#imogen and laudna will still be important to each other either way

[wereonthemoonbitch]

Coming from personal experiences I used to say the same thing around my best friend too "sisters from another mister" and then I reached middle school, realized I was gay and caught some hard unrequited feelings for said best friend! That being said....I don't think what Laudna/Marisha said tonight counts romantic Imodna out at all. We gotta remember that Laudna hasn't accessed that part of her brain in 30 years, and either doesn't really see herself capable of romantic love or doesn't think anyone would feel that way towards her. It's gonna take some TIME. Imogen herself said that they weren't romantically intangled before and we can clearly see how much Imogen feels for Laudna. This gave me the same sort of vibes just in a completely different way. It almost read as Laudna didnt know how to explain what they were to each other, so decided to awkwardly say what she said instead. I feel like going forward, and after Imogen and Laudna are reunited, that we will definitely continue to see Laudna's view of their relationship grow and shift. That's just my two cents though✌️

[12pt-times-new-roman]

c3e73

Day 1 of Travel

(a very important update: Marisha's preferred coffee is a flat white with vanilla.)

FCG and Fearne try to scry on Caleb and Beau, and both of them seem to have amulets of proof against detection and location attuned. This means that they are definitely alive, because their scry did not fizzle as it would have if they were dead but was started and then pushed away.

FCG scries on D instead. He's still on the Menagerie Coast, in a large city — presumably either Nicodranas, Port Damali, or Port Zoon.

Meanwhile, Ashton heads below deck to find the skeleton tattoo artist. They convince him to give them a full back piece over the course of the voyage; and Orym asks them all to get a group tattoo. "I mean, no one's said it out loud yet, but... but we're all family now, right?"

Laudna is finally talking about everything that's happened with the entire group! Especially with Delilah, but the gnarlrock, her and Imogen's fight, Bor'dor, and the hunger of the shadow ability, too. FCG suggests she embrace Delilah, continue using the ability, allowing her to grow stronger — but one of the skeletons comes up to her and compares Laudna's situation to an alcohol addiction (which doesn't have as much of an impact because Laudna didn't choose to have or keep Delilah in her head, but is still applicable in some ways).

They ask the skeleton about the captain's trustworthiness, but with a 32 insight check, Fearne determines that although he does mean it when he says the captain is trustworthy and has always followed through on his promises, this particular skeleton is lonely and a little afraid. Syrilia, the navigator, watches him like a hawk.

Laudna: "I don't know if I'm just collecting these souls, like a phylactery, or—" Travis, immediately: *looks up the stat block for a lich while staring daggers at Marisha and Matt because he fuckin knows*

Ashton knows that they're all fighting for each other, and that they won't ever leave anyone behind. They will all have to sacrifice so much, they already have — but sacrifices do not mean casualties.

They go below decks and get their tattoos! Ashton gets an upper back/shoulder, punkish, in-style pair of wings, embossed with a transcription in Primordial: "of the earth, by the earth, for the earth." Everyone else gets a bell with flames around it in varying places.

FCG attempts to scry on Delilah. The ritual fails because she's not on the same plane of existence as FCG. Instead, they try to find her in Laudna's dreams: as Laudna focuses, it's like she has a hard time remembering what Delilah looks like, she's just an outline, a shadow, perpetually back-lit. FCG, meanwhile, sees Laudna stepping through a field of purple orchids and funerary flowers. The distant shadow of Whitestone, unfocused. As Laudna walks, Delilah walks in front of her, as if leading.

Fearne's flirting with the captain!

The combination of her fey irreverence, complete nonchalance, abysmal sleight of hand, and incredible (+13) insight is so fucking good already, but then you add her damn good charisma bonuses on top of all that?

Syrilia goes up to Fearne. "Don't sleep with the captain." "Why, because it's not good?" FEARNE—

The captain's quarters are lit with blue-white fire lanterns, sparsely decorated, with a canopy bed and a fainting couch. She takes the bed, and converses. The captain made a deal with Bane (or a servant of it): he gets his life, his crew, and his ship, in exchange for getting vengeance and all of his belongings, and then the deal is complete and he's free.

