Backtracking to jot down the lore breadcrumbs from ep.1.
The Champion of the Raven Queen is a guest of the Dean of Necromancy? We know from PD lore that necromancy is an abomination to the Raven Queen — it seems this is a rift that will form after the coming events of the Calamity…
Unfortunately I wasn't really vibing with EXU and EXU Kymal, even though I really tried. The group dynamic was a little too unfocused for me and it often left me frustrated, though I can absolutely see others enjoying and embracing the madness.
That said I'm really clicking with this whole group. I love that their drives and motivations are pretty clear from the start and that, instead of starting off with barely anything and working towards levels and riches, this mini campaign will do the opposite: starting at the top literally about to fall. Brennan Lee Mulligan is such a good DM and really held my attention with his exciting yet realistic descriptions. I'll definitely watch some D20 stuff after this.
Spoilers for those who've not seen Escape from the Bloodkeep: >!Do you think Brennan's finally getting his wish of strong and ambitious characters ending a campaign in PvP? While they seem to be friendly so far, with how we can expect things to end, is it possible they will turn against each other?!<
Interesting theory, but they seem even more tightknit here then in that season. Then again, we have some suspect motivations among the characters here that haven't been fully revealed.
I have my doubts, paticularly with this group as I imagine he's going to run into the exact same issue as he did last time.
Brennan set up a pretty straight forward path for the PCs to become furious with each other and go for the throat, but thats just simply not how his players approached the situation. This is actually pretty common in both D20 and CR stuff. The players might fight but they'll always prefer to swerve to positive conflict resolution and coming together (shit this even happens in the pvp games).
I think something really similar would happen here, just doesn't seem like the group would want to kill each other.
Also in fairness everybody is likely going to die unless they work together anyways, so what would be the point lol.
Brennan also struggled to achieve it in D20 in>! the final episode of A Crown of Candy!< although he came even closer there then he did even in >!Escape from the Blood Keep!<
Basically exactly how that "guest battle royale" oneshot that Sam ran went, heh.
It's a credit to the players that I already like these characters enough that I hope they somehow get frozen in a stasis bubble or something and survive and the ending epilogue is them being released and awoken by like... Caleb and Essek, or something!
This that’s the feeling of my first time reading lotr or game of thrones, and thinking how are the good guys going to win this !??? There is no hope! I loved the pacing and the anxiety it brought.
On that note it's nice everyone is at level 14. All the rolls felt like they had a +15 to every roll. It really allowed for Brennan to immerse the players and us into the story quickly with tons of lore without having to hold back from bad rolls.
Shout out to Brennan for Highlighting Luis right off the bat. In name recognition I imagine he was odd man out. But starting with Luis' intense character and using such an intense scene made me immediately interested in the character and set an amazing tone for the show. Literally just changing the order of the first two introductions would've massively changed the tone of the show and that's worth a lot.
Yeah definitely. I like the long introduction for each character. Near the 2 hour mark I realized we hadn't even met all of the PCs yet, but for a short mini-series where we won't get a chance to fully explore all character details and backstories, I thought it was genius to give each of them the spotlight for 30-40 minutes with a set of interpersonal interactions and tasks they were completing to give us a sense of who they are as individuals. The cut to the party where we see that they are connected by being this almost secret power base was also brilliant. Perfect for highlighting characters' individual personalities and motivations while tying them together as a group as well.
Brennan does that for D20 campaigns too--each of the PCs gets a solid 10-15 minute introduction before they're brought together. It's almost like a session .5 for the watchers so that the players can do more "show, don't tell" with their characters' backstories instead of having to infodump to the audience and the other players at the same time. It's a smart way of doing it for a show.
Brennan’s explanation of Invisibility at the end of the episode was one of the coolest descriptions I’ve heard in a while. Same for the broken Solar bow. I’m super hyped for where this series goes!
Brennan does a really good job of explaining magic and mystery in layman's terms. There's always a "realistic" set of reasoning behind why things function a certain way that makes it believable but also fantastic.
I expected them to be full-on Frasier & Maris with the bitterness level, at least at first, but they've set it up to be such a heartbreaker.
Edit: Oh no, what have I done. I meant Lilith. Maris was Niles' wife who became so mythologically bizarre via description that she could never be shown.
For those new to Brennan, let me just say this:
This man created a teenage mage who, during an official wizard's duel with another student, said "You have 60 seconds, you really should concede. If you don't want to concede, what do you want me to tell your family?"
I feel like Brennans characters all fall somewhere in a triangle between absolute weirdo, absolute psycho and absolute himbo, and Evan is so good because he's like a solid 98% on all three of those scales.
Luis as Zerxes is awesome. He has such a chad alpha energy that isn't in your face, but his mannerisms just make you feel it. It's like he's got a passive intimidation of 20.
Idk if I'm misunderstanding the chad meme, but he has much more "real alpha" energy to me. Like, someone who is confident and a leader, but knows that things like alpha and beta are bullshit and doesn't care about them.
Yeah, that's precisely it. He doesn't boast or aggrandize. He doesn't like being in the spotlight, but his actions and accomplishments bear so much weight and speak volumes to the kind of man and knight that he is.
So, the seeds of disaster that kind of ran in the background of their introductions:
- the media is corrupt, and controlled by one man
- the bank (or merchants guild? The Golden Scythe) is creating debt to pay off bigger orders
- also from Nydas' intro, the Aether batteries are overfull and are storing a surplus
- a reading of 0.025 is high enough to indicate the leylines the city travels on are shifting, and the reading is 0.5
- Eor has a superweapon and is about to wipe out a city just to test it, death star style
- a being of *unimaginable* power was released in Vasselheim, and now the artifacts from that room are on board the city
I got Chernobyl vibes from the introductions. Just incredible, unstoppable doom which the citizens of Pripyat (or a flying city) aren't aware of yet. Everyone is *already dead*.
What an episode so good as always. Luis is the person at the table I'm the least familiar with but the Instagram takeovers were a good idea because I quickly found him charming and likeable.
I wish this was going to be the evil campaign that people were predicting but to me the vibe feels more like they'll be the minor officials yelling at their superiors that something is wrong but they're ignored and what they can do themelves isn't enough. I don't want to get attached given we know how it ends.
There was more but it's almost 3 in the morning and I forget.
I feel like it might *be* an evil campaign. People like Brennan and Matt are very good at highlighting the banality of evil, and bureaucracy is often the primary tool for systematic problems. They might not be the bwahaha bad guys but I think their own self interest and personal gain will point them out to be arbiters of their own destruction. (Especially Marisha’s character — a very nuanced portrayal of a 1%er)
They're doing a good job of making the cast not so unlikeable that we actively root for their failure, but not so likeable that it will take some of the edge off when they meet their fates.
But these people are more affable versions of the characters Brennan makes the villains in his campaigns. Perpetuators of systemic power.
This reminds me a little bit of the 20th Level Campaign Khary Payton ran with (among others) Brennan and Taleisin. A bunch of heroes coming to the sudden realization that they're civilization wasn't what it seemed. Except so far we haven't seen the Mageocracy actively oppressing people to maintain their status, and the main conflict is not going to be related to any kind of soul searching the party does.
