Critical Role - Swordgate | 4-Sided Dive | Episode 24: Discussing Up To C3E96

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

Robbie Daymond, Laura Bailey, Marisha Ray, and Matthew Mercer discuss the return of Dorian Storm, the current state of the group, and the continuous moon nonsense still afoot! They’ll, of course, also pull questions from the Tower of Inquiry and play a very panic inducing game called WE’RE DOOMED! Watch Critical Role LIVE at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on June 15th as Bells Hells gather their courage and their allies to stop Ludinus Da’leth and his planned destruction of the gods. Tickets are on sale now: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/090060A6C2C9330F   We’re excited to bring you even MORE with a Beacon membership! Start your 7-day free trial today at https://beacon.tv/join  Get unparalleled access to Critical Role with Beacon. Enjoy the shows you love completely ad-free, plus new exclusive series, instant access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord.   4-Sided Dive airs one Tuesday a month on http://twitch.tv/criticalrole and http://youtube.com/criticalrole Twitch Subscribers and YouTube Members gain instant access to VODs of our shows like Critical Role, 4-Sided Dive, Candela Obscura, and Exandria Unlimited. But don't worry: broadcasts will be uploaded to YouTube about 36 hours after airing live, with audio-only podcast versions of select shows on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & Google Podcasts following a week after the initial air date. Twitch Subscribers and YouTube Members also gain access to our official custom emote set and subscriber badges. "Let's Roll (4-Sided Dive Theme)" by Peter Habib and Sam RiegelOriginal Music by Omar Fadel and Hexany AudioAdditional Music by Universal Production Music, Epidemic Sounds, and 5 Alarm

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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 part of our community. Welcome to Foresighted Dive, Critical Role's monthly show featuring a roundtable discussion about the events and characters of our current campaign, alongside a heavy helping of hijinks. Foresighted Dive usually airs the first Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. Pacific on our Twitch and YouTube channels, with the VOD available on YouTube the very next day. And of course, each episode releases right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network the following Friday. Let's take a dive, shall we? Good evening and welcome to Foursided Dive. I am Robbie Damond, your 24th Tavern Keeper, news anchor, and here with tonight's top stories.

Bell's Hells made headlines last month when they returned to the moon of Exandria and naturally got in the middle of a wizard fight smack dab in the basement of a smutty little bookstore. According to sources, the two wizards were both very hot and shared an affinity for dirty boys named Bren. Matt Mercer will have more on that later. And now, to the world of politics. This is the camera, right? To the world of politics, and a word on everyone's lips today is sword gate.

Last month, resident kind of dead lady Laudna stirred up controversies when she attempted to steal a sword that Orym stole from a definitely dead lady. Marisha Ray is here to set the record straight once and for all. And now, let's check in with the Lorecast with our resident lorekeeper, Adani Karr. Well, Robbie, whether or not a Modna can recover from this is yet to be seen, but here we can see a strong system of romantic turbulence between them that can make your Thursday night a little tearful. Also, temperatures in the north around Eor are heating up due to a concentration

of hot boy energy. Later, fashion icon Laura Bailey will walk you through what not to wear during this hot boy summer. We'll have your five-day lore cast within the hour. Back to you, Robbie. Thank you, Dani. And finally, of course, Dorian Storm has officially made his way back to Bell's Hells after failing to save his friend Opal, thanks a lot, and his brother Cyrus in Ghosting Dariax. But he's brought Orm a brand new outfit? He's brought Orm a brand new outfit?

Bought him one! That's right, I did that in real life! And Robbie Damon, that's me, will editorialize on those events later. And be sure to stick around for more Foresighted Dive or more Sighted Dive as properly branded because tonight we're doomed! As in we'll be playing a game called We're Doomed, the Game of Global Panic.

It's funny because we're doomed and the name of the game is, yeah. Welcome to Foresighted Dive! Let's do the bleepin' show! Welcome back! Let's begin tonight with our open discussion segment. I feel like you guys are ready for it. What the fuck is up with that? Yeah.

What the fuck is up with that? It's been a lot of things. Just a few things. What the fuck is up with what? I've heard requests. I've heard requests to talk about family issues. Everyone's favorite therapy topic. This is a therapy show, right?

Yeah, kinda. It can get that way sometimes. I expected the chairs to be longer and all of us laying back, but that's what it is. We still have time, we'll come back at the break. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got you. When we came back, one thing that freaked me out

with all my new info was Fern's pop. Yeah. I don't know what the fuck is up with that. I got like the book jacket version, but I don't know what's happening. It's weird because I never know, like should we fill Robbie in on this? Is that too metagamey?

Should we just let him discover it on his own? Leave him in the dark? I mean, to a certain degree, I can see that standpoint, but that's more of like, I guess the player preference. Because at the same point, you can very well compartmentalize between what my character knows and what I know as Robbie. So I don't want you to feel like

you're completely in the dark. No, I had this moment where I was thinking like, okay, if I come back, I want to know what Dorian knows. So I was kind of like purposely staying away from things that I wasn't tagged in, or weren't blowing up on mine or whatever. But then I also knew the moment would come when if that happened where Matt would go and they tell you everything and I go fuck because then I have to know everything so so I've been trying since I've been back to like catch up and vibe on it but uh but yeah but I think there are

like moments to kind of be like I don't know what's happening and that's okay and it's fun I think yeah yeah yeah and fill you in well yeah I mean like yeah book's happening. And that's okay. And it's fun, I think. Yeah. Do you want us to fill you in? Well, yeah, I mean, like, yeah, book jacket. I also assume that there's downtime moments where the characters are like, we walk to this next location. Totally. Or we're gonna go get some food, where we're like, so here's the deal.

Yeah, we don't talk about every poop we take on stream. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I'm sure it happens. Yeah. Unless you wanna see that, I guess, let us know. Please, hashtag. I mean, some people do, Grog always did, but you know. I'm sure it happens. Yeah. Unless you want to see that, I guess. Let us know, please, hashtag. I mean, some people do, Grog always did, but.

I guess it's weird, because playing with you guys is like playing with the world's biggest franchise fans, because you're the genesis of it, so fundamentally, you know everything. You guys have been there. We think. From square one, I don't know. Isn't that right, Dani? We know everything. She guys have been there from square one, I don't know. Isn't that right, Dani?

We know everything. She made a face, too. I saw the face she made. Y'all know everything. We know everything. Hey, Robbie, I've got some recaps I can send you that will give out so much. All right.

Give them the sleeve. What? Oh, I'm looking at Laura. I couldn't tell you were looking past me, Danny. You are? So here's the thing, I know, it's like really, hi. First got a bad dad.

First got a bad dad, so we went to the Fey Realm. Okay. And we fought some people. She's also got like a really powerful Nana. Okay, that I knew. Yeah. Nana Moria, obviously, EXU. And so while we were there,

we fought this really bad guy called the Shadow Lord, right? Zara Lord Zathuda. Shadow Lord is from Nier. We know everything. You so downgraded his lore. He has this beautiful name, he's like the Shadow Lord or something. Zara Lord.

That's what I'm supposed to do, is sow discord here. You're doing great, you're doing great. Hit us against each other, ruin our friendship. I know Matt could be totally giving this to you, and I'm the one giving this to you. No, I'm loving it, give me a new place. So we fought him, he had a big scary dragon.

Fern loved the dragon. Also, we realized that he was her dad. Oh. In that moment. No, it was much later. It was much later. He was super cool and we were all like, ooh, he's cool. And then we escaped him.

Okay. Uh-huh. And then later we found out he was their dad. You all, were those words? Also, Fern's dad is working with the Ruby Vanguard of Ludinus. I learned that. That's key.

I was paying attention to him. Maybe I should do the recap soon. Please join me for my next TikTok. I know that. I learned that. I was paying attention to you. Maybe I should do the recaps. Please join me for my next TikTok. It feels right. Our dad is working with lewdness. Okay.

With the Ruby Vanguard. Got it. Love the Ruby Vanguard. They are opposed forces at the same time. Do you know who the Ruby Vanguard is? Of course.

They're people working with lewdness. Yeah. They're the foot soldiers working with lewdness. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. No, he's got more than that.'s not that's not just that you guys are doing great

well then fern's dad he like he like i'm giving book jacket yeah he tried to basically orchestrate ferns in her birth to be oh thatulisborn. Oh, that's an important part. She's a vessel. A potential vessel. She's a potential vessel. Okay. I think, this is no shade to Fern or Ashley Johnson, I think she's like at the bottom of the list when it comes to options to be the vessel.

Kind of like Walton. I mean, like Zathuda, like, Ludinus' plan has been going on for a long time, and there are a number of individuals that he's aligned with over recent years and such to try and give them the best chance at success through this.

Saur Lord Zathura was one of the inner people of that plot to try and create possible Ruidusborn that could be exalted enough, powerful enough to become a possible vessel and kind of stack the deck. However, she ended up being taken by her birth mother and what basically became the adopted father of Fearne, but they both kind of vanished most of her life.

She was then protected by Nana Mori for most of her life and kind of fucked up his plans. And now that she's returned, she is a Ruritus-born, but all this time he's been basically told that he was a failure and producing a possible vessel. And it's kind of, you can get a bit of that tension inside his relationship with Ludinus and the plot. But now he's seeing Fern again,

seeing what she's capable of, and is kind of excited that maybe she will fulfill her. Ooh, he can upgrade her. Yeah, he's like, maybe all this time that they were making fun of me and Ludinus was being a dick about my failure, he's wrong and I can prove that. And so yeah, there's all sorts of weird dynamics

happening with there and he's starting to be like, maybe you are a good daughter. Maybe I will be proud of you. And it's just like, no, you're gross. That's kind of really fucked up. There's a lot of fucked up parental dynamics, but also a lot of disparate relationships and people becoming friends in this narrative and then discovering that a lot of fucked up parental dynamics, but also a lot of disparate relationships and people becoming friends in this narrative and then discovering that a lot of this was engineered in

the background. It just went off the intended path, and now it's starting to come back and in some cases blow up in their face, and others maybe align with what they were hoping. So yeah, it's getting some interesting tension. And you've got the, you spread your net out so far that now you've got all these potential antagonists and protagonists that could come from different angles. And so, like, when he was introduced in that, we're current, he was introduced in that fight with the Shadow Fern that my first instinct

was like, who is this guy? And you've had an engagement with him before. And it was so fun to watch that all unfold. I think one of the most fun times I've had playing at the table is realizing that sure, sometimes you gotta throw enemies at the players or whatever, and I think that's like a misconception, but I've always felt like every engagement in your games in particular feels like they're meaningful. They're impactful. It's not like, oh, I've got this mini I want to use.

