Critical Role - Why Are You Like This?! | 4-Sided Dive | Episode 8: Discussing Up To C3E38

Episode Date: November 8, 2022

Gather around the Tower of Inquiry with Taliesin Jaffe, Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, and Sam Riegel on the newest episode of 4-Sided Dive as they discuss up to Episode 38 of Campaign 3. You will also catch this crew playing a mischievous yet chaotic game of Hand to Hand Wombat as they work together to find the “wicked wombat.” 4-Sided Dive airs one Tuesday a month on http://twitch.tv/criticalrole and http://youtube.com/criticalrole Twitch subscribers gain instant access to VODs of our shows like Critical Role, 4-Sided Dive, and Exandria Unlimited. But don't worry: Twitch broadcasts will be uploaded to YouTube about 36 hours after airing live, with audio-only podcast versions of select shows on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & Google Podcasts following a week after the initial air date. Twitch subscribers also gain access to our official custom emote set and subscriber badges and the ability to post links in Twitch chat! "Let's Roll (4-Sided Dive Theme)" by Peter Habib and Sam Riegel Original Music by Omar Fadel and Hexany Audio Additional Music by Universal Production Music, Epidemic Sounds, and 5 Alarm

Welcome to Foresighted Dive, Critical Role's monthly talk show featuring a roundtable discussion about the events and characters of our current campaign, alongside a heavy helping of hijinks. Foresighted Dive airs the first Tuesday of every month at 7pm Pacific on Twitch.tv slash Critical Role and YouTube.com slash Critical Role, with the VOD available on YouTube the very next day. And of course, each episode releases right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network one week after the initial broadcast. Let's dive into the chaos. Ben, what did Susan Sarandon do to you? That's going to be in my book, so I can't say it publicly yet. That comes out next year. My publisher would be very angry.

Autobiography? Of Susan Trandon. Yeah, it's autobiography of Susan Trandon. How do you want to do this? The Matthew Mercer story? Yeah. How do you want to suze this? How do you want to live this life?

The Matthew Mercer story. Straightest nonfiction you'll ever read. There's nothing straight about it. We got some dice? Are we doing this? I'm tired of listening to y'all, so I'm going to listen to y'all for another hour and a half. Great. Roll your dice. I guess I'll take the blue ones, then that's what's left of it.

And go. Oh. It's lowest, right? Oh! It's lowest, right? Highest? No, it's highest. It's highest?

Shit. Yes! Shit. You've done this before, right? Highest? No, it's highest. It's highest? Shit. Yes! Yay! Shit. You've done this before, right? I know! That's why I didn't want to do it again. We've all done this before. We've all done this before. We've all done it, okay.

We've all done this before. What is this for? That's not how this works. I don't know. No. Oh, congrats. Ah, shit. I came and breathed it, it's so dark.

Okay. Oh, hello there. It is me, a person, and I'll be your eighth tavern keeper. I'm the first critical role cast member to host this fly-by-night fever dream of a talk show for a second time. And for this, I have earned a one-way ticket to Lordner's sad, sad dark dimension, as well as a cookie. What is this choice? I don't know. It's a choice.

Mm. Mm. I love the flavor of bread. mention as well as a cookie. What is this choice? I don't know. It's a choice. I love the flavor of bread. What is happening? Lorna is back from the dead. Again. Let's see how long that lasts, Marisha. A joke just like our existence in this indifferent

universe. Taliesin Jaffe's current character, Ashton, got to argue with Taliesin Jaffe's current character, Ashton, got to argue with Taliesin Jaffe's old character, Percy, giving form to the internal strife between our old egos and the audacity of the now. Speaking of audacity... I don't know. ...which the brass has a soul,

because I guess souls are real in the made-up fantasy world. And finally, Matthew Mercer, the man who sells the strings to the puppet masters, he gave us Rodan back, but he took Archdaddy Eric's estros from us in turn, a brutal illustration of how death can never be truly undone. So this is really all Marisha's fault if you think about it. Wait, wait.

Oh, look. Omar. I would like to see the baby. I put the cookie down. I get it. Come here, baby. No. Thanks, Omar.

Welcome to Foresighted Dive. Let's fucking do a show I guess. Yeah! Welcome back! Let's begin the night with our open discussion segment, referred to commonly, previously, and always as What the fuck is up with that? What the fuck is up with that? What indeed the fuck is up with that?

Or something. So it feels odd to be the person running this after deeming it. But beginning with our first topic of this segment for tonight's episode, the return of Vox Machina. Oh my god. Oh man. All the good characters. Yeah.

All the good characters. That's right. We're the best no that felt good you got to you got to voice not voice be all of them most of vox machina yeah it was you there's no pressure yeah see the only ones you weren't was scanlan scanlan gro. Trinket. No, Trinket was there. That's right, Scanlan and Grog. Is that it? I guess so.

Vax, technically. Oh, and Vax, oh. Long, Mahi, Reign? No, that's another guy. Long Mahi, Wing? At some point there was a little crow sound in the background, I don't know. Maybe.

Too late, it's fine. You were really good. Percy, in his older middle age, he's 30 years older now. Yeah, he's 50. He's 50. He's a bit of a dick. He's a bitch.

He was always a bit of a dick. Well, I know, but... It's true. I don't know. I figured being married to Vex might loosen him up a little bit. But also being in charge of the well-being of the entire city of Whitestone

and the traumas that he went through in his life. The world ever growing with dangers and challenges in return. Him being in charge of pretty much the only source of residuum which is continuously trying to find its way in the hands of, you know, people of interest and often the wrong people. And his weapons making their

way around the world, killing. Making their way. That's right. Murder their way. Thank you. It's like, too soon. That's right. There it is. He's gotten paranoid. I mean, he's he knows how to chill out, but he's definitely very paranoid. He did bring, like,

five battalions worth of people to potentially murder Laudna. Well, I mean... But she was connected to Delilah. I mean, that feels right. If you've got five battalions, what else are you going to do with it?

I mean, not that you didn't inhabit him perfectly, which, like, I was very impressed. I was very impressed. That's all I wanted, was to not make it too... But, yeah, you were Delilah. But I've got something else. No, well, no. It But yeah, you were Delilah. But I've got something else. No, well, no, it was like, you were Delilah. Sure, yeah, yeah.

No, still might be. In his head, it was very much like a, we're not going to, if Vex and Pike hadn't have been so involved in this, Percy probably would have still just let you go. Yeah. Like, with his trauma. Yeah, no, it was delightful and stressful because I know that when you created some of these characters,

specifically Orym and you, Laudna, I was like, these are tethers to Campaign 1 characters. There's a chance, based on how the story goes, that I might have to play one of these's a chance based on how the story goes that i might have to to play one of these characters and i hope that doesn't happen for my own nerves uh and probably later in the campaign and then suddenly having to do the four of them including trinket but it makes sense that like with, with all the shit they went through, they'd be pretty paranoid about... Five with three, okay.

About stuff, especially Delilah stuff. Yeah. And people attacking Whitestone and people infiltrating Whitestone. And yeah, it's a paranoid place. Yeah. I'm paranoid about a lot of things. Sure. Paranoid about a lot of things.

Hey, that cane. Yeah. What the fuck is up with that? I don't know if I should tell them. I don't know if they get to know. It's a vestige. Oh my god! Yeah, to note, by the way,

like when I realized we were going to Whitestone and we finished the episode with us going to the Sun Tree, I then emailed Taliesin on the side. I was like, is there any specifics about Percy's office, about where he is right now? I still wanted him to inform me about the specifics of that character, kind of like I talked to you a little bit about Keyleth and her place and what their relationship is in the world now. So I want to make sure that you guys are still informing elements of these characters, but also having them be the fun mystery of really kind of finding out

things beyond that. I know there's been people, you know, in the community that have been like, they should have played their characters and they returned and have Lott never return as Keyleth, or have Marisha return as Keyleth. That would have been so confusing. So deeply confusing. And I also know that you guys were excited at the prospect of the mystery of not really knowing where they were going to be in the world, what they have going on. Yeah, of all the people who claim that our show is scripted, that would be the most

scripted. I think the only way we could have done that is if I played all the other characters. Let's watch that next time. But I mean, like, anything that might have come up, I got to give you the list of things that were important to me for this particular situation. And, like, I know quietly on the side,

some of us occasionally have the conversation of, what are we doing right now? Like, we've had a couple, like, what are we up to? I'm a little curious. You put a little, like, a little stank on that conversation between Keyleth and Percy. Are they okay? Are they fighting?

