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cassafrasscr · 3 months

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I think it's worth remembering that for all that Orym leans towards kindness as much as he can, he's always been a stark pragmatist in the face of existential threats.

Like, he has a reputation for being 'the nice guy', but... he straight-up threatened Dorian back in EXU Prime over the Spider Queen's crown. I feel like people keep forgetting about that?

IIRC, Liam said Orym was so hard on Dorian because he believes in Dorian's goodness and was worried that the crown's power would corrupt him (and on some level, it did - Dorian's alignment was changed by it, going from Chaotic Good to Chaotic Neutral).

I'm seeing a lot of parallels between that and Orym’s relationship with Imogen now. He’s said before that he'd be proud to have a daughter like Imogen. He's asserted repeatedly that he believes in her and has faith she won't betray them. He needs her at his side in this fight.

(All things he also said to Ashton in the wake of Shardgate, btw.)

Like Orym said in the Honesty Trial - he has all the faith in the world in his friends... and has also seriously considered how best to neutralize all of them. He’s been this way from the beginning.

Orym loves his friends - don't forget, he sold his life away to Nana Morri for the ability to protect them on this mission. But at the end of the day, he can't protect them from themselves. If they give in to their worst impulses and become a threat to others, he'd rather take them out himself than let them do harm to innocent people.

(For what it's worth, I don't think he was pressuring Imogen to dive right back into Predathos' mind right away - what I got from what he said was that he's pressuring Imogen to stay on this mission rather than running away completely. It's dangerous and scary, but he needs her to gather her courage and steel herself to keep going anyway. She's powerful and important, and Orym's feels that he's just a regular guy with a sword. He can’t do this without her.

Orym’s not always the best communicator, and tensions were high in the moment. I think it was mostly a misunderstanding/miscommunication about what his exact intentions were with that speech.)

#orym of the air ashari #meta #chewing on this halfling all day #not gonna lie #he's got big winchester energy right now #selling his soul to protect his friends #also having to prepare to possibly eliminate them to protect the world #peak supernatural #cr3 #critical role #critical role spoilers #cr3e83

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pippastrelle · 9 days

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Bulletpoint liveblog of C3E91 let's go!

Second half: Crown Keepers

Oh, is this where the Crownkeepers come in? I heard that. Haha I always wonder what it's like at the studio hiding the fact that, like, Robbie is there.

AABRIA! God, I want to know how her hair and makeup is done. It's so different and so cool nearly every time I see her. She's got such style.

Moment to appreciate the music they play during the art reel at the end of the break.

CROWNKEEPERSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! I actually never fully watched Kymal so the bunny woman was a surprise XD

The collaborativeness is nice, asking Anjali about her sister.

ahahaha god this platform. DON'T WHIPLASH MY EMOTIONS LIKE THIS! I'M CRYING OVER ORYM AND ALL!

….Me not having watched Kymal might confuse me for the next two hours.

Black lipstick will never not get me. Aimee.

Is Dorian going to reply to Orym's message??????

Good on Matt for starting off.

(Pleeeeease may they say this woman's name). Her character's Morrighan. Whoa, a champion of the Matron of Ravens.

The Crownkeepers have been having a real swell time.

(Fy'ra Rai has always been a great name to say). So, sent by the Wildmother to protect them.

Aww, Dorian feeling some consequences of his avoidance.

From an above-table perspective, I'm surprised they're all feeling so lost? I wonder if it was planned and if Aabria's going to suddenly give them a direction, or if they're reticent to set too much in stone?

OPAL'S BETRAYER GOD CHAMPION DESIGN IS SO SICK; I LOVE IT!

Sleep as an exhausting void… Creepy.

"Can I hear him?" "Make a wisdom save." Terrifying. "Shouting at you while running backwards." What a description.

I do love Opal, too. Such a situation but still trying to retain that image of her.

"We gotta get these chuckles out not." Whimper in terrified player.

I love Aabria's GM-ing in a lot of other things (ACOFAF is S-tier), but I think this highlights why I found EXU Prime harder to get into. The Crownkeepers tend to lack a motivating goal from the off-set, making it a bit hard for me to figure what they're trying to do and why.