Slap it down. It feels like those, and maybe I'm putting too much on it, but there's a reason for every conflict. It feels so, that's what, it feels meaningful to be a part of it and then to watch it unfold like we watched the Fern fight unfold. I felt like I was participating and I was just watching. I know, I like popcorn.

It was awesome. I like that, thank you. Even the random encounters of a scenario had the intention of building up a world. Even the threats of meeting unique dangers in a new bio. Like the undead giants that we could have fought. Yeah, I had battlefields built out in case that ended up going sideways.

The ice trolls, they're on the path. If you guys hadn't stealthed so well in there, I had a whole battlefield of the tunnel going deeper and getting thinner. Oh jeez Louise. I had your options, but these dangers are meant to be fun challenges and get to you, use your abilities and hone your tactics and stuff and try out new things. But also to build out a bit of the lore subtly of where you are, what things have taken up residence here. Sometimes it's just fun to fight a monster, but more often than not, I try and make it meaningful to the characters and the story

and the overall kind of narrative that we're going with. And yeah, the whole thing with, actually the whole thing with Shadowfern and the dark fae aspect of her history was kicked off in the EXU. Yeah. When you guys were going through the Verident Expanse and found the gate.

And all of a sudden, the dark-furned figure there, that was kind of the impetus, the beginning of that story. I think that was the one moment that I had that I got to have with Orym and Ashley, where we all went to go, and the rest of you at the table were like, wow. Woo, wow.

This is brand new. Hey, but your mom's kind of sketchy too, right? I don't know what you're talking about. Isn't that right, though? Actually, yeah, let's get into that, then. I mean, right? We're talking about family affairs, right? Yeah. What the fuck is up with that?

Yeah, what the fuck is up with that? Look. So defensive right off the bat. I know. No, my mom is sketchy, but also, like, she has had, she had, has, the potential to be a good mom.

Like, I think the things that she started out doing had good intentions, potentially. I don't know, I don't know. Is that saying road to, I can't remember where it goes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and now she's, having been next to Ludinus for so long,

I think she's just fully indoctrinated into that cult mentality of like... So you really think, oh, she is. You don't think it's a hustle? You don't think it's like anything like that? I think she sees the bad things that Ludinus is doing and she thinks that they're bad. But also she's been so filled with this idea of Prodathos and what he can bring that while she thinks

the things that Ludinus is doing are not moral, ultimately the end goal is worth it. Have you guys had a direct confrontation with her in any way? Yes. Yes. Was it, did it come to fisticuffs or was it just a chit chat?

It could have. It almost did. It could have. It's spicy. Yeah. Mom it come to fisticuffs or was it just a chit chat? It could have. It almost did. Really? Spicy! Yeah. Mom fight, I like it. Oh, it was majors, majors, yeah. And then she ended up, we made peace with her,

and she ended up, she could have come with us, or we ended up telling her to stay on the moon and basically be a spy for us. MPC, Mom PC. Mom PC. Yeah, yeah, cruising along. That sounds awesome. But I don't know if...

I didn't trust her coming with... We haven't talked about this yet, right? I didn't trust her coming with us. I thought that if she came with us... She'd probably blow our cover a little bit too, right? Have we talked about this on the show already? We talked about it a little bit at the table. Oh, okay, okay, okay.

Yeah, I feel like she would've, I wouldn't have trusted her. I wouldn't have trusted that she wouldn't betray us. Yeah. So it wasn't worth her coming with us and have that dynamic. Trust and betrayal's a theme, so, and mommy issues are a theme,

and trust and betrayal. Being enticed by a powerful force. Yeah, weird, where does that relate to anything that's happened? Like, what the fuck's up with that? Yeah. Yeah. Which is funny, that parallel between like Liliana and Laudna is pretty strong.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Which is why I like that moment of apologizing to Imogen and being like, oh, I feel kind of bad now because she definitely feels like her life is not really her own and is kind of controlled by this outer force and is kind of resigned in a certain ways to being like well, this is kind of the way it is. And that's how Laudna feels or that's how you think Liliana feels? I mean, I think I mean Laudna struggles with it. I think here recently she's Like I said,

so much for Laudna at this point is like, you know, she's watching like Fern and Ashton taking these Titan shards and get hyper powerful and watching like Imogen get exalted and watching all these people like have these like moments of power and I think Ladna's assumption is like well the only way I can get those is kind of through Delilah or even if I do get one externally without involving Delilah. It still kind of in the end feeds Delilah.

So it's kind of like a little bit of an Ouroboros that I think at this point she's just like, I might as well, or at least Ladna and Marisha is like, let's exploit this as far as I can. Well, can I ask you like kind of what do you call like a little above the table question? Yeah, let's do it. So like how much of the nature of your build and the things that you're beholden to in that, do you feel informs your narrative choices? Because obviously you're having a narrative adventure

within the confines of the structure of the game. Do you feel that if those reins were off and it wasn't part of what gives you your power in game, do you think you'd still make the same narrative choices because they're more interesting or do you think they're inexorably tied? That's a good question. I work more, I work.

I asked you a 70s-ish question, I wanna know, I wanna know. From, I thought I was coming at it from an actor-y perspective for a second, but in this context, I'm more of a narrative-informing-the-build person. Okay. So I've, because I'm a warlock sorcerer multi-class, and there's been times where, like,

realistically at this point, it makes the most sense mechanically for me to just keep leveling up sorcerer, but there will be times, like the last time when I dumped a point into Warlock was after I had, I think it was after Bordor, and I had gotten a power boost from that aspect and had narrative things.

And even though it didn't necessarily, I mean, it's a leveling up is always gonna be good. It's always helpful. It's sacrificing optimization for the narrative legitimacy of where you're going with the character. Yeah. So if there's ever something that's very Delilah heavy that happens to Laudna, then I'll drop a point into Warlock.

It's kind of in the same vein as picking spells. You could pick super powerful spells, but they make no sense narratively for your character. Yes. So I just like do away with them. Yeah. Occasionally I will like, like I took counter spell because

it's a good spell to have. And that's a utility spell. That's like, that's different, you know? Yes. But also counter spell is totally a spell that Delilah enjoyed in her time as well. That's true. So, still kind of fits the narrative.

Yeah. So I'll kind of ride the line. Sometimes it's like, all right, I need something more defense heavy, or I do need something more offensive heavy or whatever. And then sometimes I'm like, animate objects, because that's funny. And it's also very useful

because we are useful yes yes exactly it's our very first fight of the campaign right yeah didn't we fight anime and anime furniture right all the animated furniture yeah venturing parties by throwing them in a bunch of first level second level people what if that's what laudna does it's a retirement yes oh that's funny that's the only way she knows that adventuring parties start so she's like i'm just paying it forward it's the campaign 19 laudna's legends out there in the world just crushing it i like that you're're imagining lawd as an old lady now miss dead end Speaking of like family issues. Yeah, we'll see

How's how's Dorian processing the loss of Cyrus, bro? Oh, shenanigans! Talk about it. I don't think I've ever gotten even mildly salty at the table, and that's about as close as I've come. Yeah, yeah, I was just like, oh man, I didn't want bro to go. It's a funny thing, right?

Like, he was a part of backstory that never, that when we first started, that I turned in to Matt, and I never expected him to come to life, and I never expected to care for him in a visceral way. Whenever you're writing a backstory for any character, whether it be like playing a gamer, or something that you're creating in a different media, you have to connect to it emotionally,

it serves no purpose, but for this to like meet him, and to like fall in love with him, and then to have him taken away, I think there are a lot of people like and i try not to dip my toe into like the fan side of like responses and stuff but i i saw a repeating theme of like oh cyrus was always meant to die and i'll go on record here saying is like that was never part of the plan like i don't think there was ever a plan for how any of it would unfold and it was the last thing i expected because it seems like

i don't know it just seems like there's so many avenues to get to where you're trying to go and i didn't expect it and it like hurt it hurt unexpectedly and and i also have been carrying around this character thing i want to if we have time to explore later there's a lot of going on about dorian's regrets about how he handled that scenario and i have regrets about how i handled as a player and and i think it's been informative for like the dorian's journey moving forward i think he has regrets about choosing vengeance over a possible way to save his brother i think he he failed got hurt and couldn't look past the failure to see what the next step could be to do something good so i think when he goes to keith and asks to find the body that was just popped into my head because i had like this

pathetic last hope that maybe she could save him somehow with this mighty magic that she possessed if any any any if any way that could happen but i don't know his spirit waltzed off down the street with morgana so that's a pretty heavy narrative moment. I don't know, but it's weird to feel as a player the guilt of your character's actions, and I carried it around for like a couple weeks. If it helps at all with Dorian's narrative drive or goals with this campaign,

Keyleth and other people do have powerful magics that occasionally can restore life to those who have passed recently. However, in the wake of the solstice and all of the various ley lines being held and twisting and being tensed, a number of magics aren't functioning properly. One of which is resurrection magic on Exandria. It functioned, it functioned,

but briefly, on Ruidus. That was the question I meant to ask you today that I had forgotten. Yeah, I was wondering about that. So it worked on Ruidus. It worked on Ruidus. Ruidus kind of operates under its own kind of magical ecosystem.

And while it is proximity affected by the ley lines for its own reasons, it's magic on Exandria proper that's being heavily, by proximity and by the ever, like, twisting ley line knots across the world right now that some magics start functioning, and resurrection magic is one of them. So potentially we get, we break that connection,

and divine magic is still in effect. Then we could use high-level, like, true resurrection sort of spells. I mean, hey, but there are also, like I said, there are powerful druids and other creatures that are not

based in divine magic that can also use these. And also, divine magic comes from sometimes non-divine sources. It can be based in strong, like an ethical code that presents itself as a source of power in a world that is suffused with magic. That's why there are paladins that don't necessarily worship a god. They, you know, are just tuned to a specific oath or a particular way of living. Like there's a lot of, magic is interesting. A lot of the debate, which I enjoy in my mind,

and in kind of the Alexandria's ecosystem works is, you know, the classic idea of D&D is, you know, arcane magic is outside of the gods and divine magic is the gods. That is the classical idea. And to a facet, I think, a facet that people might believe that on Exandria, but magic is magic. It's how it's filtered and utilized that really defines its source. So who knows what will happen to divine magic if the gods weren't there? It could be catastrophic. It could be nothing. Who knows? Look at Jester and the Traveler. I know.

