In an episode that was devastating for all the characters, I ended it feeling the most devastated for Nydas. 

Because whatever their reasons, in that end scene, Nydas was the only one actively protecting the Tree. Laerynn was trying to destroy it, Quay wouldn’t actively try to stop her, Zerxus and Patia both tried to walk the middle ground of ‘let me gather information before committing to an action’...

It was just Nydas. And he failed. 

And I think Lou’s comment that he never expected to be in this position is poignant. He expected Nydas to be on the hubris side of calamity-causing. He never expected Nydas to be the one person standing against it. 

Add that to the way Lou roleplayed him...just riddled with desperation, pleading, pleading, pleading, not wanting to hurt his friends, but not wanting the blood of an age to be on their hands...he was in a position he never expected and he tried so hard, but he failed, and I’m genuinely heartbroken for him.

“There are many more dreams to come.” - Patia Por’co’s final moment. One of my absolute favorite moments from ExU Calamity.

Other ExU comics:

Zerxus destroying the bar

It’s important to dream

Forgiveness

Image description: Three page comic strip depicting the conversation between young Patia and her grandfather from episode 4 at 5:46:30. The pages are in greyscale, except for the last page, which has color added to Patia's clothes only.

Page 1: Beginning of the flashback.

Young Patia, standing a little bit behind Imyr Por'co, looks up at him as he speaks "Remember, Patia. If a time should come, when you must choose between the Por'cos - our family - and Avalir..."

Page 2: The first panel shows the view of of Avalir with Imyr continuing to speak. "We built Avalir. We can build it again."

The next panels show Imyr setting a hand on Patia's shoulder, and him smiling down at her. "What matters more?" he says.

Page 3: We come back to the present.

Top left of the page there is the continuation of Imyr's speech. "The dream or the dreamer?

The first panel shows Patia lying face up on the stone floor. She is wearing her green dress from the official ExU Calamity art.

The second panel is a close up of Patia's face as a tear rolls down her face. Next to the panel is a text bubble that reads "Dad? It's Maya! I-I've got some kind of orb?"

There is a drawing of an unfurled parchment scroll in the foreground that reads "In the final moments, knowing that new dreams do not have to thread the path of the old…She lets go"

I’ve realized what it is about Brennan Lee Mulligans DMing style that I like so much. Its the way he handles exposition. He is a master at showing, not telling and he does that with all his lore drop exposition moments. Best example so far is…

Spoilers for EXU Calamity Ep 2 here

When Xerxus gets that nat 20 religion check on Vespins body. Brennan could have just said “you realize he’s a cleric of a betrayer god and he was used to death by that god”. Nice, to the point exposition.

No, instead he tells a story, first setting down the logic behind a cleric slowly gaining more power, and that it would be bad if a god gave a cleric too much at once. Then he describes the logic behind the betrayer gods choices, that the betrayer god might not care about their followers so much. And that allows his players to add those two things together to realize and really understand exactly what happened to Vespin to be in the state he is.

Its just perfectly done! What an amazing story teller he is to be able to provide a lore drop with so much emotion behind it. And to provide his players that experience of dawning realization and horror that your character, if they were a real person, would experience on having that same epiphany.

How does he do that? Is that all off the cuff, improv? Does he write or at least plan some of this stuff out beforehand? How do I do that, cause man oh man I want to do that. That’s so much fun as a DM and as a player.

I'm around 2h15min in Exandria Calamitiy and already cried my eyes out twice.

The Ring of Brass endures.

i have made the mistake of beginning this series at a very emotionally low point and now i am just.... grieving for all of these people. of this city. of this land and i don’t think i will be okay for a long, long while. i know this is not my usual terror content but i just ... made this and i wanted to save it somewhere. oh my god i’ve never watched d&d, let alone critical role before i literally don’t go here but this series.

i will need some time to recover but oh. i am just continuously weeping while drawing my hands are all curled up. i only wanted to see more of brennan lee mulligan because i saw a short on youtube and thought he was a comedian i did not expect this. (again i’m sorry for inflicting this upon you all and offer you a textless version ??)

just finished rewatching EXU: Calamity and once again cried so much. It really is one of the most masterful stories I've ever seen/heard, and absolutely the best actual play series ever done, bar none. I'm in such awe of Brennan's dm'ing skills, I adore Marisha's beautiful showing of emotions, I love seeing how much Sam and Travis love their children via how much they feel for these fictional ones, Luis' portrayal of Zerxus was so heartfelt and grounded, Lou always brings his whole soul into what he does and this was no exception, and Aabria being willing to make the difficult choices and how she shows Laerryn's dedication is just. Ugh. chefs kiss. Not to mention the group dynamics, the Aabria-Travis hype man squad, the Marisha-Lou/Marisha-Luis grabby shenanigans, how Sam and Aabria play the perfect divorcees, they're all just so fantastic and did such a good job, etc etc. I truly love Calamity so much, I can't believe it's a real show, I can't believe how fucking GOOD it is. Every single one of those people brought their A-game, but I really do especially have to call out Brennan Lee Mulligan. The way that man portrays people and humanity, how even in the end of things he speaks of the importance of hope, how he narrates and weaves the most beautiful tales and makes it so alive and tangible, how he knows exactly when to drop in some comedy amidst tragedy without detracting from it... he's simply fantastic. I'm in awe of them all!!

Matt : "Evontra'vir, the Great Tree of Atrophy. It's a powerful ancient tree spirit whose roots supposedly winds between the realms of life and death to watch over the cycle of renewal. Its home is on the island of Kalutha, in the midst of the Shattered Teeth."

Some of the former cast of ExU Calamity who are sitting right there :

100 points of emotional damage

The increasingly red CR logo is giving the same vibes as the frame slowly cracking each episode of Calamity

Patia Por'co, the Keeper of Scrolls, Archmage of the Librarium Incantatum

The embodiment of Perfection.

Zerxus: Very righteously upset when his friends choose to resist Zone of Truth, is insistent that now is the time for everyone to be forthright and for all secrets to be shared with the group.

Also Zerxus: Does not divulge the fact that the Lord of Hells calls him babygirl

brennan, bringing an absolutely masterful, tense, cinematic, beginning rp-sequence to an end: -and you wake up.

travis, speaking for all of us, voice quivering: i think i'm in the wrong class-

I cannot get the “if you look down and see the stars, what will you see if you look up” line out of my head. What a beautifully terrifying, dream-horror moment. Just *chefs kiss* I aspire to be able to write something so perfect, so on theme, and the TIMING followed by “you see the ground. And it is fast approaching” just chills, bravo

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.

marisha is all of us during episode 4