#c2e74

[i-the-winter-plum]

my fav bit about rewatching critical role is like before the big things happen and then they don't react how they do in the future like in the c2 live show when they did the uko'toa thing for the first time, and trent's first mention so no one but liam reacted, or when matt brought up gelidon the nightmare in ivory and they didn't react, or the first casual mention of ludinus + hearing 'makes my way' before they started singing it like there's so many examples ...

there's like confusion and then its like oh they don't know yet

[frumpkin-biscuits]

“Also, I brought you a present! 😄💝🦄✨”

“…….. yay 🙂”

[whirlingbadger]

The SCREAM that has left my body. It's *WILD* to be watching both Campaign 2 for the first time as well as Campaign 3. This whole Uthodurn arc in C2 is a treat

[ravendruid]

Jester: I always felt kind of sorry for Ruidus, you know? Caleb: Less noticed than its sister. Jester: Yeah, like it's-- Beau: It's the ugly duckling. Jester: Big flashy sister, always trying to take all its attention. Caleb: Little sister feeling practically invisible.

Oh, this aged well, didn't it?

[theabominableblogger]

Nott encouraging Caleb to show the magic scroll to Essek has the same energy as Violet being forced to go to the restaurant where Tony works in “Incredibles 2″ change my mind

[lessattitudemorealtitude]

While Reani is explaining her very black and white views on who lives and dies, you can so clearly see Liam/Caleb’s eyes wandering as he’s processing this information. I fucking love it. 

Caleb: “Yes what is your stance on... does he have a stance on grey areas?”

Reani: “No.”

Fjord: “What if you disagree?”

Reani: “I don’t disagree”

Caleb just miserably looking at the rest of the group then kinda dissociating as Reani blatantly asks if they’re evil or not. And notably just not talking after that

[fjoundfjamily]

honestly if they don't come across demid sunlash in the next few eps what's it all for

[pocketgalaxies]

C2E74: marisha & sam

[laurasbailey]

in c2e74 where the mighty nein meet demid and he starts talking about how ruidus and how it wasn't always there. matt said i will plant these seeds like a damn gardener

[12pt-times-new-roman]

c3e53

DDB watch: No sponsor!

There is a sponsor from Honor Among Thieves, though, so take that as you will. The movie is, of course, being funded by Hasbro, and if I remember correctly, this movie could be more important to WotC than D&D Beyond sponsors. So I will personally be boycotting the movie, and if you care about WotC's OGL shenanigans at all, I would suggest you do the same. (Remember: pirating Hasbro products is a victimless crime!)

Chetney returns later in the night. "I didn't--" "It's okay." "I didn't mean--" "It's okay."

With a nat20 arcana check, Chetney remembers that Catha's influence has always been something he's fought to keep under control, but he has always been able to control it before. But because lycanthropy is classed as a curse, it's a magical effect, and it's amplified by the energy of the solstice, making it more difficult for Chetney to retain control.

"I enjoyed it! You were so alive! I shot you in face, multiple times!" Frida my beloved. This is such an interesting reaction for them to have, because who's to say that Aeormatons weren't programmed to be used as test subjects and punching bags?

"No, it's great! I just hold your fate in my hands, that's all." a dm always fulfills his threats

How has it taken me this long to realize that "Frida" sounds the same as "free to" when said with Frida's accent?

Deanna and Frida have lived in Uthodurn for about four years. They live in the house where Deanna's family used to live; they make money by selling Deanna's wares (knitting, mostly) and trading things from their expeditions.

The solstice is also messing with the ever-burning lanterns and enchanted lights that line the central streets of Uthodurn, making them very dim or non-functional.

Many businesses are closed, as well as the temple dedicated to the All-Hammer. The temple being closed is something that never happens.

Chetney sees Oltgar's Chest, where he used to work. It looks like it's expanded, and it has a second floor now. Also, Chetney stabbed Oltgar in the hand, in addition to stabbing someone in the knee.

They arrive at the Vellum Steeple, and there's no one at the front desk, but at a call, a dwarven man appears. Surface thoughts are that he -- along with everyone else in the Steeple -- is trying to figure out what's going on. They don't seem to know much about the solstice itself. They're frustrated to the point of not having time to deal with the Bells Hells right now, because the Steeple isn't technically open to the public right now.

There are 15 or so people inside the Steeple, and the one who seems to be in charge is an elven woman with a pompadour hairdo. This is the same person Matt described at the Steeple in a leadership position in C2E74 -- Scribewarden Ressia Uvessik (she/they).

