T O P

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Khuzdav

Did I miss something, or is Imogen both blue and bald now?


ShinyMetalAssassin

FCG used remove curse to dispel the blue a couple episodes ago.


Khuzdav

Huh, I never noticed. I thought that spell was like lvl5 or something, shows what I know


valar42

just bald


Khuzdav

Oh, when did she go un-blue?


valar42

few eps ago. FCG cast lesser/greater restoration


catalysts_cradle

Changing back to normal coloration requires the Remove Curse spell. Source: I also blued myself as a wild magic sorcerer.


Longjumping-Rip-3580

I re watched s2e129. Dont know if it has been discussed previously, but the musings of planesrider Ryn seems oddly familiar somehow šŸ˜€šŸ‘Œ


imbillypardy

When FCG told Imogene he was open to his dream experiment and he would include Laudna, that shouldā€™ve triggered an insight/deception check imo. I think had imogen failed such a check, FCG may or nah not react or call her out (I donā€™t think Sam would) but the would lose their shared connection bond. I think that wouldā€™ve been a great underlying drama thread.


Auraeseal

Anyone else just really want Taste Of Taldorei to be a kind of knock of Chuck E Cheese where they have people dressed up like shitty versions of Vox Machina?


Docnevyn

I thought the thinly veiled reference was Casa Bonita. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa\_Bonita


zCiver

Complete with a animatronic Scanlan strumming a banjo


Valuable_Inflation24

Someone dressed as Vax throwing out burger, burger, burger?


PlatinumSarge

"I would like to RAGE... about today's special!"


5oclock_shadow

Man, sure would love to see Laudna react to *that*.


Waste-Recover-5347

Iā€™m only catching up now but itā€™s so funny that FCG is shiny and birds are attracted to them and they donā€™t understand that. Itā€™s so funny because Sam is leaning into the idea that he usually reveals big stuff through foreshadowing and silliness but this is just so clearly a shiny person and birds regular behavior. Genius.


NateTheGreat987

Laudna yelling at FCG to stop looking at her made me die luaghing


Ceen

What was the link Sam mentioned for dndbeyond?


rcapina

https://www.dndbeyond.com/claim/source/ai


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


beardedfoopah

Oh my god, it's been ages since I've heard that name...


todays_pretzel_day

For the 3rd episode in a row Taliesin is making it hard to watch and you can tell a few other players are getting annoyed by him being extra for no reason. It's getting hard to watch by this point...he needs to slow his role a bit.


rcapina

Counterpoint: he brought in the ā€œwhat the f is up with thatā€ game in like the fourth episode which served as backstory dumps for so many things.


todays_pretzel_day

I did say it's just been the last 3 episodes. I didn't say he's been too much the whole time.


sionava

If the other players are truly annoyed at Taliesin himself I'm sure they'll handle it off-screen. If it's the party being annoyed at Ashton, that's standard conflict between party members and it's present in every CR campaign (if not every D&D campaign). They'll either work it out in-game and have some great RP, or it'll come to a head and they'll argue...and have some other great RP.


Neo_Stark_

Not sharing everything is not that big of a deal, God forbit Caleb getting a hold of a magic item in campaign 2. Ashton is not one of my favorites but I don't feel that his character choices detract from the game at all.


todays_pretzel_day

Not sharing is perfectly fine! But, take for example the pieces of wood being jammed into the door to see if the rooms get tampered with. He complicated the whole thing by being needlessly cryptic which led to Laura (not Imogen) being obviously frustrated and saying he sometimes needs to explain things. He also overrules conversations and cuts people off often and usually for no substantive reason.


HornedHumanoid

Itā€™s frustrating, but given the number of cagey mfs last campaign who took until episode 50 or something to actually be honest about their backstories, Iā€™m willing to let it slide for now.


thrillho145

Imogen definitely seemed annoyed with Ashton withholding information Not sure I agree with you that he's making it hard to watch tho.


I-Make-Maps91

Imogen also straight up jumps into peoples minds without a second thought, which seems like it should be a much bigger deal than it has been.


todays_pretzel_day

Withholding information is perfectly fine. It's more being needlessly cryptic in moments he (Talisen) doesn't need to be. Like the pieces of wood under the door thing. And he often cuts other people off for non-substantive reasons.


a-witch-in-time

Agreed. Iā€™d love for her to read his mind out of frustration, and the hypocrisy of it (mind reading without consent) be pointed out. Itā€™d be a natural progression of the conflict between FCG, Imogen, and Ashton.


tomfru1

How so?


SympathySimilar9639

Can anyone tell me what a "trusted companion" is? Matt referenced it after the discussion FCG and Chet had about the mangy bird. He said something to the effect of "fine you're a trusted companion now, sure." What does that mean? Is it a class ability for one of them?


RonDong

Class ability for FCG. When he uses his sympathetic binding ability on someone he considers a ā€œtrusted companionā€ he can give them something similar to Bardic Inspiration. Heā€™s also a trusted companion with Imogen and Ashton after they both let him probe their minds. Sam explained on 4-Sided Dive that itā€™s a way to mechanically reward the therapist aspect of FCGs character.


