#heart-to-heartmoor

[lessattitudemorealtitude]

Taliesin just staring wide eyed as Laudna describes waking up being hung from the Sun Tree

[aj-lenoire]

Fenthras is the bow! Garmelie is the disguise of a different fey character. He might show up again later on :)

oh i thought fenthras was the god to which the bow belonged, like the matron of ravens owning the deathwalker’s ward, and garmelie was the god in disguise

still, very keen for more faerie shenanigans 👀

[imogens-temult]

CRITICAL ROLE: CAMPAIGN 3 Episode 17: Heart-to-Heartmoor

[lessthanimpressedlesbian]

I feel so vindicated knowing that we all read those many microexpressions correctly. Laura was really playing an anxious queer woman in love with her best friend so accurately that we couldn't help but pick up on all the little nuances.

[lunalikestowriteanddraw]

So I’m 3 hours into episode 17 of campaign 3 and, yall, what the ACTUAL FUCK (spoilers below for C1, Vox Machina cartoon and C3)

For the record, when I went into C3 and saw that Laudna would’ve been in her 50s/60s if she was still alive, my immediate thought was “huh, so she probably died right around the time the De Rolo’s were killed”. Especially since I knew that C3 Percy was in his 60s, and his family was killed when he was about 17/18, so the timeline lined up. Of course, that was me lowballing it, but that was the general timeframe I had in my head.

And then she mentioned specifically that Delilah killed her, and that she was some random farm girl, so nowhere NEAR the castle when the Briarwoods took over. I had my suspicions that, okay, MAYBE Laudna died closer to the Briarwoods Arc in C1, but I wasn’t sure

And then Laudna was telling Orym HOW she died and when. The MOMENT she said that the Briarwoods invited her for dinner and gave her a change of clothes, it clicked. Because that’s how it was in the fucking cartoon. And obviously, S1 of the cartoon came out while C2 was still going strong, so obviously Laudna isn’t technically in the cartoon, but STILL. Just KNOWING that she was one of the victims—most likely the one that represented Vex bc of the dark hair…I can never look at that scene the same way again. It was already dark beforehand, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a much darker air to it KNOWING who one of those victims were.

And it makes so much more sense why she didn’t know that there were still living members of the De Rolo family, or that Whitestone was doing better after the Briarwoods were killed. She died, what, a few days before the city knew that Percy and Cassandra still lived.

Like, I knew that C1 and C3 were HEAVILY intertwined, but fuck. I knew that C3 was dark, but holy fuck. We’re not even at episode 20 yet, yall, what the FUCK.

[littlelesbianknight]

orym’s look of alarm when fearne announces that she’s gonna make her way through the whole party is so funny… also him growing flowers on zhudanna’s door and in imogen’s hair <3333

[mothers-and-fuckers-of-the-jury]

OH MY GOD

[shorthaltsjester]

ON RUNNING; Imogen Temult

Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 3 “The Trail and the Toll” // Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 12 “Make It Fashion” // Illustrated Horse-Breaking by Matthew Horace (1905) // Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 17 “Heart-to-Heartmoor” // Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 19 “Omens Above” // Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile // Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 34 “What Dreams May Come” // Legends Never Die by Orville Peck and Shania Twain // Queen of Peace by Florence + The Machine // Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 40 “Compulsion”  // Wild Horses by The Rolling Stones // Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 48 “An Exit Most Fraught” // Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 78 “Fractures” // On Horse-Breaking by Robert Moreton (1877) // Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 83 “Ruidus” // Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 89 “Divisive Portents”

[finni-i]

Random web weaving on Orym my bb.

Plus Orym gives some very underrated quotes "... but that's not all there is" sits with me a lot

Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 - Epilogue / Critical role: EXU - 01x01 "The Nameless Ones" / Unknown / Unknown / Critical role: Bells Hells - 03x17 - Heart-to-Heartmoore / @Geloyconception / @Griefmother / Unknown

[quipxotic]

So many people in the tags seem to think Bell's Hells can just ignore what the Arch Heart said in c3e107 and everything will be fine. But it's a game of chicken, right?

They could defeat Ludinus and still end up facing the Calamity 2.0.

They could prevent Predathos from being released and still face near complete destruction of the world they know.

Because it's about who blinks first. How long will the gods wait to unleash their attack knowing that their own existence is at risk? How long do we trust them to wait because we know, thanks to Downfall, that while the Primes may love mortals as their children they value mortal lives less than their own. And from a near-immortal perspective it makes sense. Lives that are gone in the blink of an eye and are soon replaced by a near endless supply of other mayfly lives vs those of your own family who can be with you forever? If you have to make a choice?