Or is it just because Percy's a dick? But she also seemed distracted, right? Like she had to get somewhere fast. Yeah, she was like, I'm dealing with a lot. That was, it was a little bit of calm A, a little bit of calm B. Like, they're okay, but also... She was kind of like, okay, I'm gonna see you, bye.

Yeah, it was, when you're friends for a long time and you especially work on the scale they do, you can agree a lot of the time and occasionally not agree. You are such a fucking asshole, Matt. I mean, we've talked about like what goes on between the two,

the Keyleth and Percy. And I think a little bit of good cop, bad cop is not insane. Yeah, no, for sure. So yeah, since yeah, we have that interesting understanding with each other. Yeah, I imagine we disagree. I would hope so.

A lot, I would hope so. It's a very, he's not a good boy. Are they having an affair? No. Keyleth and Percy? I'm going to just make that up. Gross. No, that's awful.

I'm just going to make that up. Is that why there's some tension there? We're going to have some fan fiction here soon. It's definitely written by you. That's horrible. You're the worst. They wouldn't be having an affair. Vex would totally be in on it. Let's be real.

That's true, yeah. She would have instigated, to be honest. I really feel like she would have been the instigator in that. Yes, that's true. Neither of us would have started it. No, it was... I remember with Keyleth, I'm sorry I shouldn't stick around longer, but also I didn't want to have to juggle that many characters

knowing where the story was going. And given just the nature of the narrative build towards the solstice, you know, knowing that because of the nature of her magic, her position, she has a lot going on. They all have a lot going on right now. And the longer she's in a scene, the higher the likelihood that she turns herself into a fish and dies.

I'm rolling the 100, like, every five minutes, just in case. That's just a daily occurrence for her. She's brushing her teeth and just, oh, ah in case. That's just a daily occurrence for her. She's brushing her teeth and just, ah, fuck. That's probably some trauma, to be fair. That's true. Come on, buddy.

We also run into the challenge. Oh, no, the GoPro is... Oh! Poor GoPro footage is being beaten around. This is perfect. Here we go. We thought this was a good idea. Is this strap on anymore?

Ignore them. Yes, I'm listening. They can fuck right off. It's fine. Good boy. I was going to say, I've always wanted to run a campaign where previous player characters

could recur down the road of history and occasionally make an appearance or involvement. It's something I've always wanted to do. But the challenge then lies, too, you don't want the player characters of the current campaign to rely too much on the power levels

of previous campaign characters. And so part of that challenge is, like, in certain circumstances, they might be able to help, but also you are very much small fries to what stuff

they have going on right now. And I still want you guys to actively gain the victories that you want in the story as it goes. Yeah. Where it's always fun. I love how you played everybody, I've got to say. I was quite pleased.

I mean, even from a personal standpoint, I was definitely like, oh, yeah, yeah, this is good. Yeah. That's all I wanted. Pike was super cute. Pike was so cute. Pike was adorable. Okay, okay, okay. Max was very nice. Yeah. I'm worried. Yeah. That's all I wanted. Pike was super cute. Pike was so cute. Okay, okay, okay.

Bex was very nice. Yeah. Very worried. Yeah. Very guilty feeling. Yeah. It was nice. Yeah, she would have been a little more of a hard ass

if she hadn't seen Ladna. Yeah. Yeah. As soon as she realized that connection, it kind of like shook her a bit. Mm-hmm. So I never rolled high enough for Laudna to put the two and two together that I was like looking at my doppelganger. Not in the moment, but you might have put it together in time, like after the fact.

I kind of like that you didn't. There was something about it that makes it worse, if that makes sense. It's just crueler on a weird level. Sure. To everyone involved. To everyone, yeah. Yeah, that's true. That's true.

In a delightfully fucked up way. We got to see some of your family. Oh yeah. And thank you for like, there's a bunch of stuff I gave you that you very subtly just fed in there that nobody will catch other than me going yeah oh god just little

little hints yeah little nods what does that mean Gwendolyn you don't know I mean there's a bunch of stuff you don't know I told you like that much just because I knew you would enjoy it why are you like this you made me like this let's be honest this is valid

i was an open book before i met you sure you were there's a coaster right there specifically there's don't you respect wood there's a coaster connected it's literally wood on wood right this is just that this is just a wood sandwich now. That's all this is. He is. Now I can't stop thinking about it. Well, that's not a wood sandwich. It's two pieces of wood. You need to put something between the wood and make it a wood sandwich. That was three pieces of wood.

The table is... No, you're right. No, you're right. You're right. I needed to expand my periphery on this. And I think it's three different kinds of wood. This just makes it like some sort of... What is this, a wood ducking Oh, you're right. You're right. You're right. I needed to expand my periphery on this. And I think it's three different kinds of wood. This just makes it like some sort of, what is this, a wood ducking?

I don't know. A sandwich through the trees, Matt. You're right. Three trees had to die for this. So how is Whitestone? And traveling back to an old favorite town from the old campaign. I've already forgotten.

Did Fern talk to the Sun Tree? Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Oh, yeah. She was like talking, I was like, are you just saying this out loud, or are you casting a ticket claim?

She's like, do I have, I do. I'm like, okay, here we go. Two campaigns later, not much has changed in the old Sun Tree. Hey, what's up? Hey. I was hearing he had picked up windsurfing or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was starting to macrame. I don't know. Slowly the branches were macraming.

Yeah. Sounds about right. It's fun to bring in the clock tower finally. Oh, yeah. Yeah, thank you for that. There's all kinds of cool stuff. The Rifleman. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, the Rifleman Corps. A lot of problems. What did the rifles, like, how advanced were they? I mean, like, not super, like, nothing in there is super. Like, the super advanced crazy shit is something else. But, like, anything that you saw, anything that came up was all. Anything that has the opportunity to fall into the hands of somebody outside of Whitestone is mid-level tech. Yeah.

Not crazy stuff. But Percy's got some machine guns downstairs. No. He's got an Uzi downstairs. I mean, Percy, not really, but there's some, it's in the book that there are some other people who are, there's kind of a CIA kind of, there's like a small group of like crazy ass people. He's definitely becoming Batman from Batman Beyond, essentially.

Like that's the path for Percy. Oh yeah. He's got a little dark. Yeah. He's gone a little Percy. Oh, yeah. He's got a little dark. Yeah. He's gone a little dark. Yeah. Finally, after all this time. Does he need, like, a colorful sidekick,

like a Robin type? I mean, that's Gwendolyn. Gwen. Oh, that's right. Gwen is a sidekick? I mean... Is Robin? Yeah, basically.

I mean, yeah. Of all the children, probably the closest. Cool. Is she your favorite? I'd read that comic book. That's pretty sick. Favorite is a complicated term. Why Gwendolyn? Because she's a tiefling?

Gwendolyn because it's the first kid who he recognizes most of his bad qualities being inherent in this child, and so doesn't really know what to do other than try and encourage them in the right direction. So... Interesting. It's just kind of an opportunity to be like,

I wonder what would happen if I was still my terrible self, but someone actually encouraged the best parts of my terrible self. Which, once again, Batman from Batman Beyond. Yes, exactly. The whole dynamic just continues to fill itself. I love it. Yeah, it is the Batman Beyond vibe. I dig it.

But it was Whitestone when you got there, and then we went to Laudna's Darkstone. Yeah. Are we calling it Darkstone? That's what's written on the paper here. Okay. Don't call it whatever you want. I was being clever. I like it.

It's cute. If I didn't like it, I wouldn't have said it. Oh, thanks. That was cool, too. I was admittedly confused by the parent name. There was a glitch in the matrix, right? They're calling her Matilda, and then they started using the term, the name Laudna.

And I could have conveyed it better, but the idea was that the scenes were starting to kind of crumble a bit. The, you know, the presentation. Delilah was having a hard time keeping it together. Keeping it together, more or less. But Laudna's name is Laudna. Now. Correct.

