Good evening and welcome to "4-Sided Dive." I am Robbie Daymond, your
24th tavern keeper news anchor, and here with tonight's top stories. Bells Hells made headlines last month when they returned to the moon of Exandria and naturally got in the
middle of a wizard fight, smack dab in the basement
of a smutty little bookstore. According to sources, the
two wizards were both very hot and shared an affinity
for dirty boys named Bren. Matt Mercer will have more on that later. And now to the world of
politics. This is the camera, right? To the world of politics, and a word on everyone's
lips today is Sword Gate. Last month, resident,
kind of dead lady, Laudna, stirred up controversies when
she attempted to steal a sword that Orym stole from
a definitely dead lady. Marisha Ray is here
to set the record straight once and for all. And now let's check in with the Lore Cast, with our resident lorekeeper, Dani Carr. Well Robbie, whether or not
Imodna can recover from this is yet to be seen. But here we can see a strong system of romantic turbulence between them that can make your
Thursday night a little tearful. Also, temperatures in the north around Aeor are heating up due to a
concentration of hot boy energy. Later, fashion icon Laura Bailey will walk you through what not to wear during this hot boy summer. We'll have your five-day
lorecast within the hour. (tongue click)
Back to you, Robbie. Thank you, Dani. And finally, of course, Dorian Storm has
officially made his way back to Bells Hells after failing
to save his friend Opal. Thanks a lot. And his brother
Cyrus in ghosting Dariax, but he's brought Orym a brand new outfit. He's brought Orym a brand-new outfit. Bought him one. That's
right. I did that in real life. And Robbie Daymond, that's me, will editorialize on those events later. And be sure to stick around
for more "4-Sided Dive," or "More-Sided Dive" as properly branded. Because tonight we're doomed. As in we'll be playing a
game called We Are Doomed, The Game of Global Panic. It's funny 'cause we're doomed
and the name of the game is. Yeah. Welcome to "4-Sided Dive." Let's do the bleeping show. (people cheering)
(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) Welcome back. Let's begin tonight with our
open discussion segment. I feel like you guys are ready for it. Matt: Yeah. Robbie: What the fuck is up with that? Yeah.
Yeah. What the fuck is up with that? A lot of things. Mm-hmm.
Just a few things. Laura: What the fuck
is up with what, Robbie? I've heard requests. I've heard requests to
talk about family issues. Everyone's favorite therapy topic. (laughs) This is a therapy show, right? Yeah. Kinda.
I mean- Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it that way sometimes. I expected the chairs to be longer and all of us laying back but this will do. Yeah.
Oh, shit. It's a long time. Come back at the break. We'll fix it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got you. When we came back, one
thing that freaked me out with all my new info was Fearne's pop. (gasps) Yeah.
Yeah. I don't know what the fuck is up with that. I got the book jacket version, but I don't know what's happening. It's weird 'cause I never know, like, should we fill Robbie in on this? Is that too Meta gamey? Should we just let him
discover it on his own? Leave him in the dark.
Leave him in the dark? I mean, to a certain degree,
I can see that standpoint, but that's more of like what I
guess the player preference. Yeah.
Because at the same point, you can very well compartmentalize between what my character
knows, what I know as Robbie. Yeah.
So like, I don't want you to feel like
you're completely in the dark. No, I had this moment
where I was thinking like, "Okay, if I come back, I want
to know what Dorian knows." So I was kinda like purposely
staying away from things. Yeah. Yeah.
That I wasn't tagged in. Or weren't like blowing
up online or whatever. But then I also knew the moment would come, if that happened, where Matt would go, "And they tell you
everything," and I go, "Fuck!" Because then I have to know everything. So I've been trying since I've been back to like catch up and vibe on it. Yeah.
Yeah, but I think there are
moments to kind of be like, I don't know what's happening. And that's okay.
And it's fun, I think. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Do you want us to fill you in? Well, yeah.
Right now? Yeah. Book jacket. I also assume that there's downtime moments where the characters are like, "We walk to this next location." Totally.
Or "We're gonna go get some food," where we're
like, "So, here's the deal." Yeah.
Yeah. We don't talk about every
poop we take on streaming. Yes.
But you know. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I'm sure it happens.
Yeah. I guess like--
Unless you wanna see that, I guess let us know, please, hashtag I mean, some people
do, Grog always did, but. (laughs)
(throat clearing) I guess it's weird 'cause
like playing with you guys is like playing with the
world's biggest franchise fans because you're the genesis of it. So fundamentally, you know everything. You guys have been there-- We think.
From square one. I don't know. Isn't that right, Dani? We know-- We know everything.
She made a face too. I saw the face she-- Y'all know everything. Yeah, we know everything.
Dani knows everything. Hey Robbie, I've got
some recaps I can send you that will help you out so much. All right.
Well, yeah, give him the sleeve. What? Oh, I'm looking at Laura. I couldn't tell. You were looking past me. Dang.
(laughs) So, okay--
You are-- So here's the thing,
I know, it's like really. Hi.
First got Baghdad. First got to Baghdad, so
we went to the Fey Realm. Okay.
And we fought some people. She's also got like a really powerful nana. Okay. That I knew.
Yeah. That I knew
Nana Morri. Obviously EXU. And so while we were there, we fought this really bad guy
called The Shadowlord. Right? Sorrowlord Zathuda. Oh, Shadowlord is from Near. Yeah.
We know everything. Oh, you so downgraded his lord. It's like this beautiful
name, you're just like, "Like The Shadowlord or something," right? Sorrowlord. And that's what I'm supposed to do, is sow discord here on "4-Sided Dive." You're doing great.
Okay. Doing great.
Okay. Pit us against each other--
I know Matt could be totally giving this to you, and I'm the one giving this to you-- No, I'm loving it. Please.
Yeah. So we fought him.
Mm-hmm? He had a big, scary dragon.
Okay. Fearne loved the dragon.
Oh. Also, we've realized that he was her dad. Oh. In that moment? No. No, it was much later.
It was much later. (laughs) He was super cool. And we
were like, "Ooh, he's cool." Mm-hmm?
And then we escaped him. Okay.
Uh-huh. And then later we found
Dani under (indistinct). (laughs) You what? Were those words? Also, Fearne's dad is working with the Ruby Vanguard of Ludinus. I learned that
That's key. I was paying attention Maybe I should do the recaps. I think you're pretty caught up now. Dani: Please join me for my next Tiktok. It feels right. (indistinct) is working with Ludinus. Okay. With the Ruby Vanguard.
Got it. Love the Ruby Vanguard. But they are opposed
forces at the same time. Do you know who the Ruby Vanguard is? Of course. There are people working with Ludinus. Robbie: Yeah. They're the foot soldiers
working with Ludinus. Yeah, that makes sense. Matt: Yeah. No, he's got more than
that. It's not just that. You guys are doing great, that's all. And then, Fearne's dad, he like-- Laura: I'm giving you book jacket. Yeah, he tried to basically
orchestrate Fearne's, in her birth to be a (indistinct). Oh, that's an important part. She's a vessel. A potential vessel. She's a potential vessel.
She is a potential vessel. Robbie: Okay. I think, this is no shade to
Fearne or Ashley Johnson, I think she's like at
the bottom of the list when it comes to options to be the vessel. (indistinct crosstalk)
Not exalted. I mean, like Zathuda.
Yes. Ludinus's plan has been
going on for a long time. And there are a number of individuals that he's aligned with over recent years, and such to try and give them
the best chance at success through this. Sorrowlord Zathuda was one
of the inner people of that plot to try and create possible Ruidusborn that could be powerful enough
to become a possible vessel and kind of stack the deck. However, she ended up
being taken by her birth mother and what basically became
the adopted father of Fearne. But they both kind of
vanished most of her life. She was then protected by
Nana Morri for most of her life and kind of fucked up his plans. Mm.
And now that she's returned, she is Ruidusborn, but all this time he's been basically told that he was a failure in
producing a possible vessel. And it's kind of, you
can get bit of that tension inside his relationship
with Ludinus and the plot. But now he's seeing Fearne again, seeing what she's capable of, and is kind of excited that
maybe she will fulfill her-- Ooh, maybe upgrade her. Yeah, he's like, "Maybe all this time they were making fun of me, and Ludinus is being
a dick about my failure, he's wrong and I can prove that." Yeah.
And so, yeah, there's all sorts of weird
dynamics happening with there. And he's starting to be like, "Maybe you are a good daughter," you know? "Maybe I will be proud of you." And it's just like, "No,
you're gross." That's kind of-- Yeah.
Really fucked up. There's a lot of fucked
up parental dynamics, but also a lot of disparate
relationships and people becoming friends in this narrative and then discovering that a lot of this was kind of engineered in the background. It just kind of went off the intended path and now it's starting to come back, and in some cases blow up in their face, and others kind of maybe
align with what they were hoping. And so yeah, it's getting
some interesting tension. And you spread your net out so far that now you've got all
these potential antagonists and protagonists that could
come from different angles. Yeah.
And so, like when he was introduced
in that, we're current, he was introduced in that
fight with the Shadow Fearne. My first instinct was
like, "Who is this guy?" And you've had an
engagement with him before. And it was so, sort of
fun to watch that all unfold. I think one of the most fun times I've had playing at the table
is realizing that, sure, sometimes you gotta
throw enemies at the players or whatever. And I think that's like a misconception, but I've always felt like every engagement, in your games in particular, feels like they're
meaningful, they're impactful. It's not like, "Oh, I've
got this many I wanna use slap it down." It feels like those, and I
maybe I'm putting too much on it, but there's a reason for every conflict. It feels meaningful to be a part of it and then to watch it unfold. Like we watched the Fearne fight unfold. I felt like I was participating
and I was just watching. I know. I wanted popcorn.
Yeah, it was awesome. Yeah.
I like that. Thank you. And I, even the random
encounters of a scenario, had the intention of
building out the world, you know, even the threats
of meeting unique dangers in a new bio--
Beyond the giants that we could have fought. Yeah, I had battlefields built out in case that ended up going sideways. The Ice Trolls, they're on the path, have you guys hadn't stealthed so well, and there I had a whole battlefield of the tunnel going
deeper and getting thinner as your options weed.
Oh. Geez Louise. But these dangers are
meant to be fun challenges and get to use your
abilities, and like, you know, hone your tactics and
stuff and try out new things. But also to build out
a bit of the lore subtly of where you are. You know, what things have
taken up precedence here? Sometimes it's just fun to fight a monster, but more often than not, I
try and make it meaningful to the characters and the story and the overall kind of
narrative that we're going with. And yeah, the whole thing with, actually the whole thing with Shadow Fearne and the Dark Fay aspect of her history was kicked off in EXU.
Hmm. When you guys were going
through the Verdant Expanse. Yeah.