She lies down. After a minute — "You're very warm." "You can lie next to me for warmth, if you want." "Are you offering your warmth?" "That sounds ominous." "I'm sorry, everything I say sounds ominous — it sort of comes with the territory." He sits. In that little moment, he doesn't seem scary — he seems sheepish, careful. She convinces him to let her say goodbye to the blade they traded away — "you! Lass of the fey realm! Together, we can do a great many things!" — and she asks the captain, "did it say something to you?" "No." "Fine. Get in the bed. Just — get. in the bed." He looks nervous for a skeleton — "it's been a long time since I, uh..." "SPOONED?"

She can almost see breath as he sighs, content, warm. She looks around the room. Notably, she sees a ring on a wood-carved hand; a porcelain statue of a baby elephant; a chest in the corner with a heavy lock and a mildewed blanket over it; an eclectic collection of things.

All the while, for an hour or two, Fearne grows cold. On a successful saving throw, she reduces the stakes from a certainty to a choice: "do you relinquish the promised warmth?" "Yes." She feels a sliver of warmth leave her, and for just a moment, the captain's bones aren't blanched gray — they glow as if hit by morning sunlight. Fearne's hit points are permanently reduced by 5, and she gains a secret thing (probably a benefit, based on track record) that Matt will tell her at the break.

We skip back to when Fearne entered the chamber. Orym notices Syrilia become frantic at the captain's absence; she clambers down the crow's nest and onto the side of the boat. Taking advantage of the absence, Orym climbs up there, finds her spyglass, takes it, and leaves.

As soon as Fearne exits the captain's chambers, Syrilia is right there, the heat from her smoldering bones almost burning away the hair on Fearne's face. "Don't. ever. touch. the captain... I. will. end. you. If you touch him again. I have to protect him." Oh, she's fucking pissed. Fearne tells them they cuddled, and her bones heat up even more — in an instant, the freezing cold of the lower decks becomes a sauna, steam rises from the upper deck.

Imogen casts calm emotions, it doesn't work, and Fearne convinces her that the captain only talked about her — "you just need to go knock on the door at night. You just need a bit more confidence." and it almost works, but she does step back with a glare and a knocked crossbow.

In the morning, on the last day, the captain asks for more of Fearne's warmth. "I don't feel like I'm getting anything out of this!" "Well, you were kind, to offer a bit of your warmth. Perhaps we could make another deal." "I don't know if I'm being kind anymore!" "I'm, uh... not used to this. I'll be in my quarters, if you decide."

Imogen speaks into Syrilia's head. "I mean... you are warm... offer him your warmth." She walks, confidently, down the hall, up to the door, and raps on the door — her hand goes to the front of the captain's coat, where flames erupt, and the captain goes, "oh." "Word is, you're looking for warmth?"

Laudna sends Pate to spy on them, and it's like a sauna. The room is full of steam. A skeletal hand scrapes across a window, Kate Winslet-style.

Every lantern light on the ship turns from an icy blue to a warm orange-red. "The captain's gettin' peg-legged right now." "Yo ho ho!"

They arrive at their destination. "It's been terrible having you on board! Glad to be rid of you!" The captain's flaming eye winks.

Oh, the Bells Hells are planning something -- "we have a surprise for you!" "I don't like surprises." "Well, put that blade away, 'cause I'm not gonna tell you what it is." "...everyone below decks!"

They decorate the top deck with banners and all manner of things to celebrate the pirate crew.

Orym sets up a limbo vine. Chetney has a caricature portrait station. Laudna does face-painting. Imogen does fortune telling. Fearne runs games for prizes. Fearne plays the pan-flute with FCG as her pedalboard. Ashton finds their most noxious, strong-smelling whiskey and sets it out so they can remember the good times.

The skeleton pirates dance, they limbo, they don't eat -- they make fun of Kyle, but the Hells make a gift for him: a nametag ("my name's Kyle, you fucks!"), a drawing, and a defense against his bullies.