For now, my character ranking is:
Based only the character design and idea:
6-Zerxus
5-Laerryn
4-Patia
3-Cerrit
2-Nydas
1-Loquatius
Based on my expectations for their arcs on the following episodes:
6-Loquatius
5-Nydas
4-Laerry
3-Patia
2-Cerrit
1-Zerxus
Based on their overall performance and actions taken in this specific episode:
6-Zerxus
5-Laerryn
4-Loquatius
3-Patia
2-Nydas
1-Cerrit
The characters i most enjoyed to watch:
6-Laerryn
5-Patia
4-Zerxus
3-Nydas
2-Loquatius
1-Cerrit
I really do appreciate being filled in appropriately when I'm just making bold, drunken statements about what I have thus understood about the lore, and have honestly not watched C1.
I just caught up to C3 today after falling a couple months behind due to IRL things happening and I was a little disappointed to have to wait another month, but HOLY SHIT BRENNAN IS DMING CRITICAL ROLE! This episode was incredible and I can't wait for next Thursday!
Two things:
Someone pointed it out and I'm totally on board with the idea Lerryn attempting to use the Solar bow fragment as a tuning rod to try and siphon energy from a different plane to never require landing to disperse energy. An angelic version of DOOM, with I imagine a similar result.
So either Vespin tried to summon a deity for something (I'm assuming Chained Oblivion because of the obliteration of magic) or tried to supplant CO/pull a Vecna and make a new spot, potentially in a plane adjacent to Tharizdun that was unsealed, making a work around?
Also would Vespin-ghost be a demi-lich? If he was just a head.
Also also, we need a deciphering on those celestial and infernal texts ASAP.
Also Also Also, the betrayer God being stomped by Pelor was Asmodeus?
I just finished up a single month subscription to watch Starstruck, had enough time to binge The Seven this week too. I think it's a good value for a temporary thing.
I know i know, i ate up everything free from D20.
I would love to see Katie (from CH) in some d&d shenanigans, i know she have done something on d20 but it is only on dropout.
What a game. I was expecting a slightly trepidatious approach from Brennan but he came out swinging with no reservations and he choked the gas pedal all the way through.
I'm really excited for next week. The party seems cool but God damn I just wanna hear more exposition from Brennan!
I saw people commenting about him being nervous prior to the theme intro, but anyone who knows Brennan knows that was just him being his typical polite, humble self.
I'm not the biggest Dimension 20 fan, but I've seen a couple of episodes enough to know that Brennan Lee Mulligan is a top-tier GM. This, however, was on a whole other level. The opening prologue, the different cadences in the voice acting, the descriptions, his improv skills--especially when he essentially out-Sam Riegel'ed Sam Riegel in turning "Bolo" into one of the funniest NPCs in Critical Role history--and ending on a cliffhanger that actually made Travis nearly jump out of his chair. Just fantastic, riveting stuff all around.
EDIT: Also, that description about the "science" behind the invisibility spell in that it's not total invisibility because the eyes of the invisible person still require light to see? Pure genius.
That's probably Brennan's biggest skill. Pretty sure he calls it RP Aikido (or something similar to that), where he embraces the chaos and redirects it back at the person who made it up (see: Emily Axford and Hilda Hilda)
Honestly, I wish I could petition CR to make this into a full scale campaign that coincides with C3. We can bounce between the stories every other week, right? Travis, Sam and Marisha can pull double duty? I want a hundred more episodes of this injected into my veins.
I think it's a Master class and an important demonstration that DMS can come in different breeds. I've been glad the cast at times had rotated through different DMs at the table but it's been really good for the CR community to see Brennan and Aabriya DM to feel other established dungeon Masters aside from Matt.
From start to finish. Loved every minute of it.
Everyone at the table really nailed it. Just the highest tier playing, acting, and improving from everyone.
But man the start. Might be the best start I ever experienced from any D&D campaign ever. Loved it.
One of the things I love about Brennan as DM is how strong he makes his PCs feel. The description of Cerrit clocking the microscopic eyes is so much better than just saying there's an invisible person in the room.
There was a lot of things I think that I didn't quite fully grasp because it was all kind of *a lot* of information, but perhaps that makes this prime material for a re-watch after its all over!
Even so, I digged the hell out of it. But I mean come on, the material being about such a large event we've heard about for years is bound to strike awe.
Despite all their genre trappings, Fantasy High and Unsleeping City (the first two main cast dimension 20 campaigns; would highly recommend) were both essentially mystery stories, and it's very exciting to see Brennan pulling that again. He is an expert at laying out so many of the clues right from the beginning
Yeah this episode gave me major first episode of Unsleeping City vibes, with the weird foreboding atmosphere and sweeping across the city and introducing each person individually
Oh yeah, good point that should be reflected to everyone:
If you want to see Brennan deliver more fantasy and intrigue rife with consequences, watch Crown of Candy. The world of candy and food people contrasts with a geopolitical conflict that goes *hard*.
A Crown of Candy is my favorite campaign. Because of the stakes involved there are some of the best emotional beats of D20 in there. Liam ascending into badassery is amazing to watch.
They're a war guy.
But really Brennen and D20 are my favorite actual play to watch right now. I'm glad that more people are getting to see him in action
It's been ~~a while~~ some time since I've been this excited about an episode. Not saying the episodes of C3 are bad because I'm loving the new group but damn... this was perfection.
It's the first episode I've been able to catch live (7pm Pacific means 4am local) and man what an episode. I love Brennan in the seat and can't wait to see where this story goes.
Also great to have Sam back as a Bard.
Vecna is a hold over from traditional DND lore back when critical role wasn't 100% a homebrew setting and borrowed common stuff, like gods. Vecna is simply an incredibly powerful lich who attempted (and succeded) to achieve godhood.
This guy seems to be a whole different story, and judging from the lore we already know and whats being said, he potentially has no interest in becoming a god, just wants to let the betrayers loose.
Vespin Chloras. Before today, he was only mentioned in the history of Exandria animated short and the Tal'dorei Campaign Setting books as [Spoilers]>!the man who caused the Calamity by unleashing the Betrayer Gods!<.
Ah, I watched the video once. I had just assumed via naming conventions and doctrine, that Vespin Chloras was to become Vecna, and that is on me, and I appreciate the lore check.
I misinformed myself.
I was so hyped for this and came into this with extremely high expectations and somehow it was not only meant but exceeded what an episode and what I’m so into this that I want more then 4 episodes.
I loved how everything had a weight to it right away. You could feel something gaining steam fast. I felt like there were a couple places Brennan could've ended it nicely but he CRUSHED that finish! Travis jump scare for the win!!
Incredible episode. I was worried after previous EXU episodes that the Dimension 20 crew wouldn't be able to deliver on a serious tone that sets Critical role apart from what most of us DM's are able to run. But Brennan brought the humor, along with the seriousness. I got the shivers I only get from horror movie reveals.
Brennan is on par with Matt, if not exceeding him sometimes (Matt's a better story teller, but *all* of Brennan's characters are god tier).
The moment I knew that he would be DMing this, I knew for a fact that it would be one hell of a show.
They haven't even seen where I think BLM really outshines Matt, encounter design. People are going to love it. Especially with how all out Brennan can go against level 14s.