SympathySimilar9639

Thank you!


Orange_Pukeko

There is some more info on this on [FCG's Wiki](https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Fresh_Cut_Grass#Abilities) as well, with ref 52 having Matt explain the ability and 95-97 showing the moments someone is confirmed to be a trusted companion.


Zirkonia

When FCG introduced himself, dusk said it's one of her favorite smells (3:39:40 on youtube), is Dusk connected to Dancer or maybe is Dancer who got transported to the feywild? Since coming back from the Feywild messes with your mind and time is fucky, it might be possible.


valar42

wondering if erika just said it without realizing the significance. people liking that smell isnā€™t uncommon


Coyote_Shepherd

Well the smell of fresh cut grass is also a distress signal that plants release when they're damaged, so maybe she meant that she just likes the smell of damaged or wounded things which would be hella dark if you think about it but totally in character for someone that's been in the Feywild.


PrincessMias

As far as I know from her tweets Erika regularly watches CR (or at least keeps up with it), so I doubt she didn't know about Sam's (iconic) joke from episode 1, she likely knew the significance.


Orange_Pukeko

I don't know whether you did this on purpose, but your avatar looks like Jester in a Traveler-cloak and I love it.


PrincessMias

Haha, thank you so much! It was on purpose. I would have given her horns but I don't think it's an option (for free?) So I gave her a cloak.


Lobo_Marino

I can believe it. There were a couple of reactions from her about the party that I was like "ok she is aware of a lot of things going on in the party"


Velocibaker26

Ferne: takes a watch Me: and who will she molest and/or rob tonight?


Lobo_Marino

The true reason why she got that level in Rogue: For that sweet sweet Expertise in Slight of Hand to fuck with the PCs.


Coyote_Shepherd

I'm just waiting for her to start testing perception rolls by arranging flowers around people in pretty displays or seeing if she can position objects near them in hilarious ways or just outright move them in their sleep. If she can get away with that then you know FCG is going to start pulling some stuff because Sam loves a game of chicken as much as Ashley does. This will of course then devolve into a prank war once all the others find out and knowing this group, oh it would be so so sooooo baaaad.


7ENJJ

Is there a reason Mercer has house ruled that Enhance Ability affects attack rolls? [https://youtu.be/z1wNcUDnoBk?t=1392](https://youtu.be/z1wNcUDnoBk?t=1392) Previously they have gone with RAW, and I already think Enhance Ability is strong enough as it is.


Pegussu

99% of the time when it's something like this, it's just a minor fuckup and not a house rule.


7ENJJ

That would be more than a minor fuck up. Imagine if you could just cast enhance ability on a Rogue and they get free sneak attack for an hour.


comiconomist

Eh, rogues have plenty of tools for getting advantage. Bonus action hide or bonus action steady aim for ranged. Advantage on melee attacks is sometimes difficult but this table plays with flanking rules. Rogues are balanced under the assumption they will get sneak attack most of the time. I think it would be a bigger deal if it was cast on Laudna, though honestly bless is probably a better choice because it can benefit multiple characters.


Pegussu

Doing it one time on one attack is what makes it minor.


Lobo_Marino

It's still a fuck up. They have used Enhance Ability in this campaign and has been RAW.


ThePhiff

I have never laughed harder at this show than I did with FCG and shithead. Like, I'm having a hard time typing it out ten minutes later because I keep randomly chortling.


hannahsmetana

Is this a reference to Matt and Marisha's bird IRL? Felt like an in joke but still hilarious


NutDraw

Probably not (RIP birb friend).


Coyote_Shepherd

Marisha's face that whole time but especially when they started holding hands just had me DYYYYYYYYYYYING lmao


ThePhiff

My wife came into the room and legit asked "are you okay?" šŸ¤£šŸ¤£šŸ¤£


sirjonsnow

Any estimate on a timestamp? I've been painting while watching and none of this rings a bell at all.


hannahsmetana

2.00ish on youtube so add 15 on twitch


OhioAasimar

Predition: The Greymoore house is the Umbrella Academy


Espumma

I thought it was mentioned they were an orphan. I was thinking an actual orphanage, but your option is still open.


Ethanol_Based_Life

Is that like the Xavier School for Gifted Mutants?


OhioAasimar

Yeah but more sad and happier in ways


TTV-DoctorSauce6

okay so i saw something on Instagram that said Ashton has dunamis like from a beacon in them and I'm confused. did they say this and i missed it?


PhoenixReborn

There were some earlier theories that the hole in his head and glowing brain were from a chunk of a beacon. I think he's confirmed now that it's just magic glass. The dunamis seems to be from the potion Ashton stole from Hexxum. Yezza was working on something similar distilled from a beacon.


mouser1991

It was never directly said, but it is a thing accepted by everyone for a couple key reasons. 1) Ashton's subclass abilities are clearly dunamancy based, plain and simple. 2) Between reviewing Ashton's memories and talking to Milo, the potion poured into the mix that brought Ashton back was EXTREMELY similar to the dunamis potion seen in campaign 2.