FCG and Fearne both quietly, unacknowledged, remark that they truly made a difference because of this. (Quick, someone write an analysis about how the Bells Hells constantly treat any difference made to the minority as a victory for the majority, and about how their constant defense of the minority is Not A Good Thing Actually when the majority consists of the majority of the fucking planet--)

Imogen takes Laudna's hands and starts the dance. The skeletons start to dance, their bones make the percussion section, Sanjay plays his violin. (The only thing I can imagine here is the elecroswing remix of Spooky Scary Skeletons)

When the captain announces landfall, the music immediately stops, and the entire crew encircles the Bells Hells. "If any of you tells a single soul that you've danced with the crew of the Crimson Abyss, your bloodlines will be on my list, as well. There was no dancin', there was no laughter, there was no limbo."

The captain gives them a list of some of his belongings, just to keep an eye and ear out for on their travels. Then, the jump into the water and begin to swim to shore, without the inhabitants of the island ever having seen the skeleton crew.

Their first look at the island of Kalutha is of a lagoon leading into a steep basalt cliff-face. The entire thing seems to be composed of columnar basalt, which breaks naturally into hexagonal pillars. The bright teal ocean contrasts with yellow and greenish flora.

There are ruins, remnants of what might've been a campsite -- Orym identifies them as being a few years old, but not ancient. He also spots two caverns, one at beach level and another 40 feet up the cliff.

Ashton sits, digs their hand into the black pebble beach, and just breathes. They sense their essence -- "both of their essences, really, as they are a being of conflict at all times..." a buzzing in their head of the Luxon, the drumming in their chest of their elemental nature. This place is unfamiliar, they know they've never seen it, but they still feel familiarly compelled by it, and they don't know why. They know they're in the right place, but nothing more.

They walk unto the ground-level cave and puts their hand against the wall. In Primordial -- "I'm here. I'm looking for you." But it's just the end of a cave.

Eventually, everyone makes it to the spherical chamber where the upper cave forks. Chetney runs alone to the right, where Pate hasn't scouted, following this citrine putrescence -- and here, he hears the sound of a thousand scales sliding against rock. He goes invisible, but snakes sense by smell -- out of the corner of his eye, something slithers past him, five feet in diameter. At the front, it looks like a thick-hided worm, and it's encircling him, this two-headed creature that's trying to pinpoint Chet's location but is unsure -- he takes out the horn of silent alarm, targeting Imogen.

and we enter initiative!

They're talking about the creatonotos gangis moth! It's that weird moth with extrusions that look like an eldritch horror that was circulating on Tumblr for a while.

No new combat updates :(

Farther down the cave, Chetney finds a lightless, underground chasm where seawater rushes through beneath the island. (Hey. Hey, y'all remember how the land around Cathmoira was shattered when the titans were expelled from it?)

In the creature's nest, they find some sundered weapons and armor. With a history check, Orym has heard of the material these are made of: woe-steel, a material that can only be found within the Shattered Teeth and that was created when Asmodeus shattered Domunas. The steel is sacred to the Ostended Host, and though it is magical (a natural +1 to material made with it), it can be destroyed by thunder damage.

They also find a unique charm on a broken chain: a woe-steel cage, palm-sized, encasing a smooth reddish-brown stone that has an unfamiliar language carved across it. FCG identifies it and finds that it is a raito charm, and has a deep cultural importance to the Aishio people (who inhabit the island of Kolutha and are part of the Ostended Host). It radiates abjuration magic, but the spell doesn't give FCG exactly what it is, and it is attunable only by a specific person, implying that the information of its existence is not accessible to FCG in the same way that information about other magical items has been.

Chetney uses grim psychometry on it. In the red vision, he sees an older man in his 50s, long salt and pepper hair in a bun, trekking through the jungle, leading a hunting party; he wears the charm around his neck, and in seconds was taken by the creature they just killed. Chetney has no sense of how long ago this happened, but because it's a magical item, it wouldn't have aged.

Traversing the other cavern path, they emerge into the creeping, vine-filled jungle that takes this valley. It's almost autumnal in color, and these pieces of columnar basalt are scattered about, some arcing for hundreds of feet in what look almost like broken bridges. But they can see the shadow of three massive mountain peaks that mark the center of this island, and somewhere near the base of those mountains lies the Great Tree of Atrophy.

