Critical Role - Way of the Swordguy | 4-Sided Dive | Episode 28 Discussing Up To C3109

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

Ashley Johnson, Matthew Mercer, Liam O’Brien, and Robbie Daymond gather together for a spooktacular new episode of 4-Frighted Dive and discuss Bells Hell's latest discoveries about the cosmic fate of Exandria. BEACON  We’re excited to bring you even MORE with a Beacon membership! Start your 7-day free trial today at https://beacon.tv/join and get unparalleled access to the shows you love completely ad-free! You’ll receive NEW Beacon exclusive series, instant access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord. YOUTUBE MEMBERS / TWITCH SUBSCRIBERSTwitch Subscribers and YouTube Members gain instant access to VODs of our shows, moderated live chats, and custom emojis & badges:  https://www.youtube.com/criticalrole/join  https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole   4-Sided Dive airs one Tuesday a month on http://twitch.tv/criticalrole and http://youtube.com/criticalrole "Let's Roll (4-Sided Dive Theme)" by Peter Habib and Sam RiegelOriginal Music by Omar Fadel and Hexany AudioAdditional Music by Universal Production Music, Epidemic Sounds, and 5 Alarm

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

Head on over to Beacon.tv to check it out for yourself and start a seven-day free trial. Thank you so much for your support, for being a podcast listener, and for being a part of our community. Hey there, Critters! We are so excited to share with you our brand new podcast from the world of Exandria, The Re-Slayer's Take.

In this audio adventure, you'll be guided through the wild continent of Isilra, home to some of the most dangerous creatures. Here, the Slayer's Take is the most notorious monster hunting group in the realm. But when previously slain creatures start returning from the grave, it's up to six misfit mercenaries to band together and re-slay these supernatural threats as the re-slayers take. So come follow along these audio escapades as the second coolest monster hunters this side of Exandria

battle a growing undead army of dangerous creatures. The party is led by a duo of game masters, George Primavera and Nick Williams, with the main cast including Jasmine Bular, Caroline Lux, and Jasmine Shion. Listen to new episodes every Monday anywhere you stream podcasts, or become a Beacon member and listen to the podcast

two weeks early and uninterrupted by ads. 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? Welcome back. Yeah. Let's begin the night with our discussion segment. Welcome back! Yeah! Let's begin the night with our discussion segment.

Does this mean I'm hosting? Am I hosting? I think you're hosting it. That's what it feels like. I'm pretty sure that's how it works. I think that's how it works. Happy Halloweenies, though, everybody. Happy Halloweenies!

Yes! We are all dressed up, kind of. Should we explain ourselves? I'm not sure. Well, the next segment is What the fuck is up with that. So is that a gentle segue into what we're wearing? I mean, isn't it so obvious who each one of us are? Yeah, 100%.

So I don't know why we need to tell people. They're excellent, just like jokes. Good point, moving on. Just like jokes you spend 20 seconds explaining after the fact. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are the best kind of jokes. That's what you learn in comedy. You're just Robbie on Saturday, right?

Not kind of. I'm actually feeling a little bit tricked in this episode because you guys told me high concept, low effort. So I made a book and I have a map and a backpack and I'm supposed to be a liberal arts major who just got back from a semester in Italy. I think it's great. Yeah! I think it's really working.

You just can never put the book down. I'm like real person, low effort. You guys are critical role. You're wearing a wig. I am. You are very. What are you talking about? This is a real costume to me. This is how I just cut my hair today. This is a wig. I am. What are you talking about? This is a real costume to me. This is how I just cut my hair today.

This is a lot. I just look like I'm an Apple Watch, guys. Here, look. Ready for the bit? Yep. Done. Or I'm a caddyshack. But this side of the table is so much.

There is so much information. What are you dressed as? I am not a beast. Wait, I want to guess. Are you Fritz or Kurt from the Von Trapp family? Are you Ralph Wiggum? Are you a fusion of you and Taliesin Jaffe? I know. Wait, what did you say earlier? You said I look and Taliesin Jaffe? I know. Wait, what did you say earlier? You said I look like Taliesin Jaffe's childhood? You look like Taliesin Jaffe cosplaying. You look like you're cosplaying as Taliesin Jaffe dressed as Ashley Johnson.

Yes. But auditioning for a Trix commercial in 1989. Yes! Yes, okay. I've got it. I am, what is it again? I'm a B-movie, not Jerry Seinfeld. Right? You're a B-movie, but not the B-movie.

So that means I am Macaulay Culkin in My Girl. Get it? Who? Spoiler alert. There are Bs. There are Bs. There are Bs. And even when I asked

for clarification on the joke, I had to ask twice. Because I didn't know understand. It's perfect. It's a bee movie, because I was like, hey, my girl's not a bee movie, I love that movie, but there's bees in it. And then I didn't understand the Jerry Seinfeld part,

but he was in a bee movie as well. So Matt. Yes. What are you? I am someone with strong opinions of The Last Jedi. No, I am... I am, the prompt was sword guy. And you know, while you were off getting laid at parties

and drinking, I was learning the way of the sword. And the other way of the sword. It's so, it's so spot on, we know this guy. I've really worked hard on this show to up the stock of fedoras, and I feel like you're just tanking the stock right now. Can't tank what's at the bottom, baby. Sorry, my baby.

My baby. Please don't do it. Don't do it. I love it. But we're here to hang out and chit chat. We're here to hang out and chit chat. And have a chill show, right? Because you guys go big on Halloween.

Yeah? Extremely chill. Okay, I... Extremely. I think for the episode of the game where we dress up, we're being a little more labor intensive. That's true. A little bit, yeah.

Than this. This. That's a book. You look far more comfortable than any of us, though. Yeah, you're the winner. Well, I am leaning on a backpack. We'll see how long it lasts. That's the best.

All right, well, let's talk about the show a little bit. Let's get into it. Yeah, I mean, I know this is really why people tuned in, is to see your My Girl outfit. Hold on, hold on. I gotta take a call, hold on a second. Are we allowed to use that? Okay, no, false alarm, go ahead.

Wait, are you still the Apple Watch? Is that what's happening here? No, that's insane. Hold on a second, I gotta take a call. Okay. Hello? Wait, hold on. Hold on a second. I got to take a call. Okay. Hello? Hold on. Hold on a second. Man. Wait. One sec. One sec. It's just a second longer. Hello?

Stop this. Hey. Wait a sec. Stop this madness! I can't talk right now. I'm washing apples. Yep, yeah, on the show. Yep, okay, cool. That was apple help. Apple care? Apple help?

Yep. You must stop this. Your universe, Keith Baker, is not invited by this. Oh boy. This is already great. Is there any more structure to this? I don't know. No, I think we're done.

I think that's it. You guys gave me about as much notice as being the host as you did what outfit I was supposed to wear. Yeah, that's what we do here. Okay. We like to keep each other on our toes. Let me just put down the map of Barcelona. And look and see what we've got here.

What's on the menu, boy? We're supposed to talk about stuff. This guy. Let me see what we've got here. What's on the menu, boy? We're supposed to talk about stuff. This guy. Let me see if I've learned to read yet. Fae fighting with Fern's fam. It's alliteration. Ooh!

I think that's what we're supposed to be in. We're gonna talk about the memory mods a little bit right off the bat. Yeah. How do we feel, guys? Yeah. Well, we had such a well-orchestrated plan going into all of that. And then came out of it, and it's still breathing, I suppose.

Don't look to me for answers. Yeah, I mean, we had a little bit of, we did have a plan, but that went- I was hyper-focused on the plan. Yes, so was I. All three episodes. You did your part. I was hyper-focused on the plan, where I almost couldn't get out of the plan,

but then when it wasn't going well, I was like, we have to pivot. We've got to do something else. It was like someone put you in a box, like some kind of cage, like some kind of force cage where you can't get out. It was like you were in a Von Trapp. It was like I was in a Von Trapp. I really should have spoken to the manager. Oh, yeah. There it is. But actually, we had to mess with those guys' minds in order to get our mission done.

Boy, it's funny because in the last campaign, the previous campaign, just because the framing of the narrative, my character, Caleb Widogast. Who's that? Caleb Widogast. Oh, okay. I'm not caught up. He's an Apple Watcher. his whole life was fucked by memories being modified so memory modification had a stank on it for the whole campaign

maybe rightfully so but this time we're like we've got to get the job done didn't matter different framing or fuck Widowgas the fate of the whole planet is on the line so I guess just we're going to get in there with a whisk and make whatever recipe happened that we need to have happen.

Isn't it kind of weird though how like when you're playing a game, the things that you can do in the game are like, you know, fun and silly and goofy or objectively horrible. You can throw someone into a giant ball of flame. You can throw them off a cliff. You can stab them with your sword. But then some things we find objectionable

based on our root humanity, and somewhere in your head you're like, it's wrong to mess with someone's reality. Yeah. That is maybe more objectionable than just freezing them until they burst into pieces. Never feels right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think it depends on the surrounding context, because we've seen someone get hit by a fireball and have it be like, oh no! And we've seen someone get hit by a fireball and it's hysterical. Yeah. It depends on if the moment is Tom and Jerry, or No Country for Old Men.

Just depends on the day, I guess. Yeah. I try to watch those back to back whenever they come on. Just, real palate cleanser. Weirdly enough, shared universe. Not enough people know. I know, just letting you guys know. They're not an alien.

Go back and look, the clues have been there the whole time. You go back and you just see that air tank with the grownups' feet as they walk around. I got you a new toy. There was a few time when Jerry characters didn't show up after a few episodes as they walk around. I got you a new toy. There was a few time when Jerry characters didn't show up after a few episodes, and you wonder, you wonder. What happened to Spike the dog?

Got spiked. So we, but we succeeded. I have to know though, Matt. Yes, what? Have you ever rolled better as an NPC than when you were rolling that night. And it was against his own self-interest. You were like a politician of rolling.

You were just getting him to slowly kill himself based on his own rolls. I know. I want to... Look, phase are sticky when it comes to magic. And I didn't have a plan. You guys want to go in there? The whole point of a GM for me is to set up challenges

and maybe think of a few possible victory conditions, but largely just leave it open and see what you guys come up with, and that excites me as a GM. And then sometimes the plan is a really solid plan, and then the crux of it lies on an opponent that you accidentally made extremely resistant to magic, and you have to sit there and hold them down and try and try and try and try and try and try and try

until eventually you're like, fuck it. Yeah, yeah. It was like, come on, I'm in your guys' corner, but also that's how the rules of the game go, and I don't want to ever bend that, so it's like, ugh. Yeah. And then, I don't know why I rolled so well. You really did.

That was, that was crazy. I showed you, like, I was like, look! As a player, I was crushed. The Emissary was my boy. was crazy. I showed you, I was like, look! As a player, I was crushed. The emissary was my boy. I know! I thought he was our linchpin, he was our key. Some rough shit happened in this string of chapters. Yeah, there's been a lot of stuff

that has not felt good to do. No, not at all. From, I mean, I know there's different things we want to talk about here. I don't know whether to talk about it all at the same time, but taking out Fearne's dad, just soul crushing, crushing. Making it to the Arch Heart and having him in like,

it doesn't really matter. Everything you've been doing doesn't really matter. We'll just split. Yeah. While another god seven seconds ago was like, take this and fight. Like, it just feels like the floor went whoosh. Yeah. Yeah.

No idea what to do. I still don't know what to do. Cool. Guess that's the end of the episode. Yeah, yeah. Thanks for joining us. Worst host of all time. It's over in ten minutes. Well, speaking of something that was potentially

painful, Nanna and Brayus. Damn! That hookup was unexpected? It was unexpected. Or was it? I don't know. I don't know. Sam sees a challenge and likes to tackle it. That's true. It wasn't that surprising to me, but it was delightful.

I just want to know how things worked with the two faces. I spend a moment contemplating and realized I have far too vivid of an imagination and had to just back away. I was like, nope, you know, this is going to be one of those great mysteries of life that I will keep on the outskirts of my brain. Yeah, I have so many questions.

I mean, I can think of a couple things for sure. Just get it in my head. I have answers, don't worry. I have answers. I trust Danny. I've already been writing. Yes, give me the smut, Danny. Oh, man.

