Critical Role - Tale Gate | Episode 1 | Discussing Up To C4E11

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

The gate is open!Tonight, host Whitney Moore sits down with Brennan Lee Mulligan, Laura Bailey, Robbie Daymond, and Sam Riegel from the Soldier Table (minus Travis Willingham) for Tale Gate—the live talk-back show where the cast of Campaign 4 reflect, answer Lorekeeper questions, spotlight incredible fan creations, and pontificate on what could happen next!Immediately following the show, Beacon members are invited to The Night Cap—an after-hours continuation where the cast members relax and answer live questions from our Beacon exclusive Discord chat! New Episodes of Campaign 4 release weekly on Thursdays.Learn more about Campaign 4 at https://critrole.com/campaign4/   GET MORE CAMPAIGN 4 WITH BEACONWe're excited to bring you even MORE Campaign 4 with a Beacon membership! Get access to exclusive shows like our behind-the-scenes Critical Role Cooldown and ask the Campaign 4 cast your burning questions directly through our LIVE monthly Fireside Chats.You'll also receive NEW Beacon exclusive series, instant ad-free access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord. OFFICIAL CAMPAIGN 4 CASTGAME MASTER Brennan Lee MulliganLaura Bailey as ThimbleLuis Carazo as Azune NayarRobbie Daymond as Kattigan ValeAabria Iyengar as Thaisha LloyTaliesin Jaffe as Bolaire LathaliaAshley Johnson as VaelusMatthew Mercer as Sir Julien DavinosWhitney Moore as TyrannyLiam O’Brien as Halandil "Hal" FangMarisha Ray as Murray Mag’NessonSam Riegel as Wicander "Wick" HalovarAlexander Ward as Occtis TachonisTravis Willingham as Teor Pridesire Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why, hello there, distinguished campaign four listeners. I'm Sam Riegel and welcome to our new talkback show, Tailgate. In this series, we'll sit down with the cast after each table arc and spill the tea together on all things campaign four. Plus, if you're a beacon member, the soire will continue with the nightcap, a beacon exclusive segment where we answer all your questions from the Discord chat. Each Tailgate episode is streamed live on beacon.tv, YouTube, and Twitch, and we'll arrive here on the Critical Role Podcast Network one week later. So if you ever want to join in on the live fun, check us out on one of those platforms.

All right, without further ado, let's get this Tailgate started. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the first episode of Tailgate. This is the official talkback show for Campaign 4. Well, we'll be talking through the latest arc, answering LauraKeeper questions, oogling a few fan creations, and enjoying the rare luxury of reflection. So pull up a seat and pour some tea because the gate is open. Oh, you talked and you, wait, are we still on? Hey!

I was gonna spill it. Oh my God, how did you do that? That looks hot. It is. I shouldn't have. All right, all right, all right. Let's get to some Lord Keeper questions, y'all. Tail like story.

Story. No. I didn't get it. We are also wearing tails. Did you not get that? Oh, shit. Okay. It's not visible.

Yeah. I want to go, before we get to the questions, I want to appreciate everybody's cups because I asked for a mug, I asked for a teacup that hurt to hold, and I got this one, and it says pain. Does it have barbed wire? It has barbed wire on it.

It's really cute. It's my tyranny teacup. I have a lovely iridescent black with a skull within. That's very apropos. That's metal a F. I have a dainty little puny boy cup. Yeah, for Danger Little Pune Boys.

Leaves! What? That's not yours. Oh, this isn't mine? Oh, that one's yours. Why do you have so many cups? That's also very wicked to have too many cups. This one?

Well, who's is this? Is this Robbie's? That's not mine. They're all set deck. It has not been watched. Look at what's floating on the top. Oh, God, I drank that. Yeah.

Have you ever sat in a museum chair that was one of the exhibits by accident. Oh. I did. Yes, bad. Did you get kicked out? No, I got reprimanded loudly across a room. I saw a video of a guy that broke an art display that was a chair and he sat in it and it just collapsed.

That's so bad. You can't be having a display that's a chair that's just near the bathrooms. What a roob. I would never do that. What does your bug look like? Branch? I got leaves. You got leaves.

It makes it functionally unusable, but I'm enjoying the fake plants. They're nice. Okay, the first lore keeper question that I have is for everybody. How was it getting to be the first party to explore outside of Dolmachiar? I'll go first, it was sick. It was really cool.

Is that the whole show? Is this is answering your own question? And I am answering, you guys were all accessories. This is my show. Less from you? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Got it, got it, got it. Wait, he's got a lot of questions.

My mug's great. You actually do have the best mug, Lori. You should show it. What is it? It's glass. What's on top? Um, flower. Ooh, it's cute.

It is actually quite lovely. The gold clasp, but all in the glass. It is really lovely. This is a larger cup, which makes you look small. This is set deck too, but I feel like this is very simple. Ooh, that is really pretty. Whatever gray muck you're drinking looks delicious. It's coffee with milk in it,

but I wish I would have waited because I could have gotten real tea. You can mix them. Coffee with nothing there. Where is, oh, there is. There is coffee in it. That's a light. This is foul.

It's not good. Whitney, I enjoyed exploring the world of Aramon, beyond John. Good. It was great. Yeah. It's, I don't, you know, Brennan, we don't have a map.

Yeah. So it's just a lot of words. And I don't know where we're going and I don't know where we've been. I want to be clear, we do have a map. It's just in pencil. It's just I drew it at home. And we all got it.

But it was so small and bad. It was so bad. It looked like a child. It's really, it is really funny to be like, to be at a stage of playing D&D where I still have to do the making it up. But then I have to, like, sort of like a baby, I'm like looking like,

artist, help. Like, someone make it pretty, I don't know how. But yeah, no, there is the continent of past It exists. But our first little trek out from Dolmachiar, I know there is a lot of that, like, whoa, wait, I have to place myself in context of what this realm is and what this land is.

