I’m barreling through the end of C1 and I definitely caught that Vex had been upgraded to The First House of Whitestone from the Third in Percy’s speech in 106:

“She is Mistress of the Grey Hunt of Whitestone, Baroness of the First House of Whitestone. She is my heart and my judgment and the future that I have chosen, and she is the one that I have betrothed to.”

“I always stood by your side, I thought that on that day, I would be standing by your side.”

marisha will see an experienced old dude guest character and ask is anybody going to get unfathomable amounts of character growth out of him and not wait for an answer

Vaxleth + Kisses 💋

C1E33 | C1E54 | C1E76 | C1E81 | C1E106 | C1E112 | C1E114 |C1E115

...there's something you've never seen before around [Ruidus]. There is a shape that encompasses it, clear as day, like a field of energy, like something that encapsulates it. Not unlike some of the magical forcefields and such you've learned to generate, and it has a texture, like a lattice weave, an extremely powerful gathering of different magical threads that crate this textured weave that seals it off entirely... it looks more like like a cage. It's strong, distinct, something you've never seen before, unlike anything you've ever seen...

This is super fucking similar to every single description we've ever gotten of the Divine Gate. Here are all of them:

C2E141: You feel yourself rushing as strange, lattice-like imagery begins to come into view, the Divine Gate that separates the world of Exandria from the divinity that created it. C1E115.10: From behind you, you see the lattice, the Divine Gate, pass again, and the golden net vanishes in the distance behind you as you're yanked backwards. C1E115.09: Suddenly, you're thrust through this speeding lattice of glowing, yellow-orange energy -- an interpretation of the Divine Gate, or perhaps your mind trying to interpret what was actually the physical Divine Gate. C1E114: You watch as the lattice of the Divine Gate begins to spread out around [Vecna's] body. C1E106: The Divine Gate works both ways... it's essentially a large gate that prevents gods from returning to the Prime Material Plane. C1E104: "Understand, in order for us to directly interfere, to seal a god like we did once long ago, we would have to tear down the Divine Gate, and that would release an entirely new armageddon upon your world." C1E103: There before you, you see the glimmering, almost burning lattice of the Divine Gate streaking towards you at an immense speed... you brace for impact and pass through again, that warmth almost coming to a similar state of burning, but then leaving you behind. C1E101: You got some of [the Briarwoods' research] and a lot of it dealt with ley energies. There are certain lines that stretch across, invisible lines that stretch across Exandria, where the magical powers that hold together the planes and protect it through the Divine Gate and other elements-- (Matt gets cut off here) C1E94: You see that single bead of light ahead that grows larger and larger, and that light becomes omnipresent almost, a familiar grid of divine fire and light. The Divine Gate, ancient and placed by the gods to seal both them, the Betrayer Gods, and any entities away... the lattice of the Divine Gate shifts and darkens behind you. C1E91: A glow begins as you rocket towards an unexpected and incredible sight: an endless and permeable tapestry, a tangled lattice of burning, divine fire, writhing and glowing as you shoot towards it with incredible speed... you impact and pass through it harmlessly, the heat fading. You glance over your shoulder and see it's gone. You just passed through the Divine Gate.

So, yeah. There's that. Ruidus appeared during the Founding, sure, but that warding could've been placed long after that, maybe during the Calamity. Paired with the fact that the Gau Drashari were directly responsible for the creation and maintenance of the Tree of Names, which itself was very similar and likely a precursor to the Divine Gate? If the Gray Assassins aren't just keeping knowledge from spreading but are also hoarding and actively seeking it for their own means, then it stands to reason that the Ashari might have had some records, stories, or other histories about it, given that they are direct descendants of the people who constructed an arcane ward around an entire planet. That could give us their motive for attacking Zephrah — and if Will was one of the people guarding that information, maybe that's why he was killed.

might mess around and finally watch c1e106 today 😳

well into the final CR1 arc and I have decided to become a Sprigg stan account

LOOK BIG MOOD

darin de paul is my favourite guest on cr, hands down

like...

