Critical Role - Suddenly Samuel | 4-Sided Dive | Episode 25: Discussing Up To C3E98

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

Sam Riegel, Matthew Mercer, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham pull questions from the tower of inquiry, roll some dice in the game “Roll For It,” mourn the loss of fallen friends, discuss their latest adventures in Aeor, and…of course… relive the events of the BELLS HELLS LIVE SHOW! BEACON We’re excited to bring you even MORE with a Beacon membership! Start your 7-day free trial today at https://beacon.tv/join and get unparalleled access to the shows you love completely ad-free! You’ll receive NEW Beacon exclusive series, instant access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord. YOUTUBE MEMBERS / TWITCH SUBSCRIBERS Twitch Subscribers and YouTube Members gain instant access to VODs of our shows, moderated live chats, and custom emojis & badges: https://www.youtube.com/criticalrole/join https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole 4-Sided Dive airs one Tuesday a month on http://twitch.tv/criticalrole and http://youtube.com/criticalrole "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. Hey there, Critters. We are so excited to share with you our brand new podcast from the world of Exandria, The Re-Slayer's Take. In this audio adventure, you'll be guided through the wild continent of Isilra, home to some of the most dangerous creatures. Here, the Slayer's Take is the most notorious monster hunting group in the realm. But when previously slain creatures start returning from the grave,

it's up to six misfit mercenaries to band together and re-slay these supernatural threats as the re-slayers take. So come follow along these audio escapades as the second coolest monster hunters this side of Exandria battle a growing undead army of dangerous creatures. The party is led by a duo of Game Masters, George Primavera and Nick Williams, with the main cast including Jasmine Bular, Jasper William Cartwright, Caroline Lux, and Jasmine Xiong. Listen to new episodes every Monday anywhere you stream podcasts, or become a Beacon member and listen to the podcast two weeks early and uninterrupted by ads. 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 and welcome to Foresighted Dive. I am Travis Willingham, your 25th Tavern Keeper, and we have an amazing show for you tonight. All-star Matthew Mercer made us all... Oh, sorry.

They're writing something on the prompter. Do it more like Robbie. Uh, okay. All-star Matthew Mercer made us all believers with the Bell's Hells Live show we did at the Greek last month. Travis, so like when we say Robbie, do it more like Robbie,

he hosted the show last time with this like sing-songy voice, it was really, really cute. Can you do it like that? Yeah. Yeah, sure. Okay, great. Talos and Jaffe got to play Smash Mouth with the Nox engine after the Dominox went to walking on the sun! Ugh, Kyle, I don't think I can do this! Wait, hey, what's wrong? What's wrong?

I don't know, this Smash Mouth copy is weird and everyone's telling me to be more like Robbie. Okay, well first of all, the Smash Mouth copy is perfect, okay? And second of all, we just want you to embody the effortless charm that Robbie had when he hosted. You know, no one is expecting you to be Robbie. Uh, okay. Yeah, all right, thank you. We're gonna reset, we're gonna do it again,

and this time, wear this hat. Okay. Okay? Bye! Like that! Chinypockipy, my little guy got hooked on an animated chain that could not get enough of him, baby! Oh, please God, in this... What? Who is that? Oh, shit! Oh, shit! Damn! Damn, Wrinkle, it's a miracle!

Oh, man, I'm so glad you're back. Oh, are you going to save me from the pressure of hosting Foresighted Dive? Driving David's handsome channel? No, no, I'm... Hi, you're on your own, pal. You're here, and the clouds, oh, come on, come on, welcome back. Let's begin the night with our open discussion segment. What the fuck is up with that? Yeah.

Which is, I have a cue sheet of what the fuck is up with that topics. Yeah. And the one at the top says the Taliesin of it all. Oh, really? What? No, it doesn't. No. What? You can also do it on that topics. Yeah. And the one at the top says the Taliesin of it all. Oh really? What? No, it doesn't. No! What?

You can also do it on that too. It says the Sam of it all! Sam of it all. Sam's back! Sam! My God. That's right, I'm here. Look at this guy.

Sam, it's been forever since FCG's brave sacrifice. Oh yes. Can we talk about that moment? Sure. Yeah, sure. You know, I had been talking to Matt about how, if that could happen for quite some time. Or if, what would happen if FCG blew themselves up? Uh-huh.

Because it was something I was interested in doing, maybe. So you had asked Will in advance of that. Months. Oh, damn. If not years. Well, there was the alluding to it earlier in the campaign, back when he was getting inspected in the unintentional Chekhov's gun of the whole scenario. Yeah.

Back when you were at the City of Light. And you found out that you had a bomb in you, essentially. Yeah. Which was, I mean, that was part of the whole, like, Aorin, Aomaton assassin sort of construction of your type, your model, if you will. But it was, yeah. Yeah, no, so I knew that was a possibility,

and I was just sort of waiting for a good time to do it. And then I found out I was ill, and so I thought maybe I should take a break. So it seemed like a good time to do it. And I briefly talked to Matt before the game when FCG died about like, what do I have to take some time off? What do we do or whatever? And he was like, I'll think of some stuff. I think you had a plan of some sort.

I had a plan where like, if or not, if we knew, because we knew you were going into surgery soon. And so it was like, I was going to have, as they were exiting the chaos to have like a flare on Ruidus that was going to kind of scramble his circuits, if you will, and kind of take him out of commission for a while, which would have given us an indeterminate period of time before you could return. Or we could make it a lot more final.

Yeah. So, yeah, then just during the fight, I sort of decided that maybe it would be smarter to just peace out. Also, because we were losing. That's the thing. So badly. I was going to say, well, at least for me, and I don't ever listen to anything you guys say or pay attention at all,

but I had no inclination that you were even leaning that way because I thought that was like we were going to throw down in that fight, thought it was going well. It very quickly wasn't. Yeah. And then you did that move, but you gave no hint. I didn't know that that was going to happen until late in the fight. You know, it seemed like it was not going well.

No, it was not going well. You had nothing but time to watch, too, during that fight. I was dead in the first round. But it also felt like a good way to take FCG into the sunset. It was the culmination of his love of these people and his growth as a character. Seems like a good way to go. I was so in awe of you as that was happening

because I hadn't thought about the timing of it at all. And it was framed so well. And I don't know what it's like in your head as you're trying to make up on the spot what you're going to say, especially in poignant moments. But it was fucking beautiful. It was beautiful. I feel like just applesauce comes out when I talk.

Luckily, there was tons of time during that fight to think because we were dying for so long. That's true. That's true. It was definitely meant to be one of those encounters that was like, with a little luck, it could have barely gone your way, or it's an eventual realization that we have to, maybe the victory is stopping them in running.

You know, the tunnel, there are things that could have been collapsed, things that could have been put in their way. There were other options at a certain point, but also a lot of bad rolls. And Odahan's a very dangerous, intentionally a very dangerous character. It just started turning into like a death spiral. It was close. Like it was getting down, it was getting down to the wire.

Like with, with some other good rolls, it could have still been a victory outside of the sacrifice. But who knew if that was going to go and who else might have been lost in the process? Like, it was one of those things where it was the right move. Like you said, for the character story, it ended up being a beautiful kind of end to FCG's story. And also for the group, you know. Tragedy does great things for groups.

Yeah, but it ensured that the battle was over, And also for the group, you know, tragedy does great things for groups. Yeah, but it ensured that the battle was over. Whereas everything else would have been still, like I said, I don't know how many more people we would have lost if it had gone and the rolls continued to be bad. I started rolling really good because of Sleeper that fight, and I was like, uh-oh. Yeah, that was the one where we could count on two hands your nat 20s. Yeah, well, she also attacks a lot.

Her build is, because she is a singular martial boss, which means there's no real spells that are slung for massive damage. So her build is meant to do a bunch of attacks. That's where she's most dangerous and a lot of maneuverability. Similar to Aurum, same thing. Aurum rolled a shit ton of criticals as well, because they're both builds that are meant to be rolling a lot

per turn and then she has legendary actions and all that stuff so yeah I rolled a lot of crits but also I rolled a lot of dice for her

throughout that battle tangent crits criticals have you rolled less more or about the same

this campaign compared to previous campaigns well he has definitely less less less less i mean like like but like a loaded dice for the golden snitch yeah that was also that was also percy was also a fighter bill which means i did roll a lot of dice although i will say i have definitely not rolled a lot of not 20s at all i think less for me i think i can count on one hand the number of nat 20 attacks i've made this

campaign like it's not amen attack recklessly more please even then right it just feels like it feels like it's just like i'm like i guess i hit yeah there's a lot of it's it's been uh i'll also say that there are certain um uh builds i get more often than the others which i find fascinating uh your four yeah my four my four uh barbarian builds there's fundamental forces yeah there's one i get very very often when I get often and then two I almost never get always fun to watch you Do that because it's always like you're always like oh, I really want this one. No, I didn't get That's how you want it That's actually what I was going for was like I was really excited by the notion that I would just be like well figure it

Out fucker, and I really, I have sometimes gotten, yeah, I have sometimes gotten the build I really didn't want and then somehow made it work really well. You intentionally came to me for the build on this, like, I want to make a character that forces me to adapt every time. I loved it, and I love it.

I'm still, every moment, even when I'm like, oh no. This is not helpful at all. Do you have that golden snitch and store it somewhere behind glass? No. Unfortunately, he gave it to me at the end of the first campaign. And then someone stole my bag.

And so that, along with all the dice that I'd collected in there, my signed DMG. Out of your house? No. Out of my car. Damn, somebody got away with fucking heirlooms. They don't even know what they have.

No, I know. They probably thought it was a laptop. And they're like, what are these dumb D&D books with a bunch of signatures in it? Where I had my signature of the entire Wizards team that they gifted me the first time I went there. Like, it was, I had a bunch of good stuff. Where's the laptop? Yeah, they're like, this is bullshit. I threw it in a garbage can.

And I'm like, no. But the snitch was the biggest loss. Because that was a point of fixed folded time, this is bullshit. I threw it in a garbage can, and I'm like, no. But the snitch was the biggest loss, because that was a point of fixed folded time, apparently. Yeah, yeah. An anomaly. It's a singularity, for sure. But no, I thought that the, I was very pleased with the way that Fresh Cut Grass died,

and it was a very emotional night for many reasons, but I thought it was dramatic and fun. It was great. It was... In-game, it was such an incredible, unexpected narrative layer, and then, you know, now that we can talk about what you were about to endure, there was that subconscious layer underneath it.

As soon as we realized what was happening, it was like, it was so many emotions was so many emotions hitting on a very public level and also on a very private level that it caught me off guard harder than I would have anticipated. Yeah. I know. We missed you so fucking much, dude.