The name she uses now is Laudna. And it was Matilda. It was Matilda. She was born Matilda. Matilda Bradbury. And when did she change it? When she died? She changed it...

No, when she was a kid. Like, years... No, no, no. After she died and was alone in the woods for a prolonged amount of time and kind of just started losing touch with who she was and where she came from. And reinvented herself? Kind of just... Yeah, kind of... Got a little weird out she was and where she came from. And reinvented herself?

Kind of just, yeah, kind of. Got a little weird out there? Got a little weird out there, yeah. Does she hate the name Matilda? We're going to find out, aren't we? Sorry. I guess we'll find out. She doesn't hate it.

She just became something else. Was Lana a middle name, or was it connected to anything, or just something that she stumbled onto? Something that she found and stumbled onto. Maybe we'll figure that out in campaign, but yeah. Ooh, look at that mystery brewing. I like it. It's good.

After a decade of not really having anybody to talk to, you get a little weird. Does she live forever? Only one way to find out. Well, categorically not, I guess. Does she die forever, though? If uninjured, if unkilled, oh man, Omar. Oh boy, oh wait, you got zoomies?

Would she just exist in the same age forever? If she left? She does have timeless body. Yeah, she does. So. Oh my god. Oh my god. I hate you. Some fucking Matthew McConaughey. Wow. That body, timeless.

Even the sentry's like, nah, I'm not cool with that. Oh, oh my goodness. Oh, I just see a butt. I know. A dog butt. Just a big old, what are you barking at, buddy? Every time he barks and his butthole puckers. Omar, Omar, here.

That's what happens when I bark. Omar, what? Oh my goodness, why are you playing with people? Oh, you came to me, of course you did. Oh, good boy. You want to come up here? You want to come up here? That's cool.

So Laudna is immortal-ish. So fun fact, and I didn't realize this until kind of here lately, with Beau becoming a high-level monk as well and Keyleth becoming high-level druid and Laudna being undead, I have three characters who just don't age. Who are just, yeah, they're not going anywhere. All of them have a timeless body.

Seems like I cry for help. Look, it's really hard being a woman in Hollywood. Slowly aging. Wow. Okay? Let me have this. in Hollywood, slowly aging. Wow. Okay? Let me have this. Well, Beau will still die. Is this what you want?

Is that what Sam was trying to encourage? Never having to buy more outside whiskey? Is that the? Sure, yeah. Okay. More or less. Which might be. That'll work out well. And then, but like, yeah, Keyleth ain't going nowhere, or at least for a very, very, very long time.

Correct. Correct. Right. And then Laudna, who the fuck knows? Yeah, only time will tell. And Beau is still a human. Sure. She just doesn't get old, and she also doesn't need to eat or sleep or drink water or something, right?

That's the way, I don't know. It's weird. Which is fine. Still will. But I still will, yeah, I don't know. It's weird. Which is fine. Still will. But I still will, yeah. You don't need to. Do you digest things? Is it just like fresh cut grass?

Does it just sit there for a while? It's like a Tagon Titan. You just put it in the mouth for a little bit and then spit it out. Could you be stuck in a cave for like 80 years and when it comes out, it's just, you're really weird about the whole process of eating and what happens. Does that get uncomfortable? Are we talking about

me personally? I mean, no, not you. I know what happens if we put you in a cave for 80 years. That's not interesting. We've done that before. Talking about Beau. God. Beau, it's that, I think it's just trying to capture that

monk zen like the idea that they can, like, fast and not have this need for... Perfection of the... Yes, I'm pretty sure that's what they're trying to convey,

is that, like, I can sustain myself with... Monks. Good thoughts and intentions and vibes. Works for me. Yeah. Eat, pray, love.

And ramen. No. But yes, creepy white stone. I'm prompting myself on stuff. No, no, no, please. Are we supposed to move on to the next thing? Well, it was moving buildings. I like that.

Oh, yes yes you moved buildings yes you're commenting that you were did creepy things yeah i did i don't i really enjoyed i really enjoyed uh we've like we've had a couple trips into people's brains this was a fun one of like you're you're terrible unconscious it was so wild to watch you guys experience my backstory without me being there yeah it's so weird um it's also fun to watch each each of you begin to drop off from the table and begin joining her on the side yeah we had some fun back there that was fun yeah yeah having a little little side party yeah it was great oh my goodness god i wanted to throw liam so. I'm still, next time, next time. Back there for so long, she had like a whole living room set up.

I kind of did. Fun tiny fact about everybody who was at the table at the end. It was all the Campaign 2 spoilers, but it was all of the people who were taken by the Iron Shepherds or passed away, who were the ones left with Delilah. Cool.

Interesting. Because it was Leon, Marisha, and Sam who eventually left the table. Just how I scripted it. So it was like the reverse. Yeah, it was reversed. That's pretty rad. Kismet.

It's pretty cool. Look at that. Look at that. Patterns, y'all. It's all connected. It is definitely all connected. It was pretty great. I had a little,

they brought me a little ferny pad. And it was mainly so that the sound of the chair wouldn't make noise. But then I just laid down on the floor on the ferny pad and would have snacks and have my iPad. See, it's not so bad to die in D&D.

No. Yeah, it was fine. It was great. I could hang out back there. Yeah. Totally. It was kind of nice. I was about to say, you don't know. I could stretch my legs.

No, I would love to die, though. Yeah. Give me a day off. You died before Scanlan. I mean, technically. That's true. Did I leave the table ever? Wait, did Scanlan die?

Yeah, that was the whole Fix-Im grog in Campaign 1. Oh, that's right. After the Raishan fight, did Scanlan die? Yeah, that was the whole fix him grog in campaign one. Oh, that's right. After the right Sean fight. But I think I downed for like a hot minute. Because we were pretty high level

at that point. Yeah, it was a hot minute. Yeah. Because you had a lot of people with resurrection stuff. Res stuff at that point.

But got to it. FCG can die, right? Can FCG die? I think so. I think so. We'll find out when we get there FCG die? I think so. I think so. We'll find out when we get there. Yeah. Not if.

When. When. Yeah. How do you res, do we res? I've got a soul. Jumper cables, right? Yeah. It's been confirmed, yeah.

Jumper cables. Yeah. Jumper cables. I think you have to put it in nooch and start, like, roll down a hill, and then gas it. Perfect. We all just weakened Bernie's FCG running him down a hill.

Okay, okay, hit the start. No, I got it, no, I got it. Lady Bolt. Oh my goodness. Oh man. But, got to fight Delilah for the 17th time. Oh man, you're doing such a good job. Yeah. Keeping us on track.

I'm trying. I'm trying. I rolled poorly and I'm trying. Yes, we fought Delilah for the millionth time. Yep. That bitch won't stay down. Dude, so what level Delilah was that? The actual, the creature that I created was called the Shade of Delilah was that? The actual creature that I created

was called the Shade of Delilah Briarwood. So it is... It's going to move on. Oh, okay. There we go. Good boy. It's Delilah Shade, and that was... Will you tell us what level or no?

That's secret? It's not really a level per se, because creatures don't follow the same rules as player characters in the design of 5e but definitely a diminished capability given the fact that she is not

of her sure her proper physical form her full power set and everything is it even really her or is it like a weird memory

of a like yeah like that was the vibe I was kind of getting it was like it was a seed of that consciousness that could

yeah and a few times you said, like, when Pike was sort of talking about what had happened and stuff, even she was, at one point she was like, yeah, there's a chance that Delilah is gone forever now. Correct. Did you roll, do you know the answer? I do. Did you roll right there that night?

I rolled right there. The reason I didn't roll in front of the screen was because I wanted the mystery to remain. But you know. I know, yeah. Oh, man. So, I don't know. So there's a chance that the spark,

a glint of Delilah's soul essence exists in some liminal state out there and could find purchase in somebody else or some other thing. Maybe she'll come back as a dog. Probably, specifically a corgi. Just to be sure, you could

throw Laudna in an acid pit. That's true. That is a great idea. Oh my god. Just in case. Just in case. Just saying. Oh wow, could Lila come back as a smoke demon? Crossing too many streams now. It's just getting weird now. I don't know.