I'm not saying killing the gods or chasing them off are either one good ideas. I'm not saying we can trust Predathos won't do terrible damage to the planet or the people living there even if the Arch Heart and Ludinus are correct about them only being interested in eating gods. Orym was right, ants can still die even if they aren't the intended target. I'm saying that not treating a new Calamity as a real threat and an imminent risk is a sure way of being unable to prevent it. Bell's Hells need to consider what they're willing to do and not do to address that risk. And a lot of fans need to think about what they're willing to let go of for the continued presence of the gods of Exandria.

It's not hard to imagine a variety of terrible scenarios.

Bell's Hells. Dead. The Mighty Nein. Dead. Vox Machina. Dead.

Whitestone. Gone.

The Menagerie Coast. Decimated.

The Wildmother alive, but the Clays all dead and the blight they have fought spreading beyond the Savalirwood to engulf a larger part of Wildemount.

Rosohna hollowed out to create yet another set of ruins on that site and the people of the Kryn Dynasty who lived there turned into refugees.

The ruins of Aeor destroyed to prevent any more information and weapons from coming out of them, but done with the might of the gods so that it takes out all of Eiselcross and maybe Uthodurn with it.

Jrusar, Heartmoor Hamlet, and Yios. Gone. Bassuras still around because, let's be real, even a second Calamity couldn't kill that place.

Maybe this is the fight that succeeds in taking out Vasselheim?

If Predathos isn't released then Ruidus and the people on it might survive. But if Predathos is released AND the gods step out from behind the Divine Gate, does everyone and everything on that moon die in their attempt to stop the god eater?

This is obviously not an exhaustive list of the possibilities, just scenarios that are at the top of my mind. And it's not a foregone conclusion that anything like this will happen, but all of these things could happen. Think about every beloved place and favorite NPC and imagine them all gone. Because if the gods come out from behind the Divine Gate, they will all come out, not just the Primes. And once they are all out, how willing are the gods (as Braius said, ALL the gods) to go back to the old status quo, something that not all of them were happy with in the first place? You could have a situation where the fight with Ludinus over Predathos is over fairly quickly, only to be followed by a longer, more devastating fight between the Primes and the Betrayers, take 2 (or 3, or whatever number we're up to at this point).

How long does it take a group of gods to destroy a planet, even if they don't intend to do so?

[utilitycaster]

hi! I'm sorry if you answered this already and I missed the post, but what are your general thoughts on the party being split for so long?

Short answer: I think it's great. I think the best way to answer this accurately is to cover some of my past complaints about the campaign, and discuss how this split is addressing the vast majority of them. This is also, I suppose, serves as an argument for why it's worth getting caught up with Campaign 3 for anyone who fell off of regular watching.

I'll begin by saying that I understand the desire to have something akin to Campaign 2 but in Marquet: a group of people deeply tied into the lore and fabric of the setting and yet displaced within it, finding each other. I still would have liked to see that story. I do not fault people for being disappointed in not getting that, particularly given what Marquet means as a setting, and this still is not that campaign. But pretty much all of my other complaints have been addressed by the apogee solstice and the party split and so I'm not here to mourn what I know didn't happen, and instead to talk about how the last ten or so episodes have been banger after banger.

I said this elsewhere recently but my issue wasn't that the campaign was building up to the apogee solstice setpiece; it was that it took about 30 episodes to even reveal that was what the buildup was for, and yet, somehow, 35 episodes to finally be done with Treshi. Which meant in turn that the party was constantly kind of shepherded from place to place. Even the sidequests were mostly part of the buildup - Heartmoor Hamlet is a good time, and achieves quite a lot in only a handful of episodes - but it is, ultimately, mostly there to wipe out Ashton's debt which would be a detriment to getting to the main plot. The modular, party-driven nature of Campaign 2 just wasn't an option, since they could have quite possibly avoided the solstice (akin to how Campaign 2 completely avoided the Augen Trust plot and required a drastic reworking of the Lucien plot). But because it started so early, it was hard to get a sense of what would actually motivate the characters so that they could be guided more naturally by hooks they'd be likely to take, since they were doing fetch quest after fetch quest with a wealthy patron (I love Eshteross with all my heart but that kind of figure early in the story is tough to incorporate; more on that later) and getting lore dumped at by NPCs and never really had to scramble or take weird jobs killing rats in the sewers or even share rooms in an inn with people they didn't already know before the story started.