[fearnesnblerns]

fearne and the shard

c3e79 spoilers ahead!!

i want fearne to put her foot down about refusing the shard

i want her to react in some way to laudna and imogen’s “disappointment” and constant urging to take it

but i also really want her to talk to orym about it

ashton knows she doesn’t want it and clearly respects that choice, chetney urged her to consider it the second they left the ziggurat, and fcg isn’t exactly validating her feelings either

whenever fearne and orym communicate, it’s so clear how they have a deep patience and openness to understand each other. i think if fearne runs her thoughts through him first, she’ll have a better time convincing the others to get off her back about the whole shard thing

i’m not trying to baby her and imply that she can’t articulate herself without orym’s guidance

i think part of the groups insistence despite fearne’s refusal comes from not understanding the whole “dark fearne” thing, and orym witnessed it himself. he can back her up on her claims about this darker self and push the others to realize how deep fearne’s fear of the shard goes

i still think she needs to be firm and even mad at the others for belittling and ignore her opinions (whether they realize it or not, that’s how it comes across), but maybe having orym on her side would help the others understand the importance of her decision

she’s not a coward for fearing this power, and they need to see that

[kaylor]

Is campaign 3 worth watching 😭 im somewhere near ep 45 and there have just been so many arcs that do nothing for me. The stakes feel absurdly high for uhh level .. 6? and i thought it would get good at some point but if they still cant make a plan by ep 80 i dont think i care to waste my time 😭😭

yuhhhh i don't know man. the malleus key and the fallout of it is pretty dope, and idk how many spoilers you've seen so i'll leave it there. but after that it gets very boring again i can't lie.

you're so right about the high stakes!! these characters haven't had any space to breathe or grow since like episode 20 or whenever it was they found out about predathos and the world ending. they've been chasing a plot they're not ready for without doing any of the character work that makes you care about their goal. it's difficult to see why the party is together in the first place because they don't talk to each other or have any reason care about each other (except fearne/orym and imogen/laudna but the latter is so bland it's actually painful).

the party doesn't gel, there's no motivations from anyone beyond orym having a personal stake in it. imogen is so wishywashy about everything. none of them care about the gods except FCG, and no one in the party cares about FCG. except ashton, who is played so passively and unpleasantly that it doesn't even matter. there's no caleb/vax doing his biweekly checkins with each party member to unlock new dialogue. there's no fjord/grog to make a buckwild (yet thematically relevant) decision to direct the party in any direction. there's no driving force behind any of these characters like sorry liam and travis, turns out if you take a backseat to let your friends have the spotlight, they will do sweet fuck all!!

another problem i think is how they're given so many pieces of the puzzle at once, whilst the big bad is already in play. i don't know if that was matt's intention, but it's led to them barely following up on any character driven plot points because, well, the world might end. so any extracurricular character development is nixed in favor of chasing a maxxed out uberbaddy who is almost definitely going to kill them. any cool character moments kind of happen in spite of rather than thanks to the events, and honestly feel a bit forced sometimes because the characters have all been so stagnant for so long, and honestly the most interesting things about the characters are their backstories, which have already happened. their current motivations are a mystery and none of them seem interested in learning more about each other. it just feels very awkward and stale.

PLUS, the stakes are absurdly high but also there are no consequences for anything!! laudna dying didn't feel important because it wasn't permanent! because they can apparently just ask a member of vox machina for a resurrection!!! absolutely bizarre choice from matt to allow that, if i'm being completely honest. like sorry i know that's your wife but marisha should be 40 episodes deep into her backup character by now because there's absolutely no way anyone in VM would agree to resurrecting a delilah briarwood puppet let's be so serious. the party (especially imogen) dealing with a PC death would have made for some really interesting development, and would have created an opportunity for imogen to either take a leadership role to get revenge on otohan, OR break bad and turn on the rest of the party. some delicious pvp. but unfortunately laura doesn't seem to know what to do with her character and therefore does nothing, so it felt extremely flat and meaningless, which kind of sums up c3 tbh. some of the highest stakes but barely a PC who gives a shit.

the past say 10 episodes have been a slog for only a handful of cool moments, so i really hope post episode 82 it picks up a bit. plot is fun and situations are fun but i'm struggling to care about any of these characters because it doesn't seem like any of the cast care about them either. which is a shame because some of them have huge potential, FCG is literally an aeormaton!!!! my god you have GOT to get into it. why is no one getting into it!!!! will someone PLEASE pick up what sam is putting down!!! the payoff is always so good!!!

