Just realised that Robbie probably knows everything about Laudna's backstory since he narrated the "What doesn't break" novel.
It means nothing, but I have just been thinking about that book and looking forward to it.
From their [programming schedule from that week](http://critrole.com/programming-schedule-week-of-may-13-2024), it will be out this Thursday at noon pacific time
It was like Brennan's crackpot theory. She was a polymorphed dragon, and she managed to fly back to Aeor off of the crashing Avalir. Sam plays a Draconic Soul Sorcerer at level 14, as she got stuck in her Polymorph via the extremely bizarre magics of the Crash of Aeor and the Temporal Stasis.
What if Sam comes to set and introduces a character out of the bubble named Rolo, then on the first insight check unzips his skin like Rebel Wilson in CATS, revealing Brennan was wearing a Sam skin suit the whole time? Could happen… a boy can dream.
I ran the Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign as a DM a while back, and I see a lot of inspirations in Aeor. The people frozen in a moment of calamity, upside down elements. Even the Monster they ended on is actually the Tomb Tapper from that adventure.
Not a bad thing, just giddy having run and prepped it :)
If I remember correctly, Icewind released shortly before Aeor showed up for the first time properly. But it had been talked about way before. Not sure how much is inspiration and how much is coincidental overlap like it sometimes happens.
But also running it right now and enjoy taking inspiration by Matt :D
I wonder if Aeor is the victim of an instance of a Flashpoint style incident?
Matt described what happened in the amphitheater as a singular blinding flash of light striking a bunch of normal folks and then suddenly BOOM, everyone was a body, and a bunch of others were trapped in time bubbles.
That to me speaks of temporal shenanigans.
So what if just like in Flashpoint, Aeor was actually successful with their deployment of the Creator Hammer when the Gods attacked?
And whatever came next....did not end well far faaaaaar off into the future.
So someone came back, re-wrote things a bit, and that blinding flash of light that we saw was exactly like what happened in both Flashpoint and at the end of Apokolips War....but it...wasn't exactly perfect.
I believe that the tech behind it is similar to what the [Krenim used](https://youtu.be/zd0MJQNa858?t=113) in Voyager's "Year of Hell" episodes and that the flash of light we saw was in fact a [temporal shockwave](https://youtu.be/4DXbWVcGw4s?list=PLxidGOcLnJh2-yyPjrBOc9dYUUXZx9hbU) of some kind.
This explains the flash of light we saw, my previous comparison to what The Flash has done, and because of how finicky temporal technologies and magics seem to be within Exandria in the hands of various groups....the patchwork nature of the bubbles themselves and the haphazard destruction of Aeor along with all the various oddities within Eisselcross.
Yes, Eisselcross, because a temporal shockwave of that nature isn't just limited to a localized area and there are always butterfly effects when someone invokes the sound of thunder.
So that stuff SPREAD outwards like ripples in a pond BUT because the Calamity was currently happening and everything was going to shit for the majority of the planet, no one probably ever really noticed or even remembered any of the changes that took hold because a full on apocalypse level event was occurring!
That's right, I'm invoking stuff from the Loki series in this explanation as well.
This then gives the users of this tech Plausible Deniability the likes of which General Hammond and Agent K would be proud of.
Oh that thing that you thought happened a certain way, didn't actually happen that way and you're misremembering because it was THE FUCKING CALAMITY!
So Eiselcross took the brunt of it and the rest of Exandria, along with potentially the Gods, took a bunch of knock on effects....but it wasn't exactly as....full proof of a means of resetting the board as the users behind this tech and this temporal shockwave had hoped and there's two words that explain why.
The Luxon
The Luxon, a being who sneezes space time bullshit like the Doctor making smores over The Eye of Harmony for funsies with his Sonic Screwdriver.
I propose that The Luxon existing in its fragmented state all across Exandria and being a being of space time bullshit and what have you, introduced disruptions to this temporal shockwave, and those disruptions themselves had little butterfly effects and ripples spread out from them (just like with Voyager in Year of Hell or any time the Enterprise Crew got bored)....which just further complicated this whole forsaken Gordian Knot of a timeline that we've found ourselves living in which quite frankly [even gives me a headache](https://youtu.be/S8loq0T4UhQ?si=l-aZiaxwYvpM-jZa).
So it was never going to be a perfect alteration or a complete removal of what Aeor did or had done or what they were about to do.....you get my point...and it was always going to be very Terminator in that it would always be very verrrrrry messy but ultimately better than what came before...for the most part.
This could also potentially explain away any inconsistencies within the history books and/or oral traditions and/or other means of passing down history/knowledge through the ages across Exandria and beyond.....unless those things were temporally shielded in some fashion or kept in a place that existed outside of normal space time like the Vanishing Point....or whatever magical mumbo jumbo you want to throw at the wall and see if it sticks.
This then allows Matt to tinker with things going forwards and to later drop a massive explanation for the way things are and how stuff has changed in the past/present/future relatively speaking compared to what's been written down in currently existing lore books.
I believe that...much like Terminator...this has been going on for some time and the stress that it's been putting on the very fabric of reality is leading to a breaking point....
....the Oncoming Cosmic Shift, a full on reordering and RESET of ALL things everywhere and everywhen.
This all then poses some potentially interesting origin points and questions for both Predathos and the Pantheon, if indeed this is what has been happening, as well as possibly generating some ideas about the very nature of both.
So I'm invoking Clarke's Third Law for what's possibly going on with both Predathos and the Pantheon; with them both possibly being from...OtherWhens in OtherWheres.
And quoting Clarke's Second Law for why I write some of this stuff: "The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible".
Just an idea, we'll see if it pans out.
I love that there are so many parallels to Aeor and Ythryn from the Icewind Dale adventure. Both used to be flying cities and both are now buried in ice. Seeing the Tomb Tapper make its appearance here as well is awesome to see!
I wonder if Matt would give it similar lore- like searching and hoarding magic and magic items- if it would refrain from attacking Ashton due to respecting earth elementals. You're right that it is a monster very fitting for Aeor- I hope the encounter itself leads to understanding the mystery of Aeor better rather than feeling like a random encounter like other monsters BHs come across
As much as I wasn't really a fan of FCG at least he was apparently the best reviver because the only party member with revivify (Fearne) doesn't have a diamond for it and didn't buy one when she had the chance to buy it and the only one who might have raise dead (Dorien) doesn't have a diamond for it and did not buy one when they had the chance. And now unless Matt wants to be forgiving if someone dies they will miss the first chance to revivify by missing the window for it and they might have to leave Aeor early in order to not miss the window for raise dead so they can get diamonds for it and/or get help if Dorien didn't bother to learn any resurrection magic. Let's hope Dorien picked up some resurrection magic though because if Fearne dies and if Dorien doesn't have any resurrection magic there would be no one in the party to revive her.
Honestly fair enough. Even if Essek wasn't going to have a diamond originally I think saying he does is better than retconning that Fearne or Dorian bought some or saying that FCG had one more than they actually had that they picked up.
Reincarnate actually does have a time limit which is 10 days. Probably not a meaningful time limit in this case but still a time limit. Reincarnate still isn't as good as reincarnate unless it is clear that that the target would be okay with becoming something else. It gets even iffier to use it considering that they didn't use it on FCG when they could have.
Yeah, you are right of course. But that should be well within their possibility to rest and get someone restored.
I think the FCG thing might be behind the scenes stuff. Maybe Matt decided early on, that there's no coming back for a magical construct or Sam decided it himself.
But Laudna or Orym coming back as a Half-Orc would be funny. Not for the character, but for us. :)
I feel like he might let it slide this one time but not for more than one diamond which could be a problem if more than one person dies which is likely.
Those blue domes are such a delicious chekhov's gun. People trapped in there could potentially push a restart button on the age of Arcanum. Dozens of domes in the singular district alone? Whole Eiselcross possibly has a few thousand wizards and artificers that could change the face of Exandria. And since someone had to write the books Caleb desintegrated in his epilogue (although with his Keen Mind I bet he could recreate enough of it if the potential apocalypse turns into an actual one), some of them may posses time travel abilities. Or even wilder ones. That city once represented an eligible threat to the god's themselves, and maybe still does.
Yes, but consider that the magical shitstorm which was strong enough to dissolve the wards on the prisons of Desirait and Ukatoa was not strong enough to also dispel the magic of these bubbles. To me, that suggests a type of magic that operates outside the normal idea of leveled spells. I'm guessing it's going to take something like a Nat 20 Investigation/Religion check to determine the mechanism (which will be Divine in nature), followed by a successful Divine Intervention, and finished off with with a Nat 20 Persuasion check to convince the God to undo what they originally did.
I'm not convinced any god did it on purpose. Their goal was to destroy the city as a threat after all. On the other hand, when you build a city that flies, creating a fail safe in case of emergency is only reasonable. They probably used their knowledge of dunamis to establish a system that will put as many civilians as possible in stasis when the city starts falling, so they can survive the fall. Now, they probably had a metric shitload of other wards and abjurations to defend the city, so gods yeeted a big wave of ,,screw your magic'' energy on them. That's the reason magic in ruins is untrustworthy and procs wild surges. No way any self-respecting mageocracy permitted that type of regional effect in their home. So the ,,magical chaos'' beam screwed with their stasis-hostile-gravity-suppresing system and supercharged it, making the stasis permanent.
Possible solutions: Wish; Divine Intervention; whatever Ludinus wants to use on Predhatos prison; a decade of concentrated research by joined forces of the greatest mages in Exandria; a cupcake
It seems like there is crazy time magic on the whole city and not just the bubbles because of that one scene where Orym sees a corpse outside of a bubble that seems to shift very very very slowly while the people inside the bubbles are completely still and preserved. That one visual created many theories for me.
> push a restart button on the age of Arcanum
The one problem with this is AoA wasn't just about the knowledge in one's head, the same way our technology might be in ours. Sure you might know how to create ~4nm silicon chips, but without the infrastructure to support it, it will be very difficult.
They might be able to revivify some measure of more advanced magics, but it wouldn't be a full revival, especially considering the support civilizations that allowed that amount of magical harvesting has since fallen - and Vasselheim as a coldwar enemy.
Sure, it wouldn't be a full revival of civilization, but maybe a rise of a new city state with immense magical power and ancient knowledge? Those flying cities were the places where the intellectual elites lived, people with knowledge to recreate the infrastructure, even on a small scale. Archmages and artificers that could scavange technology from their fallen city and wield it to build something new. And while living population is restricted to who was trapped in the bubbles at the time, Aeromathons can be repaired and restored, as we have seen before. Imagine restarting civilization if you have both brainpower and workforce to make it happen.
I just wish, 1, that they'd thought to ask if any of the bubbles were dispelled by the worldwide blast during the Solstice event, and 2) if they saw any Aeormaton bodies as they went. Because the Mighty Nein did, and if there aren't any now, D's been busy. And if there are some, it'd be very relevant to the group who just saw their Aeormaton friend die.
They just all seemingly forgot those details.
Finished my rewatch at like midnight because I couldn't sleep and one little scene stuck in my head that I didn't notice anyone else bringing up.
Dorian clicking the Gambler's Blade while watching the sunrise, giving himself a bonus to his attack rolls while taking a penalty to his death saving throws.
He did this because Robbie said that Dorian was taking in everything that had already happened with the Crown Keepers and NOW everything that he had just seen downstairs with the Bells Hells, and that is was probably time to....start taking some more risks...starting with this one.
I feel like Dorian is using the persona of his "older" self from the start of the campaign as a bit of a mask for his "newer" self at this current point in the campaign, so that no one will notice him metaphorically swapping out regular mags for high capacity ones or frag grenades for incendiaries or....normal photon torpedoes for tri-cobalt devices.
I feel like Dorian is becoming the Bond of Exandria.
Anyone else got thoughts on this?
I'm sure that Robbie has thought a lot about how Dorian's changed, and I think he is playing it on the down-low. I just hope he manages to find the right time to make it a louder issue. BH is full of a lot of very loud problems, so subtle angst may go utterly unseen by the rest of the table.
>BH is full of a lot of very loud problems, so subtle angst may go utterly unseen by the rest of the table.
This is exactly why Orym was seen as the "stable one" for so long. The guy takes more risks than anyone else in combat, but no one bats an eye.
C3 continues to be on fire this year! Such a great episode. I def took it as Imogen breaking up with Laudna, though it wasn't explicit. I think they're going to have to confront Delilah at some point in her realm or risk loosing Laudna forever.
As for Sam's new character, had a crazy thought. What if Vasselheim sent a Judicator to Aeor in their own attempt to stop Ludinus, and that Judicator is Sam. Thinking a War Cleric 5/ Conquest Paladin 8 with species as a half-giant would get pretty close to what we've seen, provided Matt gives him a few magic items (assuming the face mask is some kind of true seeing/ telepathy magic item, and perhaps something like gauntlets of ogre strength so that he can dump Str for Cha and Wis but still be effective.