Back that thing up. Clip-clop, clip-clop. I wasn't expecting that sort of a dynamic with her, but also I love making Sam uncomfortable at his own place. It's fun. But I also like the fight between Ira, Brayus, not fight, but just sort of the

vying for her attention. Which was a fun little bonus. She's a queen, man. Morg's a queen. She owns her realm. She's great. Brayus should be lucky. Yes, he should be. Maybe she'll add him to the wall someday.

But like his backside. There you go, just other parts. Yeah. You can't see this, can you? No. Because that was the perfect segue. No, my god, ow, no! You could watch the apples, but you shan't watch me.

Let's talk about Jathuda and his recent makeover. What do we think? Dang, Matt. That was freaky. That was so cool. It was fucked up and it was everything that I feel like I would ever want Nana Mori to do and in that world that was just like, it was so dark and I loved it.

What's funny is I had written in the breakdown of Ligament Manor in the basement is where she kept her loom, and that's all I wrote about it. I didn't know what it was gonna be until we got there. You were just winging it. Oh my god. Winging it day out. Yeah.

But that sounds like the start of a great horror short story where that's just the first sentence. In the basement of Ligament Manor is where she kept her loom. And that's just the first sentence. In the basement of Ligament Manor is where she kept her loom. And that's enough! You can write a whole short story based off of that. And you did just on the fly. Yeah, in a horrible, horrible way. I should get therapy. I realize.

Did you have any idea that that's where you were going to take it? I know since the previous game had revealed that he was still alive at the top of that game. It wasn't until he, in trying to escape, was killed on the way to the Link of Manners. I was like, okay, well, they're not going to be able to interrogate

him alive unless they really want to try and bring him back. And the consensus was, nah, we'll leave it up to Mori. It was a very fun way to explore all that stuff. And it's one of the things that I love about you, because you, I've said this a hundred times, you're one of the most empathetic, kind, patient, giving people that I know,

but there's also just this strange, like rotten-brained gremlin that lives inside a cage in the back of your head. Just the most strange, bizarre horror and weirdness. I've loved Alien and Predator since I was eight, which explains a lot. And I was very much raised on dark themes and dark horror, fantasy and sci-fi media.

And I love exploration of terrifying, nightmarish things. And I don't mean grotesque gore things. Like, you know, I can appreciate that to a point, but I'm not a big torture, porn, horror film fan at all. Eli Roth can kiss my ass. And it's on video. Come for me. I'm ready with two swords.

He doesn't stand a chance. Trust me. I've been studying since I was a child. Yeah, I've always loved that darker, grim fairy tale aspect of the fae. Even though Seelie is dark, but it's very classically the dark mirror to the Seelie court, from the Light and the Dark Fae. But Morrie sits, and Ira as well, sit in those weird or nightmarish outskirts that, in my opinion, are probably more terrifying than anything the Unseelie can create. And the fact that you made a character rooted in that space. It's just been a lot of fun to explore and show how wonderful and colorful and welcoming

and motherly that she can be should she have that sort of interesting connection, and then how terrifying she can be when it comes to her own devices and those that cross her. God, I love it. Which is so cool about Fern, that she's this, like, she's beautiful, but so strange herself and like this strange child raised by a very strange parent parental figure.

It's so cool. It's so fun. I just, I love it so much. I love it so much. It's such a weird little world that you've just put together. It makes me so happy. Well, it's all based on what you put together, too, at the beginning. Like, Fern's backstory. You, like, described part of her upbringing and some of the creatures she grew up with and I was like, okay, yeah, this is exactly where I was hoping you were going to go. This is the vibe. Yeah. You had said early on, when we were starting this campaign, that you wanted to explore elements of

cosmic horror and some body horror stuff and get into those darker elements and, like, having a sequence like that and then looking back on where we've been and what we potentially have to face in the future, do you feel like that's something that you've explored as much as you wanted? Or do you feel like you've walked that path

and strayed a little bit into more classic fantasy? Like, what do you think at this point? I think, honestly, a lot of the cosmic body horror stuff really got out in Campaign Two's crescendo. In this, it's more cosmic horror in the sense of the grandiose scale of cosmic horror, entities that are beyond the comprehension of the modern mortal mind,

and the scale of where the gods are from, and the cosmology beyond just the ground floor perspective on reality. So are you saying this shit in that getup is just... Sorry. As I was saying, it was more of an exploration of the cosmic facets of Exandria. I don't know if this is beyond you at all. Please let me know if you're starting to feel a little lost. We're talking of extremely intelligent, aboveboard things. Much like Rick and Morty, you have to have a certain level of genius

to really understand it. Wow! Good afternoon! We're exercising all the demons tonight. Don't do that to me. I don't give a shit! It's Halloween! I've heard it all now.

Let me distract with an actual question. So, Papa Feae went down. Papa Fae. And the dragon comes out. Papa Fae, Papa Fae. I've been waiting. Yay, Papa John's. I remember him. Oh my goodness. So, Zathura went down, and Glomglut scooped him up.

Was Glomglut about to blast off? Yeah, he was going to grab him and flee with him. Okay. And he would have lived to another day and come back at another point. Like, that was, that's the thing, too. With the scenario that was set up here, the Fae are tricky, and not just, like,

in their magical aggressions, but they're slippery. And so when any opportunity began to arise for them to try and escape through, like, their short-form teleports and fleeing, they were going to do so. And that was part of the challenge of dealing with a type of entity like the Unseelie. And so I was thinking in their mindset, it was like seeing when they'd come to consciousness, utilize that moment, any moment that no one's paying attention to them to try and vanish out, teleport, and flee. And that was when it came to him. And Glomglot was just waiting on the sides for any sign of him leaving the temple. He was camouflaged in the nearby trees. I was fully expecting, unless

something crazy happened, that he was going to go ahead and get grabbed and then taken away, and then would have been just this looming threat or ally or whatever the hell you were turning him into as time went on, this weird dynamic that was building between the two of you. And then, and that's not how it went down. It was really interesting and climactic. Instead, a 400-year-old gnomish toy maker threw a chisel in the back, in his back. Isn't that what eventually took him down?

No. On the sprint out? No. It was. Well, no, no, no. The sprint made him unconscious. So he got knocked unconscious, and what would have happened is he would have done death saves, but Gloamglut, everything about the last couple of episodes has just made Orym feel bad, sad, awful, like everything terrible.

He was hyper-focused on... Keyleth and the Ashari and all our allies and friends are about to go mount an assault on this place and a whole second army is going to show up. So the whole time I'm thinking, can't let that second army show up. Everything was about making sure that this situation, this pushing back the unsealed

and getting them to leave the situation happened. So the whole time I was like, nobody can leave. Please, all the people who are smarter than me, please think of a magical way or a way to make this happen. It just kept getting worse and worse and worse. And it just kept seeming like someone was going to go. And I was like, that dragon is going to take him. And then I cannot control the message.

I can't control what happens after this. So that's why, and I hated doing it, or Orm hated doing it. I hated it a little bit, but Orm really hated doing it. And then afterwards was just like, but the mission was to stop anyone from leaving. They accomplished it at cost. Quite a cost. Yeah, yeah. It didn't feel it at cost. Quite a cost.

Quite a cost. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't feel good at all. No. That's kind of like part of the growing themes in a lot of this campaign, too. Oh, yeah.

Like, you know, when it isn't such a, you know, good versus evil, you know, easy division, and there are many different interests vying for kind of similar outcomes, and you yourself being put in the position to have to make those choices, how challenging it can be to come to a consensus, let alone to justify how much violence for the sake of the choice to be made or the protection of your friends. That was the of the intent of a lot of this. And it makes for some really tough choices.

And please, if it ever gets too weird or anything gets uncomfortable, once again, please let me know. But it's been really fascinating to explore these more muddled waters. Yeah. Well, you do a great job of when we're balancing the table, not just for that being that many people there, but not just the combat, but giving everyone the opportunity for agency.

And that to me feels like almost an immeasurable task, bigger than just making sure everybody gets their moment to fight or to make sure that the encounters are balanced. That choice was in your hands for a moment. And then later on, it was, or earlier than that, I can't remember, I'm struggling with the sequence of events when he was running.

The math of it was Chetney threw a chisel, he went down unconscious. He would have once around done death saves, but Orim immediately got two of his death saves off, then it came up on his turn

and he rolled and failed the third. And that was it. And then once we got him back, you had to make a choice, too, about what was to be done with him, and I think everybody at the table said, that's your

choice. Yeah. I didn't know if we were going to try to bring him back somehow. Nobody can make that choice but you, I think. That was so hard making that decision. Yeah. I'm like, well, what if there's an opportunity here to... I don't know. There were so many possible ways that could have gone. Do you think your player brain and your character brain

were competing in that moment? Yes. Because somewhere in the back of your head, you have to know, maybe I could be totally wrong, but that Matt might have had a bigger plan for Dad. Yes. Well, that is something that, you know, taking in where it's like, is there something here that Matt is planning a conversation? Like, I don't want to cut off a narrative yet that I don't know if there's more to it or, you know, which there could be probably depending on what our choices were.

We've wrote that line for years where they're like, oh, is there something that is expected to happen now? Yes. Or do I do this thing? My brain's like, this is what you do. Yes. And ultimately you chose what Fern would choose. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Where I was like, I know, I know he's not really a great guy. Like his intentions. What do you mean? At least, yes. Yeah, yeah. I think you two would hang out. The sword master.

Yes, the sword master. Oh yeah. Does it help us all here and at home? Does it help us if we imagine Zathura wearing this? Yes. I think so. It does. It does. Much easier decision.

Actually, despite the swords, I think this guy might actually. It does. It does. Much easier decision. Actually, despite the swords, I think this guy might actually be relatively harmless. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I don't know, you should come up on the weekend and meet the rest of my polycule. Oh! Oh, I immediately have to leave this party.

No. I don't want it. Specify an unhelpful public view. Hey, this would be a perfect. Yes, yes, yes. I have to specify. You're a character, I have a character. Yes.

Great time to change the subject. It's upside down, isn't it? Hey, let's talk about your papa's sweet dragon. Who's now, for the moment, a good boy. He's a good boy. It seems that way. He's a good boy. You set him free.

Yeah. It was so sweet. I just, I feel like, oh, and Matt, the way you played him, and just like all of your noises of just like the when you would stretch his little jaw out. Like just, he was such a perfect little creature. I just loved him, but I felt, it felt weird sort of trying to keep him...

I don't know, it didn't feel right. I know in the future, I'm sure we're going to regret not having something that powerful with us, but I mean... Yeah, it could have been a helpful, you know? Of course it would have. But at the same time, what I saw in your face when you were going through this is something that has been bound to service for war and violence. Yeah.

And then an opportunity to kind of let it make its own path. I don't know if it wants to do it anymore. Yeah, it was very, very sweet. But you learned a little whistle, though, right? Like a little dragon, like a ca-caw. Yeah, it was like a boo-boo-boo. I don't remember. Boo-boo-boo.

There it is. I don't remember what it was. There it is. I don't know what it was. I know that dragon, though, for months or whatever time is in the Fae, is going to wake up in the night and be like and look for his daddy and for you, and there's going to be no one there. That's super sad. I know, but maybe not. He'll go to his family and get to be a free boy and live and do what he wants to do. Maybe he'll mate with a waterfall and make babies.

You know what I do feel like really influenced my decision on that? This has nothing to do with the game. But I watched Chimp Crazy. Does anybody watch Chimp Crazy? No, what's Chimp Crazy? Chimp Crazy is a new documentary made by the guy who made Tiger King. Okay. Okay. Sure and It's about it's about chimps. I mean we shouldn't keep these things

So I think there was a little bit of you know It was it was there's like a story with that where it's like such beautiful creatures But like I'm not supposed to have them. Nope. Yep. Kick your ass. And so I was thinking I was feeling that with Glomglut. I was like, I love you, but you got to go be free. You don't need a master.

I love that. You're so dialed into your character, though. That is that's so on brand. It's not outside of choice. And I have a unique perspective on this because I was away for a while, but for me, that is exactly... The fern that started out so innocent and whatever's led her to this point right now are the same two choices. This was forever ago, but it was in EXU. We were in some bowels of some something. I think it was a boat or something, and we came across a horrible creature. Do you guys remember this? I do. It was some kind like baby insectoid monster giant.

Yeah, it was in like a crate. It was in a cage beneath the... Yeah, and we had an opportunity to mess with it, and we never did, but all you wanted to do, your first, what was it? It was an Ankhag. There it is. Yes! Your instinct was to let it free and make it your pet, and it was trying to murder us through the cages. And we all knew we weren't leveled to deal with anything like that. No. But that fern that was alive in you when you were just finding her is still there. Still there.