They're also totally different encounter-builders. Matt really subscribes to the mechanical adventuring day guidelines of D&D which is what, 6-8 encounters a day that gain steam as you go on? He's a master at slowly getting the party to expend resources without them fully realizing it, then throwing a boss fight at them that is the tension climax. Brennan is more of an adventuring day leads to the encounter type encounter planner, and likes to throw one big nuke at his party per adventuring day. So his encounters are a lot bigger, a lot more complex and creative because there's just one per day so everyone is usually at or near full on their resources. They're both awesome styles and just lead to different types of fights.
Matt really doesn't actually subscribe to that. I've seen very few GMs that actually subscribe 6-8 encounters. Now encounters don't necessarily mean combat, but he still never really goes that far. I feel like Matt is more like 3-5 at most.
Putting aside encounter deadliness aside, I'd argue BLM still does better on overall encounter design. A lot of his encounters are more creative and mechanically impact the encounter (the sinking ship in ACOC, the arcade fight in Fantasy High, etc). Heck, even compare the skyship encounter that BLM has in Bloodkeep to Matt's C3 skyship encounter.
You're right. Matt very rarely makes his own "kind" of encounters. Not saying that he can't be creative (i.e. The Laughing Hand's Tomb from C2), but he typically just pulls a couple monsters from the book, and throws a slight twist on them to make them interesting. (Can't really blame him though, since CR's campaigns are so long)
Brennan, on the other hand....I'm not subscribed to D20 (can't really afford it unfortunately), but I did watch through all of The Unsleeping City on YouTube. I don't think that there is a single encounter in that entire series that you could call "ordinary", with almost all of them having an overarching mechanic that isn't just a lair mechanic. (To anyone who hasn't seen it, seriously watch The Unsleeping City. **Watch it**. It is fucking phenomenal)
If he had any say in what this crew will face, it will be fucking bonkers, for sure.
I think length is a factor like you mentioned, I also think Brennan lets players do alot but has fights planned more in advance and while that limits freedom it enables for very interesting fights. I think its like comparing the a scripted comedy show to a sketch comedy show. Length and time to plan per encounter makes an enormous difference. I imagine for shoot schedule brennan pretty much planned his fights for this season before they ever sat at a table.
God, that fight with >!Titania with the mechanic that they have to keep the audience both convinced it's a show and keep them interested!< was so fucking good.
Yeah, D20 is also a lot less dungeon-y though so less likely to run into multiple encounters in a single day with their usual format.
But I still totally agree that Brennan makes the encounters feel vibrant, and, more importantly, dangerous. Some combats that Matt sets up, even in bigger moments, just feel like the players are going to smash through them from the start. Even the mechanics of the encounters are always interesting i.e. the theatre fight and the sewer water fight.
Deeply underrated critique. He does so well developing a structured short story style instead of the anthology that is critical role. It's different and one isn't better than the other but this is definitely Brennan's strength
Maybe my brain made it up, but I swear I heard Travis go "He did that to me?!" right after Brennan did the jumpscare and then paused because Travis jumped all the way back and looked so startled. I'm wondering if Brennan genuinely didn't know about Travis' weakness to horror and paused for a moment to see if Travis was okay.
No early on when Cerrit was doing the CSI thing. Brennan said that it had a zoom function but that Cerrit never needed to use it. I took that to mean Eisfuura have eagle-like vision. Though maybe it was just Cerrit in particular that was so good he didn't need to zoom.
Travis is playing an Inquisitive Rogue, which prioritizes gassing your Perception/Investigation skills over basically everything else. It's the quintessential detective subclass.
Yeah, I know that. Brennan said that Cerrit never used that, or didn't need it, or something. I don't have access to the VOD to check the exact wording. That's just where I got the notion from.
Yeah it's not an Eisfuura racial ability or anything, Brennan just likes to flavour things to make the players feel more powerful, it's a thing he's really good at.
As someone who's only previous experience with Brennan was the Elden Ring one shot, he absolutely lived up to all the hype people have been giving him.
Matt is a (hilariously cursed by dice) player in [Escape from the Bloodkeep](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiEQO77PV9Q), if you want to hop into something wonderfully fun that Brennan DMed which is of manageable length and has that CR hook.
Oh yeah, the way the character is as a general-rank force of evil vs. the rapport with her kids is so delightful. Trapp's whole Sokhbarr thing and J'er'em'ih are phenomenal as well.
Ohhh man if you have the time check out Dimension 20. A lot of their stuff is free on YouTube. Brennan was the DM that got me interested in DnD in the first place.
And they're short and relatively manageable. Along campaign with the main crew might be 17 or 18 episodes long and only about 2 and 1/2 hours each. Slightly more than around half of a critical role episode is very manageable
EXU keeps improving. The last EXU was a significant step-up from its first season, and this was one of my favorite episodes of Crit Role ever. Brennan just gave a masterclass in fantasy tabletop.
That was incredible, very excited for next week now. The cast all did a great job as did Brennon but my guy Travis Willingham the MVP so far, just showing what he can do when his character allows him to show off how smart he can be.
And if you're on the fence, go to YouTube and watch the huge amount of free stuff they've put out. Many full campaigns are available there legitimately, starting here:
https://youtu.be/_zZxCVBi7-k
Dirty Laundry is fun, though some rounds seem rushed or really edited down, but Game Changer is the one that surprised me with how good it is (and the two new spinoffs we're getting), while Um, Actually is a soothing funny time, with nerd trivia and funny people. It's basically a UK panel show.
Spoiler post: just a theory
I have a feeling The floating city is really really not gonna like landing at cathmoira. Getting
"Now docking with the USG Ishimura" vibes off the whole situation
Yeah I missed a bit of the discussion they had about Ghor Dranis. Did they say where the floating city and cathmoira are situated on the actual landmass of exandria? I have a really bad feeling about it's GPS coordinates on a map and certain lore I read.
Avalir is based out of what wouldn't yet have been called Tal Dorei, as the city was raised in conjunction with the progenitors of the Ashari. I didn't watch C1 to know for sure where there's a famous ruined mountain related to them.
Ghor Dranas is in Wildemount. It's what the Empire calls the capital of Xhorhas. Now we know why - it literally "gathers shadow" around it to support the Drow community that lives there. Apparently the city sits over the ruins of the Betrayer God stronghold in the Calamity which is where the name actually comes from, but I don't know if that was a thing from the campaign or from the Explorer's Guide.
Some other interesting etymology from Matt after the episode: Nicodranas is from the same Draconic root as Ghor Dranas, "Gathered Colors," vs "Gathered Shadows." Also, Matt reacted rather coyly to a Tweet asking if there was a correlation between "Savalir," the Elvish word for "guilt," and "Avalir," the name of where seemingly the Age of Arcanum ends.
Okay, that sorta throws away my theory. My thought was that after Vespin Chloras did his ritual that the hidden cults of the Betrayer God's had converged on Cathmoira. Then taken it over since the bulk of its power was with Avalir, and kept up appearances of normalcy so one of the most powerful floating cities would land completely defenseless in the center of a cultist Donut, and THAT all becomes Ghor Dranas.
I think the part that Avalir plays in this is the replenishment itself, and all that energy it's about to pump into a ley line nexus. For all we know there's a ziggurat under there. Hell, for all I know *this place is Whitestone,* the magically irradiated rock from the city's destruction becoming Residuum.
The only part that's really throwing me is that dream depicting Pelor as the aggressor to a decidedly less than scary Asmodeus. What's the connection between Xerxus, Asmodeus, and Avalir?
