#or Esteross

[tiny-huts]

So no essek?

[a-fire-left-unchecked]

I made cookies! Excited to see how they taste. I was supposed to make them for my dnd group for our character creation meet up, but I didn't realize the butter and egg needed to be room temperature and the dough chilled.

I'll know for next time! If you wanna try these for yourself, the recipe is on [ critical role books . com / cookies ] (take out spaces).

[leet911]

Regret

They've been in Wildemount six days and Imogen casts sending every night before bed.  It hasn't worked yet, but still she tries.  She steels herself for the static as she weaves the spell and murmurs her message into the void.

"Laudna?  Can you hear me?  Tell me you're alright.  I need you to be alright.  Please.  I'm sorry, Laudna.  I–"  The screeching feedback interrupts, washing out her words and cutting her off.  A spike of pain shoots between her eyes, making her falter.

Imogen lets out a grunt of frustration, flings her pillow against the wall, and when it drops to the ground with a most unsatisfying sound, she invokes her power.  She pulls it from the ground with telekinesis, rips the pillow apart in the air.  As down flutters around the room, Imogen thinks of screaming, but then she remembers that Laudna isn't around to mend her messes, and she instead falls back to the bed with a sob.

There's a soft knock at her door.  "Are you ok?"  It's Fearne.

Imogen tries to steady herself and her voice.  "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Can I come in?"  Fearne is not convinced.

Imogen opens the door and looks around sheepishly.  There are still small bits of dust and feathers drifting around the room.  She realizes then, that she's not wearing her gloves, and her markings are clearly visible.  Self-conscious, she rubs her exposed forearms where the "Whitestone is for lovers" shirt doesn't cover.

Fearne steps in and glances about.  Her voice is soft and gentle.  "Do you want a hug?"

Imogen nods without looking up.

Warmth engulfs her as Fearne reaches out.  "It's ok if you miss her." Fearne smells like the outdoors, like wilderness and animals.  It reminds Imogen of Flora, and Gelvaan, and those mornings spent in the woods with Laudna, back before it felt like the world was ending.  Or maybe it did feel like the world was ending then, but for entirely different reasons, and they hadn’t known it actually was ending.

"It's…" Imogen rubs at her own neck,"it's just that I promised myself we wouldn't be apart again."

"None of this is your fault."

"But I promised her I wouldn't ever leave." Imogen thinks she might cry, and she hates herself for it.  All this power at her fingertips, and she still feels useless.  Calm emotions beckons at her, but that sounds too much like avoiding the question.  That sounds too much like cheating.  Because maybe Imogen believes she needs this pain, that she deserves this punishment.  Imogen was supposed to save the world, even if she never asked for it. Imogen was supposed to save the world so that Laudna would have time to hear all the things Imogen still had to say to her.

"We got sent away, maybe they did too.  We'll find them."

"But what if we're too late?  What if something happened, and Laudna needs us, and we're not there.  You heard what Deanna said.”  Imogen’s voice drops to a whisper.  “What if Laudna needs me?"  And she isn’t sure if the whisper is to keep the thought from Fearne or herself.  Because the next thought stays inside her own head, not daring to be spoken or broadcast.  What if I need Laudna?  See, Imogen remembers the last time Laudna was beyond the reach of her magic and what that meant.

The arms around her tighten.  “Laudna is stronger than she looks.  Orym and Ashton are too.”

Imogen sighs, nods her head.  She knows it’s true.  Laudna is the strongest person she’s ever met.

“Do you want a cookie?”  Fearne asks all of a sudden.  “FCG made them.”  And she rummages through her pouch to pull out a lone cookie.  “It’s not warm anymore, but it’s still pretty good.”

Imogen takes the treat because accepting seems easier than refusing, and eating is easier than talking.  She’s not really hungry but she bites into it anyway.

It’s a gingersnap, of course.   It’s crispy on the outside, and a little soft in the center.  Just like Imogen. Or Laudna. The surface is sweet, dusted with sugar, but there’s depths of spice hidden underneath.  And in the finish, the slightest tang of citrus.  Esteross’ recipe.  Laudna’s favorite.