And found the gate, and all of a sudden the
Dark Fearne figure there. That was kind of the impetus,
the beginning of that story. I think that was the one moment that I had, that I got to have with Orym and Ashley, where we all went to go, "Oh!" And the rest of you at
the table were like "What?" Whoa. What?
(laughs) That's true.
This is brand new. Hey, but your mom's
kind of sketchy too, right? I don't know what you're talking about. Isn't that right, though?
Actually, yeah, let's get into that then. Robbie: Well, I mean, right? We're talking about family affairs, right? Laura: Yeah. What the fuck is up with that? Yeah.
Yeah. What the fuck is up with that? Look. (laughs) So defensive right off the bat. I know.
No, my mom is sketchy. But also, she has the
potential to be a good mom. I think the things that
she started out doing had good intentions
potentially, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know her. What's that saying, road to? I can't remember where it goes. The road to hell is paved
with good intentions. Yeah.
That one? Yeah. Yeah, and now she's
having been next to Ludinus for so long, I think she's
just fully indoctrinated into that cult mentality of like-- And so, you really think she is? You don't think it's a hustle? You don't think it's like
anything like that, or-- I think she sees the bad
things that Ludinus is doing and she thinks that they're bad. But also, she's been so filled
with this idea of Predathos and what he can bring, that while she thinks the
things that Ludinus is doing are not moral, ultimately
the end goal is worth it. Have you guys had a
direct confrontation with her in any way? Yes. Yes. Did it come to fisticuffs
or was it just a chitchat? It could have.
It almost did. (indistinct crosstalk)
Spicy. Yeah.
Mom fight. I like it. Oh, it was majors.
Yeah. Majors, yeah. And then she ended up,
we made peace with her and she ended up, she could
have come with us or she, we ended up telling her to stay on the moon and basically be a spy for us. MPC. Mom PC.
Mom PC. Yeah, yeah. Cruising
along, that sounds awesome. I don't know if, I didn't
trust her coming with. We haven't talked about this yet, right? I didn't trust her coming with us. I thought that if she came with us. She'd probably blow our
cover a little bit too, right? Right. Haven't we talked
about this on the show already? You talked about--
Oh, wait, wait, wait-- Talk about a little bit, at the table. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Yeah.
Yeah. I feel like she would've, I
wouldn't have trusted her. I wouldn't have trusted
that she wouldn't betray us. Yeah. So it wasn't worth her coming with us and have that dynamic.
Okay. Okay. Trust and betrayal's a theme. And mommy issues are a
theme. And trust and betrayal. Being enticed by a powerful force. Yeah. Weird. Where does that relate to
anything that's happened? What the fucks up with that? Yeah.
Yeah. Which is funny, that parallel
between Liliana and Laudna is pretty strong.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yes. Yeah. Which is why that moment
of apologizing to Imogen and being like, "Oh, I
feel kind of bad now." Because she's
definitely feels like her life is not really her own. It's kind of controlled
by this outer force. Mm.
Mm-hmm. And is kind of resigned in certain ways, to being like, well this
is kind of the way it is. And that's how Laudna feels, or that's how you think Liliana feels? I think, I mean Laudna struggles with it, and I think here recently she's, like I said, so much
for Laudna at this point is like, you know, she's
watching Fearne and Ashton taking these titan shards
and get hyper powerful, and watching Imogen get exalted, and watching all these people
have these moments of power. And I think Laudna's assumption is like, "Well, the only way I can get those is kind of through Delilah. Or even if I do get one externally without involving Delilah,
it's still kind of in the end--" Feeds Delilah.
Feeds Delilah. So it's kind of a little
bit of an ouroboros, that I think at this point she's just like, "I might as well." Or at least Laudna and Marisha is like, "Let's exploit this as far as I can." Well, can I ask you? Kind of what do you call a
little above the table question? Sort of--
Yeah. Let's do it. So, how much of the nature of your build and the things that
you're beholding in that, do you feel informs your narrative choices? 'Cause obviously you're
having a narrative adventure within the confines of
the structure of the game. Do you feel that if those reigns were off, and it wasn't part of what
gives you your power in game, do you think you'd still make
the same narrative choices, because they're more interesting? Or do you think they're inexorably tied? That's a good question. I
work more, "I work." (laughs) I asked you a semi serious question. I wanna know, I wanna know. I was coming at it from
an actor-y perspective for a second.
Yeah. But in this context,
I'm more of a narrative informing the build person. Okay.
So I've, 'cause I'm a warlock
sorcerer or a multi-class. And there's been times
where realistically, at this point, it makes the most sense mechanically for me to just keep leveling up sorcerer. But there will be, like the last time when I dumped a point into warlock was after I had, I think
it was after Bor'Dor, and I had gotten a power
boost from that aspect and had narrative things. And even though it didn't necessarily, I mean, leveling up is
always gonna be good. Yeah, it's always helpful.
It's always helpful. It's sacrificing optimization-- Yes. For the narrative legitimacy of where you're going with the character. Yeah.
Yeah. So if there's ever something that's like very Delilah
heavy that happens to Laudna, then I'll drop a point into warlock. It's kind of in the same
vein as like picking spells. You could pick super powerful spells, but they make no sense
narratively for your character. Yes. Yes.
Yeah. Yes. So I just--
So I tend to do-- Do away with them.
Yeah. Occasionally I will,
like I took counterspell because it's a good spell to have. And that's a utility
spell, that's different. It's so utility.
You know? Yes. But also, counterspell is totally a spell that Delilah enjoyed in her time as well. That's true.
That's true. So, still kind of fits the narrative fine. Yeah. So I'll kind of of ride the line. Sometimes it's like, "All right, I need something more defense heavy,"" or "I do need something more
offensive heavy," or whatever. And then sometimes I'm
like, "Animate objects," 'cause that's funny. And it's also very useful.
It is very useful. You know?
Very Laudna. Yes, so Laudna.
Yes, exactly. And it's our very first fight
of the campaign, right? Yeah. Didn't we fight inanimate furniture? Right? Yeah.
All the animated furniture. Yeah.
So it's all coming around. You could start so many adventuring parties by throwing them at a bunch
of 1st level, 2nd level people. That's so cute!
What if that's what Laudna does after she retires?
It's her retirement. Yes!
Just building heroes. She's like, "Well, this is how--" On a rocking porch. Well, they look like they have potential. Broom! Oh, that's funny. That's the only way she knows an adventuring party has started, so she's like, "I'm
just paying it forward." Campaign 19, Laudna's Legends, out there in the world just crushing it. I like that you're imagining Laudna as an old lady now, Ms. Dead End. We'll see. (laughs)
Ooh! Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
Excuse me. So fun.
Speaking of family issues-- Oh yeah, we'll see.
Yeah, we'll see. How's Dorian processing
the loss of Cyrus, bro? Oh, shenanigans!
Talk about it. I don't think I've ever
gotten even mildly salty at the table, and that's
about as close as I've come. Yeah, I was like, "Oh
man, I didn't want bro to go." It's a funny thing, right? He was a part of backstory, when we first started,
that I turned in to Matt, and I never expected him to come to life, and I never expected to
care for him in a visceral way. Whenever you're writing a
backstory for any character, whether it be playing a game or something that you're
creating in a different medium, you have to connect to it emotionally or it serves no purpose. But for this, to meet him
and to fall in love with him, and then to have him taken away, I think there are a lot of people... I try not to dip my toe into the fan side of responses and stuff, but I saw a repeating theme of, oh, Cyrus was always meant to
die, and I'll go on record here as saying that was never part of the plan. Yeah.
I don't think there was ever a plan for how any of it would unfold, and it was the last thing I expected, because it seems like, I don't know, it just seems like there
are so many avenues to get to where you're trying to go, and I didn't expect it,
and it hurt unexpectedly. And I also have been carrying
around this character thing I want to, if we have
time to explore later, there's a lot of shit going on, about Dorian's regrets about
how he handled that scenario, and I have regrets about
how I handled it as a player, and I think it's been informative for Dorian's journey moving forward. I think he has regrets
about choosing vengeance over a possible way to save his brother. I think he failed, got hurt, and couldn't look past the failure to see what the next step
would be, to do something good. So I think when he goes to Keyleth and asks to find the body,
that just popped into my head, because I had this pathetic last hope that maybe she could save him somehow with this mighty magic that she possessed. Yeah. If any way, that could happen. But I don't know, his spirit
waltzed off down the street with Morgana, so that's a
pretty heavy narrative moment. I don't know, but it's
weird to feel as a player the guilt of your character's actions, and I carried it around for a couple weeks. Oh yeah.
If it helps at all with Dorian's narrative drive
or goals with this campaign, Keyleth and other people
do have powerful magics that occasionally can restore life to those who have passed recently. However, in the wake of the solstice and all of the various ley lines being held and twisting and being tensed, a number of magics
aren't functioning properly, one of which is resurrection
magic on Exandria. It functioned briefly on Ruidus. I was going to ask. I was curious. That was the question I
meant to ask you today, that I had forgotten.
Yeah. Yeah, I was wondering
about that. It worked on Ruidus. It worked on Ruidus. Ruidus operates under
its own magical ecosystem, and while it is proximity
affected by the ley lines, for its own reasons, it's
magic on Exandria proper that's being heavily, by proximity, and by the ever-twisting ley line knots across the world right now, that some magics aren't functioning, and resurrection magic is one of them. So if potentially, we
break that connection, and divine magic is still in effect, then we could use high
level True Resurrection spells. Possibly. I mean, hey, there are also... Like I said, there are powerful
druids and other creatures that are not based in divine magic that can also use these, and also, divine magic comes from
sometimes non-divine sources. It can be based in strong, an ethical code that presents itself as a source of power in a world that is suffused with magic. That's why there are paladins that don't necessarily worship a god. They are just attuned to a specific oath, or a particular way of living. There's a lot of... Magic is interesting. A lot of the debate
which I enjoy in my mind and how Exandria's ecosystem works is, the classic idea of D&D is, arcane magic is outside of the gods, and divine magic is the gods. That is the classical idea. And to a facet, I think
people might believe that on Exandria, but magic is magic. It's how it's filtered and utilized that really defines its source. So, who knows what would
happen to divine magic if the gods weren't there? It could be catastrophic. It could be nothing. Who knows? Dani: Look at Jester and the Traveler. I know.
Right, yeah. See, there's all sorts of weird things. Also, the rules of
understanding of the world were defined by the gods.
Hey-o! As you're learning through unraveling some of those secrets,
a lot of what you're told and what everyone had
been told isn't always the truth, because those that are in
power historically get to write the truths of modern
understanding, for good or evil. So that's a lot of fun
stuff we get to unravel as the campaign progresses. Who knows what will happen to magic, and who knows what will happen to our favorite couple
after Swordgate, baby! Drama, mama! Speaking of--
Yeah, yeah! --thinking about it constantly,
living with those choices and going... (groans)
Oh man. Yeah.