I didn't know how long I would be gone. I know. For sure. We're so happy to have you back. And I didn't want Marisha to be mad at me because I messed up the production calendar. That is the most important thing to consider, yeah. She was mad at me.

Got A1, the production calendar. Yeah. Shout out to our production crew for rolling with the punches on this whole journey. Yes. Sincerely. They've all been amazing. Shooting around me. We do make it up as we go, and it has been a testament this whole journey. Yes. Sincerely. They've all been amazing. Shooting around me.

We do make it up as we go, and it has been a testament to that excellence. Yeah. That is for sure. Well, FCG. Yeah. No more. Greek live show.

New character. That's right. Brayus. Doomseed. Doomseed. What's in a name, Sam Riegel? You know. Did you use the fantasy name generator on that one?

I will say it's the first name that came into my head. I was like, what does that mean? I don't know. Let's find out. Beautiful. Mr. Doomseed. Please, Mr. Doomseed is his father. Call me Brains. Please, walk us through.

Walk us through. Well, I can't. You barely met the guy. I don't want to say anything. Yeah, not a full reveal, but tell us, what were your considerations? What did you think about when you were preparing for the live show?

The character types you were thinking of. Well, I had this idea to be a brain in a jar. That's my idea! Wait, no! You can't steal my idea! Brain in a jar? You came up with that? No.

I have also for years had an idea, Marisha and I have had an idea, where I'm a brain in a jar who can only cast vocal spells. Uh-huh. And she is the barbarian that's holding me. Yeah, I want to do something like that. I know. We really want to do it at some point, but it'll never happen. Hold on to it.

Never mind. Brain in a jar sounded fun, and then, uh, whatever. I feel like the most fun. I knew I should probably pick something that heals. You know, that can heal. Yeah, my hope. My hope. You guys just lost your cleric.

It's fine. Yeah, I didn't want to do another cleric, obviously. And so, you know, their paladins seem good for that. And then I just, I thought a lot about what everybody's character is going through romantically or in their progression of like the story and how Bell's Hells relates to God so I knew that I wanted to be someone who has knowledge of gods or at least one god and I wanted

to choose a character that could interact with lots of different members of Bell's Hells and I thought that you guys would be more likely to interact with me if I was super hot or at least the ladies would that intro would be more likely to interact with me if I was super hot. Or at least the ladies would. That intro, if I may say,

you did a fantastic job of being at the theater with us, but we didn't see you get into makeup, hair, we didn't see an outfit, you were sequestered. I was. You were faking what accent, unless you really hadn't figured it out yet. This is also a thing. I wanted to come in with a pretty distinct British accent. But I can't speak very well. I'm still relearning how to talk and stuff.

So it came out just sort of like this. So I don't, the next time you see Brayus, he might sound totally different. To be fair, like we had said for his intro, his throat was damaged when we met. I made that choice that he had just been stabbed in the throat and so he was going to sound really haggard and stuff because I didn't know

if I could talk at the show. Yeah, there was even a chance that you weren't feeling up to going like i had to plan two different scenarios where we had where brayus wasn't going to be there in case sam wasn't up for it or even the night of the show i was backstage and i was like i don't know if i could do this i thought when i talked to matt initially about the live show i was like i really would love to do it i really want to be there with you guys in front of the crowd and everything. But I don't know if I will feel up to it. So can you just bring me out for the last five minutes?

And he was like, okay, I'll think about it. I think I can do something like that. And then I got to the Greek and you were like, I'm going to bring you out 20 minutes into the game. I was like, oh God. But it was great. Well, like I said, it was likely going to be a battle for the back half.

So you would just like come to your turns, not a huge lift. Otherwise with knowing where it was going, especially with the arrival of Ludinus and the Oculus Thalamus or the Cult of Thalamus. And like, it would've been weird to be like, as Ludinus leads you into the thing. And all of a sudden this this horned guy comes in and is like, hey, I'm your new player!

All right, now back into the story. There's only one way I could make it work out, but you did great. You really knocked it out of the park, man. Yeah, it was a great night, and I'm glad I could participate, and I'm glad that I could unveil this character. I can't say much more than that, other than he's monochromatic, and he's got a cool backstory that half of the internet already spoiled. What?

I heard about this. Oh, boy. They found, I held up a sheet of my notes on the show and they like zoomed and enhanced on it and now half of my backstory is out there on the internet. What did you do, type it out at 56 font or something? I'm old. Your phone is, the font on your phone is abnormally large. It is grape nuts large. It is so, look at this shit.

Look at his messages, look at that! There's two text bubbles per screen. That's kind of impressive, actually. Hey, you know what? That's preventing eye strain. That's very smart. That's true. But it is.

That's incredible. Yeah, but so now I'm going to have to go back and rewrite half my backstory. You're going to change it? I'm going to change it. I don't want them to... Just the parts that we're seeing? Do you know which...

Okay, so you know there's access. We've only just met the character, so all that is still in flux. Whatever feels right for you. Thanks, internet. Yeah, thanks. You ruin everything. It was also so wonderfully,

I don't know if cathartic is the right word, I think overwhelming when you came out. Like, if you watch Ashley and Laura on the other end of the tables, like, Laura's trying not to cry. Oh, really? Yeah, because, you know, like like we've all been on this ride with you of course you know in a support role and hearing that wave was so good

it was amazing it was very healing for me for sure and it was done without you yeah it was so it was so great to be back and to see you guys. And I was in so much pain that night. Oh, buddy! I was on a lot of drugs. Thanks for not fucking it up. It was amazing. Okay, I want to ask about Brayus's obsession with Tevin. So Tevin is a high-ranking Asmodian. Sure.

Lord of Hellion, yeah. Devil, high-ranking devil, and you know, Brayus fucks with that. He just has mad respect for the man, that's all. Tevin's pretty rad. Yeah? Damn, we don't know enough. I want to ask about the monochromatic, And it just has mad respect for the man. That's all. Devon's pretty rad. Yeah. Damn, we don't know enough.

I wanna ask about the monochromatic, I wanna ask about the double flails. Oh yeah, it's a cool weapon. Double flails is fun. When you see it in action. And you're horny, literally and... I'm a horny, I'm a horny devil. Yeah.

I can't wait. I want more. I want more now. I think it was that way FCG had to go. It was a character that just wasn't quite horny enough for you.

Exactly. Just bubbling up for too long. I, yeah, I was blue balling for the whole campaign. I needed, I needed something to fuck

at. And now I can. Now I can fuck at everything. Oh, shit. And he's leaving. Just, you know, getting ready for all of the requests that are going to hit my inbox. No, there's some things that I really found that I enjoy doing in these campaigns. And so this is, I assume, towards the end of campaign three,

and I want to do all those things, which is be horny and be charismatic and be hot and be powerful and be a good liar. I love it. I can do it all. Yeah, buddy. and be hot and be powerful and be a good liar. I love it. I can do it all. Yeah, buddy. And you've given the cosplay community a very simple palette to work with.

Exactly. Can we also shout out the amazing fans at that show? I'm sure this was hit previously, but that energy was so amazing. And I personally snuck to the sides of the stage. On either side there were these windows that looked out at like the snack and beverage area and the there were people in line for food and drink and stuff but they were just in

groups like talking and taking pictures and I saw people handing out like freebies and stuff and you keep seeing all these messages about people connecting and starting you know friend groups and that was awesome and i think i think because it wasn't in a traditional theater house you could see everybody so much better for the first right hour and a half two hours yeah i've always i've always found it a more social social theater experience at that at the greek just because it is so open and you don't you're not like locked into your seat so much and there's so much room to move around. And even the boxes, quote unquote, are just tables. They're like picnic tables.

It's really... I heard that as we were getting to certain heavy parts of the story, suddenly flocks of bats were overhead, like eating. Yes, cool. And I was like, fuck, I'm sad I missed that. And also, we probably had to pay extra. But yeah, I saw people that were up on the sides and in the back, they said when the sun,

I guess right when it was going down, all of a sudden these bugs came out. And so they were kind of like, oh, this might be a thing. And a swarm of bats came and took them out like it was feeding time. They're like, this is so on brand, but also what the fuck? It's just like an aerial fucking happening.

I was happy. I think I was happiest because my wife, Quyen, came to the show. Yeah. Watched for the first time. I was like, yeah, exactly. I was like, you can leave, you know, after my entrance or whatever. Just go home. It's fine.

And she was like, okay, well, maybe. And she stayed for the whole thing. And I talked to her afterwards, and she was like, it was awesome. She was like, the story was so great. Matt's really good. I guess you could stay. She was like, how does he, he comes up with that on the fly?

I'm like, we've been doing this for 10 years. Yes. You know, honestly honestly all i wanted was her approval so i i'm happy now she had such a great time and for the next several days after the show uh was broadcast or whatever she turned into like a critter oh she was online all the time she was like did you see this comment did you see what they said on Twitter about you? Did you see this? Did you see this fan art and stuff?

And I was like, you're so cute. It's amazing. I love that. And now she doesn't care anymore. Of course. Hey, we got a window. Yeah. A wonderful moment we'll clutch for the rest of our lives.

I could be a rock star for my wife for a week. Hell yes. Hell yes. I love that. All right, coming off of Tevin and other devils, fiendish friends and foes. This is a good little subject. This is nice.

Oh, thanks. Thanks, Danny. Summoning Tevin was a boss move. Yeah, cool. Wait, wait, what does that mean? What does that mean? No, I mean in the sense that in building up for this live show, I already had Essek as the guy that I had to worry about controlling. Stack the paddock. Yeah, and then it was like, cool. And by the way, Matt, let's bring in another NPC that's going to escort us. I'm like, cool, all right.

And we're bringing Sam back in, so now we're with Robbie in the campaign. now It's eight players at the table with two NPCs that are also in the battle. To Brennan. Yeah, and then so we went to Brennan which also meant the lewdness of the co- it was a Basically just was this like you know Matt you did this to yourself, and I'm just gonna I'm just gonna buckle up and make it fucking work You know we forget how often like we just think that as you're juggling eight bowling pins if we throw a ninth one in there It really won't make much of a difference. Honestly, it's kind of true.