Which is the second part: the party did not really mix that much. Imogen and Laudna came in codependently joined at the hip, and Orym and Fearne were also quite close. Ashton and FCG had a looser arrangement, and Chetney was the only true free agent. So a lot of the time, the party felt like three groups working together with tenuous bridges rather than a coherent party, and they never quite had either the downtime to cohere, or the massive crisis to force them together. This party has actually seen quite a lot of death, but Bertand's happened too early, and while Laudna's didn't quite reset to the status quo, it also occurred just as the Treshi plot had ended and so the timeline was becoming even more accelerated. The seeds of something were there, but they needed something more to actually take root.

Enter the apogee solstice and the party split. This has fixed basically everything:

The fact that the solstice happened means that now we're in damage control mode. There's a clear motivator for the party, but one that they genuinely care about rather than one that requires the DM being like "and THIS NPC wants THIS thing."

It also forces the party to develop those relationships outside of the friend they started with. The obvious first reason is that the groups are split up along those lines. That is not an accident or a cruel joke; that's fucking necessary, frankly, to get the party to bond. As my meta about Laudna and Orym points out, not having their emotional support prior colleague - even by sending - and frankly, yeah, not even knowing they're alive, for certain, is what will make these characters actually grow and change. As we saw, the same is true for Fearne, Imogen, and FCG.

It notably removes the spotlight from Imogen, which is good, because the cool development happens after the character-focused arc, when they can process, rather than during. She's still Ruidusborn, but what that means is very different from what it meant pre-ritual.

Then there's the practical element of travel. This party probably isn't going to be teleporting nonstop, but they did have comparatively fast travel in the form of a skyship from very early on, and in another three levels Fearne will have transport via plants, and Imogen can take teleport as a cast spell the level after that, and then we'll never get to see much of the world...but if you break teleporting a bit? You send them into the middle of the wilderness? Yeah, they're going to need to have those watch conversations that were far too few and far between early in the campaign.

And allies! This party's doing it backwards. They've lost Eshteross; Keyleth's fate is unknown to them; Ryn is a statue; Beau and Caleb's fates are similar question marks. After so much time of having patrons and friendly wizards telling them what to do? They're alone, and they have to survive by their wits and by leaning on each other.

The fact that we've got guests is good both because we get to see different facets of the main cast's characters through their responses to these new companions, and because we're getting to fill some of the gaps in the party (people with more longstanding relationships to deities; people with 20 INT scores). It also pushes Bells Hells, in some way, closer together, by having to assert that they are part of a group with shared experience. And it's just a delight to have them.

This is also just fun for fans in that we're getting to see some of the most wished for locations - the Mighty Nein's time in Uthodurn was brief and very focused, and everyone's been clamoring for Molaesmyr and Issylra. For all that Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein fought world-wide threats, they were largely contained to a specific region, and I think this is really setting the stage for how big a deal the apogee solstice really is, by flinging the party across the world and showing how everyone is affected.

Anyway: love the party split. I honestly would have been happy with one or two more episodes of the other party and am looking forward to a similar length arc for this party, and honestly, even then, it might take a few episodes for them to reunite, and I think they'll all be better for it.

[critter-genfic-events]

This week, we have seven hilarious prank fics recced! Read along for some hi-jinks and mischief! Check them out under the cut, and as ever, comment or kudos if you like them!

What Goes Up by krakens (2311,General) Warnings: None Pairings: background Vax/Gilmore

Pike suggests playing a prank on Vax. Grog suggests putting a cow in his room.

Reccer says: A perfect Vox Machina messing around fic

Open All the Windows by hufflepirate (4563,General) Warnings: None Pairings: Jester & the Traveler

Even as Jester grows older, sometimes that first spell is still the best spell. It always means the Traveler is there. It always means she isn't really alone.

Reccer says: I liked it

Distance makes the heart grow fonder by Multifandom_damnation (2805,General) Warnings: None Pairings: The Clay Siblings

Caduceus is gone just as fast as he arrived, and he leaves his siblings behind to bicker amongst themselves and think about everything he's been through in the ten years that they've been away.

Reccer says: I love the sibling dynamics and the outsider view of what Caduceus would have been through without his siblings.

