this is some crazy ass luxon lore for it being one am

C3E57 reaction part the second

I continue to be super impressed with Matt and his horror.

Traversing to the tower was very exciting, especially once the WOLF KING got on their trail and then it was a series of distractions and creative choices. If we leave this arc and they don't end up encountering this, I DESPERATELY hope Matt will post a picture of the mini. I want to see this SO BADLY.

Very interesting tidbits of knowledge from the papers from the tower. It's not anything new, really, but the dropping of Laerryn (I cheered) and the focusing on the Matron's true name is fun. I haven't actually watch the ExU Kymal (I watched about the first half of the first episode), so I suppose I do need to finish that now, because doesn't that group actually see the Matron's true name or something?

Very curious what the spell sink could be! I'm hoping after next combat they can take a long rest inside the building and then research it at full strength.

Very excited for start of next episode! I wonder if it's a custom mini, or if it'll be similar to the distorted ones used for Obann/Bree.

So for EXU: Calamity…

I haven’t been watching it.

The characters are fun and the story is intriguing, but I haven’t been able to will myself to watch the final half of episode 1.

I’m not sure what it is. It could be the overall vibe, it could be that my brain has gotten too comfortable with Matt’s DMing style that it finds Brennen’s odd, it could just be that my brain needed a month long rest! I don’t really know what it is.

I mean, I haven’t even watched the first EXU or even Kymal so I’m not really sure.

I’ll probably have to watch them at a later date or watch a highlights video.

Just saw your last anon message you got and it just got me wistfully thinking of doriax aswell, I think for me why I feel more strongly about doriax than dorym is that without dorian dariax dosent realy seam to have anyone else he is close too. After all he said people tend to not want to keep him around very long and get tired of him and realy dorian was the one who I saw breaking that as dariax was lost in the wind and needed a direction to follow which he felt was what he got from dorian... aand then...c3 happens and they were separated and it just didn't feel the same once they reunited, and it just made me feel sad that he is going to end up forgotten and wandering alone all over again and that hurts.. I do like dorym but orym would do just fine without dorian, I don't feel the same is true for dariax. Sorry just had to ramble about my feels over a silly d&d ship but that last anon l just got me thinking why it hits different for me. If dorym happens I'll be cool with it but a huge chunk of me will feel for dariax

While I ship both, I get what you're getting at. I think they both have reasons they're interesting narratives:

For Orym, it's a story about a man learning to love again after lost love. Which is very similar to Yasha's C2 narrative with Beau, which is possibly why this one is a little bit less enticing for me narratively than Doriax.

For Dariax, it's about someone who has historically struggled to find his place finding a person he fits with.

Personally, I shipped Doriax very early on just based on vibes, I adore Matt and Robbie's roleplay together. I did wish I got a little more from that relationship in EXU: Kymal, but the story's not over yet.

I also think "Dariax needs Dorian more" just can't really be the ship's catalyst. Because it really only comes at the ships from Dariax and Orym's perspectives (Dariax needs him more, Orym needs him less). But it doesn't address what Dorian wants.

I think the unfortunate effect of the Dorian C3 time for the Doriax ship is that I do think it was the main EXU ship and really couldn't continue once they were in separate locations. But that gave the opportunity to expand Dorym's relationship and for that to grow organically, too.

Personally, I have zero percent clue on what Dorian's "end game" will be. We're far too early to say. There was a tweet near the end of the original EXU from Robbie that I feel like acknowledged Doriax as a ship, and then in 4-sided dive, he teases Dorian's crush, that I feel fairly confident in guessing that it's Orym. It's possible Dorian has had feelings for both of them. We don't even know when Dorian will be back interacting with the C3 gang, as he's currently with his brother and friends from the Crown Keepers. It's just way too early to be worrying and speculating about any concept of "end game" shipping, 24 episodes in. Right now, Fearne x Ashton is my main ship but that doesn't mean I'll be on that train forever, you know? You gotta watch the narrative and see what plays out.

And in the mean time, ship what you love. Write that Doriax fanfic or reblog those Doriax posts that make you happy.

I think the Nameless Ones are an attempt at a crime organization but with Aabrias limited time, it doesn't work to actually establish them. Like, if Poska is the leader of this crime organization, why is she skulking around a random building in Emon? How did it escalate from dubious morality type things to literally beheading people?

Not to mention, Death or Join is the worst recruitment tactic. Of course people will say Join, and promptly betray you!

It's frustrating and I find it actually kinda...disrespectful that Matt's done so much work on the Myriad and the Clasp, and now this 3rd random group apparently had no issues seizing control over an entire damn town.

I like a lot about Aabrias dm-ing style, but certain things are not great. Thousands of gp is an astronomical amount of money, hence the debt, and they just...robbed a casino and fucked off. Problem solved. No consequences.

Hi anon,

So I do agree with the criticism of the Nameless Ones, but I have to disagree with a lot of the rest.