At a certain point, it's just all fucked. And I'm just like, sure. It's just messed up. Yeah. Once you're underwater, it doesn't matter how deep it is, really. You're still underwater. And you get cool scenarios,

like you getting the how do you want to do this. Oh, man. I love the audience was shouting it out. Just forcing you into it. Oh man. It was one of those things where I was like, all right, cool, they're like, they're going ahead and they're pushing Dominox

up through the gate, you know, he's down in health. All right, cool, next turn. All right, they're just, they're running around, going to the doorway. Okay, next turn. They're, all right, they're just checking in on the bag. Okay, cool, turn invisible. All right, cool, they're all running over here at the door again Okay, next turn. They're just checking in on the bag. Okay, cool. Darn invisible. All right, cool. They're all running over here at the door again.

Somebody do damage. He's going to die next hit. Tevin is going to attack. Tevin does just enough. Fuck me. Cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. The most unintentional masturbation on stage. Like, and I beat my own monster. Glad you bought tickets.

Like, it's like... God damn it. Thanks for being here and witnessing. That was the best... For me, that was the best part of that challenge was that Dominox was in the middle, which the creepy girl imagery, no thank you very much, every time.

I wasn't expecting to do that until we were in the scene and I was like, oh, that'd be a fun thing for him to appear as. It's horrible. It's horrible. We got in there. Tevin doesn't want to help Dominox, even though we're like, yeah, we'll help Dominox. It'll help with the fight against Ludinus.

So we're stuck there, and then we get into the chamber on the other side of the room, and there's Ludinus coming back this way going, don't help the demon. We're like, fuck. Yeah. That was a great tug of war. Yeah.

I mean, there, like, there, a number of different ways that fight could have gone. I mean, all of them would have at least ended at the same point, but all would have had different reverberations to how things went. So I wasn't sure how it was going to play out. Yeah, as soon as lewdness started saying,

don't do this, that's what you want to do. You want to piss off lewdness, but you can't. You can't. And also like, you're trying to interpret the way he says it. Cause if it's like, don't do that, you're like, fuck you, dad. But he was saying it in such an appealing way.

Like, don't do that. You're like, what do you mean? You're the enemy for all these episodes. It was great. Just hit it and see what happens. That's just, yeah. That was an option. But you did summon a devil knight

with a blood oath against demons, and then brought in a new character who also is devil-aligned, and for that reason also hates demons, and it just made it very complicated. It made a very complicated scenario, more so than I had originally anticipated when I was thinking about this eventuality

a few episodes back. I don't watch our show. Did Fearne summon Tevin for a specific reason? You were busy. Yes, because they were talking about demons and this entity, Dominox, and more they began to learn about this demonic presence here in the ruins, then the group was like, oh, you got your devil boyfriend. They hate demons. Maybe he knows more about this. And so then she called him in. So it was thought out.

It was thought out as anything ever is. I think thought out as much as... Sure, why not? We've got Essek. Yeah, sure, why not? We've got Essek. We're down here in Aeor. We're potentially going up against some fiendish entity.

We weren't sure it was a demon. That's true, yeah. And I think we had talked about the fact that during the FCG fight and stuff, I think everybody had blanked on the fact that she had the ability to summon Tevin, which, you know, hindsight being 20-20, if it was going to be a massive throwdown, we should get the perspective of a devil. Yeah.

And that's where we figured out Grand Demon. Yeah, like a lot of the ancient history of what Dominox represented, how long Dominox had been gone. Which made it way worse. Yeah.

Well, to be fair, too, Dominox, when you were fighting him, was in a very weakened state. Because he had only fed on the Ruby Vanguard. It was kind of like piecemeal.

It had been a very long time. Yeah. I forget that long time. Yeah. I forget that's how demons work, that they have to feed off of people's insecurities? I mean, it depends on the demon. Sometimes they just physically devour them. It depends on the type of demon. Some of them feed off of a negative emotion,

some of them feed off of their souls. Like, it all can vary depending on whichever mythology you're pulling it from. Bad smells? Yeah, yeah, bad smells, you know, bad feng shui. Ooh! They fuck up their furniture. It's a...

Wait, so if this guy fed off of insecurity, is that why he hung them from hooks? Wasn't to like kill them outright, it was to keep their like insecurity batteries going? Kind of, yeah. Oh! And also... Oh!

What the fuck? That's why I feel whenever I'm hung on a chain for days. What the fuck, Matt Mercer? Really insecure. Dry-aged insecurity. It also comes with, once he gets enough out of their emotional state, then just feeding on their soul. And so that's where the death in the chain is.

And a lot of them, he also needed help to detach from the chain is. And a lot of them, he also needed help to detach from the Soul Anchor. And nobody present was able to help him with that, so he just made them food. He was like, can you help me destroy the Soul Anchor? No? Good. All right, how about you? No? Murder your friends. All right, cool. Like, he was was in a very weakened state, and if he had been released, would have been left out in Exandria to get to full power again. But we perma-killed him. You did. He's gone. In his, yeah, thanks to lewdness's super strong gate? Gate spell. Ninth level gate spell. Yeah. Cool. I was tripping out when we got the soul anchor in the Bag of Holding and then tried to move away with it,

and he was like, just pulled him across the room. Yeah, there was this interesting, like, when you all did that, I didn't think about that scenario, and I was like, huh, how would this all interact? And then, to my head, it was like, all right, so it would drag him, like, likely as it's pulled away,

but then pushing him through the gate puts him beyond the boundary. Like, the kind of thing where, like, he kind of rubber bands a little bit, where it's like, if, you know, if he, if you move away, slowly he gets dragged along with it. The Soul Anchor is a thing. When you put it in the dimensional plane,

does it dispel it? In my head it was like, no, it's still a strong enough magic where the enchantment would still be tied to the item that's holding it. Right. So it still keeps it there. So it was still dragged, but it's still a rubber banding effect. So he gets pushed through the portal, and then if he was there too long, it would slowly pull him back through. I was trying to do all these logic calculations in the moment, so I was like, oh, I didn't even think about that, because I'm...

I didn't. That plus two characters and a grand demon all in your head, and tracking all of us and Claire's. I slept really well that night. Yeah! I don't understand. That is bonkers. And everybody looked so good in our little costumes and outfits.

I loved the little costumes. Yours was custom made? Well, yeah, they couldn't find the right pants, so. They made them. Yeah, well yeah they couldn't they couldn't find uh uh the right pants so uh they made them yeah well they bought two different because there was there's a jenny uh well jenny bought the pants because it was two different sets and then manzi who's who does a lot of our other shadow jenny and man yeah manzi they're amazing much love sewed the two pairs of pants together down the middle. Did you keep them? Yes. Awesome. Oh yes.

Awesome. And your RTA butt thing? Was a rental, we had to return it. But the RTA. They had it just at Westergastu. Oh wow. They were like, yeah, we got just the thing. They have every combination of letters?

Yeah, they are huge critters. They were like, we're just preparing for any eventuality, Mr. William. We love that stupid gnome. No, but really, massive shout out to Manzi, who was sewing the letters of RTA onto the seat of those pants, basically up until the show. Wow.

It was incredible. Shout out to both Jenny and Manzi. Seriously. I don't know if it was a semi-late note, but I was like, can we just get some iron-on letters for the button? And Jenny looked at me and she was like, kind of, we'll come up with something.

It's like crushed velvet, so if you did it, it would just melt the fabric. So they were in there sewing it in, and I was like, oh shit, I'm so sorry. It was literally up until the minute before we went on. Like, I think we held for a couple minutes because I had to come down with letters on my butt. I kept having to give updates of like,

nope, Travis is still in wardrobe. I'm the problem. Still in wardrobe, nope, three more minutes. I missed all of that, I was asleep. Were you, you were? I fell asleep 10 minutes before the show started and I slept a half hour. In one of those nice air-conditioned rooms.

No, just like where the makeup was. Oh yeah. Did somebody come wake you up and be like, you're on stage now? Yes, they did. Oh shit. They came out, they woke me up and they were like, you have to get in costume now because it's time.

But yeah, I was on so many drugs that I was just like. Oh man. Oh buddy. man never know it man speaking of drugs the the the the visions speaking of drugs was that like was that based off of how poorly we rolled on the check because I feel like some people's visions were super gnarly and others were like more torturous I think it it it depended on the individual. And it was partially the role and partially whoever got chosen for these, what was either an immediate concern,

or if they had no immediate concerns, what was a deep-seated insecurity they could pull from. And Chetney, I was like, he doesn't have a lot of immediate concerns. He's very much that kind of, I don't give a shit, I fuck all, I'm 400 years old, I could die any minute, I don't care, you know, kind of vibe. So good. That's really, really solid.

And so when I was building these encounters, I was like, what would get to him? He makes toys for children. The possibility of having killed these children would be a terrifying thing to get to him. And it was kind of like a slow roll of visions to see who he could either feed from versus who could help him free himself from the soul anchor.

And that was where like he began to see these thoughts and visions and ideas that would like pray into their insecurities, pray into the things they feared. And then when they felt a little challenged or broken to then give them the opportunity to correct it or to fix this fear, to do right by this insecurity, to destroy this pinion and free the demon. If you didn't, then you were food.

Wow. It was horribly effective for one reason. I feel like in our games, there are moments when we make a character and there in our games there are moments when we make a character and there's backstory and there are things that we've filled in but I think after 10 years we've learned to like leave little gaps because we know that you'll come in and

plus it and add things and we don't know when that's going to happen at least when my vision started and you started saying about like you're in the wilderness and there are these children and you've got your blood on your hands you're doing all these things i was like did this shit happen did this shit happen and you're saying i repressed it or is it i don't know i don't fucking know so well it worked i was so stuck so i just i just refused it

i refused it out of existence you don't know if it was just a vision still. Yep. It's not true. I would've remembered such a horrible thing. I wouldn't repress something like that. Nah. No, it's not true, Danny! It's not true!

It better not be true, I'll be sad. Yeah, me too! I wouldn't do that. You would not do that, no. No, I make toys. Yeah. You would not do that, no. No, no, I make toys. Yeah. But would the werewolf? Do you make toys out of guilt for killing children? No, no, legitimately.

Is that why they call it Redwood? Oh, no. Well, no, because in your story, when your transformation took place in a region when you couldn't control yourself, was in a region that was nowhere near any sort of like children wandering. That's right, that's true.

Like you were over in the South of South of Molaes Myr in the South of Learwood. Yes. So isn't there a thing that if you drop to a low enough HP, you just kind of go feral? I did in the early days and then then post the Gorgine stuff, I can choose to drop into it.

Yeah. So, you know, shit could have happened. I'm just saying. Embrace it. Well, the first blood hunters you met gave you the ability to kind of give a little more control over that transformation that was the beginning of your journey into the Order of the Lycan

was before you would come to the large part of civilization. Right. So if it gives you any calm, Travis, likely didn't happen. Calm, Travis. Likely. Is it a critical role party if somebody hasn't accidentally

or unintentionally killed a kid somewhere in their backstory? That's the thing. I don't want that. She already did that. That's one in diamond. Caleb only killed his parents, not children.