Still, starting off with PVP might be the wakeup!

HA! Matt Mercer doing the ad read. Love it.

Spider Queen is intimidating and poor, poor Opal.

Holy shit, Opal's raising into the air and burning the forest. Hahaha make Aimee choose which friend to destroy. Awwww forcing her into PvP!

Goddddddd Aabria is the Betrayer God here.

Black eyessssssss. Magic second set of arms.

God, imagine being Aimee rn.

27 on initiative??????

THE DARIAX ROLLS RETURN!

At least Opal can communicate her panic.

HASTE ON OPAL???? HA! VENMO TO HASTE THE ENEMY!

The Dariax rolls balance Morrighan's.

Aw, sweet with Morrighan and Opal whispering telepathically.

Amazing image of stone cold Opal in contrast.

I like how Matt and Aabria pop in with lessons for the others. Nice to see players propping each other up.

CRYSTAL RAPIER? NICE!

"She's just a little guy."

Absolutely fair, seeing weird shit for your Betrayer God Champion friend and just wanting to knock her the fuck out.

Kind of Anjali to tally up the numbers as they roll.

Eeeeeek, ripping a rapier down her thigh.

OPAL DOESN'T TAKE THE DAMAGE????? IS THAT A REACTION OR????

TED!

Hahaha "if Opal did crossfit".

(I googled it. Morrighan is played Erica.)

Oh christ Ted's helping. I wonder how much Morrighan knows about Ted.

"NONONO STOP!" as verbal component for Shield is fantastic.

I don't trust that this is Ted?? Does Ted know Opal's fucked right now??

"Why's the first thing you do drawing blood?" Well, because it's D&D.

Haste lets you go get a hotdog from Arby's. Vax knew this well.

Aabria's English accent is so American-version-of-English but I like how it sounds anyway.

Let the ashhole return, cowards!

Yeah, Robbie, this is a weird situation. Dorian's just choking on his flute. Yeah, trying to restrain Opal is a good plan. NO! NAT 20 minus 1 + 4 plus 13. Aimee/Opal, go! Get! It!

Nice, Aabria, failing forward is a lesson we can all incorporate.

NAT ONE PLUS 13?? ROBBIE! Cannot catch a break.

T_T Fy'ra being betrayyyyyed again. Ooh, very very cool from Anjali calling for a flashback.

(We still never got the response to Orym. Has that happened yet or it that going to be the bookend? I'm curious what this is going to mean for the actual campaign. It's a really fun idea to bring in another GM for a section. Sure, more Actual PlayTM than homegame but Matt at least gets to play.)

Haha Anjali welcome to the DM club! I know about this from the Ginny Di video. Anjali DMed an official lego game.

Can they free Opal?

Ohhh. The Wildmother wants this? Am I misunderstanding? Shit.

They can't separate Opal from the crown.

Love how different people set their dice.

Never take advice from GM Aabria :P

Holy shit these guys roll high.

I hardly ever see people take the dodge action.

I do like Opal a lot.

So the Spider Queen is just trying to full take over Opal. I wonder if Teven or the other Betrayer God Champion had this sort of thing happen.

GO AWAY FOREVER??? THEIR MOTHER DID THIS TO OPAL AND TED?? Evalux? A splinter group? I'M SO CONFUSED AND INTRIGUED! THE BEACON'S INVOLVED??? How tf did they get it in Byroden? So there's a splinter of Luxon followers who split themselves in one life instead? God, I hope the main cast get to watch this.

…..And Opal has no memory of it. Will we ever get this information?

Erica continues to roll like a god.

The turns have felt both long and fast. I've still got, like, an hour and a half.

I love how Matt describes/contextualises things, even as a player.

HA! CYRUS IS HERE?!

ROLL PERFORMANCE FOR HANDJOB

A 7!!!!!

Bless is good. Dariax panicking is great.

XD God initiative takes a long time in a big group.

THE ROLLS! THE DARIAX ROLLS!

Ah! Dariax is a bard! Yeah! So cuuuute for the Double Ds. "THE PERFORMING ARTS IS WORTH IT!"

So. All of them are blind in the darkness. Awesome, awesome move, Aimee.

