C3E111 | The Nein Hells

Yeah, we know who's singing.

VETH YELLING AT FJORD ABOUT THE ENGAGEMENT, THIS IS THE ONLY IMPORTANT THING

Jester: You see my incredibly hot fiancé over there? Jester: Well, he's a romantic. He asked to kiss me, and he was very shy about it. It was SUPER romantic. Jester: Anyway, my romance advice to you? It's NOT that.

i've been rewatching cr2 once again, and was inspired to do another mock movie screencap study 🤭

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Brontë Wyvernwind, FirstSun of the Silken Squall || Dorian Storm, Master Muse and Son of the Wind. With his steed, Coriolis.

Homie summoned a horse.

For real though, I love how Robbie plays Dorian, and a Bard in general. He really showcases how Bardic magic comes from experiences and love. Dorian remembering a song his mother used to sing to him and using that memory and love to channel his family's symbolic steed into reality is incredible. Dorian just fascinates me, and I hope we learn more about him and his home.

[Image Description: A digital painting of Dorian Storm and his summoned steed, Coriolis, from Critical Role. Dorian stands in profile with a somber expression dressed in his level 13 outfit sans some changes, including a gold wing themed bracer and semi-corset around his waist as well as a small leaf hair accessory. The wind picks up his hair and cape as Coriolis, an equine dragon, lays his head next to Dorian's shoulder. Coriolis is a light blue and white horse with a boney snoot, glowing blue-- like Dorian's-- dragon eyes, white feather crown and deer-like antlers. He as spines down his neck and a long white mane that curls like the wind. The wings are a dark blue and purple and he almost seems to sparkle with the light and scales. They stand in a dark stone room with many people watching, they are blurred in the background and the only light comes from behind Dorian and the pale glow that Coriolis gives off. END ID]

Congrats to shadowgast, Exandria's wildest cottagecore couple, who are apparently hanging out growing green beans and co-teaching magic seven years on despite one of them being a wanted traitor and the other having a side gig building a case against people who probably should be tried as traitors. Whomst is doing it like them. You CAN have it all. 😌

Wizard Breakdown Tracker: Downfall part 3

Ultimately, I associate the Wizard Breakdown Tracker with Aeor; I began it during the middle of the Nein's Aeor arc, and even bringing it back for the Nein reunions feels like it's missing something. That thing, it turns out, is a city of Wizard Hubris.

There are no wizard PCs so we can dispense with the formalities. For the purposes of this post, while The Raven Queen is an ex-wizard, Emhira isn't and is counted as a warlock, and The Raven Queen is counted as just a straight up god. As always, in no particular order, and if a wizard is not mentioned it's because I didn't have anything funny nor serious enough to say about them.

Calamity-era Wizards

Adamar: literally no idea. I think he was stressed but he got vaporized by Meteor Swarm (completely within the realm of mortal achievement btw; Imogen Temult could take it in 4 levels) before things really broke bad. Like 7/10; he was in pitched combat but he had 3 dragons and a bunch of demons on his side.

Primarch Selena: There are going to be a few wizards in this who truly do embody a more profound breakdown than anything we've seen before. Selena is one. What does it mean to be so good at creating a mortal-made form of life that the god of beauty chooses to reside in this when picking a vessel? What does it mean to realize in the same instant that your life's work is what doomed you and its target is standing in front of you and now holds your life in their hands? In the end, she doomed her city twice while also actively repenting; it's not just gods who contain multitudes and conflict. But also 10/10.

Arcadia Cerenvetorix: Well, she got tricked by Asmodeus and stuffed in a bottle. Asmodeus did a good job of imitating her too which, as a deity of truth and knowledge cannot feel great, to know that Guy Whose Thing Is Lying has your number even if he is technically lying and therefore in his wheelhouse in pretending to be you. Then she gets let out having been saved by SILAHA, who as a result of saving her, cannot stop Selena. I have to imagine this series of consequences drives some of her decision making in the very end, although at that point she is technically not a wizard and therefore out of the scope of this post. Anyway, 9/10; she did almost die.