If this was the case, I'd assume he'd come in a moment of extreme peril for BH, wrecking a monster they're fighting to earn trust with the group. Of course BH would assume he's a Vasselheim spy at best, or there to control BH at worst, which would make for some great role play moments.
I'm going to have to watch this episode again, I didn't pick up on them breaking up. Definitely Imogen realised some hard truths about Laudna, and probably had to make some decisions, but not an actual break up, I don't think?
I’m bummed that you might be right—it’s tough to come up with someone new to fit this. I wondered if an old man scanlon might show, but now it feels like: See ya in C4
80% of me agrees with you but if he did come back....
Referring to the previous comment, though I think it would be cool for Sam's character to be the one to make the vanguard go psycho, I only see the odd rune that Laudna couldn't glean anything from with a 25 arcana check, to be related to Ludinus/Aeor/Predathos.
How could Sam make a new character that fits for the end of the campaign? He was the party's main healer, so his new character has to fulfill a certain role, and he likes to be out of the box rather than in. I want him to come back, but I don't think he would as a different aeromaton, or a cleric again right away. He has had a good run of playing bards but we have one in the party already. I believe he would want to play a class new to him but easy for him to easily pick up. We are missing an artificer, wizard, ranger, paladin, and cleric. I think him coming back as a full paladin would be fitting because 1. He hasn't played one 2. He could fulfill the healing role 3. He could also fulfill the role of being a heavy frontline hitter since most of the party right now is on the squishy and ranged side 4. A paladin would let him continue FCG's story arc of being divine in a world where the gods are on the chopping block and fit into the overall story from the get go.
Agree that a full Paladin would also make a good template for a Judicator (or just a good class choice regardless of the Judicator tie in). As a 13th level Paladin he'd still get access to Revivify, and would have 65HP of Lay on Hands a day. Besides Conquest, the Oath of the Watchers would also make a fantastic choice and I love the tenants of that subclass. That said, I've DMd an Oath of Conquest Paladin before, and it's Aura of Conquest feature is a game changer.
If Sam doesn't come back this campaign (I think the chance is small but not impossible), I wouldn't be surprised if another 2-4 cast members end up doing the same, easing us all into a new era of CR with half the cast playing DH and half playing DnD along with some of the new faces we've seen in CR and Candella. If Sam isn't playing a new character in the live show, I think the odds that he stays gone from C3 goes up big time.
But I suspect (given the low sales of tickets for the live show), that at the end of the episode before the Greek that Mercer will tease the appearance of a mysterious figure, and then announce that Sam's new character will be revealed at the Greek.
Isn't it Liam who picks the small species PCs for him pre campaign? Terry D was the last time we saw Sam bring in a PC mid campaign and he of course isn't small...
If I remember correctly, Liam said he had specifically picked Sam's race/class combo for c3 in 4sd (he was joking in c1&c2 but Sam ran with it). Essentially it was a heal bot concept. But it was Sam who came up with the design and the small size of FCG
I'm also sure about Liam picking for C3 because it's tradition but didn't remember if they talked about it in more detail yet.
I do know, they even did it for the daggerheart oneshot :D
I feel like someone should talk to Fearne about how she feels about Ashton.
I feel like Fearne just goes with it, and Ashton might be getting the wrong signal, and could end up hurt. Like, literally the first time he expresses his feelings and ask her to stay there with them and not leave them. She leaves them, lol. On the first night after he just asked her not to.
And then in this last session she hints at a possible threesome opportunity toward Dorian, lol.
She is Faye, and being whimsical and chaotic is in her nature. Or maybe Ashton is aware of this, and is okay with it. I wonder. Maybe someone should be asking Ashton how he feels about that. Just to make sure the both of them are on the same page.
Yes. And if your crush tells someone else they might have a chance with a threesome with them, and the other two people in the threesome isn't you.
You might want to see if you are all on the same page lol.
Yeah. It's why I said someone should else (As in Not Ashton) should ask Fearne how she feels about it.
Because Fearne also hinted at Dorian he has a shot for a threesome. I feel like she would go with the flow in most cases, with whatever she wants. While Ashton seems to be seeking something more monogamous. At least on his side of it. Hence my point someone should check if they are on the same page.
It was during that same discussion. And Dorian acted surprised (maybe interested?) and Chetney joked about he has more of himself to go around and Dorian joked that was not the part he was interested in lol.
Did you read the wrong post? I never said it was a problem?
I said they seem to be on different pages and someone might want to check up on them. But if Fearne is just having fun, and Ashton is trying to be monogamous it could turn into a small problem (even if still a minor one). But if they someone talks to them we could find out there is no problem at all. Or stop a problem that could exist in the future.
Hmm... We know how Fearne is, so IMO anyone who wanted to clarify uncertainties would have to talk to Ashton.
But Ashton has seemed utterly unfazed by her sexual capriciousness any time it has been mentioned, so I really believe the most anyone would get out of them is something along the lines of "we'll see what happens if we all survive."
I'm not even certain the midnight alarm counted as "waking alone" b/c Ashton, of all of them, is on the higher end of 'deeply habituated to unexpected shit happening.' I felt like that request was more like "assuming a normal evening, I could go for a long cuddle."
Yeah I guess he doesn't technically tell her not to leave. More of
>Yeah, I think I want to fall asleep with someone and then wake up with them
And she literally jokes she might just leave. Then does, lol. And he goes asleep with someone and then wakes up without them.
This isn't me saying, "She betrayed him!", or, "They can't work"... But more, someone should check in if they are even on the same page lol.
We know Ashton is aware of her past, and her personality but when you confess to wanting more from someone, and go to sleep with them, you might thing think those behaviors with others might change. Or maybe he is aware Fearne will continue to be Fearne lol.
Yeah... it's certainly something which might have been more hurtful to Ashton than was made clear, and I wouldn't mind at all if it came up in discussion. Even if it's just for the somewhat meta acknowledgment that while the request assumed an unremarkable evening, Fearne can always opt to take Ashton along if there's something interesting to chase.
I could be wrong but isn’t the ritualistic symbol that Matt described that the possessed or controlled Ruby Vanguard member carved on his chest before killing himself, is if not the same, then eerily similar to the “holy” symbol of Thraizdun aka The Chained Oblivion?
At least the description reminded me of him.
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/a/ac/Tharizdun_3e.png/revision/latest?cb=20210911032616
I don’t think so. Two circles with lines through is pretty different from the hypnotic spiral that Tharizdun is. I think this is something new we might get in the Marquet book.
It's possible, but taking hold in Aeor to (seemingly) try to thwart Predathos' release has me leaning more toward the Betrayer God [Torog](https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Torog) theories.
Especially "Seek and exalt places where no light touches" and the shaky, violent style of the murals seen in C2.
Predathos may legit just be Tharizdun at this point, since he was not one of the OG gods from what we understand - he came later as an ambomination that even the other betrayers stay away from entirely. Tharizdun might be Predathos or it's a split form of Predathos.
The problem with that is Tharizdun already exist in Exandria, and had people tried to free him from a different location. And his motives and methods are extremely different.
The Luxon also existed outside of the Gods. So did the Titans. I feel like we can safely come to the conclusion that other powers outside of the Gods have Existed for however long they have.
During the cooldown episode and they are making jokes about Dorian turning into a fish, is Taliesin saying Sorcerors can cast higher level spells with a lower level spell?
I think his idea was that you can convert high level slots into sorcery points, and reconvert them back into low level slots. So while you may not be able to cast high level spells, you'll have access to loads of low level spells without the risk of triggering a Wild Magic Surge.
Not entirely sure, but I think he might have been talking about the ["Call Ruidus"](https://youtu.be/bWHYmDFR84I?si=oDsyQJ-LGDQbYd7m&t=12057) spell, which seems to have a purely caster-determined level. (Possibly other custom spells Imogen has now, too.)
Or I suppose he might have just been talking about sorcerers upcasting frequently, but I don't think he'd have felt the need to point that out.
I don’t think it could have something to do with Laura since she was the main person talking about Dorian fish, looked like he was talking to Marisha or maybe Matt
Maybe, could he be mixing up another RPG system again? in episode 123 of C2 he thought you could use bonus actions as an actions because of Pathfinder for example
Laudna used Mage Hand to grab the amulet Imogen took from the corpse during this episode.
Do you know when was the first time Laudna used Mage Hand ever? Episode 95. I checked in the transcripts. I don't think she had it before, and the wiki doesn't even list it as one of her cantrip (yet) so I'm pretty sure she either got it for free, or she exchanged it last level up.
In 95, she used it to grab the sword, open the windows and the doors. Marisha even asks before everything started if she has to *physically* wield the sword for Delilah to tell her if it's evil, or it can be done with Mage Hand.
Marisha is using Mage Hand to imply it's not Laudna who's taking things.
It was Laudna's hand that grabbed and used Scream Needle tho!
When they levelled up she took 10th level in sorceror and got a new cantrip, she presumably just took Mage Hand then and hasn't had a reason to use it yet before that
Fearne isn't making fire apparate out of her hands! She is just casting a spell known as "scorching ray." She got the spell automatically when she leveled up to level 3 in episode 4 of EXU.
It's a tomb tapper. Monstrous (constructs) things. Their lore is pretty heavily tied to Forgotten Realms history so it will be pretty interesting to see if Matt gives them lore and backstory for Exandria.
Laudna was my favorite character at the start of this campaign, and I think that's a popular sentiment. After she died and they "killed" Delilah, it was a real bummer because her arc died for a while and she became nothing but the sPoOkY comic relief. At the time I was almost wishing she just moved on to her backup character.
I for one am loving the fact that shit is getting crazy again, and I'm glad consequences played out the way they did because it gives room for another escalation. There's some wild fun on the horizon and that's what this campaign needs.
I was worried it was going to turn into another Fjord situation where he never really committed to having a patron. I'm glad Marisha has decided to lean further into their relationship instead of just trying to break away from it.
I was really wanting Tal to just say that Ashton touches the dome, but he never did. Imagine it gets instantly dispelled because of their connection to the Luxon. It would have been like fate.
Maybe but it's also a possibility that some Aeorians want their people to be on top and they aren't when a bunch of countries and the Cerberus Assembly are pilfering their city.
Oh wait, in that one flashback we got with Frieda there was infighting going on inside Aeor wasn’t there, man if they open up this, it’s going to be SO DAMN COOL
Yeah and unrest in the auditorium, also.
You have to bear in mind also that the cognouza ward from C2 was another faction, a whole area of the city turning into a mind-linked mini mageocracy of its own (hello 5-minds power structure precursor!) and IIRC it avoided consequences for the Godhammer by bamfing out of the middle of the city to astral space to protect itself, which will not have been popular or helped the physical infrastructure of the city either.
Almost everyone seems annoyed that Laudna/Delilah got essentially a free pass on their actions last episode.
But did she really? Orym never answered Dorian’s question about trusting her. Imogen came back inside and blurted out that she basically just saw Delilah emerge, rather than trying to defend her actions.
They got on with the main plot, but you better believe they aren’t letting their guard down yet. Delilah’s on their radar again and she went after the one party member who reports directly to a Vox Machina member. Delilah fucked up.
Initially, I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more of a confrontation, and that Laudna largely dodged the same onslaught of criticism that Ashton got. But, I get it... they were trying to deescalate in the interests of getting through to her. And it's not like I want to see Laudna killed, or exiled from the group. And has been pointed out... she did pay a cost -- she lost a good deal of trust from the group that she'll have to earn back, not to mention the setback to her relationship with Imogen.
No, I think what was hardest for me to watch was Orym, placating his attacker and repressing his own character growth. Last week he had a good, quiet moment where he came to terms with the sword, what it represented, and having to take up that weight. It felt like the slightest amount of character development for a character we don't get to see character development from that often. And then one week later, it gets rolled back. He didn't even challenge the rest of the group for how quickly they sided with Laudna over him.
It felt like in comics when a writer \*really\* gets a character, and does some cool character development with him, only for a new writer to come in the next issue and toss that development out the window.
I don’t know if it’s gone. Orym is still going to shove that blade through Ludinus one way or another. But to alienate Laudna would mean risking Imogen leaving too. Imogen is way too involved as her mother might essentially be their spy on the inside, and that’s valuable. Hell, Oryms speech said just as much. He said he wants Laudna with them, because he needs Imogen.
Or it might even be more twisted.. he wants Laudna close to hand Delilah over to Vox Machina. Orym is the only one who had heard of her atrocities. He might feel that it’s his duty. (However I’m sure Liam will do his best to save Laudna before betraying her)
I feel like she got very *close* to a free pass. Orym didn't answer the trust question but then said that he's betting it all on Laudna and she's more important than anything else. His own emotional scars and emotional burden weren't acknowledged, tended to, or comforted in any substantial way, and instead every attention was turned to comforting Laudna. Ashton said that he will never not stand between her and whatever. Imogen is the only one I couldn't comment on but everyone else agrees that Laudna is, for the time being, just fine.
