#by all means this would have been a tpk if not for fcg

[ilanarose7]

Some outcomes of Critical Role episode 91 (that happened either because of or completely separate from the big thing)

SPOILERS!!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

Starting with the ones not due to FCG's sacrifice:

Liliana has some level of trust and attempts at redemption with her daughter (those 31's on deception and persuasion Laura you legend!), which means a major player (and VESSEL?? tf was that about) who was formerly (and maybe kind of still) on Ludinus's side is swapping over

Ashton and Fearne are about to be exhausted from being Titans (Ashton much sooner since they powered up in ep. 90)

Zathuda is both proud and angry towards Fearne which is both terrifying and a bit heartwarming(?)

Nana (I think/hope it was her bending fate) was able to help Team Infiltration escape the Weavemind after Orym reached out

Now for the other outcomes due to FCG's sacrifice:

Orym's deal with Nana should be void since the group cannot return as they were (VM Spoiler Note: Liam's PC was finally saved from a deal leading to a life of service by Sam's PC after he wasn't able to in C1)

Chetney is ALIVE! I'm counting this as part of the sacrifice bc due to weird leveling circumstances Sam sacrificed his one brand-new 7th-level spell slot to take Revivify, which is a major thing to give up

Otohan is DEAD! GONE! That is a MAJOR player off the board and another one of Ludinus's high-ranking members off the board

FCG is dead, seemingly unrevivable based on how Matt phrased it (asking to make sure Sam understood what it meant). That will have MAJOR implications going forward.

On a D&D technical level, there is no primary healer meaning that Fearne has to take some healing spells or the party can't heal at all (pretty sure they used up all their potions during that fight).

On a character level, this is going to be devastating. Ashton, who started this whole adventure with FCG and has been saying for a LONG time that FCG was going to get themself killed, was unconscious when FCG made the ultimate sacrifice. Sending works, which means when they get back to Exandria, Imogen will probably be the one to let FRIDA know what happened.

On a slightly lighter note, I feel like Travis is going to shine next week. It's been said before and I'll say it again, Chetney is the heart of Bells Hells. He knows how to be there for this family and I have a feeling that will come to the forefront as we see the aftermath

I'm sure there are more outcomes, but these are the ones on my mind after barely sleeping last night following that episode. Sam knows how to play this game well and cuts straight to the heart while doing so. It was masterfully played and while completely devastating to watch, was also incredibly heroic and beautiful.

Good game, great players, amazing DM, and of course thank you Fresh Cut Grass for being a Faithful Care-Giver until the end

[zeephyre]

CRITICAL ROLE CAMPAIGN 3 EPISODE 85 SPOILERS

IM LITERALLY ABOUT TO LOSE MY MIND YALL

Where do I even ??? start ???

I haven't been posting c3 as the episodes dropped in...a while actually, like right before they went to the feywild. i have many thoughts and many feelings about so many things that have happened since then and I'll summarise them so I can get to THIS episode.

fearne and ashton - love their shard powers, they're literally royalty and terrifying, and i want them to make-out. i can't wait to see them go full primordial again in a real combat situation.

imogen - save her. literally save her. free her, even. i love everything about the call of ruidus when it comes to imogen on a narrative standpoint, but...God I get so worried that we're gonna lose her. I don't mean she's gonna betray the hells, but...ruidus could take her and then i would simply perish.

laudna - before i really get into wtf went down this episode with her and she who must not be named, i gotta say... im worried. very very worried. however, that fireball was objectively the best shit ever.

fcg - i can't even really remember anything stand out abt fcg except what Sam pulled last night so.

chetney - still the heart of the team, still my baby girl, still my favourite. love him to bits.

orym - i think laudna is going to beat his ass one of these days and im... even more concerned about that after this episode. his nana morri powers are cool as fuck tho... does that make him a warlock now? i know he isn't multi-classing but wouldn't that be cool

ANYWAY WE'RE ON THE FUCKING MOON AND WE GOT MOON LORE AND EVERYTHING WAS SHITTY THEN FUN THEN SHITTY THEN FUN AGAIN THEN REALLY FUCKING SAD THEN IT ALL WENT TO SHIT AGAIN.

the moment imogen reached out to ruidus and matt mentioned that she could sense where other ruidusborn were i fucking knew that otohan was high tailing it in their direction, and i thought they instinctively knew that too but they probably got so distracted.

we were travelling for hours and had a huge fight that almost got them captured (not to be confused with the OTHER two fights that almost got them captured) and I was begging and screaming and crying for them to get a long rest safely hidden away AND THEN THEY SPLIT THE PARTY WITH BARELY ANY SPELL SLOTS OR HIT POINTS AFTER BEING DRAINED FROM ANOTHER BATTLE WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM

