#(character intro by laura bailey)

[deathturned]

general statistics.

FULL NAME Vex'ahlia Vessar. NICKNAMES Vex, Stubby (only to Vax). TITLES Lady Vex'ahlia, Baroness of the First (formerly Third) House of Whitestone and Grand Mistress of the Grey Hunt, Champion of Pelor, Coinmistress of the Tal'Dorei Council. AFFILIATION Vax'ildan, Vox Machina, Slayer's Take, Dawnfather, Chamber of Whitestone, Council of Emon.

BORN Spring 783, Byroden. GENDER Cisgender woman. PRONOUNS She/her/hers. SEXUALITY Bisexual. HEIGHT 5'9". HAIR COLOR Black. EYE COLOR Hazel. TATTOOS None (yet). SCARS Several, mostly general wear and tear from adventuring. Most notably, a brand on her upper right arm marking her as a member of the Slayer's Take, a burn scar over her heart from her death in the Sunken Tomb, burn scar along her left side from her death battling Vecna.

RACE Half-elf. RELIGION Eventual devotion to the Dawnfather.

POSITIVE TRAITS Adventurous, charismatic, compassionate, outgoing, pragmatic, self-confident. NEGATIVE TRAITS Deceitful, distrusting, obsessive, resentful, vain, vengeful. ALIGNMENT Chaotic good (formerly neutral good/chaotic neutral).

PHOBIAS None. MENTAL HEALTH Relatively healthy (situational trauma).

skills & abilities.

EDUCATION Trained by private tutors in Syngorn at her father's instruction. PROFESSION Mercenary, adventurer, Grand Mistress of the Grey Hunt, member of the Chamber of Whitestone, member of the Council of Emon. LANGUAGES Common, Undercommon, Elvish, Draconic, Abyssal, Thieves' Cant.

HALF-ELF ABILITIES Darkvision, Fey ancestry, skill versatility. FEATS Observant, sharpshooter. PROFICIENCIES Skill—Athletics, deception, insight, investigation, persuasion, survival; Expertise—Acrobatics, perception, stealth; Tools—Thieves' tools.

BLESSING OF THE DAWNFATHER Natural resistance to necrotic damage, ability to channel the light of day into her being.

ranger.

FAVORED ENEMIES Dragons, demons. NATURAL EXPLORER Forest, mountain, Underdark. SPELLCASTING Wisdom-based. FIGHTING STYLE Archery. ARCHETYPE Beast Master—Ranger's companion (Trinket, brown bear), bestial fury, exceptional training; primal fury. ABILITIES Primeval awareness, extra attack, land's stride, hide in plain sight, skirmisher's stealth. SPELLS Cure Wounds*, Hail of Thorns*, Hunter's Mark*, Speak with Animals*, Lesser Restoriation**, Locate Object**, Pass without Trace**, Protection from Poison**, Spike Growth**, Conjure Animals***, Conjure Barrage***, Lightning Arrow***, Grasping Vine****, Conjure Woodland Beings****.

rogue.

EXPERTISE Acrobatics, Perception, Stealth. ARCHETYPE Assassin—Assassinate, bonus proficiencies (disguise kit, poisoner's kit). ABILITIES Cunning action, sneak attack, Thieves' Cant, uncanny dodge, evasion.

connections.

PARENTS Elaina (mother, deceased), Syldor (father, estranged), Devana (stepmother, estranged). SIBLINGS Vax'ildan (twin brother), Velora (younger half-sister), Cassandra de Rolo (sister-in-law, main verse).

SPOUSE Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III (husband, main verse). CHILDREN Vesper Elaina (daughter), Wolfe (son), Leona (daughter), Vax'ildan (son), Gwendolyn (daughter).

Note: While I am happy to ship Vex with other characters, Percy is her main ship & her relationship with and eventual marriage to him is her default. This will be her canon unless we have discussed a different ship.

VOX MACHINA Vax'ildan, Percy de Rolo, Keyleth of the Air Ashari, Scanlan Shorthalt, Grog Strongjaw, Pike Trickfoot, Taryon Darrington.

character intro.

Like so many half-elves, Vex'ahlia has spent most of her life suffering the cool reception of a people who don't fully accept her.

Born of a human mother and an elven father—who only later in life took an interest in their existence—Vex'ahlia and her twin brother Vax'ildan quickly realized the only people they could truly rely on in this world were each other.

It was at the age of ten when the two were taken from their mother, and brought to live in Syngorn, the isolated elven city for which their father was an ambassador. He quietly took them in, but always kept an icy distance, and after too many years of disdainful looks, the pair decided to leave his indifference behind, and set out on their own.

Vax took to the cities, stealing small trinkets and learning the ways of the thief, while Vex kept to the woods. She preferred the isolation. Always the keen observer, she learned to hunt and to track, to spy, and to shoot. And through a series of fateful events, earned herself a companion in the form of a bear—her own stolen Trinket—to fight alongside her and protect her fiercely. Also, he is adorable—and gives expert massages.

[vexing-imogen]

Now that Critical Role has dropped an entire album, and not just an EP, I thought I’d do a short & sweet review. Nothing crazy, no ratings or anything, just for fun

Overall Impressions: it’s a fun, if incredibly niche, holiday album. They know their audience, and they’re playing directly to them. I feel like they struck a good balance between parodies and original compositions. I love that each cast member got their own song, even those that may not be as confident in their singing. The ballads really stand out, and end up being 3 of my top 4 songs

Track 1: Winter’s Crest Welcome (spoken word by Matt Mercer): a nice little intro/lore dump. I think it’s cool that Winter’s Crest is going international (likely thanks to Taste of Tal’Dorei lbr)

Track 2: Winter’s Crest Festival Time (Matt Mercer as Pumat Sol): when I tell you this song has been in my head for weeks. Fun and catchy and a little silly. Matt sounds great even in a goofy character voice. The bridge where he’s in (I think) four part harmony with himself? Wild

Track 3: Silent Mind (Laura Bailey as Imogen Temult): my favorite song off the album, to the surprise of absolutely no one. I knew Laura could sing, but goddamn. Chills

Track 4: Naughty & Nice (Sam Riegel as Scanlan Shorthalt): Sam has such a great voice for a jazzy, sexy song like this. And they really nailed the vibe, I knew it was a Scanlan song immediately

Track 5: Nothin’ Under the Tree (Taliesin Jaffe as Ashton Greymoore): this song rocks, pun fully intended. I never knew I needed a Christmas song I could headbang to until now. And Taliesin sounds fantastic. I fucking love it

Track 6: O Mighty Nein (Liam O’Brien as Caleb Widogast): oh, Liam, my heart. This song is so sweet and beautiful, and I was almost in tears by the end

Track 7: Twelve Days of Grogmas (Travis Willingham as Grog, feat. Ashley Johnson as Pike): it’s fun, it’s stupid, it’s catchy as hell. Another earworm that’s been in my head since it dropped. It is so perfectly Grog, and Pike’s little asides are the icing on the cake

Track 8: Cold Inside (Marisha Ray as Laudna, feat. Matt Mercer as Pate, Sam Riegel as FCG, Travis Willingham as Chetney, and Laura Bailey as Imogen): knowing that Marisha is likely the cast member that is least confident in their singing abilities, I’m so glad she did this song. Laudna is the perfect vehicle too, her character voice is more distinct than Keyleth or Beau, and she has a flair for the dramatic that Marisha can really lean into without worrying about how she sounds. For a song that people were advertising as an Imodna song, I wasn’t expecting it to be so funny. I think my favorite bit was the deadpan “I think that’s just arson, Chetney”. And then Imogen coming in at the end, you can just hear the eye roll and the fond smile

Track 9: Winter Anymore (Ashley Johnson as Yasha Nydoorin): this song is so achingly tender and yearning. Ashley has such a gorgeous voice, I’m in awe. I was initially unsure if she was singing as Yasha or Pike, but I love that the lyrics could apply to both. I love that despite the overall sadness of the song, there’s still an air of hope

Track 10: Deck the Bear (Liam O’Brien as Vax’ildan and Laura Bailey as Vex’ahlia, feat. the rest of the cast as Vox Machina and Matt Mercer as Trinket): another silly, goofy one, though admittedly this one is my least favorite from the album. I do like the ensemble song, and Matt’s bear noises are incredible as always (will he ever feature in a song not in a character voice? spoiler alert: yes lol)

Track 11: It’s Critmas (Critical Role cast as themselves): yet another earworm. This was tied with Silent Mind for my favorite song from the EP, and it’s still definitively in the top 4. Again, I love the ensemble, and everyone getting their moment. It’s catchy, it’s fun. It’s Critmas

[mamthew]

I replayed Tales of Graces F. The main game took 53 hours and the post-game Lineages and Legacies story took another 13.

