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With a mother-daughter reunion interrupted by deception, Bells Hells must decide who they can trust and how to navigate the tides of dangerous new knowledge…
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HEY, there might be some SPOILERS under the thing
0:20 Scam Riegel
5:05 Laura’s merch corner
7:25 Intro cinematic
9:10 EPISODE STARTS
11:40 Recap Ends
19:35 Yu Safiad
29:05 Fearne is Ruidus born
30:10 Map out
33:45 Battle begins
37:15 Can we level up?
44:05 Laudna is conflicted
50:20 Long whisper
55:30 Elaborate
59:55 Mixed signals (Birdie explains what is probably the primary conflict of C3)
1:05:30 FCG really wants to heal Yu
1:08:05 Searching Dusk’s pockets
1:29:05 Moonfall
1:30:40 3-sided coin
1:43:35 They don’t even know the name
1:48:10 Yu is everyone
1:49:25 Yu is basic
1:53:05 Hold music
1:56:00 Like mother like daughter
1:57:05 Fearne is all pockets
1:58:25 Erika’s victory lap
2:00:35 BREAK STARTS
2:07:00 Art Montage
2:10:45 BREAK ENDS
2:13:40 Laudna messages Imogen
2:21:55 Smacking Imogen
2:23:30 Bring back Rigel
2:33:05 I don’t know much
2:38:15 Birdie’s story
2:53:25 Laudna has one foot in the grave
2:55:40 When did the moon get there
3:01:10 Planewalker Ryn
3:03:35 What was your mother’s name?
3:20:00 Birdie loves Taste of Tal’dorei
3:23:15 Night Mare King
3:29:40 Respect the winner
3:31:40 Road trip seats
3:33:50 Riding out
3:35:40 Oh, Hondir
3:36:36 Episode Ends
The in-game start date for the episode was Sydenstar 17 in the year 843. Sam’s gas can says “Scream Jar” and has a plastic cup for people to pay into when the scream.
Look, not that Disney needs any help from me, but I was sleeping on Ms.Marvel for a while, and I watched it this weekend, and it’s genuinely my favorite Marvel thing since Endgame. It’s my favorite blend of high superpowered weirdness, but also everyone is written like an actual human being. And it has the best music since Black Panther. Also, it has our very own Fy’ra Rai: Anjali Bhimani in the cast. So maybe watch it if you were gonna skip it.
Any moments I missed? Feel free to post them here. Is it Thursday yet?
Erika playing a fun silly character was a joy, but her playing a melodramatic egomaniac is endless cringe. Hardest episode to listen to in many months
"Shall I give you despair". I love the Sephiroth quote when Matt does the recap and mispeaks talking about the seat of disdain and calls it despair.
I get this image in my head of everyone hopping onto the Skirmish Crawlers to leave Bassuras, Imogen is watching everyone climb in and climb on and is looking for her place to sit, and her eyes pan across both crawlers and finally land upon Launda in the wagon cart, fully relaxed, with a sun-umbrella, a thatched tourist hat, and a 3ft tall Mardi Gras style hurricane in one hand, with a bucket next to her with some sunscreen and some drinks on ice.
I love Ashton answering rhetorical questions.
“Just how long do you think you’ll last when they all come after you?!”
Ashton: “well like, 30 days at least…”
I can't believe they got crazed streamer Jerma985 to appear on a small channel like Critical Role.
Rules nerd notes:
Birdie's spell seems to be Shadow Blade (Illusion, 2nd), which is on the Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard spell lists. Only lasts for 1 minute, vs. 10 minutes for Flame Blade. But it works as an actual weapon that you can use to make melee weapon attacks with, for weapon damage of 2d8 psychic damage, plus your dex or str (finess, light, thrown).
Unlike Flame Blade which doesn't work as a normal weapon (for op attacks), only using your action to make a melee spell attack with it. (I had previously missed that detail, and assumed its only upside for Fearne vs. Primal Savagery was being able to make op attacks with it, but it doesn't even have that.)
Shadow Blade can also be thrown, and has advantage when attacking a target in dim light or darkness)
So it's pretty great for an arcane trickster rogue, which is what Birdie must be. (Sneak Attack, and two lvl2 illusion spells.)
40:35 – 12 damage seems low for an upcast Flame Blade… but actually it's still just 3d6; it only gains dice at 4th level or higher. It's still 3d6 and 2nd or 3rd. So 12 is slightly above average for 3d6.
Orym's earlier crit got unlucky with dice, only 2×2 + 2×3 on the dice + 5 dex for 15. That's on 2x(1d8 weapon + 1d8 superiority). Also, did he make 3 attacks? So dual wield for a bonus action attack, but not action surge.