The rest of the cookie is devoured.  And to Imogen, it tastes just like regret.

[hailz-bellz]

Imogen talking about ludinus and his weird gang of god killers.

Imogen: yeah they make some really good points.

Orym: *flashback to when him, laudna, fearne, lord esteross, his husband, his father all died to ludinus's right hand woman.*....

Orym: now why would you think that?

[anotherawkwardfan]

Lord Ariks Esteross mention in the year 2024

[evilroachindustrial]

Why didn't they just teleport to Esteross's house?

It's probably still empty.

[salty-lemonss]

Game Theory

So crazy theory time;

Remember luxon? The god which was apparently there before the founding? Which does not belong in the pantheon? Which no one knows where it came from? Yeah that one. What if Luxon and Predathos are related? Heck, what if Luxon IS Predathos?!?

Orym's family dies by the hands of the grey assassins. We know that resurrection attempt failed for them. Also Otohan killed Laudna. When FCG attempted 'gentle repose' on her body, Matt said it stopped something. What if the people who are killed by Grey Assassins have their souls taken by Predathos? Maybe that's what Gentle repose stopped? Maybe that's what happened to Orym's family? Maybe that's what happened to Esteross? Crazy theory but who really knows man.

Edit: I don't know how to reply to the replies kn this post. Still learning how to tumblr, sorry.

So to the person who commented about Will; yeah man I think you are right. I forgot about that part.

And the person who commented about luxon and predathos; Exactly! Holy shit!

[fuckblizzardbearlover]

Iistening to critical role 3 again and i cant believe they didnt like...tell the mage that investigated esteross' death something like "Treshis allies and killers of lumas twins are at X digsite seeking to unleash a monster to kill ppl. Any help appreciated".

But asked the squatter to find ppl they havent seen in years to travel 300 miles on foot in 6 days

[quinn-of-aebradore]

Hell yeah! Sorry didn't see you'd already done the three leaves. I like your choices.

What about some side characters?

Personally, I've always adored Bryce, The Gentlemen, Cree, and Calianna. Maybe Milo and Lord Esteross too from CR3 if you're up for it, and if I'm allowed to ask twice. Idk if you've done any of these before. Forgive me if you have. :) Your flower choices are just really interesting. I adore them!

No problem, I'm glad you like them! I reccomend having a look through my answered asks for characters I've done :3 which do include Bryce here and Calianna here!

As for the rest...

The Gentleman gets lotuses for "Estranged Love". There's something very fun with it being a water-blooming flower and him being a water genasi. And his relationship with Marion is just. Mmm. Very good, very interesting, would love to see more of them some day.

Cree has love lies bleeding for "Hopeless Love". Aesthetically, it's very Cognouza, which I love and just. No matter the kind of love, she loved Lucien. Despite it all, despite being his oldest friend, it wasn't enough to save her.

Milo gets yarrow for "Healing". They healed Ashton. They healed Ashton!! They're not a traditional healer by any means and yet they did it.

I've written their plant fic, which can be found here.

And Eshteross has cardinal flowers for "Distinction"! In so many ways is he set apart from his peers among other lords and ladies in Jrusar, many by choice. There's also the secondary definition that specifies set apart by excellence, which I definitely think fits.

I miss him 🥲

Send me a character and I’ll give your their plant

[cringefaecompilation]

tbh seeing that pole about bad faith takes i feel like its a combo of tackling a charged/divisive topic while also lacking in levity, or atleast lacking time enough for the characters to BREATHE. Like, BH has only known eachother for 5 months, two of which they have spent in go go go! mode without any signifigant amount of rest. they never got to fully grieve esteross, they never got to fully grieve fcg, dorian literally lost his brother two-3 days ago, and every time BH finally can agree in a direction they want to go, something comes along and makes them have the same discussion they had about 10 times already instead of letting them put things to bed and work on the rest of their stuff. compare that to c1 or 2 where the pc's had enough downtime to talk to eachother properly, where they had a place that was THIERS where they were actually safe. BH dosent have that. ( in particular, the bad faith dorian takes seem to forget just how recent his brother's death is, along with the now downtime mentioned. same with ashton and fcg.)