I thought you guys did a phenomenal job. I thought it was really excellent. And there's multiple kingdoms around us and borders and- And dogs and- And dogs and fairies. Oh my god. To your credit, you're not making it up on the spot because you gave me a, you said,

you were out here doing stuff. And I said, what was the stuff we're doing and where's out here? And you knew all the answers. It was real life homework. It was so impressive. There are so many NPCs that we probably didn't even meet that you just had queued up for if we went. Or that we saw in passing that other people are going to get to meet. Oh, you're jealous of them.

All right, I'm going to go to the next one. This one's for me. And Sam. They are. Whitney, what's it like being the favorite? Okay. All right. Sam, this is for us.

This was the first time Tyranny and Wick left their home. True. What did they each learn the most about themselves during our travels? You take it. I think Wick learned that he might not be as equipped for the world as he thought. Maybe.

He learned that people don't like him and that the world is a rough and tumble place filled with lots of different types of people. But he also learned that there's some good people out there too who if you put your faith in them and your trust in them, they can help you through a pickle. Yeah, plus he can sprout wings.

That's something that you learned about. I learned that too, yes. He's an angel boy. I gotta feel like tyranny of same thing. She thought she was tough shit because she was just on a leash, but kind of gallivanting around, you know, don't mock you are with you.

And then out in the rough world, She's like, ooh, I'm a little baby, actually. I don't know many things about the world, so we're kind of insane. She's just a baby. She's just a baby. Did you know you could have wings? Did I, Sam Regal? Yeah.

Sam Regal? Yes, I did. I knew that that was an option, one of three options, I believe. But I didn't know how to activate it. And, you know, I don't know much about this character. I've never played a sorcerer, so I don't, and I've certainly not. I never played this kind of sorcerer,

so I didn't know how it was gonna manifest. It manifested in a super cool way. Thank you. It was really fun. I think it is really cool for mapping. You guys had a tremendous amount of combats in a very short number of episodes. We had the fight at Hawthorne's Glade,

we had the fight at the Raith Tree, we had the fight at Castle Sloke, and we had the fight in the cellars of Castle Delon. We are the soldiers. You're the soldiers, yes. You guys whipped a lot. to ask, and I think it was very cool. Mostly a thimble.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mathematically, yes. I mean, just you count the damage and it only tells one story. But the important thing is this. Everyone's story was really fascinating, I felt, right? Like the way, I love when combat tells a story. And for Wick, what was very interesting

was Wick had some exceptional moments of triumph The moment of the shedding the light of the sun in that glade and shuffa, the plant creature, beginning to revere you. And Wic was encountering a brutal world he was not cut out for. Wic dropped in two different combats. And...

Remind me. I have. I just know. And it feels like a cool mapping to the idea of the process of being like, okay, I need to throw out an entire cosmology and a conception of the world while somehow preserving a sense of forward momentum

and right and wrong and who I even am. And it feels like what that can feel like is, okay, I get to keep this, I am, servant of the light, oops, ate shit, stabs through the stomach, oh no, that doesn't work the same. And it just felt like your experience of combat was mapping to your emotional journey in a way that was really cool.

Yeah. I also liked, this is a total tantal, When we leveled up, you did this great thing of choosing when we level up and how we level up and choose the spell that we take or the ability that we take, which was a cool thing to involve that into a story beat. But I think I, anyway, because I'm sort of new to my powers and new to my abilities, I've been also sort of choosing story beats to sort of use a spell for the first time or use that an ability that's. technically on my character sheet, but I wouldn't know about it or I haven't used yet. And there's other spells that I have on my character sheet that I still haven't, I haven't even used them yet or even tried to. So it's super cool. It's real stuff.

Well, this is a great segue. You were mentioning that we've had a fair amount of battles, and I've got a question here, which is what is everyone's favorite battle we've had? I loved the bit of espionage we got to do. I feel like the Slope one kind of worked all of our different skills in a really unique way. It was really cool. Sloke was sick. We had, it's very rare to have a moment of a line as cold and bad asses, do you hear it now?

While someone named Dr. Gisabel Finger. This game is got it all. It's hiding in a giant octopus. Yeah, bang, bang, bang, bang, this game's got it all. It was really great. Everyone, I feel like there were, yeah, that was an awesome battle. That move was Wolf-Rick.

and peeling the horse off. Yes, that was brilliant. Yeah, that felt like, that one for me, I think I said this in the maybe the cool down. That was like the team comes together episode for me, via combat and not just RP. It just felt like everybody was doing what they were supposed to do and they're doing it in a fun and interesting way.

That was definitely my favorite, yeah. Your face was in the mud for most of that. Yeah, that's right. That's right, I was being held down in the middle of the room while you guys were doing badass stuff. It was very cool, very great. But you did yell, for us all to come save you.

So without that. You started it all. Incredible, it's true. Incredible tactical move there. I think when I did that I looked over at Travis and he was just like, what? That's what got Brennan to leave the table. That was right.

It was so funny. I loved the the fairy fight too because I feel like that there was so much for Thimble to consider of like, you know, you have the option of leaving us in the dirt. You could have just sold us up the river. I know, and she's just, this is what she knows now. You guys are what she knows.

So it's almost like that's foreign to her. That was also the fight where we met the big bad of the campaign, Skinner the Red Cap. Oh, yeah. Who is gonna come back and get. Fucking terrified. I put my head in you. It was a hat.

It was a hat. It was a hat. He had. He put my hand in you. I feel like he would do both. He did, yeah. There's only one way to get the hat in you is for the hand to go in.

Red caps are a real fairy type from fairy folklore. What does that mean? I believe they're from the British Isles. I think that they're a, and it could be wrong, but that's what I remember at least. And the red cap is red because of being died in blood. There are these little goblin fairy men

who are nasty, bearded little guys who come up and they kill people and bathe their hats in their blood. Yeah. That's so sick. That rules. And then you said the headless guys, the switching their heads, that's also. That one I made up. Really?