Also, on her first attack, normally when someone says they attack, then you roll initiative and that person might not actually get to land their hit first (i.e. take the first turn in combat). Unless their action Surprises others, so that could be part of what happens here. But also, other people (Imogen) had already been casting spells and grappling, and that moment of narrative tension would be kinda deflated if Ashley didn't get to roll that attack right after saying it. So in practice, not following the standard initiative rules seemed like a good thing. (And they're a bit mind-bending in corner cases and maybe not well known anyway; Matt's never used standard 5e surprise rules.)
40:42 – Athletics with disability to avoid a grapple? Does Yu have any ability on paper that lets them grapple as a reaction? Seems like something Erika just made up, unless I'm forgetting some warlock or paladin ability, or feat. So fine, sure, but giving disadvantage to avoid it? Narratively interesting, but it seems like not something you'd want to let players do all the time.
44:22 – RAW, changing form (and voice) costs an action for a changeling. Not normally something you can do as part of RP on someone else's turn. But this another one of those times when story-telling trumps mechanics, since it's not giving Yu a mechanical advantage. They all know it's still Yu because they saw her change. So yeah, wise choice to allow that as a free action.
45:00 – Conquering Presence? Damn, conquest paladin subclass. And yes, it's written as aggressively as you'd think from names like that, mostly not abilities you'd associate with a Good-aligned character. (From a modern viewpoint that sees colonialism as a bad thing. Tenets are "Douse the Flame of Hope" / "Rule with an Iron Fist" / "Strength Above All". Sounds about right for some Unseelie Fey, if they're anything like in the Dresden Files)
That use of channel divinity is an AoE fear effect on as many targets as you want within 30ft.
Her/their other option is to apply a +10 to an attack roll, but they only have 1 channel divinity per short rest.
We did already know Yu had some paladin levels; she used Lay on Hands last episode. We now know she's at least 3rd-level in Paladin to be able to pick a subclass like conquest. And 5th in Warlock for Thunder Step.
The on-screen display says she's 8th level overall. If she has Extra Attack from either class, it would have to be from an Eldritch Invocation (requires Pact of the Blade, but not Hexblade subclass). Being a paladin and actually having Str 19 makes her build make a lot more sense; her sword is a prized possession, but she wasn't a hexblade. So she has to be attacking with Str or Dex, not Cha, but previously she didn't have more than a +2 in either of those.
45:50 – Yes, that Channel Divinity probably does count as a magical effect. The description of Channel Divinity in general for paladins says "Your oath allows you to channel divine energy to fuel magical effects". Even though that specific channel divinity doesn't say "magically", it's still a channel divinity. So it wouldn't work in an Anti-Magic Field, for example, and might ping momentarily on a Detect Magic. As well as letting some races/classes save with advantage.
Other magical class features like Wild Shape use the word "magically" in a similar way, e.g. "You magically assume the form…".
If a class feature doesn't say it's magic, it probably isn't. For example, dragon breath isn't magic, it's just part of how the D&D world works, with the background weave of magic.
Or if it's clear from context that it's magical, like Hexblade's Curse or something, then the ability might not say "magical". Or use some other word like "curse".
(Note that Dispel Magic only works specifically on spells, at least RAW, not all magical effects.)
48:15 – Wait what, Yu's a Hexblade? I was thinking she had a different patron, like Archfey. Maybe I had just seen that on Critrolestats or something. So she does attack with her +5(cha). That makes a lot of sense, although having high Str is still great for grappling.
51:05 – I think Liam says "It's full of stars" about the look on Laura's face. Her Detect Thoughts experience looks like it might have been similar to the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey where that quote is from, if we're judging by her reaction.
51:30 – I think Erika's photo missed the best of Laura's expression, if you single-step by frames (, and . in youtube) to find the one with the flash. She'd already almost closed her mouth, although she still had one hand on top of her head. But Ashley noticed the camera just in time to make a :O massive surprise face for the photo, so Erika's fumble with the camera on the first attempt wasn't a total loss. 😛
Oh, she took a digital photo of the polaroid and posted it on her twitter (on 5 Aug); Laura's face does still have a full panic look, and the arm position from that angle still works. And yes, Ash is in it.
Gotta figure Imogen would be equally floored by whatever she learned, and wouldn't manage to do anything else that turn (movement or bonus action).
Also, RAW, probing deeper costs another action beyond the one you used to cast the spell. When you cast, you can focus on a creature as part of that action to learn just their surface thoughts. She's already gotten 2 actions worth of stuff done in one turn.
