#wall bell

[linterieurid-21]

Relaxdays Antique Cast Iron Door Bell Country House Look Loud Sound Wall Bell Garden Decor Weatherproof Brown

[miryel89]

[r-aindr0p]

That last chapter of Glorious masquerade was crazy.

[imogens-temult]

CRITICAL ROLE: CAMPAIGN 3 Episode 5: The Threat Between the Walls

[yudol-skorbi]

i have lots of feelings about them

[mini-minish]

haven't even seen the episode 😭😭😭

[soaring-trash]

POV your girlfriend half transforms into her form of dread to carry you so easily your like a teddy bear now and have no idea how to react.

(it’s also that one meme)

[undead-knick-knack]

Pâté isn't the only one who could've been eldritch blasted that night

(the painting is "Disturbed Sleep" (1849) by Johann Peter Hasenclever)

[utilitycaster]

I like that the Raven Queen, who made the decision to take on an immense and (at least to her understanding at the time) unending responsibility is the one who calls Bells Hells out on their endless indecision.

It's been...interesting, shall we say, tracking this "party of NPCs," and tracking the fandom response throughout. The initial reception to "party of NPCs" was actually a rather cold one. This took place early in the campaign, prior to the Gnarlrock fight, and at the time a lot of people who shipped Imogen and Laudna were actually extremely resistant to the idea that Imogen was the "main character" of the campaign (as seen in the fallout from the gnarlrock fight, in which the bulk of attacks from the fandom were on Imogen). I've had complicated feelings on Taliesin's reads of this campaign specifically - he tends to have a very good understanding of his own characters that doesn't necessarily expand beyond them - but that phrase was indeed pretty valid. I think about the WBN interludes, in fact, in which the cast plays using NPC statblocks, and what a true party of NPCs for Bells Hells would look like, since it would be quite simple to draw up.

Allied NPCs in TTRPGs rarely act without guidance from the PCs. I've cast a critical eye in the past towards certain meta (particularly romantic in nature, regarding Yeza or Essek or Gilmore not making moves) for this reason, because while villains and antagonists move throughout the world generating obstacles, allies exist to be directed. They have their limits, of course; they have their own priorities and motivations and cannot be persuaded against their nature, but they can be guided at oblique angles from the GMs initial intent given enough work from the PCs. They're still people with thoughts and feelings and dreams, to an extent, but rarely do they make decisions that would conflict with those of the PCs.

That's the problem with a party of NPCs. NPCs take direction. They serve as support, but they're not in the driver's seat. And the Raven Queen has noticed.

The attitude within the fandom towards "Party of NPCs" became far more positive over time, and I wonder if it should have. People began to lean perhaps too heavily on how Bells Hells were people from nothing and nowhere, discarded. This is of course objectively false when comparing across parties (can we really say Imogen had a worse childhood than Vex? Chetney to Caleb? Even Ashton to Fjord?) but were it true, that in and of itself wouldn't be a problem. D&D backstories are often tear-stained and blood-soaked, full of unjust accusations, dead or neglectful parents, failure and regret. D&D is a game about coming from very little but a disproportionately good stat block for a commoner. It is unavoidably about amassing power. Starting off as a party of NPCs is fine. You should not still be a party of NPCs at the endgame.

I mentioned the gnarlrock, and I've mentioned an emphasis (or overemphasis) on this party's lack of agency and I think that remains the problem. Ludinus's villainy is rich, complex, and multifaceted, but a consistent element of it is his eternal false insistence that he - Martinet, founder and head of the Cerberus Assembly, Archmage - is just a little guy, chaff in the wind of the will of the gods, without free will of his own (he says, as he places his thread outside the reach of the Matron). That too is a theme in fandom discourse: free will and intent. Is Imogen justified in being angry at Laudna for breaking the rock if that wasn't Laudna's intent? (yes.) Is Orym on a quest of vengeance, with a death wish? (no, but if he were it wouldn't matter.) Was it wrong to pressure Fearne to take the shard instead of letting her make her own choices? (yes.)