Right? Yeah. See, there's all sorts of weird things. Also, the rules of understanding of the world were defined by the gods. As you're learning through unraveling some of those secrets, a lot of what you're told and what everyone had been told isn't always the truth. Because those that are in power historically get to write the truths of modern understanding. For good or evil. So that's a lot of fun stuff we get to unravel as the campaign progresses. Who knows what will happen to magic, and who knows what will happen to our favorite couple after Swordgate, baby? Drama, mama!

Speaking of like, thinking about it constantly, you? Like, living with those choices and going, oh, man. Yeah. Why? Why? Why? What was the moment? What was the moment?

Was it when you first saw it? Warlock's gonna warlock, baby. Listen, baby. No, I don't know, you know? Side to the lady in my head. No, I,'t know, you know, side to the lady in my head. No, I genuinely like, similarly, none of this was planned. Yeah. Quite literally, because Laudna has struggled

being around powerful artifacts, because she does have this pulling force force and she's able to like kind of resist and you know even with like the shard when we got that i was like keep me away like leave me away from this and so when oram just walked in with this sword on his back, I was like, like he the fact that he pulled the sword out and win it and was like oh i'm practicing with the sword i was like this sword murdered all of us at us at some point in time and so and it's in very much ladna for an extended amount of time so i knew i was gonna be like, that's an icky reaction.

And it's a powerful weapon that he just went like, boop, into our 10 by 10 square foot room. And so I was just trying to be like, oh, you know, Laudna sees that and gets uncomfortable. And then when you did the like, boom, boom, I was like, oh, fuck, here we go. But I didn't know i was like oh here we go but i didn't know you were gonna do like i didn't know so i was just kind of trying to like you know yes and and

and then once again and like yeah and it just kind of keeps going and it was very genuine like is this sword bad like is, how bad news is this? Is it, we've already dealt with sentient weapons gods knows how many times, not just in this campaign, but across Critical Role. And then knowing, like, that it was wielded by a very bad person. So that's how it started,

was like, oh, is this an evil sword? And when Delilah was like, yeah, it's so bad. Of course it's bad. It's so bad. Oh my God, it's so bad. Of course it's bad. It's so bad. Oh my God, it's so bad. You should just. Yeah.

And like Delilah, or and Laudna does have like a good intentions. Paid hell. And so that's why I kind of started with like, yeah, she would justify this by being like, I got to help Orym. Got to get it away from him. But then it just kind of kept spiraling and spiraling. And she's not seeing it get out of control. No.

You're talking about Delilah's influence, like gaslighting and all of that stuff. But I don't know. I'm not as familiar with that relationship as you guys are. Seemed like Lawton was steering the ship for the majority of that confrontation, if I'm being honest. Like just from an outside perspective,

it felt minimally influenced to me. But that's just me. I don't know how you feel about it, but that was my take on it. I mean, it's a weird line to walk, you know? It's a weird like symbiotic relationship and then trying to ride that line of like, you know. They are one.

They're becoming one and the same at this point. Like going up on the roof and seeing like the form of dread that you chose, madam, that was straight up Delilah like emerging from you. Right? Which I once again just did that in the moment. I didn't like plan, I was just like. Yeah, you didn't know. It's like, yo, this feels right.

I think it would just be this, yeah. And just like you, Matt, like talking with her to like, it's the two voices at the same time. So you're leaning into the darkness. Can I ask a question? Yeah, sports-oriented dog baby. I know, I gotta know. Yeah. As a player in yoursided dive, baby. I know, I gotta know. Yeah.

As a player in your RP, did you like it? Did it feel good to lean into the darkness a little bit? Because from my standpoint, it sure felt powerful being next to it. So did you like it? It's a safe space. It's a four-sided safe space. A little bit.

Yeah, a little bit? Yeah, it's fun. Yeah. Well, one, I love the juicy choice when it comes to RP. Sure. Just because, yeah. Sure. I'm not playing this to play safe.

Yes, and I, from day one, knew what I was getting into with this character and knew that it could go down these paths. Also, it's funny that it happened to be Liam again. That irony was... I had to explain Swordgate to like, I mean, Bolgate to like four of the producers today. It was hilarious. Yes, because so... Four of the producers, can you explain gate like four of the producers today it was hilarious yes because so for the for the producers can you explain it to one of the me what was what was bull gate so liam and i had a moment in campaign two earlier on in campaign yeah it's like episode 17 or something

it's early so and our good buddy mark humes was guesting on that, yeah. Yes. And there was this bowl of Tiamat or some shit that Mark Hulmes' character. It was a ritual bowl. A ritual bowl, yeah. Taliana wanted. And early on, Mighty Nein, our first, that first kind of run, we were all very- Secretive.

Secretive and- Everybody was keeping shit from us. Not fully trusting of each other. Yeah. For like a long time. A long time. Yeah, maybe too long. secretive and not fully trusting of each other. For like a long time. Especially Caleb. Especially Caleb. Caleb is super not trusting. So he's playing this dodgy wizard who,

once again, it was almost like the roles were reversed this time. He wasn't like a warlock, but he had these, the demons in his head were his traumatic past, and he was trying to take as many powerful items to make himself more powerful for his own gains. So he, without really consulting with anybody, was like, yoink, to this item that was like Mark Hulmes' Crux narrative item.

And he had been doing this like, my story beats! Yeah! Can you imagine just like taking one of yours? In fairness! And then destroying it. Notes. Notes on fire. In fairness, it wasn't that he was trying

to take it for himself. I have to stick up from a boy. You're a Caleb apologist in Bull Game? Nice to meet you. I'm a Caleb Ryan apologist because I'm trying to not let him kill me, kill my character in Curse of Strahd. Okay, fair enough, fair enough.

No, but in just the lore, so what happened is it, it was a bull that they were not sure if it was a good idea to let this stranger, Mark Hulme's character, Kalyana, leave with it because it was an evil bull used for evil things. Totally. He wanted to destroy it now. He wanted to just destroy it, have it done with. Beau wanted to wait and identify it. Or it was reversed, I don't remember. One of them wanted to wait and identify it the next day. The other one wanted to just destroy it and be done with it. And Caleb just grabbed the bowl and was like,

I'm gonna do what I want with it. That's the problem, it's about the communication. and Caleb just grabbed the bowl and was like, I'm gonna do what I want with it. And- That's the problem. It's about the communication. Yeah. Again, I'm paraphrasing. Let me make it very clear. If he didn't say, I'm going to do what I want with it,

please don't yell at me, internet. It was a really long time ago. I'm sorry. I don't remember exactly. We were reviving an old country. But you got your revenge five and a half years later. Yeah, well, so with bowl gape, he was like, I'm going to take it. Which he had kind of kept doing repeatedly with items and being like, I'm making the executive decision without talking to the rest of the party.

Because he had identified. Because he had identified. Very Caleb way. In a very Caleb way. It was very much his character. And then keep the little paper that Matt would give him and not tell anyone what it said. That's not Caleb, that's Liam. What are you talking about?

And all of us were like, what is it, Dan? So funny. So there was this moment where, and then Beau's very dexterous where he's like, I'm going to take it. And I just went, yoink, and had a keep away moment. And we got into a big fight over it. It was great. Yeah, and then bullying him from the community being like, and we got into a big fight over it. So yeah.

Yeah, and then bullying him from the community being like, you could tell they hated each other in that moment. This was such dog shit. God, this is now you should never play. And we're like, no, it was just a really, really fun character moment. It was really funny. Which is why we made the fan and like,

Liam and I took that picture after the game to be like, we're still cool. We're still friends. I promise. He is a really fun person to fight with though. And even you asking, did it feel good? Travis afterwards, he was like, I was having, I didn't want to look at you. And I could feel that he was like, and your arguments were pretty strong. Oh. Don't debate her.

Yeah. Travis and I felt like you were like one charged magnet and him and I were the opposite charge, just slowly pushing away from you. Trying to be respectful, but. It's so good. It's so good. It's fun to have moments where you can just kind of

be let off the leash. Yeah, hell yeah. But we sorted it out, we cruised on, and then... We sort of sorted it out. Sort of. We went through a very bouncy, circuitous route full of bumbles and fumbles. We ended up in a fan-favorite-ish place of Aeor, right? Yes. Yeah! What is the weight of Aeor? Help me. What? The weight. Yeah. I can feel it whenever you say the name.

So, a lot of Campaign 3 has a lot of facets of Campaign 1 and 2 coming to fruition. There's a lot of long-term stuff I've been building for the past ten years, all kind of weaving together. And Aeor is a very strong point in Exandrian history, where in this era called the Age of Arcanum, like the kind of the roaring 20s of Exandria's history, where like everything was up for the richest folk, you know, all the great mages and how these massive mage cities that they dislodged from the actual ground of Exandria

and kind of vied for control and power. It was technically more advanced than current day Exandria. The modern day Exandria is almost like a post-apocalypse. Society is kind of pulling out of that and are studying that past to try and catch up to it again in some spaces. A fully picture Eor with Art Deco vibes now. Art Deco means brutalist,

is kind of how I envision it. Because it was, Eor of all the different mage cities was the most Cold War, Soviet kind of mage city. It was function over beauty. Correct, yeah. So when you guys did EXU Calamity, that took place before the Calamity, not in Aeor, but in a similar type city?

Correct. And one of the competitive mage cities to Aeor and was the city that its destruction basically began the Calamity, which was the end of that era, where all the gods kind of warred and battled. Most of society kind of collapsed or was buried and everything had to kind of reset and climb from zero

after that point, after the gods had left beyond the Divine Gate. So Aeor was, at that time, the most powerful city in that world and had a lot of anti-Divine culture and ideas around it. And they were developing secretly arcane technology that could destroy divine on a mass scale, like possibly kill a god.

And so, yeah, they succeeded, tested it, and the gods all went, hey, I know we're fighting right now, but game off, game off, and then went and destroyed Aeor. And so Aeor is considered like essentially a black box of the most powerful arcane knowledge that has been lost for a millennia essentially.