[mintywolf]

A Long Road Home - Author Notes

Page 36

So by tradition once a year I climb out of my Angst Pit to post something sweet and shippy on my birthday, haha. I didn't get it finished in time this year but by coincidence this plot arc wrapped up on that day so I am counting it!

Laudna has, given her lifelong wish to be a fancy lady, definitely fancied herself the belle of the ball but has never gotten that chance. That the crowning of the Harvest Monarchs is an event for high schoolers is kind of lost on her — either the last time she was at a harvest festival she herself was still of an eligible age and has kind of forgotten that Imogen isn’t, or it’s not a tradition they had in Whitestone, or she just believes that Imogen is the naturally superior winner for any kind of contest.

I haven’t included Master Faramore in any of the Gelvaan town scenes because, despite his being apparently a very important town figure, we know very little about him. But this is supposed to be him presenting the winners.

The script originally called for them to be “happy in each other’s arms” while dancing, but as we have seen recently Laudna still does not get the message when Imogen is trying to guide her into a romantic moment, haha. I couldn’t decide whether to go for the romantic dance that some people wanted on the pirate ship or for Laudna’s goofy limb-flailing so I kind of split the difference. (The way I had originally pictured it wasn’t super shippy, since it’s a prequel; they were just holding hands and had their arms around the other’s waist.)

It’s the first time in a long time that either of them have felt included in anything. :)

[critroleaintcrit]

C1 & C2 were better at creating the “found family” dynamic between Vox Machina and Mighty Nein group members respectively.

C3 just doesn’t give me that vibe yet. They did a little bit of bonding and confessionals during watches but since then they don’t really talk about themselves and open up about what they want to do with their lives outside of the party. Majority of the PCxPC conversations are about the current plot which ultimately isn’t revealing that much of their characters anymore considering it tends to be the same conversation over and over again. And it seems to be the same pairs interacting & checking on each other all the time which just continues the feeling of this group as disjointed subcategorized smaller groups compared to previous campaign parties.

Has Imogen and Ashton ever spoken privately one on one, a conversation between just the two of them? FCG went like 20 episodes without talking to Ashton and they’re supposed to be friends since before the campaign even started. When’s the last time Fearne and Laudna spoke about anything of substance (not including the fire lesson)?

All the prominent fandom ships for this campaign aren’t rooted on anything substantial hence the need for ship posts collecting “crumbs.” Matter of fact, most of the ships are primarily based on either aesthetics or out of convenience. Orym is gay so logically his only option for shipping is Ashton. Laudna is goth and Imogen is pastel and that combo of colors pleases peoples eyes. No one openly and proudly shipped the automaton FCG until a guest came on and proved automaton romance was possible. Fearne has all sorts of weird aging mix ups—she’s basically a 7 year old with the body of a 112 year old Fey raising a monkey as her child—but I guess fandom’s decided it’s more important she finds someone to waste her time screwing than her navigating her own independent story. People are only shipping polyships out of a weird sexual threesome fetish rather than it being a healthy throuple dynamic. It’s like every character *has* to be coupled off in order for Fandom to be satisfied with this campaign’s collection of characters.

These characters have been a party together for roughly 2 and half months and it still feels like half of them could leave at any time. None of these characters seem to be going out of their way to make or maintain long lasting friendships almost as if they’re just putting up with each other in order to get the job done. This party’s dynamic feels like that late-shift coworkers vibe: fun to be around for a few months and you may discover a lesson or two together but ultimately aren’t lifelong friends.

.

[hand-of-devotion]

Something tells me that they won’t get to the whole. Achieving Rau’shans shard thing as quickly as tonight.

However, I’ve been spending time rotating the potential of literally every Bells Hells member getting it, what it would do to them, and how either narratively rewarding/interesting it would be.