I do not think it's disrespectful of Aabria. I have my criticisms of her style in EXU but if anything I have thought, and continued to think, that one of the root causes is an abundance of enthusiasm for the world and wanting to engage with it and play in it...but which perhaps could use some editing in practice, because there are things you can establish in a long-form campaign that you simply can't in 8 to 10 episodes. I've seen Aabria's work both as a DM and a player in a number of different places (including on Critical Role) and I've always felt she was a respectful player; I really do not think any disrespect was ever intended and that's not something I would accuse her of.

The first paragraph of this ask is spot-on; we can't get a grasp on the organization and so it makes no sense. How are they simultaneously small enough for the leader to target a group of relative nobodies but then large enough for countless crowds to chase them from Emon? But from there we can't even say if the Join or Die strategy makes sense. For what it's worth that, as a strategy, isn't unrealistic. That happens all the time in real life. It's not a wise long-term strategy but if we had an understanding of the Nameless Ones' goals? If they truly just wanted to devastate Kymal and its population? Yeah that makes perfect sense - you'll get enough people who are afraid enough not to revolt and the sheer numbers you need to overtake something.

I also don't have any issue with the heist in concept. Like, the premise of a casino heist is "you steal a massive amount of money and you escape". This is an entire genre; she's playing within the conventions of the genre, and that's fine. It's really just the Nameless Ones that fucks it up for me. I would run the whole heist portion exactly the same; I'd just cut the entire Jinoir/spa/Fy'ra Kai portion of the first half and jump straight to the heist at the top of the episode, and instead of the Nameless Ones trying to take over the city there would just be heightened casino security due to the attack on Phaedrov's guards. Swap the boss in the vaults from Nameless One lieutenant to Krishtan family security and you can otherwise run it the same. In fact it would be harder for the PCs because the city isn't in the middle of a gang war and so they're without any distractions. But I would still absolutely accept that they steal all the vault contents and escape on the floating sky deck. That is 100% what I came here to watch; I just don't know why there's a random assault on the city by a poorly-defined organization happening in the background. When I said "cut out the Nameless Ones and everything works fine" I do mean it.

Expectations

Summary: A couple of quiet conversations as Dorian takes watch during the first night after the heist in Kymal.

Notes: Anyway, the off-hand comment Dariax made during EXU: Kymal about ur traveling companions sometimes being cuddle buddies was because he was a lil sad that Dorian didn't sleep back-to-back with him that first night in the inn, send tweet

*

It took some trial and error, but the floating balcony was eventually landed (a little precariously) in a glade at the base of the mountains. Everyone had thoroughly exhausted all of their spells to keep the momentum going as long as possible, but it was well past sunset and they all needed to sleep. They covered up the brumestone and lit a small campfire. Dorian volunteered to take first watch.

He sat on the little ledge at the front corner of the balcony, beside one of the shattered lions, and listened to his brother talk briefly with Opal before both of them passed out from the fatigue of the day. Their new acquaintance, Mor, had already curled up in the other corner and was fast asleep. Fy’ra Rai had been quiet since they’d left Kymal, and had sat down in a sort of deep meditation until she, too, seemed to slump over and succumb to sleep. And Dariax…

There was a soft grunt as Dariax hopped up to sit next to Dorian on the ledge. Dorian kept looking off into the night, acknowledging his presence with a hum.

“Hey,” Dariax whispered. “Been a crazy couple o’ days, huh?”

“Part of me thinks that this was not at all what I expected,” Dorian replied. “But what else could I have expected, really?”

“Ha. Yeah…well, we’re never boring, I c’n say that much,” Dariax tried to joke. He sounded sad. He had never been very good at hiding when he was sad.

Keep reading on AO3

i need to keep track of what critrole to catch up on lmao

campaign 3

i’ve watched ep 1-12 entirely (i think? i honestly can’t remember lmao i think one of these i may have only read the second half summary but there’s no way i’m going back to try and find it so i’m fine)

i’ve watched the first halves of ep 13-14 (i definitely plan to go back and watch these episodes, they’re the masquerade episodes)

i only watched like half an hour or so of ep 15-16 (i honestly don’t really care to watch these, i’ve read summaries and the combat etc. isn’t that interesting to me)

i watched the first half of ep 17 (i definitely also plan to watch the back half of this episode eventually, i love those lore drops)

none of eps 18-22 really caught my attention, i didn’t watch any of them live and probably won’t bother to go back to them

might watch the back half of ep 23, sounds like some juicy character moments (this has been peer reviewed by my roommate and she doesn’t think it’s worth it)

ep 24 erika ishii’s character was introduced

oneshots/misc

guest battle royale (not sure i’ll watch this, but it’s still on my radar so)

elden ring oneshot (brennan lee mulligan, my favourite white man)

exu kymal (watched first half of ep 1, will definitely watch the rest of this)

exu calamity (watched eps 1 + more than half of 2, will def watch the rest of this)