Yeah. Why? Why? Why? What was the moment? What was the moment?
Was it when you first saw it? Warlock's going to warlock, baby. Listen, baby! I don't know. It's tied
to the lady in my head. No, genuinely, similarly, none of this was planned.
Yeah. Quite literally, because
Laudna has struggled being around powerful artifacts, because she does have this pulling force, and she's able to resist,
and even with the shard, when we got that, I was like, keep me away. Leave me away from this. And so when Orym just walked in with this sword on his back, I was like... You always kind of have to reference back to the patterns
in your behaviors before, and let them inform your choices, and I already was uncomfortable. The fact that he pulled the sword out and was like, oh,
practicing with this sword! I was like, this sword murdered all of us at some point in time,
and very much Laudna, for an extended amount of time. So I knew I was going to be like, ugh, that's an icky reaction, and it's a powerful weapon
that he just went, boop, into our 10 by 10 square foot room. So I was just trying to
be like, oh, you know, Laudna sees that and gets uncomfortable. And then when you did
the (mimics heartbeat) I was like, oh fuck, here we go. But I didn't know, so I
was just kind of trying to, you know, yes and--
That's how it goes. And then once again--
And it keeps going. Yeah, it just kind of keeps going, and it was very genuine. Is this sword bad? How bad news is this? We've already dealt with sentient weapons gods knows how many times, not just in this campaign,
but across Critical Role, and then knowing that it was
wielded by a very bad person. So that's how it started,
was, oh, is this an evil sword? And when Delilah was
like, yeah, it's so bad-- Of course it's bad.
It's so bad. Oh my god, it's so bad. You should just-- Yeah, and Laudna does have good intentions, paved to hell, so that's why I kind of started with, yeah, she would justify this by being like, I've got to help Orym. Got to get it away from him. But then it just kind of
kept spiraling and spiraling. And she's not seeing it get out of control. You're talking about Delilah's influence, gaslighting and all of
that stuff, but I don't know. I'm not as familiar with that
relationship as you guys are. Seemed like Laudna was steering the ship for the majority of that
confrontation, if I'm being honest. Just from an outside perspective, it felt minimally influenced to me. But that's just me. I don't
know how you feel about it. But that was my take on it. I mean, it's a weird
line to walk, you know? It's a weird symbiotic relationship, and then trying to ride that line of-- They are one--
Yeah. They're becoming one
and the same at this point. Going up on the roof and seeing the Form of Dread that you chose, madam, that was straight-up Delilah
emerging from you, right? Which I, once again, just
did that in the moment. I didn't plan.
Yeah, no. I was just like, I think
it would just be this. This feels right.
Yeah. And just like you, Matt, talking with her. It's the two voices at the same time. So you're leaning into the darkness. Can I ask a question? Yeah. It's 4-Sided Dive, baby. I know. I've got to know. As a player, in your RP, did you like it? Did it feel good to lean
into the darkness a little bit? Because from my standpoint, it sure felt powerful being next to it. So did you like it? It's a safe space. It's a four-sided safe space. A little bit. Yeah, a little bit?
It was little nice. Yeah, it's fun!
Yeah, well, one, I love the juicy choice
when it comes to RP. Sure.
Just because, yeah. We're not playing this to play it safe. Yes, and I, from day one, knew what I was getting
into with this character and knew that it could go down these paths. Also, it's funny that it happened to be Liam, again. That irony wasn't lost on me.
I had to explain Swordgate, I mean Bowlgate, to four
of the producers today. It was hilarious.
Oh my god. Yes, so--
For the producers, can you explain it to one of the me? What was Bowlgate? So, Liam and I had a
moment in campaign two, earlier on in campaign two--
It was pretty early. Dani: Yeah, it's episode 17 or something. Wow.
It's early. Our good buddy Mark Hulmes
was guesting on that, yeah. Yes.
Okay. And there was this bowl
of Tiamat or some shit that Mark Hulmes' character--
It was a ritual bowl. A ritual bowl, yeah, Calianna wanted, and early on, Mighty Nein, our first, that first run, we were all very-- Secretive.
--secretive, and-- Everybody was keeping shit from-- Not fully trusting of each other. Not trusting, yeah,
for kind of a long time. A long time.
Yeah, maybe too long. Especially Caleb.
Especially Caleb. Yeah, Liam's character Caleb was super not trusting, with reason. So he's playing this dodgy
wizard who, once again, it was almost like the roles
were reversed this time. He wasn't a warlock, but he had these... The demons in his head
were his traumatic past, and he was trying to take
as many powerful items to make himself more
powerful for his own gains. So he, without really
consulting with anybody, was like, "Yoink!" to this
item that was Mark Hulmes's-- The crux narrative artifact.
--crux narrative item! And he had been doing this--
My story beats! It was amazing.
Pretty much! Can you imagine, just
taking one of your items-- In fairness--
In fairness-- --and then destroying it.
Notes on fire, yeah. In fairness, it wasn't that he was trying to take it for himself. I have to stick up for my boy. You're a Caleb apologist in Bowlgate? I'm a Liam O'Brien
apologist, because I'm trying to not let him kill my
character in Curse of Strahd. Okay, fair enough.
No, but in the lore, so what happened is, it was
a bowl that they were not sure if it was a good idea to let this stranger, Mark Hulmes's character
Calianna, leave with it, because it was an evil
bowl used for evil things. Totally.
He wanted to destroy it now. He wanted to destroy it, have it done with. Beau wanted to wait and Identify it. Or it was reversed, I don't remember. One of them wanted to wait
and Identify it the next day. The other one wanted to just
destroy it and be done with it, and Caleb just grabbed
the bowl and was like, I'm going to do what I want with it, and-- That's the problem. It's
about the communication. Again, I'm paraphrasing.
Let me make it very clear. He didn't say, "I'm going
to do what I want with it." Please don't yell at me, internet. It was a really long time ago. I'm sorry. I don't remember exactly,
but it was something like that. But you got your revenge 5 1/2 years later. Yeah, well, so with Bowlgate, he was like, "I'm going to take it," which he'd kind of kept
doing repeatedly with items, being like, "I'm making
the executive decision," without talking to the rest of the party. Because he had Identify.
Because he had Identify. Very Caleb Widogast. In a very Caleb way. It
was very much his character. He'd Identify things and
then keep the little paper that Matt would give him,
and not tell anyone what it said. That's not Caleb, that's Liam.
What are you talking about? I was like, what does it do?
So funny. So there was this moment,
and Beau is very dextrous, where he's like, "I'm going to take it," and I just went, "Yoink!" and
had a keep-away moment, and we got into a big fight over it. It was great, yeah.
So, yeah. And then Bowlgate came
from the community being like, "You could tell they hated
each other in that moment. This was such dog shit. God, this is not how you should ever play." And we're like, no.
No. It was just a really, really
fun character moment. Fun.
It was really funny. Which is why we made the fan, and Liam and I took
that picture after the game to be like, we're still cool! We're still friends, I promise! He is a really fun person
to fight with, though. Even you asking, "Did it feel good?" Travis, afterwards, he was like, "I didn't want to look at
you, and I could feel..." He was like, "Your
arguments were pretty strong." Oh.
Don't debate her. Travis and I felt like you
were one charged magnet, and him and I were the opposite charge, just slowly pushing away
from you, trying to be respectful. Whew! It was intense.
So good. It's so good. It's fun to have moments where you can just kind
of be let off the leash. Yeah. Hell yeah. We sorted it out, we cruised on, and then-- We sort of sorted it out.
Sort of. Through a very bouncy, circuitous route full of bumbles and fumbles, we ended up in a fan
favorite-ish place of Aeor, right? Yeah.
What is the weight of Aeor? Help me. The weight!
Yeah, so-- Robbie: I can feel it
whenever you say the name. So, a lot of campaign
three has a lot of facets of campaign one and two coming to fruition. This is a lot of long term stuff that had been building
for the past 10 years all kind of weaving together, and Aeor is a very strong
point in Exandrian history where in this era called
the Age of Arcanum, kind of the Roaring
'20s of Exandria's history, where everything was
up for the richest folk. All the great mages had
these massive mage cities that they dislodged from
the actual ground of Exandria and kind of vied for control and power. It was technically more advanced
than current day Exandria. Modern day Exandria is
almost a post-apocalypse. Society is kind of pulling out of that and are studying that past to try and catch up to it
again in some spaces. I fully picture Aeor
with Art Deco vibes now. It's art deco meets brutalist, is kind of how I envision it. Like, 'cause it was, Aeor, of all the different mage cities was like the most cold war
Soviet kind of mage place. It was function over beauty. Correct, yeah.
Oh, okay. So when you guys did EXU Calamity that took place before the Calamity, not in Aeor, but in a
similar type city or-- Correct, in one of the
competitive mage cities. Got it.
To Aeor, and was the city that its destruction basically began the Calamity,
which was the end of that era where all the gods kind
of warred and battled, most of society kind of
collapsed or was buried. And everything had to kind of reset and climb from zero after that point, after the gods had left
beyond the Divine Gate. So Aeor was, at that time, the most powerful city in that world and had a lot of anti divine
culture and ideas around it. And they were developing,
secretly, arcane technology that could destroy divine on a mass scale. Sure.
Like possibly kill a god. Yeah.
And so, yeah, they succeeded, tested
it, and the gods all went, "Hey, I know we're fighting right now, but game off, game off", and then went and destroyed Aeor. Sure.
And the... so Aeor is considered
like essentially a black box of the most powerful arcane knowledge that has been lost for
a millennia, essentially. Okay.
And has just recently been rediscovered in this frozen waste. And so in campaign 2 was the introduction of the concept of Aeor and some facets of the end of campaign 2 dealt with some of the
emergence of this technology, but also a part of that ancient city that had been kind of ripped out of it in the moment of destruction and became its own weird mutant thing. You don't have to go into that for this. But since it was rediscovered, a lot of different factions have been fighting over
ownership to get to this, you know, what functional
pieces of these ruins can we recover and reconstruct or repurpose or reuse. And Ludinus has been
utilizing some of this tech after taking control of these ruins through the Cerberus Assembly to build up his plan in this
campaign, which, you know, helped trigger the Apogee Solstice moment with the Malleus Key
to lock the moon Ruidus, to pierce through its defensive barriers and essentially bring all this to fruition. So Aeor from campaign
2 is tied into his plans for campaign 3.