Graces is a weird beast. It first released on the wii in 2009, but we didn't get it stateside until Graces F, the PS3 remaster with a bonus post-game story, 3 years later in 2012. There's broadly two main Tales dev teams with fairly different styles and design philosophies, Team Symphonia and Team Destiny, and this was the first of Team Destiny's games to actually make it stateside since their first game, Tales of Destiny, in 1997. This means that when I first played this game, I was pretty taken aback both by how much better the combat flowed and how much worse the story and characters were than in other Tales games I'd played. Though it took a while for me to realize that the combat flowed better, as the game starts with a 5-hour intro section where the combat is stripped down to almost nothing as an excuse for a tutorial.

The game's story is somehow both meandering and too-focused. When protagonist Asbel was ten, he met two children who changed his life. One was Sophie, a mysterious girl with amnesia and magic powers, and the other was Richard, the prince of the neighboring kingdom. During this meeting, Sophie died horribly, Asbel's brother Hubert was sold to the lord of a faraway nation, and Asbel ultimately ran away to join the knights. Seven years later, Sophie mysteriously returns from the dead, Hubert comes home and exiles Asbel from their hometown, and Asbel aligns himself with Prince Richard, who quickly turns out to be evil. As Asbel, Sophie, and other party members wander from country to country, they keep seeing more proof that Richard is not only evil but will soon destroy the planet if left unchecked, but Asbel is so convinced that their brief friendship from when they were both children was so real that he can't bring himself to oppose him. Rinse and repeat for hours of Asbel and Sophie lamenting "but Richard's our friend!" while Richard demolishes countries and finally tries to drain the planet itself of all life.

It's pretty bad, and made worse by how one-note the characters are and, most frustratingly, the fact that Asbel is proven right in the end. The game isn't well-written generally. It has a bad habit of giving characters thought bubbles with internal dialogue that make already telegraphed emotions way too plain, as though the writers didn't trust the audience to understand that a character bowing his head with tears in his eyes is probably sad. Despite all that, though, the skits are still mostly fun. The characters may all be pretty flat, but they bounce well off each other, and their performances are mostly good, sometimes great. Jamison Price as Malik, Cassandra Lee Morris as Sophie, and Laura Bailey as Cheria are clearly the best, though everyone besides Asbel and Richard do well, and for those two I think it has a lot more to do with voice direction than the actors themselves.

Ideologically, Graces is kind of a mess. All the politics of the game are really just different venues for Asbel to be sad about Richard in, rather than actual political systems, but it's still distressing that Richard is objectively the right choice to be king of his country, even after he tried to destroy all life on earth. The game also goes to great lengths to convince us that Asbel and Hubert's physically abusive father who sold one of his sons to an emotionally abusive father on the other side of the world was a paragon of virtue, trying to do the right thing by children who simply weren't mature enough to understand, yet. Malik's story is that of an exiled revolutionary returning to his homeland still ruled by a fascist dictator and realizing he should have stayed and become a reformist in the fascist government, then doing just that, working with the dictator to bring central heating to the impoverished masses and at one point sentencing another revolutionary to exile for refusing to work within the system. It's generally all pretty yikes, but feels mostly incidental, less like the writers are actually saying anything about their worldview and more like they were scrambling to find ways to add flavor to their story about some kids who really don't want to fight their shitty friend.

Despite all the agonizing over not getting a Tales release at the time, I'm glad we got Graces F and not the original wii release. While it looks kinda rough for a PS3 game, the HD does help the visuals a lot. Also, the Lineages and Legacies story does a lot to make the characters more likable and interesting than in the main game. It feels like the writers were excited to do things with the characters again, and made them all more fun and playful while also giving them added depth. Asbel makes his only interesting decision of the main story about five minutes before the end of the game, so it's genuinely engaging to see him and his friends grappling with the fallout from that decision. It makes all of them much more rounded than they ever were in the main story and I'm kinda sad that it's only about 15% of the experience.

Where Graces shines, though, is its combat. It is still, over a decade later, the best combat system in the entire series, fast-paced and rewarding split-second decision-making while always making the player feel strong with flashy standard moves and rapid-fire super moves. I used Hubert when I played the game twice back in 2012, and every time I picked him up this playthrough, it was like I hadn't skipped a beat. I immediately remembered his full moveset and what to use in what situations, is how much the combat sets into your bones. This time, I used Asbel, and while I think Hubert is more fun, Asbel's more balanced style was definitely useful in a lot more situations.

Team Destiny's games don't use TP for their moves like Team Symphonia's do, making their system feel more like fighting game combos rather than a game of resource management. There's downsides to this style, of course. If using moves doesn't really have long-term drawbacks then move choices can feel more arbitrary. But in the moment it feels like flying. Add to that a dodge mechanic that's more user-friendly, immediate, and rewarding than dodging in any other Tales game, and a system that lets you pull off huge mystic artes just from racking up enough combo, and the bad story really doesn't hinder the moment-to-moment enjoyment of the game all that much. Hubert's one of my favorite Tales characters and it's not because he's complex or has a rewarding story arc. It's because he has a double-bladed sword that can fold into a bow or break into two swords, each of which folds into a handgun, and sometimes he makes it rain arrows, building up 50 combo before he shoots lasers out of his hands. Sometimes that's enough.

[mirandamckenni1]

Liked on YouTube: I cosplayed all the Critical Role Campaign 3 ladies || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZZt9iSevKU || Kobold Press books make great holiday gifts for your D&D party! Order now to get 'em in time: http://koboldpress.com ► Want the 3D print file for Fearne's horns? Buy Jesse a coffee & mention the horns! https://ift.tt/0cElULa I'm back on my #CriticalRole bullshit! 😅 In today's video, I cosplay (well, cosplay test) the three new female Critical Role D&D characters: Imogen Temult, Laura Bailey's human sorcerer; Laudna, Marisha Ray's Hollow One warlock/sorcerer; and Fearne, Ashley Johnson's faun druid (yes, her character from Exandria Unlimited!) From makeup to wigs to accessories, I want to see which new character really calls to me. What do you think, Critters — who's your favorite? ► INDEX 0:00 Intro 1:23 Imogen 7:17 Sponsored by Kobold Press! 8:50 Laudna 15:23 Fearne 22:00 Outro Music from Epidemic Sound Need music for your videos or streams? Here's my referral link: https://ift.tt/lkLR6C7 ► FIND ME ONLINE: http://ginnydi.com https://ift.tt/2ESIvQX https://ift.tt/HCtzbnV https://ift.tt/iPwUrtH http://twitter.com/itsginnydi

[thedragonagelesbian]

augh the anguish of an east coast critter...........

[fairytales-magic]

So I finally watched ep 1 of Critical Role! I was wondering what got you into it and how long you’ve been a fan? Have you been watching it from the beginning or did you start it later on?

Yay!!!! Ah my gosh i’m so happy!!!!🎉🎉🎉🎉 Welcome to the nerdy fandom! ;D  Omg girl, ok full discloser beforehand, i’d been making this MASSIVE list of CR stuff for you (like a guide to watching it; where to find stuff, links to videos, etc) but then super recently i saw @loveisalwayswise had already done that so i was just gonna link and give a really nerdy intro for the show in general. I swear i didn’t forget to respond! ;P  If you still want to see her Tumblr post A Guide to Critical Role there you go (it’s so very in-depth and it’ll really helps you navigate around things, find stuff you might be interested in, helpful tips on where to start, highly recommend).   