The least likely but in my mind potentially funniest is obviously FCG. I keep making myself laugh at the concept of the influence there being akin to like. Laser beam eye upgrades. Or maybe something with hyper charging the fantasy easy bake oven lmao. I honestly can’t think of a reason as to why he would get it narratively speaking. Maybe if he and Ashton’s relationship were more fleshed out there could be some argument there but out of all the pre-canon duos they’ve sadly been the least developed in my eyes (which isn’t to say they don’t care for each other. they do. just not enough in my mind to make it A Reason for it to end up with FCG).

Unlikely but I could still hypothetically see it being done in a non-humorous way is Imogen. Who I pretty much doubt will genuinely get it as much as I doubt it going to FCG. But she’s still at least more credible in my eyes as a result of her connections to the Ruidus/Ludinus situation. Which also simultaneously is the thing that makes me think she wouldn’t get it? It’s weird. Like I WOULD understand it happening because of her role thus far but simultaneously believe out of everyone her importance is also what makes it nearly least likely. There’s also good meteor imagery there.

Unlikely but still potentially interesting to me. Is a tie between Orym and Chetney. Obviously for Chet, he’s already got a very minimal grasp on the element and the idea of him “going out in a blaze of glory” as a fire wolf is cool conceptually. Orym is weirdly something I’ve thought a lot about but still struggle to word properly. Basically my feelings there can be chalked up to “something something fan the flames”. Regarding his minimal grasp on the element of air, which is complementary to fire. As well as attention that can be drawn towards Orym and Ashton’s already existing battle compatibility. There’s also something to be said about “resident normal little guy” so swiftly becoming less normal to reflect the group I guess?

Then more likely and interesting is Laudna! Other people have already discussed her interest in the Primordial Titans. As well as her active grappling with Delilah AND the source of her sorcerers magic. Of course getting primordial abilities could be extremely dangerous if it does nothing to offset the amount of hypothetical control Delilah has over the situation. But you know. At this point if Laudna wants to try burning the witch out from the inside in some wild attempt to gain SOME sort of active control and understanding over ANY of her powers, I say god speed Queen. I live for hubris and general bad decisions if that wasn’t already obvious from who I’m personally rooting most for.

Then of course the most obvious and likely being a tie between Fearne and Ashton. I’ve talked plenty about Ashton’s specific potential as it’s what I’m personally most interested in seeing so instead I’ll just talk about the aspects of Fearnes potential that I enjoy! Obviously the main two things for me are her established connection to and control over the element as well as her recently established bond with the champion of Asmodeus! I personally am a big fan of the idea that the current primordial shard situation will mirror the union of Ka’mort and Rau’shan. Which, obviously if they’re not uniting through just Ashton as a vessel, the NEXT best parallel to ME would be their ‘union’ having some ties to Asmodeus. Who intended to be the one to ‘revive’ them the first time during the Calamity. And again, Fearne is the closest in the party to Asmodeus. I’ve seen some people mention Nana Morri and how it’s possible she kept Fearne in that weird time pocket because she needed to be older when all this stuff in canon was going on? I don’t personally see that, to me it always seemed like more of an exploration of fey morality (Morris possessiveness over her ‘collection’ and Fearnes complicated ideas about relationships and attachments), the unintended consequences of her parents actions, as well as a potential avenue for strain and conflict for Fearne. But it is true that Morri witnesses ‘fate’ and has messed with the flow of things on purpose before so! I also wouldn’t at all be against that. I would also like to see it effect Mister. Upgrade that fire spirit monkey into like. Fire spirit King Kong. With a gun.

Tldr:

I doubt if it does go entirely to one specific person it’d be anyone other than Fearne or Ashton, MAYBE Laudna. I would be kinda surprised but not upset by it going to Chetney or Orym. And I can’t conceive of a narratively satisfying way of it ending up with Imogen or FCG but also don’t think I’d personally be “mad” about it, I’m sure I could get down with it given time for it to start having effects on them lol

[hanatsuki-esperanza]

I actually agree with you about Imogen. I just don't mesh with her and I think it's because she carries herself like a main character and D&D shouldn't have a main character over the other PC. Unfortunately, I think much like how C2 BBEG was tied heavily to Molly/Lucien from the start, C3 plot/BBEG is going to be heavily tied to Imogen which means her story will be center of everything. Which, for me, kind of makes it more of a campaign issue than just a character issue at this point. I don't care about the story because I don't care about the character leading it. Hopefully I'm wrong and Laudna or Ashton will have more pull in the plot because those two and their deals are more compelling.