Greg is a pre-existing term for a little cricket-type fairy. But the swapping of the head, the kettle-hobs and the swapping of the heads. You made it up on the spot? Just on the fly in that mind. Oh, that's a spot. I'm often in my office going, what's a fucked up little guy to make. Do you have like a board of like,

on the left it's like, elf, gnome, a dwarf, and then on the right it's like, you can switch heads, has, back with his hands. Throw it dark. I have a series of custom-made magic ape-balls, and I roll them out, and I'm like, elf, head, switch, okay.

There are so many cool Fae folk that we got to me, because we also met the hag, We met Brook Meadow. We met so many and many to come, I'm sure. We have so many questions, so I'm gonna cook. This next one's for Robbie. Did Kattegan expect his fellow former soldiers to question his mysterious return more than they did,

and how does he feel being back in a group, in the group, and interacting with people again in general? Because you just got folded in. That's a good question. Katten has zero expectations of anything. anything. It's a very free and sad way to live. Is that okay? Yeah. Very Taoist. Well, I think that you can't impose, you can't impose expectations on people that you don't have relationships with, and maybe you shouldn't as much as you do with the people that you have. So when he's back in this group,

I don't know, he's capable of caring without necessarily putting value on, like, needing to trauma dump on his homies. I think that speaks to how antisocial he is because I think a common, a core component of an antisocial person is deliberately not needing community, not needing something from your friends. And if that's a deliberate move on Cadigan.

Does he need it though? Does he need it? He needs it. He needs it. He needs it. He needs it. I think it's been not so. Cadigan just needs a hood. I don't think I've been like light-handed in the idea that he's feeling

he's feeling again at all. I think when you're numbed out and regressive and you start feeling again, you don't even know how to process this at first, except when you're in the moment. So if you're a person who lives moment to moment and you're in your body and you feel those feelings, but you haven't felt them in a long time,

I think it can be confusing and frightening, and I think you can revert back into old behaviors that used to be your shield. So yeah, he's going through all of that, but he's not one to sit on the couch and talk about it. Yeah. I certainly wanted to ask you about it. I feel like

Thimble's so like antagonistic with people though, like she's like in your face, it's not like a gentle, what happened, are you okay? We were doing lots of stuff. We were all doing lots of stuff though. To your credit, it was a jam-packed adventure. And there wasn't as much time to be like, how are you?

Yeah, we didn't really get a campfire talk till the very end. That's fine. So I think my favorite episode of the the soldiers arc was Make Mary, this last one where we're the very final. Because to have this rock'em, sock'em, combat-filled escapade, vengeance and rescue and discovery, and to get that very sweet moment of in triumph, but a like high stake still like your heart rates up

kind of triumph, where it's like, we got Sid, but he's a statue, we got our revenge, but the enemies are still abound, to have this moment at the campfire where we see everyone suddenly catch their first breath and reveal how they're doing, that's always my favorite shit. And also because I love to come shoot something

and I go, ah, this shit has nothing to do with me. I'm gonna kick back and watch the professionals work. Truly the best seat in the house, it's lovely. Hey, I just have a question that just popped up in my head. Who's been coming up with the episode titles? Is it you? Is it producers? Is it Matt?

Who is it? Who comes up with these? I will say, I think the highest batting average of episode titles goes to one Danny Carr. Oh yeah. And applause there. Does she pitch him after every episode? Yes, I get, I am C-C'd with a number of producers

and other great people, and Danny has the most phenomenal, like, episode breakdowns and title suggestions. And they're beautiful and often contain a lovely double meaning or reference to the themes of the episode. and I think it's delightful. I was gonna follow up on the question that we are technically on right now from our lore keeper, speaking of Danny Carr,

to Robbie, which was just to ask something that was very cool, because Robbie is playing an archetype that we love, the gruff, stoic, laconic, the man with a mysterious past who is an outdoorsy gruff man. And that's all it is. There is a facet of your character that was not included, It was looted in the pitchdock.

It wasn't present in character creation. It came out organically through play, which is one of my favorite ways that characters evolve. Like we are literally playing this game to discover the story we're telling, right? I would say that Kattegan, very subtly and without judgment or preachiness,

amongst a religious figure, right? Is a profoundly moral man. Yes. And that his, and that a tremendous amount of wisdom and grace came from this gruff man who we meet in a state of like, sort of like drunken, who've seen sort of like an unkempt wild man in some ways has like a very potent heart.

Did you become aware of that? First of all, do people share the same observation that I had? And was that something that happened organically in a way that you were surprised to discover through playing the character. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think that we talked about this,

like creating a backstory versus like, trying to foist it upon someone else's story or just living in it and see what happens. And like little moments like that surprise you. We were talking about the first encounter with, I'm up on my head in you. And it was like, oh, it's go time. Tay are my battle buddy is about to fire things up.

And my gut check wasn't to continue that conflict. It was to heal the first person that, that was heal honeysacole. And that surprised me because I was looking at my options and then I was like, ah, it's an unavoidable choice because it's what he would do. So I feel like, yeah, and those moments continue to surprise, set up by the circumstances that the rest of the cast

and you build. So I think that's what a rich and fun way to play any kind of character. Yeah. Like that moment, the moment where you heal honeysuckle, the moment where WIC is weighing all these options for what to do as house-hailing. LeVar has taken Castle Slope, and Cadigan comes in and is like,

like Dame Winifred, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Consider giving it to the local. Yeah. Like, time and time again, it was this thing of, that always came from like a commoner's point of view as being like really grounded moral insight, that because of who Cadigan is,

there is no finger wagging that accompanies it. When someone who, who visibly wears a hard life, comes to you with moral insight, it always comes from, let me share a lesson with you, I got the hard way, rather than I'm here to tell you. Yes, yeah.

I think, well, those are the people that I grew up with, and that's how I grew up, and I know a lot of us, some of us have similar backgrounds and stuff like that, and I think it's okay to be a good person who's had a hard life or made bad decisions. Like, I'm a big proponent of retributions, you know? No, it's true. And I think we so often write those people off,

and they write themselves off. And that was a little bit of the intent to play a character like this. It was just, you know, yeah. And the lessons don't come sugar-coded either, as exhibited with Cat and Tyranny, having these moments where, you know, he's trying to instill this morality on her.