Well, you know. Okay, so I have a question because ever since Brennan Lee Mulligan's calamity now into all of the new stuff with him coming on board. This machine, the Occultus Thalamus. Yes. So, can you speak on what it does and how it looks like it has been used in the past?

Yeah. It's more or less an arcane black box. At least it is now. Meaning the final moments of the city and some facets that are retained in it. It is a damaged device. Like, it's not all completely there. But what remains is, like, the final kind of almost, like, echo-recorded history of the final moments of the city.

But the technology behind it was designed technically for, what's the word I'm looking for? I don't know, not security, surveillance. Aspior? Yeah. Because it tracks anybody that's in the city and what they were doing. It tracks and records their essence.

Yeah. Like, there's a number of devices within Aeor that are developed around the understanding of divine power and divinity. That's what made them so dangerous to the Pantheon. That's what led to the creation of the Factor Amalius, was they were the first to crack a number of the secrets of divine magic um and part of this uh this technology was kind of based around that so we could like essentially read souls to a certain point to like glean information and record where people were in the city what their essence was and if it were to be referred to um during that you know after after that recording then someone be able to like kind of glean where they were, almost like a massive minority report sort of, you know,

to arcane technology in the city. So yeah, this was what Ludinus' team had begun to uncover information about and were trying to get to before the proximity of the Knox engine made it very difficult to acquire something that has some possibly very important information for Ludinus' plans. And it was invented just at the very tail end of Aeor? It was invented towards the end of its era, not like the very, very end. Oh, like the peak of its prominence

and technological prowess? Yeah, there's an order to their kind of divine-based development. There are like wards that, the first-based development. There are wards that... The first thing they developed probably was wards to prevent the gods from looking into the city, which is what originally got them to go, hmm, that's bad.

And then other developments, then one of the gods tried to go to the city to be like, we can't look in here. That makes me nervous. I'm going to go there myself. And they were repelled. And if there's technology to prevent the gods from entering your city,

that's real bad. So yeah, that kind of triggered the unique era that leads up to the end of Eor. And was it only in Eor, or all the cities had this sort of device? Eor. They were the Manhattan Project of the Age of Arcanum. But now we get to explore facets of that in Downfall,

which I'm super excited about. Fucking Brennan Lee Mulligan back in the chair. Okay, before we get to Brennan, so Ludinus shows up. He tells us not to help Dominox. And then afterwards, I was not expecting him to reason with us i was surprised how did you feel about like a totally normal guy i thought i thought he was i thought he was either going to like grab and do a snatch and grab or like throw us further down in there yeah i was not expecting the talk, although once it started, I was just,

okay, no, I need, this is too weird. If we try and fight this, it's just us being stupid at this point. Do we have any theories, knowing that he is in Aeor, he's looking at this device that looks at the history of the city, like what he needs from there,

what he's doing on the moon. I have theories. Nothing I want to throw out there yet. Save it for the game. I'm saving my theories for the game. Actually, I will even say I have theories that Ashton doesn't have. Well, if he's looking specifically at the end of Aeor, is there someone that he's trying to focus

in on? Or is it just some spell? Like the divine repelling magic? Or some buddy! But like, is there...

Keeping it in theme today, eh? Jerk. God damn it. I'd finally purged. But if there was like someone in charge that he could like zoom in on, enhance? Yeah, he was so personal. It's a whole city of fuck you to the gods. I'm sure that there's nothing but stuff in there that is either helpful historically or otherwise. Like it was an entire city state of

people figuring out how to do what he's doing and he's showing bells hells this because he's already watched this episode and he's watched what happens like you know there's only so much time there's there's a lot of broken information but a lot of information in this that is not pertinent he's had time to to kind of sit with it to find something that is very important to him and is now showing that to you for reasons he has. Shit. Shit, man.

Oh, man. It's fun. It's complicated. Brennan comes in with such a thunder. Can I ask how long you had been cooking that one up in your secret kitchen since january jesus what me and him had lunch we get lunch every now and then just to like catch up and hang out so we're both busy but uh i like him very much and uh in the middle of this conversation we were talking about about Calamity and whenever he talks

about it, you see that kind of fire in his eyes. He had so much fun running it and I had so much fun watching him do it. And I mentioned are there other stories in the Calamity era that you want to explore? And he was like, well, I mean, A or something, that's something I think

would be a lot of fun to do. And I was like, well, interestingly enough, there may be an opportunity in the campaign with the themes that we're exploring that ties into that that I was going to possibly explore in a small way, but if you're interested, we can explore it in a much bigger way. And so that's where we started talking about it. Instead of doing like me doing a little montage of information to actually have it be like a mini series within the main campaign

that is experienced by the party and so that was kind of where we we started talking about it then and then it was me being like i don't know when it's gonna happen but um i'll let you know when we're getting close and in the meantime you know we'll talk and iterate. And he'd ask questions and we'd meet on Zoom and talk through, like, you know, Aeorian history and themes and factions. And then, you know, kind of like giving him all the pieces that I had developed and the many spaces that I hadn't.

And then letting him kind of run and build. And Danny's been wonderful, like, working with both of us and kind of keeping all that thread together as well. So thank you, Danny. You're the best. I do my best, man. I don't know what the fuck you guys want. Yeah, so we just throw things at each other in the months

until we started getting close to it. And we weren't even planning to have this be the Greek show. We were just like, as the schedule was being filled out and the beats, the narrative, it's like, there's a very good chance in the month we're leading up to that this is going to happen at the Greek.

And we're like, hey, Brennan, is it okay if you do this? By the way, you guys didn't know that this was going to happen, so we were like, aside from maybe Marisha, because she had to know for production reasons, being the head of production schedule and sit him up there, but we were like, Brennan's going to emcee for this. But we didn't know he was going to come in for the final bit of it to carry over.

So yeah, it was a fun surprise for everybody. When we got to the end of the show, that was rad. He came out as best Ziggy Stardust, and I was like, oh no. The eyes, man. The eyes were a lot. I was sitting up the side of the stage, and it was the first time I had seen the projector, or it was not the prompter, the projector screen they have of the footage of it.

And when he sat down with the makeup and just looked up right at the camera, I was like, oh, that's rad. Yeah, it was good. It was great. It was great. He came up to me I was like, oh, that's rad. Yeah, it was good. It was great, it was great. Yeah, he came up to me and was like, I'm cosplaying as a camera. And I was like, everyone's gonna get that. That will require no explanation.

Is that the flare that was for it, the little camera flare? It's fucking perfect. I love it, I love it. I can't wait to see where it goes. I only have to get more sweet, sweet extended Exandria lore. It's just like... It's a part of history. The buffet grows. It's so good.

The Fall of Eor is something I've been wanting to explore for years. You know, since I first touched on it in the early lore. When I was like building it in the early lore, when I was like building larger Exandrian history, this is back in Campaign 1 stuff, I've been wanting to come back and touch more on that. And I was always like, how do I do it? Like, when does it make sense?

When is it viable? And after what Brennan did with Calamity, I was like, I actually kind of, I think I want somebody else to do this. Like I could do it, but I, I, I love being the, you know, being more of a, You're an idea guy. Yeah. No, I was gonna say a little more like, like contemporary Exandria.

And then like, Brennan becoming this unexpected, like, you know, Calamity era jam. It kind of, it made more sense. And after he, you know, exhibited his interest, I was like, bro, like, just go, please. Let's do it, let's do it. Sam and I were talking about this, one of the,

especially around the animated series is, one of my favorite things is whether you come in campaign one campaign two your look into exandria is so different between the campaigns and if you came in for three and you're catching up on one and two or if you've just seen calamity then you're getting you know literally one start of the timeline versus 850 years later, and those little injection points are so unique. Like as we're dealing with the deities in The Legend of Vox Machina, the way the characters revere those deities

is so much different than how Jester interacts with the Traveler and how the perspective... Bells Hells doesn't give a shit about them. Yeah. They're humanized, and the perspective is going to change so i mean the the the more we get the more it just allows us to at least for us build things into the show which is really really cool that is that's one of the really cool aspects about going and revisiting these campaigns and animation is as happens i didn't i didn't build everything in Exandria at once

and then we're just slowly meeting through it. I'm building pieces as we go and now other people have come and built pieces too and so now they're good to revisit. We can thread some of the other facets that we've now explored into earlier narratives in really fun little ways that you normally wouldn't have the opportunity to

and you guys have been rocking it on that. We're having too much fun. Okay, amazing. It's Tower of Inquiry time. It's time for a question. It's very simple. We take turns pulling blocks from the tower. Danny Carr reads us the corresponding fan question,

and we each give our own answer. Oh, yeah, sorry. What happened? I got fully attached to my chair. I get attached to my furniture too, by the way. Oh, Danny. And if for some reason the tower should fall, the person responsible will be forced

to do a hyper-specific celebrity impression for the entirety of the C block. Oh my god, blame Matthew Mercer for not believing in life after love. One of the worst moments of my entire life. Sam, honors to you. Welcome back. Welcome back. First pull is yours, sir.

I'm just grateful to be able to do it. Yes! Hey, buddy. Bloop. Oh, 51. Nice. 51. Ooh, fresh towel. That's really far down.

Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Okie dokie. This one's fun. Okay, from Bethy. Bethy. Hello. You're a powerful magic user in the Age of Arcanum living in Aeor. What experimental monstrosities would you be creating?

And would they survive in the ruins? What would they look like in the present time? That's a fun question. Hell yeah. I feel weird answering this considering that, I can say I've spent some time in Aeor at this point, so. Yeah. Oh, that's true. That's right.

So I have some real opinions. I would say I would make a giant toad that would spit blue globules of time-preserving energy. And it would find people in Aeor and spit blue domes on them and preserve them

in that. Oh, you just want to know what those guys are? Yeah, I made that toad. It's canon, there we go. Upper body of a toad, the back legs of a pony. This is going to negate some things. Yep, I'm just making the answer right now.

You can make anything? That's the question, yeah. Powerful Archmage. I mean... Like Netflix? No, I don't know. You would disrupt the entertainment industry in Aeor? Yeah.

I mean, maybe I want what I wanted. That's not Netflix anymore, babe. I want people to take my platform and chill. Taliesin, what you got? I think, until that point, they had to teleport little discs to your house. Yeah, they made a transition. It was really...

Send it back. No, yeah. It's a whole invocation. The frustrating thing is you can only watch 20 words at a time. I mean, knowing too much, I would actually say that I feel like some sort of that they would be really into like a meal substitute, like a really good like liquid diet. Don't have to. Space food or something?