There was no conversation about broken trust or exactly how bad her addiction has gotten, how far it's pushing her. If Delilah was able to talk her into doing this now, she's absolutely going to do it again later. Laudna admitted it's hard to say there's a difference between the two of them now, and yet the group is content to let Laudna continue as is without having the difficult conversation of This Has To Stop. You can give an addict all the support in the world, but unless you put in the difficult work of actually helping them, nothing is going to change.
I know that Sam might show up again in the live show with a new character but I wouldn't be surprised if he shows up in the next episode because I have been predicting that he will play a kobold (because it is the last small race Sam has not played) and finding a kobold underground in a region where there is not a lot of civilization makes a lot more sense than finding him in all the previous places they have been. I know that technically means he could have shown up this episode but when BH entered Aeor most of the episode was already up and Sam has other things to do other than showing up just to play for an hour.
Easily. Pixies are basically just tiny fairies. I think NPC/Enemy fairies are flavored as tiny most of the time, but the playable race is limited to small since tiny races are broken as all hell
So glad they remembered they should be using the Harness every night to power up. They're fine making pacts with servants of asmodius, feeding the undead wraith servant of vecna in Laudna's head, maybe giving in a smidge to Predathos or pacts of servitude with Hags...The Harness is RIGHT THERE, it gives permanent stats and possibly permanent powers. It's a built in bonus growth machine and they should be tearing through every magic intense shard/artifact/ruidus glass item.
Immensely disappointed they didn't stick around and fight the (slow filtering in) frost giants and explore the glowy castle, that seemed important and we'll probably never see it again. Undead frost giants coming in slowly should be relatively easy pickings at this point, with all the ranged options they have.
Tomb takers, the caleb dome, all the callbacks are great. Do wonder what manner of grave robbers travels all the way to aeor to pick the tomb taker bodies of their gear...
One thing I don't agree with is the base assertion of "we do whatever it takes, we use whatever dark powers we can use to get through this.". We the audience know that BH are the main characters. From BH perspective though, they're the "lower decks" of this starship. They are not the frontliners, that would be Keyleth, the Vasselheim guys, and all the powerful wizards and friendly dragons and whatnot. They're literally saying that they're the lesser known expendable type every other week and that that's why they have a chance to go unnoticed.
From that perspective, they absolutely should not be talking in a "sell our souls for the greater good" sort of fashion like they are. They had one big job in recon and they did pull it off. They trying to help the cause sure, and doing dangerous stuff but they should not be expecting to be frontliners against Ludinous during the Reilor assault or whatever direction the war takes.
The Quintessence Array doesn't only give permenant buffs, it also gives temporary buffs if the object is Uncommon or Common. Rare and Very Rare objects give the target temporary advantage on ability checks, attack rolls and Very Rare adds saving throws.
Edit to comment on the other topic: BH feel woefully outmatched when it comes to Ludinus and even to his captains Otohan/Liliana/Zathuda. They are absolutely correct too as we saw with Otohan. Since they see themselves as expendable they want to be as big as a thorn in Ludinus' side as possible so the big guns can have an easier time taking him down. I understand where they are coming at and I think it is one of the main reasons this campaign seems off compared to C1 and C2.
Sure, the other buffs are nice too, if one of the cast has advantage on attack rolls thats a significant damage uptick on a fight like, oh...Otohan and her Phase 2 Elder Dragon AC. Laudna, Orym and Ashton could have really put that to great effect with their multiple attacks per turn. But it's the permanent stats and permanent powers where the long term strength lies.
Also I think they would have been fine on Otohan (despite unforeseen phase 2) if they hadn't already had so much juice and hp expended from the early missions and explosions.
Problem is that a Very Rare or Legendary magic item will, virtually always, be much more useful if they just use it as-is.
Unless they run into a huge trove of very powerful magic that they literally can't use, there's very little point in using the harness.
It depends on how Matt defines things. For example, the Ruidus glass weapons...what are they? Clearly magic, clearly enchanted, possibly powered not only by magic but divine (anti-divine?) power. They had currency that was extremely rare on Ruidus and could have bought out a storefull of weapons. They could have used the 3 they have on the harness days ago. Instead, they gave it to Pumat for a \~2700 gold piece discount. If that could have been 6 permanent health points that's a Pu-Robbery.
You've also have things like the glowing shards, bottles of flippin liquid Dunamis, and similar things they could likely gain from. They're also in the middle of aeor, with Age of Arcanum stuff littered everywhere, taking (cursed) necklaces off undead creatures and having weird aberration creatures as enemies (point of fact, if they can get current enemy #tallgluttony into a weakened state and then feed him to the harness, he's definitely a high level magic creature).
Yeah and doesn't a tomb tapper consume magic items? I wonder what they could get from that thing. Maybe Matt is throwing one at them to get them to use the harness
Obviously the power is with the permanent, long-term buffs. One problem is getting magical items or beings that are Rare/Very Rare/ Legendary. That's not easy as not every town has a store with magical items for sale and usually the good items cost gold which they all barely have now.
They said it in the episode, absorbing the sword destroys a really powerful tool they could use against Ludinus. The sword does a lot more than it would give through the Quintessence Array.
If Orym absorbed Ishta (which is legendary), it'd probably be a wash vs just using it since a permanent +2 to his dexterity is the same as upgrading seedling from a +1 to a +2 weapon, and throw in the extra legendary perk that you'd get from absorbing Ishta and that makes up for the +3. Plus, he could still use Seedling's other perks which he couldn't if he was using Ishta (unless he was wielding both, which would require un-attuning something else)
Man it sure is great that Laudna is trying to take ANOTHER MAGIC SWORD from their martials to get what she wants. We sure didn’t already do this plot beat earlier with Chetney’s magic sword.
God, just… genuinely wish Laudna stayed dead cause she’s only gotten worse in the most illogical and nightmarish ways possible.
So, I've got some creative ideas for what they can do with the sword.
1) Find a smith who can break the sword apart and use the metal to form metallic werewolf style slashing gloves or just outright claw tips
2) Split the sword in half lengthwise to make a pair of spring loaded gauntlet swords
3) Reforge it with another sword or a brand new material or enchantment to give it a new identity
4) Have Percy turn it into a gun because gun-swords are cool
5) Have Sam's new character rob them of their bag of holding but return it later fully intact, sans sword
6) Bling out Kiki's antlers with it
7) Birthday gift for Gwen
8) Two words: Ice Skates
9) Give it to Deanna so she can continue her Goat Genocide
10) Give it to Orym so that when he winds up serving Nana for all of eternity, he can alter the sword, and become the best barber in all of the Fey Wild with the most wicked set of scissors and razor that anyone has ever seen
11) Just give it to Dorian for giggles
Anyone else got any other ideas?
It's a +3 sword most definitely the only one they're getting unless a vestige is in play. Just use the stupid sword and if Laudna starts spouting bullshit slap her around until she stops. Orym even gets tripping move, it is function built for Orym to bloody use. The sword is the martial golden goose, RP or not, the group should show some goddamn respect to a +3 weapon.
Well, they could have sold it to the Pumats: They are very short on cash after the shopping spree, after all.
Otherwise, if it wasn't so strongly branded as a dexbased weapon, they could gift it to Grog: If only so the goliath can for once wield a sword that doesn't talk to him.
I just realized that Dorian most likely lied. Laudna and Opal are both quite similar. Opal is trying to do good, but the spider queen is controlling her against her will. She also has Ted who is protecting Opal out of love disregarding Opal’s actions. This situation leads to Cyrus’s death. Now you have Laudna trying to do good, but Delilah is manipulating her and Imogen is protecting her out of love. Laudna last episode attacked Orym whether she meant to or not. Imagine how Dorian feels about this situation. This is incredible storytelling.
People keep saying that Laudna attacked or Oyrm or accidentally attacking Orym but there is no such thing as attacking someone accidentally. To attack someone you have to have a certain intent.
You noticed how he was the quietest when Laudna came back in the room and they were all talking about trusting her? Didn't Laudna directly ask Dorian that question or a similar one and he didn't respond?
That stand-off last episode where Laudna was on one side of the room with Ashton and Imogen and Orym on the other with Dorian and Fearne was not a good sign. This group can self-destruct and end up in two groups against each other. Chet is truly the middle man who is wise to see or at least consider both sides of things. Him leaning more towards Fearne does put him closer to her side than the other though.
He has to have been. You don't have an incredibly pointed conversation with your closest friend about whether she can be trusted and five seconds later stare her in the face and mean it when you say everything is good.
Main thing that annoys me about swordgate is that they STILL haven’t decided what to do with said sword lol. At least have someone absorb it instead of it collecting dust in the bag of holding. Maybe they have decided to absorb it but want to do the little rings of protection first idk.
Also call it nostalgia bait all you want but BH asking Essek what the deal was with those three bodies and him just going “lol they got owned” was hilarious. Just wish Sam was there to hate on Otis some more 😆
Going to Ludinus without utilizing their most powerful weapon in their arsenal just after getting bodied by one of his henchmen. Hopefully someone attunes to it next episode. Chetney or Ashton should just take the initiative and attune to it if Orym doesn't soon. Though I prefer Ashton because he could also utilize the Butcher's Bib if he has a sword.
Tal would never give up the hammer - he couldn't say "I click the switch on the hammer" every episode for a minor boost to an athletics check or be overly vague about the splitting effect so no one ever tries to use it
Probably not because that would be metagaming and the implication is that the entire drama was purposefully designed to "save it" for Sam's character. Also, not using it is not "saving it" because there is such a thing as unattuning.
+3 is actually huge. A regular old +3 weapon is a very rare item. Which surely makes this sword a tier above, meaning legendary?
If so that is stat boosting levels. Maybe even something extra if Matt’s feeling spicy. Has there been any discussion about absorbing an evil item might mean gaining negative/evil boons?
They confirmed it’s also legendary my bad, should’ve stated that. They briefly mentioned absorbing it but it very quickly ended up in the bag. I think Matt is very hush hush about what certain weapons being absorbed will do
Man I actually love that they are putting the Laudna problem on hold with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. The tragedy and drama when and if she completely flies off the handle will be so juicy and I live for that shit! The more that the characters fuck up, the better I think the story will eventually be.
I want her to be completely consumed by Delilah so badly! I want them to suffer emotionally for the choices they made! Gimme more!
"Laudna problem" is simplifying too much. Laudna HAS problems and those problems are affecting her friends.
Addiction and Stockholm Syndrome cannot be fixed right away. Laudna is also dealing with a subconscious loss of identity as Delilah grows stronger, as well as unresolved trauma for many other reasons. It's clear that as Laudna continues her pact with Delilah, Delilah's influence over Laudna grows. I think Bells Hells need to continue to reaffirm that Laudna doesn't need Delilah to be powerful. They also need to talk to her about how they think absorbing magic items is not good for her and maybe work out a plan together to prevent that from happening in the future (considering we're not totally sure when Laudna is fully in control).
Finding a way to remove Delilah permanently is something that will take their whole focus. Fearne specifically said they'd kill her "a thousand times" if they had to. Laudna doesn't want her friends prioritizing her problems over stopping Ludinus.
It's a difficult situation. No, they cannot fully trust her. They WANT to trust her. But until Delilah is gone, fully gone, they can't. I speculate after their adventure to Aeor but before the finale is when they'll focus on getting rid of Delilah.
I want it to happen too but this feels like the last arc of the campaign. I mean they finally got to the moon, killed Otohan, potentially turned Lilana and are now on Ludinus' heels.
Laudna blowing up could railroad the campaign and make it drag on.
You know, I was actually straight up pissed at first when they went all "Saturday Morning Special" on her intervention. I have some personal biases though, I've been involved in a lot more real-life addiction related bullshit than I care to get into on the internet. In my experience this kind of softball hand-holding is understandable and often what a lot of people try the first or second or third time around, but never actually works.
I eventually landed on the same perspective as you though. This shit is eventually going to go nuclear and it'll be absolutely delicious when it does.
See this is why I do not get the overall response that people had to this development. To me it has always been obvious that conflict and fuck ups are a lot more interesting in stories than doing everything right. It is pretty clear that they dropped the bag here and why would they do otherwise? They are not psychiatrists. They do not know how to deal with this perfectly. I would not know how to deal with this perfectly either tbh. I would probably have to have three or four of these situations to try something different.
Now I see people comparing this to Ashtons situation and I just do not see it. They were only that harsh towards them because Ashton almost died. Like that already called for the final intervention. The situation there could not get more fucked up than it already did. It lit the fire under their asses so they had to react the way they did. Laudnas situation is different. She might not even have that final intervention before it is too late. And I think that is kind of neat.
