#and is like. hes extremely untrustworthy and i want him dead. guess ill put him in charge of my army of soon-to-be-insane sorcerers!
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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E38 (October 16, 2018)
Tonight’s guests are Sam Riegel and Taliesin Jaffe (and, as always, Dani Carr and... Tiny Corner Max?)!
Announcements:
The latest episode of Between the Sheets, featuring Daytime Emmy Award-Winning Sam Riegel (TM), aired last night and will be available on YouTube tomorrow morning. Sam: “I feel like this channel is mostly just you and me talking?” Brian: “Are you saying that everyone else is just riding our coattails?” Taliesin: “He’s also saying that you look a lot like Liam at this point, and he can’t tell the difference.”
Another episode of All Work No Play will debut this Friday on the Critical Role Twitch (uploaded to YouTube on Sunday). In this episode, Sam and Liam do yoga... with goats. TJ Storm and Travis Willingham guest star!
Next week the cast will be at London MCM! Taliesin: “I’m packing slightly more tweed.” Brian: “Gettin’ tweedy with it.”
There’s a new (harp music) Laura Bailey emote on the CR Twitch for subscribers.
@critrolestats for this week’s episode:
The M9 hit 150 natural ones in this episode. Number 150 was Jester’s acrobatics check to get away from the yuan-ti abomination.
Jester also set the record for the most natural ones in a single episode: 5. The previous record of 4 was held by Nott and Beau. Brian: “You guys remember these are not still going to charity, right?” Sam and Taliesin: “What?”
Taliesin was the one who helped Momlan glue on her elf ears. Taliesin: “I would be very nervous if my mom were going out there.” Brian: “Well, she’s got hundreds of years of secrets on you.” Taliesin: “Mom of the damned.”
Cad’s definitely been upset about being around undead; Taliesin’s rolled a few times to see if there’ll be a worse freak-out, but there hasn’t been one so far. “The notion is that there’s a direction things are supposed to move, and [undead] is something moving against the grain in an intense way. What’s the point of having an imaginary organized religion of any kind if you can’t have something they’re fundamentally against?”
Nott’s extremely far from her comfort zone right now, being outside the Empire, working for a captain on the sea who’s threatened their lives: “There’s snakes and lizards and... wouldn’t you drink, dude?!”
Given how much he’s been getting the shit kicked out of him lately, is there a breaking point for Cad? “Probably. I haven’t really finished nailing him down emotionally yet. I genuinely don’t know what zen people do when everything goes to shit.” Jester’s speech genuinely comforted him a lot. “Apparently Laura knew what to say.” Sam notes that the party hasn’t really had a chance to sit down and ask him questions about himself so far. Taliesin mentions that Cad’s been ordering drinks but hasn’t actually been drinking.
Nott’s fallen into the role of the mom friend mainly because nobody else has (everyone agrees that Caduceus is more of “a wise pothead”). Brian: “Everyone seems to have so much baggage right now. Half the people seem focused on just holding it together, the other half are focused on the mission.” Dani: “Somebody has to be the level-headed one.” Sam: “And why can’t that leveling force come from a three-and-a-half-foot insane goblin alcoholic?”
Once Caduceus levels out (he’s still a little shell-shocked), he’s going to realize that he’s surrounded by “unhealthy lunatics” and will want to do something about that.
Sam’s done some research about chemistry (although he wants to make more of a cheat sheet after Travis’ experience with sailing), knowing it might come up with Nott’s alchemy knowledge. Taliesin is trying to learn more of what Sam terms “that fungus shit”. Also tea, and zen. Sam: “I was thinking you should go to a morgue and see how bodies decompose.” Taliesin: “Oh, I have some experience in that.”
(don’t worry; it’s just some friends in forensic anthropology)
Gif of the Week: Taliesin casts Detect DM Shenanigans.
“There was a certain order to the universe that he has come to expect, and it has been thrown into great disarray.” Cad was expecting the Epic Quest to save his home, but he wasn’t expecting the Mighty Nein. He’s mainly staying because of what Jester said about not necessarily needing to understand what’s happening right now. “He’s confused and trying his best to just let things happen, because that’s how the Wildmother works.”
Nott’s been surprised by some of the Mighty Nein’s actions, but so far she knows it’s out of necessity. She doesn’t view the incident on the docks as quite as bad as some of the others did---it was chaotic and based in self-preservation rather than actively causing harm. “But some of the other actions lately have been surprising to her.” Sam points out that she and Caleb did a lot of things to survive, and that she still steals a lot, and reminds everyone that she lives in a very morally grey area. She’s not thinking of leaving at this point, and all the high-stakes trauma has brought her closer to the group. “It’s a fucked-up dysfunctional family, but it’s starting to look a little bit like a family to her.”
Taliesin and Sam are both enjoying being moral compasses of the party this campaign, in major contrast to the previous campaign. Brian: “You were a teenage asshole. You were a teenage dirtbag.” Taliesin: “It’s so weird. I love it.” Sam: “Oh man. We’d better step up our game. If we’re the moral compasses...” Taliesin: “We’re like Cracker Jack compasses, we almost point north.”