Space food. I would really, I think they would be really into that of just like really easy raw consumables. So you just didn't have to think about it. That would be my thing. Soylent? Soylent! I wasn't gonna say soylent, but soylent. Magic soylent. There you go. Yeah, it turns back into its core components

after 24 hours, which, depending on what you get out of it. It's made of gods! Good or bad, yeah. Oh, interesting. I mean, I also know too much. I know it's rough because I built the place. You know too much? You know too much? I know it's rough. You know too much? Because I built the place. You know too much?

I would, if I was a half-archmage at the height of the Age of Arcanum, within Aeor, I would develop a creature that could negate arcane tracking, couldn't be seen or tracked, that could bypass Truesight even. gate, arcane tracking, couldn't be seen or tracked, could bypass Truesight even. Whoa. I mean, if that height, if I'm talking about it,

and could emanate an anti-magic field as part of that. It would be the perfect assassin to take out the other high-end mages that would compete with my position in power. I will change mine really quickly. I would have created a magic vacation home so I wasn't there when everything was done. Ah!

All survival! Thank you. Nice lake house. Very good. Arcane lake house. That was good, Matt. You should start a campaign. And because that was such a good answer, you can go pick from the tower.

All right, let's go. Don't break this one. I have- Did you break the last one? Yeah, I did! And I still wake up in cold sweats. Careful. I know. Careful.

These towers, they're like my worst nightmare. I don't like them. Hey, I got you, man. It's like... That and the jazz. Sticky. I swear we need to do it again. No, no, it's just the tension.

Matt! Is it almost happening again? This has been one block, Matt. One block. What did I say? 40. Look, I just about shat myself right there. I was like, oh, fucker.

From Sophie Birchwood. Sophie Birchwood. His names are great. Being an adventurer can be stressful and traumatizing. When making characters, how do you make sure your character have and keep enough motivation to start slash keep going? Have you ever had a character that's been close

to just saying nope and quit Sam Riegel? All the time. It's the hardest thing to justify. Because if you have a character that has any sort of a life other than this adventuring party, they eventually will want to get back to it. If they have a life that they ran away from, we have such long campaigns that a lot of times they can make amends with the people who wronged them or get revenge on the person who betrayed them or apologize to whoever or see their dad and win his respect. And so then you want

to go back to that life again. And if, yeah, it's so hard. All my characters want to leave. Scanlan wanted to leave. Yeah. Terry resolved his shit. Yeah, yeah. Nott wanted to go back to her family. Wanted to change, wanted to go back.

I mean, Fresh Cut. Put herself in harm's way. Fresh Cut Grass wanted to make amends with Dancer and stuff, but if the change bringer had been more available to Fresh Cut Grass, I don't know, maybe he would have been like, peace. Yeah, I'm gonna go join a temple. Yeah.

Obby the Rat was fulfilled very quickly. Yes, deep backstory. Deep cut, deep cut. Love the Obby reference. Yeah. It's hard to make a fully formed, realistic character who just wants to go around killing people for three years. Sure. You got to find it.

That's where the rust uncertain systems begin to show. Or builds. It's the incentive to make it super, super deep and to have those gaps that the story and the DM can fill in. And if you don't do that, then if you resolve your character too quickly, you might be like, oh. Yeah, my quest is over. As long as you build them with a really inappropriate work-life balance

and some severe issues and social and emotional damage, they'll just keep working and working and working and ignoring their real life no matter what happens in it. That's also very real. It's true. They'll just keep working and working and working and ignoring their real life, no matter what happens in it. It's true. They have to be broken people. I mean, you have to be kind of a broken person to want to adventure for a living. Yeah.

You're inherently, like, you're so unfulfilled in your normal life that you're going to go and seek out caverns filled with monsters. And then after you barely survive a couple times, go like, let's keep going. Yeah. Let's do this again and again. Or I could go home and make some meaningful relationships and become a tailor, do okay.

Yeah. And that's where you transition to other systems that are made for that. That's where you go to some wonderful indie game, cozy RPG where you start a bakery or become a tailor. All these can be congruent in the same world. You can jump systems in the same place and find a new character fulfillment, which is kind of fun.

One of my early builds before Campaign 3 was I was trying to make a joke out of having a character that was in a happy marriage that had kids that were healthy and had left the roost. He had everything that he wanted. It was not troubled or damaged in any way. It lasted less than three days.

I started writing and I was like was like god i hate this guy i can't relate to this just get a hobby or something what's wrong with you first first game of the campaign he's like you know what guys i was wrong i'm gonna go home yep fun this is uncomfortable i think i'm gonna go back to my bed i really miss fresh coffee. Bye. Yeah, that's kind of the challenge of the GM for long-form campaigns is to make sure

that you can at least build stories that keep the players engaged and the characters feeling like they have something to work for. But also, that's not just the GM's responsibility, it's also the player and GM to work together. And if the player's feeling like, my character's a little aimless,

or like, what can I do? What can happen at this point? My character's thinking about leaving. Then you have a conversation with the GM. I had that conversation with Liam about Caleb. Caleb almost left the Mighty Nein partway into campaign two. Like, he was like, Caleb wants to go.

Yeah. And I was like, if you want him to go, you can. You can make a new character, and he's off in the world, which means he's mine. Yeah. Give him to me. Yeah. And I started... Liam was like, go, you can. You can make a new character and he's off in the world, which means he's mine. Yeah, give him to me. Yeah, and I started- And Liam was like, well then no, he's not gonna go.

I mean, that might've been actually how it went. But he was thinking up other alternative characters and then some conversations in game kind of turn him around and he ended up making amends with some of that tension in the group. That's what I tried to get across. That's why I love making a carny is I love a character with Wanderlust

or like, are you gonna settle down? This is settled down. Like this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life is sadly, but inevitably was travel, travel, travel, travel. Yeah. Yeah. Why stop? That's valid. Yeah.

Yeah, there's an alternate reality somewhere where, like I was thinking about what to do with Caleb if he ended up kind of vanishing into the shadows and like eventually he could have, if he missed him, bring him back. But in my head I was like, what to do with Caleb if he ended up vanishing into the shadows. Eventually, if he missed him, bring him back. But in my head, I was like, what if Trent found him and he became a Volstrucker again and began to hunt you guys down? There was a lot of cool alternative realities

that could have been really awful. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Instead, he found a boyfriend and settled down, which I think was for the best for Caleb. That is amazing. Thank you Bethy and Sophie Birchwood. If you have a question for our Tower of Inquiry, you can enter it at critrole.com slash tower. Now, it is time to slide into the deep dive where Lorekeeper Danny Carr serves us beverages made out of words

and we drink them with our imagination. Does that mean you're getting a new cup? I know. Is that what's? It does. Oh wow. And I have a temporary cup. It negates your current cup. An interim cup? New cup.

I love it. Ew. So y'all really answered a lot of these during your what the fuck is up with that? That's great. Sorry. That means we just burn them if one doesn't happen. Or go deeper.

That means they're good questions. Or deep dive. Taliesin takes it. Since I got to skip by. All right. What went through Ashton's mind upon seeing FCG in their vision from Dominox?

Is there any truth to the insecurity around that death that Dominox foisted upon him? Oh, boy. So... Yeah, Hittus, I feel like an ass. I didn't ask you about your vision. No, no.

Terrible friend. I knew we'd get there. I wasn't going to say it. Fuck. I know. I don't hold it against you because I'm a good friend. Boom!

Nice. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. I feel like... Ashton has seen enough people die at this point that they know the ins and outs of that emotional process. And definitely has some guilt about allowing, not allowing necessarily, but knowing that this was a very, very real possibility the entire fucking time. And saying it out loud several times. Like, this is what's going to happen to this tiny robot. You all know, right? We have to do something about this.

Like, really, over and over again. And it's there. And definitely the feeling that they could have said more to get them not there at the time um everything that uh that ashton did say is absolutely true uh about how they feel about how they felt about it but i should also point out and i'm i don't know if anyone caught it that while he was started relating to the demon and ignoring the vision about a third of the way through, he stopped, started talking to FCG instead, even though he knew that was the like, oh shit, he's in it now.

Fuck. I was waiting for that. I was like, oh, he's ignoring, oh no, I got him, I got him. Because he was like, I know better, I know better. No, no, I have shit to say. I don't care. It's like, oh no.

It made me very happy. Thank you. In a horrible way I'm glad you noticed so yeah yeah it really I'm

there is there's some other stuff that will come up in the next episodes but yeah that's that's weighing shit

alright you're up I'll go Travis and Taliesin oh we're friends again oh yeah aww what do Chetney and Ashton think of Travis and Taliesin. We're friends again. Aw, yay.

What do Chetney and Ashton think of Vladna's battle with Delilah and her taking the sword from Orym? Do they trust their friend, and do they see parallels with their own stories? You first? I would say yes for Chetney. I also had to say yes for Ford. Like, same thing. The Warlock-y patron stuff is so fucking hard to ignore and juicy to play as a player.

Definitely yes for Chetney because it's a pursuit of power that he never had in his previous 400 years. There's no way he's giving it up or saying no. If someone offered a cure, fuck that. Get out of here. The fact that it came at the expense of the group in such a public way, I still don't know, maybe only Marisha could say, like who had the most control over it was when she was having the conversation

with Orm back and forth, like how much of it was Laudna and how much of it might have been Delilah, right? But yeah, I saw the similarities. Literally, I couldn't tell you. So Marisha would have to tell you. Yeah. Yeah, Ashton. He wants to trust her with all his heart

and will actively do it with effort, but also sees a lot of their own struggles in there and knows how easily it is to to to fall off that that horse and and up real bad uh and because of that we'll probably end up sort of siding with her more often than than yeah probably healthy i that that's the best I can kind of say. That's weird. They seem like a very healthy person. It's inherent also in the play, right? Like, we're going up against deities and ancient cities and lewdness, or 1,000 years old, or whatever the fuck.

So anytime there's a chance to grab something that might level you up or give you more power or make you more formidable in your defense or offense against those things, you're gonna take it yeah ramifications be damned right and and yeah and her experience of of of them when they were when ashton was a going through their own version of this is this is the appropriate thing to do uh definitely had an, and also being there when everything kind of went to hell when the group was split, and not,

and I don't want to say encouraging it yet. It didn't encourage it, but definitely watching that happen, there's some guilt. There's, yeah, it's very complicated, but we'll probably side with her almost unless she really hurt somebody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Dig it. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Dig it. Oh yeah. You! I'm next. Take it. Question. Matt, what was it like to perform at the Greek Theater, especially this crux in the story,

and to get the how you want to do this at a live show? Well, I've already expressed my embarrassment at getting my own killing blow. But no, that was wild. I've been to the Greek Theater for a number of shows, a number of concerts over the years. What have you seen there? I've seen, Liam took us to the Decembrists there. I've seen churches there. Yes, we have.