Hmm. And now because of those things, you are all now kind of falling into the, for different reasons, similar footsteps to the Mighty Nein in campaign 2. Yeah. Well you get all
these fun moments of sharing, you know, a decade's
worth of history and lore that you've crafted from the ground up. And it's really fun, even
being a little bit in the dark, seeing you guys get those
Easter eggs for yourselves, and that you're giving as your players. But what I've really enjoyed watching is that even for someone
who doesn't understand, it doesn't diminish the
mystery of what's going on, but it makes it extra valuable for people who do know what's happening, who do have those little gasp moments. Marisha: Totally. And never have you, I just never watch you as a GM go, "Eh, and this is where this happened." (laughing)
You just describe it. And if you know, you know,
and if you don't, you don't. So for me as a new player,
I'm finding equal enjoyment in a different way of discovering it. That makes me happy. That was actually a
concern of mine in doing this, was wanting to make
sure that for, like you, and even viewers of the
campaign, don't feel lost in this. I wanted to, you know, go back to some of these places that we visited, but in many ways, like redescribe them in a new way that feels
familiar, but still unique and still make it feel
as impactful and fresh for the perspective of Bells Hells. Yeah, 'cause it's them
seeing it as opposed to... Yeah, well, you guys are,
and things have changed in the past seven years
since you, you know, the Mighty Nein had
their experience in Aeor and you're just now on the cusp of going to a whole new area. Yeah. So that's gonna be exciting. But yeah so that's-- That's if we survive. Sure.
Yeah. I guess so. Tombtakers didn't do too great. No.
Not really. Yeah, but you've extended your lore through different forms of media, through all sorts of
stuff, and that was one that actually caught
onto because of the book. Marisha: Yeah, you read-- 'Cause we read "The Nine Eyes of Lucien" and in that book, Dani: Shout out Madi Roux. Which I, yeah, it's amazing. I really enjoyed reading that book because it gave you a
perspective that maybe, you know, I don't know how
much of it was in the campaign, but boy, I really felt for
almost the Tombtakers almost more than the Mighty Nein, because it's their story. Yeah.
They're the rivals and you're watching
two sides of a rival story. And one of my favorite
moments from that book is when you lose a key player down in these sort of like, I don't know if it's the same location, but like--
That was the same. The same location, right. And that, for me, reading
the book was literally, I was like, "Ah, I'm
gonna take a break here", 'cause it was one of
my favorite characters. Oh no.
And I was like, "I'm gonna go have
lunch and I'll come back." (laughing)
yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh no, and you didn't know it was coming. Oh no.
I didn't know. No, no, I didn't know it was coming. It was the lady friend, Lucien's childhood lady friend. Yeah.
And I was just like, "Oh". It caught me, but it's a great moment. So I think, you know, even someone like me who's not as familiar with
the previous two campaigns, who maybe got it in campaign
3, but wanted to catch up and enjoys the audio books, they're gonna get a little taste of that, and be brought back in that way. It's really nice the way that it's all
feeling crafted together. It's good.
I'm happy to hear that. That was the purpose of the book, was, I had all this perspective of Lucien and the Tombtakers. They were the villains at
the end of that campaign. Yeah. There's not a moment to convey their perspective to that depth. So I had my head all this--
Yeah, in our brains, they were just villains,
villains, bad guys. And they were, but with reasoning as to why they were
doing what they were doing and to a certain degree,
especially with Lucien, victims of things beyond
their control as well. Sympathetic villains, for sure. Yeah, that was the intent. So I'm glad that worked out well. But all that peppers into the lore of Aeor because the Cognouza, the entity at the end of the book the thing that kind of broke Lucien, that was one of the wards of Aeor. It was one of the portions of the city that had kind of teleported itself out at the moment of its destruction and didn't end up in
the location it wanted to. It ended up in like this horrifying psychic storm in the Astral Sea that basically destroyed and merged all the minds of the
people that lived there and then shattered their psyche that had to slowly reform over time. And the first entity that
it really connected with, that didn't lose its mind or
go vanishing, was Lucien. Yeah.
Wow. Well, it's exciting because at that moment, three years ago or whatever it was, that was your big bad and now it's tangential, it's a lieutenant, it's something within the circle that there's something even bigger around every step and yeah. It's a service to the
world that you've created. It's enjoyable to see.
Thank you. It is really funny sitting next to you, Robbie, at the table. What did I do, did I have food on my face? (laughing)
No, no. We'll have these moments
where we will be like, "Oh, oh, it's Astrid", or "Oh", and I see you and I can,
'cause you're in my periphery. and so you're going... Yeah.
Yeah. I get to see his face
as he does it, just... Why do think I built a
low intelligence character? (laughing) There's a bag.
Easy. No thoughts, all just good vibes. Yep. Yep. And with that, it's time. Woo hoo.
More questions from the Tower of Inquiry. If you don't know this game, one of us pulls a block, reads a number. Dani Carr reads us a
corresponding fan question. I do.
Yep, and we each get to give our answer. And if for some reason
the tower should fall, there will be a cataclysmic consequence for the person responsible for its demise. Like we're talking 2012
John Cusack driving a limo through a collapsing
building kind of awfulness. Marisha: Whoa, reference. That's a reference, Gen Zers, look it up. Wowzers. Kyle, What's the jam? What's going on out there? You pick somebody to
pick somebody to pull a... I have to pick to do a pull? You get to pick. You have some making up to do. Yeah.
(laughing) You did naughty.
Out of the gate. So you're first.
Wow. Yeah. Marisha: Well it's a fresh tower, so-- Yeah. I'm hoping we can all get
through one cycle and then you-- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Matt: Ooh, it is a fresh tower. Oh, a fresh tower, fresh tower. Fresh tower.
Now I see. Let's see. Robbie: Don't be a coward,
go for the outside. Ah. Laura: Thank you, I feel like you're a player like me and Matt. Robbie: Are we playing to win or are we playing to mess around? We're playing to mess around. Look at it, all we're doing is making it stronger at this point. Robbie: Yeah. Arches. Robbie: What is it? What is it? Eight. Robbie: Mojo. Tu, tu, tu. We'll make it precarious,
that's the whole goal. Aw, this one's on target. If your character could spend one last campfire evening with FCG after they sacrificed
themselves for the party, what would you ask them? What would you want them to know? From Carl Jones. Oh Carl.
Oh my gosh. Carl, good question. Okay, Carl. Oof.
Buddy. Oh man. Wow. Dani: Oh wait, why am I going over there? I have to do this again. Yeah, you got more coming girl. (laughing) Oh my gosh
Just gonna be over here. Yeah, you pulled the block, you go first. Yeah. Marisha: What would I ask them? Wow.
You can go if you feeling it Yeah, sure.
If you have an idea. I would wanna know if there was any mission they would like us to complete, anything to finish for them.
Oh. Which I feel like, you know... I mean, you could make assumptions, but I would wanna know. Yeah.
I would ask you to find proof that Exandria is flat. Laura: Oh God. (laughing) Knowing Sam that is probably what-- Matt: He would do it. Robbie: Oh my goodness. And then I would want him to know that I never once
doubted that he was alive. Yeah. I know. I think like, kind of another thing that's been rattling around
in the back of my head, I think FCG was such a
moral compass for the group, and so grounding and kind of saw the good in everybody for better or for worse. And I think that faith he had in people, especially like Laudna, helped keep her on the straight and narrow. And so I think I would
want him to know that. You're kind of a guiding post, especially because like FCG, they also had their problems
with flying off the handle. Sure.
So it's like, oh, this person can be, you know, still want to be the best that they can be. Then I can meet that. But not mention you
fell off the Delilah wagon. Well, yeah. Well, yeah. I think that's what I
would want them to know. I don't know what I would ask them. I'm still so curious about like all the Aeor tech in the rooms. Yes.
And all of that stuff. It kills me that-
That's gone now. We're in fucking Aeor.
We're in Aeor. And we don't have FCG.
It's so close after they died. That kills me.
Kills me too. So if it feels like that's
what I would want to know more of, if they were still around. Laura: Yeah. That's definitely something I was like, it'll be very interesting
to bring FCG into Aeor. What's gonna trigger, what
memories are gonna come back? Yes.
Yeah. But now you get to try and make those searches for yourself, I guess. Laura: Yeah. But isn't that the thing about
losing someone though? You know, you deal
with it in a million ways, but like for me, whenever that happens, it's losing the potential of the future. Marisha: Yeah. That's a tough thing to deal
with, more than anything. You can let someone go, but the idea of what they could have been. Could have done.
It's tough. It doesn't matter if they're 19 or 90. It definitely, it mattered. I just wanna know if he ever had a dream. Did he ever have a dream?
Yeah. He did.
He had a dream. I get to find my answer out. Matt: Yeah.
(laughing) Was it a wet dream?
(laughing) Just oil everywhere. I'm kidding. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Did I ruin the moment? What did he dream about?
What did he dream about? Did he ever tell you?
Yes. He's gone into a few people's
heads and dreamt with them and then had his own
dream that kind of like, began to discover
himself as a living being. Laura: Oh. He found faith with the Changebringer and kind of like began to find a path. That was pretty cool. See, I get my answer from him through you guys from the beyond. Nice. Yeah.
I had no idea. Dani: And that's how memory works. Yeah, it's nice.
That's how grief works, is that you share them with, you share the people
that you lost with others and that's how they live on. (crying)
FCG. You go. All right. (laughs) Begrudging. Yeah.
With a scowl. I thought it was a game, what did I-- Show us how it's done. It was my job to pick the people, right? Marisha: See how she
sets this up to fuck us later. Matt: I mean, that's the plan, right? Marisha: Yeah. Matt: Laura knows the setup. Marisha: It's already kind of a... I know it is a little wonky. It's a wonky tower.
Good. Laura: Oh, look at that-- Good.
Look at that. Laura: Oh. Matt: Yeah. 34. Marisha: And it matches
the tower, it's so pretty. Look Marisha, our nails together. (gasps) They do--
Our powers combine. Tower of Inquiry nails.
They planned this. Everything on Critical Role is planned. We write it all in advance.
The color of the blocks is the color of both of your nails? Yeah.
How weird is that? That's weird. That's saphic culture. (laughing) Yeah. All right, 34 from Hailey Boothman. Matt: Hi Hailey. If you could ask any
character from any campaign a question that they
have to answer truthfully, who would you ask and
what would the question be? From any campaign?
From any campaign. It's a hard one. I would ask everyone, "Are
you secretly in love with me?" (laughing) The answer is yes.
Ooh. I know this was a pre-campaign, pre-Critical Role even being
existence, home game thing. Did Grog fuck a nymph? Dani: No, he answered that. Oh, he did, he didn't fuck her. Wait, he did?
Yeah, he answered that. Dani: That was in the campaign wrap up. And that's what memories are all about. (laughing) I still know want to know. I still want to know what happened. Yeah. 'Cause he was kind of still
vague about what happened. I was there, I can tell you.