Is she still... I asked him on the way home. I was like... You're not allowed to ask that stuff. You're not going to ask her that? I can ask. Car rides? He didn't tell me shit.

Travis is the worst about asking about stuff. He does? Oh, he'll try and catch me off guard and be like, oh, what's this mean? Oh, he does his thing where he's like, well, I know that you said that Delilah's definitely coming back, right? Yeah, he does that shit all the time. But he doesn't, like, text you offline?

No, no, no, no. And she doesn't either. She was just curious, I think, on the way home. He does love knowing. He does. He definitely learned mid-game. What was really going on? Yeah, and I'll tell him. And she doesn't either. She was just curious, I think, on the way home. He does love knowing. He does. He doesn't learn mid-game. What was really going on?

Yeah, and I'll tell him incorrect shit every now and then. She's like, fuck. I'm like, really? I'm like, I don't know. Is it? God damn it. Oh, yeah. No, I'll mess with him.

Oh, that's actually good to know. That way, if he ever says something that you're like, that's not right, it's probably you. Yeah, no. I've specifically woven a whole era of confusion so that nobody ever knows. Good, good, good. It works well. But yeah, I mean, am I still going to have magic? Is she there?

How do warlocks work? Well, you came back and you were able to bring everyone's favorite... I did bring Pate alive. Pate to life. Oh, wow. What spell was that? Fine familiar.

But modified to the specifics of Lausna and her dead rat. Yes, yes. Force accent on GM level five. I'm packed, yeah, yeah. I'm packed of the chain. So packed of the chain, warlocks get Find Familiar, but they can get a special version of Find Familiar where they can have a pseudo-dragon, an imp. Normally, you can only get a bat or a rat or a dog

or something that has two hit points. And it's just more there for searching and being a pet that you can kind of see through. But with the Pact of the Chain that you can kind of see through. But with the fact of the chain, you can be more powerful creatures. Like this is specifically using an imp's stat, so it can fly, it can talk, it has dark vision, it can do all these weird things.

Ooh. But now it's just a skinned imp. It's a pervy guy from the Bronx now. And he's just trying to see what's going on. I'm so glad I don't have to do the pate voice anymore. Nope, he's mine now. I keep imagining one of those creatures from that stop motion Alice in Wonderland.

I'm trying to, you know, the one I'm talking about. It's just the like, you know, weird taxidermied animals that keep feeding themselves sawdust to keep that, yeah. I'm talking about forever. Is he eating something? What's wrong? He's doing something. What are you eating? Where are you at?

Omar, hey, bring it here. I put chocolate and grapes all over the floor. Is that okay? Oh, great, thanks. It was a wrapper. Oh, it's a wrapper? Good looking out. An old candy wrapper from Halloween.

He'll find them. I'm so sorry. Anything on the ground, he'll find it and chew on it. Why? As it says here, we were all impressed by Matt's one-man show doing every Vox Pogina character. If each of us had to do a one-man show of something, be it book, movie, TV show,

what would it be and why? Oh, boy. What would it be and why? That was the weirdest laugh I've ever heard of you. No, I was just trying to think, That was the weirdest laugh I've ever heard of you! No, I was just trying to think, I'm not really familiar with... I've never read a book. IPs? Yeah, the only books I'm familiar with are things like Bill and Ted's Excellent Venture.

Oh, that's fun! That's a great choice, though! What do you mean? You're acting like you don't know what pop culture is. No, I do, but I feel like I don't know. There's not a lot of things that I know deeply, intimately, that I'm not a super fan of. Okay, okay. That's true.

Sam, I would pay good money to see you do a one-man show of Bill and Ted's Ex-Wife. Same. Yeah, no, that sounds really exciting. That's a great answer. I didn't know you were... I'll let you go with that. Do you consider yourself like a...

Is that your fandom, Bill and Ted's? Do you love Bill and Ted's? No, but I didn't know you were... I'll let you go with that. Do you consider yourself like a... Is that your fandom, Bill and Penn? Do you love Bill and Penn? No, but I've seen it many, many times. That's cool. There's a couple movies that I've seen like 40, 50 times, but they're the weirdest movies. Like? Memphis Belle, Glenberry, Glen Ross.

That's kind of weird. Okay. Oh, my God. I was wondering what kind of weird we're going for. Adventures in Babysitting. Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one. These were all movies. I worked on a cruise ship. I was wondering what kind of weird we're going for. Adventures in babysitting? Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one. These were all movies.

I worked on a cruise ship when I was a teenager. And they played the same eight movies on the cruise ship over and over and over again. So I saw these eight movies a thousand times. I'm so sorry. Wow. I love the idea of you doing a whole series of one-man shows based entirely on being on a cruise ship. On cruise ship movies?

The meta on that is really intense. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, we'll workshop it. We'll figure something out. Sam Riegel's cruising. And that's when I realized this cruise was a one-way trip. Taliesin, what's your choice?

Oh, God. I have to come up with it? Yes. That's terrible. All of you have to answer these questions because I am the host and I say so. Jesus. That's really, no, that's impressive.

And the nice thing is I can be impressed by that while actually trying to think of something interesting to do. That's true. I don't, I mean like most of my favorite film choices are just not interesting in this direction. Oh God. You know a lot of weird films too.

I know, I know. It's like too weird and obscure. I do have one. Space Camp the movie. Hmm? Space Camp? Space Camp the movie. No, Space Camp.

As a one-man show. Oh, my God. Too real. It's also pretty good. Space, the TV series? Oh. No, no, no, no. I was just...

What do you got? What do you got? Only because I feel like we've been talking about this movie a lot here lately, and it keeps coming up in conversation is Popeye movie. Oh, yes. That would be a great one-man show. Right.

Especially since all the characters are talking at the same time. In every scene. And all mumbling at each other. It feels like it would be the ultimate challenge because there are 40 characters and they all talk in one. You'd have to be a ventriloquist to pull that off. That's amazing.

We have one of those loop pedals. Oh my god. You could get so artsy with it. I'm here for it. Yeah. No, that's so good. How do you follow up after that one? I think you won. Yeah, you did.

Yeah, you did win. I think you won. I would be in your one woman show. That's one woman life. There you go. Oh, there's more in your one woman show. That's one woman life. There you go. Oh, there's more in here. What's next? I think that's the end.

Of the show? Of our big segment. So it is time for a pull from the Tower of Inquiry. Tower of Inquiry. One of us pulls a block from the tower, reads the number, and Danny tells us the corresponding question and who asked it. And if the Tower of Inquiry! One of us pulls a block from the tower, reads the number, and Danny tells us the corresponding question and who asked it.

And if the Tower of Inquiry falls, consequences will befall the one who ruins it. Squishy and befuddling consequences. Befuddling. Befuddling. And so with that in mind, Marisha, you go. Since you just came back. Yeah. You get to kick us off. Oh yeah, okay. That's fine, that's fair. you just came back. Yeah. You gonna kick us off? Oh yeah, okay, that's fine, that's fair.

Just throw a word. Young Frankenstein, that's a good one for some show. Oh, that is a good one. Young Frankenstein's a great show. That is a good one. That's a good one, that's a solid one. All right. Do good.

Tangential, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Yeah, that could be fun. Oh yeah. Is that one's weird enough? Yeah, it's weird. Willy Wonka, like from the book? No, no, no, no, like the Gene Wilder weird one. Gene Wilder one?

Good choice. Yeah, that's good. 21. 21! I mean, it was chosen. My age. You know, oh, you beat me to it, you bitch! I'm young and fast. I've seen those legs.

That's right, that's right. The timeless. The timeless legs. Sorry, Dani, go ahead. That's right. The timeless. The timeless legs. Sorry, Danny, go ahead. You're good. No, y'all continue. From Lunard Ying, how did you come up with your character's name? Ooh. Oh, man.

Kinda just talked about this a little bit. We did? Okay, well. Oh, yeah, you. So, well, we can all, we all cover it. Yeah. So Laudna, maybe we'll get to. But there is a reason. Yeah.