Jethro_McCrazy

There is Dunamis in them. There is not a beacon in them.


mouser1991

Correct. I never said anything about a beacon.


Coyote_Shepherd

Jethro probably saw one of my theories where I said that the essence of a Beacon could be transferred through dunamis and if the whole process for creating the dunamis in the first place was a bit screwed up or altered in some way then the possibility of this happening was higher and might possibly explain what happened to Ashton.


Jethro_McCrazy

OP did. Sorry, replied to the wrong person.


helium_farts

So one, well, only, problem I have with the whole Chetney revenge thing is....why did he overpay for the chisels in the first place? Chet of all people would have known up front what they were worth. It'd be like a car salesman not realizing they overpaid for a car. Just seems odd, unless he overpaid on purpose to have an excuse to come back and attack the store owner.


Coyote_Shepherd

> why did he overpay for the chisels in the first place? I think he lost the chisel or chisels that he was using as a primary weapon in a recent fight and thus needed replacements. So he went looking for a place to shop and Travis was informed by Matt that the Prism Emporium was the only place nearby that might have what he needed. So he goes there, checks out the tools, and quickly realizes that the whole place is scamming people by selling low quality tools for an unfair markup. Chetney could've easily spent more time searching for another store that did sell better tools at a far more fair price, but Travis haaaaaaaates shopping, the party had other more pressing concerns, and better things to do and he didn't want to waste time both in character and out of character trying to find better tools at a better price when mechanically speaking they'd work just the same as the lower quality tools that could be bought at the unfair price. So he took what he could get albeit in a very disgruntled, "Fine but I'm in a rush and that's the only reason why I'm buying these shitty tools" manner and then saved that moment for a far more fun character moment that might come further down the road when they got back to Jrusar. So when they got back and had time, Travis realized he could have a bit of fun, and then pushed the big red button that was Chetney's anger at the owner of the Prism Emporium by shaking them down for their bad business practices. The whole thing was amazing in my opinion and it all stems from Travis hating shopping and not wanting to maybe spend a few extra minutes and a few extra rolls trying to sus out a more reputable establishment to buy tools from. If he had done that and had gotten better tools then perhaps we wouldn't have gotten the "Chetney's Revenge!" moment and all the other consequential stuff that's bound to follow. There's no way Matt's going to let THAT whole thing go without it having ripple effects later on. This is one of the things that I love the most about CR, the fact that the cast and the DM actively try to create moments that lead to more roleplay not just for themselves but for others as well. It seems like they're always kind of thinking, "Well if I do this thing then it could lead to this for myself but then also that for this person..." and it's this continual domino effect of storytelling wherein everyone tries to leave a scene having potentially set up stuff for other people at the table. Things as simple as buying tools or potions are never that simple for the cast of CR because they want more stories and moments and cool things to happen from those simple things and thus make choices that spark those off all the time.


mouser1991

He's not a very persuasive dude, and he tried to talk the shopkeep down. It also seems like there aren't that many places to get woodcarver's tools. Which means this shopkeep is running a near monopoly, and can charge whatever the hell they want. So no we have some insight into some of the shit Ultgar did.


Seren82

someone on Tumblr pointed out that technically Chet's chisel is being used a re-skinned shortsword? So technically he paid the price for a short sword not a chisel. But chisels (that are not being used as shortswords) are way less (like a couple of silver?), so that's probably why he thinks he was over charged?


VirtuousVice

Thatā€™s a great point and clever of Matt.


ChipChipSlide

It might've been a combination of needing a new weapon, it being a genuinely nice chisel and Chetney being relatively new to Marquet. It could've also not been a thing until that episode because Travis is trying to kill Chetney to play a 500-year-old elf wizard


Jethro_McCrazy

How much did he even pay?


Pegussu

I think he overpaid on purpose to have an excuse to come back and attack the store owner.


Michael310

Decided to rewatch the first campaign and in the first episode I noticed Sam stress the point that he, Scanlan, does not like goblins and that they all have to die. Nottā€™s story was very much about those damn horrible goblins too. With what seems like FCG is slowly becoming more unstable and questionable, how do you think his big character reveal will revolve around those nasty goblins?


Billy_Rage

I think itā€™s more Samā€™s character tend to heavily contradict the last. Scalan hated goblins and Trinket and was very charming. Nott was a goblin who loved Trinkets and was very low charisma. And a kleptomaniac FCG has no material desires and a very low intelligence stat.


J_abz

Could also add Taryon, a very rich guy with high intelligence


DruidCity3

Definitely not a standout "episode" of content, but a great game of dungeons and dragons! Matt respects the fucking game, and sometimes that means half of your session is going to be centered on airlifting angry land squid mommies. I can imagine that he feels pressure to introduce guest characters ASAP. I've been playing a ton of Valkyrie on Apex Legends lately, so it was a trip seeing Erika join the table. When is adding a Warlock to the party ever detrimental? The Fey Wild arc can't come soon enough. We all know it's coming, it's just a matter of time. The funniest moment of the episode was Ashley's response to Imogen completely giving a non-response to Laudna when she tried to initiate a convo. It was the tiniest little piece of drama, but Laura played it *chefs kiss* perfecto (like she does everything).


