This episode got me screaming every twenty minutes and frantically message my friends about what the fuck is up with that?!

bell’s hells top 10 super fun times

so episode 31, really the last three or four episodes, honestly, crystalized a lot of what i have been working on behind the scenes when it comes to the hells so let’s talk. warning: as always, this a long post.

because the thing is, the thing is, bells’ hells have been a control party almost from the word go. control parties, for those who don’t know, build themselves to go around obstacles and find new, different win conditions for encounters. control parties have a million different ways to handle these objectives. they can avoid combat altogether via stealth, charisma checks, or other pointed party actions. they can, as the crownkeepers did with the crocodile, find a creative way to neutralize an encounter. this doesn’t just apply to combat, by the by. social encounters provide ample opportunity for a control party to flex their muscles and steer their targets towards the party’s objectives. the haunting of the moon tower is a perfect example. they tend to be more creative and aware of their environments and the people within them than their glass cannon and cockroach counterparts. they have to be. you can’t redefine victory conditions without that awareness or creativity. control parties are just willing to try new things in ways that other parties can’t (glass cannons tend to be built for just damage) or won’t (cockroaches prefer optimizing the action economy).

the hells are several different control modes smushed together into some semblance of a balanced party that can switch on a dime and adapt. they can playfully booby-trap their way through a museum job then roast their opponents alive before flipping back to friendly assistance once the threat has been neutralized and they’ve won. the hells are much more interested in gathering and using information than their c1 or c2 counterparts; they’re also much better at extracting it. whether it’s fearne and orym scouting out enemy bases or numbers, fcg and imogen running roughshod over other people’s minds to find it or being irresistible enough that information is just handed to them, or chet, laudna, and ashton scaring the information out of opponents, all of them have some way of pulling information together (using it is still a skill the group is working on but they’re getting better). in combat, laudna and imogen easily cycle between environmental control/support (think imogen’s hunger of hadar reskin and laudna’s form of dread) and big damage numbers, chet literally has two modes he can fight in, while ashton and orym have a number of ways to control enemy movement and attacks.

and the thing about last episode and this most recent string is how the cast has built characterization into and from the mechanics and abilities. the hells are a control party, and they all have control issues. every last one of them.

ashton - traumatic brain injury that left them their unreliable at best memory, sometimes unable to rein in their impulses, and a rage they’ve only recently learned to channel and use, a man who wants very clearly defined roles and relationships (and oh boy it says something that ashton is the one who best knows their limitations and has gotten used to living with this lack of control).

chetney - werewolf who has lost control of the beast once that we know of. has issues with authority and people having control over his creations and livelihood.

fcg - has been denied autonomy and personhood for much of their existence, can snap to murderbot mode when sufficiently stressed with no memory of what occurred.

fearne - oh fearne, she has issues with cages and how things need to be free but also how she collects the things and people she cares about (she’d never keep them but at the same time...). after all, if she collects them, well, she can’t be left again, right.

imogen - has to maintain a stubborn, rigid control over her feelings, thoughts, and powers at all times or else something could explode. literally, in some cases. or worse, she’ll be subjected to every passing, awful thought of every person around her and who wants that, really?

laudna - a potential puppet on delilah briarwood’s strings. her control issues stem from her (pretty justified given her life) fear that everyone will leave her, that she’s not worthy enough for people to remain by her side. if she just controls herself and finds the one thing that others want, they’ll stay, they have to, right?

orym - like imogen, orym’s holding himself together by the skin of his teeth sometimes. he’s trying to control situations and fights around him so that this time, maybe, hopefully, his loved ones won’t be hurt, never mind if he gets hurt in the process.

part of what fascinates me so in the last several episodes is how out of control the hells have felt and the catalysts for that. yu, who manipulates and worms their way around obstacles and uses others and changes the win conditions and gets what they want in the end, a dark mirror of the hells’ own tactics turned on them. ira, who has controlled and manipulated and wiped out any good intention fearne’s parents had, right down to smearing away their memories and emotions. delilah, who gaslights, manipulates, and abuses, whom they cannot escape without leaving one of their own to her “tender” care. fcg, who weaponized what little actual vulnerability this party has been able to let itself feel.

so strap yourselves in, folks, we’re in for a long haul here.