Good luck. And it's done in a way. I was so, I loved that moment. just becoming friends with you, Robbie, because I was like, this man has a daughter. And it really, like, it really shows. I do have a daughter. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I was like, it really shows. I was like, this is, and it just, it felt so paternal and I was like, wow, it's so, it's such a treat to see those glimmers of Cadigan shine through amongst the grit. Is there something in this tea? Yeah.

Poison. I'm gonna use the set dressing to pour my gross coffee out and get fresh tea. Do it. Do it. A question for you, Laura, next. Are those donuts edible? Yeah.

No, they are, I checked. They are. With, the donuts are edible? The donuts are edible. And there's a other thing. Everybody get a donut. Oh, shit. Oh, there's brownies in there, dogs.

What's up? Oh, let's go. I'm giving this one. Sorry, going to hang us down. Every high tea, you got to have a little cake. A little cookie, a little ice. This is going to have a little latte mixed in. It looks like we made it.

Wow. It's just have a little milk in it. Sorry, I poured out almost the entire pot into your, no, I get it. As a joke, there's no more, I'm sorry. You can have a simple mind. Mighty. Okay, Laura, Casimir was once a friend.

Thimble got her revenge and all of its complications, but does she worry about other former friends betraying her? I don't, huh, I hadn't until just now. Well, get ready, bitch. I'm not gonna lie, Thimble's not thinking about Much of anything. Like she's not thinking about the past right now. She is so just in this cloud of,

she doesn't even know who she is anymore. She doesn't know where she stands anymore. She doesn't know what the world means anymore. She doesn't, like everything she knows has disappeared at this point. And it's just this quest to try to make it all make sense and it's not going to. And I was struck in that last scene when all of us were at the campfire and everybody was like pairing up and having like these talks and Thimble was off like sitting on a flower and kind of watching from a distance of all of everybody else. And how incredibly lonely it is for her to not even to like be suffering through this grief, but like you can't even hug someone.

You can't you can't really have that embrace. you can't have that comfort. You can hug me. Physically. I mean, the wingspan is so small. I've read that comic. No, I mean, I think she's just, she's lost. She's so moving out of her wounds, too.

Like she's moving from a place of wounding, and that's such a, such a great, choice because it clouds your vision in so many ways when you move from your pain. God, I love it. Well, yes, Robbie. Yes, Robbie. Okay, so after you smoke your enemy upon the castle wall, it felt great right in the moment, but wait, what about right after? Wait, this is actually, is it. This leads into the next question, okay, okay, which is what do you feel it was your character's highest high and lowest low from this arc? Highest high, fucking killing. Yeah. Yeah. Revenge killing him. He's slicing his damn throat. Felt great.

Low is slow. I mean can I say falling asleep on Thaz's chest? That was terrible. It was pretty low. It's low. Finding out he's dead pretty low. Pretty fucking low. We started Thimble's story. With the bottom. The bottom. It's an interesting place. I also, can I There's more to unpack this question for all of the characters present here, but I actually want to go back and say, like, lovingly and politely, I think I disagree with a take from before. I want to offer a little spicy hot take here in terms of Thimble moving from a place of grief. I disagree. Because I think that what is so fascinating about Thimble's journey is...

Because Ferries can't feel real emotion. Yes. They're not... They're basically elemental. Your brains are too small. I never thought about that. Wiley Coyote in. Yeah, I'm about to say something. I'm about to say something,

fucking write it down. Wiley Coyote doesn't fall until he looks down. And I wonder, if Wiley knew that he was a cartoon, what would happen if he sees Roadrunner go away and realizes that he's not moving forward anymore and can see the canyon and the edge of it

and goes, just keep pumping your legs and don't look down? And how long would he hang in the air? Where the only thing that can happen next is to fall, but if I never look down, it never starts. Iris and my observations. I don't have a Looney Tunes analogy, so. No, I just, it's a fascinating point. No, but it's so, that's such a, there's a point about,

there's a great, what's next, what's next? Yeah, there's a great article written about Batman that talks about the power fantasy of Batman, and I think there's actually a lot of parallels between Thimble and Batman, weirdly as these like superheroic, like city, fucking roguish kind of like things, where someone says the power fantasy of Batman is that most people's grief, debilatesates them, and Batman's makes him heroic.

And but it only makes him heroic if he never processes it. He has to stay locked in the cycle. It's why his ultimate antagonist is laughter. The Joker is the ultimate antagonist because he has to stay sad forever, because something about it powers him forward. And I think that there's a way of, the thing about Thimble that really strikes me is the arrested. It's that, it's that Wiley Coyote if he suddenly realized and went,

Don't look down. But this applies exactly to the question that I was asking was once you achieve a goal that's so direct and there's more to unravel, of course, how did you feel afterwards? Like, was it always just eyes on the prize or was there a moment of introspection as a player or a character where it's like, I had this drive to hunt this character down in game and as my character and we've satisfied this in the most epic way. Are you, Laura, and are you Thimble satisfied? No. Yeah. No. That's a tough place.

It's like this feeling of, I thought this was gonna make it okay, but it's not okay still. So what can I move to that will make it okay? I've watched that in your, it's such a beautiful character and the performance is so incredible. And I've watched it where if you go back and look through, Thimble never looks more scared in this first soldier's then right after she did what she said she was going to do. There's a moment where, you know what I mean? When she's got something to chase, it's actually stability and purpose and peace. And the minute that Kazimir dies, you watch a, got to be the next, what's the next problem?