one thing we also kinda forget is that this campaign is supposed to be high-stakes and hardcore, which explains the lack of downtime, annoying as it is. i'm just sick of that being the go-to excuse for c3 bashing. it's more annoying than an actual dealbreaker for me.

a bigger problem is that it kinda feels like the characters have to wait turns for their character choices to have payoff but even that was way worse in c2, lest we forget the pirate arc which was 100% fjord no filler and only getting any deeper backstory on beauregard and caduceus in the mid 70s range of episodes. it was damn near instant in c1 when a character pulled some crazy shit

[fuckblizzardbearlover]

Idk about that. They litterally joined esteross for funzies and as a way to do activities with each other. Multiple characters really enjoy thr others company. Half the gane has been them hanging out and soing fun stuff together.

Meanwhile vox machina constantly seperated, fought all the time and vax even was about to tey to leave if the dragons didnt attack, meanwhile the mighty nein didnt trust each other till like after thry met the queen. Beau and fjord and veth didnt trust yasha after her "betrayal", no one even knows about fjord sacrificing lives without asking anyone.

Bells hells from day one was basically "wow i like you, lets hang out" for the first 40 episodes

I think people (cast included, I bet!) really want Bell's Hells to be as tight as Vox Machina or Mighty Nein, they want the team building exercises to work, they want these characters to talk about their issues and come to terms with their trauma, etc.... but I just don't think it's going to happen. (For a variety of reasons I won't get into in this post.)

And that's not necessarily a bad thing?

Everyone loves the found family aspect of D&D, the group-of-besties-against-the-world adventuring party. We had that with VM, though we didn't get to see their characters meeting/bonding since it happened pre-stream; and we had it with M9, who we did get to see as they gained each other's trust and came to rely on each other in a really narratively satisfying way.

But with Bell's Hells, we have a party where the characters are bonded by their quest, but their dynamic is utterly dysfunctional. Which is fascinating, and so much more like a real family. I honestly don't think these characters would be friends at all if they didn't have this shared goal. They're like reluctant coworkers who were forced to work together by their boss (Eshteross, Keyleth, Allura, take your pick), and each person lowkey thinks the other members of their team are bad at their jobs. Some groups just don't work well together, and you can't force it. You can try your hardest, but it will always be like a machine working at 60% efficiency.

My point is, I think we should stop trying to force BH to be more like VM or M9. What if the dysfunctional found family is a feature, not a bug? What if this challenging dynamic ends up being the whole point of campaign 3, and internal conflict is the real enemy BH -- and Exandria at large -- is facing?

[sonreyes]

Hearthside Heroes // A Critical Role Short Story

      Evelyn cleans the mansion. She sweeps and mops and sends the errand boy to grab groceries. She doesn't cook because Lord Eshteross prefers to cook; but she prepares the ingredients, and cleans up after he's done. At night he reads his books locked in his suite while she engages all the traps. Hidden servant's paths, spring-loaded weapons in the walls, hidden swords stashed around the house and a bell on a string that goes to every room in the house were all symptoms of the master's sordid past. Lord Ariks Eshteross, at the end of his days, was left alone to enjoy the wealth he had amassed though he never directly said how. She has her washcloth, he has his secrets.

     Today was a special day; it was the only day she cooked for the old man. She finished the laundry, made a pot of tea, and when the oven timer went off the front door burst open. In ran the master himself, Lord Esteross. There in the foyer she saw him there with a great bloody gash across his shoulder and she dropped the birthday cake on the floor.      "Sir!" Evelyn yelled at Eshteross, "What have you done!? Who did this to you?" She instantly rushed to fetch her washbowl and washcloth. He was limping on a tall elf dressed impeccably in white with fresh blood across them both. Evelyn wiped his brow with a washcloth; her clean bowl was quickly becoming red with each pass over him.