Cassida Previn: There's no option for this other than 10/10. Her revelations were delivered with far less kindness than even Selena's; we see her break. She has time to consider that her good intentions have doomed Aeor as well as find the deity she's risked execution to serve is a more complicated being than what she expected and does not approve of her greatest act of service. And that's before we consider that the Society of Primes is implied to have not been successful (we don't know, since the Factorum Malleus is never fired, so it could be a bluff; but the Primes are heavily indicated to be in just as much danger) and that's also before her final moments are being presumably tortured by Asmodeus. I don't know if she really renounced The Everlight; Asmodeus lies, but it's not an unexpected consequence. As The Everlight says, it doesn't matter; she was well within her rights to feel however she felt in those last moments and it does not erase all that she did before. If she didn't it was a lie from Asmodeus, and if she did, she is forgiven entirely.

Those guys who were dragons for a hot second: Honestly? What a way to go. I wouldn't even be mad. 6/10.

The Wizards In The Cognouza Ward: THEY LEFT SO EARLY. AND FOR WHAT. Like, yes, yes, you want to show the moment so you have to do it pretty early on because you won't have the viewpoint of the divine entities later on since they'll be in the Genesis Ward, but COME ON MAN. It really is like...you could have been The Ring of Brass to Aeor. If you wanted to sound the early warning you could have done some strategic teleporting of as many people you could get onto Exandria, despite the storm, and hell, you could have taken a long rest and planeshifted the next fucking day if you had to go to the Astral Plane so badly but nooooo you had to fuck everyone else over. I mean does anyone deserve a millennium of madness and horror as Cognouza eventually became? no. But like, maybe a few years for this bullshit. 5/10 because it isn't bad yet because they jumped the fucking gun. and again. for what.

843 PD Wizards watching this or just hanging out elsewhere

Essek Thelyss: I imagine he is like those pictures of the math lady except he fully understands the math. Absolute mind blown. Trying to figure out the Luxon's relationship to Tengar if there is one. Wondering why Aeor was working on Cognouza and the Factorum Malleus and not their various Luxon experiments. Trying to figure out if the gods used the same principle as consecution. Trying to reconcile the image of Lolth as weirdly adorable with the horrors he knows his people escaped. Also he has been watching a movie for like 13-ish hours but I wonder if floating means his legs haven't fallen asleep. 6/10.

Allura Vyesoren: I really like to imagine she messaged one of Bells Hells and they were like "can I call you back later we're watching a movie" and she is just like I am getting too old for this shit. 4/10 in like, the relative sense of all wizards in this 843 PD narrative are dealing with an existential threat but like within that context, 4/10.

Caleb Widogast: I feel like the Nein would be best deployed to Ria'Doin but he might be on some other weird mission given that Essek was sent to Aeor in his place, and hopefully, we get a one-shot out of this. For me. Anyway though for practical reasons he did just hear from Essek recently and Trent seems gone for good so, within the broader "Ludinus Da'leth is fucking over existence" context, also like a 4/10.

Yussa Errenis: Really hard to tell! What unhinged fuckery that doesn't require physically leaving the house is this small bastard (affectionate) up to. Is he on the moon? Is Nicodranas on a nexus point thus sending him to some far-flung region of Exandria? Did he try to question Halas and get trapped in the gem? Is he just ignoring Iva Deshin? Anyway given his track record I am going to say 9/10 and he is in some kind of peril that is low-key his own fault, but it's anyone's guess.

Astrid Becke: Imagine being screwed over so hard you have to go undercover in retail. I think that fantasizing over who gets to land a killing blow in D&D Actual Play is not terribly interesting; what happens happens, and such fantasies are usually a dull slog of "who is wronged most" which is never good. With that said I don't think she is the most wronged, if that's even a metric one can know; and also I know this is not going to happen given her very tangential nature as a minor NPC in the story being told here; and I don't think I am speaking about a just or kind world in this fantasy; but in a world that aims for justice but lands in pettiness, she would get the final blow on Ludinus Da'leth. 7/10.

Ludinus Da'leth: There's a tumblr-famous post in which someone makes a lot of wild-ass claims about the status of, iirc, women who spun thread in medieval Europe and then when people were like "I don't think that's right" posted a fuckload of links and the phrase "*steeples fingers*" and then someone actually clicked on the links and was like "uh none of these back up your point, actually; most of them have little to do with it and what few do address it either contradict what you are saying, or are similarly unsourced from non-experts." Anyway I think we can all see the value in checking the citations and vetting your sources here, a lesson The Martinet seems to have failed to internalize. He is however either at a 3/10 or an 8/10 depending on precisely how up his own ass he is and whether he realizes he showed footage far too complicated to make but a single easy argument.