So i started watching CR roughly a year or so ago. Tumblr was the one who introduced me, cause before then I didn’t know virtually anything about it, other than it was a D&D livestream that had the most talented artists i’ve ever come across making drop-dead stunning fan art that kept popping up on my dash (the first might have been one of Jester or Caleb and it was stunning). 

I did a little googling to learn more, and actually it was after the responses from this post i made that got me to finally dig deeper. My friend who i found out also loves Critical Role told me where i could watch it all on YouTube, and low n behold i already knew basically everyone from it already?! 

Matt Mercer was my man Levi Ackerman/Joker/Silver Fullbuster/etc. Travis Willingham aka Thor in every animated Marvel show/Mori-Senpai/Roy-freaking-Mustang. Laura Bailey the queen who’s Lust/Kanako Kasugazaki/Tohru Honda. Sam Riegel voice actor from my childhood (i grew up on TMNT so it blew my mind)!!! 

I’ll stop now but the list just goes on for all of them. :P

It was crazy! And it wasn’t just them that made it worth staying. The way Matt spins his descriptions, paints such a vivid picture in your mind (and actually ALL OF THEM do it) it’s almost spellbinding. You just sit there wanting to hear more, to see it all. He puts so much hard work and love into it every week and it really shows. The cast is enthralled every time he describes someplace/thing and so is the audience. 

So needless to say i was hooked. ;D

I think i started somewhere early on in Campaign 2 (like 5th ep in?), but also went backwards to check out Campaign 1, since that’s where the majority of art i’d seen was derived. And i’m STILL making my way through C1 (there’s A LOT of episodes holy cannoli) while also being up to date watching C2. The Briarwood arc from C1 is by far and wide my favorite arc and one of the first i watched from start to finish. I’d 1000% recommend there as a starting point. Its the first time they really delve deep into one of the characters backstory and overall it’s just so intense and fantastic you’ll want to stay even tho the video quality is in it’s meh stage, cause they were still new to streaming live (i can set you up with links for that too). 

And i’ve even started playing D&D myself with some friends! I’ve only done a couple sessions but it’s so much fun i have a blast each time we get together (and creating a character i get to embody–where i choose their life, their background, how that background effects their personality and how they interact with others, that you can’t be careless cause each choice has consequences makes it so much more intense). 

It’s become the highlight of my week (Is it Thursday yet?!?!) and idk just always manages to lift my spirits no matter what. :)

Lemme know if you have more questions?!?

(also i totally have CR fan art saved as my computer background, see below ;D)

[loquaciousquark]

4-Sided Dive Highlights - Critical Role C3 up to E40 (Dec. 7, 2022)

It's Christmas! We'll pretend this isn't three weeks late as we join Liam, Laura, Matt, and Taliesin. Liam wins host with a 6 and Matt nearly topples the Jenga tower cheering. The host's script instructs him to intro in song ("Motherfucker!") and to The Twelve Days of Christmas we get "On tonight's 4-Sided Dive/We will have for you/A silly gift exchange game, Mercer's Nein Mighty's reunited, Taliesin played as Kingsley, Orym totally died, and Laura Bailey sundered a tree. Let's fucking do a show!"

What the Happy Holidays Fuck is Up With That? Everyone is sad Eshteross is dead. Matt never killed Allura or Shaun or Essek, so this took the players by surprise. Matt says it was possible in any campaign (Gilmore & Allura did almost die), but it still sucked for him to do. There's been a lot of death for this party in the two-three months they've been together.

Laura says it felt like Otohan was toying with them; the only reason they're not all dead is that she wanted them to live. Matt says it was meant to be a deadly encounter but she was defeatable. Now they have something to work for.

Everyone wants to know where Imogen's mom is. The moon? Yios? Is the city on the moon old or did Otohan set up a popup town?

The were clan was very cool and they were all very attractive. They joke about derailing the campaign to set up a dating sim in the Gorgynei and leaving the moon stuff to Vox Machina.

Matt was so stressed going into the VM stuff, which Liam brings up to discuss as he wasn't on the last episode. "All I could think of leading up to us recording that next session was going, 'Oh shit! I have to do multiple characters of your characters in front of you to each other! Great.'" Everyone agrees that Matt did an awesome job representing their characters. There are a lot of side conversations the players didn't get to see; Matt thinks everyone was communicating with each other on the back end (especially with Percy) while the ritual was going on.

After a dig from Taliesin, Matt reveals that the old Talks faux-pas where some incredibly expensive scotch was mixed with Coke was not actually his doing; it was mixed for him. Sure, Matt. Sure.

Taliesin and Matt discussed Whitestone's advancement and development over the years, since it's a bunch of very expensive resources in a very tiny space. Taliesin tells us that the acid pit has become a low yield battery electrifying street lights at night in the city. "What Lex Luthor could have been with better friends."

Laura protests that she knows nothing about the Ruidus flares and is met with general skepticism. Matt tells us the flares have happened for years with no pattern; this isn't a new thing. However, the recurrences are getting more frequent.

What's causing the flares, the gods trying to break free? Otohan? Laura doesn't think Otohan is on the moon. Laura posits that the city is all the gods' original worshipers; when the gods were bound there, all their worshipers & belief were transported there and bound with them, since that's what gives the gods power. Laura realizes belatedly (and very dramatically) that if this were true, the BH's efforts to figure out what's going on are actually weakening the barriers to belief and helping them be released. Liam has been wondering this for a while, apparently--what if Otohan is the hero and BH are accidentally releasing these evil gods? Horror upon horrors! Matt's poker face reveals nothing, argh.

The Mighty Nein reunited! Everyone loves Kingsley's vibe. Laura regrets not at least calling Caduceus for help. Laura improvs calling him in the moment, and oh my gosh I've missed Cad's voice so much. "Caduceus, Uk'otoa's free and we need your help! Can you come, please? Because you're a healer, and I'm still a healer, but you're better." "Hey. Oh wow! Yeah. Look, I'm kinda stuck here, working on a spell and my house that needs to be fixed. I wish I could help." Taliesin tells us he's in the middle of resetting the Blooming Grove by casting Temple of the Gods, which must be cast in the same place every day for a year. This is partly why Tal played Kingsley; he couldn't justify Caduceus leaving for this, and Kingsley had imprinted hard on the pirate life and would be more fun anyway.

They all loved the incredible fight and AMAZING mini. The tactics were super fun and they loved the opportunitis to experiment. Matt thanks Tyler Walpole who designed the mini and Ian of Iron Tusk who did the painting.

Matt talks about how they left many long term threads open at the end of C2 "like Law & Order for twenty years." He was glad for the opportunity to come back and close this one.

Uk'otoa is not a god, he's the creation of the god the Cloaked Serpent. He's just very powerful, and when the gods were sealed beyond the Divine Gate, he took his old god's dominion in the Lucidian Ocean by the Menagerie Coast for his own. He converted some of the Ki'Nau people there to his worship which gave him power. It wouldn't have been world-ending if they'd failed to seal him, but it would have changed a large chunk of the navigable waters in that area.

The Tower of Inquiry! It visibly wobbles multiple times, but Laura manages to get the block pulled. What would your characters' custom cocktails be? Imogen: a dark and stormy with the beer head being lavender-infused. Orym: an Aviation (which Marisha drinks a lot and Liam dislikes), which apparently tastes like potpourri, yuck. Ashton: a drink Taliesin can't remember the name of which involves pouring lots of clear liquors together with fruit infusions, which must be drunk quickly to avoid it seeping through the paper cup. Matt for Weva: Corpse Reviver (gin, Lillet blanc, orange liqueur and fresh lemon juice).

Gasp, an abuse of power: Liam forces Laura to go pull from the Tower again immediately, which she does successfully despite great sturm und drang. #10: what would your characters' phone cases be? Orym: a blue gem case. Ashton: duct tape over a cracked screen. Imogen: full horse girl with a custom case from a photo of Flora. Eshteross: a Blackberry with a silver stylus, ha!