And has just recently been rediscovered in this frozen waste. And so in Campaign Two, was the introduction of the concept of Aeor and some facets of the end of Campaign Two dealt with some of the concept of Aeor, and some facets of the end of Campaign 2 dealt with some of the emergent of this technology, but also a part of that ancient city that had been kind of ripped out of it

in the moment of destruction and became its own weird mutant thing. You don't have to go into that for this. But since it was rediscovered, a lot of different factions have been fighting over ownership to get to this, you know, what functional pieces of these ruins can we recover and reconstruct or repurpose or reuse? in this campaign, which helped trigger the Apogee Solstice moment with the Malleus Key to lock the moon Ruidus, to pierce through its defensive barriers, and essentially bring all this to fruition.

So Aeor from campaign two is tied into his plans for campaign three, and now, because of those things, you are all now kind of falling into the, for different reasons, similar footsteps to the Mighty Nohning campaign, too. Well, you get all these fun moments of sharing a decade's worth of history and lore that you've crafted from the ground up. And it's really fun, even being a little bit in the dark, seeing you guys get those Easter eggs for yourselves and that you're giving as your players but what I've really enjoyed watching is that even for someone who doesn't

understand it doesn't diminish the mystery of what's going on but it makes it extra valuable for people who do know what's happening who do have those little gasp moments and never have you I just never feel, watch you as a GM go, eh?

And this is where this happened. You just describe it, and if you know, you know. And if you don't, you don't. So for me as a new player, I'm finding equal enjoyment in a different way of discovering it. That makes me happy. That was actually a concern of mine in doing this, was wanting to make sure that for you,

and even viewers of the campaign, don't feel lost in this. I wanted to go back to some of these places that we visited, but in many ways, re-describe them in a new way that feels familiar but still unique, and still make it feel as impactful and fresh for the perspective of Bell's Hells. Yeah, because it's them seeing it as opposed to... Yeah, what you guys were, and their heart,

things have changed in the past seven years since you you know The mighty nine had their experience in Aeor and you're just now on the cusp of going to a whole new area So that's gonna be exciting. But yeah, so that's if we survive sure. Yeah, I guess so. Tomb Taker didn't do too great No, yeah, really Yeah Well, but you've extended your lore through different forms of media, through all sorts of stuff. And like that was one that actually caught on to because of the book. Because we read the Eyes of Lucian.

And in that book, which I really enjoyed reading that book because it gave you a perspective that I that maybe, you know, I don't know how much of it was in the campaign. But, well, I really felt for almost the Tomb Takers, almost more than the Mighty Nein, because it's their story. They're the rivals, and you're watching two sides of a rival story. And one of my favorite moments from that book is when you lose a key player down in these sort of, like, I don't know if it's the same location, but, like, it's the same location, right?

And that, for me, reading the book, was literally, I was like, I'm going to take a break here. Because it was one of my favorite characters. And I was like, I'm gonna take a break here. Because it was one of my favorite characters. And I was like, I'm gonna go have lunch. And then I'll come back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh no, and you didn't know it was coming? Oh no!

No, no, I didn't know it was coming. It was the lady friend, Lucien's childhood lady friend. And I was just like, oh, it caught me. But it's a great moment. So I think even someone like me, who's not as familiar with the previous two campaigns, who maybe got in in campaign three, but wanted to catch up and enjoys the audio books,

they're gonna get a little taste of that and be brought back in that way. It's really nice the way that it's all feeling crafted together, it's good. I'm glad to hear that. That was the purpose of the book, was I had all this perspective of Lucien and the Tomb Takers.

They were the villains at the end of that campaign. Yeah. And there's not a moment to convey their perspective to that depth. I had my head all the time. Yeah, in our brains they were just villains, villains, bad guys. And they were.

But with reasoning as to why they were doing what they were doing. And to a certain degree, especially with Lucien, victims of things beyond their control as well. Sympathetic villains, for sure. That was the intent. So I'm glad that worked out well. But all that peppers into the lore of Aeor

because the Cognosa, the entity at the end of the book, the thing that kind of broke Lucien, that was one of the wards of Aeor. It was one of the portions of the city that had kind of teleported itself out at the moment of its destruction and didn't end up in the location it wanted to. It ended up in this horrifying psychic storm

in the Astral Sea that basically destroyed and merged all the minds of the people that lived there and then shattered their psyche that had to slowly reform over time. And the first entity that it really connected with that didn't lose its mind or go vanishing was Lucian. Wow. Well, it's exciting because at that moment, three years ago or whatever it was, that was

your big bad. And now it's tangential. It's a lieutenant. It's something within the circle that there's something even bigger around every step. And yeah, it's a service to the world that you've created. It's enjoyable to see. Thank you. It is really funny sitting next to you, Robbie, at the table.

What did I do? Did I have food in my face? We'll have this. No, no, no. We'll have these moments where we will be like, oh, oh, it's Astrid. And I see you and I can, because you're in my periphery. And so you're going, yeah.

Yeah. I can see your face as he does it. Why do you think I built a low intelligence character? They're the best. Easy. No thoughts, all just good vibes. Yep, yep. And with that, it's time for questions from the Tower of Inquiry.

If you don't know this game, one of us pulls a block, reads a number, Danny Carr reads us a corresponding fan question. I do. Yep, and we each get to give our answer. And if for some reason the tower should fall, there will be a cataclysmic consequence for the person responsible for its demise.

Like we're talking 2012 John Cusack driving a limo through a collapsing building kind of awfulness. That's a reference, Gen Zers, look it up. Wowzers. Kyle. What's the jam? What's going on out there? Pick somebody to pull a... I have to pick to do a pull? You have some making up to do. You did naughty. Out of the gate.

So you're first. Yeah. Well, it's a fresh tower, so. Yeah, I'm hoping we can all get through one cycle and then you'll be at the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, fresh tower, fresh tower. Oh, I see. Let's see. Don't be a coward, go for the outside.

Oh! Thank you, I feel like you're a player like me and Matt. Are we playing to win, or are we playing to mess around? We're playing to mess around. Look at this, all we're doing is making it stronger at this point. Yeah. Arches.

What is it, what is it? Eight. Mojo. We'll make it precarious, that's the whole goal. Aw, this one's on target. If your character could spend one last campfire evening with FCG after they sacrificed themselves for the party, what would you ask them? What would you want them to know? From Carl Jones.

Oh Carl. Oh my god. Carl. Carl. Good question. Okay Carl. Oh buddy. Oh man. Wow. Oh wait, why am I going over there? I have to do this again. Yeah, you got more coming girl. Oh my gosh. Here, you pull more coming, girl. Oh my gosh. Here, you pull the block, you go first.

Yeah. What would I ask them? Wow. Go if you're feeling it. Oh, sure. I would want to know if there was any any mission they would like us to complete

anything to finish for them which I feel like you know I mean you can make assumptions but I would want to know I ask you to find proof that

Xandria is flat oh god knowing Sam that is probably oh my goodness I ask you to find proof that Xandria is flat. Oh god. Knowing Sam, that is probably. Knowing Sam, yeah. That's exactly what he would say. Oh my goodness. And then I would want him to know

that I never once doubted that he was alive. Yeah. I know. I think like kind of another thing that's been rattling around in the back of my head. I think FCG was such like a moral compass for the group. And so grounding and kind of like saw the good in everybody for better, for worse.

And I think that like faith he had in people, especially like Ladna, like helped keep her on the straight and narrow. And so I think I would want him to know that. Like you're kind of a guiding post, especially because like FCG, they also had their problems with flying off the handle. So it's like, oh, this person can be, you know,

still want to be the best that they can be. Then I can meet that. Not mention you fell off the Delilah wagon. Well, yeah, well, yeah. I think that's what I would want them to know. I don't know what I would ask them. I'm still so curious about, like, all the Aor, like, all Aeor tech in the rooms and all of that stuff. It kills me that we're in fucking Aeor.

And we don't have CG. And so close after they died. That kills me. It feels like that's what I would want to know more of if they were still around. That's definitely something I was like, it'll be very interesting to bring FCG into a what's gonna trigger what memories are gonna come back? Yes, but now you get to try and make those searches for yourself I guess yeah It wasn't that the thing about losing someone though, you know, it's it's you deal with in a million ways But like for me whenever that happens

It's losing the potential of the future That's it. That's a tough That's a tough thing to deal with more than anything like you can let someone go But like the idea of what they could have been it's tough It doesn't matter if they're 19 or 90 like it definitely it matter I just want to know if he ever had a dream. Did he ever have a dream? Yeah. He did. He had a dream? I get to find my answer out? Was it a wet dream?

Just oil everywhere. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Did I ruin the moment? What did he dream about? What did he dream about? Did he ever tell you? He's gone into a few people's heads and dreamt with them and then had his own dream that began to discover himself as a living being. He found faith with the change bringer

and kind of began to find a path that was pretty cool. I get my answer from him through you guys from the beyond. Nice, I had no idea. And that's how memory works. That's how grief works, is that you share the people that you lost with others, and that's how they live on. FCG. You go.

All right. The begrudging scowl. I thought it was a game. It was my job to pick the people, right? See how she sets this up to fuck us later. I mean, that's the plan, right? Yeah. Laura knows the seven.

It's already kind of a... I know it is a little wonky. It's a wonky tower. Good. Oh, look at that. Oh. Yeah. Ooh, your nails match. 34.

I have matches that match. It matches the shower! It's so pretty! Look, Marisha, our nails together. They do! Our powers combine. They're blurry nails. They plan. Everything on our Slither.co is planned.

You write it all in advance. The color of both of your nails? Yeah, how weird is that? That's weird. That's sapphic culture. Yeah. All right, 34 from Haley Boothman. If you could ask any character from any campaign

a question that they have to answer truthfully, who would you ask and what would the question be? From any campaign? Any campaign. It's a hard one. I would ask everyone, are you secretly in love with me? The answer is yes. I know this was a pre-campaign, pre-critical role,

even being existence, home game thing. Did Grog fuck a nymph? No, he answered that. He did, he didn't fuck her. Wait, he did? Yeah, he answered that. Yeah, it was in the campaign wrap up. And that's what memories are all about.

I still wanna know. I still wanna know what happened. Because he's still vague about what happened. I was there, I can tell you. Oh, that's right. No, it's not yours to tell. That's true. You think Travis remembers?