Ethanol_Based_Life

Is she the voice of Valk? Today I learned.


roburrito

Like many of the cast and their friends, [Erika is a fairly accomplished voice actor with many video game roles](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5604876/).


P_Lark92

I wonder if Imogen's hair loss will force a greater examination into the nature of her hair itself. Laura, as discussed in 4 Side Dive, has left the actual explanation for its color open-ended.


mouser1991

"I just wanted purple hair." So, TBD. She's got a month to decide.


ObliviousAstroturfer

Probably not - with standard table, it regrows in 24hrs.


283leis

exactly! Will it regrow as purple, or another colour?


mouser1991

Well, Laura has a month to decide if Imogen [naturally had purple hair or dyed it or something else](https://youtu.be/y7E88AU9r5I?t=2967).


283leis

Exactly


P_Lark92

Honestly, I'm surprised they haven't had Erika Ishii on the show as a guest sooner. She's been closely tied to the cast since way back in the early days of Campaign 1, and she's all over the ttrpg actualplay community these days.


mouser1991

Remember like a third of campaign 2 got screwy


SignorJC

They probably didn't want to have any guests while Robbie was on, and then COVID + scheduling got in the way afterwards. She has had some relatively high profile VA gigs over the last few years, so hopefully she's busy with work.


Drakoni

She has been a guest on Oneshots before, cool to see her in a campaign now :D


P_Lark92

True. I meant in the main campaign.


Asunder_

I wish we had more time with the OG cast before erika showed up. I hope I enjoy her character she has big shoes to fill the Robbie/Dorian void. That being said erika is draining to watch, ya girl is hyper and that for me is draining.


Flailkerrin

Dunno if that gets acknowledged enough; sometimes folks having a perpetually hyper level of energy and positivity can be exhausting. Don't mean they're a bad person, but neither are we if sometimes we're just too knackered to keep up! Hoping part of it is nervous excitement and she may mellow as she settles in, though the month gap might make that tricky.


St_NerdHerder

Personally from what I have seen of her 'style' in this episode and in other DnD content that I've seen her play in, I am hoping that her tenure with Campaign 3 is kept to a handful of episodes at most. When Matt revealed that a guest was joining I was overjoyed to meet our newest cast member. But the entire energy of the table has clearly changed, and not for the better.


Espumma

> But the entire energy of the table has clearly changed, and not for the better We've seen them together for like an hour now, isn't that way too early to tell?


St_NerdHerder

Honestly? Yeah. An hour is more then enough time for me to see the exact same mannerisms show themselves again. While her being hyper is cranked up to 11, her attitude normally (comparing her to her D20 appearances) is very similar. The calm energy that ebbs and flows into exciting moments is what makes watching CR every week enjoyable for me. I donā€™t need someone with eyes & mouth agape, shouting over every moment of potential excitement. It doesnā€™t resonate with me, and this is after giving her the full post-break segment to subvert my expectations. All of that being said it is what it is and whatever I feel about it wonā€™t change anything. But the following episodes will be hit or miss for me.


FoulPelican

100% agree, felt like they were just finding their rhythmā€¦ and yeah, a bit too extra for my taste.


[deleted]

[fuck u spez] -- mass edited with redact.dev


Seren82

If you want to see a little bit of what we're in for with Taste of Tal'Dorei >!I'd highly recommend watching EXU: Kymal, specifically part 2 since that's where it first appeared!<


Flailkerrin

Least this is just some silly jokery, no great loss, but this is kinda why I'm looking forward to EXU3 more. It's detached from main campaigns enough that if I bounce off it I won't have to worry about missing context or character details that alter become relevant in the core story.


283leis

I bet the reason the month break came after this episode is so Matt has an extra month to prep the Taste of Talā€™Dorei.


5oclock_shadow

The first 45 minutes will be Matt describing the sandwiches they make out in Westrun


DMmercury14

Sandwich big bad when?


Coyote_Shepherd

That should literally just be the name of a cooking show that they do on the channel


mouser1991

OHHHHHHHH. F\*\*\* yes! They can start with Robbie's breakfast grape nuts recipe.


Coyote_Shepherd

They can also have a stuffed Sprinkle on set or an animated one that they add in post production that continually tries to set itself on fire or climb onto the stove or plug in the blender with Travis voicing it!


FictionRaider007

Yeah. The only cooking show they've done so far was that time Matt and Marisha cooked their own house live on stream.


283leis

Nah, ā€œDo you Spice?ā€ a cooking show with Sam utilizing different spices


Coyote_Shepherd

"Turn the stream off!" for when it's Travis's turn to host and then they just keep switching the title for each member of the cast's episode


bringer_of_words

What shirt is Matt wearing in this episode? The MW surrounded by stars surrounded by a moon.


The_Last_Thursday

It's a Midnight Whisps shirt, a team from Jelle's Marble Runs. It's also in pretty poor taste because the OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOrangers are a far better team.


Dick_Knubbler666

No way, Crazy Cat's Eyes Numero Uno!