Hahhahahahaha right. Warlock. No spell slots.

XD It's such a long game. No loo breaks.

SQUIRREL SPIDER FTW

Gotta love Cyrus. "NO DON'T SHOOT!" The himbo persists.

….Matt, what did you get for the WIS save?

PALADIN COMES IN FOR THE SAVE!

Hahahaha "that could can see". Okay. Blind mistystep? …..I'm sure 8 will get it.

Aww, attacking your friend's going to leave a bad taste in your mouth. Lay on Hands is good.

I appreciate Aabria's helpfulness as a GM.

Fy'ra good teammate.

Opal, again, is amazing. I love how she tackles such complex things in her very Her way. Preserves drama and humour in her self-absorbtion.

I wonder how Opal washes her hair under that crown?

Well, some allowance for fighting when Opal attacked them? Obvs harder emotionally than logically.

Aww everyone got to see the memory of Opal and Morrighan bonding.

HA! LOVE FY'RA BEING COMMANDER!

Dorian is forever clanking with all the instruments he carries. T_T 9 to dispel fails. Good plan though. Until back into the darkness he goes.

I like the idea of going back to the Crownkeepers, especially as a perspective on Opal and Dorian, but I'm two hours into this section and still don't quite get the full significance of it. Which is a shame. I still have faith, but I think this encounter would be more enjoyable if I understood better why we were seeing it in the Bell's Hells campaign.

I've always respected Opal/Aimee going in on being the asshole sister. Getting to see that perspective.

The gem flashbacks are cool.

"We can both be coins." "And we're richer for it!" Amazing. Great pun. Love Fy'ra. Love Ted coaching Opal.

Max offering blind Dariax up on a plate. Respect.

I LOVE MATT AS DARIAX! SO FUNNY!

Con sorcerer is smart.

Aabria has no luck against Dariax.

I'm sure that 9 WIS will help perception.

BARDIC COMES IN CLUTCH!

DIMENSION DOOR IS A BONUS ACTION?!

I. Love. Opal. Aimee plays her and her struggles and her relationships with everyone so well and nuanced. Dariax is a well-done character too. Real even behind the humour.

I leapt too, Aimee. Holy shit what the fuck, Spider Queen?

(Fuck you, Twitch, for skipping, my god).

Oh god, Cyrus, don't die.

Nooooo, Dariax. Living nightmares. Him and Dorian seeing their nightmares.

Spider Queen Opal wtf.

Pick up next week? Huh. I… am confused by this. Interesting encounter. I liked the drama between the Crown Keepers. But, again, I don't understand the significance for the Bell's Hells? So I reckon next week will be first half Crown Keepers, second half Bell's Hells. Huh. Interesting episode. It was fun, though I really don't deny still being on the edge of my seat to find out what's happening with the BH.

#critical role #cr spoilers #critical role spoilers

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porterprophet · 2 years

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The Calloway Timeline

(Some allowances for memory-modified mind-fuckery, Feywild Time-Soup stuff and D&D Races and mechanics that I don't know, but the basics are essentially:)

Birdie and Ollie met 12 years ago.

They say they left Fearne 6 years ago.

Ollie says Fearne should be 14 years old.

Fearne is 112 years old.

Fearne says it's been 90 years since she last saw her parents.

Parents' perspective: Fearne should be 11 years old - maximum; if they had Fearne straight away. But probably a little younger than that. That's already 2 or more years unaccounted for on their end. (Assuming the six years' absence is accurate - assuming it would be really difficult to hide a progressing date from them when Birdie is constantly going into towns).

Fearne's perspective: she's maximum 5 years old when her parents leave her and believes it's been 90 years since she's seen them last. But says with full confidence that she's 112 years old.

95 is very different from 112.

Assuming she's spent at least a year in Exandria (haven't seen ExU Prime, my bad); she's got maybe 15 or so years unaccounted for. If they're not the product of time-souping into Exandria. How has nobody questioned that she missed her parents when she was a small child, spent 90 years without them, came to Exandria and yet keeps asserting she's 112?