Nearing the end. So it's awesome. I think there's a lot of just, you know, she was kind of kept in a bubble, and so she very much wants to, doesn't want anybody else to have to feel that, even just creatures around her. Also, you love furry creatures,

but you also love mandibles and what are other words? Proboscis, that word? Antennae? All of it. I mean, I personally love animals so much. I think they're so funny. I think they're just such, it's so fun to watch. Anyway.

Talk about a seamless segue. Watch Jim Crazy. I think that moves us on to a new segment here, if my menu provides. I don't know what this is, so I might need some help. This just says Saving Laudna? Do we know what this is? I think that might be it.

That might be old. It's meant to be about the archer. An old title that didn't get changed. I think just go with the bullet points. Okay, okay,'t get changed. I think just go with the bullet points. This is... Okay, okay, listen. I'm gonna just go with the bullet points. It was a special from another day.

Special on the menu from another day. This is just like Comic-Con when you left Sam's name. I'm up on the scripts. I'm having flashbacks. That was incredible. That was the best. I forgot about that. Look, trial by fire.

Come on, guys. Yep. We're saving Lana. I just spilled Punch down my shirt. Oh no! No, Jenny! Why did I come in here? Why am I here today?

We need you. All right, so that means I need to come up with a new topic on the fly. These have all been alliteration, Fae fighting with Firm firm spam, memory mods. We're gonna do All About Abu. Yay! All About that one.

That's the new sequence. Yeah, that's literally the next subject. Yes it is, yay! Arch heart eyes. Yeah, that was awesome. How great is he? Where did that idea spawn from? When did it happen?

So it was actually a little over a month ago. It was after Downfall had happened, and we were just kind of talking and catching up afterward. And he was just like, he was so still like buzzing from the experience. And he was asking questions about the cosmology of Exandria and like where he would be today. And I was like, you know,

well, here's kind of the things that are happening right now in modern day Exandria with Bell's Hells, and began to describe the dynamic between Pardothos and the gods and what sort of experiences are shaping the gods now versus where they were then. And he kept asking a lot of very interesting questions and having interesting perspectives. And each question he would ask for answer for me

about how the Archheart would feel about things, I would say, well, how do you think they'd feel? And so as opposed to me just giving him answers, I was like, well, you've lived in his shoes, in their shoes. Like, you know, what would your perspective be as the R-Chart on these events in history and how this is happening and what this is?

And he kept answering the questions in like a very meaningful way. And it kind of began to change my perspective on some of the dynamic with the gods currently, because I'm spending so much in the weeds of larger scale things. And I have my ideas of where certain gods of the Pantheon sit on the scale of events happening. But talking with him about the Archheart post-downfall, it opened up even more from what I had initially thought of. on the scale of events happening, but talking with him about the Archheart post-downfall, it opened up even more from what I had initially thought of, and I was like, okay.

I feel like an hour and a half of talking to him and racking up way too long of a long-distance bill that Marisha got texted by and was like, what the fuck is this, man? I was like, nothing. Who are you talking to? Sorry. Is that your polycule in London? Yeah.

He's never left the state. Yeah. That's not true, I've been to Fresno. But at the end of this conversation, I was like, I have a weird thought. Were there ever to be a moment in the story where the Archheart would commune with Bell's Hells, would you be interested in coming in and running that? And he was like, don't even.

Don't even offer that. Do not. I would be there in a second. I was like, good to know. And then the next day I talked to our producer, Kyle. I was like, hey, it's a weird idea. And Kyle was super down for it. And it was about just getting the budget approved to secretly fly him out and let anybody know that was happening. Yeah. And just kind of keep him in the wings. And then me and him, we had lunch the day before for hours and just talked more on the state of the

campaign and where things are. And it wasn't me telling him what he's supposed to say or do anything. It was me just informing him the details around it and then asking him how he feels about it and where his position would be and where he would come in on this. That's where he came to it from the natural mindset of where he felt the R-chart would be in the story. I was like, great. So then here's the only things you need to know about the world where they are, where some of the characters, and the rest is up to you. Just let the seat be his for an hour. And he was incredible. And so brave because there's a bajillion little nuances

that Abu has not been privy to for all our time to get to the table. And some of us were poking him about those things that he knows nothing about, and he just rolled with it. And was wild. He's never done that before. Yeah, he's played as a player. He's played many times. But he just rolled with it. And was wild. He's never done that before. Yeah, he's played as a player. He's played many times. But he's never DMed.

Never DMed, yeah. Which is, he was amazing. You gave him a great boon in a storytelling standpoint because you made your gods potentially omniscient but not omnipresent. So if you were to give him the idea of a monotheist god that knows everything, then you'd have got a problem with him as your GM. But you've got an isolated god that's got a perspective and a standpoint

and enough knowledge to answer the thematic ideas but doesn't have to worry about all the nuance of these players that are trying to poke holes. So granting him that from a storytelling standpoint on a position where you're at, where you have to be the lore god as well as running the game, was a really kind thing to do,

and he took it and just rolled with it perfectly. It actually played to the strengths of his god character who all the time was just like, tell me more, darling. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so great. You know, we have a Santa Claus-sized sack of stellar, memorable moments from the history of Critical Role, but that is easily one of the highlights

of the entire decade. Yeah. It was so shocking. It made no sense that he would be here in the States, didn't know how in-depth or what it was gonna be. You got up and I was like, looks like he's going to get a person. He's not going to get a person! Yeah.

And just his voice and his presence are incredible. It was such a fun, fun moment. I was backstage listening to him and just cheering on the whole time and just also being like, Uh. Yeah, there is a little bit of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That warm hug of a vocal texture. Oh. Yeah. It was so fun. And I'm, it was, there is a certain level of trust that goes in there, but he's also one of the people that comes to such a point of respect and care, and has the right training from an actor's perspective to know how to ask about to build the tent poles of a character's perspective, and ask the right questions to fill the places he doesn't feel comfortable in and ask for questions on how to feel comfortable stepping into a space like he did.

And he just knew the right questions to ask. And yeah, we just, we riffed for hours. And at the end of it, it was like, yeah, I think you're going to be good. Wow. And to be able to make that assessment too, and to be able to do it, you know, like most of us have been doing it

literally our entire lives or one, but, but, but, and know a lot of actors, a lot of performers, a lot of creators, but to put someone in that position and ask them to do something like that from a improv standpoint to do improvised scene work for an hour with a group of other people who do it all the time in the same, that is a massive, I don't think. In a universe where so many people care. Correct, correct. About it. Yeah, and to have him go in and not only hold his own,

but hold the room in his hand is really, I mean, I cannot think of many people who could do it. It's an impossible task, and he crushed it. And I wouldn't have asked him. I checked in with him to make sure he was comfortable with it. So I was like, I know this is a big ask, and there's a lot of potential anxiety and concern around being put in this position.

So it wasn't like me pushing him to do it. It was asking him if that was something he wanted to do. And at any point, he felt any sort of discomfort. I'm like, please tell me, and either we can scrap it, or what can I give you to help you feel supported in this space? Very little was needed. He reminds me of someone. I don't know who it is I'm thinking of, but someone.

I feel like I'm being watched. Being birdwatched. Dorian was not a fan. Dorian was not. Well, that was an impossible task. Yeah. Because not only was I in love with him in that seat, but the minute I saw him,

he was in one of my favorite shows of the last 10 years. Wait, and you hadn't met him at all? No, I'd never met him before. And you were like, oh, okay. Correct me if I'm wrong, right? He was father in Raised by Wolves, right? So that show was one of my favorite. I'm a huge sci-fi nerd.

That was one of my favorite shows of the last 10 years. I loved it top to bottom. I mean, I just thought it was so criminally underrated. I really bombed when I got pulled. Me too. I thought it was amazing. So when I first saw him on set before, I was like, oh, that's amazing that he's there. And then when he showed up in person, I was like, ah!

Like, I had that moment of like, yeah. But it's a challenge because like, we have to stay in character and I'm like entranced by him, but like my character does, and I wanted to be open, but like, I didn't like him. And I didn't like the things he was saying. So I had to just stay in character. So afterwards I was like,

I was like, I'm sorry I was so mean to you. You had some vibes, dude. Dorian brought a fire, a combativeness, and not just an aggressive standpoint, but like a, I'm going to challenge the logic of this god's perspective because I know why I don't believe what he's saying. Yeah. And it was awesome.

I love that complication to where, like, certain people will agree and see that perspective and others won't. And in the same group, what kind of interesting tension that will sow. Well, but in the end it worked. Because in the end, once you got to

the nitty gritty of the plan, as long as our loved ones, from my character perspective, as long as my loved ones got what they wanted and everyone was in agreement, then it feels like, well maybe that's a fair deal. But it's not my decision to make, but I could with a clean conscience go with that route

because of what that God said, not because of who that God was. So then that's a tough standpoint as a player and as a person when you're dealing with stuff with God. I try not to dip into the chats. I try to stay way out of it. But watching the discourse of people navigating their own conversations

on the audience side about the relationship of gods, people conflating the idea of your gods with the idea of religion, with the idea of God-God or whatever they may think. The conflict among the audience, I think, is a positive thing in a strange way. I agree. It's so messy because people in the audience, just like us at the table, are bringing their perspectives on religion and God and existence and sometimes they're able to separate the two and sometimes they're confusing the two

or putting the framework of the real world and like organized religion on mega space aliens visiting a planet. I don't know that there's a right or wrong way to see it all, but it's such a weighty subject that it's hard not to be influenced by your already ingrained perspective, I think.

I knew it would be. It's emotional, too. Of course. I think people have complicated relationships with whatever they view to be spirituality, and they can take that from their fiction and they can superimpose their own values on top of it, and then it's hard to take that from their fiction and they can superimpose their own values on top of it and then it's hard to separate that from the idea that maybe it's just a game and then some people are like, they're talking about the gods too much

or you're like, that's a big thing to talk about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a big theme of this campaign. I mean like the whole, one of the overarching themes that I wanted to build with this was after establishing so much lore in Exandria and history, known history. It's the law of what happened. But like our history, it's an unreliable narrator because the people that write the history books are those that are in power. Sure.

And so taking all these established facets of lore and then beginning to show cracks in it and show that maybe things aren't as you think. Maybe things are close, but they're different than you originally had anticipated, but they're different than you originally anticipated. Sometimes they're completely off, and sometimes you have to reevaluate your place and ethics along with how history has transpired

and those that have been in control. And I think faith is an incredible thing, and I don't think the gods are bad, and I'm not trying to kill off all the gods because fuck religion. I've seen a couple of them, and I'm like, no, not at all. I think faith is incredible um i am curious to see a world in crisis to this degree

about where this is going to go because in my mind there are multiple different paths that exandria's future lies and all of them have very unique positive uh uh paths that will be a lot of humanity and all the different people of Exandria wrestling with the new age. This is the end of an age in my head. Regardless of where this goes, whatever happens here, things change. And regardless of how it goes,

it's going to lead to a lot of interesting conversations. It's going to lead to a lot of societal shifts. Outside of just getting back to returning the cycle to what it was and lock it all down, which is a possible path. Like, something's gonna shift irrevocably. What's the name of the artifact that Ludinus has? The recording device? Occultist thalamus.

What was that? The occultist thalamus. Okay. Imagine that in our real life, where we got a slice of life about something that happened from a religious text, and we saw it for real, and it was undeniable. A year and a half lead up to the death of Christ and after. Sure, absolutely.

If we got a video that showed us all of it. That'd be so cool. That would like, send the world up topsy turvy. Give me three days that happened right before the Buddha found enlightenment, and what he really did to get there. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, it could be anything. Video of the Earthworm was created 6,000 years ago.

Like, the sky's the limit on what could happen. Oh man, when they hid the dinosaurs underground to trick us all. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know. You have to go to the other side of the flat pancake to get that artifact, though. Yeah, I love those questions, and it can be complicated,

and it can wrestle with a person's perspective if you overlap it onto the current discussions, and I don't think it's a bad thing. But yeah, this is not a commentary on religion. This is not a commentary on those facets of faith. I love what faith can do and bring people, and I have that all throughout Exandria, but everything is complicated,

and the gods of Exandria are not the gods of Earth, and they have their own unique paths and purpose in life, and we'll see where it takes them. Yeah, it's more of an exploration of, I mean, it is what those things, but it's an exploration of history, like you've been alluding to. Yeah.