     "I'm sorry Evelynn" Eshteross managed after a while.      "Well it's your floors, Ariks " She grumbled, "It'll take months before-"      "Don't worry about the floors, you need to leave here, you need to go I've-"      "Sir I'm not going anywhere." She said risking a glance at the tall man. He was running his hand over his clothes and the blood began disappearing. "And you are?"      "Ah! It's seems like every day I meet a person who does not yet know me!" The tall man said with a flourish of his hand and in his voice. "I am Angel, woo-er of danger and lover of beauty. Saving all who need it and let the Father sort out the rest!" He ended with a great burst of laughter despite the odd looks from Evelyn.      "I was about to say" Ariks interrupted, "We found our girl's contact in Basurias. I should've expected herself to be there but when we arrived she was already found. Otohan Thull was waiting for us. She’s Legend of the Peaks. A war hero; if you ask the winners." He trailed off.      "I teleported us out but she knows where we are." Angel urged Evelyn meeting her gaze, "She knows where you live."      "It's a matter of time until she lands herself here and aims to kill us." Ariks said with a weighted finality like a burden on his shoulders, "I'm going to stay. Here. I will wait for her and end this here." Ariks pronounced standing up from his chair. He put a hand out as Evelyn began to say something. "No I've already discussed this with Angel. We're staying here to meet her."      "Yeah and totally kill her! Assassinate the assassin in our pajamas!" Angel thrusted a fist in the air and little fireworks burst around behind his head.

     Evelyn could tell Angel enjoyed the attention but when he stopped everyone was silent. They were both hurt and getting better, but there was a silent clock hanging over all of them. She had never expected anyone from Ariks’s past or whoever this assassin was to ever actually come to his house. But she felt safer here than anywhere else. "I'm staying too." She declared.       "Evel-" Ariks was cut off.       "No I know this house better than all of you. I want to stay and help. I want to keep you all sharp for when this person comes." Evelyn proclaimed unwavering, "It's not like you'd know how to keep me out." She said flipping a ring of keys that slipped out of her hands and landed on the floor.      "Erik let's discuss what we need to do here at least first." Angel broke off with Erik around his shoulders stealing a glance to Evelynn and a wink.

     Over the next several hours Evelynn was in a frantic dash to get the housework done. She ran down to the corner with a bag of silver to the errand boy to grab dried food rations, lumber to bar the windows, and an extra bag of silver with the instructions to never return to Lord Estheross's house. Evelyn herself made a trip to the guards to hopefully plead or pay for extra guards for a ten day. Coming back to the house after five hours of chores and talking to people around Ariks’s dwindling social circle with an arm full of groceries and medicine kits.

     Opening the door she nearly dropped everything. A gigantic four foot tall lizard dropped from the ceiling above her with a bronze knife slashing at her face with it. "AAUAAHHH!!" Evelyn screamed with a lizard on her face nearly toppling over herself as she backed away from this vicious thing that about came up to her waist standing. She kicked it in the face and it snapped back rushing at her and then to the bag at her hands. She jumped away as it pulled out a great slab of jerky from her bag and ran back inside the house shutting the door behind it with a hind leg. It was chaos inside. Lizards as big as children were wrestling each other out of the kitchen covered in flour and fighting over a chicken leg.

     "STOP!" Ariks boomed over his foyer. The lizards all stopped and looked at him, "These are my guests you fools and stop eating!" The lizards gathered their things and scurried up to the upper floor breaking a few vases along the way. One ran past her and grabbed its knife and the last jerky and ran up with the rest. "Sorry Evelyn, those are hired hands from places unknown to me. It’s difficult to find magical items like these. Powerful. But one use only." Ariks said glancing into a past long gone by as he pulled out a broken stone with runes about it. "They'll listen to me." Ariks smiled, "As long as I keep feeding them."

     Angel found himself a bedroom near Ariks’s bedroom. He didn't come out much because he was sleeping during the day but she would make him breakfast at night making sure to step over the trapped step in the stairs. It was this time that she got to talk with him in somber intimate chats where he told her stories about Ariks she had never known before. She had never even seen this man before yet he seemed to know so much about Ariks. Apparently they used to coordinate spies to collect and gather intelligence across Marquet. After that she slept in a servant's passageway with some blankets and pillows for a bed and a wooden rod to bar the door. Each morning was similar, disarm the traps, feed the lizards, look out the window, fear, and prepare the food. She didn't get to speak much with the master of the house. She placed his food just inside the room and an hour later come back to pick up the dirty dishes. Falling asleep was difficult, but after listening and only hearing nothing for so long Evelynn always eventually found sleep.