54:33 – Bane only affects attacks and saves, not ability checks. (Hex does that for one ability).
Birdie shouldn't have had -1d4 on her Athletics or Acrobatics check to contest the grapple. She got 16 to Ashton's 19, so depending what the d4 was, it might have made the difference. (A tie results in the status quo: the person that initiated something has to win by at least 1, whether that's starting a grapple or an attempt to escape a grapple.)
1:35:38 – Yu's gauntlets are magic? Very likely that's where their 19 Str is from, Gauntlets of Ogre Power like Pike had in C1.
And this Weave Lens seems like Detect Magic, except perhaps fancier and more detailed in some ways that would be useful for an artificer trying to build upon the enchantments.
The text might or might not include a school of magic once they learn to read it.
An always-on Detect Magic is pretty darn cool.
1:43:45 – Are the heads of the Fey courts not well-known? Like the queens Titania and Mab in the Dresden Files series and at least some other modern fiction (queens of the Seelie aka Summer and Unseelie aka Winter respectively, with Mab also know as the Queen of Air and Darkness).
And in some versions of the folklore, Oberon being the male leader of the summer Fey (yes, the same Titania and Oberon from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.)
I've been re-reading the Dresden Files recently, so I tend to assume that Jim Butchers take on the folklore is representative, but some wikipedia articles show some version of Mab are very different.
Still, whoever's in charge of each court is something I'd expect to be known. At least whoever's officially in charge; if there's a power behind the throne, that's of course something Yu would keep secret.
2:33:33 Travis falling over dead from the Aaron Neville singing. 🤣
Travis reactions are the best!
I happened to watch a compilation of pranks from The Office and Sam's bit is a riff on Asian Jim!
The messed up names are unique to this, but the basis is the same. (No fake family photo though…)
Who could have predicted the major back-to-back lore drops of this campaign would come from junk city?
So much else happened in this episode, but is anyone else wondering how Yu knew what form to take to get at Orym?
Wtf is Sam wearing
This whole episode was like 'you think you've had lore? you haven't seen anything yet' and then you just get hit in the face
Melissa Rae in the house
Okay okay okay.
Ira was working for a dude who's name I forget, but that dude ran to the Paragons call, and the Paragons call is being run by the lady who was in Imogens dreams and quite possibly is the leader of the goo assassin's.
IRA IS TOTALLY COMPROMISED!
Matt: I believe the Blood Curse youre thinking of just increases damage
Well you made the fuckin thing lmao
That Picture needs to be put on Twitter 🙂
So… forgotten gods… red moon… is one of the gods Sardior, the ruby dragon god of knowledge and psionics? If so im all in!
I'm so confused about Sam Raigul🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 what am I missing
2:52:15 I SAW THAT LOOK TRAVIS!!! I knew he had some connection to the Shadowfell with the whole shadow touched feat but that look cemented it. I don't know what the connection is but Chetney Pock O'Pea has much darker connections than he is letting on…
Anyone talking trash about C3 has not reached this arc and it shows
Worst part of this episode:
Finding out it's another race against time/ magic artifact plot.
Is sam wearing one of his old gencon outfits?
Didn’t they have three skirmishers one they bought one they stole and one they rented so shouldn’t they have two skirmishers not just one?
I love how Erika plays Yu so much, I was not very interested in Dusk at first but I totally am on board with Yu. Erika plays such an interesting villainous character, I love how Yu messes with Laudna's and Orym's mental states. And despite how despicable they acted I still feel like they're ambiguous and only doing what they believes is right/their job. I was totally on their side vs Birdie and desperately hope we see more of them.
"You have pockets everywhere. You are all pocket." "Rob Liefeld designed you, it's great."
CAMPAIGN 2 CALLBACK?????????
Y real time is so much better
U
I'm not seeing anyone mentioning the mirror that has the shadow assasins but that sounds like what Orym is looking for
I never appreciated how the Calamity Crew were all sitting together more than this episode. The Lore!
They should include a sliding scale from 1 to 10 for every message Laudna sends based on her stress level for how loud the whispering voices are.
I wonder if Morri is short for Morrigan
Erika was annoying me so much in their episodes, which didn't seem like them (from all their D20 stuff she absolutely rocks). I thought maybe she was nervous playing on the big table, but clearly she was just IN CHARACTER the whole time, because she has a completely different countenance when playing as Yu. Amazing work. Just amazing.
Also, Travis is a fn genius.
Raging Ashton yelling to calm down was the best