What were your highest highs and lowest lows? Sorry, I was thinking about a gritty live action remake of Wiley Coyote versus Batman. Jodd that down. He didn't hear nothing. They're both gadget-oriented. Yes. Highest, highs, and lowest lows? I mean, my lowest-low is probably finding out

that everything I've known is lie and that my grandmother somehow channeled the blood of a crazy monster angel to fuel her family. God, that was so sick. It was sick. And the highest highest high. I think was just surviving any of the fights,

waking up at the end. No, I think you rolled a Nat 20 at disadvantage, I think at one point. That's pretty blessed. You had some really clutch rolls. Boy, I hope those last. I don't got a lot going on. No, I think being able to help other people,

I don't know if I ever really, saved the day ever, but I certainly, I helped a couple times and I think that's all he wants to do is to help to be useful. You saved the day with all the fairies. You brought that light out. Yeah, that's true. I guess I am the best.

Lowest low, missing the simple, is actionable, a person of action, failing what they're meant to do is the worst feeling in the world, especially if you're capable at it, and missing the Basque list with the sunblind bolt, my one bolt in my quiver, and missing your shot. Like, you've been riding the bench for 10 years

and someone passes the ball and you fucking brick it. Whift it? Sucks. That's a miserable experience in life. I think everybody should have it multiple times. It's true. Humbling. Eyes do the best and the worst.

And then I had tiny little highs every single episode from yelling at, you about the knife to giving it to you because in my head I was thinking about times when I was crafting it for you. I know, no, I mean, I was like, where could this actually be happening? Can I justify getting this to you? Do we have time? It's so fun that you were sitting on that. You had that secret. It was so, that's so fun. It felt nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess, uh, for myself, highest, lowest low was stealing the knife. High as high was stealing the knife. And that sucks because, uh, felt so bad instantly,

but what a thrill that I can't ignore. I can't tell you what a gift it is as a DM to have players take huge swings. So this is our first campaign. We're playing together. You stealing that knife fucking rules. And immediately I was like, I'm gonna do a whole thing. I was like right away.

I was like, that fucking rules. It's such a great demonic play. It's so simultaneously wicked and also childlike, like, ooh, you know, like. Not a deeply, emotionally sophisticated person, tyrannious. But she'll get there maybe. Yeah. Hey, before we go any further, we need to pause for a moment

because it's our time for our first iteration of Noteworthy Notables, where we celebrate the good works of those from within the Critter community. The first Noteworthy Notable of Tailgate is from Zellers on IG. Let's take a look. Ooh. Oh, noteworthy notable sounds like a celebrity jeopardy category.

It does. It's us. Wow, I love this one. Whitney made it about herself again. It's my show. Has Wick been tanning? He looks fantastic. He's got nails.

He just wears bronzer. Yeah, a broad bronzer. For sure. He is really nailing the Joel Osteen of. There is kind of a. He's nails. They both have, look at Wicks in the lower right corner. He's got Celestial.

We both, we went to the manicurist together. DeMuio. Self-tanner in his bag of holding. He's a beautiful boy. He is beautiful. And then we, yes. We got Brook Meadow. I love the bubbles in the foreground.

Oh my gosh, and the bubble on the head. That is great. That moment. That was such a cool detail. Was so, so good. She got tap hole bottom? Is that what's going on there? Got a little taddle tail.

That's cool. Yeah. What? I love that. That's so cool. Beautiful. These are both by Zheller's. Zheller.

I was saying Zellers, but Zheller's on IG. And if you're interested in being featured on Noteworthy Notables, go check it out at critroll.com slash submit. Submit to me. Anyways, here's some more questions. Brennan is the knife from Cadigan actually a vestige of

or does it just behave similarly? I'm excited that we're getting through this because there was so much speculation. I want to know. Yes. You just, that was a metaphor, right? Your phrasing was very particular. It was a comparison.

It was a direct comparison. It is a significant object that will, it has the ability to awaken. The item has the ability to awaken and increase. As opposed to like a potion where it's like, this does one thing eternally. But it's like a vestige of divergence. Correct.

It doesn't necessarily mean that it is. Is a vest of divergence. Does it mean that it could be? We are in a world where the divergence did not happen. So to call it that would be shocking. But when I said, what did I say? I said like in another world in time, it would have been called a vestige of verging.

Clearly an analog. Yes. Yeah, yeah. It would have been called a vestive divergence. We all heard the words and we were like, No, I just mean that Matt, Matt made up the coolest shit in the world. The bestest of divergence is,

is solving a, is, I think Matt, in his endless proficiency and brilliance. Vestis and Diversions are like one of the most elegant and beautiful ways I've ever seen of solving the issue with magic items in these games, which is that you're like, oh, I know we got a better thing, but I've fallen in love with this sword, or this one is related to my family,

or this one, there's something meaningful about it. And I don't, I want to throw out my dad's sword because I'm like, Frostmore and sick, whang! And then their dad's sword is gone. You know, like, so that, that... That's what a bag of holding is for. The bag of holding is for, right?

I'll remember you forever. I remember when I was fighting with you. But the, I think there's something really beautiful about the, in the exalted state of them and the fact that... And also, I think, too, of what Matt did with vestiges that I really love as well, is baking storytelling directly into a magic item,

that it states that it awakens into are a reflection of the progress of the character in relation, and often in relation to the values of the object itself, right? Or in the act of its creation. And obviously there are some vestiges that don't have the, there's some of them that came up in divergence that are a static stat block. But that tight that they have is great.

So we did not mean to be confusing. Like, we are not in the next arc going to have a Charlton Heston moment where you guys see Whitestone and go, what did you do? You were not confusing in any way. Look, I'm so worked out about it. What did you call me?

I saw the same thing on live on and I was screaming at my phone. I was like, he was so clear. It's not actually a message of divergence. Dog, you cannot use capitalized terms. People are, people are, they're gonna get sight. To everyone who got psyched, I see you, I understand. In the future, I will not use searchable terms. But the analog being just that it will grow with me, correct?

I'm very excited about that, especially because it's got some pretty emotional, I'm feeling pretty awakened myself. And there's a couple questions down here just regarding the knife, so I'll lump them together. Kattegan, Robbie, why was Kattegan so aggressive about tyranny stealing the knife? Can a bitch live? It's none of your business. Oh, I really thought that we were gonna get an answer.