I don't have your level of philosophical knowledge, sir, but, Well, you know. No doubt. But I think you've given us all an opportunity as players to make our own choices based on those things, and it's no surprise that we haven't fully aligned yet, but I don't know, the more info we get, we're getting there.

I keep going like this, though. Aim for an onion to heal. I can't. Speaking of which, we do potentially, this is a topic I remember. It is, we do have a technical plan that we were offered, a pitch as players about what we can do. And you, you are a stubborn little guy. Orym is very adamant.

Yeah. Well, no one can give him any assurances that it's a bomb. It'll end the war. What happens where it drops? Maybe, it's a big maybe maybe that thing will come out and be like i've just come for the gods nom nom nom nom and then i'll fly off into space and we're all just left going like this but there are there is history and there is recent record of massive powerful entities stomping their ass all over the world and many people dying.

So it just doesn't seem believable to me, to Orym, that creation, that living creatures will get off scot-free if that thing is let out.

So, I mean, whatever happens, happens. But that's where Orym's coming at it from. But wait, that's Liam saying, whatever happens, happens. Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But is Orym capable of that? On a parallel note, I'm so glad that we got the moment

of Fern's dad being turned into a throw blanket and talking to us. Like, that was an incredible moment. That's Liam going, fuck yeah. Orm was like, so yes, yeah. Whatever happens, happens. I'm cool to watch things burn. I'm not going to let you go on this one.

I'm even going to switch my legs. Yeah. He's got me hard on my pores. What's it going's it gonna take for for Oram to stop digging his heels and like what's his bottom line

costs like I mean like what what what is the bargaining chip that that hurts the most for him

the idea of is it just loss of human life is it is it just responsibility yeah he's he's a

but he's still despite all the heartbreak of the past few episodes, his purpose in his mind is just to protect her, protect her to Voice of the Tempest, protect her to his friends in the Bell's Hells, protect her to people who are small and alive like he is. So he's hearing so many people in Vantages of Power talking about making promises and guarantees,

and they're all conflicting so how do you believe anything so this what feels the safest to him is maintaining what exists currently which is not opening that can of peanut brittle because you can't there's no predicting what's going to happen really and the people who are trying to make it happen, they're doing really terrible, terrible things to make that happen. So, like, they're not helping their argument with that. You'd have to tell me, like, what's a thing that could I am having trouble imagining a thing that could appear and convince Bell's Hells, like, with irrefutable evidence

that Predathos is just a big, hungry, kelp-eating whale that would not bother the people of the world. So back to the plan, though, that we were offered, the ability to control it, does Aurum think that's a pipe dream? Because you seem fairly resistant to that idea, too. That's one entity telling us that. Other entities have told us, other gods have said opposing things. The Wild Mother has shown a scene of horror and then souped up the sword in his hand.

To do what with, in your mind? If you were given a weapon, how do you wield it? Do you wield it for the status quo? What he took it to mean was fight to not let that thing unleashed again. All right. Interesting. I was looking at Matt whenever you say stuff like this. It's fun. See if I can see a twinkle of anything. I mean, I'm not trying to solve Nat's puzzle. I'm just taking it as Orym reacts to things.

Yeah. No, it's curious, that insight, a little bit. I know it's like, this show is the ultimate over-the-table conversation, but it's something that I've been wondering as a player next to you, and I'm not gonna use this in my roleplay, but it's informative of the choices that you're making as a player, and I find it super interesting.

But, yeah. Well, we know, we believe, like history tells us, and we've just finished saying history is not reliable, but the gods went apeshit and flattened the world. And just in the last couple of decades, a dude became a god and flattened huge stretches of the world. So there are just repeated things to look behind at and say anytime something of that magnitude just let loose, it was dreadful.

And so I don't know why he's not supposed to think that it would be dreadful. They've only seen examples of existential crisis with things of this size. So that does it for you, Mr. Steadfast. Miss Wildcards, you're part of the plan, too. What's Fernie think? Does Fernie think they can control Predathos

with maybe the help of Imogen? Like, what do you think about the pitch that was offered to us? Imogen or Fern. Imogen or Fern. That's what I'm, together or separate, or potentially, there has been a pitch from Imogen to sort of try to find a way to co-tame this thing.

Yeah, be like this. Right here. Yeah, the spit. Yeah, you get it. Do-do-do-do-do-do! The spit roast, Pardotha? Walking out with Pardotha! Matthew! Blame it on your outfit.

Jeez. I don't like the sight of you, Matt. It wasn't Italy, but I've seen an Eiffel Tower. Oh man. Too much? You started it! I ain't judging. I can't judge from this seat.

Yeah, continue, please. I feel like it changes who we talk to like I what I what ideas I have I'm like okay this is I think this is the right thing and then we'll talk to somebody else and I'm like maybe that wasn't the thing maybe it's this and then I think also after talking with talking

to the arch heart I kind of feel like I don't even know if I want to say this. Maybe I will. Where am I right now? I feel like Fearne is thinking, well, maybe we would be strong enough to take it in and be able to... Hey, together anything's possible. Together the two of us could take it. I believe it. I think that we could really overcome and overtake. And I don't know how to not say anything.

It's all, it's all good thoughts all over now. We're all children. We're all fine. The temple of Laura Bailey. Yeah. Yes. Can I ask a question? Yes, please.

The R chart did say that it would require a sacrifice, though, how does Fearne feel about potentially being that sacrifice? I didn't remember that. Listen, I think and I do feel like this about everybody in the party, that everybody is willing to be the sacrifice if they need to be for the betterment of the world. And then I'll take that same question and say, and how does Dorian feel about potentially sacrificing Fern or Imogen or both for what he thinks is the better option?

Oh. Oof. Uh, empty head, no thoughts. For him. See, that does feel like even more of a sacrifice, saying like, okay, yeah, I'm okay with my friend being the sacrifice. Yeah.

That's a harder. Because it's only, it would be, at least the way that the Arch Heart talked about it, and Matt, please correct me if I'm wrong, but the way that he was talking about it, it seemed like it was that either Ludinus might do this, he might be the vessel, another exultant might be the vessel is that either Ludinus might do this, he might be the vessel,

another exultant might be the vessel that Ludinus then can control, or it would be Fern, or it would be Imogen. Yeah, I mean like, an exultant or a Ruedisborn is required to be the vessel. Right, then it can't be Ludinus, so he's not Ruedisborn, I'm sorry. Ruedusborn. Ruidnessborn.

Okay. But it did seem like it needs to be an exultant to be a vessel, so it would either be someone that Ludinus can control, one of his exultants, somebody like Liliana, or to the Archheart's point, it would be someone like Fern or Imogen or both, but that it would still be a sacrifice. I don't think Fearne is an exultant.

She's not. No, she's a erudisborn. Yeah. But exultation, how do I put this? Exultation is not a defined thing, necessarily. In taking in a titan shard within you, you've become something wholly different

than anything that's ever existed. You are both a Ruidus-born and an entity that carries primordial titan spirit with it. So I wouldn't say you're an exultant in the classic sense, like Imogen or Liliana, but whatever the fuck you are is still powerful. I don't think I can take it. I don't think I can take it.

To answer your question, I- Just like Ashton and the Shard. Yeah, I can take it. What if Ashton inferred, nevermind. What'd you say? Nothing. I don't think anybody, and I don't speak for anybody else in the party,

but like the vibe is, you know, including myself would choose to sacrifice any of their friends. I think what you're saying is right. I think there's a lot of people would be comfortable with self-sacrifice, but that's not the way. For Dorian,

well, now I'm wondering how much I wanna say. I know, I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't have to. Anything you feel would be contradictory or revealing a hand of what your interest is, don't have to. No, no, I would just say, I guess it was funny, like, I think I caught some heat because I said, when I said that would be a deal that I'd be willing to make, but everybody missed the part where I said, if this is what we decide to do, that's a deal I'd be willing

to make. So I would never make that choice for anybody else in the party. Unless everybody else chimed in. Of course, especially in the role that I've played in this up to this point. Yeah. So, you know, for Dorian, I've never done anything for the greater good outside of protecting you guys. That's always been his main concern from top to bottom. So I asked the question of whether or not you'd be okay with sacrificing someone that you loved.

I did ask that. I asked that of Imogen and Laudna because that was my wondering if we were ever there and they both said yes. But they're lovers, so they get the chance to say that. But for each other who are friends in this together, I mean, we'll have to see the truth of our actions once it really comes down to it right everybody says that right they're like if somebody broke into

my house and i had to defend myself i'd kill him in a heartbeat i was like yeah well i hope you never have to have that experience so if it ever goes down we're gonna find out where everybody's loyalty is live that's what i was absolutely thinking as you were talking. It's like, I could say, I think Orm would let this happen, or he would never let this happen, but honestly, it's just like that. I would do this, and there's really no predicting, because we also don't know the fuckery that Matt's going to surround us with,

and the choices that we're going to be faced with. The choices are impossible, too, because one of my first combat episodes back, you went down. And as a player, the only thing I wanted to do in that whole combat scenario was to self-actualize in combat. And there's no way I could let myself not protect Aurum in that moment. And that's not even a choice that I could break against as a player. I just couldn't do it. Even though I wanted to do that as a player, I couldn't do it.

Yeah. It's funny how this game does that. Yeah. That night I was like, I don't want to kill Fern's dad. Yeah. I didn't either. I didn't either, but I also like so much like, I don't want to kill Fern's dad. Yeah. I didn't either. I didn't either, but I also like so much of, I mean, it's a collaborative game. It's hard.

Like, you want to make risky decisions because those are so fun when someone, like, makes a really strong decision and you all just have to go with it. Yeah. But there's also that extra level to it where you're like, well, the decisions I'm making are going to affect everyone here at the table. So like, I want to make sure everybody's into it. And like everybody's on board for whatever that decision is. It's a tightrope and sometimes,

I think all of us have at times erred on the side of, I just don't want to rock the boat and rocking the boat really fucking hard. It just depends on what kind of a hair is up your butt that night. Yeah, exactly. It's walking a tightrope with your seven to nine best friends.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Hey, talk about strong decisions. I'll make one segue! Woo! Damn! We're going next. We're gonna move away from the R chart. We're gonna keep on talking a little bit on the gods.

But before we do, cups up to Abu. Cups up to Abu. Cheers! What an amazing job! Oh my goodness. Come back soon. Yes! We got another god. We got the Matron of Ravens in the house. Damn.

Some places I need to go. Uh-huh. Oh man. Yeah. How did it feel to go. Uh-huh. Oh man. Yeah. How did it feel playing another god after watching somebody else play a god? I've been the matron before, so. Oh yeah, of course.

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. It's been a bit though, so it's kinda like stepping into an old familiar outfit. We got a lot more than I thought we were gonna get. Same. Agree. Which was so exciting. I think that speaks to how pressed they are,

how extreme the situation is. Yes. Because I was like, oh, we're getting the whole thing, we're all going into the blood and we're all getting the mask off? Yes. But we're in final days, weeks, before whatever this universe-changing event is,

however it plays out. So all bets are off, like we said from the beginning. whatever this universe-changing event is, however it plays out. So all bets are off, like we said from the beginning. She's making moves. She's making moves. Was it Laudna that showed the image of Amira? Yeah. Did that change?

Was she like... That shifted things. Okay, yeah. There was a shift there. Yeah. There were a bunch of different opportunities to adjust the power dynamic of that whole scenario. You know, Dorian, even in his day's state, stumbling into the thread and having these visions

to clarify that. Oh, that's true. Like, you know, this was all a test, as it is with gods sometimes. But yeah, and I mean, like, and with Abu stepping in as the Archheart, there's the thought of Laura stepping in as the Mation of Ravens, but, and I've talked about this a little bit online,

but it's a challenge in the scenario when the player is present in the story and the knowledge that is to be conveyed or experienced or discussed in that scene, you want the player to experience it with everybody else. If Laura wasn't one of the players, then I would love to have had her been the matron, done with her edit for Abu, but also didn't want to rob her of the experience of being Imogen in that moment and learning and processing and asking questions and interacting with it. I felt that was more important.

