she can- She serves her nickel. No, she serves her time. So that's best case scenario. Worst case scenario is she's got to die defending that bitch and that would have been really sad. Yeah, you know.

It's pretty rough. For Denise, best case scenario is obviously reuniting with her boy, her love, Dariax, and having babies and living happily ever after. So many babies. Yeah, but I think worst case scenario is that, and having babies and living happily ever after. So many babies. Yeah. But I think worst case scenario is that, you know, she spends, like, I don't want to make her a stalker because she's not,

but she's been at it a little too long at this point. So she's got something to, she's got to figure it out. Like, if she doesn't find him in the next couple of days, then I think she's got to face her fears, which is, you know, time to start over. Like, she really, I think she's of the mind that she was like, I put my fucking time in with this man. Yeah. I had the best year of my life with this man. Yeah.

She's not ready to give it up. And I think worst case for her, because I think she is thinking about the, you know, having done, having been on Tima Silva and, like, having had the question come up, and she's like, fuck him. I don't know. I don't fuck with the gods that much. I don't so she's very much of like who cares um so yeah I don't think she's thinking about that I think her worst case scenario is having to start over having to like have gone a first date and then also having these uh you know people that are chasing her down because of the money that she and Dariax owe them um you know, people that are chasing her down because of the money that she and Dariax owe them,

you know, chasing her down, finding her, and then all of her dreams of domestic bliss go out the window. Well, the good news is when the atmosphere sets on fire, they will not care. They won't care. They'll care a little. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But less. He's got like a little thing of brumestone too, so he's got money. He's got money, she just has to get it. Just get it from him. Grab that stone, girl. Grab the rocks and run. That's not what I meant.

It's just nice and floaty. Nope, nope. I'm above it. Deanna's best case scenario is getting to help her friends save the world, because she doesn't have anything else tethering her to life other than like being of service and i think her worst case scenario is being left alone again and having to live alone because even in death she was a part of something bigger so i think just isolation is

the worst thing she can think of where do you you think that Laren is in the metaphysical universe? I love her so much. God, Laren is watching all of this with Quay by her side. And I think she's waiting to see. Because I think there's something inside of her that, like, understands exactly what lewdness is doing. And that, like, contempt for deity is, like, a thing that runs through the Age of Arcanum and wizards like him. Like, he is a legacy of her type of thinking. Interesting question. Where do you think her spiritual energy has landed?

That's why I was my question. Because, like, for instance, we discussed metaphysics in Alexandria. Ooh! Spirits that have faith and keep to the morals and guide of their faith, their spirits will wander to those realms and become part of that realm, maintaining some aspect of their individuality, depending on the strength of their character and want to maintain that, but they'll become a part

of the energy of that space. Those that don't, sometimes, or agnostic wolf wander towards a realm that is closest to their morality and kind of become part of that in a natural way. Others might wander between, like astrally, and others just linger as spirits and ghosts. Laren is wandering the astral plane looking for Evandred. Oh my. and ghosts. Laerryn is wandering the astral plane

looking for Evandred. Oh! Oh! Bye. That's it. I love it. Yeah. That's fucked up, I love it. Yeah. For sure.

God, that's fucked up. That's so good. Best case scenario for lewdness would be... Oh yeah! Sir! Give it, give it, give it, give it! Sir! Sir, thank you!

You got to lay it all out for us. I'm not going to do that. If all goes well. Nah, it's all good. No, Dariax, I mean, best case scenario, he just continues to tell himself that everyone's handling some big stuff, and when they're done, they'll come find me,

and they'll pick up where they left off. Worst case scenario, they don't. He's a follower through and through. Like he's just, he's the type of personality that he's happiest when he's following somebody else's wake. You know, he loves supporting others. He's not a guiding soul by any means. And so I think that feeling of being completely unmoored and aimless

will lead him down some dark paths of being easily exploited and manipulated by others who see that sort of weakness in him. So I think that'd be the worst. You gotta find him. He needs Denise. Yeah, Denise will find him. She gives a fuck, you know, she cares.

She's the best toxic thing to ever happen to. You know. Listen, I don't want to sound like the girl on Baby Reindeer, but if we are together, like, I'll take care of you. You know? Amazing. There was some like De Niro breathing around.

You're like. It's creepy, it's creepy, it's creepy. It's creepy. When Denise inhabits you, it's creepy. It's creepy. When Denise inhabits you, it's a very different energy. Very different energy. I love it. She's the realest. Denise with a dollar sign, I will never forget because that was the first time we played together.

That was the first character. And the first thing you said, I was like, weaves a high fantasy thing. Introduce your character. And you're like, my name is Denise with a dollar sign and I love bottle service. I'm like, she didn't listen to anything I said. Stop laughing!

She's perfect, I love her! I think we were, like, weren't we, like, at a poolside, like, club or something? Yeah, but I described it with, like, old-timey terms and you were like, got it, Miami. Yeah, she wants the Patron. I think that was the best we could do. The Mortar Patron is pretty solid. Yeah, yeah was like, no, she wants the Patron. I think that was the best we could do. The Morta Patron is pretty solid, too.

Yeah, yeah. Best case scenario of Vax is not a ball. Oh my god, I forgot your ass is a marble. Worst case scenario, he stays a ball. Oh no. Oh my god. Sorry. How does it feel to just be a little guy?

Round. Spiracle. Oh my god. How does it feel to just be a little guy? Round. Spherical. That's so funny. What a nightmare. That's truly the worst case scenario. Worse than death. Like a gyroscope spinning around all directions. My boy!

I forgot. Sorry. It's just running like a hamster. I don't mean to keep torturing your first character in our campaigns, but the bad guys like torturing them so bad. He's running like a hamster in there, just real fast. Real, real fast. Just running that bridge.

That's what's powering it. He's running a thousand miles an hour. He's pretty good at it. He's really fast, though. Yeah. Fast. There is just something that's so beautiful about love exploited.

It's just, mm, mm. That's nice. All right. Shit, okay, let's move on. That was great, what a good question. Thank you so much, Kaboodle Jr. and Lottle42. And if you have any Evergreen fan question or even a timely fan question for our Tower of Inquiry,

you can enter it at critrole.com slash power. Yeah, they don't need to be evergreen but let's be real this shit is pre-taped so stick around for more sighted more sighted dive for more foresighted dive because we'll be playing for the queen oh yeah game time

that's it for the podcast version of this episode of foresighted dive in the video version we wrap up each episode by playing some games that don't always translate well to an audio-only format, honestly. It's mostly yelling. 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 four-sided dive normally airs on the first tuesday of every month at 7 p.m pacific on our twitch and youtube channels with the vod available on youtube the very next day and of course each episode releases right here on the critical rolele Podcast Network the following Friday. We'll see you again next month.