The Deep Dive! Orym is just trying to do right by his group, lots of push ups and egg whites. He's feeling very overwhelmed all the time, but he tries to focus on the job at hand. There's no way forward without the group, and he's wondering if the current crazy conversations are what Keyleth and Percy used to experience. His death was a moment of certainty in his abject failure to everyone he loved, but he's dutiful and wants to serve, so he keeps his panic quietly to himself. :(

Imogen is also overwhelmed at the minute with the roller coaster of emotion. Her mom's alive but refuses to see her; they don't know what's happening with the moon. Liam marvels at the dichotomy of seeing this path of power before her that she seems clearly fated to master, and yet fearing becoming a villain if she leans into it too much.

Orym is flat-out the reason that Ashton joined the group because of his connection with "Ashari," similar to the "Hishari" keyword connecting Ashton to his past. The moment everyone went down in the Otohan fight was the moment Ashton realized he was genuinely invested and was going to have to put in an effort to build these relationships. Liam loves Ashton's reaching out to people and feels Orym and Ashton have started becoming quietly supportive.

Matt imagined the Claret Orders scattering throughout the world to help those who were cursed. The Gorgynei were a splinter group focused specifically on lycanthropes, and Matt created them in response to Chetney. Matt LOVES taking elements from the characters' narratives (some backstories, some future goals) and getting to tease and reveal it in game. Travis especially "lights up like a lighthouse" when he realizes they're getting into character material. Matt also says definitively that there are no wereherbivores. Alas.

Orym doesn't really blame himself for having his mind read to reveal Eshteross's location; he's a swordsman with no magical defenses. Matt knows a ton about Eshteross's backstory and hopes to get to discuss it soon.

Imogen doesn't think she created her own dreams, even though she can control aspects of them now.

Character block break!

Ashton's habitually being left behind causes low expectations of other people. "People come. People go. People die. People don't. It's kind of just how it goes. It's a very low-impact reality." All his intimate relationships thus far have been built on that, with knowing everyone loved and cared for each other while still maintaining a safe distance.

Yios, the City of Flowing Light! It's illustrious and in the middle of the lake and is rivaled only by Ank'harel in its places of learning. It's a mostly orc/half-orc society.

Orym felt awful about being chosen over Laudna; it echoed everything in his past where the important people were gone and he was still there.

Imogen/Laura "sobbed every single day" Laudna was dead.

Ashton's feelings about his own death are very different to Laudna's resurrection. He deserved what happened to him; she didn't.

Matt considered bringing in Essek to fight alongside the M9 but didn't want to overshadow the main characters; plus, he's still in hiding from nearly being executed. It would have had to be seriously dangerous for him to come out. Matt was glad for the brief cameo at the end.

The Tower of Inquiry, Reprise! Laura pulls a third block even faster than the last two, but the tower wobbles dangerously. What would your characters hoard as dragons? Ashton: things that are not useful: string, packaging from iPhones. Caleb: a pile of flame-retardant books. Orym: a pile of pies; Vax: a horde of days in the sun, ouch. Percy: a mine of money and magical rocks and oh, right. Jester: sweets. Imogen: a field of flowers.

The Tower of Inquiry, Matt Edition: he baaaarely manages to pull one successfully, but does. Laura: "Let me propose something to you. If we stop pulling from the tower now, then whoever does 4-Sided Dive next is going to have to suffer the consequences of our actions." Liam: "You're asking me to band together with you and turn on them. I'll take it into consideration."

Is it hard to keep character backstories from each other? Liam prefers delighting/disappointing people at the table, so it's not hard for him. Taliesin likes keeping it secret as well, but did talk with Travis about blood hunters. He often tells secrets to Dani because she likes knowing secrets, ha! Laura has a tough time not discussing it with people.

Liam is gone to the bathroom and orders Laura to pull another block while he's gone. However, mutiny from the inside reveals no block pulled and a charade played by all remaining actors instead. Except--a second twist! Liam doesn't actually go to the bathroom, he goes to play a wolf puppet with glasses whose mouth hardly ever moves (I get the impression Liam is having to work very hard to stay up with the teleprompter). Wolfie tells us the story of Winter's Crest with more racing hot rods and Errevon the Rimelord vs. Santa than I think I remember from C1.

Post-Break Shenanigans! A gift-exchange game based on die rolls, apparently a combination of White Elephant and Dirty Santa, along with questions scattered about throughout.

Weva was created as an interesting mirror to a society that can speak with the dead and bring the dead back to life. She reminds Matt of the theater goth girls he knew in high school that used to ask him if he knew about rotten.com.

Orym has gotten glimpses of Percy & Vex in the past, and it was cool for him to be in the company of greatness.

Ashton is growing more comfortable with physical contact from the BHs the more he gets to know the BHs. Strangers cause worse pain.

Matt was very excited to get to play the Uk'otoa oneshot. The Earthquake spell at the temple really shook up his plans, ha ha ha.

For Laura, killing Delilah twice was beautiful. She was terrified to fight her at that level.

Laura keeps rolling the "steal a present" number and holds the entire stack in her arms like a child. It's hilarious.

Jester loves living at sea; all she wanted when she left home was to have an adventure, and this is a chance for her to get to destroy and create. She thinks she and the Traveler have become really good friends but she understands him better now; it's like knowing your parents after you've grown up, where you understand better where they've come from.

For Laura, seeing Vex in all her glory was fabulous. She thinks Matt well understood Vex's motivations and her greed/generosity.

Liam felt so low with Orym's death. "It was not the way I would have ever wanted his story to end." Seeing Will was beautiful.

Caleb went to the Soltryce Academy because it's better to keep your enemies close, and also Beau made him.

Final gift tally:

Taliesin: looseleaf tea, a ball of Band-Aids (ew!), a laser pen, and deer knuckle bones (fitting)

Matt: an Oculus Quest 2 (!) and staffer Jerry's stapler

Laura: a small digital camera that insta-prints photos, A BAG OF SAM'S BABY TEETH GOD WHY

Liam: a ream of printer paper, the original shellacked Tower of Inquiry (ha!), candles from Cantrip Candles, and duct tape & gaffer tape

(It should also be noted that I was tracking these in real time as they switched and stole from each other, and at one point Laura gave Liam the shellacked tower in exchange for another gift--only at that point the tower was actually TALIESIN'S and not hers to give, so clearly the whole thing is moot and ought to be redone)

Liam makes Laura draw one last time from the Tower due to her earlier truthlessness, hahaha. No topple, though this sucker is now precarious. Theme songs for characters? Imogen: Barracuda by Heart. Orym: Queen. Ashton: War Baby.

We close on a gripping monologue about the tragic ephemeral joy experienced by seasonal decorations from a set Santa statue in a pilgrim hat. Who's writing these??

And that's it! Merry Christmas, and is it Thursday yet?

[your-turn-to-role]

every cr fan's dash this weekend like,

vox machina gifs. people who watched c1 excited about the animated series. people who didn't watch c1 excited about the animated series. random twitch leak discourse. people calling vax a disaster bi. people arguing this is extremely competent bi, actually. people calling percy an anime boy. no one disagrees with that bc, yeah, just... yeah. people pointing out both intros now involve liam's character watching their childhood home go up in flames. campaign 3 in 11 days!! laura bailey is here. i have watched the new tlovm intro 40 times and none of them have had the original music!

[bixbiboom]

[ID: A tweet from Laura Bailey @.LauraBaileyVO which reads: “7 days until these heroes ride again. #TheLegendofVoxMachina” There’s a picture attached of the cast during their first full cosplay intro shoot. Everyone is dressed in full cosplay as their character plus Matt as the storyteller, and each person is posed goofily with a silly expression. /end ID]

[sun-critrole]

Rewatching the beginning of C2 (I'm pining) and it's so funny to me that Liam O'Brien spent the whole campaign insisting that Laura Bailey thrust being smelly and dirty onto his character because the first word out of his mouth in character intros are "I'm pretty filthy"

[biofthestorm]

A really great spoilercast that addresses a lot of the criticism leveled at the creators. The host also fosters a good conversation and doesnt butt in to make them feel defensive or lead to it being awkward. Worth the watch (even if on x2). Time codes below for those in a hurry. Might be off by 1 sec.