Spell JAMmer by xtinethepirate (1496,General) Warnings: Pairings: Background Shadowgast, Essek & Verin Thelyss

Essek relates a story from his past. Jester gets ideas. Verin is stuck with cleaning duty.

Reccer says: A fun callback to the random Verin and Essek story Matt told on a charity stream, with added Jessties

Untitled Fearne Game by Deramin (200,General) Warnings: minor animal ruffling Pairings:

It’s a lovely morning at the pond, and you are a horrible fey.

Reccer says: It's extremely short (200 words) but perfect for what it needs to be

The Wrong Side of the Bed by Samuraiko (467,Teen) Warnings: None Pairings:

Just because Orym's the healthy and well-adjusted one doesn't mean he can't cut loose and have some fun every now and again... especially with a little help from Ashton. (takes place just before the departure to the Heartmoor)

Reccer says: I liked it

garden crimes by quinn_of_aebradore (233,General) Warnings: None Pairings: Essek & Yasha

Yasha engages in some mischief while she and Essek are gardening together.

Reccer says: It's short, sweet, and wonderfully silly!

This is one of our weekly communally-generated gen rec lists. Every week we announce a new theme and allow anyone to submit a fic recommendation. Please note that the summary and content notes are provided by the reccer, and may be different than what the author has provided. Please assume good intentions all around. <3

And hey, anyone includes you!

Next week, we'll be featuring fics focused on Ashton!

Then, it'll be Hair Care, Pre-Campaign, and Crashing A Party!

Any fics coming to mind?  Well, then use this form to submit!

If you're looking for some more, check out some fics written in the critter genfic bingo tag, or the older rec lists! Or you can request your own card and join in on the fun!

[astralleywright]

how about the rest of the hells? i think laudna, fearne, orym and letters, right? not braius though he's only been here for 6 episodes unless you think that's enough

Chetney sweetie i'm so sorry. here's Chetney

First impression

just ;like. laughter for an hour. that first hour or so after Chet's introduction just one of the funniest moments in the campaign

Impression now

that's peepaw!!! what a wonderfully insane old man. i love him. i'm not sure if Travis even realizes that he made an actually good character

Favorite moment

honestly its probably still him giving the moon box to Orym. one of the first most thoughtful things he did. but also his confrontation with the other toymaker in the Heartmoor

Idea for a story

WE ARE GOING TO POPCON.

Unpopular opinion

HE IS NEVER GOING TO DIE. CHETNEY WILL LIVE FOREVER AND WE WILL GO TO POPCON

Favorite relationship

wood genuinely i tried to answer this and then my answer was like. all of the Hells and also Deanna and FRIDA. the heart of the group fr. the Laudna and Chet bestiesisms specifically have been hitting like crazy recently though

Favorite headcanon

he's not Orym's dad. Orym's dad is an actual guy whose last name is Tarrintel. Chetney is Scanlan's dad

i guess i'll do the rest of em too, while you're here:

ranked in order from least to most controversial

FCG!

First impression

the most adorable, silliest little robit i had ever seen. Sam Reigel you have done it again

Impression now

the most adorable, silliest little robit i had ever seen. Sam Reigel you have done it again -said while crying now

also like. damn. kind of one of the best CR PCs to ever do it

Favorite moment

i'm not original, it's his sacrifice scene. and by that i mean when he and Fearne encounter Otohan in Razora and over their link he tells the others to run, assuming they'll die and Fearne will only be captured. AND THEN THE BANISHMENT. but also his death scene yeah

Idea for a story

I will be haunted by them experiencing Aeor again and Downfall forever

Unpopular opinion

Their following of the Changebringer was in fact them trying to stake their entire identity in another person and have someone to tell them what to do bc they feared their own autonomy! This only really started to change near the end, with his insight check on her and expressing his doubts during the Honesty Trial. but ppl were really committed to defending it as Strictly Good bc they were so desperate for a PC with a simplisticly positive relationship to a god

Favorite relationship

LOVELETTERS... also him and Ashton!! and Deanna and Imogen!!

Favorite headcanon

takes your hand. if FCG had seen Downfall he would have gotten to the speakeasy scene and immediately decided to start playing an instrument. they would have approached Dorian for advice about it and everything. it would have been his new thing, like baking or smoking or having a flesh tongue. i miss them so bad

Fearnie!