And then Matilda, because when I was looking for inspiration behind Ladna, I went down a rabbit hole of the young flower girls, because I was having a lot of night terrors, and that's where Ladna came from. And my nightmare, I saw a little like peasant, uh, flower girl. I think I've mentioned this before. And then, so I was like, wonder what that is. And then I went down this rabbit hole about the, in the late 1800s, the young, uh, flower girls that would work in silk flower factories in like, uh, in England and across Europe. And they would use this paint called Shells Green, which was made by, I don't know, an old British white man named something Shell.

I forgot his fucking first name. It's probably Robert Shell, something like that. Robert Shelley. I forgot his fucking first name. It's probably Robert Schell, something like that. Robert Schell. And he made this specific green paint that everyone loved and was obsessed with because it was very bright and vibrant and it's incredibly hard to make pigmented green paints still to this day. And they loved it so much because it had arsenic in it.

Yay! And everybody who made it died? Yeah, they were all getting sick, and they didn't really know why, but they would have like 12, 13, 14, 15-year-old girls working in these silk flower factories, painting the leaves of these silk flowers. There's all these stories of like with asbestos and this

and other things of factories putting shit in. Early lead tin canning. There's never stories about like factories putting like good stuff like by accident. Like by accident they put in a whole bunch of vitamin C.

It's always something horrible that kills children. Capitalism. What's in the hat bands? I'm trying to remember what was in the hat bands that would, where the mad as a hatter came from. Dani, do you remember that? It might have also been like, oh, mercury.

It was mercury. Because they used to use mercury to help shape and form the hat. So many haberdashers would go cuckoo. Yeah. And like weird creepy ways. It's not really going to burn to death. Because they got poisoned.

He'll figure it out. It's a fake fire, right? It was a thing. It'll be fine. Same thing happened with lead canning. But yeah, one of the little girls that died was a 14-year-old girl that died that made them start to be like,

hmm, maybe we should change things, was named Matilda. Oh. Yeah, back in the day. An homage to young Matilda. Yeah, yeah, to the young flower girl that gave me my nightmare. He's doing something.

A cheery. I don't like it. Omar, don't get into the sticks. I'm going to go stop him while I go pick one for myself. Omar, don't get the sticks. Don't catch the flame. Come on. How'd you come up with Ashton? I came up with, I read an article about how.

Okay. I read an article about how freshly cut grass screams. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just thought that was so cool. Yeah. It's terrifying.

It's just the smell of freshly cut grass is the smell of despair because it's... It's like sending out like a help me signal. Help, I hate this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn't that crazy? But everyone's like,

oh, it's so cute. So lovely. It just reminds me of childhood. Ashton, what's the Ashton name? Ashton, Ashton is actually from a friend of mine who I just was trying to find something

that was nice and sort of... Punk sounding? Punk and genderless. It was like my friend Ash is pretty much in that pocket. And then Greymoor was because I was trying to... I was on this weird kick for, I was getting obsessed

with Dickensian names, with Charles Dickens naming. Yeah. Which is why everyone involved, like any, you can always tell an NPC that I named

because they have the most like, Dickensian strange, like they always have like a little rhyme in it or there's some like, you know, Bob Cratchit or you know, Mr. Bumble. They're all a little rhyme in it or there's some like um you know bob cratchit

or you know mr bumble they're all a little silly those are in marquette actually it's right yeah uh number three i am number three number three three you're not right buddy you got ash on his face oh oh you got a fake ass not it's like fire. I don't know how we got, it's impressive. Oh my goodness, you did. That's super cute. Come here. You may just be dust. Oh, you can't, you've got your stye.

Oh my god. Oh wow. Oh no. He's really dirty. Okay, hold on. There we go, there we go. There we go. Save us, Danny.

For the question, Danny, please. Save us. I just can't stop looking at Omar. From Calypso Lucia on Twitter. Calypso. Did you all have one-to-ones slash two-to-ones with Matt before the game started like you did with Campaign 2? If so, how did they go? We did.

We did, yeah. Me and Laura had one. Me and Taliesin had one. We had one. It was fun. We made a friend that we never have really dealt with. Yeah, we made a friend in Drusar who... Did he give us something?

Yeah, he owes us a ride. He owes us a free ride. We got to cash that in at some point. Yeah. Yeah, it was fun. It was. We were still figuring out vocally how our characters would be and personality-wise, but the mechanics were there and it was pretty fun.

Watching you find that voice was a lot of fun. It was hard not laughing. Laura found the same voice. I know. Ever since we went into our one-on-one with Laura, I think I'd already played with you guys at that time. And so she started doing her voice, and in my head I was like,

should I say no? No, let it happen. We'll wait until it happens for a session because why not i mean sure people can have the same dialect yeah yes it's true people sometimes do in the real world sometimes sometimes people have the same name too which is why whenever an npc has the same name as another npc jameson or ira or different things people are like it's all connected i'm like or the ira thing is though. That's a real thing. Sure. But yeah, people can have the same thing.

But anyway. One of the Ira's is hyphenated Ira, like a He-Man villain. That's Ira. No, don't say that. That means I have to change the spellings. Don't put that in the world. You don't have to replace. You hit the replace all.

Just hit the replace all button. No. Allison, no. Yeah. Got a little one-on-ones, which was fun to get everyone situated on that. Did you do one with Travis? Because he was coming back as... No, because he already knew Bertrand Bell and had him established.

Yeah. And I didn't do it with the rest of the crew because their one-on-ones was instead all the VXU. Oh, that's right. That wasn't as necessary for them. Yeah. But one cool thing about that is Sam got to pull the next block.

Oh, we're doing it again. We're doing a full three at least. Nope. Oh shit. Oh boy. Oh shit. Oh that's right, it can go bad. Oh my god.

They're really tight. You're coming at this with the energy of a three year old. I don't like this. So you can't go that high? You can't go that high. Here, I got one. This is, oh my god.

Oh my god. I think we're good. You get zero fucks. That was the most brazen round. You put that up there. What's the number? 44. 34.

Oh god. I'm so scared right now. That was masterful. Oh, boy. What's your favorite one-on-one role-play moment with your character so far this campaign? Ooh. From at Unsnappable on Twitter.

Unsnappable. I like it. One-on-one, like, with another person. Role-play moment with your character. So, whoever you want to interpret that. I can't remember all of them. I'm sure I've had many brilliant moments this campaign. But I really enjoyed this dream journey that I just went on with Laura.

That wasn't really a role playing moment. It was just a cool moment. Yeah, it was fun. It was interesting. Just being in her mind-ish. I've done a lot of mind things lately. Yeah, this whole campaign seems to be going more like mind and conscious delving. Yeah, exactly. That's just the big bad is Criss Angel.

We should get Criss Angel to come on. He's not doing much. At the very end. Mind free. Hop in, hop out. It's just business. Fuck, that would make it a good cameo for your Nord shot. Ooh.

Oh, no. Ooh, Criss Angel. Criss Angel. Oh, boy. I'll try. What is he doing? I feel like a lot of nothing. I'll Google him while you

guys answer the question what's your favorite one i mean i mean we've we've had a couple of fun ones which i and i we yeah i feel like we need more we got one coming up yeah i'm gonna be i say that like i'm you were very quiet when lana came back you said like two words yeah that whole game after i came back yeah there was there was a lot and it was like, I need to wait till the rest of this is done because there was just too much going on. I was like,

there's going to be some talking. Because I have the... R&B singer Genuine passes out unconscious after a dangerous Criss Angel magic stunt gone wrong. This is in the news.

Genuine has made a full recovery. Confirms rep. Criss Angel is killing R&B artists. Someone has to stop him. It could be us. We could stop him. Holy shit. Criss Angel. Ginuwine got mind-fucked. Yes! He did. Oh no!

I have the memory of a bark squirrel, but I really enjoyed fucking around with Percy. He was amazing. That was fun. Yeah, that's the problem. Honestly, that was delightful. I need to look up notes. Having a one-on-one roleplay moment

as a Vox Machina character to the player who once played it was really, really fun and intimidating. one role play moment as a Vox Machina character to the player who once played it. That's really cool. It was really, really fun and intimidating. Especially a character who just loathed him so much. That's what made that so fun. Just fucking hated him. It was just absolute disdain from both sides.

And through that sparring match, a weird respect was established. Whatever you need to tell yourself, sure. A hint of like, take a thing. Take a thing. Yeah, that was really pleasing. That was really, really pleasing. That was good.

