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Critical Role |OT| Is It Thursday Yet?
- Thread starter Dream Machine
- Start date
- Video/Streaming OT
I take it Caleb doesn't have teleportation circle prepared...
This is Ashley's last game for like 4-6 months (likely 6 months). Last time she was gone from party but then Travis played her character for like 3 months on the ship..... I think Yasha will become the a big bad for late campaign now.
I laughed out loud when Oban asked them and they were just like, "Uhh... you said a thing and we were like OK?"
Oh please, they literally tried like 3 or 4 times to their own detriment. There was no save or any indication she could snap out of it.
Convenient timing since she's gone for her TV show after this episode.
when the BBEG says to come to an ancient tomb of an ancient horror and bring your specific friend, you just... gotta go? no questions asked, you know
Yeah, it certainly makes it hard to believe they weren't all in on this as a way to write Yasha off the show for now.
And keep spamming him messages to keep him updated on where you are and what you're doing coz y'know, even playing field!
You don't need anyone to be in on it, just the DM knowing when to throw time this happening.
there's absolutely NO WAY they knew - (aside from Yasha, who Matt probably gave some kind of clue to)
I don't think Yasha is doomed, but I'm also not sure how to write her out of this situation. It's clearly part of her story and is a good explanation for her character to be gone for awhile, though. Plenty of time to think of something.
If "Yasha" was a part of Oban's group, maybe the Laughing Hand will leave her alone.
If "Yasha" was a part of Oban's group, maybe the Laughing Hand will leave her alone.
She'll come back as Yasha the White having slain the
that's kind of the angle I'm thinking of
nvm, I like this more
Matt gave them no way to save Yasha. She had one saving throw, and damage didn't do anything to snap her out. Maybe greater restoration could have saved her, but I doubt it. They did everything they could, and most of them were almost dead. I'm frankly amazed Fjord is still alive. It looked like Travis had already resigned himself to death.
He DID let Jester roll for charm person, though (and I guess Jester could've also used dominate person if she hadn't used it on Oban). And they might've been able to whip up some kind of forced transportation (they have like thirteen pairs of manacles!).
But yes, this was definitely Matt's way to write her out of the story for the time being, and it was masterful
We can only hope they learn from this. This thing is the best antagonist they've had since the Iron Shepherds. This could be the beginning of an insane story arc. I hope the first thing they do next game is scry on Yasha or this creature.
Ooh, these jerks had a special camera setup just for this moment. I am so ready for when the M9 get a second shot at this bastard creature. M9 is now officially team Save Yasha's Soul.
I'm not the biggest LoTR fan, but if Yasha ever returns like Gandalf the White it would be one of the hypest moments of either campaign.
I'm not the biggest LoTR fan, but if Yasha ever returns like Gandalf the White it would be one of the hypest moments of either campaign.
Good episode, except for whatever Tal was doing. Having bless up after casting holy weapon, having the bless kill a major villain when it shouldn't be up, and then dropping it immediately when it's turned against the party. Then forgetting that you lose a readied spell, then fudging a healing amount, then immediately cheesing a bless?
I get it, it's a heated moment and it's a panic, but games have rules for a reason, and forgetting them when it's convenient really takes away from the moment because the challenge and drama just lose their magic, might as well get scripts and free roleplay, no dice needed.
Can't wait to see reaper Yasha and the demon boy cause some serious damage.
I get it, it's a heated moment and it's a panic, but games have rules for a reason, and forgetting them when it's convenient really takes away from the moment because the challenge and drama just lose their magic, might as well get scripts and free roleplay, no dice needed.
Can't wait to see reaper Yasha and the demon boy cause some serious damage.
Good episode but man I did not like that encounter. It felt like it was stacked against them in every way conceivable. I don't think they could've actually killed the Laughing Hand or even reseal it. Not to mention Matt made Oban in such a way it seemed like there was no way he wasn't getting that ritual off without some godly rolls. I'd hesitate to call the whole situation "unfair" but it seemed like Matt kinda put them in a kinda unwinnable situation. Which I don't know how much I care for...
They won though. Killed Oban, escaped the tomb and Yasha was supposed to be turned.
Yeah, I don't really blame Taliesin, he does get a fuzzy head sometimes when he's in a high stakes encounter. But Matt should have rewound the turns and undid Oban's death. It was too big of a plot point to just go with that series of screw-ups. Otherwise as you say, why follow the rules at all.