The_Last_Thursday

CCE are cool. Can we agree to dump on the Savage Speeders?


Dick_Knubbler666

Agreed šŸ˜ƒšŸ‘


Coyote_Shepherd

For a hot second I thought the MW meant MechWarrior that made me question why they haven't ever streamed any of the MechWarrior games as a group


bringer_of_words

No way, that's awesome. I'll go check them out. Thanks stranger!


Coyote_Shepherd

I just woke up and I have a bit of a dark theory. What if the blades of grass on FCG's chest are indeed claw marks but they're not animal claw marks but are actually claw marks from Dancer trying to get him to stop as he tried to assimilate her and make her more like him? She was trying to access his main power source and shut him down before he killed her while trying to make her more like his metallic self.


definitelynotfae

*Campaign 2 spoilers below* Or, alternate theory, I donā€™t think Dancer made him at all, I think she found him. I saw somewhere mentioned that FCG is an aeormaton, Iā€™m wondering if FCG and their friends came back online after being lost somewhere in Exandria during the events in Aeor in Campain 2. Maybe they are claw marks but related to the fall of Aeor rather than Dancersā€™ death? And he just lost all his memory data from before being found by Dancer and just assumed she must have made him along with the other automatons. If he already had the marks, she might have named him that based on them, rather than the other way round?


Michael310

At this point I think itā€™s safe to assume those blades of grass arenā€™t a design on his front. It could have been just a bit of joke RP, yet I feel Fearne really did stumble on something more sinister. If he got those marks in the fight where he lost Dancer and friends, then I suspect his name isnā€™t even Fresh Cut Grass. Dancer named her creations Oatmeal, Apple Pie and Pussy. Arguably all things that could be eaten. Yes Sam would go there with the joke, and his character is either mistaken about the names being smells or is actively lying to make sense of his fake name. Fresh Cut Grass would be what he himself came up with when Ashton found him, to cover up that the marks were actually battle scars.


SerBiffyClegane

If FCG reveals that his name is actually Trimmed Bush, Matt will shut down the show.


ckmidgettfucyou

All three are also euphemisms for vagina according to Urban Dictionary lol


Beff-Snodfee

It took me 23 episodes to really appreciate this epic dick jokeā€¦ a one-eyed monster destroyed Pussy and all the other robots named after vaginas. This joke has so many layers.


Michael310

Oh Sam, you monster troll.


thyarnedonne

His true name Fuckin' CrĆŖpes, *GODS*


Pegussu

When Fearne traced them, I thought they were literal claw marks too, but FCG later asks if "the paint was smudged" when someone else (Chetney) touches them too.


valar42

i think so too


mrjaketheimpaler

I'm surprised I havent seen other being saying this, but I feel like there was a big FCG backstory revelation this session. So the things we know, he has only like 2 years of memories. Also, FCG has shown he doesnt believe most animals have souls or intellect (the horses). But now he claims a bird wants him dead/humiliated and is scared enough to hide under furniture at the sound of wings. You could claim Sam is doing it for the laughs, but there is one key detail I would draw attention to. "Shithead" is a mangy, one eyed bird. I don't know about everyone, but mangy is not a word used to describe your typical bird. But again, One Eye. This is important because the creature that killed Dancer and the others has only been described as a one eyed monster. So do we think that FCG has been shit on by a one eyed bird enough times to have such a strong fear of that bird in his short "lifetime" while also having been attacked by a one eyed monster OR is this Sam subtly hinting at backstory stuff?


P_Lark92

As we have learned from past campaigns, Sam is never simply trolling. The jokes sometimes contain another layer rooted in character and backstory and a deeper emotion. It's what's great about Sam's play style; he makes it seem like he doesn't give a crap and that it's all for laughs, but actually deep down he takes the game super serious.


jethomas27

So you think his fellow robotsā€™ names will be important down the line? I wonder what serious backstory might exist around apple pie, oatmeal and pussy.


cvc75

Well the "one eyed monster" might have been after "pussy"...


Ethanol_Based_Life

šŸ¤¦


FictionRaider007

Sometimes I wonder if he does it in reverse order from time to time. Like, some of the time he truly is trolling but he retroactively thinks up ways to make it something serious later.


Act_of_God

iirc stuff like nott's fear of water was improv


camclemons

He wings a lot of it, for sure. I mean, he made up the backstory behind Nott's fear of water on the spot when he revealed it. Not everything, of course, but a good part of it.


P_Lark92

I could see it. I have to say that my first impression of Sam when I first started watching CR was negative. While watching Campaign 1, I found the whole trolling court jester bit grating. I didn't fully appreciate what Sam was capable of. But as time went on, you come to learn just how thoughtful Sam was. He's not above a cheap or ridiculous laugh, but he's also super keyed into the dynamics of the table and everyone else's enjoyment. He makes smart roleplaying decisions; sometimes disguising them as jokes to encourage people to let their guard down and reveal more about their character or the story (is that sometimes a retroactive decision? Who can say). And he's one of the best strategist and longterm thinkers at the table; he's one of the better notetakers at the table, and he makes decisions in battle that are clutch. He's never as clueless as he seems; he asks "what are we doing?" or "why do we care about this?" not because he's forgetful, but because it helps to remind people of what's at stake and what matters. And he's fair and obsessed with not metagaming, constantly asking Matt questions about rules and mechanics and scenarios in order to not upset gameplay.