Please give OG podcast a like if you enjoyed it. 

00:00 - Intros

01:00 - Dr Uckmann “Controversy”

01:35 Ads for KF

03:00 – “Future Days” as the connective tissue of the game / “One Night Live”

06:34 – When did you know you’d come back to TLoU?

09:00 - Was there hesitation coming back? (Ashley)

11:06 - Was there hesitation coming back? (Troy)

13:47 – Is Joel’s character on a pedestal from Part 1? (Neil)

15:16 - Joel in Part 2 vs Part 1  and criticism from audience about Joel (Neil)

16:20 – Criticism of Joel (Troy)

18:48 – Respecting the character, “deserving” death in the world of TLoU (Neil)

19:24 – Ellie as Protagonist and Ashley as Lead in Part 2 (Ashley)

21:58 – Preparing for The Scene (Troy) (Must Watch)

24:30 - (Neil Interlude) “Nobody loves this character more than me…except maybe Troy Baker”

24:46 - Preparing for The Scene (Troy) Continued (Must Watch)

25:38 – Directing and Prepping The Scene, Conversations with troy and Joel’s thought process (Neil)

28:18 – There is only so much prep. Caring deeply about and as the characters (Ashley)

30:22 – Evoking dread/anger and being uncomfortable (Neil)

31:38 – Leaks and Death in context (Neil)

32:09 – Watching the Leaks in Real Time and the lack of context (Neil)

38:02 – Was the game a hard sell for PlayStation? (Neil)

39:53 – What Is the Message of Part 2 for you? (Greg)

40:32 – What Is the Message of Part 2 for you? (Ashley)

42:38 – What is the Message of Part 2 for you? Obsession, Sins of The Father, in conversation and a continuation of Part 1 (Troy)

46:13 - What Is the Message of Part 2 for you? In conversation with Part 1, Love best and worst aspects, human decisions and ego (Neil)

47:29 – Multiple Interpretations (Greg)

48:49 – Listener Q: Symbolism of the moths (Neil)

50:15 – Symbolism of Light and Dark…and why is Abby so jacked??? (Greg)

51:48 – Answer (Neil)

52:21 - Abby’s life purpose was not to kill Joel (Neil)

52:55 – Joel and Abby’s arcs are similar and about redemption. (Neil)

53:22 – Doing the Flashbacks- non linearly especially the Museum (Troy)

55:49 - Doing the Flashbacks – nostalgia and sadness (Ashley)

57:29 Bye Troy

58:15 - Recording capsule scene in the museum/ father daughter moments(Neil and Ashley)

1:01:20 - How long have Joel and Ellie not spoken to each other (Hospital to Barn scene)

1:03:50 – Porch Scene (no hug) (Neil)

1:05:30 – Listen Q – Is Ellie returning to Jackson? (Greg)

1:06:57 – Is Ellie returning to Jackson? (Ashley)

1:07:30 – Is Ellie returning to Jackson?(Neil)

1:08:25 - Is Ellie returning to Jackson? (Ashley continued)

1:09:10 - Is Ellie returning to Jackson? (Greg continued)

1:10:55 – “Ellie’s obsession with Abby is like a drug addict” and letting go of the addiction(Neil) (Must Watch)

1:11:37 – Interpretation of Ending as a Revenge Story Ellie and Abby’s actions (Ashley)

1:13:03 - Interpretation of Ending as a Revenge Story Ellie and Abby’s actions (Neil)

1:13:45 - There is no Right answer. Criticism of the ending (Neil)

1:14:15 Listener Q: What was the decision around the ending of the game? (Revenge is hollow?)

1:17:00 – Answer: Abby v Ellie  (Neil) (Must Watch)

1:18:10 Listener Q: Too dark? Seeing the best and worst in humanity (Neil)

1:20:01 - Why make us play as Abby? (Greg)

1:20:40 – Answer (Neil)

1:21:45 – Characters making the choices that the player doesn’t want them to make (Greg)

1:23:08 – Ellie is trying to be Joel …and she isn’t. Being inside Ellies head (game play v cut scene). Alignment of player and character (Neil)

1:24:40 – Playing Ellie – her choices and motivation as an actor. PTSD (Ashley)

1:26:50 – Joel, Ellie and Abby’s arcs parallel- “Quieting inner demons and trauma ” (Neil)

1:27:30 – Abby saves Ellie. “There is no relief” (Ashley)

1:30:11 – Where did the character of Abby come from? (Neil)

1:31:56 – How Laura Bailey came to be Abby. (Neil)

1:35:17 – Listener Q: Why was there such an effort not to talk about Abby early in reviews/spoilercasts? Was not done by or for PR(Neil)

1:38:50 - Listener Q Ben: Character of Lev and included a trans character? Addressing criticism and use of dead name (Neil)

1:42:48 Listener Q : Favourite moment to shoot? Grow House with Dina and porch scene with Joel (Ashley). Shannon Woodward shout out

1:44:11 – Don’t forget Neil’s “sex scene” (trolls)

1:44:20 Listener Q : Favourite moment to shoot? Porch scene with Joel (Neil)

1:45:15 Listener Q : Favourite moment to shoot? Ellie and Tommy scene after Joel’s death (Ashley continued) Jeffery Pierce shout out

1:45:38 Tommy and Ellie’s final scene and mirroring (Neil)

1:47:15 – Listener Q : “Take On Me” moment. Why that song. Making amazing moments optional (Neil)

1:49:14 – RETURN OF THE VITA

1:49:58 – Listener Q : “Future Days” release date vs outbreak?

1:50:40 – Listener Q : What does new menu screen mean after finishing the game?

1:51:41 – Listener Q: Are there Plans for DLC?

1:52:30 – Listener Q : Anna/Abby/Pregnant women comic book mix-up

1:53:20 – Listener Q : Was Ellie secretly Joel’s hairdresser?

1:54:10- Steimer Q : Why does Owen not notice Abby’s noose injury?

1:55:35 – Laura Bailey is awesome and deserves some good vibes sent her way

1:56:13 – Thanks to Neil and Ashley.

[sparrowsabre7]

I have to say, the Avengers game's story has really impressed me. The plot itself is so-so and unfortunately bears the baggage of telling an Avengers Disassembled story not one year after Endgame (it even features the same five year time jump) but to counter this it has Ms. Marvel front an centre.

Kamala Khan has been a breakout character in the comics for some time now, but is still not particularly well known by the public at large. This enables Crystal Dynamics to craft an origin story that is also an Avengers story, told from the perspective of a fan.

It works neatly within the narrative and I confess to getting the same thrill seeing Thor appear onscreen as Kamala did. We share these moments with her and feel her losses and triumphs. It's also easier to build a story on her when there is much less weight of expectation of what Kamala is "supposed" to be like compared with the other Avengers (remember the outcry when they didn't look exactly like the MCU versions?).

That being said, before I heap more praise, I do find it a bit strange that although we see the origin incident that causes Kamala to gain powers and her transition from keyboard warrior to super hero, we never actually see her discover her powers and the transition is a little jarring. One moment she's fleeing the events of A-day and the next she's bounding over rooftops. Considering the relatively slow burn intro it may have been cut for time, but it still feels a bit off.