Yes. Yes. Did he, do you think so? Yes, he's held it over our heads for 12 years. I thought he? I do. You think so? Yeah. Yes. He's held it over our heads for 12 years. I thought he was holding it over your head as a joke. Think about it. Travis knows. That's true.

He does have the weird trap memory. Yes. And I feel like. Both of you. He knows so much more lore about Exandria than, I mean. He and I are always having like, I feel like he and are always mind-melding whenever Matt says something and I'm freaking Out and he's freaking out 20 seconds before me because of the delay Well he just plays dumb character my answer still stands fair enough what happened I'd asked Chetney what he was doing in his 20s

Chetney was doing in his 20s Jenny was a like Just total nerd. What, you think? I think Chetney was just a total nerd. He's a reformed nerd? A total geek. Reformed. Yeah, no, I think Chetney's path goes from absolute nerdy, kind of general, maybe self-imposed social outcast

for a long time, and then went to full pickup artist. Like, weirdly? Once he got old enough, then he stopped realizing, like, oh, it doesn't matter anymore. Like, really? Pickup artist is, yeah. Because that pipeline is very true. It's terrifying.

He took an online course. Yep, some dude in Vegas in a big leather coat. Some dude in a top hat. Yeah. I think he started realizing what's the worst that could happen? They say yes. Yeah. He went to Keimel and started wandering the streets and negging people. Yeah. That sounds like a Chetney experience. All right. I'm supposed to pick two to three of you, and I'm giving myself a pass. It's you. Valid.

Pull the next one. Yeah! Pull the next one. All right, let's see what we can. Set it up good so that the next group gets booked. Yeah, last question. That's fair. Is that this plan?

Ooh. Ooh, that's dangerous. Oh, that's a dicey play. I love it. Do it, Matt. I love it. No! No!

Quickest tower drop ever! We got the flog! Oh my god! I can't believe it. That was confidence though, that was full confidence. I may have been overconfident. Wait a minute, like. Hubris, what do we do to you? Hubris. That's how it matches the tower too. It does! I may have been overconfident

Spankings what's the plan? I have the question ready. Okay consequences box and look All right consequences. I've never done this yet. No, never. All right. I was so confident in him too. I know. He had so much swagger. I was like, it's not going down this episode. No, it did.

Oh no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. What's it gonna be? You'll find out. Okay, oh, after we do the question first. It's part of the block C. Okay, question first. Okay, oh, after we do the question first? It's part of the block C. Okay, question first.

Okay, okay. Kyle, you did this. This is a Kyle. Dang it. That's a question. That's on me, I got too confident. I loved it. Oh boy.

Oh boy. Oh golly gee willy. This one is very timely. I keep wanting to say prescient, but I can't remember if that's like the correct definition of that word. So I'm just gonna go with timely. From Ellie's Gay Machete on Tumblr. Ellie's Gay Machete is a great name.

Oh I get it. That's great. How do you decide on updates to official character art? How do you determine what to keep what to change and what new things you'd like to add? That's a great question. I Lease gay machete. Yeah talk about your outfits while I go through your tankards and take out the questions I had about your outfits How do we decide what we keep and what we don't? Do we get to see that or is it a surprise? I don't know.

We'll find out. Continue, please. It'll be, yeah, it'll be revealed in block C. Oh, boy. I feel like everybody's different with how they approach it. Well, I thought mine was going to come before you guys. Yeah, I know. Yeah, it was meant to be maybe in the half and half episode.

Yeah. And then it was so emotionally impactful, it felt bad to be like, guess what, though? My brother's dead, but look at my new shirt. Yeah, so it was scary for me because we were talking about RPing and builds. And my idea, that's what I thought was happening. I gave Dariax all my shit. I gave him my loot, I gave him my sword,

I gave him everythingx all my shit. I gave him my loot. I gave him my sword. I gave him like everything to defend myself with. And then when the fern fight was going down, I thought we were going to jump in and I was going to play it legit. Base armor class, fist cuffs, like in my undies. And I'm so glad that it never happened. But when it came to designing the art, it came hand in hand with your coming back to the show.

We wanted to give you an upgrade. I'm so stoked that it got to be with everyone. I think that felt really, really good. It didn't steal anyone's thunder. It wasn't anything like that. It felt like honest. It was nice. Yeah, so we worked, the artist is fantastic.

Hannah, shout out. So amazing. Hannah. Hannah. Hannah, shout out. So amazing. Hannah, shout out. We worked together for a couple weeks, and we started with some base ideas. I had some ideas, and then just bing, bing, bing, bing, and then we ended up, landed where we were. And we were going with the idea that, like, my favorite adventure trope is that by nearing the end, they're just carrying around little vestiges and trinkets from their journey and it feels so good And then it feels like the outfit that you end up at the end is just like meaningful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah

What's that the Scott the male figure skater from the... Kyle! I wasn't going for male figure skater vibes, but... Hamilton? Scott Hamilton! I don't know why you knew that. Right? You don't know figure skating!

I knew what you were talking about, Marisha. I don't remember his name, though. Well, one of the things, one of the conversations... He would wear the seethed mesh hair. One of the conversations I've had the most on the road the last two years, in my limited time on this show, one of the most impactful moments

was when Dorian basically re-closets himself, which was really intentional on my show, one of the most impactful moments was when Dorian basically like re-closets himself, which was like really intentional on my part where he throws the chiffon outfit away and becomes what he doesn't want to become. So when I was out meeting all these awesome critters, it's probably the number one moment that gets brought up in panels and like face-to-face. So something about it was impactful, but I want people to feel safe again with the character. So I was like, how can I bring this back in and not take all of my armor away? So I had a big discussion with Aabria and she was like, I think at this point you would have armored up to have at least one more hit point.

So we looked for, or one more hit point on your AC. So we looked for an item that seemed fair and not OP that we could like fake into the gear that still played within the mechanics of the build. And that's where we landed on the Mithril-esque Siobhan shirt. I love it. Yeah, and it still fit all the, what do you call it, proficiencies and everything,

and it was still good in the build. Yeah, that's awesome. That's so cool. That's been one of my go-tos with Hana since level one has been sheer. So true. I don't know why, I just really want like chiffon. You were in like short rider shorts for a while though, right?

I was in hot pants with a sheer overlay. Oh, okay, okay. I didn't see that. Thank you very much. You had to keep the booty warm with the chiffon, obviously. Of course. Yeah. Yeah, and then even like this level, I was like,

I want Imogen, she's like hardened. I want her to feel more battle ready. I want her to feel like she's like shedding some of that like innocence. So that's why I made her like in the blacks blacks and more armory sort of a vibe, but I still wanted it sheer. Yeah, no? Touch or share. Yeah, it's good.

Anything wrong with that? Yeah. I don't think it's some... It's kind of a communal feeling during a campaign when people want to switch it up a little bit. There's been enough moments of character development and there's maybe a shift in tone or a shift in location. There's a lot of things come together at a certain point in the campaign where all of us kind of immediately start going, maybe it's time, maybe we should update character looks to help best express where they are now as opposed to where they've been for the past so-and-so episodes. And so it isn't like we're talking, all right, so by this point we're going to change.

And then, like, you know, next year at this point we're going to change. It's not planned. We just all kind of at one point go, hey, we should start talking about it. Our emotions have changed. Our intents have changed. We should probably update. And this one came because we wanted to be able to incorporate FCG into our looks and keep him with us as we move forward. And so I think everybody wanted to bring a part of him, whether it be his colors

or his armor or something into the designs. When you showed the designs and I got the vibe that that's where it was going in game, I was like, oh, I would like to participate. How? And then I was like, but then you gave us the opportunity to RP it. So we had the craft section and I was like, oh, got it.

I'll just do, yeah, yeah. So it can still be representative, but like everybody knows it's there. So, you know, if you see a cosplayer do it or you see someone and they pay attention to those details, which they absolutely do. It's the best. For sure.

And then Laudna, just full on like Delilah vibes. I love the cage. The rib cage? Well, the rib cage and the skirt cage. Not a hoodie, but like a... They call them cage skirts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Back in the day, they would use them to like, floof you out.

God. But yours is on the outside. You're super marionette. You're wearing your underwear on the outside. A little bit. Awesome. Yeah, the original idea was like, since Delilah is becoming more influential, to have her, I think I told Hana, I wanna have almost this like,

blueprint, almost like a framework of Delilah, but it's still Laudna. I mean, it's so Trixie. Like you said, it's always like, things that you've collected along the way in the campaign and things that have influenced you that you want to incorporate. And then but then also still trying staying true to like the look and style of the character and kind of keeping like their silhouette and all of that goes into into things and factor. And then, yeah, once again, I didn't know where we would be when we revealed this.

And so it just kind of worked out really well when I kind of dropped in. Like, oh, she was kind of in like a fugue state when she was making her outfit and was kind of like, what did I just make? Is kind of a way to try and so that she was, you know, that Delilah was kind of like, what did I just make? Is kind of a way to try and sew that she was,

you know, that Delilah was kind of a little bit in control when she was doing that. Built her own cage around you. That's the fun thing too, is like everyone kind of creates these designs for the new characters, but we don't really discuss when it's going to be happening. And it'll just come up naturally.

Or, you know, I had two different plans of where like this could happen. And it kind of happened naturally during the time in Zadash. And I was like, oh, yeah. You know, like the brief moment was like, oh, we're doing this now. Yeah, we're doing this now. You know, like so many other things, the game, it's all just kind of going in the mood and me making plans and then throwing them out. And it's great.

Well, thank you, Carl Jones, Haley Boothman, and Ellie's Gay Machete. And if you're out there and you have a question for our Tower of Inquiry, you can enter it at critrole.com slash tower. And we'll build a fresh one for you next time. How about them apples? I can't wait to find out what happens to you. That was the fastest collapse I've ever seen. Yeah. You know, like I said,

we wanted to up the stakes a little bit. I just did it poorly. Hubris. Hubris. I fall to it on occasion. All right, it's time to slide into deep dive. Dani, can we get some tanks? Yes. Let's do it, let's do it. Thank you, Dani. Of course, can we get some tanks? Yes!

Let's do it, let's do it. Thank you, Dani! Of course, you can have some tanks. We're gonna go around. We're gonna take turns pulling some questions. Hey, tanks. Oh, yeah. Thank you, Lul.

You're welcome. Hey! You went first last time. I don't know. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right. You know what? I gave myself a pass in the last game. I'll go first.