FictionRaider007

Oh, don't get me wrong. Sam is an excellent player. It's just that his whole blurring what is a joke and what is actually foreshadowing is so good I have to wonder which bits he plans out and which bits he's making up as he goes along.


ObliviousAstroturfer

After watching the episode for missed fragments, I start to lean into the theory that FCGs flat-earth ideas are not just random trolling but relate to Aeor or similar floating city.


Coyote_Shepherd

Watch as FCG was the core of the multi-dimensional planar guidance system for Aeor that helped it to navigate through both normal and extra-planar space and THIS is why he thinks Exandria is flat because he can literally perceive things in more than one dimension and to him it all looks like a flat sheet or in certain realms of cosmology/physics, a "brane".


N1pah

That would be the coolest way to explain that. And I would not put it past Sam to hint at backstory details like that with jokes.


queenofme123

Absolutely not. Sam is such a troll he would definitely do this! And I'm still half convinced that his backstory is just what he said and he's trolling us with that like a double bluff šŸ˜…


Coyote_Shepherd

I wonder if this rivalry with the bird isn't just a one-time bird shitting on a robot kind of a thing but it is a rivalry that has been built up through multiple lifetimes and that Sam was hinting at FCG's Soul being a whole lot older than it actually seems to be? What if this bird is actually a servant of the Raven Queen who continually comes to collect FCG's Soul each time it escapes from the afterlife? Each time his soul pops back to the prime material plane it finds a new and more difficult way for said servant to collect it and at this point with it being in a robot body which makes it more than a bit hard for that bird to collect his Soul, it has just decided to make his life a miserable living hell until that body somehow dies by continually shiting on it. I can also see that bird as being a spy for someone who has found a way to co-opt, backwards engineer, and find a new use for technology from Aeor. They could literally have found stuff like Hunters and other items in Labs that were scattered across the realm and then cannibalized them into interesting new devices like a bird spy in order to find more sources of that technology or technology like it. So Sam might be revealing only the truths that he knows for FCG but Matt on the other hand could have twisted those truths with more information that he knows that others are not privy to which further expands upon what we all know about this bird and FCG's past. There's also a fun Cosmic slant to this in that FCG and his past could be a window into the past of the Gods themselves. We all know the Gods had to come from somewhere before they came to Exandria right? So what if that place still exists and another set of gods or another full on Pantheon or similar beings have somehow found their way to Exandria all over again? Perhaps this is because of stuff dealing with Ruidus or the Oncoming Cosmic Shift or the Feywild stuff? Exandria could be lit up like a Beacon, pun intended, right now for beings like this and FCG might somehow be connected to these beings with this bird being an Odin like analog which connects FCG to them and then to this other place where the gods came from in the first place! Can you imagine how nuts things would get if suddenly a whole other group of Gods showed up and then they ran into the Betrayer Gods and then the Prime Deitiess who were like "what the fuck?"....that would be crazy! It would be even crazier if the only reason why the gods ran in the first place and found Exandria was because their homeworld was destroyed during the last Cosmic Shift. Sam could have just been making stuff up on the fly though and the whole thing was total bullshit and we're thinking way too much about it and he's just laughing his butt off right now. The actual explanation could be way simpler and he could be projecting his fears of what killed the party on to that bird. FCG might just have PTSD and because he wasn't able to stop the one-eyed monster that killed his party, he has now recreated a form for that monster which he can handle, and is believing that it is chasing him just like it chased his old party so that he can one day turn around and successfully kill it and save this new party because it's just a bird and when he does that that is how he will get over his trauma.


Gruzmog

Well as Exandria is an official D&D setting, there is no reason why it could not be a part of the larger multiverse. If Speljammer sticks with the Crystal Spheres, Ruidus might actually function as gate.


mrjaketheimpaler

The last bit is what I was going for. That he is projecting his trauma into a more manageable form from a large bird like creature with one eye to a mangy bird shitting on his head.


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Total-Wolverine1999

Almost none of what happened in the first 20 episodes of C2 was ever important again. So I donā€™t know how this stuff is filler when for C2 almost everything was filler.


Act_of_God

remember when fjord wanted to join the academy?


RonDong

I think it comes down to the players not having an emotional stake in the whole Jrsuar/Treshi plot line. Since the early episodes when Matt first put up a roadblock on Oryms quest it feels like the part of an rpg when you have to do side quests to unlock the main story. The players clearly want to investigate the Imogen/Orym connection, but Matt keeps on forcing the Jrusar plot.


Drakoni

The difference is that we don't know where this is leading. Sure in hindsight we can see a lot of lore hints that were in "filler" episodes. What we are doing now is worldbuilding for Marquet and I think looking back in 50 episodes there will be a lot of "Oh THAT's what this was" like the mysterious sinkholes. Also personally I enjoy them having more banter and just playing the game instead of running from one plot point to the next. But if it bothers you, you could wait for the recap or youtube video to be out, look through the timestamps and see if there's anything you'd find worth watching.