I've seen Heilung there. Dang, you saw Heilung at the Greek? Yeah, dude. That was the first time I saw them. It was incredible. Open air. So good. Yeah, we dragged you to the show. It was so good. Yeah, I've seen quite a few shows there. And I think actually the first time I was there, I was maybe 12. Wow. 12 or 13, and I saw a West Side Story there. Oh, wow.

Yeah, so I've been going to the Greek for a long time in my life. And so having all these memories there and all these different shows and performances and then now being on stage there and seeing it from the other side. I remember like walking out on stage when they were setting up before sound test and being like, this is crazy. Like all the memories flooding back and being like, now we're on this end. And then having all the energy, the audience there, everyone was so excited, even mid-afternoon when it was way too hot.

And we were all like, hey, we're so sorry we just yay open air it gets better as it goes on but like everyone was still so excited and so sweet and yeah it was a little bit wisdom of the audience we were like you guys are hydrating right half the audience just held up a beer i mean same water water also please but okay no it was it was incredible and like a lot of things I mean, same. Water. Water also, please. But okay. It was incredible. And like, a lot of things culminated there beyond just like the history. Like getting to finally do a Bell's Hells live show

like in canon, which we haven't done yet with this campaign. Coming off of the whole, you know, the terrors of the mid-pandemic. And then having you finally come back on stage with us was incredible. Getting to bring Robbie into this live show experience was wild. He was so, he's always phenomenal.

But like, yeah. I loved his entrance where he came out and he was like, I don't know what to do. I'm going to play a flute because he's a bard. Which is when I knew he's one of us. Yep. I don't know what to do with my hands. Yep.

There is no more Pro Worldcast experience than why am I here? What is that? Ah! How does this relate to the sponsor on any level? It was great. Dan. Okay.

Oh, nice, and then you just pick one? Sure. Dig it. What was the inspiration for Brea's Doomseed? I think I've talked about this. Well, I was trying to figure out what to do, and I also considered coming back in as Tarion, or as Scanlan, or as Kaylie, or somebody else.

But it didn't seem like, I don't know, just didn't seem like the move. Was it poppin'? Yeah, and we've never had a character who's like, well, besides Chetney, who's truly evil. Yeah, sure. And, right? Have we ever had a main player character who's like, no.

You're also not coming across as super evil or horny. The closest is Mighty Nein. Almost everybody in Mighty Nein was on the edge. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, I mean, we've had moral ambiguity. We've had dubiousness. Yes. And we've had guests who kind of fit into that, kind of.

But yeah, we've never had a PC who is, and like I said, we haven't really established the alignment of Reyes. I don't know, we'll see. But I want to see how you manifest this, because I don't know what your definition, especially through this character, of evil, quote unquote, really is.

I don't know what it is either. I'm kind of curious if it's going to be anywhere from Good Omens Watch that. To a tick villain. Should read it, it's a really good book. It is a really good book too, but yeah.

Great book. Yeah, I've only played as Breyas for an hour and a half or whatever, so I gotta figure out what he is. It means if you're going to be evil, you gotta start doing some evil shit. Yeah. But once again, it depends on what is evil, or at least what is following in the Lord of Hell's path. What does that entail?

Nomad. He's gotta kill people. He's gotta kill him next game, or he's out. Make your own choices. You gotta kill half the group. Don't listen to him. You gotta kill people. Paladin, does being good turn you into an Oathbreaker? Ooh. Oh, shit.

Whoa. I know, right? I mean, it's breaking an oath, yeah, technically. I mean... Depends on what's in the oath. I swear to do evil things. Oh, but also, good is so relevant. Well, to be fair, the Oathbreaker is the idea of the evil Paladin,

but it doesn't... Look, I don't... The Oathbreaker, I think of the evil paladin, but it doesn't... Look, I don't... The Oathbreaker, I think, is misnamed and misutilized, unfortunately. I think it's an option that only plays into the idea of a paladin being a good character. But also, like... But then you'd say Oathbreaker, which means you broke your oath. You're a fallen, you know, paragon of this virtue. But then that means you're now evil and necrotic? It's like, no, there should be more, anyway.

I do not. What's the Latin for broke up over text message? I feel like that's kind of. I feel thematically the Oathbreaker is unfinished. I think it's a little undercooked. I will finish it. You will. You will.

I will make it a good t have the very best six feet underground. Tally, go! Oh, yep. Going in. Your job is especially spiky. Oh, yeah, I actually said more spikes when we were working on it. How does Ashton feel after interacting

with Essek and knowing that he might have answers about the Dunamansi in Ashton's head? Honestly, really, really bloody excited. I mean, I do too, but like, self-discovery and a little bit of understanding about what the hell is happening

inside them is definitely, I guess it's the Exandrian version of like, I have healthcare. Wait a minute. I have all this shit I need to check out. Am I okay? I'm gonna just get this as far as I can. This thing that keeps happening to me has a name? I don't care if you can't fix it, it has a name!

That is very, very real. And there, I mean, like, and there was, I mean, there was there was a there was a i mean the characters began at a very very specific place of i'm never going to get answers about any of this because i'm a broke-ass motherfucker who works for an evil villain you just you you don't get answers if you're a if you're at an unemployed a barely employed mid-level video game boss. It's just not where... They just really come to accept that whatever the hell this was,

it was just going to be a mystery, and they were fine with that. So suddenly having access to all this is really exciting, just in the sense of like, okay, I can actually maybe get better at this, and that's crazy. It'd be cool if it unlocked something.

Yeah. I mean, any of it is really, even if it didn't, just knowing is now such a good step of self-discovery for a character who is really not disinterested, but didn't think about it at all. I think he's very interested to learn more about this, too. Yeah. You are an absolute fucking anomaly. Oh, yeah, I'm... For a person who studied dunamancy for the extent of his, you know,

century-long life, pretty much, at this point, almost, like, he looked at you and went, what? And they just started thinking, like, will this, I mean, like, after whatever, everything that happened with the fucking stones, they're like, is I mean, after everything that happened with the fucking stones, they're like, could this hurt somebody?

Is this a thing that could just go off randomly? Because I just don't think about it. Because that's just existential dread. Yeah. Well, you are by nature, Ashton is a being of volatility, both persona and your physical makeup right now. You are ancient primordial Titan element, you know, dunamancy.

Fern without the charm. Yeah, no, aware. That's a Mangerish. Without the charm. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. It's very like, I have made this decision, it seemed like the good idea at the time. The two of you are a dangerous pair. Yeah, no, I'm worried.

Like when the two of you are making decisions together. It always goes poorly. It is actually, I've tracked it, it always goes poorly. It's great, it's great. I'm tracked. Like, yeah, we should do this. Yes. Yeah, we got it.

My hand's too big for the stupid, I'm gonna do the pour out thing. Oh, look at one of the, the Vigi, the Vision, one of the... The vision that Chetney received from Dominox was intense, showing him children he does not remember killing. Do you think this vision was real or was it just a fear that he holds inside? I don't think it was real!

I think it was real. Do a different one. As a lore hound... Oh, you are. What is it like to be back in Aeor? It's real, it's real good. It's real, real good. I was instantly intrigued by the giant creature

with the big hammer that came around after we found the first bodies that had the dominoc symbol carved into their chest. My appetite was whetted yet again once we realized we were going up against a grand demon, which I had never heard about before, much less that it had been around long enough to be a myth for devils in the hells.

Love that shit. And the fact that Ludinus came out and is now not preaching to us, but is talking to us like he's gonna need our help or wants to rationalize with us for something means that he maybe needs something and that we're going to get a peak 800 plus years ago is fucking spicy and i'm here for it i i i love it i love it because as we said before it just kind of expands the world and it gives us more stuff to

play with but it always gives us another peek into your mind that's been around for 10 years and cooking all this stuff up. And every time we get a little new glimmer of it, I don't know how you keep the lid on it for so long. I don't. Good. Do you write it down somewhere? No, I do. I have a number of lore docs that I have per campaign as well as like an overall lore doc lore doc, and I'll have ideas. My notes on my phone are ridiculous because I'll just be driving and have an idea, and then as soon as I park, I'll put notes in there.

And I go back and cross-reference them all, and they all are illegible to anyone but me, but that's how I run. I just kind of spew it all onto the page and then go back and try to make sense of it later. Love it. All right, hit us. Dabba. Dabba.

Dabba. All right. Did you expect the party to summon Tevin Clask? What was it like to portray him, Essek, Dominox, and Ludinus in the same game? No, I didn't expect it! It's one of those things where I didn't expect to even make a deal with him. When he showed up, he was a temporary ally in that one battle when they were trying to deal with

the aftermath of the Solstice and everything, and the rising of clashing divination with other things that are taking, you know, using this as an opportunity. And then when he was there and started talking and started trying to work out some sort of relationship,

I was like, okay, yeah, well, we'll see. Here's a little, an improvised, a little lure, a little red button that maybe she could push later and I'll deal with that when that happens. And then I forgot about it. Lure, lure. Lure, lure.

Yeah. I was like, I'll give happens. And I forgot about it. Lore, lore. And then, yeah. Like, didn't even, I was like, I'll give her that, and I forgot about it. And then, like, hey, you have that thing on your finger. Yeah, cool. She's not actually going to do it. They're doing it. Okay, look, here we go.

Now he's in there. And then, as I said earlier, having all of them lay on top of each other with the responsibility of a live show where the venue's like, you have to be done by this time. I'm like, okay, cool. Okay. You did a great job. I also love that all of us are completely ignoring

the pact part of it, that there's a back end to the deal. It's on my mind. Oh yeah. What is the back end? We don't know. She summoned Tevin, and then I think it was Imogen that was like, do you remember what the deal was? And we were like, who gives a shit? It's great.

She's just, in some way, she performed Valentine's Osmoody, isn't it? And it's fine. That'll be fine. No problem. It's fine. It's great. This is what we're here for. Let's go! This is what we're here for.

I mean, Fearne's... You know when somebody promises themselves to too many factions? Fearne is spread thin across many different mindsets and perspectives, and I'm excited to see where that'll go. The Fae, the Prime Material Plane, the Hells. Yeah, it's good. Oh yeah, great. This could go full John Constantine.