Yeah, it was fun to set up and show an additional shade of perspective from the pantheon, given the circumstances as they are. It was fun. Blood pool, so cool. Yeah. Wait, then that's a vestige from campaign one, right? Yeah, it was a massive moment of my character Vax, who had already been pulled into this dynamic with the god,

and he didn't know what was up. So he went for answers, and Matt slash priests of the temple directed him to walk into the pool of blood and give in. And it led to him meeting her for the first time. And it was this one-on-one mind-blowing, oh my God, I'm a bug on a windshield moment at our table. I love the matron. I'm still so, because you've held back so much from us rightfully. And I'm so curious about her true motivations

and the woman that she was was, not the one that she resurrected into to do their stealth mission in Downfall, but the woman that she was. Yeah, I don't even know what to say. I just have questions. I do too. Questions. The more we got, I was like, wait a minute, this was.

Just to have those answers is absolutely wild. Yes, yeah, what we got was. It's fun, there were so many facets of her story that I'm the only person who's known for years. And then talking with Laura, preparation for Downfall, I got to peel back a little bit of that curtain for her. And got to watch her go like, what, really?

And even collaborate with her on a few things. So cool. And then for the purposes of this story, based on how the combat and the challenge was going to go, and the choices that were made in that, and the observations that you all showed, kind of essentially proving yourselves in her domain, it allowed her to kind to pull back the curtain even further for you all, for whatever her purposes may be.

All right. You're in the kitchen. You're cooking in your space. You've got one billion minis to choose from, pieces to cobble together and make amalgam terrifying creatures. You've got a trial by fight in mind. How do you end up with our three combatants? Like, what, I mean, obviously there's some spooky psychological character beats there, but like, those three were such an interesting combo to see in the space. I started with a long list. I listed a bunch of things that could be interesting to throw into this, and I basically cobbled it down

to those three, partially because Vespin represented the first true folly in the path that she carved through history. You know, her ascension into the Pantheon and the destruction of the previous god of death, what she accomplished as a mortal became this, this moment in history that all other powerful mages saw as the pinnacle and wanted to follow in that same footsteps.

It's what led to the harshest era of the Age of Arcanum and what eventually led to the Calamity and all that era. Vespin was trying to follow in her footsteps to a certain degree. It's what started all that. So for her, having Vespin present trying to follow in her footsteps to a certain degree, is what started all that. So for her, having Vespin present was to show those of you that were present in that area a reminder of where this all started and why all of this tension and conversation around the gods and where they sit in the future of Exandria is important. And then the other facets were people that were still lingering unknowns on where they sit on the chessboard

of current moments in history that are also deeply tied to each of your perspectives in one way or another. And whether or not you had the wherewithal to realize that, one, this is not truly them, and two, even with that knowledge, would you be able to do what needs to be done to ensure the choices that need to be made are made? Because if you don't have that,

then what good are you? You know, from her perspective and the gods. Right, it was interesting, like, there was some debate, like, do we go after like our friend and and i as oram believe like this is they are not real we just have to stay alive they are not real uh but opposed to imogen facing her mother and having that faltering step of i'll go with you and then she immediately got rocked And it was like a joy buzzer sting

for not being willing to go the distance in that moment. That's how I read that anyway. I don't want to psychoanalyze our friend's characters, but even after that, she really never engaged with her in combat. She focused almost entirely on who she was fighting. Who? Vespene. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right.

I love that about the character of Imogen, which is just edging. Just riding the line with standing up and doing what's better for all. It's a powerful call. Your family, your friends in you know. It's a powerful call.

Your family, your friends, in the moment, it's hard to deny. Yeah, it wasn't a kind of trial, but the Matron is not known for kind of trials. Yeah. It was nice to have the, because of the setting that you set up, it felt like a trial,

but then, to flip it over, you sort of, in the dying moments of Opal, and you made these weird moments of clarity where there was the possibility that this was not a trial. That was really fun, and I think it's just sort of, raised the hair on all the back of our necks and went, uh-oh, this is a god, what if we're wrong? What if we just teleported our buddy here? And, you know, things went silent.

This is the guy who put a couple of sentries outside of a door that Laura and I just stealth killed from afar as Vex and Vax, and they were some of our best friends in the world just tied up with, like, helmets on. He does leave shit out for you to step on rakes. Yeah. I'm sorry, I'm fucked up, young one.

Well, and it still did make us kill the visage of our best friends and parents. No, definitely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's, yeah. Yeah, it was intended to be a non-kind trial, but also a means of either proving that you couldn't do what needed to be done or a way of teaching you to prepare

for what needs to be done, more or less. Danny, I'm going to need some help with the very last one in this section. It's got lore beyond my depth. What's that? It's about learning her past. She didn't challenge the god of death. This is the Matron of Ravens.

They were lovoss? Lovoss? It's a lot of caps. It's all in caps. I don't know why. Kyle added the caps, but that's because we're very excited. Love us! Help me with this final question.

So, well, we just want to know because for so long, the Matron was considered to be a woman of great ambition, to be a woman, a wizard who had been the most ambitious of all, the most powerful of all, to take down a god, to destroy a god. It all seemed to be that she was in it for the power. And instead we find out that she did it all for love. And that she did it because she wanted to help the person that she loved.

Now, she was an ambitious woman as well. Don't be, don't be wrong. I'm not saying that the ambition wasn't part of it. Right. But the details matter. Of course. We hear you. Love and kindness is evil.

Got it. Yes. All course. We hear you. Love and kindness is evil. Got it. Yes. All right. She says engaged. Congratulations. Thanks. I guess some questions are meant to be answered and some aren't. And some are meant to be answered in the Tower of Inquiry, baby.

It's time for a question. Is this a game we played before? Yes. You might remember, it's very simple. We're gonna take turns pulling blocks from the tower. Danny reads us the corresponding fan questions, and then we each give our own answer. And if for some reason the tower should fall,

who cares, this is a low effort stream. Oh, I'm way too close to, I can't get through here, so I'm gonna actually just ask the question from my little desk. That's fine, you're fine. Okay, how do we decide who goes first? I can't remember. You decide it.

I get to choose? You talk to people. Okay. You get to choose. I'm just kidding, it's you. Yeah. There you go. Yay! While you're doing that,

I'll just follow up on the last question. Yeah. It was very nice to find a just follow up on the last question. Yeah. It was very nice to find a moment in the story to reveal that. Yeah. That part of her history. I love that. And there's a lot I look forward to talking about

post-campaign about it as well, or maybe exploring in some other story stuff. I'd love to, and now that more things have been revealed to explore more of the Matron's history. Those of us who have been matron of raven truthers since day one feel so vindicated. Yes.

I knew it was for love. I knew there were more reasons behind it. You're cranking out- Day one! You're cranking out novels like nobody's business. It's time to do the Pantheon of the Gods, baby. Yeah. Nobody's business. One may be a yaks.

Yaks. What is that, six? Let's do it. Alrighty. Well, you gotta put it on top, lemurs. I decided to take off my final piece of my costume. That's it. Yeah. Now it's not accurate.

I don't know who you are anymore. Top lemur. We'll get you an Aperol spritz. You'll feel better. Perfect. These swords will go nowhere. What's the question? It is from Exandrian Moonlight on Tumblr.

Shout out to Tumblr. Tumblr? What is the biggest surprise the DM has thrown at you that was tied to your backstory? For DMs, what was the biggest PC backstory swing slash curveball? Biggest prize? Surprise.

Surprise. Surprise. It was tied to your backstory. Super easy for me. I'll do it because I'm a new guy. Broheme coming into the picture. When you bring an NPC to life that was part of your backstory, that was meant as a vehicle,

I could not have been more thrown for a loop. I knew there was going gonna be some kind of method for me to make my exit early in the campaign, but I didn't know what it would be. And when you brought Cyrus to life, that was, I was just like flabbergasted. I had no idea where that was going. That moment when we went down into the theater

and he put his hand on my shoulder, I was like, what the fuck is this? I was like, I think he's gonna merc me. And I was like, what the fuck is this? I was like, I think he's gonna merc me. And I was like, what, brother? It was an unhinged thing to do. And I loved it, yeah, that was it for me. That's so fun. Yeah.

Do you know one? I mean, go ahead. All right. I have one I can tell. I mean, for this campaign campaign it was taking what I thought and you did this campaign too as well where I had like my backstory was like so in the corner of the story there's this little

wizard school and it really did him dirty and then went front and center but even more so in campaign three I'm like okay so Orm is just a bodyguard with the Tempest Blades with the Ashari and someone does a hit tries to someone attacks just to bodyguard with the Tempest Blades, with the Ashari, and someone does a hit,

tries to, someone attacks Kiel, they could be traveling somewhere, could be anywhere, and I lose my father and my husband. And it became the whole fucking plan of lewdness at the linchpin of the campaign, dead center. I was like, when it happened,

I couldn't, when it happened. There were multiple things going on there. Shit, and you dropped Vax at the same fucking moment in time. That was a surprise. Made him a ball. Brain outside my ear, yep. The Vax going into a ball, I know that doesn't have to do with my backstory,

but that was something that blew my mind. Because I was just like, wait, what are we doing here? So, so like the other characters are coming in here and, oh my God. And then it was, just kidding, he's a plot device. Fling. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And there he's a roommate. So great, yes. That was stagey. God, I feel like everything's been a surprise. I feel like Nana Mori was the best surprise because I just told you, I was like, I feel like her Nana's a hag. She's just a hag.

And then when you introduced her, it was just everything, everything. And also Zathuda. I mean, I knew that there was going to, I knew her parents after some time, I'm like, something's up here. Something feels like these are not actually her parents, or one of them is not, I can't tell. But that was a surprise for this campaign. But there's been so many. You surprise us all the time. And I think that's what's so fun about playing with you, because you like surprising us. I do. It's my favorite thing fun about playing with you, because you like surprising us.

I do, it's my favorite saying. And it feels nice, because it's like, oh, he's our friend and he's giving us a surprise. He thought so hard for us. Yeah, he did. It's my love language. Yeah, it is. Torture you with your creativity.

Yeah. Ugh, I love it. You might be allergic to bees, but are you allergic to these? Wow. I don't know. I don't know. I think you have to do the next one. Yeah, let me do it. You might be allergic to bees, but are you allergic to these? Wow. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, let me do it.

I think you have to do the next one in defense of that. I told you it's a low effort stream. Yeah. It was worn in advance, yeah. So long, farewell. Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye. Do do do do do do.

Do do do, do do do do do do. Be ever at peace. I will have all of your glasses by the end. Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do Acht. From Will Clancek. Clancek. Animals often have unique names when they gather in a group, such as a herd or a swarm of bees, or a herd of cows, a herd of cattle, sorry, a swarm of bees, or a murder of crows.

If there was a large gathering of only your character, what would it be called? For example, a group of Vaxes could probably be called a brood. Conspiracy of ravens. Yeah, brood of Vaxes, a group of a specific character? Yeah, like if it was a group of ferns. A feather of ferns?

Like 30 or so orms? Yeah. Dorian's dream. Pretty funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey-oh, sorry. Quiet now. Oh this Dorian's dream pretty funny Sorry

What you call a group of worms I think I gotta think I gotta think too that's a tough one that is tricky Fancy affirms Oh Pick an NPC for me. I was about to say pick up. Yeah Gilmore Gilmore. Oh yeah. Gilmore. Gilmore, oh my goodness. Gilmore or Allura. Let me think. A Glory of Gilmores. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A Glory of Gilmores. Be like a Spectacular of Gilmores. That's pretty good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's pretty good. A Glory of Gilmores. A Glory of Gilmores. It seems a little too on the's. That's pretty good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's pretty good. A glory of Gilmore's. A glory of Gilmore's. Seems a little too on the nose. But I like it.

I'm never, if not the least interesting option. No, that is untrue! No, no, no, no. I will fight whoever says that, even if it is you. I think I would say a deluge of Dorian's. I like that. Ooh! I'm gonna skip the alliteration and say an Ormpie.

Aw! That's cute. Hell yeah. If you don't remove that tower piece with the sword, I will be grossly disappointed. Just one slash. Let's see. I will do my best. I want you to pull it from the hill

and right back in. That'd be amazing. The whole thing is a diagonal cut. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh no. Oh no. Uh-oh. You said it.

Oh, you can do it. Oh no. Come on, it's just like billiards. Wait, you already touched the other one. It doesn't matter. Oh! I'm just talking about the whole thing. The whole thing moved. There's no challenge she won't accept. There's gotta touched the other one. It doesn't matter. Oh! Oh! Just don't even go over it. The whole thing moved!