Did any of you, perhaps in preschool or kindergarten, since that's about the age when this happens, have someone pull your hair and for adults to say "it's because they like you?" I find this is a good way to convey the importance, or unimportance, or intent. Because when your hair is being pulled, at least if that is the extent of the problem, it doesn't matter if it comes from the misguided affections of a four-year-old admirer who doesn't know how to use their words, or a six-year-old who just grabbed the most obvious material with which to test the limits of the safety scissors, or an eleven-year-old bully. Your hair is being pulled and you want it to stop. It doesn't matter if the person secretly likes you or if they want to hurt you; it matters that no matter the intent behind it, they are doing so. And if you reject the affections of your fellow preschool classmate because you think they might pull your hair, that's a fair consequence.

Bells Hells' indecision is some sort of cosmic hair pulling. They have reasons for faltering, and some of those reasons are understandable balking at an immense weight placed upon them and some of those reasons come from a deeply self-centered place in which their individual pain is used to blot out the suffering of countless others. But in the end, even that doesn't matter. Their histories don't matter. We don't need another series of introductions of where they come from and what they've done. We need people who can make decisions and who will act.

The Raven Queen seems to have been convinced they will. I'm not sure. But I think we are in agreement that inaction is, regardless of the intent behind it, no different than active harm. It would be irresponsible to continue to be a party of NPCs; if they truly are lost and forgotten fuck-ups, they have a responsibility (as the god of death once did) to abdicate and find a replacement.

[goshyesvintageads]

American Telephone & Telegraph Co, 1962

[miryel89]

Day 7. Bell

[alliekitaguchi]

i cannot believe fcg died and the very next episode, robbie daymond returned to the table as dorian storm, confirming that dorian has been upset since leaving the bells, that he's unsettled in the realization that he's missing something, something he ran from, something that he didn't have but that he wanted, and wondering why he's with the crown keepers at all.

and i cannot believe the bells hells disappeared on orym's message to dorian:

“We’re home. Can you hear me? Northeast of Bassuras... Can you get there? I’m struggling... sorry… can you get here? Fuck, I miss you.”

which means that (so long as dorian survives this trek), we'll get to see his response to that message, and hear his reply, but more importantly: orym will hear his voice for the first time since episode 49.

[xuseokgyu]

Song F***ing Mingi ⁕ Berlin Day1 ⁕ 230214

[wyvernity]

sss day my favorite national holiday WOOOOHHHH

bonus

[mothmiso]

Kefalonia (2) (3) (4) by Conrad Selzer

[zwoftt]

hey hey hey! it’s your favorite time of the day…. dorym moments!! and other moments i like! (sorry for the lateness, i had thursday classes and couldn’t watch the episode live)). moments are in no particular order!

orym comforting dorian when he’s about to absorb the harp!!!

when robbie(dorian) finally lets himself drown and verbalizes it, the look on liam’s face… the small “wow…” he whispers.

liam’s “oh no it’s hot”. WE HEARD YOU. WE HEARD YOU.

ashley robbie and liam all reminiscing about the exu days :(

dorian and orym next to each other on the map!!!

when orym asks the matron; “do you ever miss morality? it’s pretty great, living a lifetime.” and then sharing the most loving gaze with dorian as they both smile at each other like idiots

dorian asking the question “when was the last time you were surprised?” and the matron answering with “when a mortal gave everything to save the ones he loved”. and the absolute sadness on everyone’s faces.

ughhh it’s so on point for dorian’s character to roll a Nat 1 with the first use of his father’s sword. but! GETS TO REROLL BECAUSE HES NEXT TO ORYM. i’m unwell.

them(dorian and orym) both agreeing to the idea that it’s “not real”.

we see in this episode especially how orym gets impatient with the gods just like dorian. AHHHH

the visions of opal, the memories… oh my god

“i will not allow another god to make a mockery of you.” from dorian. THE GAZE on liam’s face dude