I think... You've had a lot of good Laura stuff. A lot of great Laura stuff. I was going to say one that definitely stands out is when I broke the rock on the airship. Yeah, that was good. And then subsequently, all of the one-on-one conversations I had with people individually

of them giving their own unique advice of how to fix the situation with the broken rock. That was fun. Those were all great, and just a great kind of series of one-on-ones that was very confusing. It was a series of good character studies, yeah. Yeah, it was a great character study

on how people give advice to fix when your friend is mad at you over a broken rock. So it was pretty good. Those were great. New friend. I just remembered another one. I enjoyed giving couples therapy where Matt was playing both parts of the couple.

Two NPCs. That was pretty fun. The green cape people? They were there. The detectives? Yeah. One of the green seekers people? They were there. The detectives? Yeah. One of the green seekers was part of that relationship. It was Gus, I think.

And then it was his ex who worked the mine. Yeah, that was good. They're doing fine now, by the way. Oh, that's great. Both dead. Those are good. Yeah, are they back together? They're both dead.

They got back together and now they're both dead. We're heading back to Drusar. You're in Drusar. Should we check in on them? They're both dead. They got back together, now they're both dead. We're heading back to Jrusar. You're in Jrusar. Should we check in on them? They're both dead in the mine. The great secrets travel around, so they may not be there, but we should. You could always check in on Gus and be like, hey. There's nothing else going on right now.

It's been a few weeks. Do you want to check? Yeah. Thank you, Lunar, Ying, Calypso, Lucia, and Unsnopable. If you have an evergreen question for our Tower of Inquiry, which is now precariously ruined by salmon ready to topple any moment, you can enter it at critrole.com slash tower. And with that, let's go ahead and slide into the deep dive. Oh, the deep dive! Dive in!

Dive in! You know, be so kind as to serve us some tankards with carefully crafted questions. We're going to take turns pulling questions from our tankards, and since I'm the tavern keeper, I'll be kicking this off myself once I receive it. Which is honestly a destroying baton, can't you tell? You got it. Thank you, love. All right, I'll go in here for mine first.

First one I pull off here is... How did the skill check system work for Ladna's mind? Were the successes slash failures weighed differently depending on the moment? More or less, like, it's a... It was an extended skill check, meaning there was a long journey to get to the center, but not every ability check being made

applied to the skill check. You know, if someone's like, do I see something around, role perception, that technically wasn made applied to the skill check. If someone's like, do I see something around role perception that technically wasn't applied to the overall challenge, it's more like a crucial moment some people were applying. It was kind of playing it loose to see heroic moments that made sense and tension that would actually really propel the journey forward or backward.

And so it was kind of like feeling out a certain number of successes versus failures on those certain challenges when they came up yeah so there's like the big one of like you had the good idea of putting the fire out in the house yeah that was a good one right yeah and like that's the thing too like some of it's a skill challenge it's in like it's a it's a role maybe it's a clever idea or just an idea that works well in a scenario i don't think it has to necessarily be like a role uh based on, you know, if you had a clever fix for something. It's Professor X shit.

I like when you do that stuff, Matt, where it's like prompting us, not necessarily like do this thing and you make it through to the next step, but it's more like come up with something. Be creative. Just flex your imagination here. It's cool.

Just be a little weird with it. It's fun. What would have happened if Orym did not find the loose floorboard with the tunnel under the house? Oh, that would have been the journey would have continued on through the forest and would have had another Laudna memory

moment, another possible encounter. It would have elongated the journey, which means by the time you got to Delilah, and it would have elongated the journey, which means by the time you got to Delilah, you probably would have been more drained than you were. And then eventually it would have flipped over to, it would have been just like a slow curve

over, very much like the world in Animal Crossing, how it's just one big cylinder. Eventually the force would have just flipped over to the other side of the dark white stone. So you can basically just skip a portion of the journey and challenge, which was fun. And then there was Whitestone Andy. Whitestone Andy, yep. He doesn't have to be a jerk.

He's a dick. Well, you said he threw dirt in your face. I did. So I incorporated that into the scene. I still feel like there's a chance with you two. Campaign's still going. Maybe he grew up and became a really nice guy and he's always regretted it.

Or it's one of those things like when you go back to like your hometown and like the guy you had a crush on is like really like let himself go. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or he also went to the other side of the castle. Shuffling trinket shit, what'd you say? Or he also went to the dinner with you way back. Shuffling trinket shit, what'd you say? Or he also went to the dinner with you way back.

You don't know. No, no, yeah. It's true, I don't know. He looks very gnomish from the other side. Oh. That was fun. Who's up next? You go, Taliesin, because you didn't pull from the tower.

Why am I making this difficult? There we go. All right, yes, yes. Your cup's awesome because it's see-through. Thank you, it's my favorite part. I like see-through things. You do. What was it like to argue with Percy as Ashton? Is there anything else you wish you could have said to him

or that you expected Percy to say to Ashton? I say wearing the glasses. Yeah. I really enjoyed that. I enjoyed every moment of that. I enjoyed being like, like just yelling at myself for a little bit was really pleasing. It makes so much sense

that Ashton and Percy would hate each other. Ashton is the antithesis of anything Percy would ever respect. Genuinely. When I said early respect, respect was not the right word for it. I mean that too. It was

recognizing somebody else who also was just full of anger and force. Sure, but not handling it nearly as well somehow, despite the clear illogic of that. Yeah, it was nice

just getting to yell and be indignant to yourself. And you really hit it so well. It was really... I love playing Percy. I would do it again in an instant, but playing against Percy was really satisfying. Yay, that makes me happy.

Yeah, it was a ton of fun. I can't even... I would have kept going for 20 more minutes if I had been allowed. But it was like, okay, okay, I've eaten enough of time. I'm gonna get out of the car. No worries. Sam. I'm picking.

I believe in you. Got them all. Answered them all at once. I win. Your Vox Machina character, Scanlan, best character. Debatable. Did not show up in Whitestone. What do you imagine Scanlan's reaction to

Lautna would have been, and where were you? Where do you think he is right now? I think Scanlan, whoa, whoa. Boy, what would Scanlan think of Lautna? He probably

would be okay with her. I mean, she's weird. He likes weird. Yeah. Does he have that kink? Oh, that kink? I mean. He likes, he has a weird kink,

but I don't know about the dead thing. Kept that troll dick an awful long time, just saying. I hate this. This is the worst question. Just saying. Had that a while. You know, I've spent so much time with Scanlan at this point, I'd like to think no,

but if I'm being honest... Can we just say no? We'll say no. Can we just say no? We'll say no. But you guys know the answer. Marisha, pick a question. But where is Scanlan right now? I assume he's based on the Tal'Dorei guide,

available in stores everywhere. Yes, everywhere. Yeah, available in gas stores everywhere. Yes, everywhere! Available in gas stations everywhere. He spends his time, he splits his time between, he does some Whitestone time, and he does some Marquette time. Most of the year, I think he's in Marquette with Kaylie, helping run the old meat man business. Yep. So I assume he's in Marquette with Kaylie, helping run the old meat man business. Yep. So I assume he's in Akarel

or maybe traveling around Marquette, finding Auger d'Arte to purchase and sell and or stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. And I don't know, he's just going around Marquette, leading his divorced life. Holy fuck. We could run into Scanlan. You could run into Scanlan, and he's newly divorced,

so he's probably looking for some action. I think the, I can imagine the mansion is now just filled with Ikea furniture. Yeah. Oh. Oh, boy. Billy the bookcase says hello. What you got, Marisha?

Did you give Matt any stipulations for Laudna's resurrection ritual? Was there anything that the players could have done that would have resulted in a more or less favorable outcome for Laudna's soul? No real stipulations. I just encouraged you, like, whatever happens, happens. Um, you know, I don't want to try and force it one way or another. And if they botch it, they botch it. And I was willing to... You got real close to botching it. Yeah, I was willing to accept it, you know, no matter how it fell. So that was mainly it, was just like,

don't feel like you have to pad rolls or... No, I know. I know you trust on that, too. Yeah. And then, yeah, I was just watching to see if they'd take it in the moment. So yeah. Yay. With honor and dignity. Natural one. That's what we're known for,

is honor and dignity. Honor, dignity, great. I'll do one more round of these. Okay, let's do a speed round. I don't know. A couple. We've got time, we've got time. What inspired Lord Eshteross to bequeath the skyship to Bell's Hells? Did he believe they would have more use for it

than the textile company? In the long run, no. I assume it was tax purposes, but whatever company. In the long run, no. I assume it was tax purposes, but whatever. Yeah, that's likely, honestly. At this point, he's just laundering whatever he had left. There's a law, yeah. Got an old airship?

