#anyway very curious to see what happens when they get to Aeor

[samcarter34]

Since people seem to once again be having trouble remembering the order of operations, let me just remind everyone:

The ability Laudna possesses to feed Delilah is Hunger of the Shadow. In the fight with Bor’dor, Laudna used that BEFORE Orym’s head nod. Bor’dor attacked them and her response was to do the thing she knew would give power to Delilah. Matt even makes the sound of Delilah’s heartbeat.

The spell she used after the head nod? Whither and Bloom. The same spell she later attacked Orym with, which isn’t even a warlock spell.

And speaking of the head nod, you want to know what’s it’s prefaced with? ‘Laudna you can do whatever you want.’ And Marisha responds by saying that Laudna is ‘barely present’ because she’s having ptsd flashbacks to all of the times something horrible happened to her and she couldn’t do anything about it. So she kills Bor’dor because it makes her feel in control of the situation.

And yeah, the 4SD where Liam says Orym thought Delilah might come back. Except y’all somehow took that and made it seem like he’s the one who shoved Laudna over the edge when what actually happened is that Laudna flung herself off it because betrayal is triggering to her.

And the sword. The sword which apparently wasn’t triggering enough that Imogen contemplating whether the Vanguard were good guys didn’t cause any reaction. Or for that matter, make her object to Ashton’s ‘this is permission statement.’ But she saw Orym wearing it, got uncomfortable and then all it took was one sentence from Delilah for her to decide to steal it. Delilah, who mutilated her, murdered her, has been possessing her for decades, and who basically held her soul hostage when BH wanted VM to resurrect Laudna. But what Delilah didn’t do? Tell Laudna to steal the sword.

I wasn’t around for campaign 1, but in campaign 2 I definitely noticed a trend that people who were all ‘I love women! Female characters rock!’ would, the second one of their alleged faves did something controversial (or just something they didn’t like) would find a way to shift the onus onto someone else so she could remain blameless. And that is definitely continuing this campaign, and if anything is getting worse (which, not to get into speculation, but I wonder if it’s because all of the female characters this go round are more traditionally feminine than last campaign.)

I think the reason Orym’s been getting raked across the coals so hard by certain parts of the fandom is actually because of this. Because Imogen’s repeatedly gone ‘what if the Vanguard have a point’ and Laudna agrees with everything she says, whereas Orym’s been pretty consistently ‘no, the murder cult that murdered my family are bad guys.’ And well, can’t go around admitting that our faves did something wrong.’

And so we have a situation where Laudna attacks Orym, but somehow that’s Orym’s fault because the possibility of Laudna doing something wrong ruins people’s lesbian cottegecore fantasy. But the thing is, that whole thing was all Laudna. She chose to listen to her first murderer when Delilah said ‘maybe it’s cursed’ and then she chose to blanket the room in magical darkness (sorcerer ability, not warlock) chose to cast an area of effect spell to destroy the thing Orym was using to sheath the sword (sorcerer spell, not warlock) and, upon hurting Orym, chose not to drop said darkness, which meant Orym couldn’t see who attacked him. And when she got caught, she tried to downplay what she did, tried to say that because she didn’t mean to hurt him it didn’t count, refused to apologize for actually hurting him, kept shifting her argument (and even low key got called out on it by Imogen when she asked Laudna why she’s want its power inside her if she thinks it’s so evil.)

There is an alternate universe where Laudna wakes Orym up and they have what probably would have been an intense discussion about the sword (and that might even have been what Marisha was aiming for before Delilah got involved) and THAT truly would have been the ‘both sides are equally right’ scenario, but that’s not what we got. And you can say Orym shouldn’t have taken the sword unilaterally (but somehow Laudna’s allowed to unilaterally steal and absorb it?) or that she’s being manipulated by Delilah, but the fact is that Laudna’s an adult and is responsible for her own decisions. Yes, Delilah is a powerful and malign presence that they all downplayed/ignored, but, to use Marisha’s addiction metaphor, making amends with those you’ve harmed is a part of recovery for a reason. Because ultimately, you are the one who did that. Yes, it does immensely suck for Laudna that she’s been handed the cards she has been, but it’s up to her to make the best play she can.