She gave her-- Laura: Oh, that's right. No, it's not yours to tell. That's true. Do you think Travis remembers? Yes.
Yes. The details. You think so? I do, yeah.
Yes. He's held it over our heads for 12 years. I thought I was holding
over your head as a joke. Think about it, Travis knows. Matt: That's true, he does
have the weird trap memory. Yes, and I feel like-- Matt: Both of you, can do-- He knows so much more lore
about Exandria than, I mean. Dani: He and I are always having, like, I feel like he and I
are always mind melding whenever Matt says something and I'm freaking out and he's freaking out. I'm so proud of him.
20 seconds before me because of the delay. I'm so proud of him.
Yeah, dumb. (laughing) Well he just plays dumb characters. My answer still stands. Fair enough.
What happened? I'd asked Chetney what
he was doing in his 20s. (laughing)
Oh, yeah. I'd want to know what
Chetney was doing in his 20s. Chetney was a like, just a total nerd. What? You think?
I think Cheney was a nerd. He's a reformed nerd.
A total geek. Oh, reformed.
Yeah. Yeah, I think Cheney's path goes from like, absolute nerdy kind of general, maybe self-imposed social
outcast for a long time. And then went to full
pickup artist like weirdly-- I think once he got old enough then he stopped realizing like, oh, it doesn't matter anymore. Really--
Pick up artist is a, yeah. 'Cause that pipeline is very true. It's terrifying.
He took an online course. Yep, some dude in
Vegas in a big leather coat. Some dude in a top hat. Yeah. (laughing) I think he started realizing what's the worst that could happen? They say, yes? (laughing)
Yeah, he was just wandering the
streets and negging people. Yeah.
That's funny. That sounds like a
Chetney experience. (laughs) Yeah. Alright, I'm supposed to
pick two to three of you and I'm giving myself a pass. It's you.
Valid. Pull the next one, pull the next one. All right, all right, all right. Let's see what we can--
Set it up good so that the next group gets fucked. Yeah, last question.
That's fair. That his plan.
(gasps) Ooh.
Ooh, that's dangerous. Robbie: Oh, that's a dicey play, I love it. Do it, Matt.
I love it. (drum roll banging) (screaming and shouting)
(clattering) No. No. Quickest tower drop ever.
What happened? Robbie: We got the flog. Laura: Oh my god. I can't believe it. Laura: Confidence though,
that was full confidence. I may--
Wow. I may have been overconfident. (shouting) Wait a minute-- Robbie: Hubris. What do we do to you? Hubris.
Whoever touches the tower-- Marisha: It does. Robbie: Do you get 20
spankings? What's the plan? 30 spankings?
30 spankings. Come on, baby. All right. We won't know until the game... Oh yeah, you have the block.
But I will. I have the question ready. Okay.
Okay. The consequences box and
look at the consequences. Matt: I've never done this yet. All right. I was so confident in him, too. I know!
He had so much swagger. I was like, it's not
going down this episode. No. it did. Oh no.
Yeah, yeah, yeah! No!
What's it going to be? You'll find out.
Oh, after we do-- Do the question.
It's part of the block C. Okay, question first.
Okay, okay. Kyle, you did this! This is a Kyle.
Not me! Dang it.
Ask the question. That's on me. I got too confident. I loved it. Oh boy. Okay.
Oh boy! Oh geez! Oh golly! Gee willikers!
Oh gosh! This one is very timely. I keep wanting to say
prescient, but I can't remember if that's the correct
definition of that word, so I'm just going to go with timely. From ElliesGayMachete on Tumblr-- ElliesGayMachete is a great name. Oh, I get it.
That's great. How do you decide on
updates to official character art? Oh.
How do you determine what to keep, what to change, and what new things you'd like to add? That's a great question, actually. Right?
We just updated our outfits. Thank you so much, ElliesGayMachete. Dani: Yeah, talk about your outfits while I go through your tankards and take out the questions
I had about your outfits. Yeah!
Don't mind me. How do we decide what
we keep and what we don't? Do we get to see that, or is it a surprise? I don't know, we'll find
out. Continue, please. Yeah, it'll be revealed in block C. Oh boy.
I feel like everybody's different with how they approach it. Yeah.
Well, I thought mine was going to come before you guys. Yeah, I know, and then it just-- Yeah, it was meant to be maybe in the half and half episode.
Yeah. And then it was so emotionally impactful, it felt bad to be like, guess what, though! My brother's dead,
but look at my new shirt! Yeah, so it was scary for me, because we were talking
about RPing and builds. Yeah.
And my idea, that's what I thought was happening. I gave Dariax all my shit. I gave him my lute, I gave him my sword, I gave him everything
to defend myself with, and then when the Fearne
fight was going down, I thought we were going to jump in, and I was going to play it legit. Nothing.
Base armor class, fisticuffs, in my undies, and I'm so glad that it never happened. Oh my gosh. But when it came to designing the art, it came hand in hand with,
you're coming back to the show. We wanted to give you an upgrade. I'm so stoked that it
got to be with everyone. Yes.
Yeah. I think that felt really, really good. It didn't steal anyone's thunder. It wasn't anything
like that. It felt honest. Yeah.
It was nice. Yeah, so we worked,
the artist is fantastic. Hannah, shout out.
Yeah, so amazing. So good.
Hannah. Hannah.
Hannah. Yeah.
Hannah, shout out. We worked together for a couple weeks, and we started with some base ideas. I had some ideas, and then
just bink, bink, bink, bink, and then we ended up landed where we were, and we were going with the idea that, my favorite adventure trope
is that by nearing the end, they're just carrying around
little vestiges and trinkets from their journey, and it feels so good. And then it feels like the
outfit that you end up at the end is just meaningful.
Yeah. Yeah.
Absolutely. And sexy as fuck.
(laughing) That's an obvious prerequisite. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Must be hot. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Did your full... What's that, Scott? The male figure skater from... Kyle! I wasn't going for male
figure skater vibes, but-- Oh no, you got it.
But the shirt! Hamilton?
Scott Hamilton! I don't know why you knew that. Right? Kyle: I don't know figure skating! I'm not that gay! Dani: I knew what you
were talking about, Marisha. I don't remember his name, though. One of the conversations-- He would wear the see-through mesh shirts! One of the conversations I've had the most on the road the last two years, in my limited time on this show, one of the most impactful moments was when Dorian
basically re-closets himself, which was really intentional on my part, where he throws the chiffon outfit away and becomes what he doesn't want to become. So when I was out meeting
all these awesome Critters, it's probably the number one moment that gets brought up in
panels and face to face, so something about it was impactful. But I want people to feel
safe again with the character, so I was like, how can I bring this back in and not take all of my armor away? So I had a big discussion
with Aabria, and she was like, I think at this point,
you would've armored up to have at least one more hit point, or one more point on your AC. So we looked for an item
that seemed fair and not OP that we could fake into the gear that still played within
the mechanics of the build, and that's where we landed on-- The mithral?
The mithral shirt. --the mithral-esque chiffon shirt. That's so cool.
I love it. Yeah, and it still fit all the... What do you call it?
Proficiencies and everything. And it was still good
in the build, so yeah. Yeah, that's awesome.
So cool. That's been one of my go-tos
with Hannah since level one, has been sheer.
(laughing) So true! Imogen, I don't know why,
I just really want chiffon. You were in short short rider shorts for a while, though, right?
I was in hot pants. Yeah.
With a sheer overlay. Oh, okay, okay. I didn't see that. Thank you very much. Got to keep the booty warm
with the chiffon, obviously. Of course.
Yeah! Yeah, and then even this level, I was like, I want Imogen, she's hardened. I want her to feel more battle-ready. I want her to feel like she's shedding some of that innocence. So that's why I made her in the blacks and more armor-y sort of a vibe, but I still wanted it sheer.
But still a touch of sheer. Yeah, no.
A little touch of sheer. Ain't nothing wrong with that. Yeah.
Yeah. I don't think it's... Kind of a communal
feeling during a campaign, when people want to
switch it up a little bit. There's been enough moments
of character development, and there's maybe a shift
in tone or a shift in location. Yeah. A lot of things come
together at a certain point in the campaign where all of
us communally start going-- It is time.
It seems right. --maybe it's time, maybe we
should update character looks to help best express where they are now, as opposed to where they've been for the past so and so episodes. So it isn't like we're talking, all right, so by this point, we're going to change, and then next year, at this
point, we're going to change. It's not planned, we
just all at one point go, hey, we should start
talking about some now-- Our emotions have changed. Our intents have changed.
We should probably update. And this one came because we wanted to be able to incorporate FCG into our looks.
Yeah, some of his colors. And keep him with us as we moved forward. So I think everybody
wanted to bring a part of him, whether it be his colors
or his armor or something, into the designs.
When you showed the designs, and I got the vibe that that's
where it was going in game, I was like, oh, I would
like to participate. How? But then you gave
us the opportunity to RP it. So we had the craft section. I was like, oh, got it. I'll just do-- I love that.
That's great. Yeah, so it can still be representative, but everybody knows it's there. Yeah.
So if you see a cosplayer do it, or you see someone, and they pay attention to those details, which they absolutely do--
For sure. It's the best.
For sure. And then Laudna, just
full on Delilah vibes. Yeah.
I love the cage. The cage?
The ribcage? The ribcage and the skirt cage. The skirt cage.
Which is-- Not a petticoat, but-- They call the cage skirts.
Cage skirts. Yeah, yeah, yeah, back in the day, they would use them to floof you out. God.
But yeah. But yours is on the outside.
Mm-hm. You're Superman-ing it. You're wearing your
underwear on the outside. A little bit, a little bit.
Awesome. The original idea was, since Delilah is becoming more influential, to have her, I think I told Hannah I
want to have almost this blueprint, almost like
a framework of Delilah, but it's still Laudna. It's so tricksy, like you said. It's always things that you've collected along the way in the campaign, and things that have influenced you that you want to incorporate. But then also, still staying true to the look and style of the character and keeping their silhouette. All of that goes into
things, and then factor, and then yeah, once again, I didn't know where we would
be when we revealed this, and so it just kind of worked out really well when I dropped it. Oh, she was kind of in a fugue state when she was making her outfit, and was kind of like, what did I just make? Is kind of a way to try
and sow that she was... That Delilah was a little bit in control when she was doing that. Built your own cage around you. Yes, correct.
That's a fun thing, too. Everyone creates these
designs for the new characters, but we don't really discuss
when it's going to be happening. It'll just come up naturally, or, I had two different plans
of where this could happen, and it kind of happened
naturally during the time in Zadash and I was like, yeah. For brief moment, was like,
oh, we're doing this now? Yeah, we're doing this now. Like so many other things in the game, it's all just going with the mood, and me making plans
and then throwing them out, and it's great.