     The dishes were rattling. She had fallen asleep and now someone had kicked over the dishes. She silently cursed herself for leaving them out. She undid the wooden rod and padded out into the night ducking underneath the fire-breathing bust of Ariks himself, leaving it dark. Turning the corner she saw the door slightly open and froze. The master suite door was open and she knew it should be closed. Her head was washed with burning worry mixed with nausea and dizziness. She couldn't think of anything else to do except.... She took a big breath of air and rang the wire connected to bells across the whole house screaming, "HEY WAKE UP!" Tears streaming down her cheeks in desperation for her friend inside, "HEY WHAT'S GOING ON!?" She yelled at all her fears there in the dark before her.

     The door slammed open shattering porcelain dishes to the wall as a figured ran at Evelyn. Evelyn ran with a tenacious terrified will to stay alive a few more seconds. Rolling under the bust, Evelyn watched the figure get engulfed in flames. Rushing back to her makeshift bed she closed the wooden rod keeping the door in place. Scrambling to her feet she ran down the corridor banging on the walls and down the steps. She knew the assassin wouldn't have time to get down to where she was going so she flung the door open and quietly closed it until it matched its surroundings leaving it completely hidden. She was in the kitchen now. She almost tripped over a lizard running out into the foyer; its tiny blade held high. Overhead footsteps boomed across her on the floor above. She grabbed a kitchen knife and ran out the door, slowly following the stairs back up to the master suite. It was silent again. She knew everyone had to be awake, surely nobody was dead and still the house was utterly quiet. Opening the door to Ariks‘s room she crept in. Quickly there were footsteps running outside that she didn't recognize. The door opened and in slipped Angel almost next to her. "Angel" She whispered.

     He gave a stifled screamed and covered his mouth with a look of death and surprise at Evelyn. "Stay here, she will be upon us soon." He said opening the door and against the black of the hallway a darker figure was running towards them. She was running full speed with a dancer’s body dark in dark leathers. As she was at the threshold he threw blinding light in her eyes and threw Evelyn and himself across the floor away from her as she stumbled into the room. The room was lit with bright true white. Whipping her swords around her the woman pulled off her hood. As she opened her mouth to speak a large crack sounded overhead as Lord Eshteross broke through the ceiling and landed on her. Rolling off he reached under his bed and pulled out his walking stick.

     "DONE!" He shouted and a clap of thunder boomed in the room and they were all blown away from each other. When Evelyn got up from the other side of the bed, Angel had a sword and then they were fighting, in a dance of the blade. Rolling out from the two, all Evelyn could tell was that she had brown hair and piercing eyes and she was running straight for her. Diving again Evelyn slammed her fist on a panel in the wall and a hand axe flew out of the wall and checked the assassin on the shoulder stopping her in her tracks. She ran over the bed and ducked out of the room. Following Evelyn the assassin jumped over the railing to land in front of Evelyn. It was now that Evelyn noticed the front door was open with the bodies of slain guards at the foot. But here was Otohan Thull, hero of the Peaks keeping pace as Evelyn backed away up the stairs. A quick flurry of air whipped by the assassin as a quiver of bolts flew past her and stuck into the wall. Looking quite amused at the trap under her feet and she pressed on.

     The lizards were coming from the hall now. There were only two of them but behind Evelyn, Angel and Ariks were behind her. Otohan was there before them fending off the two lizards deftly while Angel grew bright celestial wings like a great bird and began flying around the assassin shining bright light in her eyes as Ariks rushed down with a rapier better suited for close melee. Their swords dashed, up and along the banister. Together they spun about each other dueling and even though Ariks had several advantages he was still only keeping himself just alive. Angel jumped down and now he had his sword out that shined just like he did in this dark place but the assassin had her shadows. The shadows grew from her and formed about her sometimes taking form to block an attack or to slash at an opening in Erik's defense. They fought and Evelyn knew she was frozen in fear, she wasn’t a help here to anyone. She almost threw her kitchen knife to help only realizing she had dropped it somewhere. She had to get out. Ariks raised his sword as another shade from the shadows cut at his leg and he fell to one knee. She had to run around them without drawing her attention. Angel grabbed the assassin by the head and head-butted her with a ripple of purple energy surrounding his forehead.