Laura said they were discussing during the intermission how tragic it was that the Betrayers were the ones that stepped up to protect them in the opening scene.

It's so painful.

"I just love family drama" says the one who literally usurped their way into the family.

Also adore the fact that Pelor is a cleric of Sarenrae as a mortal

And once the Divine Gate was put up, they coexisted in Elysium together

Just this protective brother constantly supporting his sister through their shared struggles

Oh man Asmodeus mocking Everlight for not having worshippers anymore was such a good touch. Brennan is so good at playing him.

bro did nick QUADRUPLE class??

Like clearly things have been Real Bad for a long time, including the "choked sky" blocking the sun etc, so it's not trivial to lose hope or be angry, but this old gnomish woman is so unintentionally metal for being like "have you considered you have a skill issue with object permanence" to that guard lmao

This feels like both a statement of potential obviousness, but also a prediction because hey, we're only 2.5 hrs into Episode 1: I don't think Downfall will reveal either the gods or the Aeorians to somehow be uniquely evil, or that the desire on either part to destroy the other is somehow uniquely more justified or deserved.

Like in Episode 1 here we're getting a very strong dose of the shitty things Aeorians are doing to other mortals in their pursuit of control and power - we already knew they were a warmongering surveillance state, and as things get worse on Exandria it's grimly unsurprising that the people on the ground are increasingly treated as disposable. But Aeor is still a city full of people seeking safety in a land torn open by the gods' battles, desperate to survive by any (increasingly ugly and sinister) means. And the gods in turn are afraid for their survival, and are acting accordingly in seeking Aeor's Downfall (immense collateral damage) - all while and the versions of them in the party here have lived mortal lives & hardships, have families, communities. They have lived in the desolation their own godly battles have created. We don't see them portrayed as lofty divine abstracts, not even necessarily in the intro, where they are confused, afraid, and seeking safety from danger.

For Ludinus to think this "footage" is in his favor against the gods, and the complexity of the lore being what it is and the cast being the storytellers that they are, I think it must be the kind of series of events you can look at and see the humanity (using that word deliberately) for good and ill in all parties involved - and leave again with your biases if they're strong enough. Very curious what we will learn. I expect to weep. I can't wait.

Now that Sam's gone public with his cancer diagnosis and that he and Matt are gonna be on 4SD together, I'd be interested in Matt talking about his initial game plan for putting FCG on a bus during Sam's medical absence, if Sam had even been formally diagnosed by that point.

Cause, and I don't give a shit what kind of theories you spin, exploding robot absolutely was not it. That was absolutely something Sam decided to do on his own. The outside context might've contributed to that decision, but that was absolutely a surprise move from Sam.

Looking at Ludinus's little spiel on why he doesn't think Bells Hells is his enemy:

I don't think Ludinus understands why Bells Hells opposes him. Or like, he kind of does, but he also thinks that if he just shows them enough "proof" of why he's right to do what he's done, they'll see it his way, agree with him, and flip sides.

Like, Ludinus literally says "I'm certain you've come here with mal-intent against me and my cause. And much is muddled in historical times, as plots as long obfuscated as ours can lead to expected misunderstanding. I do not see you as my enemy. I never have. On the contrary, you have the potential to be instrumental to ushering in the new age."

I mean, if you cut down his fancy talk, the above boils down to: If you knew the history as I do and why I'm doing what I'm doing, you'd be on my side. I see you as misguided children who just need their eyes opened.

Which is condescending as all hell. Especially when the Why of it all is not going to change that Ludinus and his plans have fucked with about half of the party's lives before they started opposing him.

And Bells Hells knows that they are just one small sample of the people Ludinus has fucked over without a care in the name of his plan.

They know he curse bombed Molaesmyr. Killed a lot of the Grim Verity for simply trying to understand Ruidus. Blanked out the mind of Kadija Sumal for not handing over the part of the Omen Archive that was personal information and/or locations for their test subject Ruidusborns.

Like pal, your means are the main reason they're opposing you, not the end goal. And intent does not change what you did and its results.

*HEIGHT ADVANTAGE, PERCEPTION ADVANTAGE*

not based in any actual cr events, just me having fun at the idea of Liam's little guy and Sam's tall guy becoming buddies