No, it was just, thank you. I have theories. I'm sure you do. What's your theory? Spill it. I don't want to, because what if I get it right? And Robbie was like, no, you revealed my backstory right now. And then Robbie changes his backstory like they did on Lost.

No, I did not expect the reaction to be that visceral either. I'd just go back to our earlier point. You just love to yell at women. I do. It's true. Such a trap to play a demon and then be like, as a woman. Who's a new lovable fan favorite

that I can yell at? This will endear me to them. No, there is this theater idea, which is this peripheral acknowledgement of the audience's existence, and it's the reverse of a willing suspension of disbelief, right? It's where we're in the audience

and we watch the thing We know it's not real, but we can still invest in it. And it's the same thing that happens in really good acting in theater when you're in the moment and enjoying it. And if you don't think there's a tiny voice in the back of my head screaming, oh my God, you're yelling at her. Oh my God, they're going to hate you. I loved it. I loved it. But I did really just, it felt right.

And it came from a place. I'll tell you this. I'll answer your question this way. It came from a place of honesty and morality and morality for, you know, and morality for you. for lack of a better word, that I don't feel bad about. But the idea that he handled it and that I handled it in that moment poorly is just fine. Because people aren't good at those things, especially. Not always.

They're going to fail. They're going to be overly aggressive. They're going to behave in ways that, and if we're scared of portraying those kinds of emotions. You have to let characters fail. 100%. And it probably wasn't the right way to handle that situation. but the thing that was done was right and the way that he did it was poor

and I'm okay with it. Well, it was so effective because it was the first time we really got to see like, oh, Cadigan's got some really, he's got a really strict moral compass. It mattered to me. It's compelling.

Or it matter to him. Yeah. I'll say this. The improv teacher in me knows that Cadigan's reaction is what Whitney as a storyteller was looking for. Yes.

Oh, good. Right? Because if you come out and do something that's like, Whitney's making a choice to do something demonic, to be like, oh my God, you love that. I have to take that. And if everyone at that table was like,

cool. Like, nice job, Witt, good choice, and moved on. Whitney would go, you've made me look like you all think I'm an idiot. You know what I'm saying? But like, guess Whitney thinks stealing's okay, leave it unremarked on, and then move on. You really throw your scene.

partner under a bus by you going not okay, then the person who made the demon choice gets the reaction that a demon should get, right? You have that moment where you go, like, oh, that's unacceptable. And you're like, yeah, great. Someone is acknowledging, right, that I, and especially for Cadigan to do it who hadn't had, who you, I think that was one of the first moment too, where you see this guy who's like, oh, like, I showed up in the, in Delmarchi, and I, ha. And then for him to be like, unacceptable, he's like such a swing from him.

him that it fleshed out tyranny and Cadigan at the same time. Yes, he's so devil may care until that moment, and devil do care. It would be like Han Solo being like, the chore wheel is not being. People are fucking up. But a lot of people at the table in that moment were protesting and not, I think you had said something actively about, like, what are you doing? Don't do that, but then like you don't want to suppress another player's choices, you know. So it's a tough spot. to be above table too.

Yeah. So yeah. In that moment, Cadigan became Tyranny's father and I love that. And then that was reinforced much later. Not daddy, okay? I'm choosing the language.

And to your point, it's so correct that like if you want to watch a story where people articulate their feelings explicitly and plainly, watch a Wes Anderson movie. Like watch anything besides D&D because it's not, no one in the world is perfect.

and you make character's choices. West Anderson D&D campaign. Yeah. Just like Christine aesthetic. The mouth is very, very. In a perfect little rose, the same. Are healing potions evenly? We agree to that.

This is also, I'll just say this quickly because I feel like we've spent a lot of time on the knife. For me, what did she, what did Tyranny feel getting the knife from Kattegan? And how did she feel? stealing it, I mean, listen, she's learning that she gets a thrill from certain things and they're not good and they're in direct defiance of this community she's building and that's a tough spot to be. But getting the knife from Kattegan was such a lovely affirming like, oh, maybe I do belong here. Although, you know, don't get your hopes up, you know? That's the thing. It's such a, it was such a great conversation to me because you're like you have such, you have autonomy in.

the type of person you want to be. And do I? Hmm. We'll find out. I don't know. We'll find out. Let's see. Whitney, you're doing great.

Thank you so much. You're running the show and answering your own questions. Could you also answer Travis's questions? There's none on here for Travis. Oh. That's why he didn't come tonight. Sam. He was gonna come, but there was no questions.

And then nobody cares. Yeah. You were 86, sorry. Sorry. Sam, Travis died. For the record, I did write Travis questions. What's happening right now? And then found out he wasn't coming, which was frustrating.

Thank you, the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. What's the name of the first episode of this show going to be? Does it have one? Of the tailgate? Yes. Okay. Tailgate, episode one.

Robbie, you're the king of a mysterious backstory. Can you give us a hint as to what? what's going on with the doll. Oh, it's a man and a wolf. Come on. The doll? Oh, the doll, I thought she said the dog. I know.

I thought you said the dog. I thought you said the doll. Predicted in question. The way you freeze it for a second, every gear in my brain shut down, because like, what's with the doll? And you're like, it's a man and a wolf. As though like, man and a wolf

you're gonna throw that doll 10 out of 10 pounds, okay? You know what a man and a wolf get up to? It's fucking dolls. Oh, man. I don't know. He saw something he did like, and it made him angry and sad. I have a question.

Are you ever going to reveal your backstory? Nope. I don't know if it's necessary. I don't know if it's necessary. It hasn't become necessary. Can you in the next game that we play, can you just roll play a little bit like, Kattingen goes in a corner and writes some stuff down on a piece of paper?

That way, if you die and we don't hear your backstory, we can go through your body and be like, There's a letter. There's a letter. Are you talking about me dying in real life, Robbie Damon? No, no. You're all. Because I gave my backstory to bread in.

Chargers could die at any moment all the time. And then we won't know. Our characters won't know. But if we find a letter on his dead body that explains who he is and what he was. That's not how life works. That's not how life works. But I want to know. If I'm a lone man, if I die, my secrets go with me.