Wow this got long, but my overall point is that Laudna is a character with her own agency and makes her own decisions (well, Marisha makes them, but at this point y’all should know she’s not conflict averse and is willing to have her characters make controversial character choices). And really, take all that away, what’s left? How much onus can you take from a character before you might as well go look at a painting?

#critical role #cr spoilers #long post #Like this is a Marisha character and a warlock. Do you think she’s going to sit there and be pretty #some of you would hate Fig Faeth’s ‘Complicated Women’ podcast #also this is the part where I say that the cast can say whatever they want on 4SD. If it contradicts the actual show I ignore it #anyway very curious to see what happens when they get to Aeor #Imagine what happens if Delilah tried to get her to eat the beacon

[revvethasmythh]

(You can delete this if you want. I’m just genuinely curious.)

I don’t know if you’ve seen some of the posts but, I’m wondering if you have an opinion on some saying Essek’s appearance is over shadowing fcg’s death? And I’ve seen complaints about matt interrupting the party talking and not giving them time to slow down and process their death. I personally think we might see more of the party talking about fcg when we get to Aeor. Maybe they will find out more details of fcg’s past (if matt wants them to). Idk.

Hey, anon! I have seen some of those posts (though, to be honest, I decided to do myself a kindness this week and protect my peace from most discourse because I was having so much fun, I wasn't in the mood to ruin it). I do actually have a lot of thoughts about this, but they're not very easy to articulate. That said, my opinion here is that if anything interrupted the processing of FCG's death or overshadowed it in the immediate aftermath, it was probably the Crown Keepers cut away, which, while I understand narratively what the purpose of it was and why it happened when it did. wow. deeply unfortunate timing.

And I think the thing about this campaign that has become clear is that time is of the essence. That's an inherent aspect of being in a possibly world-ending war with a rapidly approaching deadline to save everything. I think it would be difficult in any context for them to slow down given the nature of the campaign. I also think processing the death of a loved one is not something that could ever be done in one or two slower-paced episodes--I imagine it will take time for it all to hit, and the party will be dealing with the emotional repercussion of FCG's sacrifice for the rest of the campaign in different and varied ways. And I think the way the cast is handling it right now is very well done, especially Taliesin's reactions as Ashton, and also Laudna, asking about Imahara Joe and letting Ashton decide if Keyleth should tell him or if they'd wait to do it themselves. Fearne telling Ash how sorry she is, and then comforting each other that night. Zathuda's interruption of that is actually something I give a lot of leeway to because a) it was fun, and b) I think it needed to happen then specifically to try and push Fearne to the absolute edge (and to impart some rather important plot details about Zathuda wanting Fearne to be the Vessel).

Essek being in the story right now makes sense considering what they're doing and it's a fun thing for the cast. They're reaping the rewards of everything they did for him in C2! But he's also just propelling a plot that would be propelled anyway even if he specifically wasn't there--it's just extra fun that it's Essek. And you're right, anon, that I expect the Hells will talk about FCG a lot more in Aeor and we'll see more discussion about losing them. But yeah, ultimately, no, I don't think Essek is overshadowing FCG's death or anything. Time is of the essence, the Hells can't afford to slow down, but also if they're roughing it up in Aeor we might get a lot more opportunities for the watch conversations and travel conversations that we've been missing for a while. So, in a way, Essek being there and guiding them to Aeor might actually give them more time to discuss all thing in the long-run.

#like do you feel a lack of emotional catharsis regarding fcg's death? i imagine the hells do too! but they don't have time to #sit shiva and mourn they need to keep moving or the world will end! #this is an unfortunate reality of losing someone in the middle of. well. a war #cr spoilers #anon #asks

[saphirered]

Caleb, Essek and SO go back to Aeor after the campaign. SO is the muscle who keeps their squishy wizards safe for the journey. But something happens and now this warrior is also a wild magic sorcerer. How do they all cope?