To delve in then, the voice work surprised me. All the trailers and the beta showed off a fairly generic reading of the 5 veteran Avengers, most noticeably Nolan North who at points seemed to be channeling his Deadpool by way of Nathan Drake for Tony Stark, and Travis Willingham, despite being an old hand at Thor seemed worryingly hammy. In the game proper however, each actor is surprisingly nuanced, particularly Sandra Saad who bears the brunt of the narrative on her shoulders as Ms Marvel. She sells every moment with Kamala and brings earnestness to the character that helps temper the relatively dark setting the game has gone with. However, it was Troy Baker who surprised me most with a performance that really captures the withdrawn and introverted energy of Bruce Banner in a way I didn't really expect to see in a video game. So often he is just there to talk on Hulk's behalf or play a generic scientist, so it was actually quite disarming to essentially see him as Kamala's mentor. Nolan North also brought a much more tortured energy to Tony than the previews would have had you believe, he quips a lot, sure, but when he speaks with sincerity, you feel it. Travis Willingham won me over in his first scene, balancing the Shakespearean classic Thor with some Ragnarok attitude thrown in there. Laura Bailey remains excellent in everything so little surprise there.

[ofsvnlightt]

Was that [AMANDA ARCURI]? Oh no no, that was just [JESTER LAVORRE], a [CANON CHARACTER] from [CRITICAL ROLE]. They are [UNKNOWN/ LOOKS TWENTY FOUR] years old and [ARE] aware that they are not actually from Washington DC. Too bad they can’t stray from this city for long. 

** this is an updated intro bc the one i did when i first brought her in was....bad. i didn’t know her very well yet,  i had pretty much just started watching campaign 2 and brought her in with memories only up through episode 49 or something. now she’s fully aware!

because of the amount of content, this is going to be a looong intro. (i’m actually sorry for how long this is..i think it’s longer than vex’s)

all hidden washington info will be towards the bottom if you don’t want to read everything.

background: • jester is from a d&d stream called critical role (thursdays 7pm pst on twitch and youtube!) • she’s played by laura bailey (like vex!) • she has a (i think?) slavic accent just search jester critical role and you can find a clip of laura/jester talking (or here’s on of my favorite videos) • she is a blue tiefling! though with the magic of the city, the only things that stayed are her fangs and blue hair. - • she grew up in nicodranas in the lavish chateau, a very fancy inn where her mother is a performer known as the ruby of the sea, and works as a courtesan. • she stayed in her room most of her childhood, thus growing up pretty sheltered due to her mother’s job • she worships a deity called the traveler. he's not actually a god or deity..but that's a long story. (see: ep 108) also [c1 spoiler] his name is artagan and he’s fey. he was able to leave the fey realm and come to the material plane because vox machina created a gateway for him. he met them in either ep 58 or 59 of c1 but i think made the deal later in the campaign. • after a prank gone wrong, jester had to flee nicodranas. she met a half orc (fjord) from port demali, which is also along the menagerie coast, and later human monk (beau) on the amber crossroads and ventured to trostenwald together where they met a few more strangers who together they eventually became the mighty nein • the m9 consists of 7 people her, a cleric -- abilities beauregard, a human monk fjord, a half orc warlock-paladin  caleb, a human wizard nott veth, a goblin halfling rogue mollymauk, a tiefling blood hunter yasha, an asimar barbarian  and caduceus, a firbolg cleric - this is straying from her backstory a little, but here are a few important points that will explain all the strikethroughs above SPOILERS FOR CAMPAIGN 2 (eps 91-93, 26, 28, 111) • when the nein first met, veth was a goblin who went by nott the brave. during a goblin attack in her (halfling) village, she killed some important goblin’s spouse and a hag came in and drowned and cursed her, changing her into a goblin. after attempting a transmogrification spell and it not working, nott shares some of her backstory and beau realizes the hag is the same one that her father talked to. going back to her home of kamaordah to get more information, the nein find out where the hag lives and pay her a visit. after an insane play by jester, the curse is broken and caleb tries the spell again later in nicodranas. this time it works and nott becomes her true sellf, veth brenatto, a halfling. • molly was an original member of the mighty nein. after jester, fjord and yasha were taken one night, the remaining members tracked down who took them, a group called the iron shepherds. cutting them off on their way back to their base, molly, beau, caleb, nott, and a temporary ally keg, battle with them. though aware of his low hp, molly activates his scimitars, getting a hit or two in before going unconscious. the leader of the iron shepherds, lorenzo, gets the final blow on molly, stabbing him through the chest, thus killing him.  • a day or two later, heading through the forest, the small group come upon the blooming grove. there, they meet caduceus clay, who joins them in saving jester, fjord, and yasha from the iron shepherds. • much later, the nein find out about something called the “eyes of nine”/somnovem/nonagon, and travel along the glory run road once again, they make a stop at molly’s grave, planning to speak with dead and see if he knew anything about it because he had nine eye tattoos on his body. when they arrive, his grave has been messed with and his body gone. jester scries on him, seeing him in furs and a snowy environment. they later find out this is lucien, molly’s “original” self. he is nothing like molly at all and is more focused on trying to release the somnovem - a portion of aeor, an ancient city - gone mad and floating in the astral sea. at this point in the campaign (ep 130), lucien is still a threat and the nein are still pursuing him, trying to stop him from bringing the city to the material plane. - -  i literally have no idea how to condense 130 episodes of content (~4hrs per ep) to give you a good overarching tldr of jester’s time with the nein..and so to not make this post a mile long, i’m actually going to put it in a second post (which really defeats the whole point of doing this new intro post but whatevs) in washington:

how long has your character been here? 5-6 months now!

what is your character's job? unemployed/freelance artist

where has your character been pulled from in their fandom? the most recent episode, 130!! (instead of 126)

has any magic affected your character? Nope!

any other information: here’s a synopsis of what happened in episode 130 and where i’m taking jester from as of right now (instead of making an ‘updated memories’ post lol): spoilers, obviously escaping the fire plane, jester plane shifts everyone back to the material plane, to zadash. there, she leads them to the evening nip, where below the gentleman (her father) heads his operations, hoping he can watch over her mother and veth’s husband and son, giving them a safe house while the nein head back to aeor to hopefully defeat the floating city/somnovem and the tomb takers. some parent trap-y shenanigans ensue and after a couple hours, the nein head to the blooming grove. while the savilirwood as a whole is still corrupted by an unknown source, the corruption in and around the grove is gone. (seemingly healed by the crystals referenced in ep 96) while this is great, it doesn’t line up with the dream that caduceus got just 2.5 days ago. whatever these dreams or premonitions are, his family members are also getting them. this is concerning to them of course, but mostly calliope, his older sister. cad storms out, she follows.  before bedding down for the night, everyone kind of goes their separate ways for a little bit within the grove. the mood overall is grim, most all of them thinking this fight in aeor isn’t going to end well. putting on a brave face, jester promised her mama she’d come back, but she doesn’t think she will. she has a small conversation with fjord and asks if he’d like her to send a message to vandran or scry on him. he says no because he’s going to see him, being that rock and voice of determination and positivity jester needs in her time of uncertainty. 

[hyunllx]

Trigger timestamps for the Spooktacular special

If you want to watch the spooktacular video but are afraid of or triggered by horror stuff, he’s a list of potential triggers and mild to safe scenes to watch (and descriptions of what youre skipping).

*** for potential triggers

* for mild trigger potential or easily avoidable by looking at the face cam

S for safe scenes

*0:00-0:44 Intro feat. Sam, Tal, and Brittany dressed as clowns, Marisha as a woman in white, and Matt as some voldemort thing. Has mild light flashing and sharp jump cuts.

S 0:45-1:11 Laura meeting Travis in the lobby of the haunted house location. Very cute marrieds.

*1:12-1:43 Travis and Laura enter the haunted house area. Close-up on a fake clown, auditory jump scare (pressurized air), and Travis entering a very tiny space.

S 1:44-1:55 Travis pushes his way through hanging pool noodles.

*1:56-2:22 Travis emerges into a hall of mirrors and is greeted by an actor dressed as a carnival worker who ushers him to the door leading to the next part of the haunted house.

S 2:23-2:26 Cut to Laura “I ditched him” Bailey walking into a secret room where the rest of the cast/crew are watching Travis.

*2:27-2:36 Travis enters the main part of the haunted house. Encounters his first clown actor who laughs and runs away while the lights go out. Minor auditory jumpscare. If you can handle this one you should be okay for most of the video.