     "I got the information, Ariks." Angel gasped. It looked like he was watching something with his eyes as they flicked in his head. Stepping in Estheross thrust his sword in still focusing on catching the assassin's attention.

     "Hold her off for Evelyn!" Ariks shouted. They were constantly having to back to the assassin's inexorable advance. Evelyn darted around them and ran out from the mansion into the cold night air. Turning around she saw Angel look back at her, give her a wink and blinked out in a white spark leaving Eshteross to fight the assassin alone.

     "Help!" Evelyn shouted stepping over the bodies at her doorstep. Vision blurred and stumbling over herself she was crying uncontrollably. She caught the attention of a band of guards nearby and only in their torchlight realized she was covered in blood. She took them to the mansion with its door still left open. And when they went inside, only Lord Ariks lay on the floor in a pool of blood.

[lurrlonde]

lord eshteross with his spiced 'cake'. id eat it in a heartbeat for this old man

[hollywoodnobody]

And for me, it’s less about “sympathizing with the gods” and more about “not sympathizing with these bullies”. Like not many people are saying that we shouldn’t question the gods. I get that Matt’s thing for this campaign is questioning the gods. It’s more about not condoning the actions of Ludinus and the Ruby Vanguard. Like, I could give jack all about questioning the gods. Question them! Maybe they aren’t all that they were cracked up to be. I can see where a character might have curiosity about whether the Ruby Vanguard was in the right for trying to tear down the gods. And maybe they are, but the way they have gonna about doing it is questionable. When Orym reveals the information about what happened to his family at the hands of these people, it’s not a “don’t fight the gods” plea, it’s a “don’t side with these murders” plea. And for someone to continue to question the rights and wrongs of the Ruby Vanguard AFTER this man has bared his life’s great pain to them. The rights and wrongs of the gods? Go ahead, debate them. But Ludinus and the Ruby Vanguard is a lot like the Marvel franchise and Thanos. Wasn’t there a whole question presented of “Thanos was right.” And whether or not his base philosophy was right or wrong, one man made a decision and it cost billions of lives. Give the little halfling man a break. These people killed his husband, his father figure, many other Ashari, Lord Esteross, Laudna, Fearne, HIMSELF, possibly Keyleth, and you could even say Bertrand, if you squint at the connections. They have taken so much from him.

It was never about the gods in this situation.

As Orym said to Bor’dor: “The gods have shaped the history of this world. They have dropped miracles from their seats on high and caused irreparable damage and unmistakable good. I don't know that I care. I care about you and me, and I care about my family across an ocean.”

Bor’dor was no different than Orym. Bor’dor lost the ones he loved to this halfling man and his friends. Only thing different about them is that Bor’dor confronted the people who ruined his life and DIED trying to fight for those he lost. And Liam made it clear that Orym is willing to do the same.

IT WAS NEVER ABOUT THE GODS IN THIS SITUATION.

At it's core the argument of "but the Gods have done bad things to the people of the Ruby Vanguard, so maybe they are right!" is very similar to "but your bullies feel lonely sometimes too, that's why they hurt you!"

Yes, maybe, and it is good to think about that, but if the bullies keep punching you (murdering your family and friends), at one point you will punch back (try to stop the bullies from destroying the world).

I feel Orym in particular is done trying to sympathise with the reasoning of the Vanguard members and Ludinus Da'Leth. He has been punched too many times. He literally had to drag Prism - who was covered in acid and was still taking damage - away from a person he trusted and was friends with. Who betrayed him. All in the name of some stupid plan. Bor'Dor could have tried to talk. He could have tried to explain. But no. He threw a bomb of acid on all of them.

As Denise said, I am immune to the Feeling Bad Condition.

[punkrockgenasiashton]

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