(laughing) Well, thank you, Carl Jones, Haley Boothman, and ElliesGayMachete. If you're out there and you have a question for our Tower of Inquiry, you can enter it at critrole.com/tower, and we'll build a fresh
one for you next time. How about them apples?
Yeah! I can't wait to find out
what happens to you. That was the fastest
collapse I've ever seen. Like I said, we wanted
to up the stakes a little bit. I just did it poorly. Hubris.
Hubris! I fall to it on occasion. It's time to slide into Deep Dive. Dani, can we get some tanks?
Yes! Let's do it, let's do it.
Thank you, Dani! Of course you can have some tanks. Thanks, Dani.
We're going to go around. We're going to take turns
pulling some question. Hey, tanks. Thank you, love.
You're welcome. Hi! You went first last time.
I don't know. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right. He's so sleepy.
I gave myself a pass on the last game, I'll go first. You do that, buddy. Go for it. In the game where there's no consequences. Yep! (clears throat) How does Dorian feel reuniting with Bells Hells,
especially Orym and Fearne, after being guided by
Sending Stone messages? Also talk to us about paying
for Orym's new threads. Dani: Yeah, talk to us about that, Robbie. It was a moment. It felt right! It was a moment!
All your money. Yeah, it was all my
money. He wanted it so bad. He did.
I saw his little eyes. He wanted it! Get your girl that Coach purse. I thought about it. Who cares if you can make rent? I definitely can't make rent. I got a pocketful of
silver and some ruby dust. That's it, baby. And I've
got to save them both. I know, I know, blowing it
onto the ground? It's flair. So good!
Ice skater flair. The path that we got here with, being reunited with
Bells Hells is the best, because it followed a
personal path for myself, because I got to experience the parting of EXU Crown
Keepers, which was crazy, and then coming back to you
guys, it felt like coming home, but time had passed, and in
your worlds time had passed, and in our worlds time had passed. So I think the way that it unfolded for me felt really natural, and by the time that we get our first few
episodes back together, it was just like putting on an old glove. It felt nice. It was good
to be back with you guys. You create such an easy
environment to be around that the idea of, sometimes people go, were you scared to go? And I was like, no. What
you see is what you get. They're nice people. It's been the best. And seen Orym and Fearne, we found some time to make those moments. Oh, and being guided by
the Sending Stone messages. I felt the guilt of not
being able to answer them, but from what I understand,
it was a magical problem. Correct, yeah.
So I never got them. Thanks for that pass! I figured that was easier than
me having to answer for you over the other side of that for a while, though I do like the idea
of that ability coming back, and all of a sudden, a
bunch of old messages-- (mimicking phones dinging rapidly) Oh my god, it's Orym.
We're going to die! Everything's okay, but I miss you. 53 messages! But yeah, no, it's just the best. What an absolute blast, and
I'm so excited for the future. Yeah, man.
The best. So good to have you back.
Good question. Which way do you want to go?
You! (gasps) (sighs) That's a big one. What does Imogen think of everything going on with Delilah and Laudna? You know... (sighs) Okay. Speaking of, we didn't know where things were going to go, right?
Yeah. Didn't know where that conversation on the roof was going to go. Certainly, didn't plan for it to
end the way that it did, in this confusing half way, sort of. I don't know. Here's the thing. We talked about the parallels with Liliana, and seeing somebody that you love and have the most extreme hope for, and think that they're
going to be there for you, and then seeing Liliana, her
hopes have gone up and down and up and down and up
and down with that relationship, and then finding that connection
with Liliana on the moon and realizing right before we
were about to head home that, oh fuck, no, you're in too deep. No matter what I want, I
can't trust this relationship. And then to come back and echo that again with everything going on with Delilah. And it's not that I think that Laudna will make the same decisions. But to say, I think you're in too deep. I think she's using you. And for Laudna to continue to say, "Yeah, but--"
Marisha: Yeah. It kind of gets to this
place that it feels... I don't know, not hopeless, but okay, you're making your choice then. And I don't want to end this by any means, but if your choice it to say, "I'm going to choose
that over you," it's a hard... And I've been replaying
that fucking conversation in my head nonstop since we had it. It was brutal.
Yeah, and thinking about, Imogen still wants to be there. It's not like I want to abandon Laudna. And we did talk about how
both of us were going to explore getting the power that we needed to go to that endgame, and now, Imogen has this full
fucking regret happening because I feel like I
abandoned you in that. I should've gone farther with Predathos, and then you wouldn't be
there by yourself with Delilah. So it's a horrible feeling. Yeah. It's tricksy, man. Yeah, and it's hard seeing
somebody that you love not find themself worth more.
Yeah. To be able to pull away from it. Yeah, you said, I think,
after the cooldown, in the cooldown after
one of those episodes, oh, it's like being with an addict. And it's like, yes. Correct.
Oh my god. Even, I think, Laudna is so conflicted, because yeah, she was like, I thought we said we were
going to embrace the power. I'm doing that. And then also just feeling conflicted every time Imogen is like, you lied to me. Because it's like, no. And once again, kind of
in an addict's perspective, I think obviously when an addict is like, "I'm clean, I'm good, this is it, I'm not falling off the
bandwagon that time," they're not lying when they say that. All things can be true at once, which is, yes, it is true that you're
saying that in that moment, and in that moment it is the truth, but it is also the truth
that there'll probably be this lifelong struggle for forever, that you're kind of intertwined with. So yeah, and in that way,
especially Marisha above the table where it's like, oh, I wouldn't date me. Not in a way, in that... It's tricksy. I want to
choose my words carefully. Laudna is deserving of love, just as anyone else who struggles-- 100%.
--in that way, entirely. And deserving of support.
And deserving of support. And it's not a direct metaphor. No.
Laudna's not doing drugs. You're possessed by an evil demon lady. Yes.
Okay, let's be clear. There is a wide--
Correct. It is not a direct metaphor at all. But I think those kind of
creative, narrative metaphors that are sometimes thinly veiled, we can still embrace the
reality of what's happening in that moment, which is bad business. It's bad.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And at what point do
you have to be there... I keep thinking back to when, it was just the way you said it, that I was like (groans) where it was like,
you still love me, right? And Laudna is doing, in that moment, where it's like, when you're like, when you've fucked
up and you're in a fight-- Laura: And it's instant.
And you're like, I love you. Laura: Yeah, of course I still love you. I love you, do you still love
me? And you were like-- Of course.
I will always love you. And the way you said it
was like, "I'll always love you," which is, once again, objectively true, but at what point in what I
keep thinking about with Imogen and what I think Laudna
wants as well, where it's like, at a certain point, you
have to protect yourself too. Right. And I want you to protect yourself, and I think that's where
Laudna keeps being like, I care about you enough to say, yeah, this could be bad news,
and you deserve so much. It's fully somebody going, stop. Get away, get away.
I'm going to fuck this up. I'm going to protect you from myself, yeah. I wonder if your next
question will be apropos to that scenario.
It might be, it might be. I also love that you're fully having a, "Oh fuck, I'm dating my
dad!" moment with Laudna. Oh no.
Dude! Oh shit!
How did I do that? Yeah, but nobody ever
does that in real life. How did I not realize--
That never happens, never. The traumas, they just keep repeating. You can break the circle. I believe it. Thank you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure, yeah. What did Laudna expect when she returned to
the group after Swordgate? How does she feel, given
the kindness she was given? Yeah, I mean, obviously, Laudna's tragic flaw is self-worth. It always has been, and--
Wait, lack of, or-- Yeah, lack of.
Okay. Struggling with the idea of self-worth, and even the idea of, I think she's having a hard time believing when the group keeps
being like, Delilah chose you. You were already special. This is not... Because in Laudna's head, she's like, it was just coincidence. I happened to die. I
was in the blast radius. I had a little bit of magical essence, and it was fully coincidental. So it's trying to battle with, no, nothing about me is special. It's a fluke that any of this happened. Where was I going?
Yes, what does she think? I mean, even everyone trotting through
Delilah's little mind palace to get Laudna back, she's like, I'm not-- We trotted through Delilah's mind palace to get Laudna back.
Sick, sounds great. To save me, yeah, and even after that, I think Laudna had such guilt of, you guys went through so
much, I'm not deserving of that. So now, I think so much of that is coming back again, which is, I think she walked in there being like, well, I'm going to face the consequences, and if they want me to go my separate ways, obviously I will prostrate
myself on the ground and hope that people are
still wanting to go through this. But yeah, I think it's such a dangerous mix of someone who has such low... I mean, kind of in a way with FCG, too, where you have such... But his was a different brand, where your low self-worth in yourself becomes dangerous because you're just that much more of a loose cannon, in a way. So is that the answer
for the hope, is hope? That is what Laudna wants? Even though she knows her flaws, she wants the hope that
she could be all right? I'm not putting words in your mouth, I'm just sort of trying
to distill it a little. Yeah, yeah, I think she's... She hopes that, one,
she can get through this without losing the only
good things in her life, which is obviously all of her friends. And I think she has very thin hope that maybe after all of this,
then we can finally address getting rid of Delilah in a very final way. But yeah, I think at this point, it's like, don't hate me when I do bad things! It's all for you! I'm doing it for you! I swear, it's all for you! Yeah, kind of. I mean, it is.
A means to an end. Yeah, it's just if you lose yourself along the way or not, you know? Correct.
Yeah. And you're doing it all for us
by answering your question. I should do that. Okay.
Let's go! ♪ It's all for you ♪
Let's see what we got. Dani: Robbie, the host with the most. I know, right?
You're a good host. I think he's the best host
we've had on 4-Sided Dive. Don't say that to the 23 others! It's always us.
Most of the time it's us. Dani: Mostly, the 23 others were just them. Then it's fine!
If it's not us, it's Aabria. Matt. Tell us everything about
Otohan Thull right now, please. I'm going to save that
for a campaign wrap-up. (groaning) Dammit! I tried!
You tried, you tried. Good try, good try. Matt, I'm sad. Matt, you brought back
quite a few familiar faces from the Mighty Nein campaign
like Pumat Sol and Iva Deshin, not to mention Essek and Astrid. What was it like to
return to those characters? It's always fun. There's
always a balance to strike. For one, there's some other facets of it, too, with campaign three. When will I ever have the opportunity to dovetail facets of multiple
campaigns in the same world, in the same time period together in ways that I can both delight
my players at the table with new, fun characters that you haven't experienced before, or characters that were
beloved from old storylines, but come at them with a fresh perspective and engage with them in a unique way, even if it's just for a moment? It's the little cameos. I don't get a chance to do
that much at all in any games. I'm going to embrace that to a degree, when it make sense in the narrative, and a lot of it isn't me going, I'm going to bring in these characters! It's me following the thread of logic. With things pointing towards Aeor, they're going to need
somebody to take you to Aeor. Right now, Caleb is busy. The only other person that's not busy with what he's doing right now, who knows Aeor, would be Essek. I was like, well, that's logical. That means I probably get to
bring Essek in. That'll be fun. Who would be functionally trust-ish, trusted-ish on the Caleb side, that would know about
the Cerberus Assembly? I love trust-ish.