1) the sheer fantastic comedic energy he brought, no other guest comes close, you can see how unexpectedly delighted all the other players are just to see him work, and matt's having a lot of fun playing demistrik too, like... god i've tried to bring sprigg's energy into some of my own npcs while dming because there really is no character more fun to play than an absolutely unpredictable old man with weird strong opinions about everything

(and quirks like the "let's come up with a mnemonic device in case we need to jump him", that are way longer than the phrase itself, in full earshot of everyone, just, fantastic)

2) i love the legacy just sprigg as a character brings? i don't know if you know this already if you're just watching it, but, sprigg's been alone for 37 years because darin de paul last played sprigg 37 years ago, in a campaign with matt's mother

like! he's full of history because he literally is full of history, and it's a legacy that's deeply personal to the show by nature of being a family relation to the dm!

3) [and, spoilers for 106 and 107, don't know where you're up to] i've talked about this before i'm sure but... darin de paul could not have brought a better character for everyone's character arcs if he tried

especially vax and keyleth

bc like... what they're dealing with right now is keyleth's worst fear. she was hesitant about getting in a relationship at all because she knew her lifespan was in the thousands of years and she didn't want to get close to someone and then outlive them. she didn't want to let things matter to her and then risk losing them, and vax helped her get away from that

he convinced her it was worth it, and then this happened. they know one way or another only one of them makes it out of this alive, and it's probably not vax. (he even has the line in 107, "i know the chance you took on me, and i've confirmed your worst fears and then some")

and neither of them are okay, meeting sprigg, bc it's that huge reminder, because sprigg ran away, and his friends died, and he forgot all their names

and everyone else thinks sprigg is just talking nonsense but keyleth looks at him and sees a mirror, she understands him perfectly and it's terrifying

and like. vax and keyleth haven't talked about this, at this point, because they don't know how to, and they're scared to even face each other. and i think, had sprigg not showed up right here, they might have done that for all the time they had left. because neither of them knew how to face this, it was just too overwhelming

but here he is. keyleth's worst possible ending. alone, left with half a mind, paranoid, stuck in this hut in the forest building traps. everyone he ever cared about has faded from his mind. and vox machina, they just found out percy and vex got married in secret, and while scanlan's teasing them, vax and keyleth are angry and silently crying in a corner, because they can't ever have that, and what do they do in this meantime, where vax is a walking ghost and they know that time's almost up, and keyleth is so desperate not to be alone?

(and the gods, too, sprigg hates ioun, even though he's her champion, he doesn't think she ever helped him and he'd be better off without her. and keyleth never understood how the raven queen helped vax, she only saw the ways in which he got hurt, and she's never been one for gods either)

but those things aren't gone. none of them are gone, sprigg's just been distracted from them. he does come to remember them, with the right help, and that's the first spark of hope for keyleth. for both of them, because he is vax and keyleth in one, he's been the lone survivor, but he keeps his friends in his heart, and he chooses to fulfill his duties to ioun and stay with her as her champion. it's reassuring vax, too, that he's not just walking into oblivion.

and it's that that grants them the courage to face up to this and talk to each other, and actually maybe be somewhat okay with this

and i could be here all day if i detail everyone, but to briefly go into it, percy and scanlan too

because ioun's library is an important step in percy's arc, which has always been about legacy. he's deeply concerned with legacy above everything, and has been absolutely devastated by both the loss of his family, his city, and their family history (matt mentions at one point the briarwoods burned a lot of the family records and percy looks so angry at that), and the fact that, under the influence of a demon, he then turned his own legacy into one of mass murder. there's a lot of important steps in percy's character arc but all of them relate in some way to, what came before me, and what do i leave for others