(Sidenote, the willmaster really opened up the door to the further increase in moral pondering in a certain number of hellians. i do think using the harness is disgusting and hypocritical, but i don't condemn them for it, it just...makes me wanna vomit thinking abt what ludinus did with it. not to mention the HUNGER parallels between laudna and ludinus...its just not good yall. also??? objectively funny that fcg seemed weirded out by the idea of killing the willmaster, not just with the harness but in general, considering how many people they've killed up to this point)

idk if its just the inherent terror that an evil old hot lady can inspire that makes otohan so much more terrifying to me than ludinus. like, objectively, ludinus is a worse threat and could wipe them out EASILY but jesus otohan is like the damn reaper to me. it's the trauma from the laudna, fearne, orym massacre mixed with the underlying little drop from their uthodurn romp that let us know that resurrection spells are NOT working and idk if that got fixed bc of time passing or distance from the leylines but i really did not want to test that shit out in real time

thank...god that sam riegel is a damn genius player, that banishment of fcg and fearne was the ONLY reason fcg survived. and thank GOD FOR KEYLETH BECAUSE WITHOUT THAT CLOUD SPELL BELLS HELLS WOULD BE VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY DEAD RN.

God, "otohan has us. run." is going to haunt me just as much, if not more than the almost tpk. it just...shot me straight back to bassuras and the plan to run that just...immediately fell apart.

god fcg truly could have died there. and fearne would be captured. i know the hells would be too stupid and too brave and too loyal to leave fearne with otohan in their cloud form but can you imagine a world where fcg was gone, fearne was captured and the hells had to switch from recon to rescue... itd be stressful but pretty fun.

thankfully it didn't come to that and some good came from the shit.

ruidus is so beautiful. i was worried they'd end being trapped under ruidus while they explored (not that I wasn't on board with the detours, I wish this wasn't a time sensitive mission), but matt's imagery of the fossilized elven structure and garden made me sad but also happy that we got to see it.

i cannot believe that the stupid plan to shove fearne up a water hole happened AGAIN and it ended up with us FINDING A BACK HOLE TO RUIDUS GOD I LOVE THESE CHUCKLEFUCKS WHEN IS THE NEXT EPISODE MATT YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME. WHERE EVEN ARE THEY??? IS IT EVEN EXANDRIA???? WHAT DO WE DO IF IT IS EXANDRIA??? WHERE DID THIS HOLE EVEN COME FROM???? DOES IT CLOSE AND REOPEN??? IS IT STAGNANT?????? IS IT FUCKING STABLE?!?!?!?!?!

God...we could go back to keyleth and the others and actually invade ruidus without encountering the ruby vanguard. (that's if they're alright because otohan did go out onto the battlefield and we don't know what fhe fuck she did when the illusion fell through)

GOD. IS IT THURSDAY YET??? WE HAVENT EVEN FOUND THE RESISTANCE????

[pstelwitchcraft]

Critical Role - C3E52 (before break)

Its so weird to have just 4 people on the table I'm squirming

Poor Imogen just keeps taking L's man my girl can't catch a break

That little "please be okay" 🥺

Very worried about both imogen and laudna whenever they're separated but I guess that's precisely the point

And these are some damn good combinations

Already miss orym, ashton and laudna tho :(

I have a feeling the leylines are going haywire right now and that's why magic can't travel long distances

And/Or they're in the Shadowfell and it's hard for it to go to a different realm right now

Not even Dorian??? Yep, it's the leylines

I LOVE shoebills! Google their call, it sounds like a machine gun

Why do they keep getting attacked by subterranean monsters?? I swear it's a pattern at this point

Oooooo we're in a pretty snowy battlescape i love getting to fight in Santa's backyard

I love ashley's surprised little "ooooh! Oooh!" everytime she has to go

Yesss dominate beast!

Love how they always think matt's abominations are cute, i get it, it IS kinda cute

Damnit i thought we could get a pet :(

NO FCG! No, don't- don't do it- FUCK WHY

42 POINTS OF DAMAGE?? WHAT IN THE NAME OF-

Ya'll what if half the party TPKs. What then?

Imogen continues to be the hottest, like yes babe blow. Shit. Up

Yesssssss we have guests!!

It's Christian and Aabria!!!!!!!!

It's so cute all of them hugging 🥺🥺

Does this mean we're officially not gonna see the others until April??? Kinda sad I'm not gonna lie but I get it

These are COOL FUCKING CHARACTERS

Buff automaton 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

Nick Jonas spiritual weapon 🤣🤣🤣

The hottest legendary mage ever you heard it first here folks

Aabria is always so fun she's my girl too

I always get lost staring longingly at her tho

She's just so prettyyy

EXU was a doozy for my gay self with all the pretty makeup she had as a DM

It's going to be so fun to see FCG finally meet another automaton

Why do i get a feeling he's gonna be horny towards this buff robot? It's something in his eyes, he's plotting some bullshit

AAAAAND my girl fearne gets the hdywtdt

"Oooh, hello!"