It's sad, right? That's not true. There's a wolf. We can figure it out. Yeah, we can talk, speak with dead. We'll kill the wolf and then speak with dead. If tyranny or thimble or wick finds out the catigan chucked that doll, are you gonna reprimand him like he did for the night shit?

Okay? Don't worry, the internet reprimanded me enough. For retconning Brendan's beautifully pristine dolls. And they're like, what are you being one of them's rotten? It's wood! They're 25 years old. It's probably one is let me have a one RP moment the first three episodes.

I have no problem with you grabbing narrative reins there. If you wanna make a rotten doll in that home, that's your business. I say yes and, motherfucker. I'm saying for a guy who's out here, chucking dolls left and right, we came over the top hard on the night. He found something.

Get it in secret. I think you can commit to it. Every time we see any dolls or anything small, small, just throw them. You just can't stand in trouble. You're in trouble. Okay, speaking of Laura being in trouble, segue, what was it like losing a memory of the Ozzy?

She doesn't even know. And also, Robbie, do you want to remind you? And then you said, I'm going to remind you, and then you just never said it again. I don't have it. You could die. I have it written down. If it's ever apropos. Then I'll have to look in your pockets after your dad.

You're a bunch of satisfaction junkies. Does Canada know what? You want your backstory and your memories right out of the gate. Do you know the memory she lost? Yeah. Yeah, she told me. We said it out loud. I was saying it out loud and then she took it.

As it was happening, yeah. I have it. That's so sad. So sad. Are you so cruel and mean? The audience is more endeared to characters going through hard times than easy times. So it's not my fault, it's actually the viewer's fault at home. Wow.

I didn't make that how stories work. That's on us. That's on us as a species, really. Okay, I've got a question for Sam and Laura. Wick and Thimble had a difficult working relationship, you could say, during these travels. That is a way to put it. How are they feeling towards each other now?

And how are you guys feeling towards each other? I think, Wick thinks that everything's fine. They made up. No, honestly, I think Thimble is realizing that Wicks, intentions are pure. Yeah. Even if his, the things that come out of his dumb mouth are dumb. Yeah, I mean, good intent doesn't get you a lot if your head is on the chopping block.

If you're being stalked and pursued by enemies. Sure. But it's rare, I think, in her past life to find anybody that, with everything that her and theazi did, to find someone who's like pure of intent that actually wants to do good and be good. It's like, oh, that's why, like, it's like, you can't possibly, that can't be real. And she's, like, realizing, oh, that's real.

I think Wick around Thimble is just like, you know, when you, in high school, when you talked to the super popular, super popular girl or whatever. Not that he's like in love with her, obsessed with her. Are you secretly? No, I mean,

No, that's not what I'm going to say. Oh, God. But I think he just doesn't know quite how he keeps messing up around her. He doesn't know how to, every time he tries to make it better, he makes it worse. She's so intimidating. She's like the captain of every team. Like the lacrosse team. She's just.

In his daily life pre-campaign beginning shenanigans that Wickb would be one to be surrounded by like sycophants and. He was only. He only put in situations where he could succeed, I think. Like he was, you know, if there was a, if there was a big sermon event or whatever, other people would do the first 56 minutes of it, and he would be brought out for the last three minutes to just say his speech and everyone would applaud.

During combat people are just like, oh, oh my God, you're so strong. Wow, but a punch. It was never put in a position where he could really fail. Uh-huh, yeah. So, yeah, this is all new. is all new. There's also, I think, something really beautiful in Wick's journey, which we're seeing right away, which is it takes a tremendous amount of moral character to reject something that is

very dear to you. If you're like, oh, this thing that I thought was true is a lie, well, I have to reject it on principle. And that's fine, but there are other forces than just ideology that compel a person to do bad things or stay in a bad organization. And I think some of what we see with Wick is it's like, okay, my, the Kandescent Creed was made. by my grandmother, the FOTARC, and this is all manipulative and bad, and we're hurting people out here. Okay, I need another organization

that will let me come in at the top, because that's all I know how to do. And you go, there is none, and you're like, I don't have any other skill set or any other where to, and what do you mean everyone's gonna dislike me and distrust me? Everyone in the bad place is nice to me and says I'm a good, good boy.

If I join the good guys, you're all gonna look at me, what, with suspicion? This is awful, you know, like, if you see what, like, that those, that deprogramming, for lack of a better word, is that the ideological part, or the conviction or the principled part, is just step one.

The step after that of, okay, I'm a house cat, where do I go now? I have to learn to be in the rain on the ground. Like, this is fucking awful. So it really is, I think, kudos to Sam as a player and as a storyteller for taking this arc to go on this big adventure and still have Wick go, oh, I've taken this

first heroic step and taking the first step means the door is right here still. Like this is a journey of a thousand miles and I'm just getting started. It's awesome. It's really cool. Yeah. Well, speaking of WIC, I've got a that queued me up for a great one because he's had a lot of new experiences with his body. You could say it as sort of a second puberty is happening. Nice. How does he feel? You could say that.

How does he feel about all the magical things? that are happening to him. Is he intrigued? Is he scared? Boy, he is going through some changes. I think he is, I think he's very conflicted. He is happy to be able to do some of these new things with his magic and with his abilities

to help people and to help his new friends and stuff like that and to protect hopefully tyranny and the others. But at the same time, he knows that these powers now sort of come from a dark place, a bad place. And so I think with every spell that he casts, especially ones that hurt people, he's like, I'm using magic that isn't mine that has been stolen and it's bad magic

and I'm using it to hurt people. And yes, it's sort of for a good reason, but it just comes with guilt. There's a lot of Catholic, Mormon, Jewish guilt in everything he does, you know, which he'll just have to get over or get past. I love the way you danced around it

in the wraith fight by doing color spray to mark the undone. Yeah, I've been trying not to hurt anybody the whole first 11 episodes of this campaign. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. Is his faith growing or waning faith, oh boy, just in the world?