According to her, the solstice is deeply diminishing divination magic specifically, including clairvoyance, augury, and scrying. Long-standing enchantments have been disabled, including teleportation circles. Inter-city contact is cut off. Given this description, I don't think it's specific to divination magic -- the lights and sending are both evocation magic, and teleportation circle is conjuration.

The Vellum Steeple has sent parties to the Dwendalian Empire and to Rosohna. This is super interesting to me, and is definitely an indicator of political relationships in the continent -- this means that Uthodurn, or at least the Cobalt Soul (which I believe oversees part of the Vellum Steeple) has a positive relationship with the Kryn Dynasty.

FCG/Ashton good cop/bad cop is out, FCG/Deanna good cop/bad cop is in

wait, FCG has access to 5th level spells! They can cast commune!

That dimming of magic affected everything. Uthodurn is facing an issue of escaped prisoners, whose magical binds were weakened enough for them to escape. Some long-standing enchantments of the like have been weakened -- Travis specifically mentions artifacts like the horn of Orcus, but guess fucking what? The same thing applies to the shackles of the Chained Oblivion!

Oh, the teleportation circles were shattered. They weren't just disabled for a time, they were broken. Which means, as per the spell, it will take a year to re-establish them.

Invisible, Chetney overhears quite a few things. People are trying to find the underlying source of the enchantments maintaining Uthodurn's lighting; the high priests of Uthodurn's temples are filled with anxiety and worship services have been cancelled; and a lot of people are just pouring through history that involves a mass loss of arcana.

A loud metallic clang reverberates throughout the city. The room pauses for a minute before going back to their work. This is the walls between discs slamming closed, bet your ass.

Chetney opens a double door and finds a research chamber. There are no people inside, but it's decorated like an office with bookshelves, glass trinkets, and a brass orrery. There are full maps of the city, as well as all of the mines that have expanded outward; ledgers and papers that speak of who originally created many of the city's enchantments; historical pages and scrolls that talk about mass dispelling events (though these have been small, usually localized, and city block-sized). There's a large map of Exandria, but otherwise, nothing that would indicate research beyond Uthodurn or Wildemount.

As she walks in, Chetney realizes that this is the Scribewarden's personal office. She is accompanied by two other people, both of whom she asks to research Ludinus Da'leth and the Cerberus Assembly. She downs a vial of dark brown liquid (possibly a potion of enhance ability, haste, or some other spell that would help their research).

Leaving the Vellum Steeple, the Bells Hells find that the gates between the discs have been closed. Royal guards and Glassblades both are surrounding the gate, with their back to it and pushing crowds away. Some are wounded and bloodied.

Through smaller gates in the wall, nobles, soldiers, and other anxiety and fear-filled people are filtering into the Liberation Disk from the Grand Disk. In the center of that group are the king and queen of Uthodurn, who look spooked and are trying to calm the crowd around them.

FCG's spell save is only 15?? what the fuck Sam?

Frida has a +11 perception, so one of their expertise skills is perception (4 prof + 3 wis + 4 expertise).

"Are we sealed in here?" "Yep! Because FCG decided to run in--" "We're going to prove our worth to the gods!" oh my god. oh my god. is this a self-fulfilling prophecy? is the exact thing that Talisein said during this week's 4SD about to come to pass?

On the other side of the wall, they see..... bodies. Civilians and guards alike. Most unmoving, all marred with slashes. Deanna saves a young royal guard. "What did this to you? "It was this... this fuckin' statue. The one they keep in the citadel. It just... came to life, started killing folks, we had to rush everyone out..."

Interesting note: bioluminescence still seems to function, since various types of flowers and fungus along the walls are still glowing.

Down the way, the Bells Hells see the shadow of a quadrupedal beast with a purplish, ruddy coloration to it. It looks ghostly and material at the same time, and the sounds it makes are as if it has hooved feet.

The guard notes that the statue had been decoration for a long time -- "a statue of one of the great beasts of the Veluthil."

The Veluthil is the former name of the Savalirwood. When Molaesmyr fell to ruin (about 300 years prior to C3), the surrounding forest was horribly corrupted; half of its majority-elven population fled to Bysaes Tyl, which was later assimilated by the Dwendalian Empire, and the other half fled to Uthodurn, where they were taken in and formed the diarchy. The Veluthil was renamed to the Savalirwood, after the elven word for guilt ("savalir").