I love her sm obliterate him queen

Old lover??? I love Deanna already 😍

Fcg and this robit rn:

Omg fcg is such a little shit stirrer

Fearne is gonna end up banging the new gnome isn't she

I feel like she's gonna bang the gnome

Oh it's been HUNDREDS of years??? I keep forgetting Chet is OLD old

I'm getting worried yall

The gods are being affected by this already?? A day ago??? I'm scareeed

I hate/love that flesh tongue is now canon, sams bullshit always gets carried away from even him i swear

The robot is a flirt 🤣🤣

The energy at the table right now is WILD

Not the HAT 😂😂😂 I am BAwLInG why is aabria so good at being a petty scorned lover 🤣🤣

Awn poor deanna 😞

This is gonna be awesome we now have this character that has been so close to divinity and can show them so much abt the perspective of life and death

Love the backstory dump

Feel like im walking around the hub in a videogame asking every NPC a 1000 questions

Oh my god this robot is so sweet 🥺🥺 i love him

Also VERY obviously sentient and emotional I'm SO interested to understand more abt the great awakening of the bots

Like, why would it happen? Who or what did this??

Oooooh that's what frida means??

I'm SO curious to know what FCG rrally means if anything

Love the cadence Christian gave this robot, i feel like the movements and voice are pretty monotone but not so much that it even feels robotic?? But it's still like something A.I would probably create? Like google translate voice but better.

Also I ship f.r.i.d.a and deanna a lot btw

Chet is going through it right now and honestly i feel like he deserves it 😂

FCG is such a little toddler trying to understand like and it never fails to be both adorable and terrifying

A killer robot with an existential crisis just does not feel good to me fellas

Love the confusing time frames at weekly d&d tables we really could be doing this for a month or a year we have no clue

Yall i'm nervousss there's GOTTA be another shoe about to drop

Like there HAS to be, right? It can't all be alright?? We saw shit blow up, we saw the key go off, so what happened?!

What do you mean imogen's scars are turning red???

[sparkyyoungupstart]

I am thinking about Critical Role (naturally) and the inherent differences between a home game and a public one and the narrative capitulations required therein.

(also disclaimer this isn’t a post against Matt, the players clearly trust him with the game so I will too, this is more theory than anything)

So like in a home game you can absolutely let the dice tell the story for you - all the bad decisions compounded by bad rolls and driving directly into a TPK. But live plays/actual plays require a good narrative to go along with it. This isn’t to say that home games have inherently inferior narratives, but rather than a publicly seen game is often better and more successful when the narrative is prioritized a little more than the game mechanics.

Like if we compare these deaths to Molly in Campaign 2, that was tragic and a random happenstance of the dice, but at that point the Mighty Nein were still heroes for hire essentially and Molly was random horrible collateral in that fight. No one had gotten so tied into the ongoing plots that losing them before the conclusion resulted in a loss of storytelling potential. Hell, the fact that it was Molly specifically who died and then ended up tying into Lucien and everything almost makes it seem like Molly was meant to die (even though we all know that wasn’t true).

Now compare the Campaign 3 characters, who are all intrinsically connected to the narrative. Imogen and Ruidus, Fearne and Ruidus and the whole Feywild, Orym and the shadow clones, Ashton’s chornurgy stuff, Laudna and Delilah, FCG and whatever’s happening with Aeormatons...Chetney right now is the only character who hasn’t been completely woven into the ongoing plot beyond being part of the Bell’s Hells. And what this means is that for two of them to die in a way that seems almost random, well, it’s not narratively satisfying. It’s tragic to see them die before their plots are resolved for sure, but it also makes it feel like their arcs up to this point were wasteful? If that makes sense?

And again, this isn’t meant to attack Matt or even criticize him, it’s just the price of having a narrative laid out in front of you. And that’s why I’m thinking...there’s gotta be an out, right? Cutting off Orym and Fearne’s stories just like that would actively harm the story. Not to mention the whole encounter seemed unbalanced even without people trying to flee. I’ll say that personally I think the party made some real boneheaded decisions before the encounter with Otohan, but I don’t think Matt would’ve thrown her at them while they were in that state unless there was something else at play. With all this psychic moon stuff going on I’m not going to rule out spontaneous revivifies, or that it was all a dream Otohan was blasting into Imogen’s head to unleash her full potential, or Imogen having a vision on her own, or fuckin’...time travel? Why not.