It was unwinnable in the way a certain dragon was in campaign 1, but the difference is that one was a total surprise and we had no idea what was going on, while this time we knew exactly what was going to happen -- and I think most of us knew Matt would use this encounter to make Yasha disappear -- and thus it made it feel really scripted.
I don't think we have the same definition of "win" when you lose a partymember and an ancient evil gets unleashed onto the world and all you get for it is a whip
I wouldn't (and neither did they) consider it "winning". They survived.
Yeah, that's probably whats bugging me more about this honestly.
Its Matt driving the story hard in a certain direction. It was not impossible for them to get a better outcome by saving Yasha or kidnapping Oban, but this is the "good" outcome for the dungeon he came up with.
the "smart" outcome for the party would've been to not enter into the obviously trap dungeon and playing right into the bad guys' hand...
At least I hope they learn something from it - though Fjord's reaction seemed to indicate he learned absolutely nothing and is still just a panicked kid who doesn't think further ahead than his next step
Am I a bad person for silently hoping Fjord was going to die there?
This is something that DM's do a lot.
I think Matt would have found a way to unleash the Laughing Hand with or without the M9.
The players also wanted to focus a bit more on Ashley so they naturally followed the plot hook that involved her.
Even if they never went after Oban I guarantee you that this session would have ended with Yasha being mind controlled and heading to the dungeon.
I think Matt has been waiting for one of these ancient evil's to be unleashed and it was either going to be this or Uk'otoa
Chances are that is exactly what is going on with Oban. Didn't Yasha hear him when she picked up the ichor?
To be fair from his perspective he was betrayed and has been through that before with that mutiny he survived through years ago so betrayal might make him not think straight
I think the party will learn from it. They generally rebound pretty well from tragedy. As for Fjord, I'm going to wait until next episode to judge him too harshly. It felt like a real character moment from Travis, and I can't help but think he is being reminded of his crewmate that destroyed his ship and took away his father figure. Dude might have some issues with betrayal from teammates. Also she did almost straight up kill him, so being skeptical feels a little warranted.
This episode was exhausting for me, but this Laughing Hand thing intrigues me so much. I think I like it more than the entire Conclave. This campaign is just feeding my love of scary monsters and horror themes.
Hah, not at all. It's hard to say if Travis isn't playing his character well or if he is just a superb roleplayer who does an excellent job playing a low Wisdom character who also wants to avoid conflict by willfully being ignorant and not taking action. The main thing that annoys me is when he completely misinterprets the situation (low wisdom?) and somehow convinces the party that his view of things was right.
Like in the current situation, he thinks the party is at fault and could go to jail. Oban didn't need the party to get inside, he is a Cambion who can fly through obstacles rapidly and if he couldn't touch the dagger because he was a fiend, he could have easily hired someone to do it for him or brought along another of the followers of the Angel of Irons (but there was no indication that this limitation was in place). The only failure on their part was not to kill Oban or interrupt his ritual in the 2 rounds they had and they tried but had bad dice rolls. Plus, since he was flying and any rolls to bring down to earth kept failing, there is no way they could take him down from range with only EB and non-sneak attack crossbow damage (possibly 1 sneak attack if attacked from invis). Really the only major failure was to not try Banishment or Polymorph on Oban during the 2 rounds of the ritual, I don't think they tried those spells during that time? Did Clay not prepare Banishment when they were going to a possibly demon-filled dungeon, that seems a bit of an oversight, too.
No banishment, Polymorph, Silence, Stunning Strike, or explosive attack to try and break the tablet. The group really made some poor calls in that opening round. At least the Demon Fjord summoned tanked for a few rounds and probably helped keep everyone alive, but otherwise it was a lot of failed attempts to take Oban out of the sky.
I think Fjord is worried they've essentially unleashed an immortal champion of a betrayer god, and if it can singlehandedly wreck that outpost, then the M9 would make easy scapegoats if the government felt the need to blame someone. In the short term this might be a big win for the Empire if this thing can take out entire settlements/garrisons. Fjord is jumping the gun, and outside of clearing a few traps, the M9 didn't really do anything Oban couldn't to free this creature, but his paranoia doesn't feel entirely unfounded, if this thing turns out to be as dangerous as everyone is treating it.