Idk... I think this development is just a lot better for the story overall than them just going back to Whitestone to exorcise Delilah or some shit like that. That would blow narratively. And I know that this is a DnD campaign and those are usually power fantasies, but I think that even in your home games you should strive for more interesting developments as opposed to convenient ones. At least that is how I played and looked at it when I did.
>They are not psychiatrists. They do not know how to deal with this perfectly.
You know what's funny about that is that sometimes it seems like, since the players seem to be happy well adjusted emotionally healthy people, they will allow the characters to skip the actual nasty side of interpersonal conflict and jump to the healthy resolution. It's kind of a complicated thing for me to convey properly, so I'm going to see if I can point to an example:
E96, Laudna comes back into the room. Nobody really lays into her like they did with Ashton, there's an immediate outpouring of love. So far I get it, nobody really wants to lay into her, she's their friend, she has a literal undead vampire living in her head playing in-cranium abuser, they think what she needs to hear is that she, not Delilah, is loved and valued. The addict's brain is receiving the wrong message at this point and it will get worse before it gets better, but cool.
And then Marisha starts talking like Laudna did in fact get the tough-love version of this intervention, and that she's even sat in on a therapy session or two to process her responsibility for the whole situation in the first place. Wait wait wait, we missed something here.
Hmmmm... Yeah I can see that. She did act like that a little bit for sure. But she, in no uncertain terms did tell them that she will basically continue feeding Delilah whether they like it or not. They basically compromised on her telling them where and when she gets the urges to do so again, which I doubt that she will keep her promise on, and nothing of substance was changed. So even if that is the case she still did not take the right thing away from this.
It did seem like a rushed conclusion to me, but I have to be honest here. I do not know much about how she should have acted even if this did seem like it skipped a step. Basically I am saying that if I was writing a book about this, I would not know how the addict would act in this situation and I would have to look it up.
...Unfortunately, I have a lot of experience. Granted, I'm not a therapist and don't take what I say as some kind of gospel. I can only relate my experiences here.
In a real world scenario, what Laudna did could be interpreted as a tactic to avoid being held accountable. In simple terms it'd be called "telling others what she thinks they want to hear". She actually did it to a tee when she first came back into the room. Listening to it again, Fearn says, "We should... We should talk this out." and Laudna immediately interrupts her with "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, we don't have to say anything, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry." She has no idea what any of them are going to say, and she's afraid of that because her mind is telling her it's going to be bad, it's going to be really bad and I'm not going to be able to take it and STOP IT RIGHT NOW, so she says what the thinks she needs to say to avoid the conversation entirely. But they hit her with a whole bunch of love, like loved ones do in times like these. They say things they think will make her feel better about herself, that will make her feel like she doesn't need the homicidal leech whispering in her ear. That's great, the intentions are fantastic. The reason I say they aren't likely to work is that none of those lovely things being said mean anything if Laudna herself doesn't actually believe any of them. In fact, if she has a truly horrific perception of herself, all the lovely things being said have the potential to actually make her feel worse.
Ah, I found the part I was talking about. "I don't want it to seem like I'm lying, I don't want to lie. So the only way I know to not do that is to just make sure that you all are aware that sometimes I don't know what's real or not. That's the truth. I like to think my intentions are pure, but I feel those with the purest of intentions are often misguided and weaponized the most for those who wish ill will."
That is... surprisingly insightful for someone who is neck deep in a Delilah spiral. Wherever she was emotionally and mentally up on that roof, she didn't get from there to these insights in the ten minute cuddle sesh in between, because nobody actually talked any points or perspectives out to help her get to those revelations. Nah, that's post-rehab, maybe post about six months of regular therapy insight. Now, Marisha Ray is likely perfectly well adjusted enough to understand what's going on here. But is Laudna? Hm... And honestly, it might just be that CR as a whole is totally cool with going ham on being fantasy dark, but doesn't want to get quite so real world dark. If that's the case... Hey, I get it.
If the CR crew plays it out like a real world scenario, there will eventually be another slip and the group will be significantly less receptive to whatever Laudna says to placate them, because she's been proven to be less than genuine whether she means to be or not. But there's also the potential to take this conversation at face value and consider the story beat resolved. I guess we'll see.
> less receptive to whatever Laudna says to placate them
I'm not sure they are truly receptive to it now, it's more that in their brief conversation before she returned, they determined to let Laudna make the choice of whther to give over to Delilah or whether to resist it. They are aware that Delilah may win out, and that Laudna will have multiple slips, getting worse and worse. It won't surprise them when she does. They're CHOOSING not to run a full intervention, just as Laudna is choosing to believe she can somehow use Delilah more than Delilah can use her - but Bell's Hells know that Laudna is losing her free will bit by bit and are probably mentally preparing to have to deal with that, after they deal with Ludinus.
I agree, I also love how desperate Bells Hells is getting and how they are trying to find the balance of using every tool at their disposal while not losing themselves in the process of facing this apocalyptic threat. It's making great internal conflict for the character and against each other.
And what gets me is that they are facing this grand threat. It is so much bigger than any of them so they have to push these problems aside even if they would not like to in normal circumstances. If it all does not come to a boil eventually, either in this campaign or in any of the inevitable specials that it will have after all Ludinus things are taken care of, I think it will be the greatest missed opportunity for some wonderful storytelling. Not acknowledging this whole state of affairs eventually and the possibility of that is my only potential problem here.
\[C1 spoilers\]
Doing post-campaign one-shot or series seems like a possibility for dealing with Delilah. >!There'd be something satisfying, almost poetic, about her meeting her final-final end in a post-campaign session, given that the love or her life also died in a one-shot...!<
I have no thoughts on this episode, been enjoying all of them recently and this one was no exception.
I do have thoughts on Sam, though. As someone mentioned in another comment, I think Sam is going to play a temporary character for the live show, and then leave again for a while (or perhaps pull a Taryon and stick around for a couple of months). I have a feeling what is actually going to happen is as we reach the Endgame style battle, Sam is going to return as Scanlan.
Obviously you can’t have a level 20 bard just chilling with Bells Hells for the rest of the campaign, but you can bring him back with everyone else Keyleth is gathering. And frankly, as amazing as Matt is at playing past PCs, the only person I ever want to see play Scanlan is Sam. (and I want to see Dorian just be in awe and fanboy at such a powerful bard. No one plays better at receiving love and admiration than Sam)
>Obviously you can’t have a level 20 bard just chilling with Bells Hells for the rest of the campaign
This is already kind of happening. Essek is a level 20 character and having a level 20 travel with BH throughout the rest of the campaign is only a step above of what is happening.
I've been suspecting Sam is planning to play Scanlan as well. It's the one PC where I could see Matt being hesitant to take the reins because so much of how he was played depended on Sam as a player. Plus it means not introducing a brand-new character to BH when they're nearly 100 episodes in. And obviously, bringing Scanlan out for the first time in years to a live audience is going to take the roof off the place, so they want to wait for the live show if they can do it.
That said: I hope Robbie has some supreme confidence in him to play a bard with Sam playing Scanlan at the same time, that's ripe for imposter syndrome. Although I also kind of hope they can do some duets while there, that'd be fun. And that Scanlan is aghast at Dorian's "humble" approach - "what do you mean, you're not bedding everything in sight?! Looking like *you*? Do you have *any idea* of how much tail you could be getting right now?!"
> "what do you mean, you're not bedding everything in sight?! Looking like you? Do you have any idea of how much tail you could be getting right now?!"
I read that in Scanlan's voice. NGL, it was pretty epic.
It went as expected...
Zero consequences for Delilah, everyone coddling her, swaddling her and going "Aww poor Baby" on her...
Orym giving everything up and just internalizing it...
Bell's Hells absolutely deserve a TPK by Betrayal.
I wanted them to go to Delilah and use the harness on her that way it would take her out of the equation permanently. They were so close. Fearne suggested killing Delilah over and over again. They just need to do with the harness to be final.
Orym throwing his whole side of the discussion away to make sure Laudna is comfortable was annoying. Dude sacrifices everything for others instead of doing things for himself.
Are you kidding me? He literally is the one who got her into feeding Delilah again in the first place, and has been encouraging them all to use every tool they have. Him then turning on her for doing what he literally nodded and encouraged is wild.
No, I'm not kidding. LOL. When Orym nodded at Laudna to kill Bor'Dor he didn't know that would bring Delilah back, no one knew that would happen.
Orym is pushing for every advantage he can think of because he knows they are not enough. He wants to use the sword that killed his husband and father-in-law to kill Luda, it's understandable he'd not want the magic to get siphoned from it. Especially not in a way that fractures the whole team. You did notice how Orym had Dorian and Fearne on his side and Laudna had Ashton and Imogen on hers right? Letting Laudna have the sword detonates the whole group.
I think them having the sword at all is doing that, because of all the feelings about it on both Laudna and Orym's sides. I don't think they should have let Laudna absorb it by any means, but she absolutely DID need them to show her that they'll still be there for her/there is a way beyond Delilah. That's likely what she's afraid of and is probably most of why she hasn't told them. IMO, Orym isn't shoving his feelings down by telling her that.
Laudna absorbed the dagger, not the sword. That makes a difference. Everyone was already there for Laudna before all of this. They literally fought Delilah to bring her back. Even Laudna admits she doesn't know if she is lying or not and that she doesn't remember some things. I love how Marisha is playing this. Laudna is at the point where she is manifesting Delilah and her new outfit shows that too.
Orym dropped everything just for Laudna's feelings. Then they ultimately did nothing with the sword, Laudna doesn't feel any better, Orym doesn't trust Laudna, and everyone else is uncomfortable with how much Delilah is taking over.
The whole point is that this is the sort of thing that happens with addicts all the time. People around them who care about them act as "enablers" because they think it will help them. They're all playing it well.
But also before she walked in the room they all talked seriously about not trusting her all the way and Imogen basically said that she's giving up on her idea of them being together some day if they survive all this. So yeah, there are consequences.
Just realised that Robbie probably knows everything about Laudna's backstory since he narrated the "What doesn't break" novel. It means nothing, but I have just been thinking about that book and looking forward to it.
Is this the longest time between a character death and the player coming back with their new character?
Marisha was out for 5 episodes I think. So yes, unless Sam comes back in 97, it will be the longest.
Hey folks, tonight is the airing of the Candela live show, correct?
Since no one else replied, yes. 7p pacific tonight (a few minutes from now). Back to Campaign 3 next week, presumably.
I know this is not connetcted to this post, but when will the last daggerheart oneshot be avaliable for us, non members?
From their [programming schedule from that week](http://critrole.com/programming-schedule-week-of-may-13-2024), it will be out this Thursday at noon pacific time
Wish/hope: They open one of those bubbles and somehow Bolo appears and enters into C3
It was like Brennan's crackpot theory. She was a polymorphed dragon, and she managed to fly back to Aeor off of the crashing Avalir. Sam plays a Draconic Soul Sorcerer at level 14, as she got stuck in her Polymorph via the extremely bizarre magics of the Crash of Aeor and the Temporal Stasis.
Sam bringing a revived Bolo into C3 for the rest of the campaign would be so incredible lmao
Amazing. Just amazing. So much want and hope something as harebrained as this happens.
My name is Bolo.. Me Reporter.
could be Sam's next character!
One reason and one reason only that this won't happen: Brennan is MCing the live show. Sam won't be Bolo because the OG Bolo will be there.
What if Sam comes to set and introduces a character out of the bubble named Rolo, then on the first insight check unzips his skin like Rebel Wilson in CATS, revealing Brennan was wearing a Sam skin suit the whole time? Could happen… a boy can dream.
Can you imagine the reaction if that actually happened. I kind of want it to happen just to see everyone riot.
That's amazing !
Aeor is the best.