The thing about D&D is there is no one main character; it is a group game and Chapter 1 of the PHB (page 15, section 6. Come Together) says as much. Characters who have "main character syndrome" naturally do not mesh in a game where each character is part of a unique group, because they see themselves as more important than everyone else. At that point, it's not D&D, it's an anime or similar show, where the main character has their own adventure while everyone else is along for the ride.

Tying a character's backstory to an arc boss is perfectly fine, it encourages a player to develop a fun backstory and encourages the dungeon master to integrate backstories. However, when a dungeon master allows one character's backstory to become more important than others', then it becomes a problem. Without the central character who is tied to the BBEG, it falls flat. It forces the dungeon master to give them plot armor to keep the BBEG relevant.

Vecna being the BBEG in C1 worked because no one character could claim him. It was built up slowly but couldn't stop, much like an avalanche. When Molly died, Matt was probably thrown for how to bring the party back to the Lucien and the Tombtakers.

So Imogen being made into the main character with the moon being the BBEG isn't necessarily Laura's fault. Instead, it falls on Matt to balance things out. Which given how things happened in C2, there's precedence for a repeat performance of C2, but it's too early to say either way.

That being said, Imogen isn't wholly innocent. It's one thing to be pulled into the main character spotlight, but it's another to carry yourself as a main character and disregard the others. There are tons of horror stories on r/rpghorrorstories, YouTube, and similar sites about characters who think themselves the main character and make it a problem for everyone at the table. High-profile games such as Critical Role are not exempt from this.

I would have to agree that Laudna (Delilah) and Ashton (Hexum) have more interesting backstories than Imogen, with the potential to shape C3 and the boss fights. Also, given the FCG Lore Bombdrop in Episode 26, there’s potential as well. That being said, given the precedence of C2, I doubt Matt will make them anything more than arc villains. I would love to be proven wrong, but...

If Matt takes one of the backstory enemies and makes them a throwaway, afterthought boss like he did with Trent Ikithon at the end of C2, then that’s going to be a problem. And yes, I am still incredibly disappointed by that. The Mighty Nein could have gone to Level 20 and then taken on Ickything, but no, Matt had him show up like an afterthought after the Lucien fight, because otherwise he would have been a loose thread at the campaign end. Matt could have even had a oneshot devoted to the Mighty Nein vs Trent, similar to the Search for Grog, but nooo, the Ikithon fight came out of left field the moment they took their amulets off...

[grayintogreen]

no need to do anything with this info but i want you to know that i totally meant to type”ships” where i ended up putting ”fics” in my ask yesterday, lmao, my bad!

OH THAT MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE... Still challenging though! I'ma try... These are actually not in any proper order because I had to think so hard about it and even then I'm like AM I DOING THIS RIGHT?? I am the GREAT at this. And also I only made it to eight before my brain went PBBLT. I tried and therefore no can judge me.

1. Cree and Lucien (I don't usually headcanon either as aspec, but I could definitely vibe them being that way, because honestly all aspects of Cree and Lucien matter to me and them being soul mates does not necessarily mean they have to be romantic. Also I kinda dig demisexual Cree as a headcanon.)

2. Essek and Jester (I do really love the idea that Jester might be ace and I could really get behind the idea of them having an ace4ace vibe.)

3. Caduceus and Jester (same as above)

4. Caduceus and Fjord (a lot of these are gonna be Caduceus simply because Cad is canonically ace and the bond he and Fjord share is very important to me and, again, Fjord is another character I could easily see as being some sort of ace.)

5. Caduceus and Keyleth (crossover but I really want them to meet and talk to each other and be ace friends)

6. FCG and Ashton (Ashton is wibbly on the ace spectrum so this on, but their bond with FCG gives me mad ace4ace vibes.)

7. Laudna and Imogen (I have gotten on the "okay but what if they are just ace4ace" train due to some meta found here so I'm fully into them with that vibe rather than full on shipping them.)

8. Dorian and Laudna (Iiiii kinda love Dorian being some flavor of ace.)