I don't know much about all the monsters in D&D, but nothing is truly unkillable right? They just need to find a weapon or power that can get through it's weird mouth regeneration thing. Until then though, I wonder how much damage it will truly be able to deal out in the world.
Holy Shit! Matt just keeps upping his game. Once again I was almost certain this was going to be a TPK or a least 1 or 2 deaths, but they managed to squeak by. Losing Yasha was a given but what a way to go, mind slave to a fiendish champion that's gotta suck. Damn it, it's 3 am here and now I'm totally wired. Maybe if they're really lucky having this thing running around will encourage a ceasefire between the Dynasty and the Empire, I doubt it but it's worth a try. Also, they should really check in with that mage they palled up with on the Menagerie Coast he might be able to help.
No idea about the stat block of this creature, but it likely is very killable - it is just meant for a level 15+ party instead of level 9. Some creatures are only killable on their home plane, but it would at least banish it from the prime plane if reduced to 0 hitpoints.
I didn't get to watch today's episode live, and --
Well, shit.
I'm conflicted between nooo, Yasha and YES, DRAMA. Can't wait to watch!
(Sorry, had to.)
Well, shit.
I'm conflicted between nooo, Yasha and YES, DRAMA. Can't wait to watch!
(Sorry, had to.)
Fjord: I..i... II dunno. We cant do this ukatoa thing man I'm freaking out this shit is wild I mean can you even imagine if one of these demi gods was released?
Also Fjord: *releases demi gods*
What a straight cluster fuck of a fight lol... I hope fjord at the end was heavy character moments. Most everyone else had the right idea about telling people and reporting back. And somehow beau is the only one asking the only real question they should be asking themselves: why did we come here?
I thought there were a few deaths lined up for sure. Everyone knew ashley was leaving this episode so that was crazy telegraphed but damn...still rough.
And yah..Talesin has been playin d&d for years. Dude needs to get his mind right when he's playin. Other than all of their horrible, awful, ridiculous decisions when dude was summoning the Hand, I think they did ok. At least they realized it was time to bounce when they did. Giant tasha in stuck in the door had me bout to drop my phone on the kitchen floor.
Love this shit. Week off is gonna be rough!
Also Fjord: *releases demi gods*
What a straight cluster fuck of a fight lol... I hope fjord at the end was heavy character moments. Most everyone else had the right idea about telling people and reporting back. And somehow beau is the only one asking the only real question they should be asking themselves: why did we come here?
I thought there were a few deaths lined up for sure. Everyone knew ashley was leaving this episode so that was crazy telegraphed but damn...still rough.
And yah..Talesin has been playin d&d for years. Dude needs to get his mind right when he's playin. Other than all of their horrible, awful, ridiculous decisions when dude was summoning the Hand, I think they did ok. At least they realized it was time to bounce when they did. Giant tasha in stuck in the door had me bout to drop my phone on the kitchen floor.
Love this shit. Week off is gonna be rough!
I mean why does Fjord get the blame for releasing this thing? The entire party walked in there, they all failed to stop Oban from releasing it, and everyone thought they had to chase Oban in the first place. The truth is they had no idea what they were dealing with. They thought they were dealing with a mage from the Assembly, not a demon who could summon some kind of unkillable horror.
Fjord's worry sounds stupid, but if this thing kills a settlement or outpost, they could easily be blamed by the Dynasty. They need to inform as many people as they can, but they have to be careful how they frame the story. The best bet would be to probably pin the whole thing on the Assembly, say they were in league with Demons and have essentially declared war on all nations.
His comments about Yasha read as really solid roleplay to me. The guy has a history of being betrayed or misled by people, it makes sense that in the heat of the moment he would doubt Yasha's loyalty. The charm she was under was more powerful than anything they've ever seen, and it happened after Oban was killed, so it didn't seem like a spell. Him freaking out here doesn't feel undeserved. I'm really sorry if I seem rude, and mean no offense with my post, I just don't feel like any one character should get blamed for what felt like a kind of unwinnable situation.
That was a crazy episode. I'm amazed they were able to save Fjord, thought he was 100% dead and you could tell there was a point where Travis thought the same. I also think Matt was pretty sure at least one character was gonna die down there, not counting Yasha. But he's also a big softee and let em kinda finagle with some rules to help Travis and then Beau escape. I've done the same with my DMing. Sometimes you see them try so hard to do something, you do wanna see them succeed at it. In the end the party was still pushed to their limits and didn't seem to do much to the thing, so clearly whatever dour outcome he was hoping for worked out.