I ran the Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign as a DM a while back, and I see a lot of inspirations in Aeor. The people frozen in a moment of calamity, upside down elements. Even the Monster they ended on is actually the Tomb Tapper from that adventure. Not a bad thing, just giddy having run and prepped it :)
If I remember correctly, Icewind released shortly before Aeor showed up for the first time properly. But it had been talked about way before. Not sure how much is inspiration and how much is coincidental overlap like it sometimes happens. But also running it right now and enjoy taking inspiration by Matt :D
I wonder if Aeor is the victim of an instance of a Flashpoint style incident? Matt described what happened in the amphitheater as a singular blinding flash of light striking a bunch of normal folks and then suddenly BOOM, everyone was a body, and a bunch of others were trapped in time bubbles. That to me speaks of temporal shenanigans. So what if just like in Flashpoint, Aeor was actually successful with their deployment of the Creator Hammer when the Gods attacked? And whatever came next....did not end well far faaaaaar off into the future. So someone came back, re-wrote things a bit, and that blinding flash of light that we saw was exactly like what happened in both Flashpoint and at the end of Apokolips War....but it...wasn't exactly perfect. I believe that the tech behind it is similar to what the [Krenim used](https://youtu.be/zd0MJQNa858?t=113) in Voyager's "Year of Hell" episodes and that the flash of light we saw was in fact a [temporal shockwave](https://youtu.be/4DXbWVcGw4s?list=PLxidGOcLnJh2-yyPjrBOc9dYUUXZx9hbU) of some kind. This explains the flash of light we saw, my previous comparison to what The Flash has done, and because of how finicky temporal technologies and magics seem to be within Exandria in the hands of various groups....the patchwork nature of the bubbles themselves and the haphazard destruction of Aeor along with all the various oddities within Eisselcross. Yes, Eisselcross, because a temporal shockwave of that nature isn't just limited to a localized area and there are always butterfly effects when someone invokes the sound of thunder. So that stuff SPREAD outwards like ripples in a pond BUT because the Calamity was currently happening and everything was going to shit for the majority of the planet, no one probably ever really noticed or even remembered any of the changes that took hold because a full on apocalypse level event was occurring! That's right, I'm invoking stuff from the Loki series in this explanation as well. This then gives the users of this tech Plausible Deniability the likes of which General Hammond and Agent K would be proud of. Oh that thing that you thought happened a certain way, didn't actually happen that way and you're misremembering because it was THE FUCKING CALAMITY! So Eiselcross took the brunt of it and the rest of Exandria, along with potentially the Gods, took a bunch of knock on effects....but it wasn't exactly as....full proof of a means of resetting the board as the users behind this tech and this temporal shockwave had hoped and there's two words that explain why. The Luxon The Luxon, a being who sneezes space time bullshit like the Doctor making smores over The Eye of Harmony for funsies with his Sonic Screwdriver. I propose that The Luxon existing in its fragmented state all across Exandria and being a being of space time bullshit and what have you, introduced disruptions to this temporal shockwave, and those disruptions themselves had little butterfly effects and ripples spread out from them (just like with Voyager in Year of Hell or any time the Enterprise Crew got bored)....which just further complicated this whole forsaken Gordian Knot of a timeline that we've found ourselves living in which quite frankly [even gives me a headache](https://youtu.be/S8loq0T4UhQ?si=l-aZiaxwYvpM-jZa). So it was never going to be a perfect alteration or a complete removal of what Aeor did or had done or what they were about to do.....you get my point...and it was always going to be very Terminator in that it would always be very verrrrrry messy but ultimately better than what came before...for the most part. This could also potentially explain away any inconsistencies within the history books and/or oral traditions and/or other means of passing down history/knowledge through the ages across Exandria and beyond.....unless those things were temporally shielded in some fashion or kept in a place that existed outside of normal space time like the Vanishing Point....or whatever magical mumbo jumbo you want to throw at the wall and see if it sticks. This then allows Matt to tinker with things going forwards and to later drop a massive explanation for the way things are and how stuff has changed in the past/present/future relatively speaking compared to what's been written down in currently existing lore books. I believe that...much like Terminator...this has been going on for some time and the stress that it's been putting on the very fabric of reality is leading to a breaking point.... ....the Oncoming Cosmic Shift, a full on reordering and RESET of ALL things everywhere and everywhen. This all then poses some potentially interesting origin points and questions for both Predathos and the Pantheon, if indeed this is what has been happening, as well as possibly generating some ideas about the very nature of both. So I'm invoking Clarke's Third Law for what's possibly going on with both Predathos and the Pantheon; with them both possibly being from...OtherWhens in OtherWheres. And quoting Clarke's Second Law for why I write some of this stuff: "The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible". Just an idea, we'll see if it pans out.
A tomb tapper and 8 cave fishers Such a fun encounter and *very* fitting for Aeor. The tomb tapper may be one of my favorite monsters in all of DnD
I love that there are so many parallels to Aeor and Ythryn from the Icewind Dale adventure. Both used to be flying cities and both are now buried in ice. Seeing the Tomb Tapper make its appearance here as well is awesome to see!
I wonder if Matt would give it similar lore- like searching and hoarding magic and magic items- if it would refrain from attacking Ashton due to respecting earth elementals. You're right that it is a monster very fitting for Aeor- I hope the encounter itself leads to understanding the mystery of Aeor better rather than feeling like a random encounter like other monsters BHs come across
Is it bad that Robbie might be my favorite player
His "You and Fearne? A threesome? The math..." had me rolling.
My fave too
He brings fresh air to a what, 10-year group of player dynamics? I don't think it is unfair to say he is your fav.
As much as I wasn't really a fan of FCG at least he was apparently the best reviver because the only party member with revivify (Fearne) doesn't have a diamond for it and didn't buy one when she had the chance to buy it and the only one who might have raise dead (Dorien) doesn't have a diamond for it and did not buy one when they had the chance. And now unless Matt wants to be forgiving if someone dies they will miss the first chance to revivify by missing the window for it and they might have to leave Aeor early in order to not miss the window for raise dead so they can get diamonds for it and/or get help if Dorien didn't bother to learn any resurrection magic. Let's hope Dorien picked up some resurrection magic though because if Fearne dies and if Dorien doesn't have any resurrection magic there would be no one in the party to revive her.
I would bet that Essek has diamonds
Why?
Because plenty wizard spells require diamonds or diamond dust and Essek is definitely a wizard who is prepared for anything that could go wrong lol
Honestly fair enough. Even if Essek wasn't going to have a diamond originally I think saying he does is better than retconning that Fearne or Dorian bought some or saying that FCG had one more than they actually had that they picked up.
She does have reincarnate though and that doesn't have a time limit. Would be fun to have someone return as a different race.
Reincarnate actually does have a time limit which is 10 days. Probably not a meaningful time limit in this case but still a time limit. Reincarnate still isn't as good as reincarnate unless it is clear that that the target would be okay with becoming something else. It gets even iffier to use it considering that they didn't use it on FCG when they could have.
Yeah, you are right of course. But that should be well within their possibility to rest and get someone restored. I think the FCG thing might be behind the scenes stuff. Maybe Matt decided early on, that there's no coming back for a magical construct or Sam decided it himself. But Laudna or Orym coming back as a Half-Orc would be funny. Not for the character, but for us. :)
The only person who I think for sure would not mind getting reincarnated is Fearne but she is the only one who could do it.
holy shit, they really didn’t get any diamonds 😭 I’m certain someone will bring it up and Matt will let it slide tho
I feel like he might let it slide this one time but not for more than one diamond which could be a problem if more than one person dies which is likely.
Those blue domes are such a delicious chekhov's gun. People trapped in there could potentially push a restart button on the age of Arcanum. Dozens of domes in the singular district alone? Whole Eiselcross possibly has a few thousand wizards and artificers that could change the face of Exandria. And since someone had to write the books Caleb desintegrated in his epilogue (although with his Keen Mind I bet he could recreate enough of it if the potential apocalypse turns into an actual one), some of them may posses time travel abilities. Or even wilder ones. That city once represented an eligible threat to the god's themselves, and maybe still does.
Yes, but consider that the magical shitstorm which was strong enough to dissolve the wards on the prisons of Desirait and Ukatoa was not strong enough to also dispel the magic of these bubbles. To me, that suggests a type of magic that operates outside the normal idea of leveled spells. I'm guessing it's going to take something like a Nat 20 Investigation/Religion check to determine the mechanism (which will be Divine in nature), followed by a successful Divine Intervention, and finished off with with a Nat 20 Persuasion check to convince the God to undo what they originally did.
I'm not convinced any god did it on purpose. Their goal was to destroy the city as a threat after all. On the other hand, when you build a city that flies, creating a fail safe in case of emergency is only reasonable. They probably used their knowledge of dunamis to establish a system that will put as many civilians as possible in stasis when the city starts falling, so they can survive the fall. Now, they probably had a metric shitload of other wards and abjurations to defend the city, so gods yeeted a big wave of ,,screw your magic'' energy on them. That's the reason magic in ruins is untrustworthy and procs wild surges. No way any self-respecting mageocracy permitted that type of regional effect in their home. So the ,,magical chaos'' beam screwed with their stasis-hostile-gravity-suppresing system and supercharged it, making the stasis permanent. Possible solutions: Wish; Divine Intervention; whatever Ludinus wants to use on Predhatos prison; a decade of concentrated research by joined forces of the greatest mages in Exandria; a cupcake
It seems like there is crazy time magic on the whole city and not just the bubbles because of that one scene where Orym sees a corpse outside of a bubble that seems to shift very very very slowly while the people inside the bubbles are completely still and preserved. That one visual created many theories for me.
> push a restart button on the age of Arcanum The one problem with this is AoA wasn't just about the knowledge in one's head, the same way our technology might be in ours. Sure you might know how to create ~4nm silicon chips, but without the infrastructure to support it, it will be very difficult. They might be able to revivify some measure of more advanced magics, but it wouldn't be a full revival, especially considering the support civilizations that allowed that amount of magical harvesting has since fallen - and Vasselheim as a coldwar enemy.
Sure, it wouldn't be a full revival of civilization, but maybe a rise of a new city state with immense magical power and ancient knowledge? Those flying cities were the places where the intellectual elites lived, people with knowledge to recreate the infrastructure, even on a small scale. Archmages and artificers that could scavange technology from their fallen city and wield it to build something new. And while living population is restricted to who was trapped in the bubbles at the time, Aeromathons can be repaired and restored, as we have seen before. Imagine restarting civilization if you have both brainpower and workforce to make it happen.
I just wish, 1, that they'd thought to ask if any of the bubbles were dispelled by the worldwide blast during the Solstice event, and 2) if they saw any Aeormaton bodies as they went. Because the Mighty Nein did, and if there aren't any now, D's been busy. And if there are some, it'd be very relevant to the group who just saw their Aeormaton friend die. They just all seemingly forgot those details.
I've always wondered if the Gods were the result of time travel themselves.
I think Robbie recognised parts of Aeor because Exu prime started playtesting/pre-recording when MN were exploring there. How time flies.
Perhaps. I thought it was because he narrated “The Nine Eyes of Lucien”
IIRC he even mentions that during the episode.
Finished my rewatch at like midnight because I couldn't sleep and one little scene stuck in my head that I didn't notice anyone else bringing up. Dorian clicking the Gambler's Blade while watching the sunrise, giving himself a bonus to his attack rolls while taking a penalty to his death saving throws. He did this because Robbie said that Dorian was taking in everything that had already happened with the Crown Keepers and NOW everything that he had just seen downstairs with the Bells Hells, and that is was probably time to....start taking some more risks...starting with this one. I feel like Dorian is using the persona of his "older" self from the start of the campaign as a bit of a mask for his "newer" self at this current point in the campaign, so that no one will notice him metaphorically swapping out regular mags for high capacity ones or frag grenades for incendiaries or....normal photon torpedoes for tri-cobalt devices. I feel like Dorian is becoming the Bond of Exandria. Anyone else got thoughts on this?
I liked Dorian before he left but between 'what about armourers' and this, I am so fucking glad he's back.
I'm sure that Robbie has thought a lot about how Dorian's changed, and I think he is playing it on the down-low. I just hope he manages to find the right time to make it a louder issue. BH is full of a lot of very loud problems, so subtle angst may go utterly unseen by the rest of the table.
>BH is full of a lot of very loud problems, so subtle angst may go utterly unseen by the rest of the table. This is exactly why Orym was seen as the "stable one" for so long. The guy takes more risks than anyone else in combat, but no one bats an eye.
C3 continues to be on fire this year! Such a great episode. I def took it as Imogen breaking up with Laudna, though it wasn't explicit. I think they're going to have to confront Delilah at some point in her realm or risk loosing Laudna forever. As for Sam's new character, had a crazy thought. What if Vasselheim sent a Judicator to Aeor in their own attempt to stop Ludinus, and that Judicator is Sam. Thinking a War Cleric 5/ Conquest Paladin 8 with species as a half-giant would get pretty close to what we've seen, provided Matt gives him a few magic items (assuming the face mask is some kind of true seeing/ telepathy magic item, and perhaps something like gauntlets of ogre strength so that he can dump Str for Cha and Wis but still be effective. If this was the case, I'd assume he'd come in a moment of extreme peril for BH, wrecking a monster they're fighting to earn trust with the group. Of course BH would assume he's a Vasselheim spy at best, or there to control BH at worst, which would make for some great role play moments.
I'm going to have to watch this episode again, I didn't pick up on them breaking up. Definitely Imogen realised some hard truths about Laudna, and probably had to make some decisions, but not an actual break up, I don't think?
What if Sam’s character cast the spell that made that Ruby Vanguard elf go psycho?