#cr #critical role #cr3 #fearne calloway #birdie calloway #ollie calloway #the calloways #cr spoilers?#post c3e31 #this is mostly for me #i honestly think some of the cast did catch that #namely marisha #she looked absolutely perplexed by the timeline ollie put forward #the fact that fearne is meant to be 14 is fucking wild #oderan wild you might say #cr speculation #c3e31

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jocelynmakenna · 2 years

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Ok who wants to hear my luxon/moon gods theory?

Wow you're still here? Okay let's get started.

Theory: the luxon (a being of light) and some unnamed being of darkness are the two gods locked in the moon prison.

"That's not a hot take" you say. Yes, correct. I have a lot of evidence though (because I'm fucking insane).

Let's start with what we know from Matt's explanation from the C2 wrap up (3:33:00ish). I will note, he specifically says this is a creation myth, so I am cherry picking data to fit my theory because it's a myth and I think it's fun. ANYWAYS!! Matt says the luxon is a being of light, born with the universe, and wants companionship. The luxon finds a cold rock and embraces it with its light etc etc. The one thing I will note here specifically, is that Matt notes that the luxon desires to bring life to this cold dead rock (exandria) but when it does so, the elements erupt into chaos. So, my thought is that when the luxon/this being of light shows up to exandria, the cold darkness it is met with is some other being, a being of darkness, and once it embraces the world, the clashing of the light and the dark is what causes the elements to erupt.

For a more sane (and probable) ending to this set up, the light and the dark are fighting. The luxon creates life by giving sentience to the primordials, but life isn't good because 2 opposite forces are at war. So when the wandering gods show up and kick start the founding, the luxon and the darkness are still fighting and they are threatening their precious creations/paper dolls. So the gods lock up the gods in the moon to save their creations.

"But what about the beacons!?!?" I hear you screaming and crying about. Well, the kryn believe that the luxon split itself into the beacons in hopes one day sentience would form and reassemble it so it could have an introspective moment. I simply think that's a WILD FUCKING PLAN so let's talk about some theories. First, we need to establish a timeline of WHEN people got the beacons. According to the kryn, it's implied it's pre-founding, but I don't think that's right. See in the exu intros, the stained glass only show events that have already happened. In exu prime and kymal, the beacon glass floats above a pair of hands, as humans have the beacons. BUT in the calamity intro, the beacon floats on its own, no hands. Through everything I've seen, the beacons may not have gotten into human hands until the calamity started! (If u look at aeor's timeline, it fits. Their experimentation with it could have started post calamity kick off). So assuming that I'm interpreting the beacon imagery correctly, humans get the beacons during the calamity...

I think there's two options for the beacons.

1) the kryn were more correct in timeline. When the luxon and the darkness were locked in the moon, either both of them or just the light, split themselves (or got split up) into beacons that were then hidden from the people as they were just too powerful. They weren't found until the calamity because the gods had Other Things to deal with.

2) the kryn were less correct in time. This has less evidence but man it's fun. Imagine, if you will, a being of light and a being of darkness, trapped in a prison with a city of your most loyal followers. And you look upon the planet you once called home and you see these invaders. Gods that were not from here, that locked you away to play with their toys, destroying your home. What do you do? You break parts of your power, just small enough to get through the gate that surrounds your prison. A gift to the people who call your planet home. A way to literally rewrite the fabric of reality, to change time, to change the odds in their favor.

Does option #2 make sense given what we have? Not entirely, but it doesn't break canon at all. But I do want to keep going on this thread, if the kryn and vasselhiem and the collective history of exandria is fundamentally different than what we know. Do I think what I'm about to type is going to happen? Probably not, because narratively, it probably won't be as satisfying, but it would certainly be something.

Let's start at the beginning. Darkness on exandria, luxon shows up, fighting between the luxon and the darkness causes elements to go sicko mode and perhaps the creation of the primordials via the luxon's influence and want of sentient life. Here's where we get into the red thread conspiracy theory: the luxon is also responsible for the founding. The humanoid species of exandria come into existence at this time, with the only divinity being from the luxon and the darkness. The world isn't great, the primordials are stirring up shit, the gods are constantly fighting, so a bunch of people form a cult of some kind (perhaps referring to each other as brother and sister). They use an apogee solstice to ascend to godhood and lock the old gods into their own prison.