There's no challenge he won't accept. There's got to be a soft one. Oh, wow! Yeah, he's going to do it! That's good for me. It won't go all the way through. You can pull. You can pull from there.

He's starting to believe. He's starting to believe. Boom! Yeah! With this. Believe it! With this. You guys!

Mercer's fighting the Jenga Tower! Twenty-five. Twenty-five? Twenty-four. Whoa! This is a great one for Halloween. I love this. At Cap'n Lunar on Twitter,

what kind of cryptid or creature from folklore would any of your campaign characters be a believer of if they were from our world? The Voltex. Ooh. Easily. The Voltex. Voltex.

She's out there. Yeah, so like would Fern be really into Bigfoot or something? Oh, I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, okay. This is tough. I feel like Fern would really like Bigfoot or something? Oh, I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, okay. This is tough. I feel like Fern would really like the Loch Ness.

Oh, man. Because I think it's kind of cute. Yeah. Nessie, and want Nessie. I feel like Imogen would like Selkies and Kelpies. Yes! Kelpies specifically, yeah. Yes.

I think Ira would be like a snob about cryptozoology and find really obscure shit like the Flatwoods monster and be like, oh, I'm only into the really interesting rare creatures. Is this question focused on real world? Yes. Make believe creatures? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. But from Earth,

not Exandria. Planet Earth cryptids. Yes, planet Earth cryptids. If Orm came to planet Earth cryptids. If Orm came to planet Earth and he got to hang out, would he be really into the Jersey Devil? Or would he not be? No, I know. I got you a pin. Orm would raise jackalopes.

Oh, that's perfect. That's really cute. Perfect. There's a... I've kind of talked about this before because there's like a Norwegian folklore. Redley used a squint-heeled jack. Yeah. I've kind of talked about this before because there's a Norwegian folklore, kind of Swedish, called Skogsru, where they're like these beautiful women in the forest

and they sort of lure the men in. And then some of them have, if they turn around, their backs are hollow, like, if they turn around, their backs are hollow. Yeah. Like the inside of a tree. And they're just like, and they turn into just little weird, strange creatures. And then you can never leave the forest. I feel like Fern would also really like that. Do you know the, what culture is it from?

Roo Salka? Do you know that? Kind of. The December, I know it because the December is for a song about it, but it's basically a water spirit. And it's from the song. It's from the point of view of a man who's just wandered out into the woods and finds it, and he's happy to get drugged down into the dark. And it's just freely.

With her hair like an alien bloom is my favorite lyric in this song. Usually about the Selkie is like the more modernized version of it. I just did a 12 mile woods hike outside of Klon, Germany. Oh yeah. In the woods. And I was like, oh, this is where all the fairy tales come from. Because there's just bogs and shit, and the tree line is high, and it is a scary place. And I understand why you would not want your children

walking around there by yourself. And there are wolves! Definitely, there are real wolves, that's a good point. They're all just allegories for wolves. Keep the kids out of the woods. I really want to do a show in Germany someday. I don't know if it's possible. It'd be fun.

Dorian would be into Mothman. Nice. Yes! Just because he's got a sneaking suspicion he's hot. That's in Point Pleasant. Great ass. The new Wolfman's Got Nards is Mothman's Got Cakes. Nothing will ever replace Wolfman's Got Nards. There's a statue in Point Pleasant, New Jersey? Yeah, that's where the Mothman was originally. Statue in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.

Yeah, that's where the Mothman was originally sighted, was Point Pleasant, Virginia. Good job. West Virginia, I'm so sorry. Good job to Exandrian Moonlight, Will Klansek, and Cap Mooner. Thank you for the questions. And if you have a question out there for our Tower of Inquiry, you can enter it at critworld.com slash tower.

All right, it's time to slide into the deep dive where Warkeeper Danny Carr passes out mugs filled with questions! Oh shit! Taker! Bring forth the mug! Forgot this was the thing I needed to do. Can we bob for questions?

Yeah! Is that the way that it works? You have to like, feed bag them out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just get your tongue in like a kangaroo. See what comes out. I don't know if I would lick anything in this studio. I'm not sure.

I probably would not. I think I already have everything. It's how you claim all the dice. Yeah, yeah. No one come in here! Map room, just a little sticky. Oh, oh god. That one's yours.

This one's mine? Oh, okay. Oh, that one's cool looking. That looks like. That's a little drawing for a guest. Yeah, and it also says laxative on it for some reason. Thank you, Gwikarsh. Yeah, okay.

Mother of... You go first. You go first. You have the pool doors. What do you have? Oh. You have it. Oh, this is very...

How does Fern feel closing the door on the life she could have had with her father, Zathuda? What is her feeling towards all her various parents? Sheesh, Louise! What, it's the deep dive? It's the deep dive. What, I got goo on my face? A little bit right there on the other side. Why didn't you let me know?

A little crap on the other side? It's mustache. It's cold foam from my costume! There you go. I'm foaming at the mouth of the thought of the Mothman. That was a sentence. Boy, I think, as I think we could see in the game, I think Fearne is really wrestling with how to deal with and how she should feel about her father, her real father. I'm trying to think of how much I should say here.

I do think that the way that it was handled and I think sort of having Nana, the one person in her life that has shown her love and taken care of her, even if it has been in a weird, fucked up way. I think having Nana be like, no, no, no, this is how we're going to take care of this situation. I think for Fern, having him there as a picture, knowing that she can always go back and talk with him now, feels like the right thing that could have happened. It seems like such a phase. It really is. Yeah, like I think now she can go back and if she has something that she wants to talk with him about

or ask him about. Wow. Now he has to talk to her. Now he has to talk to her. Skywalker. Yeah. Yeah, and as for her other parents, I feel like that love will maybe grow.

I don't know. I don't think she has any hatred towards them. I think now learning the whole big picture of what her life was for, or what her purpose was supposed to be for. So you think you can have more honest conversation with your dad in the state that he's in now? Yeah.

What a crazy metaphor for stripping a potential abuser's power away before you can actually converse with them in an honest way. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah.

Deep dive! Yeah, that's what we're here for! Deep dive! Creepy deepy. Creepy deepy. Matt, tell us about your inspiration for the Matron's backstory. How did it feel to finally reveal her true connection to the original God of Death? I was wondering if it was ever going to come out.

I was excited to talk about it. And honestly, parts of it were a collaboration with Laura Bailey as well. Like, there was threads to it and a structure to it that I had, but in talking with Laura about the Matron for Downfall, she had some ideas to add to it. We buttoned up some of the loose facets of it, because I hadn't really had an opportunity to sit down and have a reason to develop it fully. So I had the general idea for it, and then she started

asking questions about it when we were preparing for Downfall. I was like, You know what? I'm like, you know what? Kind of like, Abu, what do you think? And we started riffing on it. And so, yeah, the idea was always meant to be that she did not destroy the God of Death out of malice or out of pure ambition. That the secret, one of the secrets that she kept, because few would believe it,

and because at a certain point it's been out of her control, was that she developed the rite with the God of Death. Where it wasn't that she developed a way to ascend and destroy a god because she wanted to become a god. Likely, she didn't really want to become a god, necessarily. She might have been curious, like anybody of her power and ambition might have been, but she wasn't driving for that. She just spent a lot of time talking with this god in their isolated fortress of solitude, if you will, and asking them about their existence and the secrets to the universe that she could learn, that it could progress.

It was a very kind of cold, why have you shown up at my, type of initial encounter. And she just stayed there and wouldn't leave. Very much like the student that shows up outside of the master's domain and won't leave the step until he takes him in. And then just over time, the two opposing forces began to warm around each other and this lonely death god

and finally found a kinship with her and they became very close friends and emotion read from there, and then through that space, eventually, the god of death decided it didn't want to be there anymore and needed her help to be free. And they developed it together, and in freeing the death god,

she took its space, for better or worse, and has lived in that spot since, and her perspective on that is a unique one, both when it started and where she is now. I can't think of a more fitting story for a woman, for a character who holds the moniker of Goddess of Death, for her story to be about helping someone let go.

Which is really what the Matron has been to me from the beginning. Yeah. And that just feels full circle. Yeah, it's always been kind of the intent. And then Laura and he worked together to kind of shore up some of the details that I hadn't got a chance to do yet, and hopefully more down the road.

It's so cool. You're up. Oh. Right. Let's see. What did Orym think about being tested by the Matron after his experiences with the Wild Mother and the Archheart? Well, I feel like Orym just got punched around in so many different directions on the way to the Matron that... I mean, I'll speak... I'm not sure how to answer this specifically, but I'll speak to Orm's state of mind overall, which is... Like, he feels like he's eaten a lot of grief the last few days. And in typical Orin fashion has just eaten it. And is walking forward and not complaining about it.

He doesn't know who to believe. He doesn't know if they're to be believed. It just, the events with the Archheart really just, and the Matron, and the Wildmother in rapid succession hammered in the lesson. He already felt this. Like, he's not, like, I could have gone Paladin, I could have Multiclass and the Cleric. I resisted the whole time because he's not like a lover of the Pantheon. He's just more like I'm tending the garden and they're part of it.

But the events of the last few chapters of this story have hammered home the fact that while they are drastically more powerful and unreachable to us, they are just like us. They are just as scattered and in disarray with opposing opinions. Like there is no master plan shared between those three gods at all. And so it has just left him with more questions at this late stage of the story.

And that only leaves him to do what he knows, right, what you know, which is to protect the people around you. Because that's the only thing that makes sense to him in all of this. There you go, there's your answer. Good answer. Happy Halloween. Watching you all answer these questions,

looking the way that you look as maybe my favorite thing about the evening. It's very enjoyable for me. All right, I got one. That's long. That's long. Wow. I'm okay.

How is it coming face to face with Dorian's dad to be allowed to grieve for a moment and stand up for himself at the same time in addition of accepting the blade? Wow. I mean, we talked about surprising moments and stand up for himself at the same time, in addition of accepting the blade. Wow, I mean, we talked about surprising moments, about backstory and family that Matt crafted for us, and the possibility that he might be there

was in the back of my head when we first arrived, because it made sense from just a tactical lore standpoint, and Matt's not one to let those things go unnoticed. But also in the back of my head, I was like, no way, he won't do that. I was like, surely it won't be the whole fam. And when it went down, and then you rolled that great perception check and got the whisper,

that was such a cool method for that to be delivered to. Instead of just being like, peekaboo, I'm your dad. I'm here. Let's work out all your shit. It was poignant and important and got the opportunity to RP with you a little bit, which is always fun. And some unexpected things came out of it, I think. I think some things came out unintentionally about the nature of a father's acceptance and what that means and for what it means to someone who hasn't gotten that. And I don't know about our personal perspectives,

but for me, like, I've got a really good dad. I've got a really good father. And he's my stepdad, and he came into my life when I was a young kid, about eight or nine, when I really needed it. So to be able to say, like, to express those things that maybe I realized that I needed so bad as a kid, in gamegame with

someone who didn't provide that for me in a backstory for a fictional character and to get to apply that into some RP without doing any wound picking from an acting standpoint was very fun. So and for Dorian to get to hash that out it gave me a way to move forward from where we left off in the rest of the game. Because I was feeling a little bit stuck about not being able to express the feelings about what got me here yet

because the world was so big. So I think that that gave me permission to play my character and move forward with the rest of the group. And I think that's something that I've been longing for for a couple of episodes. So it was really nice.

Yeah. Wonderful. Wonderful. Me. Me. Me. Me. Okay.

Oh. That's you, what behavior. How did Fearne and Orym feel having to fight Opal? Orym kept telling himself that it wasn't real. How did Fear Fern feel? That question is for both of y'all. Yeah. Okay.

No, terrible, terrible, terrible. And the three of us are worried about, like, we're doing this huge thing, and then there's someone else who's very, very important to us, and we have no idea. Don't have eyes on, no idea. And we've spent so have eyes on no idea and we spent so much time with her and she meant so much it just doesn't feel cool to cut that person down even if it's a simulation um yeah i felt the same too i was you know but there was also that element of we were all like this isn't real this isn't really them. Right? Yeah. You know, it was just that level of we just, you know, which I think was on purpose. But like, I was so scared to hurt her. I didn't want to. And I know that that was part of the test.

