Natural 1s Abound

Hello, I am Jess a 25 year old ace girl from Scotland. This is my blog for all things critical role throughout both campaigns, as well as vtm stuff and just generally ttrpgs

[filthy-rat]

summer lovers DNI

[xochihuacoyotl]

i hate it i hate it i hate it i hate it let me bE COLD, I CAN PUT ON A COZY CARDIGAN PLEASE

[vethbrenatto]

EXU Crew + Text Posts

[cranesofibycus]

“ Sir Bertrand Bell it is, huh? Good night. “

[balleater]

with the mentions of pies lately, i do want to remind everyone of this absolutely iconic moment

[foxqueen-katarian]

Caleb being the Gordon Ramsey of the Soltryce Academy, where he is very soft and gentle with his younger students who are just starting out, but getting into knock down drag out fights with other professors and older students over obscure details and ethical quandaries.

[foxqueen-katarian]

Gordon Ramsay quotes that I can absolutely see Caleb saying, (edited to be about magic instead of cooking)

“Archmages are nutters. They’re all self-obsessed, delicate, dainty, insecure little souls, and absolute psychopaths. Every last one of them.”

“You don’t come into magic to get rich.”

“I’m Caleb Widogast, for goodness sake; people know I’m volatile.”

“I’d like to think I’m a great teacher.”

“I mean, families are weird.”

“When I get angry, I’m just being honest, and I don’t think it’s ever going to be any different. I, like any good Wizard, want everything to be perfect.”

“What I’ve instilled in the kids, from day one, is a work ethic. So, the time we spend together is limited, but it’s quality.”

“My industry, I’m sorry to say, is full of muppets.”

“Put your head down and work hard. Never wait for things to happen, make them happen for yourself through hard graft and not giving up.”

“I’ve never, ever, ever, ever, ever met someone I believe in as little as you.”

[anne-o-nyme]

If I may...

...In return, students and apprentices info dump him all the ethic violations and safety hazards their teachers or masters commit on a regular basis with a big smile on their face, ready to witness one of Widowgast’s famous outbursts. 

[foxqueen-katarian]

There are few things more intimidating as a professor at the Soltryce than looking to the back of your class and seeing Professor Widogast. Caleb doesn’t care if you’re teaching, doesn’t care if you’ve got tenure, doesn’t care about your title or who your family is. If he wants to ‘have a chat’ you make time for it or have your less than savory deeds aired for whoever is present.

As a student seeing Professor Widogast in the back of your lecture hall is like Wintercrest. Sure you aren’t going to make any progress towards your final project today, but it’s so worth it to watch soft spoken kind Professor Widogast verbally eviscerate whoever’s pissed him off this time.

[fromonecrittoanother]

So I’ve Been Thinking About Fearne

More specifically I’ve been thinking about Fearne and Bertrand’s conversation about family and her wanting a family life in the future.

Now I get that a lot of that conversation was Fearne trying to make Bertrand uncomfortable by being a confusing mix of menacing and sweet (the Fearne special) but I have EXU on the brain so I got something else from it.

In EXU a lot of Fearne’s backstory is unclear, we know she came through Artagan’s Gate from the Feywild and we know she lived with her Nanna and some wild creatures she was friends with. We also learn through Fearne’s confrontation with Mirror!Fearne that her parents aren’t around.

What the deal is with her parents and/or Fearne’s search for them is unclear... Mirror!Fearne could have been lying or misleading Fearne about any of it but we know Mirror!Fearne called her parents cowards and accused Nanna of lying about something.

Now Fearne rejects Mirror!Fearne and the EXU gang kills her so we won’t know how much of what she said was true.

We do know however that Ellenmore the Matriarch of the Seelie court wanted Mirror!Fearne to drag real Fearne back, either to stop her quest for her family or for some other purpose. That definitely won’t come up again or cause problems in the future...

So yeah, I think Fearne was being honest about wanting a family life, just not necessarily the kind Bertrand was thinking about. In fact I think the only reason she left her home was to find one and that everything else has been a chaotic detour that she’s hoping will eventually lead her to her parents.

[blighted-elf]

[luckthebard]

I've seen people point out the main difference between Campaign 2 and Campaign 3 as "no callbacks allowed until level 10" vs. "callbacks to C1 for everyone!" but I think there's a little more to it than that.

C2 and C3 were built to accomplish very different things and tell very different stories (which I'm super into). Coming straight off of C1, C2 very much had to prove that Critical Role as a show could stand on its own two feet and last as a successful show outside of Vox Machina. They had to commit to no callbacks, both to build out the whole world more and to prove their storytelling could be compelling outside of the story they told already.