I think in the creed. Oh, I mean in the creed it's definitely waned, but like I said, as we were playing it, there's something out there that I think he, if there's nothing to believe in, then he's dead. He's got nothing. If there's nothing to believe in,

why are these miraculous things happening to you? I know. I think that's, deep down in his heart of hearts, he does believe that there's something to believe in. He just doesn't quite know what it is anymore and thinks that maybe there's clues in what he's learned or clues out there that he can find, but there's something true in the world.

He just has to find out what it is. This is a great segue to a question for Brennan that I see on here, which is how difficult is it to balance showing the good and bad of the candestant creed's work? I loved the candle for. feast and just sort of getting the, well, it's not all bad, like there's people need something to believe in. So what was your process like discovering that balance?

I think that, well, that's a really lovely question. Showing moral nuance is how you make sure that, I think that like the point of storytelling or the point of like any kind of art in general, is to try to talk about your experience of life in the world as faithfully as possible. And I do sort of subscribe to like, the first moment you misrepresent

the feelings or argument of your opponent is where you slip into making propaganda. Where you're like, if you don't, in other words, if there's something you disagree with and you start to reframe it and straw man it and go like, let's make a less compelling version of their argument. Or let's make a less compelling version

of this other ideology. I think that you betray, your own faith in your own notions of the world. Right? Like if you think that you're right, you shouldn't have to misrepresent what people you disagree with are saying. And I think that within the candescent creed

as something that's like within the world of Aramon, there are certain constants that feel true to life to me, which is that any large enough institution will have tremendous privilege and power for the people at the top. and therefore people who as a core tenant of their personality seek position, privilege, and power will be drawn to that.

Life is very complicated and there's lots of different kinds of people everywhere, but if you're pressed for time, being skeptical of people in powers, not a bad guideline to go by. As like, hey, there might be a degree of moral nuance here, but I only got 10 minutes So you might be up to something.

That's not a bad way to go through life. And I think that there's a certain degree of like, if I had a whole year to get to know you, maybe, but you seem pretty fucking bad. So I think within the cantescent creed, a lot of it is what brings people to that ideology. And if you look at like the core of like Wicks' immediate family, we haven't really gotten to spend any time with Iris,

but the one memory we saw of Iris of her comforting. It's also Iris is the one person that's not actually blood related to Yenessa that we've met, right? Like you and Zabani, your sister and Goddard, your father are all directly. I'm like family better than I do. So such a wild move to make a whole holy book and then be like, I don't watch our show.

Be like, here's the holy book, Brennan, your problem. But yeah, I think that the, but then looking at the common stuff too, You go like, yeah, the people that are saying, that are like saying, like, forget the fairies are actually building these anti-zombie walls. What do you do with that level of complexity? The zombie walls are good,

and the killing the fairies is bad, and it's the same people doing both. And it's like that, that just feels like, Trifold. We haven't heard the zombie side of the story though, Brennan. We haven't. There's a zombie out there being like, when you destroyed the wraith tree.

All right, we only have like a couple minutes left, but I want to ask everybody a question, and then we go on to Beacon Bits. Oh, last question, it says. Listen, I'm gonna ask everybody a question and it's gonna be rapid fire. Sam, where is Wick putting his faith now? In his butt.

Right question. Robbie, how do you describe Ketigan's relationship with Wolferich and how was meeting the Hounds the King? That's my dog, those were other dogs. Okay, great. Laura, were you expecting Thimble to be such a stone cold killer and does it feel right to her? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Your build fucking rules. There's a lot of, I mean, I like put it together in my head. I was like, wait, a flying swashbuckler. Oh, no. Hey, yeah. She's like, wait, that's an option. That's what I should pow! Yeah. Question for me. Why am I doing disguise cell? Brennan recommended it and it sounded cool.

And what did, why did I choose the form of a young girl? Honestly, I wanted to get a reaction from Kattegan because I think he lost his daughter. I was trying to be, but then I like the idea of her being sort of like never having gone to have a childhood. And Brennan, my iPad stopped scrolling So what was the inspiration for the dogs of timidon? Oh, the hounds of the king!

I really love the idea of a big part of the old path being reincarnation and the idea of what you do, a big part of Aramon's lore is all about the loss of these afterlives, that the seven shapers each had an afterlife that souls would go to, and that the underworld expands with these souls because it's people who anticipated

getting to be themselves forever, right? Like, I don't have to reincarnate and have to move on. And thinking about how druids would try to ease people through to this idea of like, no, we come back over and over and over again. And thinking about these, like, different ways of meeting in the middle

of having a bunch of knights that were like, I swore an oath to serve in realms beyond to be ever loyal to my king, I understand that that can't happen anymore because we've overthrown the gods, but how do I keep this promise? And the idea of these druids finding this way to keep this promise in a new way and being like, we can have you come back. And to me, we didn't get into it on the show, but the idea of like why hounds is, A, hounds have a specific meaning to the people of timony just as a symbol, but also specifically to King Augustus, who was raised by a kennel master, and the idea of something about the loyalty of hounds being a vessel

that could call out to the souls of these knights. Yeah. I mean, a fan favorite for sure and definitely a highlight for us. We love those doggies. I like dogs. We love our dogs. Well, that brings us to the end of our time here at Tailgate. If you're watching on YouTube or Twitch, thank you for having some tea with us.

And we'll see you again very soon after the seekers arc, but if you're watching us on Beacon, don't go anywhere. Don't get up to pee. We're heading straight into the nightcap, where we can open up the conversation to our Beacon bits on our exclusive Beacon Discord. Sam's going to show Whole. We'll see you there.

That's all for this festive frivolity. Thank you so much for being here today. You're cordially invited to our exclusive after party. Head over to beacon. TV for The Nightcap and hear the cast answer questions directly from our Beacon bits.

have something you'd like to ask our adventurers, become a beacon member at beacon.tv and join us live for the next tailgate to get your burning questions answered by the cast themselves. We'll see you next time, the tables turn.