and this is the first spark of hope he's ever seen! he argues with keyleth in 56 about the importance of monuments, they're not about pride, they're about remembering those who came before (and, again, percy and keyleth's arcs, incredibly interlinked), and percy has none. everything that makes him has been deliberately destroyed by someone, and that's incredibly difficult for him to deal with. but here, in this library, is a record of everyone who ever lived. he doesn't have to shoulder the responsibility and guilt of turning the sole legacy of hundreds of years of family history into one of destruction. because these records are permanent, no matter what happens, his family mattered, because they're here, and no amount of fuck ups on his part can destroy that

and scanlan, scanlan's singled out by sprigg immediately. and that may just be because he's the only other gnome present, but sprigg was right, they do have a connection. because scanlan ran away. he saw the tide turning into things he wasn't ready to face up to, and he did exactly what sprigg did, and didn't care about the consequences. and he's now realising how badly that hurt vox machina

but he has something sprigg doesn't, which is that his friends are still alive. sprigg's friends died because of his betrayal, but vox machina are here to give him a second chance. and this is the episode where he really steps up. he sees that, he makes a conscious decision to not be like sprigg, and for the first time in his life, he takes responsibility. and it's scanlan stepping up that saves them

NOT THE WHERE IS LARKIN JOKE COMING BACK THANKS TO IOUN - girl got a sense of humouuuuuur

Pike drawing the symbol of the Stormlord for Grog and then Yasha worshipping the Stormlord is just poetic justice for Ashley’s characters.

“And Scanlan, dont ever forget how important you are, to them, to Kaylie, and to yourself. You owe yourself far more than you lend.”

This campaign is getting weird, y'all.

Grog bb!! You got knowledge!! Im so proud!!

sprigg quoted doctor who he’s suddenly my favorite

marisha being the one to say "how many times are we gonna have to fight this bitch" and then choosing to be said bitch's warlock in the third campaign. just completely insane of her

Vaxleth + Calling Each Other “The love of my Life” ❤️

C1E106 | C1E115

You put [a green bean plant] in the ground. It didn't look like much, but you knew what you were going to get at the end of it. You put this thing in the ground, and it's going to do what it's going to do; it doesn't know what it is, it doesn't know its purpose, but it's moving to green beans. The gods plant us, they plant their will and their desire, and we move toward the fruit we will eventually bear for them, if all goes well. That plant may not have made it, that plant may have fallen to a chill or circumstance, been eaten by something that didn't appreciate what put it there. But destiny has planted you here and now, and it hopes that you will bear its fruit. That's destiny. The tree does not know what it's going to fruit, you don't know where you're headed -- but you were put here, and I've always known this, but I have never felt it as truly as I have since meeting the rest of you. This is a garden, a good garden -- a lot of manure, but a good garden. Caduceus, C2E84

We, the creators, did breathe the beauty into this world, we planted the seeds that would blossom into this incredible weave of Exandria. However, what is the purpose of the parent but to teach what they can, then set the children free? Some gods rule through fear, others through love, and others still through perceived fate. Destiny has its place, but the real deception is that you have no choice. A path can be groomed before you, but it is you who must take those steps. Not every rosy walkway leads to a better day. Our greatest purpose passed the moment we granted your forbearers the spark to seek their own purpose. We now stay to inspire, to guide, to guard the Gate, to keep the hate of ignorance we spawned in our hubris from burning away everything. The rest is up to you. We need you, perhaps, but you do not need us. That is our gift. You, Fate-Touched, are the embodiment of this truth. All mortal life has potential with or without the gods. We offer some paths, but it's up to you to decide if they are the right ones for you. Ioun, C1E106

I watched the world burn at their behest. I saw the ruin their games left of our people, the destruction they brought down to stunt the potential of mortal minds and hearts. They act only to preserve themselves... we are the seeds they plant, and till, and water. We struggle in the maze they shaped. Then, when we expire, we return to their private gardens to be harvested and to feed their power and dominance, because they told us there is no alternative. This is how it is, and we must thank them for it. We may be their creations, but all children outgrow their parents. Ludinus Da'leth, C3E45

something something even obligate carnivores eat plants sometimes, mostly to purge parasites from their digestive systems, and some sharks do eat almost exclusively plankton