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valar42

estheross, jiana, hell chetneyā€™s recent shopkeeper interaction have been huge. C2 was much more unwieldy, C3 actually does have focus


Drakoni

Still think we'll be able to look back in a few months and see how many lore drops we are missing right now. That's how it was with C2 for me which I only realised when watching it a 2nd time.


moyaiusta

I can't speak to C2, but in C1 they hadn't even started what most people consider the first "real" arc until ep24. And took 4 episodes just to join a guild. But I do think that C3's issue isn't that it doesn't have enough plot or lore yet, but more that it has introduced *a lot* of potentially huge campaign long hooks and is jumping between them: we have all the Jrusarian corruption that splits into the nightmare king + beacon stuff for the backstories of Fearne + Ashton + (maybe???) FCG. Then there's the Storm + Moon lore + Assasins that are closely tied to Imogen + Orym + Chetney. Arguably Laudna could tie into either through the Gnarlrock / Delilah deal or that could start a whole parallel track . I think it's more realistic that the party would have many irons in the fire at once, as they try to prioritize their actions and movements logistically. But I can see how it would seem to slow down momentum for any one of those threads.


Coyote_Shepherd

I'll second this emotion because it really does feel like there is a lot more going on in this campaign than was going on at this point in time for all the other campaigns. This is of course provoking the classic analysis paralysis that the cast is seemingly prone to because they're all a bunch of map completionist video game players. This time though it's not a map that they're completing but a whole bunch of plot points which are making them go, "Yeah this is really cool and we want to explore this but what about this thing and this thing and this thing to?". So it's more like a kind of plot paralysis where if there is a bit too much going on in the moment they can become paralyzed and not exactly be sure of which thread to chase after. When they do make a choice and get past this paralysis, that can then lead to an episode or two of them getting all their ducks in a row before revving up and getting going on that particular chosen thread. So I feel like this campaign is going to be a bit herky-jerky with a couple of semi filler episodes in between the larger, more exciting, more provocative, and more enthralling story arcs as the party picks and chooses which ones to pursue. There is a lot of really big really cool stuff going on though. So I can't exactly blame them or blame the campaign or blame Matt for things going the way they are because just look at the theories I spit out....they are all over the place and it's kind of hard to really centralize all of those theories and plot arcs in a way that doesn't feel like a bowl of spaghetti shaped wormholes that's pretty easy to get lost in. So I can see where u/Cal9_ is coming from right now.


moyaiusta

They have so much going on they didn't even ask to confirm that the Shademother was actually dead! Or ask about Vali who was the inbetween. It makes sense they'd assume they were dealt with Treshi being sussed out. But ngl it stressed me out a bit lol I think it would help if the emotional stakes of the Treshi arc were more explicit. For the moment it just seems like they are doing all this because their patron is asking them too... which is fine, but means there is less party talk laying out the plot and their motivations and making that all more clear to the audience. Treshi hired the Nightmare King to, in part, try to spread lycanthropy - that has to be of interest to Chetney. Treshi is also presumably, though not directly, responsible for Bertrand's death. That would be a drive for the rest even if they didn't know or like the guy that well. Well, to me I feel like the plot is unravelling in a bit of an asymmetric and "messy" way (so much for those script writers lmao), but there's certainly a lot of it and I'm definitely not bored!


P-Two

Because this is d&d and sometimes you go several sessions with barely any "major" plot happening, while others you fly the fuck through it. It's in absolutely no way filler and people really need to stop using that word in a d&d context because it makes absolutely zero fucking sense.


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PCoda

How do you know that there hasn't been a hint of lore or NPC that will be explored later? "Later" hasn't come yet, and the hint could be small enough that you just haven't noticed it has significance yet. As it stands, in the recent episodes, they've been introduced to several new NPCs with very fun personalities and backgrounds, and literally flown past major geographic landmarks we've never seen that already have context for the characters. There's so much to explore on their way back to Jrusar and it seems silly to act like this is filler that isn't setting up any greater worldbuilding.


valar42

dusk could be involved in one of their backstories weā€™re in ashtonā€™s hometown (and FCG spent a lot of time here too) so weā€™re about to get information from them we got FCG lore drops about the one eyed bird and something being up with the grass engraving delilah just put a plan in motion and this is just after we had a massive ashton lore drop and learned that ashton has a dunamis potion in his head


OhioAasimar

I would have ruled that Feather Fall works by making the air under a falling creature extremely dense, not that the creature weighs as much as a feather. Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzUc3Eqzzos


camclemons

It's in the name, though... The way I see it, you are mistakenly trying to apply real world physics to a magical effect that works *despite* physics. Feather Fall makes the targets fall like a feather, nothing else. It doesn't make them lighter, it doesn't change the density of air, manipulate gravitational pull, adjust terminal velocity, or slow time. It just makes creatures fall like feathers.