S 2:36-2:45 Crew in secret rooms reactions to his first scare + Travis bouncing on a springy board.

*2:45-2:56 Travis enters a new corridor, same clown is laughing and hitting walls around him. Jump cuts to show the actor running to the next part of the house ahead of Travis + a quick shot of Laura laughing.

***2:57-3:09 Clown!Sam wacks Travis’ feet from under the walls and laughs then crawls after him down the corridor.

*3:09-3:21 Off-body camera showing Travis coming around a corner. First clown is waiting and starts wacking the walls again with a bat before moving ahead. Clown!Sam jumps out at him from behind a curtain as he reaches the end of the corridor.

*3:22-3:52 Hidden crew reactions while Travis realizes its Sam and yells at him. They start playing chicken around the corridor. “I’d notice those teeth anywhere!” line.

***3:53-4:10 Travis enters the “freak show lobby”. Demonic clown welcomes him with a minor jumpscare. Travis is terrified of an animatronic in the corner but its mostly covered by the face cam.

*4:11-4:24 Travis has to crawl through the next hall. Mostly body-cam shots of the floor + Travis’ arm + the bat of the first clown being dragged in front of him.

***4:25-4:40 Travis gets up and jogs past the clown into a room with a small prison cell. He enters the cell to get to the next room and the clown locks the cell door behind him. THERE ARE RED AND WHITE FLASHING LIGHTS IN THIS SECTION.

S 4:40-4:43 Laura dying of laughter.

***4:44-4:48 cut back to Travis looking at a clown animatronic with glowing red eyes.

*4:48-5:04 Travis enters a hall with a wall-length cut out. On the other side of the cut out, Matt in his voldemort-adjacent costume ‘mirrors’ Travis’ movement then lunges at him at the end of the hall.

*5:04-5:23 Enters a new corridor and stops to talk to a skull decoration. Turns a corner and triggers an animatronic clown holding a clown baby in a cage. Travis looks very confused by it and backstage crew laugh.

*5:24-5:38 Enters a new room and is greeted by a clown with one of those loud honking horns clowns have. The clown ushers him into another tiny spinning door.

***5:39-5:51 Travis opens the door to Marisha in her woman in white costume. She snaps her head around to look at him and Travis screams and rushes past.

*5:51-5:58 Cut to a shot of a clown actor waiting for him to turn the corner. Lights go out and they rush him and Travis backs into a corner in terror.

*5:59-6:10 Shot of Liam absolutely dying and then back to Travis cowering in fear.

*6:11-6:19 Travis, now panicking, enters a room with Brittany in costume waiting for him, asks why she looks like Brittany in a clown costume, then screams and runs away from her.

*6:20-6:25 Runs directly into a hall with two clowns waiting for him and is jumpscared by more pressurized air.

***6:25-6:46 Enters a large room. Off-body shot of the actors, including Tal, waiting for him. An actor pops out of a large box in the room, causing Travis to back up into Taliesin and freak out. In his panic he gets confused which direction hes supposed to go and Tal has to point to the door (in character, as he does). Sam is back crawling on the floor again. FLASHING RED AND WHITE LIGHTS IN THIS SCENE.

***6:47-7:25 Travis rushes past the carnie from the beginning and is immediately jumpscared by a very very loud fog horn. Cuts to Liam watching with glee. The horn sounds through the rest of this hall, which is envolped in smoke the farther in he gets. More pressurized air pops just to jump him more.

*7:26-8:00 Fog horn stops, Travis is getting lost in the smoke and has to feel his way around the corners. Actors jump out through the fog at him. He just starts booking it through the last hall to the exit.

S 8:00-End Laura greets him at the exit and takes him to the back room with the rest of the crew. The cast show up in costume but theyre acting like themselves and are relaxed.

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E73 (Aug. 6, 2019)

Gooooooood evening good evening good evening all! @eponymous-rose is off packing for a cross-country move (as if THAT’S an excuse), so here I am isntead to lay waste to all you love. 

Tonight’s preroll: Sam’s costume from the liveshow getting dunked in acid.

Tonight’s guests: Laura Bailey & Sam Riegel, in a fully human and normal tshirt and jeans. Everyone oohs and ahs over Laura’s adorable live show outfit; Sam waits eagerly for equal attention. And waits, and waits...

Tonight’s announcements: Huge thanks to everyone who came out to the live show in Indy last weekend (I was there! It was great!). Laura talks about everyone singing the theme on the intro. Sam sent his entire costume back with Dani so he wouldn’t get stopped in the airport. Poor Dani! Season 3 of Between the Sheets, featuring Amanda Palmer, is up for Twitch subs now and will be up on YT on Wednesday. CR is headed to Austin, TX, for a live show on Sept. 23! Everyone talks about how Doty will definitely, definitely be in this show: The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade, ft. the return of Sam as Taryon. Sam says he already has something in mind for his costume; everyone else will be playing new characters. Laura’s got an idea for a backup character for Jester, but BWF advises her not to use this for the live show since Jester will def be dead in less than 20 episodes. Go to critrole.com/events for more.

Episode 73: Uthodurn, which is not spelled at all like I thought

CR Stats! Nott dealt 124 damage this episode, only 23 of which was friendly fire. Sam: “You know, he just needs to get out of the fucking way.” Nott rolled her 50th nat 20, resulting in a 43 stealth check. Laura and Sam quietly talk about Sam’s tendency to touch everyone else’s dice as opposed to his “playing fairly.” Sam also laments he’s lost his dustbuster in the studio somewhere after the last bit. Jester is tied with Beau at 9 for the most HDYWTDTs. Jester also played her 50th prank this episode: creating the ballpeen hammer as an offering to the Allhammer.

Laura thinks part of Jester’s new anger in battle is part of losing Yasha, especially when she disappeared right in front of her and Jester wasn’t able to help her at all. “Jester mammoth-raged.” Laura raves about being a mammoth & talks about needing to work on her elephant noise. Both Laura and Sam fail miserably at making the noise.

Sam slowly drinks a shot. It’s... a thing.

We have a close-up of Sam’s nail polish, which was done for the live show. He doesn’t own nail polish remover, it turns out.

Nott will talk to Cad about the explosive arrow whenever Cad brings it up. First, Cad was invisible & therefore at fault because he couldn’t be seen; the second part of the blame goes to Laura Bailey, who leaned over and told Sam right before his turn he had to kill this thing right now. The explosive arrow was the best thing he had; Sam accepts one part of the blame for forgetting it would be fire. Sam & Laura agree the bolt should have had some thunder/force damage associated with it because of the concussive blast. (Hilariously, my father presented this precise argument to me with GREAT VIGOR right after this episode aired.)

Jester’s call to the Traveler was just in the heat of the moment. All of her power comes from him, so Jester calls out to him (and Laura thinks it cool) when she gets a big oomph. Sam wonders aloud if her powers genuinely come from the Traveler or not. Laura: “I mean...as far as she knows.” Sam’s also distracted that the question card had a straight-up name on it rather than a username.

Sam considers the outcome of the election a win, since he’s one of the bi-Presidents of D&D Beyond until further notice. “It doesn’t matter how you get there, as long as you get there.” Laura asks if he thinks about it being a hollow win when he goes to sleep. Sam: “Do I look like the kind of person to have thoughts as I’m falling asleep?”

Nott’s usage of the pistol’s single shot was pure pettiness. Sam thought Nott had a shot because she’s acrobatic & fast & has some tricks, and he just didn’t want Beau to win. Making loud noises & drawing attention didn’t even cross my mind.

Jester was very proud of Fjord making those strength checks, but she wasn’t surprised. “He’s very strong, even though he looks like he’s not.” Laura thinks it’s funny and poetic that Travis rolled so well after ditching his sword/powers.

Travis has three sets of dice. Liam has a bunch of sets, but they’re all red (says Laura, offended). Laura only used purple dice at the live show because of how she was dressed.

Cosplay of the Week: a great Scanlan cosplay with Ioun’s third eye by @cxptaingrayson.