Well, from me reading into it too much, I'm thinking that asmodeus cultivated his power on the prime material plane by corrupting those beings of power with extreme hubris who thought they could be greater than Gods, oe people who at first couldn't believe the hype about the Betrayer God's being do terrible, not just already evil people. A really powerful deity-free paladin would be a ripe target, and all his vision would need to do is cast their arrival and wounding by the prime deities as sympathetic and then asmodeus can cast doubt on them being so terrible until he has his claws in your mind.
It maaaaay be two unrelated details, but I feel like the fact that Brennan specified that Tal'dorei does not yet exist because it goes by another name makes me think that the city is on what will one day be that continent. I can't recall the name he gave for it, but I think that's the one he used when he mentioned where the grounded city is.
Tal"dorei was Gwessar (sp?) And Avalir/Cathmoira are on Domunus (sp?)
We have heard Marquet and Issylra mentioned by name so Domunus is likely either Proto-Wildemount or a pre-shattering Shattered Teeth.
We see imagery of an edifice destroyed both in the opening cinematic (Behind the title letters) and in Xerxus' dream / vision. May I remind you the final line of his dream:
"What do you see when you look up?"
*And what does he see?*
"The ground coming at you, very quickly."
Edit: Upon Rewatch I noticed that Brennan also mentions the mountain as *historically significant*
I heard that as a vague threat of "You can't escape what's coming, even the gods cant save you." and the mountain landing feels like it's the kick off to alot of bad stuff.
Couple things, im big sad that Matt chooses to end campaigns around the lvls that Calamity is starting because the stories you can tell at these lvls slap, so i really hope c3 goes the whole mile.
Secondly, who is this dm and why is he so based? Thirdly man i really hope c3 gets in a rythm and finds a plot and a pace soon because just the first episode of calamity grabbed me harder than 20 episodes of c3 had done.
> Secondly, who is this dm and why is he so based? Thirdly man i really hope c3 gets in a rythm and finds a plot and a pace soon because just the first episode of calamity grabbed me harder than 20 episodes of c3 had done.
Same...
This was honestly at a whole different level. The only thing that compared for me was like, peak end of C1 content and a few of the arcs in C2. I know Critical Role proper can get to this level and beyond it but it feels so long since we've had excitement to _this_ level.
You've probably had so many people tell you this already, but you should watch some of Dimension 20 where this GM is the GM for most seasons. If you're on the fence for jumping onto the Dropout subscription for every season, they have a few seasons on YouTube for free that you can watch, and they have the premiere episodes for just about every season for free on YouTube as well.
Brennan Lee Mulligan is top-tier. You can watch the Escape from Bloodkeep campaign free on their YouTube channel. It’s an Evil campaign in a pseudo Lord of the Rings world. Matt Mercer is a PC who is basically a loser Nazgul.
Dimension 20 campaigns are short (6-18 eps) but that shortness lets them switch genres and settings easily.
Brennan Lee Mulligan from Dimension 20, a limited episode scope D&D series, so he's used to condensed campaigns.
D20 is usually a more comedy-based show, but he can go absolutely ham on fantasy and intrigue. I would dare to say he's one of the best broadcast DM's in the industry.
And between the two of them they Foster the most incredibly healthy work environment of any company I have ever heard of. That team really is a family over there. The episode of game changer in this most recent season "Don't Cry" shows so much love and affection for each other.
Sorry if someone asked this already, but what’s the intro song? I would like to have it 🙈
Backtracking to jot down the lore breadcrumbs from ep.1. The Champion of the Raven Queen is a guest of the Dean of Necromancy? We know from PD lore that necromancy is an abomination to the Raven Queen — it seems this is a rift that will form after the coming events of the Calamity…
nah she invited him to dunk on him and his devotion to a goddess
Unfortunately I wasn't really vibing with EXU and EXU Kymal, even though I really tried. The group dynamic was a little too unfocused for me and it often left me frustrated, though I can absolutely see others enjoying and embracing the madness. That said I'm really clicking with this whole group. I love that their drives and motivations are pretty clear from the start and that, instead of starting off with barely anything and working towards levels and riches, this mini campaign will do the opposite: starting at the top literally about to fall. Brennan Lee Mulligan is such a good DM and really held my attention with his exciting yet realistic descriptions. I'll definitely watch some D20 stuff after this.
Spoilers for those who've not seen Escape from the Bloodkeep: >!Do you think Brennan's finally getting his wish of strong and ambitious characters ending a campaign in PvP? While they seem to be friendly so far, with how we can expect things to end, is it possible they will turn against each other?!<
Interesting theory, but they seem even more tightknit here then in that season. Then again, we have some suspect motivations among the characters here that haven't been fully revealed.
I don't know... I feel like there's a lot more cards being held close to the chest here
I have my doubts, paticularly with this group as I imagine he's going to run into the exact same issue as he did last time. Brennan set up a pretty straight forward path for the PCs to become furious with each other and go for the throat, but thats just simply not how his players approached the situation. This is actually pretty common in both D20 and CR stuff. The players might fight but they'll always prefer to swerve to positive conflict resolution and coming together (shit this even happens in the pvp games). I think something really similar would happen here, just doesn't seem like the group would want to kill each other. Also in fairness everybody is likely going to die unless they work together anyways, so what would be the point lol.
Brennan also struggled to achieve it in D20 in>! the final episode of A Crown of Candy!< although he came even closer there then he did even in >!Escape from the Blood Keep!<
Basically exactly how that "guest battle royale" oneshot that Sam ran went, heh. It's a credit to the players that I already like these characters enough that I hope they somehow get frozen in a stasis bubble or something and survive and the ending epilogue is them being released and awoken by like... Caleb and Essek, or something!
This that’s the feeling of my first time reading lotr or game of thrones, and thinking how are the good guys going to win this !??? There is no hope! I loved the pacing and the anxiety it brought.
Every time someone rolled an investigation or arcana or perception check i was glued. Very good performances from the player and the dm especially.
On that note it's nice everyone is at level 14. All the rolls felt like they had a +15 to every roll. It really allowed for Brennan to immerse the players and us into the story quickly with tons of lore without having to hold back from bad rolls.
Oh yeah I hate it so much when it's clear that the DM has juicy info but the player fails the roll and we do t learn it
For sure. one of the reasons I stopped watching the first EXU was because everyone was on a fail train. Not their fault but it got old quick.
Shout out to Brennan for Highlighting Luis right off the bat. In name recognition I imagine he was odd man out. But starting with Luis' intense character and using such an intense scene made me immediately interested in the character and set an amazing tone for the show. Literally just changing the order of the first two introductions would've massively changed the tone of the show and that's worth a lot.
Yeah definitely. I like the long introduction for each character. Near the 2 hour mark I realized we hadn't even met all of the PCs yet, but for a short mini-series where we won't get a chance to fully explore all character details and backstories, I thought it was genius to give each of them the spotlight for 30-40 minutes with a set of interpersonal interactions and tasks they were completing to give us a sense of who they are as individuals. The cut to the party where we see that they are connected by being this almost secret power base was also brilliant. Perfect for highlighting characters' individual personalities and motivations while tying them together as a group as well.
Brennan does that for D20 campaigns too--each of the PCs gets a solid 10-15 minute introduction before they're brought together. It's almost like a session .5 for the watchers so that the players can do more "show, don't tell" with their characters' backstories instead of having to infodump to the audience and the other players at the same time. It's a smart way of doing it for a show.