But I think that's why I was just pumping everything into, you know, someone Fern didn't know. I was just like, well, I'll fight that one over there. You know, with Vespin. But that was hard. I think I went to Opal to get it done with. Like, Orm's brain was like, and he was not happy about it either. It's like, this god is, this is fucked. This god is testing us. This hurts. This is the one that's going to hurt the most. about it either. It's like, this god is, this is fucked. This god is testing us. This hurts. This is the one that's gonna hurt

the most. Get it done. Go to the next. Go to the next. Go to the next. There was no, I'm gonna avoid my mom or go to my mom because it's my mom. It was just set him up and knock him down and get the fuck through this because we have shit to do. Yeah. I think there was also a little bit of

Fern was mad that that was the test of like, fuck you. I don't want, why does this have to be the test? Like, why do we have to further hurt people that we love or that we care about? Like, why does that have to be, like how does, how are we proving it in that way? I don't know, and I, that was stressful. That was really stressful.

Yeah. Yeah, but I couldn't figure out a way to say it, and I was like, well, maybe later. I was with you on that one. Yeah, the anger was there a little bit. Yeah. And it actually made it easier. Dorian was fucking into it.

Yeah. That's like the first time where he felt like it was actually easy because he didn't want, maybe it's more of his relationship with the gods, but he didn't want the Matron of Ravens bastardizing the idea of his very real friend. Yeah. Like, he's like, don't fucking touch my friend in, you know, in this way. It feels bad. Yeah. So, yeah, I was ready.

I was ready to scrap on that one. Yeah. Interesting. Motivating scrap on that one. Yeah. Yeah. Motivating. Don't look smug in that costume! I can't not, it's in character! It is built on smugness. You return to Vasselheim and you are once again in control of numerous PCs, many of which have been seen

in previous campaigns. What was it like to return to the city and those characters? Did you have a favorite to embody again?" It was really fun and extremely stressful to keep my mind wrapped around the events of how these meetings were to transpire, who was present, their opinions on things, when they would break in,

what bits of information were important to convey with these scenes in a natural way, but also letting people interject in a natural way that I didn't prepare and involve, and build the through line, and then see what happens as we go, as well as collecting some of these older PCs, because they are now movers and shakers in the world, too. Vox Machina are these great heroes of old who have now fallen into semi-retirement or local politics, or with Vex'ahlia and people in the Council, broader politics, but they're present in these spaces. It's not me going, like, I can't wait to cameo. It's me going, the logic stands that they would be present, and then because of that, I can't wait to cameo. Then I get to step into Vex'ahlia while looking

at Laura Bailey and going, I'm so sorry. I hope this makes you happy. Aw, man. Then I get to step into Vex'Ali while looking at Laura Bailey and going, I'm so sorry. I hope this makes you happy. Oh, man. I really enjoy it because it's, like I've said it before in here, this is a gift to my players as well. This is to show that the choices they made and the things they did so many years ago continue to have an impact on the world that they've now continued to live in and hopefully love the way I do. It's something I've wanted to do since I was a kid.

I wanted to have players and campaigns in the same world over time and be able to weave something like this together. So it really reinforces to us that like what we've made together matters. And it's just logical, like you said, that these figures would grow in the world and it makes the world feel real and the people feel real. And like, I can think about Caleb or Pike or Grog or Imogen and think about, once I know what the

end beats of our campaign story is, I still think of them living in my head still and I wonder about them because they're our babies. Yeah, it's like Oxmoox Machina are the Avengers of Xavier. I can't wait until it's campaign 18, 2065, and Matt shows up, he's like, it's me, Pumatul! Pumatul! Remember me, kids?

It's gonna be the best. It's gonna be so cool. It's gonna be a lot easier to do, too, when it's just my head in a jar. Yeah! Oh, jar. Yeah! Oh, man. Yeah, I love it. I just, I don't know. I love this shit.

Your turn. Your turn. That one. This one. Definitely this one. Are you sure? Nope. Seedling was blessed, and Orym saw Will again.

How does Orym feel about the encounter once more in the Wildmother's realm, as well as seeing the terror of Predathos firsthand? Well, let's talk about Predathos first. Reinforcing Aurum's extreme reservations about cracking open the walnut and letting that out. The gods terrify us. We're ants, and that thing terrifies them. And like, I think I threw

out at some point recently that like, I'm worried about, you know, that I, I or him have stepped on ants and didn't know it. That's what I'm worried about. That's what I'm worried about. Um, as far as seeing will again, I think there was a bit of peace to it that he appreciated, as conflicted as his feelings are about the gods right now, appreciated. He doesn't feel He didn't feel like that was an illusion. He felt like that was a window. Could be wrong.

But it really just reflects where Oramat is at in his journey, which is, you know, we're all going to be light of the Luxon in the end anyway, rejoined together. So I know that I'll be returned to Will in whatever sense that is that we don't understand yet. And it charts his progression of the loss of his husband from the backstory to the beginning of EXU to the beginning of the campaign to where we are now. It's been many years, and Will's left his mark indelibly. Is that the right word to use?

Irrevocably on Orm's heart and soul. And boy, if they survived the end of the world, he could start living again. We'll see. TPK. TPK. Ooh, shorter. And Dorian allowed himself to drown. Of all questions to do that voice.

Continue, please. And deprived himself of air for the first time in his life. How did that experience affect him? Yeah, I mean, I guess that's one of those in-the-moment choices that you make where you go, well, what would I do? I would see what this is all about. So I don't know. I think you gave us a hint about maybe the nature of how a gateway opens

to something magical. And if I were given that in the real world, and I had a way to circumvent it via my own cunning, I would try to. I would want to know how the sauce is made, and that's just in my nature, and I think that's part of myself that I put it in Dorian, which is curiosity. And so when I thought, oh, fuck, I've got unending breath. I'm gonna see if what he said is right

and he really wants us to die. So I'm gonna allow myself to sink and see what happens to my friends and understand if this is the truth. And then I guess that allowed Dorian to make another set of choices where he allowed himself to be a part of the group. So even though he had a way to get out,

he said, I'm in it to win it. Never mind, I'm going to do this. Never mind, I'm going to die for my friends. So in a sense, it felt anticlimactic to just let it go, but I think that's what he needed to do as a character and I needed to do as a player. Yeah, don't be clever. Just join the group.

I wonder if anything would have happened. It's funny, because when you brought that up, I was like, interesting. In my head, I began to logic out all these different things that could happen as that transpired, and there were a couple of things that could have happened. Yeah. Ah, fuck! That's the thing, it's like the jaunt. Yeah.

The Stephen King short story. Oh yeah. Of like, when you were just like. I don't know, I'm a constant reader and I don't know. It's a short story. What is it from? From the Bachman books? It's from a collection. They're not my favorite.

It's a very short, I recommend just this one. Okay. It explores, it jumps back and forth between past and present of the story of teleportation and how teleportation is used for interplanetary travel, but that you must not be awake when it happens and what goes wrong if you are. Oh. Yes.

I'm literally embarrassed. I'm a huge Stephen King reader and I've never, yeah. But there's somebody that is like, well, I want to test this. What happens if you stay awake? I read this a long time ago. Yeah, I feel like we've talked about it a lot because it's so, it's like, well, I want to test this. What happens if you stay awake? I read this a long time ago. Yeah, I feel like we've talked about it a lot because it's so, it's like, well, I want to see the people behind the curtain.

Yeah, it's the urge to do something destructive, but you're so curious that you resist common sense. Yeah. But for any, I mean, like, if I could circumvent drowning, like, animal instinct would be like, I'll make gills if I can do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.

So it became a more of a measured decision for him, right? Yeah, yeah, it was a leap of faith, but you had parachute on. And then if you let everybody, if everybody around you is going down, I don't know, it's literally if your friends jumped off a bridge and drowned in a pool of blood, you would too. And I guess.

You're like, well, okay, I guess this is what we're doing. Just like the abyss, just breathe in. Breathe in. Oh, that's so stressful. But the method to get where we got was so sick, but I had to take a peek. Yeah, yes. Yeah, yeah, and it was nice to be at peace with it, too.

Because watching, in my, I always kind of like put my eyes up here while I'm thinking about what you're describing and try to picture it. And watching the struggle of drowning, watching people go through that, that would be terrifying. And knowing that that's your fate, fate, to make that choice is disgusting. It's funny. Each time I've described that, I remember as a kid my mom describing to me how she drowned when she was a kid. Wow. Thankfully, it recovered. I remember her telling me it was the most intense panic and fear she'd ever experienced in her life that almost instantly became the most gentle, welcoming embrace.

Nope. And I was like, that is the scariest thing ever. And I hadn't thought about it for so long until the first time of accident in that pool. And I was like, oh boy, we're going here, okay. Yeah. So scary. Yeah, I think the scariest depiction of that ever

is another blood thing. Have you ever seen The Grey? No. The Liam Neeson movie based on the novel where they crash the plane and they're being hunted by wolves? No, but I know what movie you're talking about. I won't blow it for you.

There's a sequence where someone's bleeding out and Liam Neeson knows it and the guy's like, oh, what do I do, what do I do? And he's like, you're going to die. And then he just talks him through what it's like to bleed out, and it's one of the most impactful, terrifying scenes

I've ever watched in the movie. Ever. Anyway, go watch it. It's a great film. Hey, speed round. Let's not talk about death anymore. Okay, okay. We got one more round.

We're going to go quick. Let's knock these questions out. I don't know how much longer I can hold this. Leave decent, we're going to die. What a great scene. In bad news, all the questions are about death. No! All right, let's speed through it.

It's not scary at all. What you got, Ashley? Okay, what was it like to bond so heavily with Glomglute? Did Fern consider keeping him? Does she hope to call on him again someday? Kinda talked about this, bonding with him was so incredible. I feel like I didn't quite know what that would be, but I was like, well, maybe if I play the kin and family, maybe that'll work. Definitely changed the dynamic from a combative standpoint. Yes. I think, yes, I would love to keep him. But like we were talking about earlier, I don't think that's Fern's...

I don't think Fern wants to keep anybody prisoner that doesn't want to stay there. And does she hope to call on him someday? Yeah. Yes, I think anytime she goes home or anywhere she will just constantly be looking for him just for getting a glimpse and seeing if he remembers her I wonder if he sort of like

settles into the skies around Nanamori's that's like home base like maybe has babies and they live there and you know in a hair called fence or you know yeah of course I hope I live there in a hair-cull fence. Yeah, of course, I hope all of that. I think if she goes back to the Fae,

she will constantly be looking for him and thinking of him. I love that. You know what, sword guy? Your aura is just too powerful. I think we've gotta break the circle. I don't think as host I should be the last question. You're gonna have the last question. We're gonna skip you and go to Orym. Oh the circle. I don't think as host I should be the last question. You're going to have the last question. We're going to skip you and go to Orym.

Oh. Yeah. I'm now? Yeah, we're going to pull one. Too much amber. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the color of my energy. You need your light at the end to shine.

Yeah, I get it. Okay. Yeah, sure. I've alluded to bits of this already. Orym seems to feel very guilty about attacking Zathuda and being the one to end his life. Does he worry about how this may affect his friendship with Fern? 100%. Absolutely. He feels like he has committed a very deep sin. And particularly painful because the death of his own father in a war that Orm didn't know existed was world forming for him. So to be fighting this fight that they're in and to say, I have to make sure that this happens right at any cost to take down your father in a way, in a weird, it's not a one-for-one,

but there are parallels to the loss of Derek, which is gutting, gutting, totally gutting. And I think that even with Fern sort of signaling to Orm, it's okay, and the way things went, it doesn't really matter. Orym has now just added a chain to his shoulders, and is like another 20 pounds heavier to walk forward. Yeah.

What you got, what you got? Oh, tell us about the inspiration for Coriolis and what the magically clad horse means to the wyvern winds. Yeah, that came in a fever dream. No, actually that came from Aabria. We were looking for ways to sauce up what would happen in the crossover episodes and she was pitching out spell ideas

and we were sort of just chit chatting about how I could have maybe leveled up since being away and she brought that up and then I said ooh that sounds fun and I marked it in my notes we never did anything with it so then we came back to the main campaign it's been in my spell book since day one and there was just never felt like the right moment that felt too overshadowy or too weird or neat or it just never felt right and and when you have those more high-level spells that that could be used for effect outside of combat I felt like that was the most poignant moment and then when when I was challenged to not be a diverter and to summon my own strength,

then the idea of what we'd done early on about Dorian humming this mysterious tune, there was never a purpose for it. So in the moment, I just put the pieces back together and I said, I've been talking for 10 minutes. This requires a somatic. He's been humming something in his head. He hums when he's nervous.