Sam realizes something that’s been holding back the Nott-Fjord relationship is that Nott has always been a little suspicious of Fjord. Now that he’s “talking like a real weirdo” and is still brave, braver than before, she can trust him more.

Laura’s asked about Jester’s conflict between healing & DPS. Laura: “Do you think Jester asked to be a fucking healer?” When they were deciding their characters, Laura was originally going to be a warlock with the Traveler as her patron; then Travis was like, warlock! What a cool class! Can I have it? And Laura said sure, she’ll be a cleric, that sounds cool. “And now he got rid of his fucking patron! Who knows if he’s going to be a warlock anymore? What a waste of a warlock!” She likes being a cleric--but even from Jester’s very first inception she’s always been a healer who hates healing. Brian: “She’s a battle Mercy.” She’s not regretful she healed Beau; the reason Laura didn’t immediately heal her is that she thought from Matt’s face that the remorhaz was very close to death, closer than it actually was. She confirms Jester is Chaotic Neutral.

Brian tells Laura he texted Travis to tell him Laura accused him of stealing the warlock class. Laura: “YOU DID NOT!” Brian: “You said it on the air!!”

Travis, via text to BWF, apparently in all caps: “I WAS CHANGING RONIN. YES I STOLE WARLOCK.”

Nott’s teasing of a powerless Fjord is 100% just because she thinks it’s funny. Sam: “There’s not really a deep reason to it. They tease each other all the time. Why would that change just because he tossed his sword in the lava?”

Laura needs to do research on other animals she can become since she enjoyed the mammoth (and giant eagle) so much. Sam keeps a list of flying creatures Laura can turn into because Laura struggles looking it up and often keys it into her D&D Beyond app before she’s even started. BWF: “This is uncharacteristically unselfish.” Sam: “Well, Laura is--I love her. Laura is pure harp music and I would do anything for her.”

Their environments are just getting better and better for Nott in terms of how goblins are seen. She’s given up the mask now, but it’s nice to have people look and not scream.

Both Sam & Laura pause to fan over the design of Uthodurn. It’s way cooler than either the Empire or Dynasty to them right now.

Laura points out that Nott has been fairly outgoing lately; it’s been a while since anyone said “you’re a goblin, stone her!” She’s beginning to come out of her shell as she gets used to her body (not that she likes it in any way), but it’s a development from Veth’s original shyness. She’s also drunk a lot; Sam says this will continue until he gets more Laura Bailey speeches.

BWF still has Laura’s copy of Game of Thrones, which he borrowed in 2011. Laura doesn’t listen to books on tape because she likes the inflections in her own head.

Fanart of the Week: a cool grouping of portraits of the M9 by @dylanbydoodles.

They apparently threw an election party after the D&D Beyond President reveal. Sam talks about convincing the Lyft driver on the way back that it was a swinger’s party in the most ridiculous way possible. Poor Indianapolis.

Nott & Veth’s relationship is getting very complicated. Sam says they’re beginning to blend a little together, but he’s now coming to realize there’s a part of Nott deep down that is deeply scared of going back to Veth & losing her rogue abilities, her adventuring; she wants to be herself again for sure, since her body is definitely wrong, but she’s beginning to fear the loss of some of what Nott is now.

BWF sincerely thanks Sam for the effort and thought he puts into his character. Sam sincerely thanks him. It’s a lovely moment.

Jester’s slip about Fjord’s powers was deliberate on Laura’s part but accidental on Jester’s. Everyone’s a little worried about Fjord without powers, even though he proved himself in the remorhaz fight. She thinks the slipup happened because Jester wasn’t on guard--because Fjord had done so well in the fight, she’d forgotten.

So far, Nott’s choice to leave the family behind in Nicodranus is worth it; no one’s died and they’re making headway on their goals.

BWF: “The Mighty Nein: no one’s died-ish.”

Apparently Matt owns the building they’re filming in? I missed part of this and genuinely can’t tell if it’s a joke.

BWF talks about how Liam, Matt, & Travis have all been genuinely mad at him before. Matt and Travis were mad; Liam was just disappointed.

How did Sam lose the election? He doesn’t think it’s because of him or anything he did. He thinks there’s a demographic shift in America; the electoral college hurt him; both he and Liam ran the campaigns they wanted. Liam’s was serious issues & serious passion, while Sam farted around for three months. BWF asked Adam Bradford at D&D Beyond, who’s the General Manager, about the results; apparently the pie chart was VASTLY in favor of Liam with only the tiniest sliver for Sam. Laura thinks it’s because Sam’s done nothing but troll Sam for five years and this was their chance to troll him back. Sam: “To that I say: good job.”

Dani & Max both voted for Sam. Laura didn’t vote. BWF voted for Liam. Chris forgot there was a vote. Zach voted for Liam.

Sam talks about the game they play, the app for D&D Beyond, and how the whole campaign allowed him to shine a spotlight on himself. “I didn’t get as many votes as Liam, but I got a lot of attention.”

Everyone loved this last live show. Laura legit loved wearing her dress; Travis & Liam looked great. Tal looked normal. Brian marvels at his own tattoos. He and Tal went through a lot of ideas before they committed to the bag situation--he sent it to Jaimie Alexander before the show happened so she could vet it. Ha! “Her response was 25 crying emojis and ‘please send this to my boyfriend.’“

Reminder: Mica Burton, Overwatch League host (and daughter of Levar Burton), will be guest-starring on Critical Role this coming Thursday.

And we’re out! Is it Thursday yet?

[heamatic-a]

NAME:  Jessika NICKNAME:  Jester, Jess, Jessi FACECLAIM: Laura Bailey ( yas queen! ) PRONOUNS:  She/Her HEIGHT:  5′3″ (on a good day). BIRTHDAY:  july 30th AESTHETIC:   pastel goth, coffee, faerie lights in a jar, anxiety queen, red wine, the 90′s grunge, art, witchcraft, crystals, tarot cards, candles LAST  SONG  YOU  LISTENED  TO:  They All by Gr†ll Gr†ll FAVORITE  MUSE (S)  YOU’VE  WRITTEN:  Becky  (@desxderium ) my ghost oc. Cassie (Mortal Kombat) and Maria (Silent Hill 2) are both equal in second place tbh! (Both were/are on this blog before it turned into an MK blog lol )

* GETTING  TO  KNOW  THE  ACCOUNT:

WHAT  INSPIRED  YOU  TO  TAKE  ON  THIS  MUSE: I saw Cassie’s MK11 trailer and just fell in love with her. I decided I was gonna add her to my multimuse and see where it went. I was pretty close from quitting rp tbh, but playing her, and later Raiden, has returned my faith in the rpc enough that I’m sticking around. Now it’s exclusively and MK dual muse. :)

WHAT  ARE  YOUR  FAVORITE  ASPECTS  OF  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE:  I like that Cassie’s so much more optimistic than the muses I was used to roleplaying. She’s energetic, strong, and isn’t afraid to say what she thinks. Raiden is much milder, but he has such a kind heart, and I like that (unless he’s dark!raiden then I get to play him in asshole mode x) ). It’s a fun change of pace compered to the depressing kind of characters I was used to writing.

WHAT’S  YOUR  BIGGEST  INSPIRATION  WHEN  IT  COMES  TO  WRITING:   music and reading: I’ll often put on music without lyrics, atmospheric music for the most part to get into the mood of the thread(s) or the muse I’m writing. And reading, from books to short stories online. I often read a bit before I start writing to get my mojo going. I’ll also sometimes have their intros running in the background to get their voice right.

FAVORITE  TYPES  OF  THREADS: oof how can I choose? I like them all! Angst, horror, happy, slice of life, smut… give me all!

BIGGEST  STRUGGLE  IN  REGARDS  TO  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE:  Cassie comes pretty naturally, but sometimes I really need to get into the mood for Raiden. It’s harder, because he’s not snarky. But also I sometimes wonder if I don’t make him too kind or ooc? Hrm...

TAGGED BY: this cool beech @pxlariis

TAGGING:  uh anyone hasn’t done this  or hasn’t been tagged already?