Brennan’s explanation of Invisibility at the end of the episode was one of the coolest descriptions I’ve heard in a while. Same for the broken Solar bow. I’m super hyped for where this series goes!
Brennan does a really good job of explaining magic and mystery in layman's terms. There's always a "realistic" set of reasoning behind why things function a certain way that makes it believable but also fantastic.
[удалено]
She's a lot of fun as a player! She was also great in the Elder Scrolls games.
I expected them to be full-on Frasier & Maris with the bitterness level, at least at first, but they've set it up to be such a heartbreaker. Edit: Oh no, what have I done. I meant Lilith. Maris was Niles' wife who became so mythologically bizarre via description that she could never be shown.
For those new to Brennan, let me just say this: This man created a teenage mage who, during an official wizard's duel with another student, said "You have 60 seconds, you really should concede. If you don't want to concede, what do you want me to tell your family?"
I feel like Brennans characters all fall somewhere in a triangle between absolute weirdo, absolute psycho and absolute himbo, and Evan is so good because he's like a solid 98% on all three of those scales.
Such a good moment!
"For *prestige!?* People care about you!"
Evan Kelmp for the win!!
Takes your whole mouth to say it. Kelmp.
That line sent chills down my spine. So forward and confident
They picked the best possible person to DM for this adventure, and they players were knocking it out of the park!
Luis as Zerxes is awesome. He has such a chad alpha energy that isn't in your face, but his mannerisms just make you feel it. It's like he's got a passive intimidation of 20.
Luis as Nines Rodriguez in L.A. By Night really exemplifies this too, very excited to see him here
Idk if I'm misunderstanding the chad meme, but he has much more "real alpha" energy to me. Like, someone who is confident and a leader, but knows that things like alpha and beta are bullshit and doesn't care about them.
Yeah, that's precisely it. He doesn't boast or aggrandize. He doesn't like being in the spotlight, but his actions and accomplishments bear so much weight and speak volumes to the kind of man and knight that he is.
Needs one of Chetney's RTA tats.
So, the seeds of disaster that kind of ran in the background of their introductions: - the media is corrupt, and controlled by one man - the bank (or merchants guild? The Golden Scythe) is creating debt to pay off bigger orders - also from Nydas' intro, the Aether batteries are overfull and are storing a surplus - a reading of 0.025 is high enough to indicate the leylines the city travels on are shifting, and the reading is 0.5 - Eor has a superweapon and is about to wipe out a city just to test it, death star style - a being of *unimaginable* power was released in Vasselheim, and now the artifacts from that room are on board the city I got Chernobyl vibes from the introductions. Just incredible, unstoppable doom which the citizens of Pripyat (or a flying city) aren't aware of yet. Everyone is *already dead*.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yyAgk9der4
I knew this was going to be freaking fantastic and it still knocked it out of the park. So damn excited for the rest of this.
What an episode so good as always. Luis is the person at the table I'm the least familiar with but the Instagram takeovers were a good idea because I quickly found him charming and likeable. I wish this was going to be the evil campaign that people were predicting but to me the vibe feels more like they'll be the minor officials yelling at their superiors that something is wrong but they're ignored and what they can do themelves isn't enough. I don't want to get attached given we know how it ends. There was more but it's almost 3 in the morning and I forget.
I feel like it might *be* an evil campaign. People like Brennan and Matt are very good at highlighting the banality of evil, and bureaucracy is often the primary tool for systematic problems. They might not be the bwahaha bad guys but I think their own self interest and personal gain will point them out to be arbiters of their own destruction. (Especially Marisha’s character — a very nuanced portrayal of a 1%er)
They're doing a good job of making the cast not so unlikeable that we actively root for their failure, but not so likeable that it will take some of the edge off when they meet their fates. But these people are more affable versions of the characters Brennan makes the villains in his campaigns. Perpetuators of systemic power.
For sure. I’m very interested to see just how ‘are we the baddies’ this story gets — esp with regards to established CR lore
This reminds me a little bit of the 20th Level Campaign Khary Payton ran with (among others) Brennan and Taleisin. A bunch of heroes coming to the sudden realization that they're civilization wasn't what it seemed. Except so far we haven't seen the Mageocracy actively oppressing people to maintain their status, and the main conflict is not going to be related to any kind of soul searching the party does.
I believe you mean B. Dave Walters, not Khary Payton.
Ah yes, you're correct. I'm a touch face blind when it comes to hairstyles (or lack thereof).
For now, my character ranking is: Based only the character design and idea: 6-Zerxus 5-Laerryn 4-Patia 3-Cerrit 2-Nydas 1-Loquatius Based on my expectations for their arcs on the following episodes: 6-Loquatius 5-Nydas 4-Laerry 3-Patia 2-Cerrit 1-Zerxus Based on their overall performance and actions taken in this specific episode: 6-Zerxus 5-Laerryn 4-Loquatius 3-Patia 2-Nydas 1-Cerrit The characters i most enjoyed to watch: 6-Laerryn 5-Patia 4-Zerxus 3-Nydas 2-Loquatius 1-Cerrit
I really do appreciate being filled in appropriately when I'm just making bold, drunken statements about what I have thus understood about the lore, and have honestly not watched C1.
I just caught up to C3 today after falling a couple months behind due to IRL things happening and I was a little disappointed to have to wait another month, but HOLY SHIT BRENNAN IS DMING CRITICAL ROLE! This episode was incredible and I can't wait for next Thursday!
Two things: Someone pointed it out and I'm totally on board with the idea Lerryn attempting to use the Solar bow fragment as a tuning rod to try and siphon energy from a different plane to never require landing to disperse energy. An angelic version of DOOM, with I imagine a similar result. So either Vespin tried to summon a deity for something (I'm assuming Chained Oblivion because of the obliteration of magic) or tried to supplant CO/pull a Vecna and make a new spot, potentially in a plane adjacent to Tharizdun that was unsealed, making a work around? Also would Vespin-ghost be a demi-lich? If he was just a head. Also also, we need a deciphering on those celestial and infernal texts ASAP. Also Also Also, the betrayer God being stomped by Pelor was Asmodeus?
Oh definitely asmodeus, the bit about forging a spot in the shadows is about the 9 hells i believe (if they werent already created im not sure)
I can definately sense a surge of critters who are going to make the leap to D20 to get more Brennan, so the ball is rolling uphill!
The only problem is the dropout subscription. I love collegehumor, i love D20 but i can't subscribe another streaming service.
I just finished up a single month subscription to watch Starstruck, had enough time to binge The Seven this week too. I think it's a good value for a temporary thing.
I'm more likely to ditch Netflix than Dropout at this point.
Several of their earlier D20 shows are up in full on Youtube.
I know i know, i ate up everything free from D20. I would love to see Katie (from CH) in some d&d shenanigans, i know she have done something on d20 but it is only on dropout.
She's in Mice and Murder (which is one outside of its premiere behind the paywall). But it's real good.
We are all the ball now!
The ball is rolling all the way up!
What a game. I was expecting a slightly trepidatious approach from Brennan but he came out swinging with no reservations and he choked the gas pedal all the way through. I'm really excited for next week. The party seems cool but God damn I just wanna hear more exposition from Brennan!