Break time!

The citadel of Uthodurn looks like a crystal tornado, frozen in place, descending from the top of the 100-foot ceiling of the Grand Disk.

The beast is half material, half ethereal, held together with energy that glows like starlight. It's not actively stalking or rampaging -- it looks confused, like it's looking for something.

As a statue, it was kept on a pedestal in the throne room of the citadel.

Imogen approaches the throne room and sees the bull circling the pedestal where it sat. It isn't a beast or a humanoid; by opening her mind, Imogen senses a brain and an intelligence, but it's alien. It's emotion, not words. She senses anger, frustration, confusion, fear, and longing. It seems to be lost, sad, furious, working on bestial instincts.

Initiative!

Frida's brand of Aeormaton has the "Living Shield" racial ability, allowing them to use their reaction to impose disadvantage on an attack roll against a creature adjacent to them.

It's both a celestial and a beast, and just fails Fearne's charm.

FCG tries to speak to it after casting tongues on it. "If you can understand me, tell us where you want to go, and we can try to help you get there." "I don't know how I got here. I need to get home... to the forest. Where do I go? Where is home?" It doesn't speak with language or words -- it projects emotions that are interpreted into words.

Casting tongues on the creature itself is a fucking brilliant move. This way, everyone can understand it, and it can understand everyone.

Deanna reaches the plaque. It reads, "in memoriam of the fall of Molaesmyr."

So, what's the deal here? Was this thing petrified by people in Uthodurn? Did they find it already petrified by the corruption of the Savalirwood or Molaesmyr itself? If it was petrified by the elves of Molaesmyr, why? Did they need to get it out of the way in order to go forward with their experiments, and if so, is that why the forest was able to be corrupted in the first place? If so, was it Ludinus who ordered it?

The plaque being in elvish implies that it was not brought here by the dwarves;

Fearne's charm fades, but they had four animal handling checks over 20. "Show me where out is."

"Were you from another plane of existence? Do you know?" "I was from the forest. I was the sentinel beast, Umudara. Where is out?"

With a 29 persuasion check, Imogen gets the guards to open the siege gates. On the other side, there are hundreds of Glassblades and royal guards. Hitting the captain of the guard with calm emotions gets them out of the way of Umudara as he makes his way through.

The Bells Hells make their way up the Auger Trail, escorting Umudara out of the city.

"I don't sense it. Where?" "To the south. That way." "...thank you."

"How many of those things are imprisoned throughout Exandria? They can't-- it's not natural."

oh my god Chetney is still in the throne room, I repeat, Chetney is still in the throne room--

He carves his initials into the leg of one of the thrones, and looks for gems imbedded on them. "Oh, they are very well adorned--" "They ain't so well adorned now!"

The thrones are carved from a kind of tree that used to exist in the Veluthil. "It's a unique mixture of pale gray bark with deep maroon layer of bark, like hardened sap that wraps around that climbs up and twists around." Interestingly enough, this description is the same as the one Matt gave for the odd-looking trees that were near the Gorgynei village.

He also finds an engraving of the All-Hammer, and a switch on it opens the door behind the thrones, through which Chetney promptly goes. It descends beneath the disk in a long, curving tunnel, and eventually exits from the base of a massive statue of a tree near the entrance to the Grand Disk.

Udumara heads southward, alone, to find the Savalirwood (and possibly Molaesmyr). I really hope he gets to the Blooming Grove and gets to help the Clays fix the Savalirwood.

[nerdandtie]

Stormwood & Associates: C2E74. Pirate Signal (Space Operetta Part 2)

The team's in space. That's, that's pretty much it. They're on a space ship. The space ship is in space. There are two halflings on the space ship, who were pretty surprised to see our heroes (and Amy's bird). But, like, they're in space. That's the whole deal. "Stormwood & Associates" uses the RPG system Super Awesome Action Heroes Second Edition with the optional Fantasy expansion and Advanced Combat Rules. View Archives and Subscription Options

[arabella-strange]

And this is actually exactly what some of the more divinely inclined folks (Caduceus, my beloved, front and center) might have said if asked what the gods are good for and why it might not be great to get rid of them...