I'm sure you think there are plot holes here but let's walk through some stuff. First off, this idea came from zerxus's line in calamity that said basically that humans were always here (on exandria), that the gods never created, they just came and shaped. That humans/humanoids weren't created by the gods, perhaps by something much older. But if you think that the most kind gods would know enough to know that their story is a lie and perhaps give hints to followers about the truth should it save their lives, I offer you a different line from calamity. Brennan says as the Lord of the hells, that he no longer remembers his brother (the old god of death's) name. That somehow, the power of ascension of a mortal was enough to rewrite the memory of a god. This could mean that when the pantheon ascended, that they literally rewrote EVERYONE'S memories, including their own.

Do I think that these theories I have word barfed here are correct? Maybe? I don't think all of them are off base, though some probably more than others. I think a mix of things could happen, ie the luxon and darkness being the ones to kick start the founding and the pantheon was a later addition to exandria. Or that the beacons were later additions but the gods were humans and ascended.

Some fun stuff to theorize about I'd love to know y'all's thoughts (aka the 3 people that are actually gonna read this I'm so sorry this is so long).

#long post #holy shit its a long post #anyway #im a fan of the more wack theories (like the pantheon was once human and the beacons were later additions to exandria)#but i also understand that it kinda undercuts a lot of whats currently canon #i genuinely think that the luxon bringing life to exandira and creating the primordials is closer to right than wrong #id LOVE it if they also kicked off the founding and the pantheon were significantly later additions to exandria than we all thought #anyways #actual tags now #critical role #bells hells #critical role spoilers #campaign 3 #luxon theory #moons haunted

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noodlesarecheese · 2 years

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Okay now I’m spiraling about Fearne’s parents going to Aeor and what that could mean, in no particular order. These are all just theories and possibilities with wildly varying degrees of evidence, just the things ricocheting around in my brain, so don’t take them too seriously.

1. They’re just tourists. Seems like an odd vacation but they’re Fey after all, and there’s plenty of opportunity for chaos in Aeor.

2. They were looking for something specific, either magic or tech, for some reason. I wonder if there’s some connection between the other paces they went that would make it more obvious. We don’t know enough about Fearne’s parents to say what they’d be interested in, and there are so many things in Aeor. Could be related to the beacons, to aeormatons, to the weird science-magic experiments, or even the somnovum.

3. If one or both of her parents were wizards, could they have time traveled? And that’s why they’ve disappeared? We don’t know how long ago that last postcard was sent (unless she said and I missed it), they could’ve been there before M9 went and Caleb disintegrated the time travel stuff. And there was that weird alternate Fearne in EXU, wasn’t there something said at some point that when you time travel you leave a shadow of yourself behind? Could that Fearne be from a timeline where she followed her parents into Aeor and timetravelled as well?

3.5 If they time traveled, that opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Did they scatter the beacons across Wildemount? Did they have something to do with Dancer and FCG’s groups death? Did they go back to when Aeor fell, did they end up in the astral sea? Are they causing disturbances in the timeline that somehow caused the red storm? Did Fearne’s mother become the Raven Queen? Her name is Birdie, ravens are birds, FCG hates birds it’s all connected!

3.5.5 If they time travelled, maybe they sent all the postcards from the past and Fearne’s grandmother has been holding onto them and giving them to Fearne at the appropriate times? In which case I’d be even more curious to see where the other one’s came from.

4. The postcards are fake, Fearne’s grandmother is hiding something. But she hasn’t been to the prime material in a long time so she didn’t realize Aeor had fallen. I mean, how do postcards get from the prime material plane to the feywild anyways? I guess they could have had a spell or magic item, or maybe there are creatures that go back and forth and act as mail carriers?

4.5 If Fearne’s grandmother is hiding something, what? I went to look up what all Mirror Fearne had said to see if there was anything relevant and I think there’s definitely something up. Mirror Fearne said she was the version of Fearne who had found and embraced her power. She’s wearing the circlet, so it could be related to that, but it also implies that Fearne has latent abilities that she’s avoiding/not embracing. Something inherited maybe?