And then what if he accidentally casts a spell because he never knew that was the family tune that was the means to channel in the equine dragon. So I had chosen the form already and the idea of what it would be if it ever came out, and then it's just like, oh, it's going to be a celestial, I picked my stats, we agreed on some griffin stats, even though it was a little special. And we worked on what it would kind of look like for a long maw or that type of equine dragon to appear. And it just felt right.

And I knew he has use in the future. And he has. He finally got to pop up and help provide an escape and a means for us to get the, not the emissary, but the guard back to the Unseelie in an easy way. Yeah, and then also to be able to tie in family lineage and making that a positive in a moment of being tested. I think that just fit into the story

and it was just, it felt like a right moment. It was a good, nice moment. That's awesome was just a it felt like a right moment. It was a good Nice moment. Yeah My turn, okay match What is the process like of bringing in others to portray gods particularly when it came to done for and to a booze appearance? Why didn't Laura play the matron for instance? Yeah, I already talked about that one. We already did it! I already talked about that one. You know what I mean. Boo! Who wrote these questions? Boo! Matt. Vox Machina and the Mighty Nan are being teed up to reenter the story in full force.

Can you talk to us about preparing for this crossover and what it's like to bring these three campaigns together? Yeah, it's super exciting, and it's also a lot of work. Because I have general ideas, especially post-Vasselheim, of like, okay, this is the plan that was being set up. This makes the most sense for everyone's power set. It's all leaning up to allow Bell's Hells the best chance they have at succeeding at this ultimate goal that only really they can do, given their experience, knowledge, and the rudest born within them. So it's like having all their old groups now playing support for their current group, which is a really, really cool moment. And so breaking all that out and preparing for all these different encounters that'll come along the way, the timing of these certain things, it's a lot of math and theoretical chess in my head. So while it's a lot of work, though,

it's super exciting. I can't fucking wait. I'm loving this so much! And there's so much I can't fucking wait. I'm loving this so much. And there's so much I can't wait to happen and to show you and fight you with. And, oh, it's going to be so good. It's going to be so good. That's all. I knew you were the right one to answer the last question. And that's it for Deep Dive, which means we're almost done

for this very lazy Halloween four-sided dive. But before we go, it's time for one more round of questions from the Tower of Inquiry. Yeah, we gotta do it again. You haven't picked yet. Okay. Just like that, that was easy.

Yeah. That's right, he didn't pick last time, so he has to do two this time, right? What, no, that's not how it works. That is, that's the rules. I'm pretty sure that's how they work. The rules. What are the rules?

Can I touch anything? Yeah, no, whatever you is, that's the rules. I'm pretty sure that's how they work. The rules. What are the rules? Can I touch anything? Yeah, no. Whatever you touch, you have to move. I missed it. Lost all my aura right at the end. 23. 23. Let us see.

I'm sword guy. Da da da da da da. All right, from JustSomeGuy1991. Who is your favorite character that you have played outside of the three main Critical Role campaigns, either from one of the one shots or even from a home game? Favorite one shot, specifically one shot or just outside of main campaign characters?

Just outside of the three main Critical Role campaigns. Outside of Pike, Yasha, and Fern. I'm going to go with, because I actually really liked the build, and I feel like I didn't really get a chance to get into it, was Damien from Darrington Brigade. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a fun character.

Damien was a fun character and a very, very fun build and fun backstory that we didn't get to. I love all my small characters so much. Hmm. The way I'll answer this question is I'll say that also from Darrington, I really miss Buddy the Ogre. Mm-hmm. Just because, you know, I really miss Buddy the Ogre.

Just because, you know, I think for a while before the world was beset with pandemic, we thought we were going to be spending more time with Darrington. And I was like, this is my goofball character. This is my Grog. This is my Jester. I'm going to have fun. And I did. And then we didn't do it anymore.

So I, and I had already, and Orm was playing so far in advance and I was not going toer off of Orym, who is not a goober, so I've lost my shot at my goober. Are you saying the world took your joy away? Saying that in your outfit? I mean, didn't it? Didn't it?

I lost my shot at my goober. Take yours away too. Yes. My favorite was Dink from the Legend of Zelda One Shot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a good one shot. I remember when you like timidly asked me if I would wanna do a one shot,

and you were like, it's Legend of Zelda themes, and I was like, look at my arm! I was like, yes! And arm! I was like, yes! And my scariest moment was pitching Dink to the production team, and I was like, he's a Goron, but he's gonna be dressed pretty much like Link, and they're like, Nintendo's gonna say no, and they're like, Nintendo said yes!

Oh, it was such a... Force of nature, that. Oh my god, what a fun game. It's fun to do some goofing off sometimes. Yeah. I think for me, I don't get to play very often, but I do think back to the Escape from the Bloodkeep that I did with Dimension 20 under Brennan,

where I got to play essentially my disaster gay Nazgul character. It was great. The only thing that's funny is the series. It was the whole, the only thing if you saw any of the series, it was essentially like, all of us were playing more or less like villains under Sauron, but the story begins as they're all planning to take over the world and then the ring gets destroyed and Sauron loses.

And so the game begins with like, basically Mordor crumbling around us and trying to figure out what to do. And my character, who was powerful, like I think 17th level, like Hexblade warlock, was just like a badass character. But I rolled so poorly the whole game that he just became like, just this butt of every joke,

this character that failed at everything he did. And was just this sad sack of a man, a ghost man. And it was wonderful to the point where he got the shippy out of him by what was essentially Samwise Gamgee repeatedly. He was apologizing to him as he was beating him up, like, I'm so sorry, I'm Jessica, I'm like, come on! It was great, I had so much fun with the character.

I really did. It was fun. Very fun. Are we supposed to do more or last? Supposed to do more. Who's the timekeeper? I think you should pick another one. Again?

You're giving him double punishment? Okay, I'll do it. All right. Must to do more. Who's the timekeeper? I think you should pick another one. Again? You're giving double punishment? Okay, I'll do it. All right. Must be the wig. I'll leave it up to you. It's gotta be the wig. I'm not a timekeeper. Pick another one, speak to the manager.

It's a Karen wig. That's what's happening. I'm so scared. Karen slash Children of the Corn. Whoa! Oh my goodness! You are a brave man. Truly.

37. 27? 37! 37. 37. 47. 37. All right, that's it for me, I'm out. Okay. 37. 37. 37. 37. 37. 37. All right, that's it for me, I'm out.

Okay, okay. The rest of us get one each. No, we don't need to do that. Yeah, we'll be like, I'm out. Juniper the Writer 22 on Instagram. If your character could wild shape like Fern, what weird or wacky animal would they turn into? Oh.

And Ashley, you can pick either Yasha or Pike. fern, what weird or wacky animal would they turn into? Oh. And Ashley, you can pick either Yasha or Pike. Okay. What about myself, Ashley? Or just you. Okay. I'm going to answer for me. I'm going to answer for me, too.

Yeah, let's do that. Great question. We're going to tweak it a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What animal would we us ourselves? Caleb did turn into. It would be so tweak it a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What animal would we us ourselves? Caleb did turn into animals. It would be so fun to turn into animals. Really, truly, I would be stoked. What's top of your list?

Something that could fly, to start. You have something? I would probably... I'd probably... I'd probably go with a red-tailed hawk or something. Cool. Something that has a blursion of wingspan that could ride the upper winds and that perspective up top would be incredible.

How cruel of the gods to make a hairless primate creature that instinctively all we want to do is fly and it won't let us. I know, we can't. Why? It's all so real. I know, it's cruel. That's why we made the ornithopter. I'm the same, though. I'm a big bird guy and I'm like an omens guy, too. But I kind of want to be an ill omen just to fuck with people.

So I really love it. American Lore, the owl. And it's also the owl is just a terrifying creature. It flies silently. It's an apex predator. It barfs out the bones and beaks of its enemies.

And so much of my life is like being a daddy and gonna go potty kid and like taking care of people. And then at night I could just turn into a terrifying murder machine. Sounds amazing. And I get to fly. That's the best. That's great. care of people and then if night I could just turn into a terrifying murder machine sounds amazing sounds great and I get to fly that's the best that's great that's the best yeah yeah even split between a flying squirrel so I'd be like and a full silverback gorilla a la kayla like be a big, powerful primate and be able to climb up a tree like it's nobody's business

and then just let out pent up aggression, not that I have any. This is fantasy. What about a flying gorilla that's got skin folds? Fail! 800 pounds? No! He's at peregrine falcon speeds.

Just whipping it down. What did I say? They only fly once. Yeah! Oh my goodness. A glass of water. Yep. Yeah. Oh my goodness.

Oh man. What you got? Yeah, come on. You're the baby Santa mother. Yeah, I'm, Gorilla was up there. Oh really? Oh yeah. Oh yeah a gorilla was up there. Oh really? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I love gorillas.

I just love, oh, I think they're so cool. I like, my dream is to be held by a gorilla like I'm its baby. Yeah, but I know that. You heard it here, folks. If any of you out there can help us make this dream come true. No, no, but I still, like, I'm not,

I would never, like, go visit those places where you can see them up close. Kyle, bring them out. No, I don't want any of that. Just talking about how people should not mix with certain men. No, we shouldn't. And I don't want to. I mean just in a fantasy world. Sure.

Of just being able to just live with them. Just to clarify, don't throw you into the gorilla enclosement. Okay, I got it. I don't believe in that shit of like keeping them in captivity, any of that. But yeah, I would, I, gorillas really high up there, I think, just because it would be cool to feel so powerful. And also like, like a jaguar, so you can run super crazy fast. I feel like that'd feel nice.

Yeah, I don't really want to pick. I just want to be Keyleth and just be able to go. I wouldn't want, it's too hard to pick. There's so many animals that I think would be so fun. Big cats though, big cats are fun. Big cats would be cool, yeah. Even goldfish has got its perk. Even a goldfish has its perks.

Swimming around in the water. Sounds nice. Not a lot of baggage. Yeah, you don't have to think about much. Yeah. Awesome. That's true, breaks water well? No. A fainting goat?

Fainting goat. Make people laugh? Yeah. Oh, nice. Hell yeah. I'd really like to be a long-haired miniature doxie. Yeah, I mean, and a dog would be so fun, too, and you get scritches. I miss my dog. I feel like we're all dressed

as different things this evening. We've just discussed the different things that we could be. Joy has been sucked out of Liam's life. Yeah. My ogre's gone. Oh no, let's bring him back. My baby ogre.

Let's bring the ogre back. He's such a sweet boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's such a sweet boy. But this has been super fun. I think it's a good spot to let this lazy Halloween go. Okay. Are you sure?

Yeah. Okay. We want to say thank you to JustSomeGuy1991 and Juniper the writer. And again, if you have questions for our Tower of Inquiry, you can enter them at criticalrole.com, oh sorry, critrole.com slash tower. Now i get why you do that it makes sense uh and that's it that is it for lazy halloween four-sided dive special we want to thank our guests ashley johnson

liam o'brien matthew mercer why am i reading your names and our lore keeper Danny Carr. I'm Robbie Damon, your 28th tavern keeper. And I guess that's the outro. Cool man, whatever, it's fine. Cool beans. Friends around the table, time to celebrate. It's a party, hit the lights, here we go. Go, go, go. Waste the night away with a little escape.

It's a chance to lose control. So let's just leave this world behind. Everybody come on, take a dive. One by one we roll the dice. Come on. Let's go. Critical throw. For another round. One by one we roll the dice, come on Let's go, Critical Role For another round, your friends are here to cheer you on

Critical Role Throw it back, it's good times all night long Let's go, Critical Role No way to lose when you're having this much fun It's your turn No way to lose when you're having this much fun It's your turn. I'm going to try. One stupid... I'm going to bonk Ashley in the head.

I feel like I'm going to... Let me put my costume back on. I would like to try. Oh, dear. What am I doing? No! That's it for the podcast version of this episode of Foresighted Dive. If you've enjoyed this deep dive into the campaign,

be sure to drop us a rating and a review on whatever podcast platform you're using. Your thoughts may just encourage a new critter to take the plunge. Foresighted Dive normally airs on the first Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. Pacific on our Twitch and YouTube channels, with the VOD available on YouTube the very next day. And of course, each episode releases right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network the following Friday. We'll see you again next month.