Donate it for a tax return. Yeah, you've got a limit. 1-800-SKY-SHIP-FOR-KIDS. Whatever the version of NPR in the thing is. That's right. We will take your used sky ship. But no, in his mind, he knew it was coming.

He's known it was coming for a long time. Just, this was the first immediate, like, Otohan Fool has a history, knows his name, the connection. He, like, it was just a matter of time in his mind. And so he kind of got all his affairs in order and was very right. And for him knowing what you guys had to do what you had ahead of you this mystery that you were unfolding

essentially and knew you to be some of the few good-hearted trustworthy people that he's encountered in many years he felt that it would behoove exandria proper better to let you have the air ship than anyone else for the moment and that was very much kind of his logic behind it, so. Aw. Anyway, yeah. Eshterosh. Eshterosh. I'm gonna miss that boy.

Yeah, he was a good boy. You killed him. I did, the logic killed him, it made sense. The logic killed him. It wasn't me going like, yeah, I'm gonna kill him. It was like, eh, he's not here. Yeah, it was time, it was gonna happen. It was.

How does Ashton feel about the Hishari popping back up? Is this a curiosity that has long sat unsated or has he pushed away the vague memory of the parents? Oh yeah. What the fuck is up with that? Yeah, we haven't actually gotten to sit down and talk about any of that.

Are you an ASMR? Were you an ASMR? What are you? I mean, technically, but, like, yes. Actually, not even technically. Yes, but it's complicated. You would, yeah. Are you cursed? I mean, no more than anyone else.

Why are you so enigmatic? I'd tell you, but... Why are you like this? Why so many zippers? Why so many zippers on your pants? Oh, from these? You would have to ask Hot Topic about that. You have three skulls. No, four, technically. Thanks for noticing.

Yeah, it's very Nomura-centric attire, I appreciate it. It's one of those things that Ashton has worked very hard not to think about. There's a lot of things that they function with by not thinking about, and it's now finally kind of been put in front of him, and it's just too much now. So yeah, it was not a thing. It was not a thing.

There was clearly never going to be a way to get there. There was no connection until very recently, when just that word that had been in the head and it may have been like misheard wasn't really was just very vague and now this thing was sitting in front of him and was like well you would be a coward and an idiot not to start figuring it out so it's just kind of the realization that just because you thought it wasn't a big deal doesn't mean it isn't so it is going to be one of those things that now that they're starting to get more comfortable with the group is probably going to come up um like just to throw it like Ashton only like really touched

another member of the group very recently for the like there had not been a lot of close physical contact until the last day was the first like yeah is that a thing oh yeah not a toucher everything hurts everything hurts

everything hurts yeah always yeah chronic pain man beating the living Everything hurts. Everything hurts. Everything hurts. Yeah. Always. Yeah. Chronic pain, man. Beating the living fuck out of things helps you ignore it. And yeah, once this starts going, it kind of lessens. But yeah, it's just,

everything's always like low-key bad. Not even that low-key. Wow. Yeah. Why they're a dick. I do feel like Ashton, we know the least about them. Not everybody at this point. But yeah, there was actual like, oh God, okay, physical contact, this is happening.

All right, okay. Yeah, so that's it. Some sad things. Yes. Attack. Kyle doesn't want me to read the name, so I'll just say Kyle. Kyle.

Wow. You can't win, Kyle. Sorry, Kyle. Such a good try. Pike has confirmed that FCG has a soul! How does this make FCG feel, particularly in regards to their perspective about life? They seemed a bit displeased with the discovery initially.

Yeah, I think, maybe not displeased. Well, yeah, displeased. Just sort of like shocked. Shocked because it's more of a responsibility. it's more of a responsibility to to be someone whose life matters because not only do you i don't know it feels almost in a way easier to just take care of other people or like think that that's your role in life is to just you know take care of others and not worry about yourself. I know certain stage mothers who might have felt that way.

And it's good to, but it's like when you have to, you're forced to be like, oh no, I got to take care of myself too. That's like way harder. Yeah, much more work. Oh my God. And knowing that fresh cut grass could die and that that would be a loss for the world, that's just more pressure.

And, yeah, it's just more pressure and more responsibility, I think. And that's a hard thing for them to swallow, especially since they can't digest things. That's fascinating. Yeah. Cool. Is it? You're analyzing me, aren't you, right now?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Always. A little armchair psychology happening. By the way, you're the last one. Oh. So brazen. What's your question, doll? Four pixel square, Marisha.

Four pixel rectangle. How does Laudna feel about her friend? Did some emojis not translate to the printer or something? You're just being hyper literal. Why do you hurt me in this way? How does Laudna feel about her friends having fought Delilah for her? Does Laudna believe Delilah is gone? And if so, how does she feel about that?

Yeah, I mean, gonna have to still unpack that one. I mean, obviously, I think Lotna has that. You know when, like, you have those nights where you get maybe a little too drunk, and then you realize that all your friends just took care of you, and then you wake up, and you're like, ah, fuck, I didn't want anybody

to have to do that. I didn't, no one wants to be anyone else's problem. So I think she's kind of going to have to wrap her head around that, that she was kind of anyone else's problem. So I think she's kind of going to have to wrap her head around that, that she was kind of everyone else's problem for a good minute.

In terms of Laudna believing that Delilah is gone and how I feel about that, I don't know. I don't know if she's gone. Yeah, is it going to mess with your powers? Is it going to mess? I don't know. You have to mess? I don't know.

You have new powers? I don't know. Some of the powers would be different now? I don't know. Maybe you're, what's the one where you make yourself super scary? What's that? Form of Dread. What if that doesn't work anymore? What if you just turn into a clown or something now? Still Form of Dread.

That's still Form of Dread. What if you just turn into Criss Angel? I feel like it's still falling in the same. I would not feel okay. Yeah, I don't know. It's a lot to unpack. I think she's going to have a lot to work with because in a lot of ways,

I, Marisha, feel like she's almost been hard rebooted, like reset back to zero. So I think it's going to be a lot of processing and she's kind of reverted a bit. Can't wait to see what happens. Yeah. It's almost like she needs a therapist. Oh!

Maybe if all of D&D is therapy. Well, that means it's now time for another pull from the Tower of Inquiry. Oh wow. Me? Again? He's chaotic. No, you do whatever you want. It's true, you're the Tower of Inquiry. You're right. Let's do this. I believe in you, Taliesin. We who are about to die salute you.

Oh boy. I'm going to stand over here. Good call, good call. I don't like this. Oh, no. Who likes this? No one likes this. The greatest trick Criss Angel ever pulled

was convincing the world he was real. How far down is the... How far down is the... Three. You can't do the top three. Oh, my God. All right. Just getting a sense of this.

Criss Angel has just been an NFT this whole time. If anyone was. Yeah. What is the opinion on Criss Angel? Is he the Dane Cook of magic? I think so. I think that's exactly correct. That's actually pretty dead on.

That's great. Look, Criss, I'm trying. No, if you're a critter. know, if you're a critter... Oh, if you're a critter, we'll have you on the show. This is really... No! Well, I'll have you on the show. You can come do an ad skit with me.

That would be great. Oh, no. Don't you fucking dare. Don't you all use two hands and shit. Steady's hands in the business. Exactly, which is why I used two hands. No, I respect it. It's a shame.

Oh, buddy. I have a natural... Ah, he did. Clean 50. 50. Dirty. Not to 50. Oh, hey, buddy.

From Sheba Face on Twitter. Sheba Face. What moment from the campaign has had the greatest impact on your character so far? Whoa. Whoa, what moment from the campaign? I never think that way, I don't know. When I think for Fresh Cut Grass,

the flapping of wings in the night, the silly light of a bird, it could have been anything. We never encountered Shithead. He's still out there. No, Shithead's still out there somewhere. Or really unpacked to that. Yeah. Fuck. Who knows what it could somewhere. Or really unpacked that. Yeah.