First impression

i'm going to be honest with the last name Calloway and only having seen her headshot and not actually watched yet she came across as like. an Old Money girl to me SDFDSFVC

Impression now

well. not that! she's actually god's favorite princess and the interesting girl in the world! i love her and want to study her like a bug and listen to her talk about anything

Favorite moment

Everything post shardgate was so good, and her reviving Orym, but I will be honest with you. It's when she gets high as balls on shrooms in the Gloomed Jungle and talks to a beetle she believes is the Changebringer.

Idea for a story

PLEASE LET HER DO UNSEELIE COURT STUFF AND TAKE GLOAMGUT AND THAT FUCKASS SWORD. praying that this diversion they're about to take is more than just 2 combat encounters and back to Vasselheim

Unpopular opinion

please let her be poly and stop obsessing over putting her in traditional monogamous relationships and tropes

Favorite relationship

it might be her relationship with Nana Morri! but also with Orym and Chet

Favorite headcanon

Every time someone makes her fat in their art an angel gets its wings

Waudna

First impression

Impression now

Favorite moment

I have said multiple times that it is impossible to choose and it has never actually been as impossible to choose as this. Do you have a favorite moment of a sunset. Of a breeze on a warm day. It's when she gives Ashton the doll

Idea for a story

an excerpt of the first few pages of What Doesn't Break is out and it is fucking amazing

Unpopular opinion

swordgate was Laudna's anger and grief over the sword AND her desire for power being taken advantage of by Delilah. both played a role, and that desire for power helped spur her to action, but in the literal order of events that grief and anger came first. jokes aside it was Wrong of Laudna to do that, obviously, i don't think anyone actually disagrees, but to pretend it was solely or originally about power is like. ignoring the literal chronology of events lmao.

Favorite relationship

IMODNA obviously but her relationship with Ashton is a very very close second

Favorite headcanon

she's nonbiney :)

Orym haha

First impression

was extremely disconcerted abt hearing Liam speaking in an American accent as my previous CR watch time was almost exclusively C2. where was my littol german boy.

Impression now

i liked Orym well enough but did not find him a particularly engaging character, especially in comparison to his fellow hells, up until their first trip to Issylra. but by the end of that visit I found him intensely interesting! he was spiraling! he was behaving in clearly flawed ways! Liam was saying things both in and out of game that gave the impression he had ideas and a trajectory for Orym besides just kind of like. being stressed and staying the course! I loved the version of Orym we got in Issylra, I found him fascinating, I was so excited to see where he went from there, and then he just kind of disappeared 😭. and Liam started backtracking or specifically nixing many of the most compelling interpretations of Orym's actions then. and it's like okay. 👍. idk what Liam's got cooking for Orym and it's not over until it's over but rn he is kind of back on that original shelf for me

Favorite moment

"That sounds like a threat Orym" "that's what it was" you will ALWAYS be famous

Idea for a story

I would like to know abt his 6 years of traveling after Will died! where did he go. what did he see

Unpopular opinion

i'm pretty sure every opinion i've ever had about Orym is an unpopular opinion LMAO

Favorite relationship

Oh him and Fearne! And Ashton. And i honestly love his and Chet's dynamic

Favorite headcanon

Alma called him a "stoic" child during the Hells visit to Zephrah and ever since I have loved the idea of Orym having been exactly as serious back then. Serious little baby man.

[imogens-temult]

CRITICAL ROLE: CAMPAIGN 3 Episode 17: Heart-to-Heartmoor

[thecavernsabove]

heart to heartmoor.....

after what feels like and maybe could be months I'm finally continuing my c3 rewatch (it will probably be quite sporadic since its still airing 😭) and gOD the convos in this ep are so much

[danielledelayed]

I'm slowly but surely making my way through Campaign 3 of Critical Role and I've gotten through episode 17, Heart-to-Heartmoor, and I had feelings I wanted to share. -SPOILERS for up until C3e17 as well as events in C1 and C2-

Laudna's reveal of being one of the victims of the Briarwoods' ghoulish display on the Sun Tree was great, but Orym's reactions to it and that "the worst thing that could happen has already happened :)" line really hit me. And now learning that Orym had a husband, Will, who was killed in the attack on the Voice of the Tempest, making all of this even more personal…. I loved Caleb with my whole heart, this man who carried guilt and shame as if it was an essential part of his being, an all-encompassing self-hatred implanted by a man whose grip on cruelty was so tight as to teach his abused victims to carry on his work even when he's not there, but man…. Orym's quiet grief is screaming through his brow and leaping from his eyes in a way that digs into you. He's a warm smile that comes from time ripped away. What a beautiful thing.