#POINTS FOR REALISM IG MATT

[cringefaecompilation]

obviously yes i know it was mostly for the sake of letting everyone have a turn and not just having another I AM NO FRIEND TO THE EMPIRE plot shutdown moment but nothing fundamentally proved ashton's point harder of "the throne is the problem" than both braius' belief and orym's literal vestige bestowed upon him by melora not being enough to convince the rulers to trust them and everyone having to pull out all the stops just so they'll be trusted to perform a task. the fact that ashton had to hold their hands and talk them through that you didn't need to be devout to care about, you know, potential oblivion killing everybody. genuinely most frustrating first hour of a critical role episode ever because you wanted to kill near every single npc in the fucking room