Aeor’s been fun, even better that you get to go for a good dungeon crawl with your favourite wizards. You’ve found many new areas, many artefacts, and so many things Essek and Caleb have been fawning over ever since getting their hands on it; all the new precious shinies. Of course there had been plenty of incidents to accompany all of this. Wild magic surges are unavoidable when you’re running amuck with not one but two powerful wizards. You’ve been in the thick of it just as much as them. You were quick to find out these ‘side effects’ of spellcasting can have a ranged effect just as much as they can affect the individual casting said spell.

A wall of force holds back several creatures blocking off one path. Essek’s fighting back two, hold monster keeping one out of his range while he slings spell after spell at another. Caleb’s not doing great so you do what you can to keep the beast attacking him distracted, though these creatures are prone to attacking spellcasters over anyone else and that happens to be Caleb. You’re not reliant on magic to harm your enemies.

“Essek!” You shout over to the drow hoping he can be of any help as Caleb takes yet another hit. If this keeps going you’ll be short a wizard and with that damn monkey preventing any healing magic to take effect there’s not much you can do to save him if he down. You’re not sure how long you can keep this going yourself and you’re pretty sure Essek and Caleb are running out of spells.

No matter what, Caleb needs to keep concentration on that wall of force. If that goes down you’re all screwed. At the middle of the crossroads there’s one more gate but it’s closed and neither of you had the chance to reach it before you got ambushed. Caleb stumbles, you grab him around the shoulder pushing him behind you in the hopes at least you’ll be able to shield him from more damage. Lucky for you this creature isn’t doing so hot either so you’re on equal ground.

Purple glowing darts whistle past you striking the creature in front of you. It growls in pain as they explode. It lashes out at you and with no way to avoid the blow, you take it. Damn that hurts but you stay your ground, coming back around with a hit of your own. Caleb takes a few steps back releasing magic missiles of his own and that combined with your final strike, is enough to take down the hulking creature.

Reassuring you he’s fine Caleb leans on a piece of rubble to catch his breath. You don’t buy it. You have to get that door open. You have to but the moment Caleb steps out to take out the gem, the creatures will forget about Essek and come for him instead and that’s just something both you and Essek will not allow. So, you sit Caleb down behind the rubble away from view of the open hallway should anything have found its way around.

“You stay here and take cover. I swear, if you’re going to be stubborn about it I’ll feed you to these Aeorian hunters myself!” You hold Caleb by the shoulders. Wether it is because he sees reason in your argument to stay out of the fray or because he has no energy left in him to argue, you don’t know but Caleb nods. Good. You kiss the top of his head before you step back.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Caleb calls after you holding his shoulder in pain watching you turn your attention to Essek and the oversized monstrous cat he's fighting.

“Because there is so much you wouldn’t do.” You return sarcastically running at the creature getting a little too close for comfort for Essek. The drow jumps back to avoid a claw strike. You slide down on your knees to avoid the claw yourself, in the momentum swinging your blade at the vulnerable extended arm of the creature. It tries to bite at you but you’re back on your feet quickly, side by side with Essek.

“We have to do something. We’re not going to last like this.” Essek glances over to the injured Caleb. He’s fully aware you’re right. You have to do something and do it fast. The panther-like creature bites at Essek but you interpose your sword making it bite down on the metal instead. The action angers the creature enough to swipe its claws at you. A sharp warm sensation cuts through your skin. Good thing you’re high on adrenaline to keep the pain mostly at bay. You come back around moving to its side flank and cut your sword through the eyestalk tail. The creature screeches in pain as Essek finishes it off with a a ray of frost.

“I can’t contain that thing much longer. Swords are not going to be much good in this anymore.” You’re inclined to agree as with the last creature Essek’s got restrained had previously proven you do not want to be anywhere near it. It almost took you down in a single swipe. Imagine what it can do when you’re already bloody and bruised.

“You must get that door open at any cost. I got this.” Essek passes you the access gem you’d used for any previous doors you came across. “Be careful.” You nod. It rests upon you now and you’ll have to work quick.

“You too.” You offer him a quick kiss as Essek turns his attention back to the creature restrained by his spell and anything else that might show up in the distance, prepared for the worst.