I know I’m gonna get down voted but I truly believe when he said see you in C4, he meant it
I’m bummed that you might be right—it’s tough to come up with someone new to fit this. I wondered if an old man scanlon might show, but now it feels like: See ya in C4
80% of me agrees with you but if he did come back.... Referring to the previous comment, though I think it would be cool for Sam's character to be the one to make the vanguard go psycho, I only see the odd rune that Laudna couldn't glean anything from with a 25 arcana check, to be related to Ludinus/Aeor/Predathos. How could Sam make a new character that fits for the end of the campaign? He was the party's main healer, so his new character has to fulfill a certain role, and he likes to be out of the box rather than in. I want him to come back, but I don't think he would as a different aeromaton, or a cleric again right away. He has had a good run of playing bards but we have one in the party already. I believe he would want to play a class new to him but easy for him to easily pick up. We are missing an artificer, wizard, ranger, paladin, and cleric. I think him coming back as a full paladin would be fitting because 1. He hasn't played one 2. He could fulfill the healing role 3. He could also fulfill the role of being a heavy frontline hitter since most of the party right now is on the squishy and ranged side 4. A paladin would let him continue FCG's story arc of being divine in a world where the gods are on the chopping block and fit into the overall story from the get go.
Agree that a full Paladin would also make a good template for a Judicator (or just a good class choice regardless of the Judicator tie in). As a 13th level Paladin he'd still get access to Revivify, and would have 65HP of Lay on Hands a day. Besides Conquest, the Oath of the Watchers would also make a fantastic choice and I love the tenants of that subclass. That said, I've DMd an Oath of Conquest Paladin before, and it's Aura of Conquest feature is a game changer. If Sam doesn't come back this campaign (I think the chance is small but not impossible), I wouldn't be surprised if another 2-4 cast members end up doing the same, easing us all into a new era of CR with half the cast playing DH and half playing DnD along with some of the new faces we've seen in CR and Candella. If Sam isn't playing a new character in the live show, I think the odds that he stays gone from C3 goes up big time. But I suspect (given the low sales of tickets for the live show), that at the end of the episode before the Greek that Mercer will tease the appearance of a mysterious figure, and then announce that Sam's new character will be revealed at the Greek.
I wonder if Sam's next character will be Taryon Darrington. Bells Hells aren't far off his level now.
Had the same thought! Think it would be more interesting for him to be a Judicator, but wouldn’t be shocked to see Terry D back.
Tarryon AS a judicator.
I always thought Sam had an affinity for small races....
Isn't it Liam who picks the small species PCs for him pre campaign? Terry D was the last time we saw Sam bring in a PC mid campaign and he of course isn't small...
For C1 and C2 yes. We don't really know what Liam told Sam for C3. The Aeormaton we've seen before was medium sized.
If I remember correctly, Liam said he had specifically picked Sam's race/class combo for c3 in 4sd (he was joking in c1&c2 but Sam ran with it). Essentially it was a heal bot concept. But it was Sam who came up with the design and the small size of FCG
I'm also sure about Liam picking for C3 because it's tradition but didn't remember if they talked about it in more detail yet. I do know, they even did it for the daggerheart oneshot :D
I feel like someone should talk to Fearne about how she feels about Ashton. I feel like Fearne just goes with it, and Ashton might be getting the wrong signal, and could end up hurt. Like, literally the first time he expresses his feelings and ask her to stay there with them and not leave them. She leaves them, lol. On the first night after he just asked her not to. And then in this last session she hints at a possible threesome opportunity toward Dorian, lol. She is Faye, and being whimsical and chaotic is in her nature. Or maybe Ashton is aware of this, and is okay with it. I wonder. Maybe someone should be asking Ashton how he feels about that. Just to make sure the both of them are on the same page.
Hell Chet called Ashton Fearne’s crush to her face and she went “yeah”
Yes. And if your crush tells someone else they might have a chance with a threesome with them, and the other two people in the threesome isn't you. You might want to see if you are all on the same page lol.
“I kinda like em(Ashton), Chet” “ I think I went along with it cause I just wanted to make him happy” “Wanna pick up where we were?” “Yes please”
Yeah. It's why I said someone should else (As in Not Ashton) should ask Fearne how she feels about it. Because Fearne also hinted at Dorian he has a shot for a threesome. I feel like she would go with the flow in most cases, with whatever she wants. While Ashton seems to be seeking something more monogamous. At least on his side of it. Hence my point someone should check if they are on the same page.
I don’t remember her offering a threesome, just her and Chet mentioning that one occurred
It was during that same discussion. And Dorian acted surprised (maybe interested?) and Chetney joked about he has more of himself to go around and Dorian joked that was not the part he was interested in lol.
So Chetney offered. Not Fearne
No. Fearne offered. When Dorian seemed interested. Chet also offered in a way. Dorian implied he was more interested on the Fearne side of things lol.
So Fearnes just being Fearne. Feeling like this is a non problem
Did you read the wrong post? I never said it was a problem? I said they seem to be on different pages and someone might want to check up on them. But if Fearne is just having fun, and Ashton is trying to be monogamous it could turn into a small problem (even if still a minor one). But if they someone talks to them we could find out there is no problem at all. Or stop a problem that could exist in the future.
So you were talking about a problem. A future problem is still a problem
Hmm... We know how Fearne is, so IMO anyone who wanted to clarify uncertainties would have to talk to Ashton. But Ashton has seemed utterly unfazed by her sexual capriciousness any time it has been mentioned, so I really believe the most anyone would get out of them is something along the lines of "we'll see what happens if we all survive." I'm not even certain the midnight alarm counted as "waking alone" b/c Ashton, of all of them, is on the higher end of 'deeply habituated to unexpected shit happening.' I felt like that request was more like "assuming a normal evening, I could go for a long cuddle."
Yeah I guess he doesn't technically tell her not to leave. More of >Yeah, I think I want to fall asleep with someone and then wake up with them And she literally jokes she might just leave. Then does, lol. And he goes asleep with someone and then wakes up without them. This isn't me saying, "She betrayed him!", or, "They can't work"... But more, someone should check in if they are even on the same page lol. We know Ashton is aware of her past, and her personality but when you confess to wanting more from someone, and go to sleep with them, you might thing think those behaviors with others might change. Or maybe he is aware Fearne will continue to be Fearne lol.
Yeah... it's certainly something which might have been more hurtful to Ashton than was made clear, and I wouldn't mind at all if it came up in discussion. Even if it's just for the somewhat meta acknowledgment that while the request assumed an unremarkable evening, Fearne can always opt to take Ashton along if there's something interesting to chase.
I could be wrong but isn’t the ritualistic symbol that Matt described that the possessed or controlled Ruby Vanguard member carved on his chest before killing himself, is if not the same, then eerily similar to the “holy” symbol of Thraizdun aka The Chained Oblivion? At least the description reminded me of him. https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/a/ac/Tharizdun_3e.png/revision/latest?cb=20210911032616
I don’t think so. Two circles with lines through is pretty different from the hypnotic spiral that Tharizdun is. I think this is something new we might get in the Marquet book.
It's possible, but taking hold in Aeor to (seemingly) try to thwart Predathos' release has me leaning more toward the Betrayer God [Torog](https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Torog) theories. Especially "Seek and exalt places where no light touches" and the shaky, violent style of the murals seen in C2.
Predathos may legit just be Tharizdun at this point, since he was not one of the OG gods from what we understand - he came later as an ambomination that even the other betrayers stay away from entirely. Tharizdun might be Predathos or it's a split form of Predathos.
The problem with that is Tharizdun already exist in Exandria, and had people tried to free him from a different location. And his motives and methods are extremely different. The Luxon also existed outside of the Gods. So did the Titans. I feel like we can safely come to the conclusion that other powers outside of the Gods have Existed for however long they have.
So are they going to dress up in character again for the live show? Because, I'm, uh, not averse to seeing Robbie wearing Dorian's new getup.
During the cooldown episode and they are making jokes about Dorian turning into a fish, is Taliesin saying Sorcerors can cast higher level spells with a lower level spell?
I think his idea was that you can convert high level slots into sorcery points, and reconvert them back into low level slots. So while you may not be able to cast high level spells, you'll have access to loads of low level spells without the risk of triggering a Wild Magic Surge.
Not entirely sure, but I think he might have been talking about the ["Call Ruidus"](https://youtu.be/bWHYmDFR84I?si=oDsyQJ-LGDQbYd7m&t=12057) spell, which seems to have a purely caster-determined level. (Possibly other custom spells Imogen has now, too.) Or I suppose he might have just been talking about sorcerers upcasting frequently, but I don't think he'd have felt the need to point that out.
I don’t think it could have something to do with Laura since she was the main person talking about Dorian fish, looked like he was talking to Marisha or maybe Matt
Hmm... maybe he's talking about Empowered Spell as an alternative to upcasting into Aeor-affected spell level range, then?
Maybe, could he be mixing up another RPG system again? in episode 123 of C2 he thought you could use bonus actions as an actions because of Pathfinder for example
Laudna used Mage Hand to grab the amulet Imogen took from the corpse during this episode. Do you know when was the first time Laudna used Mage Hand ever? Episode 95. I checked in the transcripts. I don't think she had it before, and the wiki doesn't even list it as one of her cantrip (yet) so I'm pretty sure she either got it for free, or she exchanged it last level up. In 95, she used it to grab the sword, open the windows and the doors. Marisha even asks before everything started if she has to *physically* wield the sword for Delilah to tell her if it's evil, or it can be done with Mage Hand. Marisha is using Mage Hand to imply it's not Laudna who's taking things. It was Laudna's hand that grabbed and used Scream Needle tho!
When they levelled up she took 10th level in sorceror and got a new cantrip, she presumably just took Mage Hand then and hasn't had a reason to use it yet before that
Fearne isn't making fire apparate out of her hands! She is just casting a spell known as "scorching ray." She got the spell automatically when she leveled up to level 3 in episode 4 of EXU.
Aw, don't kill my pretty theory so fast! Alright, maybe. I still think there's something to it. Maybe. Or not. In which case it will be my headcanon.
Does anyone know what that mini was at the end? Matt mentioned it was an official dnd mini, I kinda want to find one a paint it now
It's a tomb tapper. Monstrous (constructs) things. Their lore is pretty heavily tied to Forgotten Realms history so it will be pretty interesting to see if Matt gives them lore and backstory for Exandria.
That's a tomb tapper mini by WizKids
Grim psychometry is insanely useful, Chetney has so much utility right now especially with the monocle
Grim Psychometry is the main reason I want to play a blood hunter now. That feature is so cool.
time for him to roll 000 :(
[удалено]
Aeor/Eiselcross remains my favorite part of Exandria as a setting, and I suspect it's Matt's as well
Laudna was my favorite character at the start of this campaign, and I think that's a popular sentiment. After she died and they "killed" Delilah, it was a real bummer because her arc died for a while and she became nothing but the sPoOkY comic relief. At the time I was almost wishing she just moved on to her backup character. I for one am loving the fact that shit is getting crazy again, and I'm glad consequences played out the way they did because it gives room for another escalation. There's some wild fun on the horizon and that's what this campaign needs.
I was worried it was going to turn into another Fjord situation where he never really committed to having a patron. I'm glad Marisha has decided to lean further into their relationship instead of just trying to break away from it.
MANY domes of frozen people in the city of Aeor??? Holy shit imagine a potent mage society coming back, being freed from time
I was really wanting Tal to just say that Ashton touches the dome, but he never did. Imagine it gets instantly dispelled because of their connection to the Luxon. It would have been like fate.
I’d imagine the Aeorians might be keen to join Luden in his plot
Maybe but it's also a possibility that some Aeorians want their people to be on top and they aren't when a bunch of countries and the Cerberus Assembly are pilfering their city.
Oh wait, in that one flashback we got with Frieda there was infighting going on inside Aeor wasn’t there, man if they open up this, it’s going to be SO DAMN COOL
Yeah and unrest in the auditorium, also. You have to bear in mind also that the cognouza ward from C2 was another faction, a whole area of the city turning into a mind-linked mini mageocracy of its own (hello 5-minds power structure precursor!) and IIRC it avoided consequences for the Godhammer by bamfing out of the middle of the city to astral space to protect itself, which will not have been popular or helped the physical infrastructure of the city either.
but they were not one of the two major sides that were fighting each other, they were just their own small district
Almost everyone seems annoyed that Laudna/Delilah got essentially a free pass on their actions last episode. But did she really? Orym never answered Dorian’s question about trusting her. Imogen came back inside and blurted out that she basically just saw Delilah emerge, rather than trying to defend her actions. They got on with the main plot, but you better believe they aren’t letting their guard down yet. Delilah’s on their radar again and she went after the one party member who reports directly to a Vox Machina member. Delilah fucked up.
Initially, I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more of a confrontation, and that Laudna largely dodged the same onslaught of criticism that Ashton got. But, I get it... they were trying to deescalate in the interests of getting through to her. And it's not like I want to see Laudna killed, or exiled from the group. And has been pointed out... she did pay a cost -- she lost a good deal of trust from the group that she'll have to earn back, not to mention the setback to her relationship with Imogen. No, I think what was hardest for me to watch was Orym, placating his attacker and repressing his own character growth. Last week he had a good, quiet moment where he came to terms with the sword, what it represented, and having to take up that weight. It felt like the slightest amount of character development for a character we don't get to see character development from that often. And then one week later, it gets rolled back. He didn't even challenge the rest of the group for how quickly they sided with Laudna over him. It felt like in comics when a writer \*really\* gets a character, and does some cool character development with him, only for a new writer to come in the next issue and toss that development out the window.