You do that. I'll go first. In the game where there's no consequences. Yep. How does Dorian feel reunited with Bell's Hells, especially Orm and Fearne, after being guided by the sending stone messages. Also talk to us about paying for Orm's new threads.

Yeah, talk to us about that, Robbie. It was a moment. It felt right. It was a moment. Yeah, it was all my money. He wanted it so bad. I saw it in his little eyes. He did. He wanted it. Get your girl that coach purse.

I know. I did. I thought about it. Who cares if you can make rent? Oh, I definitely can't make rent. I got a pocket full of silver and some ruby dust. That's it, baby. And I got to save them both.

I know. I know. I'm blowing it under the ground. It's flair. That's so good. Ice skater flair. The path that we got here with being reunited with Bellas Hells is the best because it followed a personal path for myself because I got to experience the parting of EXU crown keepers, which was crazy. And then coming back to you guys, it felt like coming home,

but time had passed. And in your worlds, that time had passed. And in our worlds, time had passed. So I think the way that it unfolded for me felt really natural. And by the time that we get our first few episodes back together, it was just like putting on an old glove.

Felt nice, it was good to be back with you guys. I kind of, you create such an easy environment to be around that the idea of like, sometimes people go like, were you scared to go? And I was like, no. What you see is what you get, they're nice people. So it's been the best. And seeing Orm and Fearne, we found some time to make those moments. Oh, and being guided by the sending stone messages. I felt the guilt of not being able to answer them, but from what I

understand, it was a magical problem. So I never got them. Thanks for that pass. I figured that was easier than me having to answer for you or the other side of that for a while. Though I do like the idea of that ability coming back and all of a sudden a bunch of old messages heading back, just. That's amazing. Oh my god, it's Orym. We're going to die. Everything's okay, but I miss you. 53 messages!

But yeah, no, it's just the best. What an absolute blast, and I'm so excited for the future. Yeah, man. The best. So good to have you back. Good question. Which way you wanna go? You.

That's a big one. What does Imogen think of everything going on with Delilah and Wanda? You know... Okay. Speaking of, we didn't know where things were gonna go, right? Yep. Didn't know where that conversation on the roof was gonna go.

Nope. Certainly didn't plan for it to end the way that it did, in this confusing halfway sort of... I don't know. Here's the thing. We talked about the parallels with Liliana and seeing somebody that you love and have the most extreme hope for and think that they're going to be there for you. And then seeing Liliana, like her hopes have gone up and down and up and down and up and down with that relationship and then finding that connection with Liliana on the moon and realizing right before we were about to head home that, oh fuck, no you're in too deep, you know, like I can't, no matter what I want, I can't trust this relationship. And then to come back and kind of echo that again with everything going on with Delilah.

And it's not that I think that Laudna will make the same decisions. But to say, I think you're in too deep, I think she's using you, and for Laudna to continue to say, yeah, but, you know, it kind of gets to this place that it feels... I don't know not hopeless but like you've made you're making okay you're making your choice then um and I don't want to end this by any means but if your choice is to say, like, I'm going to choose that over you, you know, it's a hard. And I've been replaying that fucking conversation in my head nonstop since we had it.

It was brutal. Yeah. And thinking about like, well, but like Imogen still wants to be there. It's not like I want to abandon ladna and we did talk about how both of us were going to explore you know getting the power that we needed to to go to that end game and now like imogen has this full regret happening because i feel like i abandoned you in that you know like i should have i should have gone farther with pradathos and then you wouldn't be there by yourself with Delilah you know so

it's a horrible feeling yeah it's Trixie man and it's hard seeing somebody that you love not find themselves worth more yeah to be able to pull away from it yeah well I think

you said I think after like the cool down it like in the cool down after one of those episodes was like oh it's like being with an addict and it's like yes correct oh my god you know and even like laudna like i think laudna is so conflicted because yeah she was like I thought we said we were going to, like, embrace the power. I'm doing that. And then also just feeling conflicted, like, every time Imogen is like, you lied to me. Because it's like, no.

And once again, kind of like in an addict's perspective, I think, like, obviously when an addict is like, I'm clean, I'm good, I'm not, this is it, I'm not falling off the bandwagon that time. They're not lying when they say that, like, that can be, all things can be true at once, which is like, yes, it is true that you're saying that in that moment, and in that moment moment it is the truth. But it is also the truth that there will probably be this lifelong struggle for forever, that you're kind of intertwined with.

And yeah, and in that way, and especially Marisha above the table, where it's like, oh, I wouldn't date me. And not in a like in that, it's tricksy and I obviously, I wanted to like choose my words carefully. Like, Laudna is deserving of love just as like anyone else who struggles.

100%. In that way entirely. And deserving of support. And deserving of support. And it's not a direct metaphor. Laudna's not on drugs. You're possessed by an evil demon. Yes.

Okay, let's be clear. It is not a direct metaphor at all. But I think those kind of creative narrative metaphors that are sometimes thinly veiled, we can still embrace the reality of what's happening in that moment, which is bad business. It's bad. And it's like, and at what point do you have to like be there? And I think like what I keep thinking back to when it was just the way you said it. I was like, I was like, you still love me.

Right. And like Lana is doing in that moment where it's like, you know, when you're like, when you fucked up and then you're in a moment where it's like you know when you're when you're like when you up and then you're in a fight and it's instant and you're like yeah of course I still love you I love you do you still do you still love me and you're like of course I will always love you yeah and there's a way you said it was like I'll always love you which is like once again objectively true but at what point in like what i keep thinking about with imogen and what i think laudna wants as well where it's like at a certain point like you have to

protect yourself too right you know and i want you to protect yourself and i think that's where like laudna keeps being like you know i care about you enough to say like, yeah, this could be bad news, and you deserve so much. It's fully somebody going, stop, get away, get away. Yeah, let me, I'm gonna try to protect you from myself, yeah. I wonder if your next question will be apropos to that scenario. It might be. It might be.

I also love that you're fully having a, oh fuck, I'm dating my dad moment with Laudna. Oh no. Oh shit. How did I do that? Nobody ever does that in real life. It never happens, never. The Chavos, they just keep repeating. You can break the circle, I believe it.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure, yeah. Feel the circle. Sure, yeah. What did Laudna expect when she returned to the group after Sword Gate? How does she feel given the kindness she was given? Yeah, I mean, obvious,

Laudna's tragic flaw is self-worth. It always has been. And, you know. Wait, lack of? Yeah, lack of struggling with the idea of self-worth. And even the idea of I think she's having a hard time believing when the group keeps being

like, Delilah chose you. You were already special. Like, this is not because in Lotna's head head she's like it was just coincidence I happened to die she was like I was in the blast radius I had a little bit of magical Essence and it is fully coincidental and so it's like trying to battle with like no I'm not nothing about me as special I was you know it's a fluke that any of this happened. Where was I going?

Yes, why, what did she think? I mean, even like everyone trotting through Delilah's little like mind palace to get Laudna back. She's like, I'm not. You trotted through Delilah's mind palace to get Laudna back. Sick. To save me. Sounds great. Yeah, and even after that, I think Laudna had such guilt of like, you guys went through so much.

I'm not deserving of that. And I think so much of that is like coming back again, which is like, I think she walked in there being like, well, I'm going to face the consequences. go go my separate ways and you know obviously i will prostrate myself on the ground and hope that people are still wanting to go through this but like yeah i think it's i mean it's it's such a dangerous uh dangerous mix of someone who has like such low i mean he's kind of in a way with fcg too like where you have such like, but his was a different brand, where your low self-worth in yourself becomes like dangerous because you're just like that much more of a loose cannon in a way.

So is that the answer for the hope is hope? That that is what Laudna wants, is even though she knows what Laudna wants. Even though she knows her flaws, she wants the hope that she could be all right. I'm not putting words in your mouth. I'm just sort of trying to distill it a little. Yeah, yeah.

I think she's... She hopes that, one, she can get through this without losing the only good things in her life, which is obviously all of her friends and I think she has a very thin hope that like maybe after all of this

then we can finally address like getting rid of Delilah in a very final way but yeah I think at this point it's like in a very final way. But yeah, I think at this point it's like, don't hate me when I do bad things. It's all for you. I swear it's all for you. Yeah, kind of.

I mean, it is. It's a means to an end. Yeah. It's just if you lose yourself along the way or not. Correct. Yeah. And you're doing it all for us the way or not, you know? Correct. Yeah. And you're doing it all for us by answering your question. I should do that. Okay.

Let's go. Let's see what we got. Bobby the host at the most. I know. I know, right? I think he's the best host we've had on Foresighted. Don't say that to the 23 others. It's always us.

It's the emotion. If the 23 others were just them. Then it's fine. If it's not us, it's Aabria. Tell us everything about Otohan Full right now, please. I'm gonna save that for campaign wrap up. No! Damn it, I tried.

You tried, you tried. Good try, good try. I tried. Not I'm sad. Matt, you brought back quite a few familiar faces from the Mighty Nein campaign, like Pumat Sol and Avid Deshin, not toumat Sol and Ivadeshan, not to mention Essek and Astrid.

What was it like to return to those characters? It was, I mean, it's always fun. There's always a balance to strike. For one, there's some other facets of it, too, with campaign three, like when will I ever have the opportunity to dovetail facets of multiple campaigns in the same campaigns in the same world in the same time period together in ways that I can both delight my players at the table

with new fun characters that you haven't experienced before or characters that were beloved from old storylines, but come at them with a fresh perspective and engage with them in a unique way, even if it's just for a moment. It's the little cameos. Like, I don't get a chance to do that much at all in any game, so I'm going to embrace that to a degree when it makes sense in the narrative. And a lot of it isn't me going, I'm going to bring in these characters. It's me following the thread of logic.

With things pointing towards Eor, they're going to need somebody to take you to Eor. Right now, Caleb is busy. The only other person that's not busy with what he's doing right now, who knows Aeor, would be Essek. Who, I was like, well, that's logical. That means I probably get to bring Essek in.

That'll be fun. Who would be functionally trust-ish, trusted-ish on the Caleb side that would know about the Cerberus Assembly. I love trust-ish. I know. Accurate, though? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, would be Astrid, who's a member of the Assembly

from the end of the last campaign, but is their own kind of dubious figure with a history tied to Caleb Widogast and, by connection, Essek. And so all these threads of logic kept leading me to- They both have had sex with Caleb. Matt and who? Matt and Matt.