You run to the door swipe the gem across the pad. It doesn’t work. You try again. Nothing happens. The gem in the wall lights up but the door remains closed. It’s done that before at other places and you come to the conclusion your key doesn’t give you access to this ward. Okay, that’s bad but like Essek said; at any cost. taking the pommel of the dagger you keep on your side you slam into the gem embedded in the wall with every ounce of force you can muster. The gem cracks and you see the light beginning to bleed through. You strike again. And again. And again. Over and over as shards go flying. Then, one final blow the gem explodes in vibrant light. You’re thrown back like a rag doll.

Disoriented everything is brighter around you for some reason and you’re having trouble making out any detail. Wisps of light floats in front of your face and you bat it away as the familiar purple eyes stare into you with concern, a hand touches your cheek as you’re lifted to your feet with some difficulty. Ugh, what happened and why does your head feel so light? Your arms are wrapped around two sets of shoulders and you’re all but dragged through a doorway and into a space you haven’t seen before.

Placed against the wall, one figure leaves your side while the other stays. This time it’s a blurry haze of orange that appears in front of you. Like a distant echo you hear screeching and howling, through the ground you feel pulses like heavy footsteps hitting metal. What the hell is going on? You blink away the effect and there’s a constant ringing in your ears. You see a concerned Caleb trying to keep you conscious, talking to you but his words fall upon deaf ears. He turns his head away from you shouting something in the direction the other figure; Essek had gone in. You turn with him and see Essek desperately trying to close the door.

You need something. At least your brain says you need something. All you can think is orange. Orange and silver for some reason. You search your brain just to get some clarity. Orange stone. You need amber. Three silver pins. That’s what you’re looking for. You pull at Caleb’s sleeve repeating the components. Caleb thinks you’re in some kind of delirium as this has no correlation to anything and you have no reason to ask for these components as they’re no use to you anyway. He’s sorry but you’ll have to wait. Your wellbeing and the safety of Essek and you are more important than fulfilling your request right now.

When he doesn’t give you what you want and shuts you down in a careful manner, in favour of his panicked conversation with Essek you decide to take the components yourself. Grabbing the component pouch you search for the materials and Caleb while confused lets you be. He’s got bigger things on his mind right now. Once you have what you need you get up. The wizard tries to stop you as you wobble to find your balance but you’re stronger you repeat the words in your mind, accompanied by the motions. Caleb shouts out to Essek you’re under some kind of effect and the drow tries to stop you. You don’t, not even when Essek holds onto you to prevent you from stepping out further. The words finally spoken out loud, the motions correct, albeit not very practiced, a lightning bolt arcs towards the creatures coming in your direction.

Hitting the first creature the lightning bounces between the others in the near vicinity. The creatures howl and screech in pain. Hand outstretched you have no idea what the hell just happened but the creatures scurry away as the door falls closed. Both Essek and Caleb look at you as if you’d just grown a second head. You realise everything is so bright, even brighter than before because you are. You’re literally glowing lighting up the entire space. Essek has trouble looking at you directly shielding his eyes.

“Essek, Caleb, what’s happening to me?” You try to brush off the glow from your person but it sticks remaining ever so bright. Now it’s your turn to panic. The wizards confused, cannot help but be curious about what may have caused all of this. Essek wraps his arms around you and pulls you close as you try to wrap your head around the last few moments. The embrace is loaded with emotion that makes you question the gravity of the situation you thought it to be. Was it that much worse? What did you miss?

Caleb quickly gathers his components and gets to summoning the tower. Right now you need a safe space to get this all sorted. What you don’t know but your wizards got to experience first hand was the time between you being thrown across the hallway and you waking up. It wasn’t good and a conversation definitely needs to happen. By the time the doorway appears the glowing has subsided and you’re grateful it has because e you don’t know how much longer your eyes could take. Is this how Essek feels any time you’re out in the bright sunlight? You imagine he's in the same boat as you but that doesn't prevent him from keeping you close, even if he has to shield his eyes.