C3 on the other hand doesn't really have that burden, and so they're open to do something super interesting which is: explore the long-term consequences of things they did as other characters in different campaigns. And since this is only 8 years after C2, those long-term consequences are mostly going to come from C1.

So C3 gets to ask: "What happened to the ordinary people of Whitestone who VM couldn't save or had to sacrifice?" "What's it like for ordinary citizens living under Keyleth in Zephrah?" "What are the consequences of VM opening a fey gate for Artagan, and what other fey creatures might have crossed over?" "If people like Tary create automatons, or they are awakened and come down from Aeor, what is life like for those creatures if they gain sentience?" "What happened to Bertrand Bell anyway?"

I'm interested to see if there are some less obvious C1 "consequence" connections for characters like Imogen and Ashton.

[checkfortraps]

Unsettling Presence? So Laudna’s a Hollow One! That means that yes, she very likely died in Whitestone during the Briarwood rule, and was brought back through mysterious means - perhaps her warlock patron?

To expand on this, from the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount:

“The eastern coast of Xhorhas, known to the Kryn as Blightshore, is a land scarred by evil magic. Among the creations of that foul place are the Hollow Ones, beings whose souls have left for the afterlife, yet whose bodies still retain a fragment of their former selves.

The magic that sustains Hollow Ones is a mystery. Most Hollow Ones are reborn after dying in Blightshore, suggesting that the spell-scarred nature of the land brought them back for an unknown purpose. Yet some beings find that, days after they died, they awaken, clutching to life, with only a terrible emptiness inside to remind them of their death. 

In Blightshore, Hollow Ones are seen as a people like any other. They seem strange, but the adventurous and hardy folk of Blightshore are used to making allies with strange creatures. Elsewhere, Hollow Ones are indistinguishable from living creatures, save for the faint stench of necromancy that lingers about them.

The transition from life to becoming a Hollow One affects different people to different degrees. Some let their anger and regret consume them. Others use their second chance to become a brighter force in the world. However, all Hollow Ones are marked by their new existence: feelings of unease, dread or sadness cling to them like tattered rags of their past life.”

As a Hollow One, Laudna is ageless, gains a hit point when she makes a death save of 16 or higher, counts as undead for detection spells, and can use Unsettling Presence to give a creature disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes within a minute.

[ofstarstuff]

Much like the previous campaign, we’re starting to see fascinating coincidences. Fresh Cut Grass refers to other people as “soul-touched”, and says that he likely doesn’t have an actual soul, but Laudna is actively soulless from the get go.

As someone who is playing a cheerful ghost in a different game, I live this lass even more now. Being dreadful doesn’t mean you can’t also be adorable!

[checkfortraps]

I just had to run and watch that scene again, but when FCG recounts his backstory, Laudna goes “oh”, and when they’re saying they’re soulless and just built out of parts, Laudna’s response is “well, technically we’re all built out of parts”. Then, Dorian goes “we don’t know if we have souls either”, and Laudna just makes a little “eh” sound. This gains a whole new dimension with the new information that she’s a Hollow One.

[lumuraa]

Liam: Happily re-rolling the Nat 1 he rolled because Orym is a halfling

Sam, who played Veth, a halfling, for the last chunk of Campaign 2 and continuously ignored that racial feat on purpose:

[fuckyeahlabynight]

[canadiankazz]

See in you NYC, vamily!

[mockingmolly]

Bertrand threw a glass at Fearne and its been all Fearne Will Remember That all fucking night I love it SO much

[mockingmolly]

SDHGJFMF???

[grayintogreen]

Ashton: Has anyone crimed before?

Orym and Dorian: [Jeopardy music]

Fearne: [who stole from someone five minutes into her arrival and has no filter] Define crime?

[blighted-elf]

“Walk from the lifeguard booth and straight into the water…”

[blighted-elf]

LA by Night Season 5, Episode 5 - Jeanette Voerman

[ford-ye-fiji]

Ashton: has anyone here ever committed a crime???

Dorian, who went from chaotic good to chaotic neutral in the last campaign:

Fearne, who doesn’t know what a crime is but stole immediately upon the entering the city:

Orym, the only good aligned character in his previous party, who remembers when he and the crown keepers took a job from a criminal organization, broke into a boat, stole a vestige, and then killed people:

[fuck-off-im-ace]

Laudna sending Imogen a message: 🥰💘😚😘😀😏😘😘😊

Laudna sending Orym a message: 😳☠️😈💀💀🔪😳😶🔪😬