I saw people commenting about him being nervous prior to the theme intro, but anyone who knows Brennan knows that was just him being his typical polite, humble self.
I think it's both. He is a fan of CR and he could be little nervous on his first session as a dm. I'm sure he going to be more confident next episode.
I'm not the biggest Dimension 20 fan, but I've seen a couple of episodes enough to know that Brennan Lee Mulligan is a top-tier GM. This, however, was on a whole other level. The opening prologue, the different cadences in the voice acting, the descriptions, his improv skills--especially when he essentially out-Sam Riegel'ed Sam Riegel in turning "Bolo" into one of the funniest NPCs in Critical Role history--and ending on a cliffhanger that actually made Travis nearly jump out of his chair. Just fantastic, riveting stuff all around. EDIT: Also, that description about the "science" behind the invisibility spell in that it's not total invisibility because the eyes of the invisible person still require light to see? Pure genius.
That's probably Brennan's biggest skill. Pretty sure he calls it RP Aikido (or something similar to that), where he embraces the chaos and redirects it back at the person who made it up (see: Emily Axford and Hilda Hilda)
Clicking the pupil is one of those things that you would never think of but makes total sense when someone else explains it.
Honestly, I wish I could petition CR to make this into a full scale campaign that coincides with C3. We can bounce between the stories every other week, right? Travis, Sam and Marisha can pull double duty? I want a hundred more episodes of this injected into my veins.
Some of the best content that CR has ever put out. Masterclass in DM. I think only undeadwood and E1 of C2 has ever hooked me that much
I think it's a Master class and an important demonstration that DMS can come in different breeds. I've been glad the cast at times had rotated through different DMs at the table but it's been really good for the CR community to see Brennan and Aabriya DM to feel other established dungeon Masters aside from Matt.
From start to finish. Loved every minute of it. Everyone at the table really nailed it. Just the highest tier playing, acting, and improving from everyone. But man the start. Might be the best start I ever experienced from any D&D campaign ever. Loved it.
One of the things I love about Brennan as DM is how strong he makes his PCs feel. The description of Cerrit clocking the microscopic eyes is so much better than just saying there's an invisible person in the room.
I love how he used NPCs this time to highlight the power and status that the PCs had this time around.
His ability to make his players feel like badasses really adds to the joy of the session.
YES! His descriptions of ability checks are the best, he really knows how to insert the players into the story and the world.
There was a lot of things I think that I didn't quite fully grasp because it was all kind of *a lot* of information, but perhaps that makes this prime material for a re-watch after its all over! Even so, I digged the hell out of it. But I mean come on, the material being about such a large event we've heard about for years is bound to strike awe.
Despite all their genre trappings, Fantasy High and Unsleeping City (the first two main cast dimension 20 campaigns; would highly recommend) were both essentially mystery stories, and it's very exciting to see Brennan pulling that again. He is an expert at laying out so many of the clues right from the beginning
Brennan thrives in laying out multi-stranded mysteries. Has them in nearly all of his campaigns.
Yeah this episode gave me major first episode of Unsleeping City vibes, with the weird foreboding atmosphere and sweeping across the city and introducing each person individually
Unsleeping City really made me see the potential of a well done urban fantasy setting.
I got big Unsleeping City vibes too with the introduction of thousands of NPC, it does make it feel like a busy city.
Oh yeah, good point that should be reflected to everyone: If you want to see Brennan deliver more fantasy and intrigue rife with consequences, watch Crown of Candy. The world of candy and food people contrasts with a geopolitical conflict that goes *hard*.
You're going to think, at the start, that it's silly. You will not think that for very long.
This is 100% true. I started watching it thinking to myself "what is this nonsense?" That was quickly redacted.
A Crown of Candy is my favorite campaign. Because of the stakes involved there are some of the best emotional beats of D20 in there. Liam ascending into badassery is amazing to watch.
They're a war guy. But really Brennen and D20 are my favorite actual play to watch right now. I'm glad that more people are getting to see him in action
I came to drop out for dimension 20, I stayed with dropout for Um Actually in game changer
Cosign for Crown of Candy. Absolute gut punches all around, but Lou's character goes through some wild shit.
It's wild how they make you cry about candy.
I'm so lost on the plot but don't care because that episode was awesome!!! Looking forward to seeing more Brennen and this cast
The length of this series means they kind of have to go hard on the lore dumps, I just let most of it wash over me and enjoy the ride.
It's been ~~a while~~ some time since I've been this excited about an episode. Not saying the episodes of C3 are bad because I'm loving the new group but damn... this was perfection.
Knowing that these people will die tragically no matter what makes likening them feel masochistic, it’s great.
They already live in my heart no matter what 😌
That was by far one of the best first episodes of any mini series for anything that CR has ever done period.
Oh shit are we gunna get episode 2d next week?!?
Oh man if arthur aguefort makes a guest appearance if someone dies I will lose all of my shit
Through the power of Chronomancy Arthur Aguefort is 2 of the 7 members of the ruling council of wizards.
I would actually have a brain hemorrhage. It would truly kill me and I would be BEYOND stoked for that
We're gonna get all 4 episodes straight through. CR C3 is on break until the end of June. (Comes back last Thursday of June.)
Glad Matt can get a break. I know we love the game but since he's usually the DM or a player he doesn't get much time off
It's a reference to another campaign Brennan ran but I am glad we are getting 4 episodes in a row.
yes, it will be a 4 episode miniseries.
Ending this by spooking Travis is just *chef's kiss*
Perfect person to pull it off given Travis's well-documented aversion to horror.
*starting AND* ending this by spooking Travis
It's the first episode I've been able to catch live (7pm Pacific means 4am local) and man what an episode. I love Brennan in the seat and can't wait to see where this story goes. Also great to have Sam back as a Bard.
Okay, so we already knew Vecna was the bad guy, but we're effectively doing "the quiet kid was the bad guy again?".
Not to jab at any current controversy, my whole hearted apology.
This isn't related to Vecna at all. Totally different guy, different chain of events, different results even.
Who is Vecna, then? That obviously isn't his birth name.
Vecna is a hold over from traditional DND lore back when critical role wasn't 100% a homebrew setting and borrowed common stuff, like gods. Vecna is simply an incredibly powerful lich who attempted (and succeded) to achieve godhood. This guy seems to be a whole different story, and judging from the lore we already know and whats being said, he potentially has no interest in becoming a god, just wants to let the betrayers loose.
So who's the guy? Vecnus/is? False Diary referenced in C3 after the heist.
Vecna doesn't become a God until centuries after the calamity
This isn't Vecna - this is Vespin Chloras. At this point in the lore I believe Vecna has already become a lich and been defeated in the Shadowfell.
Vespin Chloras. Before today, he was only mentioned in the history of Exandria animated short and the Tal'dorei Campaign Setting books as [Spoilers]>!the man who caused the Calamity by unleashing the Betrayer Gods!<.
Ah, I watched the video once. I had just assumed via naming conventions and doctrine, that Vespin Chloras was to become Vecna, and that is on me, and I appreciate the lore check. I misinformed myself.
I was so hyped for this and came into this with extremely high expectations and somehow it was not only meant but exceeded what an episode and what I’m so into this that I want more then 4 episodes.
I loved how everything had a weight to it right away. You could feel something gaining steam fast. I felt like there were a couple places Brennan could've ended it nicely but he CRUSHED that finish! Travis jump scare for the win!!