Surprisingly, when it seemed like Fjord was gonna die I was ok with it. When Cad was down to 2 hp I was terrified, and when Beau went back to save Fjord and he just dashed out of there and left her behind....I was also scared for her. I don't care for the seemingly constant negativeness around Fjord and Travis in this topic (which, actually, has gotten much better recently), but when push comes to shove if any other character was about to die in that scenario I would have been horrified and saddened (with the exception of Yasha). Also Fjord legit pissed me off with his yammering about going to jail at the end there. He really has learned nothing so far. Happy to see that we seem to be headed in a Cad focused direction, though!
Man, I just realized that I'm gonna be in a D&Dless world for a bit. CR is going on break for a week, Matt Colville's stream is on break for two weeks and both of my own games are also not meeting up for two weeks. Gives me time to stew over stuff, I suppose.
Surprisingly, when it seemed like Fjord was gonna die I was ok with it. When Cad was down to 2 hp I was terrified, and when Beau went back to save Fjord and he just dashed out of there and left her behind....I was also scared for her. I don't care for the seemingly constant negativeness around Fjord and Travis in this topic (which, actually, has gotten much better recently), but when push comes to shove if any other character was about to die in that scenario I would have been horrified and saddened (with the exception of Yasha). Also Fjord legit pissed me off with his yammering about going to jail at the end there. He really has learned nothing so far. Happy to see that we seem to be headed in a Cad focused direction, though!
Man, I just realized that I'm gonna be in a D&Dless world for a bit. CR is going on break for a week, Matt Colville's stream is on break for two weeks and both of my own games are also not meeting up for two weeks. Gives me time to stew over stuff, I suppose.
One of the best episodes I've ever watched of the show, holy shit.
Does anyone else think that Matt, because of the Bless killing Oban, decided to sort of still keep him around with the "Yasha picks up his ichor and it's still pulsating"? He'll be resurrected since he wasn't supposed to die in the first place unless Tal messed up the spells.
Fuck. Also, chat was absolutely terrible during this episode.
Does anyone else think that Matt, because of the Bless killing Oban, decided to sort of still keep him around with the "Yasha picks up his ichor and it's still pulsating"? He'll be resurrected since he wasn't supposed to die in the first place unless Tal messed up the spells.
Fuck. Also, chat was absolutely terrible during this episode.
I mean, Oban is a fiend right? He wasn't really "dying" either way, unless he's killed in the Abyss. Unless it works differently in Tal'Dorei.
Honestly it's just easy/fun to pick on Fjord cause he makes himself the scaredy cat of the group and nobody else has anything close to "releasing a deep dark old one" as part of their ongoing backstory. It clearly wasn't his fault alone that LH was released but he's the only one out of the group with a kind of mirrored goal to Oban that he's tried to abandon and run away from.... only to go sprinting directly into the still living tomb of a different old demi god LoL Like... cmon.. it's pretty funny ;-D
It was a fantastic episode though. And yes i think it was character moments with Fjord. It had me wondering if he had ever been locked up brigg style in the past. He has a very real fear of being arrested - like by authority - that i hadn't really seen come out of him until this point? And i mean... i guess anyone can could/should be scared to go to jail but i thought that was kind of a wild place to go immediately after losing a team member and setting loose this gigantic undead thingamajig. It reminds me of Matty Lillard at the end of Scream after he's done killing all those people: "Did you really tell my mom?? She's gonna be so mad at meeeee" Like... i'm not sure he's fully aware of what the real concern should be. At least Cad was there to underline the danger in what they just did.
But yea honestly EVERYONE was kind of MVP status at different points and Cad and Fjord had some seeeeeeriously close fuckin calls. Travis looked like he was ready to get up from the table and burn some character sheets for a minute there. Such a tense game!! I was up till like fuckin 3 trying to finish it.
Also though - i don't watch with chat on. What kind of garbage were they spittin? I can only imagine they were criticizing every move made because it was such a razor thin line of success but were people being shitty or something?
Just general shit towards Matt's DMing, Marisha's choices, everybody leaving Yasha, lots of shouts of everything being scripted because Ashley has to leave, and on and on and on.
To be clear, it's only 5-10% of content posts (omitting smileys and "NO/YES/OMG") that have that tone, but when it's consistent through an entire episode it becomes extremely grating.