Grave Mystic Weva Vudol

I hope we see her again🥲 she was so cool

been thinking a lot about how ashton stayed and stood guard with their last party - out of loyalty and trust to them - and they left him behind and he died. and how, in episode 33, they ran away - probably trusting his friends to do the same thing - and no one followed them.

“Is she your favorite?”

DO NOT EDIT OR REPOST TO OTHER SITES OR ACCOUNTS

this might only be interesting to very few people but imo richard campbell gansey the third would be a great old one warlock with a few levels in eloquence bard

To bring or not to bring, the idiot brother, is always the question.

A Traitor is Revealed

calamity

“Cerrit looks at the symbol of the Eyes of Avalir on his ring. The eye is sculpted to look down, ever watchful, the eyes of a city in the clouds.

On a 26 insight, you found many threats to the city of Avalir, long years of being exceptional, perceptive, intelligent, clever, your eyes ever peering down, cultists and criminals, even some magisters, some corrupt officials – but on a 26 insight, often ones without friends or connections.

The Eyes of Avalir never looked up.

And the price you paid was that here at the end of things, you still don’t get to hear the laughter of your children in this home, as was the case so many long nights of devotion and service.”

— Brennan Lee Mulligan, Exandria Unlimited: Calamity finale

See what Brennan did there? Brennan said, on a 26 insight, you finally understand what’s wrong with law enforcement: it enforces only downwards. It investigates and hounds the little people and the outcasts, and leaves the corridors of power unchecked. And it’s not a failure of individuals (this cop is corrupt, that one’s incompetent); that would be easily solved with better individuals, individuals like Cerrit, brilliant and honest and devoted. But it’s an institutional failure. The Eyes of Avalir were meant and made to look down, and never up.

Brennan said, y’all thought that because Cerrit’s the only non-magical guy in the Ring of Brass of the floating city of Avalir in the Age of Arcanum, he’s blameless? Think again! Everyone unwittingly contributed to the Calamity. The Leywright trio by hubris, the paladin by zeal and conviction, the fey by love (if Loquatius hadn’t killed the truth about Evandrin to protect Laerryn, she’d have to explain what she’s building in there, and crucial information could have come to light in time), and the cop by being a normal-ass cop, and thus missing every single clue that could prevent this – because every single clue was up above, and the Eyes of Avalir never looked up.

And then Brennan “I came here to hurt people” Lee Mulligan twists the knife and says, Cerrit, this is what you devoted your whole life to, this is what you spent all your energy on, this is why you missed on your own children growing up. For an institutional failure.

And on a 26 insight, here at the end of things, Cerrit finally takes off his badge ring and sets his fucking office on fire.

@quiddie 👉👈 i hope i’m not bothering you and dont feel like you have to answer

but i was wondering if you have any ideas on how laerryn and quay met/ended up together/decided to seperate?

I mean it was just SUCH. A PERSPECTIVE SHIFT!!! It was-- UGH.

Like, you're watching episode 1 of Calamity, and you open with "Fire." Just that reminder that THIS IS GOING TO BE A DARK STORY. You know this, this is what you're signing up for! These characters are awful! They're all lying about various stuff! They have these ambitions and secrets and lies that will lead them all to RUIN. And you're watching this story unfold, and it's so tense because you KNOW that the Calamity happens. It's already heartbreaking because it's not so much that you know they *can't* stop it, but because you know they *don't*! It's in the lore! It's in the timeline! The Calamity is a thing that happens! TWO THIRDS of the population dies!!! TWO THIRDS!!!

You spend three episodes wondering how the Ring of Brass will mess everything up so bad that the world gets as bad as it can possibly get. Two thirds of the population! Dead!

And then in that fourth episode, Brennan flips that shit on its head. Because he brings in a worse tragedy. One where EVERYONE dies. No one makes it out of Exandria. Complete and total annihilation. And then gently introduces the idea of... what if you could save some of them?

That last fight had characters with HP in the single digits, no spells left, and it was unwinnable if the goal was to win the fight. But the goal changed and became to just survive long enough. You know they can't all survive this. But you sure as shit can hope that they can last those crucial 18 seconds. Just enough to make the difference between losing everyone, and not losing everyone.

It became a story not of how they lost two thirds of the population, but about how they saved one third. And it was an absolute master class in how to use tragedy to tell a story of hope.

I'm just - it was a reasonable response.

Destroying the thing that is stopping you from achieving your life's work is a reasonable response.

Destroying the thing that is hurting your best friend and your husband is a reasonable response.

Destroying the thing that is keeping your friend trapped in what could only be agony - even if he's not in pain is a reasonable response.

Destroying the thing that is taking energy, that was put there without your consent, which you haven't been allowed to learn about, which you don't know the purpose of only that it is taking. It's taking. It is hurting you. And your city.

Something that is this well guarded, that there are this many secrets around, that no one will let you get close to must be for someone else's gain and your loss. It must be evil. The druids must have some power, something their working on, they want to stop you, they want to stop progress.

It's a reasonable response.

And your reasonable response to your pain and your dreams and your love - is the end of the world.

"History will remember me" says Laerryn. A character that we've never heard of before, in a city we've never heard of before, from a campaign set in the past.

just like... 

the narrative of this extremely ambitious woman, who gave up everything for her career, her freedom, her friendships, her love... a woman who was ready to break an oath as old as her city to accomplish her lifetime goal... a woman so full of hubris, so confident about her and her era’s power to see herself as equal to the gods... a woman who has never failed at what she was good at.

the narrative of this woman choosing love above all else for just once, seeing their fear of what she’s become and just, choosing to save her friend and the love of her life, in a split second, in an impulse decision.

the narrative of the woman letting her heart make a decision one time, just one time, and this one time causing an apocalypse.

the narrative of the universe proving her that no matter if she tries or not, she’ll lose those closest to her heart anyway. 

like, i can’t wait to see where this villain origin story will go.

thinking about the big moon little moon, and the weird things going on with Rudius. Call of the netherdeep‘s whole thing was ruduius (or more appropriately the weird substance and also the cult surrounding it) BUT EVEN THE BOOK DOESNT CONFIRM WHAT RUDIUS IS. Matt what is going on. Orym calling himself the little moon might have more implication then we know, and after three campaigns I think Liam has mastered the technique of letting the other shoe drop. idk new book comes out calling out how the gods fear this moon the SAME TIME as orym shows up with a tattoo on his arm and calls himself the smaller moon. What. I’m probably overthinking this and if it’s nothing I won’t be Suprised but imagine. What if. Ah. Ah. Ah.

Orym "guards are people" Air Ashari being the one to see Laudna and apologize for what happened to her when he had nothing to do with it... it gets me, man. He saw her. No-name nobody killed to spite the heroes of a greater story, cast aside, and Orym is in the habit of seeing exactly those people and it's just so very good.

Marisha has that big brain energy always