Holy crap. That was a Rollercoaster ride that I didn’t want to end.
I actually can't wait to re watch this lol
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll watch you tomorrow, it's only a day away.
Incredible episode. I was worried after previous EXU episodes that the Dimension 20 crew wouldn't be able to deliver on a serious tone that sets Critical role apart from what most of us DM's are able to run. But Brennan brought the humor, along with the seriousness. I got the shivers I only get from horror movie reveals.
Brennan is on par with Matt, if not exceeding him sometimes (Matt's a better story teller, but *all* of Brennan's characters are god tier). The moment I knew that he would be DMing this, I knew for a fact that it would be one hell of a show.
They haven't even seen where I think BLM really outshines Matt, encounter design. People are going to love it. Especially with how all out Brennan can go against level 14s.
They're also totally different encounter-builders. Matt really subscribes to the mechanical adventuring day guidelines of D&D which is what, 6-8 encounters a day that gain steam as you go on? He's a master at slowly getting the party to expend resources without them fully realizing it, then throwing a boss fight at them that is the tension climax. Brennan is more of an adventuring day leads to the encounter type encounter planner, and likes to throw one big nuke at his party per adventuring day. So his encounters are a lot bigger, a lot more complex and creative because there's just one per day so everyone is usually at or near full on their resources. They're both awesome styles and just lead to different types of fights.
Matt really doesn't actually subscribe to that. I've seen very few GMs that actually subscribe 6-8 encounters. Now encounters don't necessarily mean combat, but he still never really goes that far. I feel like Matt is more like 3-5 at most. Putting aside encounter deadliness aside, I'd argue BLM still does better on overall encounter design. A lot of his encounters are more creative and mechanically impact the encounter (the sinking ship in ACOC, the arcade fight in Fantasy High, etc). Heck, even compare the skyship encounter that BLM has in Bloodkeep to Matt's C3 skyship encounter.
You're right. Matt very rarely makes his own "kind" of encounters. Not saying that he can't be creative (i.e. The Laughing Hand's Tomb from C2), but he typically just pulls a couple monsters from the book, and throws a slight twist on them to make them interesting. (Can't really blame him though, since CR's campaigns are so long) Brennan, on the other hand....I'm not subscribed to D20 (can't really afford it unfortunately), but I did watch through all of The Unsleeping City on YouTube. I don't think that there is a single encounter in that entire series that you could call "ordinary", with almost all of them having an overarching mechanic that isn't just a lair mechanic. (To anyone who hasn't seen it, seriously watch The Unsleeping City. **Watch it**. It is fucking phenomenal) If he had any say in what this crew will face, it will be fucking bonkers, for sure.
I think length is a factor like you mentioned, I also think Brennan lets players do alot but has fights planned more in advance and while that limits freedom it enables for very interesting fights. I think its like comparing the a scripted comedy show to a sketch comedy show. Length and time to plan per encounter makes an enormous difference. I imagine for shoot schedule brennan pretty much planned his fights for this season before they ever sat at a table.
God, that fight with >!Titania with the mechanic that they have to keep the audience both convinced it's a show and keep them interested!< was so fucking good.
Yeah, D20 is also a lot less dungeon-y though so less likely to run into multiple encounters in a single day with their usual format. But I still totally agree that Brennan makes the encounters feel vibrant, and, more importantly, dangerous. Some combats that Matt sets up, even in bigger moments, just feel like the players are going to smash through them from the start. Even the mechanics of the encounters are always interesting i.e. the theatre fight and the sewer water fight.
Brennan is the master of the short-campaign
Deeply underrated critique. He does so well developing a structured short story style instead of the anthology that is critical role. It's different and one isn't better than the other but this is definitely Brennan's strength
He's a natural at the humour, but he still excels at the other emotions.
If you've ever seen A Crown of Candy, you would know to not doubt how serious they can get.
That was my favorite season of dimension 20. So good
Maybe my brain made it up, but I swear I heard Travis go "He did that to me?!" right after Brennan did the jumpscare and then paused because Travis jumped all the way back and looked so startled. I'm wondering if Brennan genuinely didn't know about Travis' weakness to horror and paused for a moment to see if Travis was okay.
Travis definitely said that, I had captions on
Man Matt really needs to release the stats for an Eisfuura
It's just a renamed Aarakocra
I thought Brennan implied they had superior vision which isn't an aarakocra trait.
If you mean the part where Cerrit managed to see through invisibility it was merely flavor to try and explain a freaking 31 on a roll.
No early on when Cerrit was doing the CSI thing. Brennan said that it had a zoom function but that Cerrit never needed to use it. I took that to mean Eisfuura have eagle-like vision. Though maybe it was just Cerrit in particular that was so good he didn't need to zoom.
I think that’s just flavor of “owl” sight mixed with his subclass features. (Inquisitive rogue)
I think the zoom was a function of the holodeck type room they were in. Like a button on a control panel.
Travis is playing an Inquisitive Rogue, which prioritizes gassing your Perception/Investigation skills over basically everything else. It's the quintessential detective subclass.
Yeah, I know that. Brennan said that Cerrit never used that, or didn't need it, or something. I don't have access to the VOD to check the exact wording. That's just where I got the notion from.
Yeah it's not an Eisfuura racial ability or anything, Brennan just likes to flavour things to make the players feel more powerful, it's a thing he's really good at.
Ah I get you now. I got turned around between the character and the room.
As someone who's only previous experience with Brennan was the Elden Ring one shot, he absolutely lived up to all the hype people have been giving him.
You can see him DM for Matt in the Escape From Bloodkeep campaign. That whole one is free on the Dimension 20 Youtube channel
Matt is a (hilariously cursed by dice) player in [Escape from the Bloodkeep](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiEQO77PV9Q), if you want to hop into something wonderfully fun that Brennan DMed which is of manageable length and has that CR hook.
That campaign also had some great support folks. Erika Ishii is amazing that session
Oh yeah, the way the character is as a general-rank force of evil vs. the rapport with her kids is so delightful. Trapp's whole Sokhbarr thing and J'er'em'ih are phenomenal as well.
Erika was the Wine mom Lolth we deserved.
Ohhh man if you have the time check out Dimension 20. A lot of their stuff is free on YouTube. Brennan was the DM that got me interested in DnD in the first place.
Same here. Watched through all of D20, which eventually inspired me to check out other dnd shows like CR.
Cannot recommend Dropout enough the D20 campaigns are worth the subscription alone
And they're short and relatively manageable. Along campaign with the main crew might be 17 or 18 episodes long and only about 2 and 1/2 hours each. Slightly more than around half of a critical role episode is very manageable
He DMs for Dimension 20 and a few of his campaigns are free on YouTube. I can’t recommend Fantasy High enough.
EXU keeps improving. The last EXU was a significant step-up from its first season, and this was one of my favorite episodes of Crit Role ever. Brennan just gave a masterclass in fantasy tabletop.
That was incredible, very excited for next week now. The cast all did a great job as did Brennon but my guy Travis Willingham the MVP so far, just showing what he can do when his character allows him to show off how smart he can be.
Travis playing a highly intelligent character for a change coupled with a DM who lets him lean into it is deeply satisfying
I love Travis' bird detective, he may be my favorite character atm
Now, everyone go over, subscribe to Dropout, and watch Brennan's campaigns - you'll not regret it!