She then says that it’s time to go home, that the war queen wants her back, and that she can’t be the outcasts her parents are. Given that we know her grandmother’s name is Morrigan, war queen is pretty clearly referring to her (side note, is Fearne’s grandmother THE Morrigan? Because that has some weird implications about how Exandria and Earth could be connected.). Fearne says her grandmother sent her, and that her parents left, but this implies that that might not be the case.

Now, there’s a couple different ways to look at that. Mirror Fearne could just be straight up lying, or things could be different in her timeline/dimension/wherever she’s from. Or maybe Morrigan did tell Fearne to go, then changed her mind or got impatient, or something happened that changed things on her end.

Then Mirror Fearne says that Morrigan lied, that she sent the letters and the gifts, and their parents won. Fearne doesn’t believe her, and she very well could be lying to get Fearne to do what she wants. But she could be telling the truth. If so, what did her parents run from? When Mirror Fearne is destroyed, Fearne hears “The Unforgiving. High War Queen of the Veil. Matriarch of the Seelie Court“ in her head. So maybe her parents fled some sort of responsibility, or they were concerned that Morrigan would see them as a threat to her throne? The Unforgiving is an interesting title to put in there, what is it that she can’t forgive? If they were afraid of Morrigan, why not take Fearne with them? Did they try but couldn’t get her out? Did they think she would be safe?

I have so many questions and I can’t wait to find out the truth!

#critical role spoilers #cr spoilers #cr3 spoilers #critical role campaign 3 spoilers #exu spoilers #exandria unlimited spoilers

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critrolecalm · 3 years

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I knew as soon as I heard Aabria’s description of this lovely little grove with a gateway that Fearne was inexplicibly drawn to that I wanted to make a clip of it. Aabria’s description, Fearne’s soft voice, and the choral music in the background made it sound magical.

I’ve been getting better about editing the clips, taking out higher-energy banter or laughter, out-of-place background noises, or accidentally repeated phrases. I realized for the latter you could actually look for the similar waveform to see where to clip a repeated phrase, rather than having to listen for it. Here Aabria says, “[Y]ou head into the woods and you walk for a solid 40 minutes until the terrain gets” - at which point the others speak, and then she picks up again at “The terrain gets...” So practically speaking you can look at the waveform of her saying, “the terrain gets”, visually look ahead, see where it shows up again, and then clip one and everything in between.

But I wanted to point it out because I just think it really cool that you can see what it looks like when Aabria says, “the terrain gets.”

[Image ID: a screenshot of digital audio editing software Ocenaudio, showing a window with two waveforms for left and right stereo, with time on the x axis and amplitude on the y axis. Two areas are highlighted in red: a waveform in a particular shape that looks basically the same except the one on the right is stretched a little higher up and down on the y axis.]

As usual, I’ve also uploaded the clip to YouTube, and have included the transcript both there as captions as well as here below the cut.

youtube

AABRIA: [Y]ou head into the woods and you walk for a solid 40 minutes until the terrain gets really rocky and craggly, and it seems almost to rise up on both sides. You're moving through this extremely narrow pass, but it's the middle of the day and it's still fairly bright. And then you reach it, the end of the pass, and there's a little clearing. And somewhere, off in the distance, you can hear running water, but you don't see it. And as you move through, you arrive here, just an open glade. And at the center of it, a strange... gate? A little mound of vines, wrapped up columns, stairs, a little pillar, a plinth. And Fearne, this is where you came through to the Prime Material Plane. It was lost to you, forgotten, fuzzy, but this was it. This entire place radiates with fey energy and all of you feel it. Though it's peaceful and it's quiet, and the longer you stare, the little orange buds begin to open up and turn to face you, Fearne.

ASHLEY: This is-- this is the gate that I went through and how I got here. I think that's what was pulling me, because I feel-- I feel my home. I feel my-- I feel my Nana.

AIMEE: Aww.

LIAM: Are you wanting to go back?

ASHLEY: I always want to go back, but I-- I don't know if it's time yet. I have some things to do. And I don't think I should return empty-handed. But it feels so nice. It smells like home, it feels like home.

LIAM: It's pretty.

ASHLEY: Thank you.

#critical role #exandria unlimited #aabria iyengar #ashley johnson

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