I know. Accurate, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Would be Astrid, who's a
member of the Assembly from the end of the last campaign, but is their own kind of
dubious figure with a history tied to Caleb Widogast,
and by connection, Essek. So all these threads of
logic kept leading me to-- They both have had sex with Caleb. Matt and who?
Matt and Matt. Oh, got it.
Yeah, Matt and Matt. I got mixed up for a second. My imaginary characters get a lot. But yeah, it was just
following the thread of logic and being like, okay,
this has the possibility of being a lot of back to back cameos. I have to try and make them
meaningful and not over the top. I don't want to ever
overshadow your journey or your characters, so I can
give little perfunctory moments of them playing up and being fun, but also once again underline that this is your story and your narrative, and hat was fun, but let's
move onto the next thing. So even Essek's definitely,
he's guiding you through Aeor, but letting you experience it as he's just kind of pulling
you through on a thread, being like, we're in business mode. I don't know who you are,
but I've been given a task, so let's try and get through here okay. And you immediately wandered off and started going to the amphitheater. He's like, (groans) twice
I've been here with groups, and they've both been idiots. To be fair, that's a pretty
shiny big red button. Of course.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. All of Aeor is. That's
why it's so dangerous. Yeah, he gets it. So it's
been a lot of fun to return to it. There is an internal concern of making sure it doesn't ever overshadow
the moment or the players and become too, remember this thing? I don't want to be too
Member Berries, either. Yeah.
Member? Member Pumat Sol? So yeah, it was fun. But only because it logically
made sense to the story, and I got to move on
quickly from those moments. We're going to do a
couple rounds of this, right? Yeah.
Is it cool if I pull another one?
Let's go. All right, we'll stay in the same order. Dani: Only one round.
We need at least two more. Matt: Two more. We can be more concise. Yeah, we can do a lightning round. Marisha: There's big things to talk about. Yeah.
Of course, of course. It's called Deep Dive, though. That felt pretty deep.
Yeah! What does Dorian think of
everything going on with Laudna? Does he truly trust her? Trust-ish her. Does Dorian, everything
going on with Laudna... Oh man, I think about Laudna a lot. Enough about you. What
do you think about me? I said that wrong.
Enough about you. What do you think about... Enough about me, what do
you think about me? Fucking hell! There it is. You did great, though. I don't know, I feel like
there was some early bonding with Laudna in the start of the campaign, and then seeing her in
this state right off the bat was pretty disconcerting.
Yeah. It automatically made me retreat to Orym, which I feel like is one of my
stronger bonds in the game. Orym, Chet, Fearne, and
then Ashton, to a certain extent. Maybe Maude.
(laughing) I've been waiting to bring it back! You played right into it.
You did. But yeah, it was scary. It was genuinely a scary moment, and it was confusing for Dorian. I felt so bad when I was like, "You don't know what you
speak," or whatever I said. Oh yeah!
I clapped at Dorian. Yeah, no no, but--
Your villain moment. I know.
But it's true. It felt so bitchy.
He copped to it immediately. I think of a lot of them, Dorian's kind of figured
out who he is, so-- He also just saw this happen with Opal. Yeah.
I know. We got a little flashback.
Sorry, not to-- There's still a lot to unpack with Dorian. No, you're right. What? There's still a lot to unpack with Dorian, because you definitely
came back into the campaign and you were like, yeah, my brother died, and Opal got possessed by a spider queen, and by the way, this was
all yesterday, but it's fine. Yesterday.
Don't worry about it! Once again, enough about me. What's up with you?
Oh man. And we haven't really talked about it. Dorian is a master compartmentalizer, I think always has been
since the beginning, so I mean, whether those moments
present themselves or not, I don't know if it matters, but if they do, there's stuff there. His compartments are full. We had a small moment where
somebody checked in with me, and I was just like, oh,
I'm a piece of shit too. I'm a big fat mess, but it
doesn't matter right now. It doesn't matter. Yeah, yeah. I love, his compartments are full. What happens to the
compartmentalizer when their-- You turn into FCG. Your stress points-- Yeah, yeah.
Your eyes turn red, and you attack everybody. Yeah, but not in this new scenario. I think it really was just
genuine caring and confusion of why we all weren't going out to help. I had top table knowledge of why, but I had to point it out as Dorian, because Dorian would be confused. Why aren't we all going
out there to help her? Why is it just a one on one scenario? And then that's how I got to find out about your relationship, and we
got to put the pieces together. Yeah.
That's fun. Yeah.
It's fun. Your turn!
My turn! Same order?
Yeah. Same order, yeah.
Keep it going, why not? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(mumbles) Imogen says... I kind of answered this. How is she feeling about her mom since the attempted assassination? I kind of already answered that. A little bit, yeah.
All right. Do another one.
Do another one. Get out of here, get out of here! Ugh, paper.
(indistinct) question. How are Laudna and Imogen... Well, this is for both of us.
Okay. How are Laudna and Imogen
handling FCG's sacrifice and the hole left behind by his absence? Again, we kind of already talked about it. Yeah, the tower
question kind of covered it. Yeah.
Do another one! I'm running out of questions. This is my last one.
(gasps) Those tower questions were really good. They were.
Yeah. Okay.
I honestly wonder how much-- Oh no! I answered this one too! No! I'm talking too much, apparently. How did Imogen feel about her mom finally turning away
from the Ruby Vanguard? Did she truly want her
to return to Exandria? Yeah.
Yeah, I talked about it. Well, keep talking about it. Dani: You can also talk more about it. Yeah, there's some more to unpack there. You said you definitely
chose to not trust her to come back with you.
Yeah. But the question was,
did you really want her to go back with you?
Yes, yes. In my heart of hearts, when I finally convinced her to talk to us and trust us, that she was going to just say goodbye to all of that and follow us, and then she was going to
be with us and help Keyleth, and she was going to be
the tide that turned the... No, no, it got to that--
I mean-- Laura: I mean, it could still be. It could've been. It was your choice. No, I know that, but you
and I talked about that after the game.
Yeah. There was that moment,
and hearing her talk, it was that trust. I don't trust that she
would actually help us. As soon as she got to the other
side and she heard everybody talking about what the actual plans were and what we were going to
do, it could've erupted into... And I mean, it could've been wonderful. She could've been de-indoctrinated
or whatever you call it. But I think having been 20 years with Ludinus... In Imogen's history, how long has Mom been out of the picture? Mom disappeared when I was a toddler. Itty bitty. Itty, itty bitty.
Yeah. She hasn't been with Ludinus that long. Laura: Right. But she's been away for that long. Yeah.
Right, she left originally, from my understanding, she left originally to learn more about what was going on with, because I had very bad
dreams about Predathos, about this entity, without realizing that's what it was.
Yeah. She was having the same sort of things. She left to figure out what was going on. Yeah, and she started to
feel some of these powers apparate in her, and
she was scared of what... From my perspective
and from her perspective, she began to feel these powers emerging, her Ruidusborn, innate powers, but she kind of kept them hidden, and was like, what is going on? And she'd had these dreams to Predathos, and the calling of the
Ruidusborn towards the red moon, and then the minute
that Imogen, her daughter, began to have these
dreams, it was like, fuck. I need to figure this out,
because this scares me, and I don't want this to happen to you. So she began to follow a path of research, trying to reach out to
people that study Ruidus and study the history of this. What's happening to me?
Why am I imagining this? What's the tether? And became part of a small
scale secret research team across Exandria, that were
studying these other people that were having these connected dreams. The rate of Ruidusborn birth had been escalating
exponentially in recent generations, and people, they don't know
why, but were also scared to talk about it publicly
or on a large scale because people will
misuse this and abuse this. So it's been this kind
of secret research plot that she got caught up with as probably one of the
most powerful Ruidusborn that was emerging as, oh, she's going to be the focus of the study because she's doing shit
that none of us really expected, and that's how she got pulled
in with Ludinus and became... Well, we can talk more
about the details of their history maybe down the line, but yeah, that's how she more or
less got tied in with Ludinus. And then I started having all of the same sort of emerging powers, but didn't have any clue
about what was happening because she'd already left
and hadn't left any information, so I thought I was alone in all of it. Yeah.
So. It's interesting hearing you
talk about like your wants and desires for what you
want your mother's actions to be because I think that's a
very intrinsically child thing-- 100%.
To want, especially for one who maybe didn't have the experience of even growing up with a parent. There was, in here dreams,
her mom would talk to her. Her mom would find her in the dreams. Oh, that's good. So she would always hear her mom's voice guiding her to safety. Yeah.
Telling her to run. Telling her to run away from this storm that was chasing her. So in her mind, her mom was her savior. Her mom was the thing that was gonna be-- But then you get confronted with reality-- And she's not--
And well, I think that's an interesting thing, not to go too deep into it,
but this is a deep dive, right? That I think a lot of adults experience at some time in maturity, regardless of their
relationship with their parents, where they realize that
their parents are people too and I think that's a weird
moment that a lot of young people don't get to and it takes
a little bit of empathy and maturity to realize, "Oh, shit, my mom's not just my mom, they're living the same
rich full life that I live," and then they're an independent
agent, and as you get older, your kids aren't
always your first priority. You're living your own life and that's a choice that
you can make as a parent. So it's interesting to have
Imogen have that experience with their own mom. I can't say that your
choice with your mother, which one was right, or
if either of them are right, but I love how many fasts
this campaign I have been and will hope to continue to
put in your hands as players that will drastically alter how things go. And as a GM, my favorite
aspects are like building out all the pieces and setting
out all these things up and then at certain moments
when it feels ready to be like, "So, which domino set do
you wanna knock down?" Yeah.
You know. It's fun. It's hard as a player outside of the game to go, "I feel like this
is gonna be the coolest, the strongest thing." But also you have to think
about what your character would be doing in that moment.
Of course. Would they make that decision, because you can try to finagle it to make sense for your character. You can do the work around and go-- Yeah,
"I can find motivation, you tell me to get to point B, I'll find a reason to get there"-- Yeah.
But does it make sense? Is that the choice that I would've made? I think it was the right choice 'cause it feels like everything
would have to be perfect for that to not backfire, like if she did come and join our sides, and even if on the best side of things, like everything's hunky
dory and she's all in, she's still connected to this hive mind, which could see everything she's doing. Or, like you said, she
gets there, she's like, "What the Fuck?" gets
conflicted, and then like rip cords-- And then has--
With a ton of information. All of our information.