I'm obsessed with Fearne Constantine. You know exactly what I mean by that too. Just like, well, none of us really know what to do with this anymore. You're just a mess. Literally just Garth and his Constantine and I am so living. You know who they're talking about.

My Ferobroth. No, I don't. Yay, yay, yay, comic book nerd nerd. Anybody who reads comic books currently in the audience knows what we're talking about. I'm interested. Brayus is clearly very interested in romance. Wow. Look at the patience.

The patience. He's back, baby. What a wonderful thing. Look at the prosthetic. I haven't thought about that in a long time. That is great. I'm proud of that shit. As you should.

I was happy I was able to reprise him all these years later. It took so much time to get the green makeup out of every nook and cranny after each shoot day. Still finds it. Talk about patience. Oh, yeah. I didn't. I had to feel immersed. That was good. after each shoot day. Still finds it. Talk about patience. Oh yeah, I didn't. I had to feel immersed.

Sam, Brayus is very interested in romance, judging by his flirtation with nearly everyone in the group. What does he look for in a partner? What would he write on his dating profile? Oh, I actually am curious about this. It's hell, they have Tinder. Never gets dehydrated.

I mean, he's into any and every one. On his dating, what do people put on, like what are the categories on a dating profile? The old ones used to be like, must love dogs, right? Love long walks on the beach and candlelight dinners. Nothing against a view. He's into art. He's into art and painting.

He's tall. He's furry. Oh no! Is it a full coat for different lengths, or is there some no fur spot? No, no, I think he's head to toe fur. All over? Yeah.

Like thin in the face, so. Yeah, it's just shorter in the face. And then like goat texture, is it like fur? I really haven't thought about that. I'm putting that out there. Maybe he's furry everywhere, but he manscapes just. He's totally short. Maybe he's furry everywhere, but he manscapes just... He's totally shorn.

Oh no. It's like... He does his butt too. No, clearly. Are you manscaping in hell? Oh no. I mean, yes. Yeah. You gotta be ready when opportunity strikes.

Tell. Or should famous the protagonist. He just looks like that bad monkey face Jesus painting, but like right there. Sure. Oh no. I think he's looking for a partner who's into evil. He's into devil worship.

And who doesn't mind hot places, like the Hells. Is it because he likes to cuddle? Yeah, yeah. He's sensitive. Is he color-averse? Oh, like... Like, if you have color, he doesn't like you? Like the Molly Mock outfit, would that be a turn off?

Yeah, I think that's too much for him. I think he sees the world in black and white and it's just more beautiful that way. So they work on you, take you on as a project, take you shopping, get some monochromatic pieces. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do a little overhaul. A lot of very weird impression sort of aesthetic, okay.

Uh-huh, uh-huh. And his ideal date would probably be, getting some food from a trough. I don't know how minotaurs work. You have a human face. Yes, bulls eat from a trough. And... Not a truck bed, not a hay bale.

Going to see the movie Eight Seconds, starring Luke Perry, which is his bull riding movie. Yeah, bull riding movie. Oh, mid-90s. Oh my god. Wow, 80 and a second. Holy shit. I saw that on like a bus trip in middle school.

That's crazy. I'm so happy. Not even an airplane, a bus. Yeah, it was a bus, I remember it. I'm so happy to explore more with this character. 30 seconds. It's all the bull references. It's very impressive.

And he's spent. Yep, yep. Oh god. Yep, that's it. He watches Night Court. Hey! Because there's a character named Bull. Correct.

Huge Dragon Age influence. Oh my god. I got the sports woods. Oh, we needed this. Taliesin help. Okay. Yep, now let's end this. I got the Night Court reference.

Yeah, well done. Wow. I just turned to Ash at the time. Night Court's back on TV. Is it really? It is, there's a new Night Court. Ashton has utilized the new rock form a few times now. What's it like to explore that form?

Is it worth the exhaustion? People keep asking me to do it in the group, and I'm definitely getting a little like, you realize that this is kind of awful yeah um that's why we ask yeah push the button yeah so i'm just basically useless for two games oh at least the exhaustion yeah after it i admit that i forget about that part. Yeah, it's got a big exhaustion drop on it, which can be mitigated via spell with proper materials. Like a restoration spell?

Yeah, a greater restoration can remove it. I have one of those spells. Knock a day or knock it completely? It just takes away one point. Takes away one point. Wait, how many points do you get? Two. Ooh, that's when it starts to get bad.

And they compound, so if I do it again, then I get more and more, and then eventually you just, you've got enough exhaustion to just die. I don't think we've ever had a player character that had more than three levels of exhaustion. Have we even had three? You become pretty rough at three plus. What is three?

Everything's at disadvantage. Yeah, I think one is ability checks, two is movement reduction, and then three is your attacks are, and I think saving throws. Attacks and saving throws are disadvantaged by roll. Is there a four? There's four, five, six, and seven.

What are those? It just gets worse and worse and worse. You there a four? There's four, five, six, and seven. What are those? It just gets worse and worse and worse. You know what? I think you're, I think. Gotta find out. Gotta find out. You have one job to be that fucking master astronaut going deep past Pluto.

What's that new spot? You know, Fearne can do this too. I'm just saying. Yeah! We can exhaust that character. That's true. We should have like a side bet who can get further down the exhaustion hole faster. It's a wonderful.

We really could. No. Whoever gets the most exhausted in this campaign gets like 10 bucks. And the pot grows every episode. Ooh. That's pretty great. Yeah. I think at five points, it actually affects your FICO score.

Like it just, it gets real rough in the lower points. If you're watching this and you're like, well, before I get the FICO score, don't worry. You'll care at some point. At one point in your life. You go to get a lift, and the guy's like, I can't pick you up. Yeah.

You're exhausted. Sorry. They're like, hold on, hold on. A cat's great at restoration. Okay, we're good, come on. Oh, no.ascade of Restoration. Okay, we're good, come on. Oh no. Yeah, it's expensive, but I seem to be doing it more than I thought I would be.

It's useful when you do it. It's pretty great. It is a good Hail Mary also. It's meant to be a once every couple days sort of ability. You know who has those restoration spells? Clerics. Oops. It's Paladins? I don't think anybody. Druids do? Druids do. Druids, yes, Fearne has Oops. Do paladins? Druids do?

Druids, yes. Fern has it. Oh, we have a druid. Okay, yes. We just have to have Ashton. They take like a thousand gold worth of diamond or something stupid like that. They are expensive.

I mean, pricey. But, you know, you also have a lot of resources at your disposal because this is a world-altering event. Yeah. Fair. And the Bank of Chetney always has favorable interest rates. Speaking of which...

On the road, it's tough. I'll fund that. Legitimately, when... Done. I was saying, whenever you're returning to any sort of hub space of allies that are preparing for the conflict, or are in the process of defending the conflict, Like, for the most part, whatever you need that's not astronomical, you can have at your disposal. Allura's not going to be like,

um, no, sorry, that's too expensive. Like, you know, if Skeleth can help you with a greater restoration, she's going to do it. Yeah. So like, yeah. We know we're going back. Yeah, it's a challenge when you're on the road, and that's kind of where the math of the balance of those abilities are.

But if you come back to that and you have like three or four points of exhaustion, like someone can probably help you. But you don't know how soon you'll get back to those things. I like having Ashton having a lot of mixed feelings about the whole thing. And you should. That was the intent of the balance.

Yeah, it's great. I love it. Speed round? Yeah, speed round. Okay. Which one do I want more? Just do all of them. All of them. Oh, sure, okay.

What does Chetney think of having Dorian back, as well as this new Brayus individual? I love it. First of all, Dorian makes everything better. Brayus flirting with everybody, including Dorian, just makes Chetney supremely happy. I'm here for it. If only to see Dorian react awkwardly to the flirtation. Oh, it's wonderful. Poor Dorian. Dominox, while impersonating Cyrus and FCG,

mentioned trapped and lost souls in the post-Selstice chaos. Was that just a twist of the vision, or are the souls truly stuck in limbo right now? No, that was just him trying to force them to help him free himself. It was the meaning like, hey, there's a reason things are bad here and you can save it by destroying this thing

that'll help me. It's manipulation. Trying to manipulate you through those moments of breaking your sense of confidence. Yeah. Why did Breas appear to the group heavily wounded despite his own healing abilities? I feel like it happened recently,

but also I thought that me appearing injured to the group might endear me to them more. It did make you less intimidating. Yeah. Yeah. Along with being found in a broom closet. Yeah. What did Ashton and Chetney think of Ruidus and R'hlloria? What are their thoughts about everything going on

in the moon? The fuck? Binding round, go. Yeah. The fuck? What the fuck? Yeah. Great answer.

I can't figure out if the Ruidus was pulled from the ocean, from the land, where the hell the animals came from, who the hell are the Weavemine. It's gnarly. The Weavemine seemed to reconnect with Chetney on Ruidus. Because, you know, respect for the smartest and most attractive. What do you think happened there, and what do you think it means that they have begun to weave back into him? They've clearly sensed power and leadership amongst the group. Alpha-ness.

And they know, yeah. And then it's down to you. You need an alpha at the top of each group, and that is the trickle-down, weave-mine tactic that's been around for 800 and how many years? Don't worry about it. Yep. Right? So much of the story has been building to Downfall. What is it like to finally hand over the reins to Aeor's past?

And is there anything you can tell the audience as you prepare for downfall? I'm super excited. There's nobody else I trust more with the story. Brennan does such an incredible job in what we've been developing and what he's been developing is incredible. I am confident and scared and excited

for all of you to check it out. And is there anything I can tell the audience as we prepare for downfall? I will say the occultus Thalamus uniquely stores more information from powers that are attuned to its arcane technology than even I think it anticipated. And it allows some unique perspectives during this series, then maybe is anticipated.

That's all it is. And Ludinus is sitting us down to watch this with him, right? Yeah, he's literally like, I want to show you something. Is this like when I tell my kids, like, hey, let's watch a movie that I loved as a kid, and I put on Short Circuit, and I'm like, uh-oh. Uh-oh.

Oh, we can't show you that one. No, put on Short Circuit and I'm like, uh oh. That guy, he should not be playing that part. Don't, just don't. Fucking Short Circuit. That really happened? Johnny Five, you know what, let's watch something else. Mac and Me. I have not watched, Mac and Me is a classic. I love it, yeah.

Pretty nice. Yeah. Mac and me? I have not watched it. Mac and me is a classic. I love it. Yeah. Uh. Woo! Pretty nice. We're doing one more. What has it been like to see the outpouring of love for FCG? It's been so great. I loved all the art. I loved all the sadness.