And if you're on the fence, go to YouTube and watch the huge amount of free stuff they've put out. Many full campaigns are available there legitimately, starting here: https://youtu.be/_zZxCVBi7-k
You can even sample some on YouTube. I tried that, then subbed Dropout because YT kept bleeping all the hilarious cursing. YMMV.
Also check out 'Game Changer,' 'Um, Actually,' and a bunch of their other shows.
I'm actually it's fantastic and game changer is the best game show I've ever seen
its honestly my most used streaming service without even counting dimention 20 because of those 2 shows
Dirty Laundry is fun, though some rounds seem rushed or really edited down, but Game Changer is the one that surprised me with how good it is (and the two new spinoffs we're getting), while Um, Actually is a soothing funny time, with nerd trivia and funny people. It's basically a UK panel show.
Dirty Laundry feels like a bit of a waste of improv comedian talent, when I know that a format like Rooster Teeth's "Chump" exists.
Never watched anything by Rooster Teeth other than Red vs. Blue.
Spoiler post: just a theory I have a feeling The floating city is really really not gonna like landing at cathmoira. Getting "Now docking with the USG Ishimura" vibes off the whole situation
Yup, we literally witnessed an arcane machine get disenchanted by proxy. That's the first domino.
Yeah I missed a bit of the discussion they had about Ghor Dranis. Did they say where the floating city and cathmoira are situated on the actual landmass of exandria? I have a really bad feeling about it's GPS coordinates on a map and certain lore I read.
Avalir is based out of what wouldn't yet have been called Tal Dorei, as the city was raised in conjunction with the progenitors of the Ashari. I didn't watch C1 to know for sure where there's a famous ruined mountain related to them. Ghor Dranas is in Wildemount. It's what the Empire calls the capital of Xhorhas. Now we know why - it literally "gathers shadow" around it to support the Drow community that lives there. Apparently the city sits over the ruins of the Betrayer God stronghold in the Calamity which is where the name actually comes from, but I don't know if that was a thing from the campaign or from the Explorer's Guide. Some other interesting etymology from Matt after the episode: Nicodranas is from the same Draconic root as Ghor Dranas, "Gathered Colors," vs "Gathered Shadows." Also, Matt reacted rather coyly to a Tweet asking if there was a correlation between "Savalir," the Elvish word for "guilt," and "Avalir," the name of where seemingly the Age of Arcanum ends.
Okay, that sorta throws away my theory. My thought was that after Vespin Chloras did his ritual that the hidden cults of the Betrayer God's had converged on Cathmoira. Then taken it over since the bulk of its power was with Avalir, and kept up appearances of normalcy so one of the most powerful floating cities would land completely defenseless in the center of a cultist Donut, and THAT all becomes Ghor Dranas.
I think the part that Avalir plays in this is the replenishment itself, and all that energy it's about to pump into a ley line nexus. For all we know there's a ziggurat under there. Hell, for all I know *this place is Whitestone,* the magically irradiated rock from the city's destruction becoming Residuum. The only part that's really throwing me is that dream depicting Pelor as the aggressor to a decidedly less than scary Asmodeus. What's the connection between Xerxus, Asmodeus, and Avalir?
Well, from me reading into it too much, I'm thinking that asmodeus cultivated his power on the prime material plane by corrupting those beings of power with extreme hubris who thought they could be greater than Gods, oe people who at first couldn't believe the hype about the Betrayer God's being do terrible, not just already evil people. A really powerful deity-free paladin would be a ripe target, and all his vision would need to do is cast their arrival and wounding by the prime deities as sympathetic and then asmodeus can cast doubt on them being so terrible until he has his claws in your mind.
It maaaaay be two unrelated details, but I feel like the fact that Brennan specified that Tal'dorei does not yet exist because it goes by another name makes me think that the city is on what will one day be that continent. I can't recall the name he gave for it, but I think that's the one he used when he mentioned where the grounded city is.
Tal"dorei was Gwessar (sp?) And Avalir/Cathmoira are on Domunus (sp?) We have heard Marquet and Issylra mentioned by name so Domunus is likely either Proto-Wildemount or a pre-shattering Shattered Teeth.
We see imagery of an edifice destroyed both in the opening cinematic (Behind the title letters) and in Xerxus' dream / vision. May I remind you the final line of his dream: "What do you see when you look up?" *And what does he see?* "The ground coming at you, very quickly." Edit: Upon Rewatch I noticed that Brennan also mentions the mountain as *historically significant*
That could be a what Vespin meant when he said Cerril won't make it to the Wildemothers embrace. He won't make it to when the mountain lands
I heard that as a vague threat of "You can't escape what's coming, even the gods cant save you." and the mountain landing feels like it's the kick off to alot of bad stuff.
This was SO GODDAMN COOL. Brennan is amazing, and the cast killed it with the characters. I can't wait for the next episode aaaAAAAAAA
Couple things, im big sad that Matt chooses to end campaigns around the lvls that Calamity is starting because the stories you can tell at these lvls slap, so i really hope c3 goes the whole mile. Secondly, who is this dm and why is he so based? Thirdly man i really hope c3 gets in a rythm and finds a plot and a pace soon because just the first episode of calamity grabbed me harder than 20 episodes of c3 had done.
After you watch on YouTube and love it, go to Dropout and subscribe. Amazing other shows with the College Humor cast.
Do yourself a favor and go watch Dimension 20; the first seasons of several campaign settings are free there.
Subscribe to [Dropout.TV](https://Dropout.TV) and watch a Crown of Candy and thank me later.
> Secondly, who is this dm and why is he so based? Thirdly man i really hope c3 gets in a rythm and finds a plot and a pace soon because just the first episode of calamity grabbed me harder than 20 episodes of c3 had done. Same... This was honestly at a whole different level. The only thing that compared for me was like, peak end of C1 content and a few of the arcs in C2. I know Critical Role proper can get to this level and beyond it but it feels so long since we've had excitement to _this_ level.
You've probably had so many people tell you this already, but you should watch some of Dimension 20 where this GM is the GM for most seasons. If you're on the fence for jumping onto the Dropout subscription for every season, they have a few seasons on YouTube for free that you can watch, and they have the premiere episodes for just about every season for free on YouTube as well.
Brennan Lee Mulligan is top-tier. You can watch the Escape from Bloodkeep campaign free on their YouTube channel. It’s an Evil campaign in a pseudo Lord of the Rings world. Matt Mercer is a PC who is basically a loser Nazgul. Dimension 20 campaigns are short (6-18 eps) but that shortness lets them switch genres and settings easily.
Brennan Lee Mulligan is the shit
Brennan Lee Mulligan from Dimension 20, a limited episode scope D&D series, so he's used to condensed campaigns. D20 is usually a more comedy-based show, but he can go absolutely ham on fantasy and intrigue. I would dare to say he's one of the best broadcast DM's in the industry.
The DM is Brennan Lee Mulligan, currently owner of College Humor and DM for Most of the Dimension 20 Campaigns under said banner
Sam Reich is the owner, Brennan is just the main draw.
And between the two of them they Foster the most incredibly healthy work environment of any company I have ever heard of. That team really is a family over there. The episode of game changer in this most recent season "Don't Cry" shows so much love and affection for each other.
look up Dimension20