Fuck. Who knows what it could be. Fuck. Could be nothing. Could be everything. I mean, it's hard to top dying. That's true. That one's, you know, it's a big one.

That's a catalyst for change. Yeah. And impact, I suppose. Yeah. And impact, I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. Getting out of that bloody contract was, you know, the first free agent in many, many, many, many, many years. And everything that kind of came with it was that sudden realization

that I've been getting fucked with somehow. Yeah. Which I don't like. Yeah. Which I love. Getting fucked with? My brain is scrambled and clearly something happened. Uh-oh, people went in and made some edits.

Something's wrong in there. There's clearly been some edits and some stuff that's weird. And then apparently when it put people into my brain, it's bad. You were also convinced you didn't want to call Joanna Hexum and you were convinced that it would put you back in debt with her. I had a moment. You were also convinced you didn't want to call Joanna Hexum,

and you were convinced that it would put you back in debt with her. I had a moment, I was going to, which I was actually, I was more than willing to, that was one of the phone calls I was going to make, was the, she's going to want a favor of some kind, because she doesn't do anything for free, but it's an option, let's do it right now. Because she does not work for free. You should never work for free, but it's an option. Let's do it right now. Because she does not work for free. You should never work for free, by the way. She does no favors.

Unless it's a fulfilling project. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Then that is its own reward. It is. Indeed. But don't work for free. Oh, you're going to pick one? I'm going to pick one. While you do, I'll answer.

For me, I think, remains to be seen, but also I think getting hooked up with the old change bringer might be, it might be something. I don't know what's going to happen. I've never had a religious character. I don't know what's going to happen. That's true.

Is FCG going to find religion? I don't know. It's going to be a religion bot? It's tricky because Sam Riegel has never found religion, so I don't know how to do that. Yeah, well, you also play a therapy bot. That's true. You're not a therapist.

I also play a robot, and I'm not a robot. I mean, it's... Acting! You play a dead person, and you're alive! Okay. Acting. 25. 25.

Wow, we've... This one's precarious. Oh yeah. I am, it's, why is it wiggling? I don't like this. Oh, I'm not on frame anymore. Hi. There we go.

Hi, Nanny. I choose any two characters you've played and imagine they are stuck in an elevator together. How would that interaction play out? From Low Riley on Twitter. I'm sorry if I said that wrong. I imagine Hazel Copperpot

encountering Keyleth in an elevator and refusing to have the door open Keyleth in an elevator in refusing to have the door open while she got an entire 15 minute interview. Wanting to know all of the deep. That's slick. Well Keyleth just wants to

really be left alone kind of like Marisha. And does not want questions asked. And that would be really annoying for Keyleth and very fulfilling for Hazel. That's pretty good. I was thinking Hazel could invent Muzak and would just sit in the elevator playing really middly jazz, just very, very middle of the road.

That's pretty good. I love the canon that Copperpot invented elevator music just an awful cover of the Vox Machina theme really? you or me guys I can go I think

if not the brave I was in a elevator with Terrian Darrington. She would think he's very handsome. Maybe we're stuck here. We might as well. And it would take about five minutes before she's like, oh, my God, shut the fuck up. You're so fucking annoying. Get away from me. Yeah, it's pretty up! You're so fucking annoying, get away from me!

Yeah, that's pretty good. Oh man, this is a weird one. I actually, I have a strange belief that if we had Percy and Molly stuck in an elevator for long enough, it would be god-awful for the first 30 minutes. Percy and Molly? Percy and Molly. I think Molly would slowly be driving

Percy batshit crazy until they both got stoned together and everything would be great. They had a lot more in common than one would think. So I think that they would have weirdly weirdly got on. Does Percy as a 55, 60-year-old man,

does he... A little medical? A little bit. See how many children that is? Oh my god! He gets some of that Zephra choice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Says again, Keyleth, I gotta get through the day, please.

Yeah. So, yes! Does she deliver? By raven, by trees. Yeah, that's true. By tree! Makes Vax deliver. Get trees by trees. Oh my god. Bye, trees. Makes Vax deliver.

Get trees by trees. Oh, my God. Yeah, that's pretty good. So, yeah, that would be, I think they would really get on if they were properly stoned. That's pretty solid. Yeah. They could probably be like,

you could see Gilmore and Essek in an elevator. Oh, wow. That's a fun combo. Essek being like, I appreciate your sense of style. Or being like, well, of course,

I appreciate your appreciation. But do you even need an elevator with the way you're floating? It's quite complicated, friend. I love it. It'd be fun. That's your one-man show. I was about to say, there was a one-man show right there. I mean, half what I do on this show.

I know, it's true. Oh, God. All right, because it's super curious, I'm going to do one more. Okay, go for it. No. I'm scared. You're scared? Do it.

Okay, then that will be you saying. Only fair. But you know how this is going to happen. It's not going to happen. It is going to happen. I'm rock steady. Oh, God. Jesus.

Fine, I'm fine. Danny's not, though. No, I'm terrified. There's kind of nothing left to... Why do you treat it like this? Look, it's easy. 49. 49.

Oh, my God! The disrespect! What the shit? 49. Oh my god! The disrespect! What the shit? My life flashed before my eyes. She's crazy. Oh god. Reckless abandon. Okay. There have been some wild natural 20s throughout this campaign so far,

and almost every time this happens, I always hear, take a picture of that shit. My question is, what is one of the most memorable Nat 20s you've rolled so far this campaign? And do you have a picture of that shit? From at,

whoa. That's a good question. Whoa. Mare the Mare. Mare the Mermaid. I got it. You did it. Do you have a whole folder

on your phone that's just... Context-less. Just pictures of dice? Not a folder. And you scroll through it at night, and you're like, oh, I remember that one. Never that one, no. I have pictures and maps for that,

but no, I have all the pictures of dice. I don't do it as often as you guys, because you guys are the more climactic natural 20s every now and then. Well, I don't even take the pictures anymore, because usually I could just have Travis look over and have somebody be like, look at that shit. Yeah, what about you guys?

Natural 20, I don't remember. Do you remember that now? I don't remember myself rolling a key natural 20 this campaign. I had the one that had me pop back up. Yeah, that was pretty, that was great. From death, or yeah, from being down. That was pretty clutch.

And then I died anyway yeah sorry yeah i don't photograph my i don't photograph anything to be fair you sketched them yeah yeah dorian had his two natural twenties that got the he got the picture that was crazy that was wild that was one of the wildest like series and watching robbie be like that what oh my god just just suddenly reverting to the young kid getting the best present on their birthday. It was so adorable. Now my character, when someone else rolls a natural 20,

I get a little bonus. Yeah. Oh, nice. It's called shared exuberance. Yeah, I share in the happiness of happiness of others what happens you're happy because i think i get advantage on my next role yeah yeah that's fancy it is fancy it's so fancy of course i'll never use it because i don't like to do that yeah but it's nice to know it's there just for the comfort it's like a sandwich coaster no thank you like a wood sandwich yeah that's

true yeah just comfortable it's like a charcut. No, thank you. It's like a wood sandwich. Yeah. That's true. Just comfortable. It's like a charcuterie plate without the charcuterie. Thank you, Sheep of Face, Low Riley, and Mare the Mermaid. Remember, if you have an unapologetically juicy question for our Tower of Inquiry, you can enter it at critical.com slash tower because it is about to fall. All right, folks, we're going to take a quick break.

Don't go too far because when we come back, we're going to be playing hand-to-hand Wombat. So stick around. That's it for the podcast version of this episode of Foresighted Dive. In the video version, we wrap up each episode by playing some games, which don't always translate well to an audio-only format. Honestly, it's mostly yelling, truly. Transcription by CastingWords Critter to take the plunge. Foresighted Dive airs the first Tuesday of every month at 7pm Pacific on twitch.tv slash critical

roll and youtube.com slash critical roll with the VOD available on YouTube the very next day. And of course, each episode releases right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network one week after the initial broadcast. We'll see you again next month. Buh-bye!