I drink your tears. Bell's house have even adopted his color scheme. I saw the new art. So cute. I think like three or four of you guys have chunks of his body on. Yeah, don't make it weird. Which is gross.

Don't make it weird. Is anyone wearing his tongue? I mean, it's drying. Not anywhere where you can see it. What would FCG think of that memorial? He would love it and he would say, you shouldn't make such a fuss about him. Oh, love it.

Ashton asked Fearne to start cuddling with him and she agreed. What does this new intimacy mean to him? How does Ashton feel the first night when they awoke and she was missing? Did you guys have sex? No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

It was just the after. Were you guys 69, though? I mean haven't been watching the show. No, no, no. It was just... Were you guys 69, though? I mean, it's not called that when it's... Well, never mind. Blah, blah, blah. It's called Hard Rock Cafe. Oh! Oh, man.

Hey! Yeah, there you go. I'm going to go to hell. Honestly, they're not precious. Ashton is not precious about these things and also doesn't really have a lot of relationship experience. So yeah, no. And also knows who she is.

So it's just like, honestly, it was mostly like, if you're doing something stupid, you should have woken me up, was literally the first thought. It was, no. like if you're doing something stupid you should have woken me up was literally the first thought was no what i'm asking for is like like adventure partner with benefits i guess i'm not quite sure yet but like it's not a uh the dark thing and it'll probably never be said out loud is is ashton's theory of what love is is love is wanting to trust somebody. Not trusting them, though. Just wanting to. So, yeah. Anyway. There's my fucking...

Love it. Healthy. Yeah, so healthy. All right, prompter says it's time for another pull from the Tower of Inquiry! I'll go first. Two people... I'm being set up for failure. I can believe in you. Okay.

I know, the whole one side of this is leaning. Oh boy, it's already leaning. Is it already going? Yeah, it's kind of jiggling. Matt messed up. Yeah, Matt fucked it up. Damn it, Matt. I'm grabbing three pieces all at once.

Damn it, Matt. Oh no. This is bad. Oh no. We're okay, this is fine. Oh no. That's not good. Is it my imagination that it's coming? Oh no! Wait, not good. Is it my imagination that it's cold? Oh no!

Wait, you gotta look. 45. 45. It's weird. Dude, that was messy. I don't like these things. Don't give me finesse stuff. A bowl at a china shop.

I love it. I feel like it's leaning. Stop it. Yeah, for sure. Stop saying that. I didn't do any of that. It doesn't feel good. Good job. Sorry. I feel like it's leaning. Stop it. Yeah, for sure. Stop saying that. I didn't do it. It doesn't feel good.

Good job. Sorry. At ad underscore dubs on Instagram, what is a theme you never expected to take stage in your character's journey so far? Good question, at dubs. Theme. Does Chetney have any themes?

Santa. Not an unexpected one. I'm kind of surprised how quickly it hit, but... I mean, I didn't set out to make Fresh Cut Grass a weird conspiracy theorist a flat earther no one starts there that was unexpected

yeah it was always Ashton was always about integrating lost parts of you he was always going to be, it was always built to go into, especially parental,

parental abandonment, I suppose. That was always part of it and then like how you rebuild after that. So that was, that was day one. There might be a little bit

of legacy in there for the first time. I think for Chetney, he was like, I don't make much of an impact, but my toys will. And people will love them and then hand them down. And so that was his idea of legacy. And now it's become this grandiose delusions of grandeur in that I can help affect the world or the cosmos or something. And so I think he's exploring that. Where he's slowly carved his name and put a stamp on every single piece

Of furniture that's ever had any significance in exandria in history. I'm just saying his initials are all fucking over a or right He's been grinding into the metal with that chisel Seapop what does it mean? You're just... What is it? What was the... Not the only five-year-old. Shit.

The... Like, Ripley was here or something. You know what I'm talking about. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Yes, yes, yes. It was like a famous graffiti that was like all over the place. Yes, yes.

100%. Next one. Who wants to pull? None of us do. Pick one. Sam and Matt, boulder parchment shoes. On three? After three.

After three, okay. One, two, three, shoot. You win. All right. So I go? Yeah, you go. You win, so you pick. I guess we should've, I mean, it's assumed.

All right, all right. Yeah, you got the shitty two. Oh boy. This it's assumed. All right. All right. Oh boy. This one's already sort of out. Oh boy. Tasha, you have to do it? No, I don't know if we're, are those the rules? If you move it, you gotta keep pulling it.

Wow. Oh boy. All righty. Oh fuck. Oh ha. Dude, I'm sorry, I really, she used that one. Oh boy. From astrid. Dude, I'm sorry, I really, she used that one. Oh, boy.

From astrid.dashbeck on Tumblr. Oh, she was on the show. Uh-huh. Many of the previous player characters have returned as NPCs in Campaign 3. If you could take over any NPC to revive as a player character, who would it be? Oh.

NPC. I almost did this. Yeah, you almost literally did this Oh. MPC. I almost did this. Yeah, you almost literally did this. What was the one I almost picked, Dan? You almost picked Darrow. Darrow. Of the stubborn stock from campaign two. Yeah, I was talking to Danny about coming in as Darrow

because I thought he would be super hot. Pretty hot. Really hot. Yeah, and then, why did I change? I don't know why, but I almost came back as Dara. Yeah. I would pick Bolo. Bolo? Oh yeah. We gotta know what Bolo's deal was.

Yeah, man. She wanted to be a reporter. I want to be a reporter. I'm bringing her under my wing. It's so fucking terrible. So good. Got a bright future. What do you think, other NPCs? My first pick is too obvious.

I'm trying to think of something a little bit. Why? I mean, I honestly, I love the whole Clay family in Calliope. I like, Calliope is just exciting me so much as a character. Maybe for a one-shot in the future. Yeah. It's not an NPC, but I briefly,

when I was discussing and debating who this new character should be, I briefly thought, wouldn't it be fun if I came back as Percy Dorolo? As an older... We had this idle conversation. Oh shit, okay. If I came back as like a grizzled old Percy Dorolo

who's just suiting up for one more mission, damn. And then Taliesin said, no. I said, I said. Absolutely not. Well, I said no. I did think about it, because it seemed like, because honestly,

because I couldn't quite say no to you yet. I had to like, you know, try and you're in that place. I had cancer. Yes. I couldn't quite say no to you yet. I had to like, you know, try, you're in that place. I had cancer. Yes. I couldn't say no outright. I said I'd think about it. Thank you. And while we inevitably landed on no,

I will admit, I also was like, I want to see your, I'm so curious about your take. I want, like, did you have an idea was it like how weird would it have been but no that would be a fun one shot though to do like a body switching episode where everybody has to play we've been talking about that for a long time once again

maybe another one shot in the future would be fun I would love a body switch episode yeah that would be fun oh god damn it I thought I'd get away with it I know I'd get away with it. I know, I gave you the, this tower is now super, super. Oh, god. Wow.

What did you do, you people? Can we talk about all of the powder that's still on this? I don't know if the people can see this, but it is, like, I can... From the pyro? Yes, like, that's my hand now. It's like a ring pop. We'll just come by and lick the counter. Just draw a bunch of Olympics on it

and say Jester was here. Yep. One hand! Oh. You're welcome. It's not fair, I have a tremor. That's true. Okay, okay. Tremor clears, oh! Nice.

On the other hand, I can also just be bold. Oh, that's fair, 11. 11. It could all go to shit right here. Wow. Nice job. Shaky hands. Nicely done.

From one of my very favorite names, because it makes me laugh, Leviticus Yidicus from the Discord server. Yidicus. Hey, you so fan out here. If you could adapt any game slash book slash movie slash franchise, et cetera, into a tabletop RPG, which one would you pick and why? Oh, boy. Wicked and Divine.

Oh, yeah. Encyclopedia Brown. Ooh. Good one. Deep cut. Well, no, I mean, like, because you could do Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, there's like a whole,

they could just make the encyclopedia universe right there. That was the main reason I went to the library back in the day, yeah. Uh-huh. I think Lord of the Rings, because you could have dwarves and gnomes and halflings and people with swords and magic. Is it a point that I can slap him now?

Okay, it's another one. There you go. Okay. Is it a window that I can slap him now? Okay, it's another window, too. Okay. It's a long window. Damn it. Oh, man. That's a tough one. I'm sure there's a better choice, but my brain first went to

the Fate series, the Fate series. The Fate anime. Because you have like, you have magicians you have people like mage power and then you have these historical powerful entities that are bound to them that they like use to fight each other.

Also kind of JoJo's Adventure kind of stand like but very like dark and intense. Fate Zero specifically was the one that I worked on where like my heart kind of JoJo's Adventure kind of stand-like, but very dark and intense. Fate Zero specifically, which is the one that I worked on, where my heart kind of sits in that series, would make for some really interesting, where you're also trying to keep these things hidden from the modern world.

What's a lot of these mage battles are like secret and playing for the Holy Grail and all that kind of fun stuff. That'd be a really, really fun series. One might even exist that I am unaware of. I would do Fullmetal Alchemist. Good choice too, yeah, yeah. You've got alchemy, you've got different kinds of soldiers, you've also got lay people, you've also got the mechanics,

and the automail engineers, so much rich history. That would be solid, solid. It's a lot of good anime choices, actually. Yeah. Good ones. Good questions. Yeah. Great job. Anybody else pulling, or? No, I mean, yeah, actually. The door. Yeah. Good ones. Good questions. Yeah. Great job. Anybody else pulling? No, I mean, like, yeah, I just want the music RPG.

I love the idea of making RPGs with, like, and, like, playlists. I mean, Wicked and Divine is all music, and it's also the phonogram, which is adjacent to that, that has, like, music, magical music powers and things like that. Like, there's magic DJs and shit like that. And I think it would be really interesting to, like, have a tabletop game where actually, like, even such a thing

as being the person in charge of the soundtrack can actually use, like, the music playing in the room to actually affect the game. Like, I'm just, I don't know, throwing it out there.

I'm into it. That is cool. I hope we just brainstormed a bunch of new stuff. I know. And another thing. Thank you, adddubs astridbeck

and leviticus yeticus if you have a question for our tower of empiry you can enter it at critroll.com slash tower

and that is it for this portion of the four-sided dive for our podcast listeners or those of you watching this is a VOD we will see you

next month but please make sure you check out more more-sided diveive because, yeah, it does, right? Sighted Dive. When we come back from break, we will be playing Roll For It. It's basically rolling. Oh, okay. So just come back and watch it.

You'll like it. We'll be back in a little bit. That's it for the podcast version of this episode of four-sided 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. Foresighted 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 role podcast network. The following Friday, we'll see you again next month.