I love when C1 and C2 characters just inhabit the player’s bodies for a hot second

Like any time guns or residuum comes up Percy takes full control of Taliesin for a brief second

And obviously Vex takes over Laura whenever money or bears are involved

But truly the best one so far this campaign was the Ludinus reveal in e31 and Caleb took over Liam to go “I KNEW IT”

I know some people didn’t like Orym’s reaction and speech following FCG’s “episode” but I read the situation differently. I don’t think he was intending to yell or blame FCG, I think he was trying to get the group to behave more responsibly in general.

In this episode alone we had some very frankly fucked up behavior from a lot of the group just because they’re a big bunch of shiny red button presssers who’ll do crazy things just for laughs. But they’re getting to a point where they have to stop pressing all the shiny buttons and think a little more before they leap or someone is really going to get hurt.

Ashton haphazardly smashed an extremely important and powerful crystal “just to see” if it would break as a means of testing it when there were a variety of other less destructive ways to go about it. No talking it over with anyone, just smashed it while everyone else was distracted. He could have cost them a vital tool in solving the Ruidus puzzle.

Fearne took purple rocks that she knows are dangerous and have caused a lot of drama and heartache between Laudna and Imogen and hid one in Laudna’s dollhouse. Because, as has been pointed out numerous times, she doesn’t think about or understand the consequences of her actions on other people. Not only could those rocks actually harm someone, but it caused Laudna a serious amount of emotional distress.

Chetney decided to whack FCG with a mallet during his “episode” which was what actually set off the whole PvP situation.

FCG literally takes on the pain and suffering of others, sacrificing his own health and mental well being. He’s constantly refusing to look out for himself because he’s so focused on helping others that he’s stressed out to the point of going catatonic and violent. He won’t consider that taking care of himself is another way to care for others as he can’t help anyone if he’s a broken wreck.

I think Orym’s speech was less about FCG’s attack and more about the group needing to get their acts together and behave as a team instead of a bunch of people who hang out together but still all just do whatever they want.

Was it a perfect speech? Maybe not, but I think it wasn’t about blame as much as it was about forcing everyone to see they need to get over themselves and really be there for each other.

In the aftermath of the Ludinus reveal, Liam has Caleb’s misery face on like super hard. He does this expression with Orym a couple of times, but Caleb’s misery face was a staple of C2, I recognize it very well and it’s here full force

i love how bells hells solely operate by fucking around and finding out.

Orym's message to Keyleth through Imogen.

Tempest,

following threads;

dark fae influences;

members of Cerberus assembly;

power players in Marquet;

one month out from trouble;

stay the course?

missing home.

"I don't think anyone here is as afraid of you as you are"

Fucking Ashton being so need insightful to protect FCG is just *incoherent noises*

I love all of Taliesin's characters so damn much it's almost irritating

Following threads. Dark fey influences. Members of the Cerberus Assembly. Power players in Marquet. One month out from trouble. Stay the course?

The words come through as Keyleth sits in the garden after a meeting. They're not from anyone she's ever heard before, but she knows who they're from. This is not good. Not what she expected, either.

"I thank you for the message, whoever you are. This is disconcerting news. Stay the course carefully. I'll pull threads on my end. Stay safe."

Keyleth takes a breath, steeling herself in the comfort of the garden. She is going to need help.

Ashton and Fcg friendship my beloved

[ID: Against a dark blue to purple blue gradient, a mottled red moon with sketchy lines extending from it hovers between two sets of text. The moon is meant to be the strange moon Ruidus from Critical Role's Exandria setting. The purple text above is a quote from Critical Role campaign 3, episode 31 : "We might as well set our goals high, right?" by the character Imogen Temult. Below, bright red text reads "Shoot for the moon. Kill the gods." /end ID]

Anyone else catch that Ashton never got to make a save for heat metal?

Fcg obviously didn't, lad's made of metal. Laudna did. Ashton didn't, which I guess has to do with their scars?

Whenever someone betrays the Bells Hells they really just stand there afterwards like:

Crying? At a Sam Riegel ad bit?

Orym calling Dorian to say they could use his help just made my little fangirl ears perk up like a puppy dog hoping maybe Robbie might come back soonish.

(I’m like 98% sure he’ll be back at some point in the campaign even if it’s just for a drive-by. Dorian’s still very ingrained in the hearts and minds of the Bells Hells and Robbie fit in with the cast so well I can’t imagine not seeing him again, though I know there are plenty of other guests they’ve wanted to have on, too.)