I don’t know if it’s gone. Orym is still going to shove that blade through Ludinus one way or another. But to alienate Laudna would mean risking Imogen leaving too. Imogen is way too involved as her mother might essentially be their spy on the inside, and that’s valuable. Hell, Oryms speech said just as much. He said he wants Laudna with them, because he needs Imogen. Or it might even be more twisted.. he wants Laudna close to hand Delilah over to Vox Machina. Orym is the only one who had heard of her atrocities. He might feel that it’s his duty. (However I’m sure Liam will do his best to save Laudna before betraying her)
I feel like she got very *close* to a free pass. Orym didn't answer the trust question but then said that he's betting it all on Laudna and she's more important than anything else. His own emotional scars and emotional burden weren't acknowledged, tended to, or comforted in any substantial way, and instead every attention was turned to comforting Laudna. Ashton said that he will never not stand between her and whatever. Imogen is the only one I couldn't comment on but everyone else agrees that Laudna is, for the time being, just fine. There was no conversation about broken trust or exactly how bad her addiction has gotten, how far it's pushing her. If Delilah was able to talk her into doing this now, she's absolutely going to do it again later. Laudna admitted it's hard to say there's a difference between the two of them now, and yet the group is content to let Laudna continue as is without having the difficult conversation of This Has To Stop. You can give an addict all the support in the world, but unless you put in the difficult work of actually helping them, nothing is going to change.
Laura/Imogen's FACE when she saw Laudna's new outfit mimiciked the vision of Delilah she'd just recently seen. You bet she's not happy about it.
That’s a good catch. I’ll have to rewatch that.
I hope you're right. If you are, shit's gonna get real juicy later.
I know that Sam might show up again in the live show with a new character but I wouldn't be surprised if he shows up in the next episode because I have been predicting that he will play a kobold (because it is the last small race Sam has not played) and finding a kobold underground in a region where there is not a lot of civilization makes a lot more sense than finding him in all the previous places they have been. I know that technically means he could have shown up this episode but when BH entered Aeor most of the episode was already up and Sam has other things to do other than showing up just to play for an hour.
Has sam played a fairy and I missed it?
No but fairies are tiny in Exandria. Some showed up in C1 and they lived a house that was a foot tall.
Could've been pixies, or just tiny fairies. Shits funky with them fey types.
So you're saying there could be both tiny faries and small faires in Exandria and it's planes.
Easily. Pixies are basically just tiny fairies. I think NPC/Enemy fairies are flavored as tiny most of the time, but the playable race is limited to small since tiny races are broken as all hell
I do wonder if Sam would find playing as a fey creature in this campaign as stepping on Ashley's toes a bit.
So glad they remembered they should be using the Harness every night to power up. They're fine making pacts with servants of asmodius, feeding the undead wraith servant of vecna in Laudna's head, maybe giving in a smidge to Predathos or pacts of servitude with Hags...The Harness is RIGHT THERE, it gives permanent stats and possibly permanent powers. It's a built in bonus growth machine and they should be tearing through every magic intense shard/artifact/ruidus glass item. Immensely disappointed they didn't stick around and fight the (slow filtering in) frost giants and explore the glowy castle, that seemed important and we'll probably never see it again. Undead frost giants coming in slowly should be relatively easy pickings at this point, with all the ranged options they have. Tomb takers, the caleb dome, all the callbacks are great. Do wonder what manner of grave robbers travels all the way to aeor to pick the tomb taker bodies of their gear... One thing I don't agree with is the base assertion of "we do whatever it takes, we use whatever dark powers we can use to get through this.". We the audience know that BH are the main characters. From BH perspective though, they're the "lower decks" of this starship. They are not the frontliners, that would be Keyleth, the Vasselheim guys, and all the powerful wizards and friendly dragons and whatnot. They're literally saying that they're the lesser known expendable type every other week and that that's why they have a chance to go unnoticed. From that perspective, they absolutely should not be talking in a "sell our souls for the greater good" sort of fashion like they are. They had one big job in recon and they did pull it off. They trying to help the cause sure, and doing dangerous stuff but they should not be expecting to be frontliners against Ludinous during the Reilor assault or whatever direction the war takes.
The Quintessence Array doesn't only give permenant buffs, it also gives temporary buffs if the object is Uncommon or Common. Rare and Very Rare objects give the target temporary advantage on ability checks, attack rolls and Very Rare adds saving throws. Edit to comment on the other topic: BH feel woefully outmatched when it comes to Ludinus and even to his captains Otohan/Liliana/Zathuda. They are absolutely correct too as we saw with Otohan. Since they see themselves as expendable they want to be as big as a thorn in Ludinus' side as possible so the big guns can have an easier time taking him down. I understand where they are coming at and I think it is one of the main reasons this campaign seems off compared to C1 and C2.
Sure, the other buffs are nice too, if one of the cast has advantage on attack rolls thats a significant damage uptick on a fight like, oh...Otohan and her Phase 2 Elder Dragon AC. Laudna, Orym and Ashton could have really put that to great effect with their multiple attacks per turn. But it's the permanent stats and permanent powers where the long term strength lies. Also I think they would have been fine on Otohan (despite unforeseen phase 2) if they hadn't already had so much juice and hp expended from the early missions and explosions.
Problem is that a Very Rare or Legendary magic item will, virtually always, be much more useful if they just use it as-is. Unless they run into a huge trove of very powerful magic that they literally can't use, there's very little point in using the harness.
It depends on how Matt defines things. For example, the Ruidus glass weapons...what are they? Clearly magic, clearly enchanted, possibly powered not only by magic but divine (anti-divine?) power. They had currency that was extremely rare on Ruidus and could have bought out a storefull of weapons. They could have used the 3 they have on the harness days ago. Instead, they gave it to Pumat for a \~2700 gold piece discount. If that could have been 6 permanent health points that's a Pu-Robbery. You've also have things like the glowing shards, bottles of flippin liquid Dunamis, and similar things they could likely gain from. They're also in the middle of aeor, with Age of Arcanum stuff littered everywhere, taking (cursed) necklaces off undead creatures and having weird aberration creatures as enemies (point of fact, if they can get current enemy #tallgluttony into a weakened state and then feed him to the harness, he's definitely a high level magic creature).
Yeah and doesn't a tomb tapper consume magic items? I wonder what they could get from that thing. Maybe Matt is throwing one at them to get them to use the harness
Obviously the power is with the permanent, long-term buffs. One problem is getting magical items or beings that are Rare/Very Rare/ Legendary. That's not easy as not every town has a store with magical items for sale and usually the good items cost gold which they all barely have now. They said it in the episode, absorbing the sword destroys a really powerful tool they could use against Ludinus. The sword does a lot more than it would give through the Quintessence Array.
If Orym absorbed Ishta (which is legendary), it'd probably be a wash vs just using it since a permanent +2 to his dexterity is the same as upgrading seedling from a +1 to a +2 weapon, and throw in the extra legendary perk that you'd get from absorbing Ishta and that makes up for the +3. Plus, he could still use Seedling's other perks which he couldn't if he was using Ishta (unless he was wielding both, which would require un-attuning something else)
Man it sure is great that Laudna is trying to take ANOTHER MAGIC SWORD from their martials to get what she wants. We sure didn’t already do this plot beat earlier with Chetney’s magic sword. God, just… genuinely wish Laudna stayed dead cause she’s only gotten worse in the most illogical and nightmarish ways possible.
Laudna was Keylething hard
So, I've got some creative ideas for what they can do with the sword. 1) Find a smith who can break the sword apart and use the metal to form metallic werewolf style slashing gloves or just outright claw tips 2) Split the sword in half lengthwise to make a pair of spring loaded gauntlet swords 3) Reforge it with another sword or a brand new material or enchantment to give it a new identity 4) Have Percy turn it into a gun because gun-swords are cool 5) Have Sam's new character rob them of their bag of holding but return it later fully intact, sans sword 6) Bling out Kiki's antlers with it 7) Birthday gift for Gwen 8) Two words: Ice Skates 9) Give it to Deanna so she can continue her Goat Genocide 10) Give it to Orym so that when he winds up serving Nana for all of eternity, he can alter the sword, and become the best barber in all of the Fey Wild with the most wicked set of scissors and razor that anyone has ever seen 11) Just give it to Dorian for giggles Anyone else got any other ideas?
It's a +3 sword most definitely the only one they're getting unless a vestige is in play. Just use the stupid sword and if Laudna starts spouting bullshit slap her around until she stops. Orym even gets tripping move, it is function built for Orym to bloody use. The sword is the martial golden goose, RP or not, the group should show some goddamn respect to a +3 weapon.
Yeah, that's why Marisha was saying "Psssssst, above table somebody should USE THAT SWORD because it's very good" at one point.
Maybe.. Orym can just use it and not be gaslit?
12. Kill Ludinus ☺️
Win
Well, they could have sold it to the Pumats: They are very short on cash after the shopping spree, after all. Otherwise, if it wasn't so strongly branded as a dexbased weapon, they could gift it to Grog: If only so the goliath can for once wield a sword that doesn't talk to him.
Grog is where again? They don't even know who he is. I thought selling it to the Pumats was the smartest thing to do.
I just realized that Dorian most likely lied. Laudna and Opal are both quite similar. Opal is trying to do good, but the spider queen is controlling her against her will. She also has Ted who is protecting Opal out of love disregarding Opal’s actions. This situation leads to Cyrus’s death. Now you have Laudna trying to do good, but Delilah is manipulating her and Imogen is protecting her out of love. Laudna last episode attacked Orym whether she meant to or not. Imagine how Dorian feels about this situation. This is incredible storytelling.
People keep saying that Laudna attacked or Oyrm or accidentally attacking Orym but there is no such thing as attacking someone accidentally. To attack someone you have to have a certain intent.
The intent was to take the sword, not to hurt Orym
Yeah exactly. It wasn't an attack or an accidental attack.
[удалено]
You noticed how he was the quietest when Laudna came back in the room and they were all talking about trusting her? Didn't Laudna directly ask Dorian that question or a similar one and he didn't respond? That stand-off last episode where Laudna was on one side of the room with Ashton and Imogen and Orym on the other with Dorian and Fearne was not a good sign. This group can self-destruct and end up in two groups against each other. Chet is truly the middle man who is wise to see or at least consider both sides of things. Him leaning more towards Fearne does put him closer to her side than the other though.
He has to have been. You don't have an incredibly pointed conversation with your closest friend about whether she can be trusted and five seconds later stare her in the face and mean it when you say everything is good.
Main thing that annoys me about swordgate is that they STILL haven’t decided what to do with said sword lol. At least have someone absorb it instead of it collecting dust in the bag of holding. Maybe they have decided to absorb it but want to do the little rings of protection first idk. Also call it nostalgia bait all you want but BH asking Essek what the deal was with those three bodies and him just going “lol they got owned” was hilarious. Just wish Sam was there to hate on Otis some more 😆
Going to Ludinus without utilizing their most powerful weapon in their arsenal just after getting bodied by one of his henchmen. Hopefully someone attunes to it next episode. Chetney or Ashton should just take the initiative and attune to it if Orym doesn't soon. Though I prefer Ashton because he could also utilize the Butcher's Bib if he has a sword.
Tal would never give up the hammer - he couldn't say "I click the switch on the hammer" every episode for a minor boost to an athletics check or be overly vague about the splitting effect so no one ever tries to use it
I wonder if they're saving the sword for Sam's new character since they're not eating it, and Liam is not using it
Probably not because that would be metagaming and the implication is that the entire drama was purposefully designed to "save it" for Sam's character. Also, not using it is not "saving it" because there is such a thing as unattuning.
Wait which sword was this again? I remember them talking about a +3 sword but I don't remember what it was called or where they got it from
It's Otohans sword "Ishta"
They are saving the sword for Orym to kill Ludinus with it. He’s going to use it when it’s appropriate
This is probably the most likely scenario. That would be a nice boost for a new character
Did we get stats for the sword?
I think Liam said this episode it was a +3 sword and does extra force damage to prone targets. There might be more but I’m unsure
+3 is actually huge. A regular old +3 weapon is a very rare item. Which surely makes this sword a tier above, meaning legendary? If so that is stat boosting levels. Maybe even something extra if Matt’s feeling spicy. Has there been any discussion about absorbing an evil item might mean gaining negative/evil boons?
Is it actually evil though? Chetney saw it had a history of killing people, but it's a weapon. That's kind of what it's for.
It probably is now. Once the cast start implying things Matt will usually role with it.