Oh, got it, got it. I got mixed up for a second. My imaginary characters get a lot. But yeah, it was just following the thread of logic and being like, okay, this has the possibility of being a lot of back-to-back cameos. I had to try and make them meaningful and not over the top. I don't want to ever

overshadow your journey or your characters. So I can give little perfunctory moments of them playing up and being fun, but also, once again, underline that this is your story and your narrative. And that was fun. Let's move on to the next thing. And so even Essek's definitely like, he's guiding you through Aeor, but letting you experience it as he's pulling you through on a thread, being like, we're in business mode. I don't know who you are, but I've been given a task, so let's try and get through here okay. You immediately wandered off and started going to the amphitheater. He's like, twice I've been here with groups and they've both been idiots. To be fair, that's a pretty shiny big red button.

Of course! All of Eorzea! That's why it's so dangerous. Yeah, he gets it. So it's been a lot of fun to return to it. There is an internal concern of making sure it doesn't overshadow the moment or the players and become too like, and then remember this thing, I don't want to be too member berries either. Like, but... Member. Member. Member put match up. Like, so like, yeah, it was fun, but only because it logically made sense to the story

and I got to move on quickly from those moments. Yeah. We're going to do a couple of rounds of this, right? Yeah. Is it cool if I pull another one? Let's go. All right, well stay in the same order. At least two more.

Two more. So we can be more concise. Yeah, we can do lightning round. There's big things to talk about. Of course, it's a real topic. It's called Deep Dive, though. That felt pretty deep. What does Dorian think of everything going on with Laudna?

Does he truly trust her? Trustish her. Does Dorian think, what is everything going on with Laudna? Oh man, I think about Laudna a lot. I love about you. What do you think about me? I said that wrong.

I love about me. What do you think about me? Fucking hell. There it is. You did great, though. I don't know. I feel like there was some early bonding with Laudna in the start of the campaign.

And then seeing her in the state right off the bat was pretty disconcerting. Yeah. It automatically made me retreat to Orym, which I feel like is one of my stronger bonds in the game. Orym, Chet, Fern, and then Ashton to a certain extent, maybe Maude, but... I've been waiting to bring it back!

Oh, you played right into it. Yeah, you did. but, uh... I've been waiting to bring it back! Oh, you played right into it. Me, I did. But, um, but yeah, it was scary. It was genuinely a scary moment, and it was confusing for Dorian. I felt so bad when I was like, you don't know what you speak, or whatever I said.

I, like, clapped at Dorian. Yeah, no, no. I was like, what? You're a villain moment. I know. But it's true. And he cop come to it immediately So as I think I think I think of a lot of them stories Dorian's kind of figured out who he is

So he doesn't just saw this happen with opal. Yeah, get a little a little little flashback There's not not to unpack with your you're right What there's still a lot to unpack with Dorian, because you definitely came back into the campaign and you were like, yeah, my brother died and Opal got possessed by a spider queen. And by the way, this was all yesterday, but it's fine. Yesterday. Don't worry about it.

Once again, enough about me. What's up with you? And we haven't really talked about that. Dorian is a master compartmentalizer. I think always has been since the beginning. So I mean like, and whether those moments present themselves or not, I don't know if it matters. But if they do, there's stuff there.

His compartments are full. You know, we had a small moment where somebody checked in with me and I was just like, oh, I'm a piece of shit too. I'm a big fat mess, but it doesn't matter right now. It doesn't matter. Yeah, yeah. I love his compartments are full.

Like what happens to the compartmentalizer when they're... You turn into FCG, your stress points. Yeah. Yeah, your eyes turn red and you attack everybody. Yeah, but not in this new scenario. I think it really was just genuine caring and confusion of why we all weren't going out to help. I had top table knowledge of why, but I had to point it out as Dorian because Dorian would be confused. It's like, why aren't we all going out there

to help her? Why is it just a one-on-one scenario? And then that's how I got to find out about your relationship in it. We've got to put the pieces together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fun. Yeah. It's your turn. It's my turn. Same order?

Yeah. Keep it going. Why not? Yeah. It's fun. Your turn. It's my turn. Same order? Yeah. Keep it going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Imogen says, I kind of answered this, how is she feeling about her mom since the attempted assassination?

I kind of already answered that. A little bit, yeah. Do another one. Do another one. Get out of here, get out of here. I have a question. How are Laudna and Imogen, well, this is for both of here. Get out of here. I have a question. Uh, uh, how are Laudna and Imogen, well, this is for both of us.

Okay. How are Laudna and Imogen handling FCG's sacrifice and the hole left behind by his absence? Again, we kind of already talked about it. Yeah, the tower question kind of covered it. Yeah. Doodle. I'm running out of questions.

Oh, this is my last one. Those tower questions were really good. They were. They were. Okay. I honestly wonder how much you're talking about. Oh no, I answered this one too! I'm talking too much, apparently. How did Imogen feel about her mom finally turning away

from the Ruby Vanguard? Did she truly want her to return to Exandria? Yeah. Yeah, I talked about it. Well, keep talking. We could also talk more about it. You said you definitely chose to not trust her to come back with you, Yeah, I talked about it. We could talk more about it. You said you definitely chose to not trust her to come back with you, but the question was, did you really want her to come back with you?

Yes. In my heart of hearts, when I finally convinced her to talk to us and trust us, that she was gonna just say goodbye to all of that and follow us, and then she was gonna be with us and help Keyleth, and she was gonna be the tie that turned the, no. And no, it got to that. I mean, it could still be. It could have been. It was your choice.

No, I know that, but you and I talked about that after the game. There was that moment and like hearing her talk, it was that trust. Like I don't trust that she would actually help us. As soon as she got to the other side and she heard everybody talking about what the actual plans were and what we were going to do, it could have erupted into... And I mean, it could have been wonderful. She could have been de-indoctrinated or whatever you call it.

But I think having been 20 years with Ludinus... In Imogen's history, how long has Mom been out of the picture? Mom disappeared when I was like a toddler. Itty bitty. Itty bitty. Yeah. She hasn't been with lewdness that long. Right.

But she's been away for that long. Yeah. She left originally, from my understanding, she left originally to learn more about what was going on with, because I had very bad dreams about Predathos, about this entity, she left originally to learn more about what was going on with, because I had very bad dreams about Predaphos, about this entity, without realizing that's what it was.

She was having the same sort of things. She left to figure out what was going on. Yeah, and she started to feel some of these powers apparate in her, and she was scared of what, I mean, she, from my perspective and from her perspective, she began to feel these powers emerging of Herudis born innate powers,

but she kept them hidden and was like, what is going on? And she had had these dreams to Predathos and the calling of the Ruidus-born towards the Red Moon. And then the minute that Imogen, her daughter, began to have these dreams, it was like, fuck, I need to figure this out because this scares me

and I don't want this to happen to you. And so she began to follow a path of research and trying to reach out to people that study Ruidus and I don't want this to happen to you. And so she began to follow a path of research and trying to reach out to people that study Ruidus and study the history of this. Like what's happening to me? Why am I imagining this? What's the tether? And became like part of a kind of a small scale secret research team, like across Exandria that were like studying these other people that were having these connected dreams. Like the Ruidus born, the rate of Ruidus born birth had been escalating like exponentially in recent generations.

And people were like, they don't know why, but we're also scared to talk about it publicly or in a large scale because people will misuse this and abuse this. And so it's been this kind of like secret research plot that she got caught up with is probably one of the most powerful root is born. That was like emerging as, oh, she's going to be the focus of the study because she's doing shit that none of us really

expected. And that's how she got pulled in with Ludinus, who became like, well, we can talk more about the details of their history maybe down the line. But yeah, that's how she more or less got tied in with Ludinus. And then I started having all of the same sort of emerging powers, but didn't have any clue about what was happening because she'd already left and hadn't left any information. So I thought I was alone in all of it. Yeah. It's interesting hearing you talk about your wants and desires

for what you want your mother's actions to be. Because I think that's a very intrinsically child thing to want. Especially for one who maybe didn't have the experience of even growing up with a parent. There was, in her dreams, her mom would talk to her. Her mom would find her in the dreams. Oh, that's good. So she would always hear her mom's voice guiding her to safety.

Telling her to run. Telling her to run away from this storm that was chasing her. So in her mind run. Telling her to run away from this storm that was chasing her. So in her mind, her mom was her savior, right? Her mom was the thing that was going to be. But then you get confronted with reality. And she's not. Well, I think that's an interesting thing, not to go too, regardless of their relationship with their parents, where they realize that their parents are people, too.

And I think that's a weird moment that a lot of young people don't get to. It takes a little bit of empathy and maturity to realize, oh, shit, my mom's not just my mom. They're living the same rich, full life that I live. And then they're an independent agent and as You get older your kids aren't always your first priority You're living your own life and that's a choice that you can make as a parent So it's it's interesting to have to have image and have that experience with their own mom. Yeah, and I Can't say that your choice with your mother

Which one was right or if either of them were right, but I love how many facets of this campaign I have been and will hope to continue to put in your hands as players that will drastically alter how things go. Sure. And as a GM, my favorite aspects are like building out all the pieces and setting out all these things up,

and then at certain moments when it feels right you'd be like so which domino set do you want to knock down yeah you know it's hard as a player outside of the game like to go i feel like this is going to be the coolest the strongest thing but also you have to think about what your character would be doing in that moment would they make that decision? Because you can try to finagle it to make sense for your character, you know? Like you can do the work around and go, I can find motivation.

You tell me to get to point B, I'll find a reason to get there. But does it make sense? Is that the choice that I would have made? I think it was the right choice because it feels like everything would have to be, like, perfect for that to not backfire. Yeah. Like, if she did come and join our sides, and even if, like, on the best side of things, like, everything's hunky-dory and she's all in, she's still connected to this, like, hive mind, which, like, could see everything she's doing.

Or, like you said, she gets there, she's like, what the fuck, gets conflicted, and then rip cords with a ton of information. All of our information. All of our information. I still think that they're, I just feel it in my bones, like Liliana is gonna play a really massive part in whatever this endgame is. A very Gandalf to Gollum of you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I immediately see your wheels turning, looking to subvert your expectations. We'll see. What do you got? Okay. You also run through all of your questions. I did, I did.