You’re sat down on a couch and both Essek and Caleb scan you over, making note of all injuries you sustained, but they find them mostly healed over, just the faint marks remaining of freshly healed wounds. The two of them share a look that has you growing worried. They ask you all sorts of questions. What do you remember? What did you feel? How do you feel now? Do you remember events in your past? Your birthday? The names of your friends? You answer all questions correctly and they feel safe to say that by some miracle you haven't sustained any brain damage but that narrows down whatever theories they might have previously had.

“Please just tell me what’s going on. I can’t take this anymore.” You burst out after yet another row of questions.

“Everything is alright, just calm yourself. We’ll figure this out.” Caleb grabs your hands but you pull them free. When you do words escape your mouth. Caleb acts as if he’d gotten a shock or something. He curls his fingers in pain and hesitantly takes one of your hands in his as if he expected to get shocked again. He shares another look with Essek and you’re praying to the gods they’ll just get out with it because you can’t take it anymore.

“We think, you may have experienced a wild magic surge when you burst that gem.” Well, yes that much was obvious, right? You hit the gem, gem went boom, you got thrown across the room and…. oh… yeah… that looks bad. Maybe more happened that you just taking some bludgeoning damage from your impact.

“And we suspect you might have absorbed some of that energy… As displayed by your instinctual casting of a chain lightning spell not only out of your area of expertise but also surpassing your own previous magical abilities.” Essek treads carefully rubbing circles into your back in an attempt to comfort you as you process. This is not an easy thing to just take in and accept.

“So I’m like you now?” You ask confused about what this all means. You’re a fighter. You use weapons. Your spellcasting abilities are limited. Or they used to be according to what Essek and Caleb told you. Granted, you hadn’t magically forgotten how to wield a a sword or how to fight. That just doesn’t make it any easier to wrap your head around it.

“Yes and no. If this is as we expect you won’t be spending hours studying and copying spells into a spellbook. Instead you’ll grow into it more through a naturally sourced connection to the innate side of magic.” Caleb elaborates. He doesn’t have a vast amount of knowledge on innate magics developed naturally instead of through rigorous study but he grasps the concept well enough.

“So how long will this last?” You ask. Will this just disappear one morning and you’ll be back to your old self or are you stuck like this now?

“We’re not sure yet. It might pass with time or the wild magic has latched onto your innate capabilities and will further develop.” Essek explains as you lean your head against him. You don’t know what to do and to be completely honest neither do the wizards. They’ve never experienced anything like this before but they love you and will always be there for you. Right now you need some sense of stability so if they can provide that they will. There’s nothing like questioning everything about yourself and your life and they know exactly how it feels. You won’t have to go through this alone. Not if they can help it.

“I won’t pretend we’re experts on the subject but believe me when I say I will be there for you, we will both be there for you no matter what you choose to do. If you want to gain a better understanding of this we will stand beside you. If you wish to find a way to reverse whatever happened, we will scour the worlds just to find a solution.” Caleb kisses your palm as you smile at him. You’re not sure how you feel about all of this but to know your wizards have your back is a comfort you need right now and they happily provide it.

“I think I wish to understand. For now.” You nod to yourself. There’s a certainty and determination both wizards catch onto they recognise from within themselves; a desire to learn and understand what they previously did not. While they certainly wanted to learn more about the cause of your sudden conversion into a sorcerer fuelled by wild magic, they would never press you to do so out of their own selfish natures. This is a choice only you can make and they’ll respect. That doesn’t mean they’re not happy with your decision.

They’re already plotting and planning, figuring out where to start. They look forward to not only understanding your magic, where it came from and how it happened but also to teaching you what knowledge they have. Wild magic can be a dangerous thing as shown by your ventures into Aeor many times over so you’ll need to learn not only how to control and avoid incidents like shocking Caleb on accident, but also assure you’re not flying by the seat of your pants any time you get into a scuffle. The chain lighting incident worked out in your favour but what if the next one doesn’t. It’ll be a long and difficult road but one you can walk together. That’s all you need; your wizards at your side. And this is all just a new kind of adventure.

#critical role x reader #critrole x reader #mighty nein x reader #essek thelyss x reader #essek x reader #caleb x reader #caleb widogast x reader #critical role #mighty nein

[noodlesarecheese]

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