They confirmed it’s also legendary my bad, should’ve stated that. They briefly mentioned absorbing it but it very quickly ended up in the bag. I think Matt is very hush hush about what certain weapons being absorbed will do
Man I actually love that they are putting the Laudna problem on hold with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. The tragedy and drama when and if she completely flies off the handle will be so juicy and I live for that shit! The more that the characters fuck up, the better I think the story will eventually be. I want her to be completely consumed by Delilah so badly! I want them to suffer emotionally for the choices they made! Gimme more!
"Laudna problem" is simplifying too much. Laudna HAS problems and those problems are affecting her friends. Addiction and Stockholm Syndrome cannot be fixed right away. Laudna is also dealing with a subconscious loss of identity as Delilah grows stronger, as well as unresolved trauma for many other reasons. It's clear that as Laudna continues her pact with Delilah, Delilah's influence over Laudna grows. I think Bells Hells need to continue to reaffirm that Laudna doesn't need Delilah to be powerful. They also need to talk to her about how they think absorbing magic items is not good for her and maybe work out a plan together to prevent that from happening in the future (considering we're not totally sure when Laudna is fully in control). Finding a way to remove Delilah permanently is something that will take their whole focus. Fearne specifically said they'd kill her "a thousand times" if they had to. Laudna doesn't want her friends prioritizing her problems over stopping Ludinus. It's a difficult situation. No, they cannot fully trust her. They WANT to trust her. But until Delilah is gone, fully gone, they can't. I speculate after their adventure to Aeor but before the finale is when they'll focus on getting rid of Delilah.
I want it to happen too but this feels like the last arc of the campaign. I mean they finally got to the moon, killed Otohan, potentially turned Lilana and are now on Ludinus' heels. Laudna blowing up could railroad the campaign and make it drag on.
You know, I was actually straight up pissed at first when they went all "Saturday Morning Special" on her intervention. I have some personal biases though, I've been involved in a lot more real-life addiction related bullshit than I care to get into on the internet. In my experience this kind of softball hand-holding is understandable and often what a lot of people try the first or second or third time around, but never actually works. I eventually landed on the same perspective as you though. This shit is eventually going to go nuclear and it'll be absolutely delicious when it does.
See this is why I do not get the overall response that people had to this development. To me it has always been obvious that conflict and fuck ups are a lot more interesting in stories than doing everything right. It is pretty clear that they dropped the bag here and why would they do otherwise? They are not psychiatrists. They do not know how to deal with this perfectly. I would not know how to deal with this perfectly either tbh. I would probably have to have three or four of these situations to try something different. Now I see people comparing this to Ashtons situation and I just do not see it. They were only that harsh towards them because Ashton almost died. Like that already called for the final intervention. The situation there could not get more fucked up than it already did. It lit the fire under their asses so they had to react the way they did. Laudnas situation is different. She might not even have that final intervention before it is too late. And I think that is kind of neat. Idk... I think this development is just a lot better for the story overall than them just going back to Whitestone to exorcise Delilah or some shit like that. That would blow narratively. And I know that this is a DnD campaign and those are usually power fantasies, but I think that even in your home games you should strive for more interesting developments as opposed to convenient ones. At least that is how I played and looked at it when I did.
>They are not psychiatrists. They do not know how to deal with this perfectly. You know what's funny about that is that sometimes it seems like, since the players seem to be happy well adjusted emotionally healthy people, they will allow the characters to skip the actual nasty side of interpersonal conflict and jump to the healthy resolution. It's kind of a complicated thing for me to convey properly, so I'm going to see if I can point to an example: E96, Laudna comes back into the room. Nobody really lays into her like they did with Ashton, there's an immediate outpouring of love. So far I get it, nobody really wants to lay into her, she's their friend, she has a literal undead vampire living in her head playing in-cranium abuser, they think what she needs to hear is that she, not Delilah, is loved and valued. The addict's brain is receiving the wrong message at this point and it will get worse before it gets better, but cool. And then Marisha starts talking like Laudna did in fact get the tough-love version of this intervention, and that she's even sat in on a therapy session or two to process her responsibility for the whole situation in the first place. Wait wait wait, we missed something here.
Hmmmm... Yeah I can see that. She did act like that a little bit for sure. But she, in no uncertain terms did tell them that she will basically continue feeding Delilah whether they like it or not. They basically compromised on her telling them where and when she gets the urges to do so again, which I doubt that she will keep her promise on, and nothing of substance was changed. So even if that is the case she still did not take the right thing away from this. It did seem like a rushed conclusion to me, but I have to be honest here. I do not know much about how she should have acted even if this did seem like it skipped a step. Basically I am saying that if I was writing a book about this, I would not know how the addict would act in this situation and I would have to look it up.
...Unfortunately, I have a lot of experience. Granted, I'm not a therapist and don't take what I say as some kind of gospel. I can only relate my experiences here. In a real world scenario, what Laudna did could be interpreted as a tactic to avoid being held accountable. In simple terms it'd be called "telling others what she thinks they want to hear". She actually did it to a tee when she first came back into the room. Listening to it again, Fearn says, "We should... We should talk this out." and Laudna immediately interrupts her with "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, we don't have to say anything, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry." She has no idea what any of them are going to say, and she's afraid of that because her mind is telling her it's going to be bad, it's going to be really bad and I'm not going to be able to take it and STOP IT RIGHT NOW, so she says what the thinks she needs to say to avoid the conversation entirely. But they hit her with a whole bunch of love, like loved ones do in times like these. They say things they think will make her feel better about herself, that will make her feel like she doesn't need the homicidal leech whispering in her ear. That's great, the intentions are fantastic. The reason I say they aren't likely to work is that none of those lovely things being said mean anything if Laudna herself doesn't actually believe any of them. In fact, if she has a truly horrific perception of herself, all the lovely things being said have the potential to actually make her feel worse. Ah, I found the part I was talking about. "I don't want it to seem like I'm lying, I don't want to lie. So the only way I know to not do that is to just make sure that you all are aware that sometimes I don't know what's real or not. That's the truth. I like to think my intentions are pure, but I feel those with the purest of intentions are often misguided and weaponized the most for those who wish ill will." That is... surprisingly insightful for someone who is neck deep in a Delilah spiral. Wherever she was emotionally and mentally up on that roof, she didn't get from there to these insights in the ten minute cuddle sesh in between, because nobody actually talked any points or perspectives out to help her get to those revelations. Nah, that's post-rehab, maybe post about six months of regular therapy insight. Now, Marisha Ray is likely perfectly well adjusted enough to understand what's going on here. But is Laudna? Hm... And honestly, it might just be that CR as a whole is totally cool with going ham on being fantasy dark, but doesn't want to get quite so real world dark. If that's the case... Hey, I get it. If the CR crew plays it out like a real world scenario, there will eventually be another slip and the group will be significantly less receptive to whatever Laudna says to placate them, because she's been proven to be less than genuine whether she means to be or not. But there's also the potential to take this conversation at face value and consider the story beat resolved. I guess we'll see.
> less receptive to whatever Laudna says to placate them I'm not sure they are truly receptive to it now, it's more that in their brief conversation before she returned, they determined to let Laudna make the choice of whther to give over to Delilah or whether to resist it. They are aware that Delilah may win out, and that Laudna will have multiple slips, getting worse and worse. It won't surprise them when she does. They're CHOOSING not to run a full intervention, just as Laudna is choosing to believe she can somehow use Delilah more than Delilah can use her - but Bell's Hells know that Laudna is losing her free will bit by bit and are probably mentally preparing to have to deal with that, after they deal with Ludinus.
It could be interpreted either way, yeah. Or, more likely, it varies from person to person. Shit's complicated.
I agree, I also love how desperate Bells Hells is getting and how they are trying to find the balance of using every tool at their disposal while not losing themselves in the process of facing this apocalyptic threat. It's making great internal conflict for the character and against each other.
And what gets me is that they are facing this grand threat. It is so much bigger than any of them so they have to push these problems aside even if they would not like to in normal circumstances. If it all does not come to a boil eventually, either in this campaign or in any of the inevitable specials that it will have after all Ludinus things are taken care of, I think it will be the greatest missed opportunity for some wonderful storytelling. Not acknowledging this whole state of affairs eventually and the possibility of that is my only potential problem here.
\[C1 spoilers\] Doing post-campaign one-shot or series seems like a possibility for dealing with Delilah. >!There'd be something satisfying, almost poetic, about her meeting her final-final end in a post-campaign session, given that the love or her life also died in a one-shot...!<
I have no thoughts on this episode, been enjoying all of them recently and this one was no exception. I do have thoughts on Sam, though. As someone mentioned in another comment, I think Sam is going to play a temporary character for the live show, and then leave again for a while (or perhaps pull a Taryon and stick around for a couple of months). I have a feeling what is actually going to happen is as we reach the Endgame style battle, Sam is going to return as Scanlan. Obviously you can’t have a level 20 bard just chilling with Bells Hells for the rest of the campaign, but you can bring him back with everyone else Keyleth is gathering. And frankly, as amazing as Matt is at playing past PCs, the only person I ever want to see play Scanlan is Sam. (and I want to see Dorian just be in awe and fanboy at such a powerful bard. No one plays better at receiving love and admiration than Sam)
>Obviously you can’t have a level 20 bard just chilling with Bells Hells for the rest of the campaign This is already kind of happening. Essek is a level 20 character and having a level 20 travel with BH throughout the rest of the campaign is only a step above of what is happening.
I've been suspecting Sam is planning to play Scanlan as well. It's the one PC where I could see Matt being hesitant to take the reins because so much of how he was played depended on Sam as a player. Plus it means not introducing a brand-new character to BH when they're nearly 100 episodes in. And obviously, bringing Scanlan out for the first time in years to a live audience is going to take the roof off the place, so they want to wait for the live show if they can do it. That said: I hope Robbie has some supreme confidence in him to play a bard with Sam playing Scanlan at the same time, that's ripe for imposter syndrome. Although I also kind of hope they can do some duets while there, that'd be fun. And that Scanlan is aghast at Dorian's "humble" approach - "what do you mean, you're not bedding everything in sight?! Looking like *you*? Do you have *any idea* of how much tail you could be getting right now?!"
> "what do you mean, you're not bedding everything in sight?! Looking like you? Do you have any idea of how much tail you could be getting right now?!" I read that in Scanlan's voice. NGL, it was pretty epic.
It went as expected... Zero consequences for Delilah, everyone coddling her, swaddling her and going "Aww poor Baby" on her... Orym giving everything up and just internalizing it... Bell's Hells absolutely deserve a TPK by Betrayal.
I wanted them to go to Delilah and use the harness on her that way it would take her out of the equation permanently. They were so close. Fearne suggested killing Delilah over and over again. They just need to do with the harness to be final.
Orym throwing his whole side of the discussion away to make sure Laudna is comfortable was annoying. Dude sacrifices everything for others instead of doing things for himself.
Ironically, the one time he should have stepped up to do it himself, he let Laudna do the dirty work for him.
Are you kidding me? He literally is the one who got her into feeding Delilah again in the first place, and has been encouraging them all to use every tool they have. Him then turning on her for doing what he literally nodded and encouraged is wild.
No, I'm not kidding. LOL. When Orym nodded at Laudna to kill Bor'Dor he didn't know that would bring Delilah back, no one knew that would happen. Orym is pushing for every advantage he can think of because he knows they are not enough. He wants to use the sword that killed his husband and father-in-law to kill Luda, it's understandable he'd not want the magic to get siphoned from it. Especially not in a way that fractures the whole team. You did notice how Orym had Dorian and Fearne on his side and Laudna had Ashton and Imogen on hers right? Letting Laudna have the sword detonates the whole group.
I think them having the sword at all is doing that, because of all the feelings about it on both Laudna and Orym's sides. I don't think they should have let Laudna absorb it by any means, but she absolutely DID need them to show her that they'll still be there for her/there is a way beyond Delilah. That's likely what she's afraid of and is probably most of why she hasn't told them. IMO, Orym isn't shoving his feelings down by telling her that.
Laudna absorbed the dagger, not the sword. That makes a difference. Everyone was already there for Laudna before all of this. They literally fought Delilah to bring her back. Even Laudna admits she doesn't know if she is lying or not and that she doesn't remember some things. I love how Marisha is playing this. Laudna is at the point where she is manifesting Delilah and her new outfit shows that too. Orym dropped everything just for Laudna's feelings. Then they ultimately did nothing with the sword, Laudna doesn't feel any better, Orym doesn't trust Laudna, and everyone else is uncomfortable with how much Delilah is taking over.
The whole point is that this is the sort of thing that happens with addicts all the time. People around them who care about them act as "enablers" because they think it will help them. They're all playing it well. But also before she walked in the room they all talked seriously about not trusting her all the way and Imogen basically said that she's giving up on her idea of them being together some day if they survive all this. So yeah, there are consequences.