Because when the system works well, the gods and mortals work together.

~~~long post of musings, but hear me out: ~~~

[This is D&D so the DMG explicitly states as one of the game's "Core Assumptions" that "Gods Oversee the World," that they are "real," "exert[ing] influence over the world" such that "[w]hile some folk might refuse to honor the gods, none can deny their existence" (DMG 9).]

The gods operate at a broader wavelength, because their powers enable them to see farther, to wield heavier powers, to intervene against larger threats. But the gods are neither all-powerful nor all-knowing. Mortals act within and are caught—esp. in the CR universe—amidst the "weave" of fate that the gods (plural! often in tension or open opposition!) have woven. But those same mortals—Vax! Essek! Caduceus! Laerryn! Zerxus!—exert tremendous force upon that same weave and sometimes manage to shunt or tug those threads in a way no one god intended. Green beans move toward green beans, but floods and frosts and deer and blight sometimes get there first.

Meanwhile, the gods need help to act on the prime material plane. To lock away those Big Bags™️ who now seem to be at risk of escaping. Vecna? Orcus? Obann? The Laughing Hand? The Chained Oblivion? Uk'otoa? (Uk'otoa???) Rau'shan and Ka'Mort, the Primordials? Anybody else just chilling beneath Bazzoxan? They get sealed by mortal hands wielding divine power. But the gods, for their own safety as much as for mortals', stay since the Calamity behind the Divine Gate—and thus, they REQUIRE mortal agents, champions or otherwise, to assist in stopping colossal evil from overtaking the world.

The problem with the gods is not that they have all the power and mortals have none; the problem with the gods is that—once again, to quote Caduceus—"higher powers have the best interests of everything [at heart], and sometimes the best interests of everything don't necessarily line up with the best interests of each of us.... Or what we want" (c2e74).

There is always, inherently, going to be a tension between the individual, living beings who do have agency and do want to find joy in their own ways vs. the immortal entities whose desires/plans are diffused across the weave.

[Laerryn got closest by imagining that if mortal beings could harness divine abilities, they would be as good as gods. But on its face, there is nothing wrong with allowing some entities—let's call them gods—to exert influence on the "higher" scale of everything-everywhere-all-at-once [e.g., Raven Queen], while other beings—let's call them people—continue to exist in the fresh, mundane, acutely joyful and painful, limited sphere of mortality and history, here and now.]

Things that could have been released/largely unprotected at this point: Ikithon, the Horn of Orcus, Halas...

[frumpkin-biscuits]

the mighty nein tradition of taking two hours to make a plan vs Essek constantly reminding them how valuable his time is: fight!

[your-turn-to-role]

so the "essek can't roll for shit" joke i made earlier had me actually going back to look for essek rolls? and there's a lot fewer than i thought, he honestly rarely rolls for things, prefers to keep to reliable stuff

(and of course it's kind of impossible to search for every single one but this is everything @essektheylyss and i could drum up, so feel free to mention if i missed one that you know about)

but, a grand list of rolls essek has made!

c2e74, history check for mythburrow, fail

c2e74, history check for iceflex, fail

c2e97, con save against paralysis, rolled a 6

c2e97, athletics or acrobatics against the manacles, failed with a nat 5

c2e97, wisdom save against cad's command, failed with a 15

c2e132, dispel magic against fjord's brand, fail

c2e132, dispel magic again with jester's guidance, fail

c2e132, initiative against the frost giants, rolled an 11 or 12 (based on turn order)

c2e132, con save against the brown mold, probable fail (he seemed to take a lot of damage and matt made a face at the roll, also worth noting, veth and yasha both made this save twice and all four rolls succeeded)

additional edit! the dc of brown mold is 12

(for anyone wondering about teleport, matt doesn't roll those himself, he lets the cast do it, normally taliesin, so it doesn't really count as essek's luck)

like matt rolled fine when playing everyone else in these episodes! but the dice gods really do see essek and go "fuck this one elf in particular"

he has not succeeded a single time

but man it has the potential to be momentous when he does

[ravendruid]

"So I'm hoping and working here with the Woodset Auditors to see if there is some information that may have been recovered from the ruins of Molaesmyr, and so far it's been a lot of false leads, but I'm working on it anyway."

Yeah no, just Matt spreading crumbs. I'm fine.

[talontarget]

watching c2e74 after the everything that is c3 is wild bc matt just. drops the cobalt soul's involvement in the research of ruidus and everyone just brushes over the "maybe it was a plot during the calamity but it never came to fruition" but that made me travis willingham siren because there's a fucking city on the moon except tm9 don't know that