Or maybe I’m just bummed that two really interesting characters got taken out before they reached their full story potential and I’m in denial about the consequences lol. I’m all for them facing consequences, I just think full permanent character death are the proper ones in this scenario - which is why I don’t wanna believe that Matt’s going to let this stick.

[utilitycaster]

Hey :) So, since you said we could ask nicely (you don't have to answer if you'd rather not, I understand completely if that's the case) I was just curious if your feelings about the encounter with Otohan changed at all now with the new ep and if so how and why, or on the other hand if there is another way of achieving this bit of story progression you'd have preferred over the fight for it. I'm still....a bit torn on it all, especially on the intentions behind how the encounter was designed, so I'd really appreciate another perspective.

No, absolutely ok to ask! I'm going to write something longer this evening about my feelings on the whole (in short: good episode overall! Some opportunity to do a bit of unpacking, a smidgeon of resolution re: Treshi, and some interesting lore for Chetney, FCG, and Ashton! does not really help my ongoing issues with the campaign but did not introduce new ones so much as continue to expose the existing ones and, if Laudna stays dead, might even put us on a path to fixing some others...but I fully respect people who have decided to not keep up.) But with regards to the encounter:

I would like to introduce you to the text replacer extension I downloaded yesterday and which I will not be changing:

Now: I absolutely respect the appearance of a powerful enemy who nearly kills the party and disappears, I even understand making them extremely powerful, since I know this was an intention for Lorenzo but the Nein were able to kill him more quickly than Matt intended. Otohan's mechanics are ridiculous, but like...just as I agree with Brennan's choice to have a curb-stomp battle when Patia and Laerryn came upon a comparatively low-level character...so do I agree that yeah, if Otohan is super-powerful, then sure, she can be super powerful and near TPK the party. I still can't entirely make a fair call on Matt's intent (were they supposed to go into this encounter? was he trying to warn them against it? was he leaving it fully up to chance, which isn't bad at all but is a weird pivot given the plotting of the rest of the campaign so far) so I'll hold off on that, but it's a relatively small misstep in a vacuum; it's the surrounding issues of the campaign that have me side-eyeing it harder than perhaps I would otherwise.

I think the core of my problems with the actual encounter are:

Otohan is boring as fuck. She has no personality other than megalomania and zeal. Like we know what she's doing, but we don't know why and I, at least, do not care. When I say she talks like a Marvel Villain I mean it. And if your plot is "vast conspiracy", you really need to make the person at the top compelling.

The structure and Otohan's behavior were extremely inconsistent. She started by knocking people out but not taking death saves...then taking death saves midway through. She did not make it clear what she wanted from Imogen until like four rounds in, after she'd killed Orym. Imogen did not start experiencing that storm until round 5. Like, I want to be crystal clear: if Otohan's opening move was to outright kill Ashton, and she just took death saves the whole time? I'd be cool with it. If Imogen had been getting the vague storm feeling from the start and had the opportunity to give in earlier? I'd be cool with it. I like character permadeath in my stories. I do not mind a near TPK. But this felt like it was very clumsily engineered into a highly specific scenario.

I alluded to this in my tags, and I can't find the tweet in question now, but someone tweeted something to the effect of "me, realizing this is Matt showing Imogen her powers like he showed Yasha" and Matt liked said tweet and for real, if I hadn't seen that? I think I would have been about 500% more normal about the last episode although tbh this episode hammers home that yeah, that was at least part of the point, and uh, fuck that. Because here's the thing: it's fine, I guess, if you have a bonus homebrew ability for a character they are unaware of that they can activate in extreme circumstances. But there were no hints thereof, and one of the following seems to be true:

it's stress related, which means either it's kind of vague mechanically (usually not great; see my complaints about the Trusted Ally mechanic for FCG's subclass), or it's explicitly "one or more of your party members is dead" or similar (ok by me, actually!)

HOWEVER, if you decide to showcase this ability you homebrewed for one person - without warning or prior hints - by killing other party members (particularly in the poorly signaled way as above)? For real, fuck that. I find myself in the awkward position of, for various reasons, wanting Laudna's death to stand...but also, if my character were killed off as a means to show another character how to use their cool new powers, it does not matter how much I trust the DM; we would be having pretty serious words because this is fundamentally, in my opinion, a profound misstep. There's "not everyone gets the same number of presents" and then there's this.

I think, to be honest, it's fine to have this ability around, and to show it during combat... but particularly because it's just a bonus ability? just wait until an opportune time through natural gameplay. If it doesn't come up for four levels? It doesn't come up. It's also...not terribly hard to arrange for a lethal combat that is more gracefully done, or even to have played Otohan in a less erratic and boring way, and I'm not sure why specifically Matt did so (nor do I think such speculation will be terribly productive.)

Edit: Forgot to put this here amidst all the criticism but: having Otohan leave at the top of this episode was the right call, credit where credit is due.