But this one's kind of important, because it has a big caveat. How are Imogen and Laudan doing now? That's the answer. What did Imogen mean by saying she will miss their cottage? Did they break up? Say psych right now. Say psych right now.

So. We have had this conversation. We did. What just happened? Yeah, we literally, can I say this? Yeah, go ahead. That we left and went into the lobby after that moment have this conversation. We did. What just happened? Yeah, we literally, can I say this? Yeah, go ahead. That we left and went into the lobby after that moment and both Laura and I went, did we break up?

Did we break up? Did that just happen without either of us intending for that to be what happened? Yeah, it feels very rocky right now. I'm gonna need to see a smooch at some point before I believe the love is back on. It feels very like... Just make it, should we meet right now?

Not right now, not you two. Oh, you're kidding. Sorry, sorry. Took a turn. Is that the deep dive I intended? I mean... Let's get those views.

Spoken like the true creative director. Yeah, whatever. It'll pop off on TikTok. But yeah, I, true. It feels very much like we're not broken up, but we are taking a break. It feels kind of like that. It's like, I don't want this to end, but we are taking a break. It feels kind of like that. It's like, I don't want this to end, but did it end?

You know, like, I don't know. It feels, yeah, it just feels very uncertain. Very uncertain. Very uncertain. Like our... Yeah. Lay it on us, Matt. What do you got in your cup? Ugh! And then even like the next day, you were like, I sleep farther away. I reached for your hand when I was sleeping, and I was like, it did...

It felt cold. It always feels cold. Yeah. I don't know. We'll see. Time will tell. Ooh, I love it. That's good. Yeah, that was a good sign. It's really hard not making all your questions about Essek. So, hey Matt, just talk to me. I mean the audience about Essek. How is he? How is he? Hey Matt, what's Essek?

That's a great lightning round one. I was going to say this other question. What was it like to have Essek and Astrid face off in that interrogation? I'm like, I already answered that question, and this one's also about Essek. Look, at least I admitted it. No, it's valid. It's valid. Sometimes the brain worms eat the brain. I'm sorry. No, it's all good. I mean, Essek's doing pretty good. He's been enjoying the by the Dynasty, but he's definitely under heavy investigation and has been for a while. He's on a list.

He's on a list. And so he's been enjoying laying low for a number of years with Caleb. Growing green beans. Yeah. And so he's been like helping him out with his teaching. He's also been like off doing his own little research projects kind of outside of Dynasty perspective. Helping out where he can

where it feels safe. That's where kind of his his illusory persona comes from is he's kind of worked along with some members of the Cobalt Soul helped out with Beauregard

probably on a few things as this character and it's kind of built this kind of alternative persona to still do some things in the world where he feels he can safely do so. But yeah, he's doing okay. Personally, all this is scaring the hell out of him. Hi, Omar. Are you waking up from your nappies? He's in his Essek got his groove back era.

He did, sort of. I know, yeah. Omar also wants to know how Essek is doing. Hey, Omar, you like Essek? Yeah? Hey, I love you. Give me a kiss? No.

No, I'm looking at Mama. No, Mama. Give Daddy a kiss. It's okay. Give Dad a kiss. He's still sleepy. Oh my god, this is the same combos that we have with Ronan. Ronan.

No, Mama. He's like so nappy and like, I just. And he's still sleepy. Oh my god, this is the same combos that we have with Ronan. Ronan! No, mama! He's so nappy. He's so sleepy. He is. You want to take it? He went to the vet today, so he's tired. Oh, buddy. Sorry, buddy. So stressful.

You previewed your questions. Do you have one you could share with Laura? That was apropos to the both of you, maybe? Like the, what are we, was apropos to the both of you, maybe? Like the, what are we? It was apropos, it was a... Yeah. That line about the cottage, man, that's literally Bree and I's dream. And that hurt. The cottage line is brutal. That was rough. Well, because early in the campaign, it was like,

we could run away right now, we could ripcord, we could just get a cottage. There was a moment where Imogen was talking about, oh, my happy dream is just being with Laudna and baking in a little cottage. Oh my lord. Things got complicated. They did. Didn't they, buddy? Do we want to do one more round, or are we tapped out on questions?

I think we're pretty tapped out on questions. We've already covered a lot of mine, too. Good job. What was it like for Laudna to see a visage of Delilah during her normal internal conversations? I think right now she's so in it, she's just like, sup? Yeah, that seems about right. In a weird way.

And then we already covered this one, too, which is why is Laudna so focused on not being perceived as a liar? Could it be due to Delilah's gaslighting or because of Imogen's original response on the skyship way back when? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Do you, oh. He's so good at my job. He's Dorian Blue because he has bad circulation. I think we're good. And this is the point where we would normally do a pull from the tower, but I think we have to have someone scoop one off the floor. The floor? I'll do it.

Yes! I haven't pulled any yet. There's no consequences anymore. You can just go. I ruined it! No, you didn't ruin it, you made it better. My mic pack is so hard on my back. I'm gonna pick this one. It was the only one that was actually stacked.

There you go. 11. Number 11. Number 11. Incoming, hang on. Sweet boy. 11. I you go. 11. Number 11. Number 11. I'm coming, hang on. Sweet boy. 11. I caught you. Yes.

Oh, sleepy. What was your number? 11. 11. Okay, let's see. Did any of your campaign characters have first draft names that didn't get used? If so, what were they?

From Clarissa underscore Poncisa. Clarissa, good question actually. So many names. I had so many names. I had a list, I probably still have it. I can't remember what they were though. I might have them on my phone. Some looking back, some were bad.

I think I remember mine. What was yours? By the way, who was that question from? Clarissa. Clarissa. Yeah, thank you Clarissa. Yeah, thank you, Clarissa. She explains it all. She does. And now you explain it all to Clarissa.

Sorry if you've never heard that before. Yeah, I'm sure. When we were workshopping EXU, we played some games to get us in the vibe. And I played around with a bunch of different characters. And I played a water genasi called Emile Moonwake. I think that's where the Moontouch Scimitar started to creep in there. And then I played a goblin ranger named Flint, Flinttip Bearscat, and Flinttip Bearscat made

his way into narrative telephone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he survived some way. And then, yeah, I think those were my other ones. They all lived on somehow. I had like Angus Boulderbrow. He made it into a charity stream at some point. So good.

And then, oh, my idea for the, or not foresighted, for the narrative telephone was, and I gave this to somebody doing another charity, was Jaxi Flaxseed and the Tabaxi Taxi. So he was like a retired monk that just went into the city and ran a rickshaw. It was awesome. That's amazing.

Pretty fun. Yeah, those are some of my first ones I played with. One of my original names for Imogen, which is funny because this was not established. Like this is before you like had made anything red. Her name was Red. Oh. Just Red. Hey Red.

That would've been a little on the nose. I know. So on the nose. And that was her name. It was just like, yeah, Red. I knew an old cowboy named Red. Yeah, that's a good childhood. And I was like, that just feels so right.

Well, it was fun, because I was preparing the campaign. I was like, it's going to be this whole theme here with the Ruidus-born Ruidus. And Fearne had been established in the EXU. And I was like, Fearne with the dark fey, I already kind of, she might be the rudest born tether for the campaign. And then when you made Imogen with this dream

of this storm that chased her, I said, what if the storm was red? Yeah, and I was like, oh, I like it. And you were like, yeah, that'd be great. And I was like, okay, now I have two rudest born. Great, two tethers. I can make this kind of a dovetail, like dual narrative. And so yeah, that was kind of where that stemmed from.

So the name red would have made it even more like, okay, well, fuck. That's too much. Maybe that's a bit much. Red! I hope you would have gone. The storm is crimson. Maybe change it. Maybe change it more. The vermillion dust pours through.

I just never used the word red. Well, what's funny is one of my potential names was Vermilia. Fuck. What? What? I'm Vermilia. I'm just like, I got close to Vermilia. No, that's wrong.

Chosen. Who is now blue? Names and names. Yeah. I want to be blue. Damn! Shit! God! Oh my god.

Our brains were there before we knew it. Yeah. Oh my god. That's really funny. I also had Morella.! That's really funny. I also had Morella. Morella's pretty fun. Noxy. Noxy!

Yeah, N-O-X-I. Noxy. Yeah, like noxious. And then I had Matilda on there, but Matilda I ended up naming... Your original name. Yes, my original name. Was Pat-Tay ever going to be anything different?

I knew Pat-Tay before my own name. I was so late to name Laudna, because I didn't know what to do. But when Hana, she came back with art and I was like, I want some dead things on my belt. Can you put dead things on there? And then this like kind of together, ended up coming up with this like rat with a bird skull. And I was like, oh, and I started thinking about like where this rat would come from and her spending time. I just thought it was, I was like, oh, and I started thinking about where this rat would come from and her spending time.

I just thought it was, I was like, this is going to be funny to fuck with Taliesin. I'll name him Pate de Rolo. And that was it. And like, I... And now he's just always there. Yeah. My God.

It was so funny. You establishing the whole persona for him for a number of, like a big chunk of the campaign. Yeah. And then you're taking that one, like, a big chunk of the campaign. Yeah. And then you're taking that one warlock level where you can bring him to life. Is it familiar? I'm like, uh-oh. Witches eat. I gotta do this now.

Here we go. Well, that was a super fun question. Thank you again, Clarissa. Yeah. And if you have an evergreen question or a fan question or even a timely fan question for our Tower of Inquiry, you can enter at critrole.com slash tower and that just about does it for this portion of Foresighted Dive.

Yeah, that's over, right? We don't have to do the next section? That's it, that's it. It's all over. No punishment for you. But for our podcast listeners or those watching this, as of odd, we do bid you adieu. But please make sure you check out more Sighted Dive because when we come back from the break, we do bid you adieu. But please make sure you check out more Sighted Dive. Because when we come back from the break, we will be playing a game. We're doomed!

We're doomed! That's the game. We're totally going to work together and save humanity and totally not backstab each other in the process. Bye! Bye! That's it for the podcast version of this episode of Foresighted Dive. In the video version, we wrap up each episode by playing some games that don't always translate well to an audio-only format, honestly.

It's mostly yelling. So be sure to check out the rest of the episode via the VOD for the full chaos. If you've enjoyed this deep dive into the campaign, be sure to drop us a rating and a review on whatever podcast platform you're using. Your thoughts may just encourage a new critter to take the plunge. Foresighted Dive normally airs

on the first Tuesday of every month at 7pm 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.