Has all of our information. I still think that there, like
I just feel it in my bones, like Liliana is gonna
play a really massive part in whatever this end game is. Very Gandalf and Gollum of you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (laughing) 100%. I immediately see your wheels turning, looking to subvert your expectations. (laughing) Marisha: We'll see. Well, who you got? Oh. Oh, yeah. Dani: You also run through
all of your questions so fast. I did, I did, but this
one's kind of important 'cause it has big caveat. "How are Imogen and
Laudna doing now?" (coughs) That's the answer.
"What did Imogen mean by saying she will miss their cottage? Did they break up? Say psych right now?"
Say psych right now. So... We have had this conversation-- We did.
Like what just happened? Yeah, we literally, can I say this? Yeah.
That we left and went into the lobby after that moment and both Laura and I
went, "Did we break up?" Did we break up? Did that just happen without either of us intending for that to be what happened? Yeah, it feels very rocky right now. Laura: Yeah. I'm gonna need to see
a smooch at some point before I believe the love is back on. It feels very like--
Kiss, kiss. Should we make out right now? Not right now, not you
two, your characters. Right, right, okay. (laughing) Took a turn, it's not
the deep dive I intended. I mean, let's get those views. (laughing) Spoken like the true creative director. Yeah, whatever. It'll pop off on TikTok, but... Yeah, I am... True. It feels very much like we're not broken up,
but we are taking a break. It feels kind of like that. (laughing) It's like I don't want this
to end, but did it end? You know?
Yeah. I don't know. It feels, yeah, it just
feels very uncertain. Very uncertain, yeah.
Very uncertain. Like our... Yeah.
Lay it on us, Matt. What have you got in your cup? (laughing) And then even the next day you were like, "I sleep farther away." And I was like, I reach for
your hand when I was sleeping and I was like, it did. We're holding hands.
It's that's cold. It's cold. It always feels cold.
Yeah. I don't know, we'll see. Time will tell. Robbie: Ooh, I love it. (laughing) That's good.
Yeah, that's a good sign. "It's really hard not
making all your questions about Essek, so, hey Matt, just talk to me, I mean the audience, about Essek. How is he?" (laughing) Robbie: How is he? Oh, that's a great one.
How's Essek? That's a great lightning round. I was gonna answer this other question, another question was, "What was it like to have Essek and Astrid face off in that interrogation?" I'm like, "I already
answered that question." This one's also about Essek, I'm like... Look, at least I admit it. Matt: No, it's valid, it's valid. Sometimes the brain
worms eat the brain, I'm sorry. No, it's all good. I mean, Essek's doing,
he's doing pretty good. He's been enjoying the
quieter life for a while. He's kind of, you know. He's not like actively
hunted by the Dynasty, but he's definitely
under heavy investigation and has been for a while. He's on a list.
He's on a list and so he's been enjoying laying low for a number of years with Caleb. Growing green beans.
Yeah. And so he is been helping
him out with his teaching. He's also been like
off doing his own little research projects kind of
outside of Dynasty perspective, helping out where he
can, where it feels safe. That's where kind of his
illusory persona comes from is he's worked along with some
members of the Cobalt Soul, helped out with Beauregard
probably on a few things as this character and it's
built this alternative persona to still do some things in the world where he feels he can safely do so. But yeah, he's doing okay. Personally, all this is
scaring the hell out of him. Hi, Omar.
Waking up from your nappy? Essek got his grove back. He did, oh yeah. Omar also wants to know how Essek's doing. Hey Omar, you like Essek? Yeah?
Woof. Hey, I love you. Give me kiss. No, he's looking at mom.
Oh, wow! Give Daddy a kiss.
It's okay. Give Dad a kiss.
He's still sleepy. My god, this is the same
convos that we have with Ronin. (laughing) Laura: Hey, Mama! He's like so nappy and like-- He's so sleepy.
He is, you wanna take him? He went to vet today so he's tired. Oh, righty.
Yeah, sorry buddy. So stressful. You previewed your questions. Do you have one you could share with Laura that would be apropos to the both of you? Like the, "What are we?" Is that apropos or is that...
Yeah. That line about the cottage, man, that's literally Bree and
I's dream, and that hurt. Marisha: That cottage line was brutal. That was rough.
Because early in the campaign it was like we could run away right
now, we can rip cord, we could just get a cottage. It was a moment where
Imogen was talking about like, "Oh, my dream is just, my happy dream is just being with Laudna
and baking in a little cottage." Yeah.
Yeah. Oh, my heart.
Things got complicated. They did, didn't they, buddy? Do we wanna do one more round or are we tapped out on questions? I think it pretty tapped out. We've already covered a lot of mine too. In the earlier question, yeah. Did a good job.
"What was it like for Laudna to see a visage of Delilah during her normal internal conversations?" I think right now
she's like, she's so in it, she's just like, "What's up?" That seems about right.
In a weird way. And then we kind of
already covered this one too, which is, "Why is Laudna so focused on not being perceived as a liar? Could it be due to Delilah's gaslighting or because of Imogen's original response on the skyship way back when?" Yes. Yes.
Yes. Do you, oh.
I'm so good at my job. He's Dorian blue 'cause
he has bad circulation. (laughing) I think we're good. And this is the point where we would normally
do a pull from the tower, but I think we have to
have someone scoop one off the floor?
The floor. I'll do it.
Yes. I haven't pulled any yet.
Yeah, you go pull it. There's no consequences anymore, you can just go pull.
I ruined it. No, you didn't ruin it, you made it better. My mic pack is so hard on my back. I'm gonna pick this one. It was the only one that
was actually stacked. There you go.
11. Number 11.
Number 11 Incoming, hang on.
Sweet boy. 11.
I got you. Asleep.
What was the number? 11, 11
Okay, let's see. "Did any of your campaign characters have first draft names
that didn't get used? If so, what were they?" From Clarissa_Poncissa. Clarissa, good question, actually. So many names.
I had so many names. I had a list, I probably still have it. I can't remember what they were though. Yeah.
I might have 'em on my phone.
Looking back, some were bad. I have mine. I think I remember mine. What was yours?
Yeah. By the way, who was that
question from, Clarissa? Clarissa.
Yeah, thank you, Clarissa. She explains it all.
She does. Robbie: My-- Now you explained it all too, Clarissa. Sorry if you've never heard that before. Yeah, I'm sure she's never heard that. When we were work shopping
EXU, we played some games to like get us in the vibe and I played around with a
bunch of different characters and I played a water genasi
called Emile Moonwake. I think that's where the Moon-Touched started to creep in there. And then I played a
goblin ranger named Flint, Flint Tip Bear Scat.
Yep. And Flint Tip Bear Scat made his way into Narrative Telephone.
That's true. So he survived some way.
I forgot about that. And then, yeah, I think
those were my other ones. They all lived on somehow. I had like Angus Boulderbrow. He made it into a charity
stream at some point. So Good.
And then, oh, my idea for 4-Sided, or not 4-Sided, for the Narrative Telephone was, and I gave this to somebody
doing another charity, was Jaxy Flaxseed in the Tabaxi Taxi. (laughing) So he was like a retired
monk that just went into the city and ran a rickshaw, it was
awesome, yeah, yeah, yeah. So amazing.
It was pretty fun. Those are some of my
first ones I played with. One of my original names for Imogen, which is funny because
this was not established, like this was before you
had made anything red. Her name was Red. Oh.
Just Red. Hey, Red.
Red. Matt: That would've
been a little on the nose. I know! And that was her name.
That would have been so on the nose. It was just like, yeah, Red. I knew an old cowboy
named Red in my childhood. I was like that just like--
That's a great name. That's so cool.
Yeah. It was fun because like I
was preparing the campaign, I was like it's gonna be
this whole theme here with the Ruidus-born Ruidus, and Fearne had been established in EXU and I was like Fearne with the dark Fey. I already kind of, she might
be like the Ruidus-born tether for the campaign, and
then when you made Imogen with this dream of this
storm that chased her, I said, "What if the storm was red?" Yeah, and I was like, "Oh, I love it." And you like, "Yeah, it'd be great." I was like, "Okay, now I
have two Ruidus-born, great." Two tethers, I can make this
a dovetailed dual narrative, and so yeah, that was
where that's stemmed from, so the name Red would've
made it even more like, "Okay, well fuck."
That's too-- Maybe that's a bit much.
Red! (laughing) I hope you would find--
The storm is crimson. Maybe change it, maybe change it. The Vermilion dust pours through. I just never used the word red. Well, what's funny is one of my potential names was Vermilia. (laughing) Oh my god.
Red and Vermilia, I'm just like ugh!
I got close to Vermilia. Robbie: Just so we
know, that's where all the... Ruidus is now blue.
Names, yeah. I wanna be blue, damn.
Shit! God! Oh my god.
Our brains were there before we knew anything.
Yeah. That's really funny. I also had Morella. Morella's pretty fun. Noxi. Noxi.
Noxi. Yeah, N-O-X-I.
That's a good one. Like noxious. And then I had Matilda on there, but Matilda, I ended up naming... Your original name.
Original name, yeah. Yes, my original name
Like a pre. Was Pâté ever gonna be anything different? I knew Pâté before my own name. I had like--
Oh, nice. I was so late to to name Laudna 'cause I was so like, I
didn't know what to do. But when Hannah, she came back with art and I was like, "I want
some dead things on my belt. Can you put dead things on there?" And then this kind of
together, it ended up coming up with this like rat with a--
Like bird skull. A bird skull and I was like, "Ah." And I started thinking about
where this rat would come from and her spending time. I just thought it was, I was like, "This is gonna be funny
and will fuck with Taliesin. I'll name him Pâté de
Rolo," and that was it and I-- And now he's just always there. Yeah. (laughing) My god. It was so funny, you were establishing the whole persona for him for a number of a big
chunk of the campaign. Yeah. And then you're taking
that one warlock level where you can bring him--
Bring him to life. To life as a familiar, I'm like, "Uh-oh." What is it?
"I gotta do this now. Here we go." Oh. Well, that was a super fun question. Thank you again, Clarissa.
Yeah. And if you have an evergreen
question or a fan question or even a timely question
for our Tower of Inquiry, you can enter at CritRole.com/Tower. And that just about
does it for this portion of 4-Sided Dive.
Yay. It's over, right, we don't
have to do the next section? That's it, that's it, it's all over. No punishment for you,
but for our podcast listeners, or those watching this as a
VOD, we do bid you adieu. But please make sure you
check out More Sided Dive because when we come back from the break, we will be playing a game. We're Doomed!
We're Doomed! Matt: That's the game. We're totally gonna work
together and save humanity and totally not back stab
each other in the process. Nope.
Bye. Bye.
Bye.