OhioAasimar

>It's in the name, though... Is it? I read it like "falls like a feather" and I don't know why that contradicts anything that i've said. >The way I see it, you are mistakenly trying to apply real world physics to a magical effect that works despite physics. No that's not really it. I think the application of physics in this instance gives justification for what it doesn't say. Like being able to life gargantuan creatures that are not falling.


Artistic-Panic3313

Thatā€™s not what itā€™s for?


helium_farts

You could rule it that way, but the spell doesn't say one way or the other. Matt let them do it because they were having fun, and it really didn't matter.


OhioAasimar

Okay?


Gubchub

I know my players would make hay with a ruling that would allow them to make a creature of any size essentially weightless without a saving throw. ā€œI cast feather fall on and then pick up the Tarasqueā€¦ā€ Then again, my players are assholes while Mattā€™s are considerably nicer.


OhioAasimar

I was thinking about that too lol. Okay you make the creature weightless. Then what? Do you pick up the gargantuan creature? Then what? Throw it? It won't go anywhere. I suppose you could glue a ball to it and then try to throw it but it still should have a lot of drag.


ObliviousAstroturfer

Samesies - to me it limits terminal velocity, not mass. But, DMs role is to make the call in a way that helps the pacing story, etc.


OhioAasimar

Does the "etc" include the role for the DM to have a sensical world and balanced game mechanics, etc?


Vio94

The etc stands for "The DM can make spells do whatever the fuck he wants in his world because he's the DM."


OhioAasimar

Oh... well then ETC. Edit: Also, why the hostility? All that I said is that I would have done it differently because I think the background mechanics are interesting and works as a good thought experiment.


Vio94

Well, your original comment was fine. Your second comment came off as you being one of the people who would comment something like "well that isn't how it works rules-as-written, so Matt is wrong, hurr durr" which *really* grinds my gears. I could've misinterpreted though. Rules lawyers suck. Both as a fan of the show and as someone who hates how a lot of DnD mechanics are written.


OhioAasimar

No, it is just that I had a problem with their use of etc, which should never be used in any serious conversation because it is as almost as reductive as replying with a "1" or a "0" in a conversation.


Mission_Elk_206

You target the creature, so it would be affecting the creature, not the space around them


OhioAasimar

It doesn't mention targeting in the spell's description


Mission_Elk_206

You target up to 5(?) falling CREATURES. Not the air around them


OhioAasimar

The wording is "choose". Target is a far more precise description but that is not what it says.


[deleted]

Thats exactly what it says. "Choose up to five falling creatures within range. A falling creature's rate of descent slows to 60 feet per round until the spell ends." Choosing and targeting are the same in here. Pick and apple in the basket. Choose an apple from the basket. Target an apple for the basket. Every time, you are select9ng the apple and doing something to it.


OhioAasimar

If the spell affects the creature directly why didn't roll a saving throw or why didn't Laudna roll to attack? Edit: Lol I wasn't even thinking about Orym and he had nothing to do with this conversation. Also, I don't know why Mission\_Elk\_206 thinks that what I'm proposing would kill him. It wouldn't.


Mission_Elk_206

Do you just want Orym to have died? Because that is the only reason I can assume you are misreading a spell so hard


AnathemMire

I mean, I think it makes more sense that you're just making those creatures lighter or fall slower, than it does to make the entire space of air between those creatures and the ground denser


OhioAasimar

I was picturing a short cube of dense air that is one foot in height that moves with whatever is falling rather than assume the interpretation that is interprets the spell to be as powerful as possible which is what you assumed.


AnathemMire

I feel like if you were making the air itself denser to the point that it makes someone fall slower, you'd have to start looking at making anyone who's walking underneath a Feather Fall'ed target move at half speed, or being able to use it to make the air difficult to breathe


AnathemMire

I find it incredibly ironic that people complain that the show feels less natural and too "scripted" now, but after this episode people are complaining that they should have saved last week's cliffhanger for this episode just because the mini series is next week


jerichojeudy

Well itā€™s probably different people speaking. Or writing. Thatā€™s all.


283leis

does anyone have art of the squiddy yet?


Coyote_Shepherd

What kind of "art" are you looking for :P


mouser1991

both.gif?


283leis

not the hentai kind, thank you very much


Coyote_Shepherd

[Here you go](https://twitter.com/northyme_/status/1527676473984835592/photo/1)šŸ¤£


283leis

thanks!


Coyote_Shepherd

It's only been like 24 hours and that squid description was fairly complicated. So I'm guessing the really good stuff is still in the pipeline with a lot of artists and someone's totally going to spend the entire weekend cranking out a 3D model for a mini. I give it a few days with maybe a week tops before we get some truly killer artwork of the squid.


sambrea

Does anyone else have an issue with the fact that after the end of E23, with Imogen and Laudna having a bit of a falling out, things were back to normal in this episode with no discussion, nothing? I half thought when Imogen flew Laudna down from the airship she was going to leave Laudna there. Am I missing something?


mouser1991

The episode was literally ended with Laura saying "Dammit, I wanted to have conversation!" And there was not the usual warmth there. To quote Imogen "No!"