Cad’s got a lot of abilities he just doesn’t use very often. “He knows that some of it is... rude? Death cleric, man, they’ve got some insane shit.” Cad doesn’t have the same opinions on life and death as most people. Brian: “How surprising.”
Taliesin is having “a ton of fun” playing Caduceus. “I love Molly... and the character. Too easy.” No, but seriously: “I loved playing Molly, but the nice thing I got to do with Caduceus that I didn’t get to do with Molly is we had an established group and I got to create a character that was useful to the dynamic both mathematically and emotionally.”
Sam: “Wait, is it twitch.tv or twitch.com? Oh my god, I’ve been putting the wrong links on my Twitter for like a year.”
Cad was very selective about who he told about Jamedi, and purposely didn’t tell Nott because he knew she’d tell others. Sam, trying to keep a straight face: “Nott’s nothing if not trustworthy.” He’s more surprised that Caduceus has figured that out already, given how little he knows about Nott. “Maybe it speaks less to Nott and more to Caduceus being judgey...” Taliesin clarifies that it wasn’t so much that Nott was untrustworthy, it was more than Nott couldn’t keep a secret. Sam, as a player, was shocked that the rest of the party didn’t instantly tell everyone that “we are being led through the jungle by a dead guy.” Taliesin points out that with two clerics (Brian: “well, a cleric and a battle Mercy”), they literally have a button they can push to make him go away if they need to.
Sam: “It seems like Fjord’s going into a real bad place without any information, and Nott’s there to support and make sure he doesn’t die, but it seems like a bad idea.” Taliesin: “This seems like a test of one’s soul, and Caduceus is on board but aware that this could go badly.” Taliesin also points out that the rest of the group isn’t aware of the creepiest stuff going on because they weren’t there for it.
Fanart of the Week: the group (sans Jester and Caduceus) inside Leomund’s Tiny Hut!
Taliesin got recognized in public, and the fan immediately called out the two clerics for going off on their own in the middle of the night. Taliesin: “It was a good burn.”
Caduceus had some experience with fights pre-M9 (grave robbers, wildlife). Taliesin: “Have you ever seen Cemetery Man? Shit gets weird!”
There’s a brief interlude while everyone arranges a movie night. As you do.
Has Nott been feeling protective toward members of the Nein other than Caleb? Fjord is probably the next-likely candidate, followed by possibly Yasha. Sam: “Caduceus is just too tall.” Taliesin: “I feel that.”
Taliesin describes Lesser Restoration as “the aspirin of D&D”. He’s done some healing of illness before, but this has just been a bad time. Sam points out that in the last campaign they didn’t really have to deal with disease so much. “I assume it’s Bird Flu.”
Scanlan stealing the gun was messing with both Taliesin and Percy. Nott is interested in the mechanics of the gun, interested in the chemistry of gunpowder, and has already designed and manufactured one explosive arrow as a result. “But Nott has also noticed that there’s people with guns wherever they keep going, and it might be a good idea to have a gun. It’s a self-preservation thing. If that also happens to mess with Taliesin Jaffe, I’m not going to say no to that. I mean, the heart does what the heart does. If that happens as a result, we’ve all grown as people.”
They realize there’s about a four-foot height difference between Caduceus and Nott. Taliesin: “He squats.” Dani: “He’s got killer calves.”
Caduceus is very, very good at reading people. Nott doesn’t lie because of goblin upbringing, but more out of her travels with Caleb and having her first impulse to be to get out of any situation by lying to stall/delay/confuse.
Taliesin: “Why lie to a plant?”
There’s a brief interlude about telling your plants inappropriate bodily measurements. As you... do? Brian: “I’m calling an Uber right now. I’m sorry. I’m done.”
Taliesin is collecting spells based mainly on what he can guess might be helpful. He doesn’t need a lot of damage-dealing, so focuses more on deflecting and healing. He’s picked out some feats he’s interested in to make Caduceus less likely to take damage. “That’s been a problem. I don’t like being hit.”
It is pointed out that all of Sam’s characters in the campaigns have had high intelligence and low wisdom. “That’s a pretty great winning combo for comedy.”
Legends of the Hidden Talks Machina:
Overwatch mains? Sam: “What’s a main?” Taliesin: “It’s like Quidditch...”
Taliesin is a support main, especially Zenyatta and Brigitte.
Brian is a D.Va main (woo!) and also plays a lot of Orisa.
Look, I gotta cheer on anyone who also mains D.Va. Those are the rules.
They agree that watching Sam play as Hanzo would be funny, but decide Roadhog would be the best. Sam: “Yeah. It’s Hog Noon. Is that what he says?” Brian: “Yep.”
What’s Matt’s character name? Sam: “Tyrone McCabe.” Brian: “It’s close!”
Ghost stories? Taliesin: “I’ve been ghosted.” Sam: “I saw some raccoons in my backyard?” Taliesin: “I got attacked by a skunk when I was in my hot tub.”
Taliesin: “Now I’ve seen a ghost.” Past and present combine:
Taliesin has a 1930s stripey swimsuit, because of course he does.
What (harp music)-style sound cues would they have? Taliesin: The sound of building a temple in the original Warcraft. Sam: An... explosion? Brian: The sound of my mom’s tears because he never became a doctor. Taliesin: “I was thinking the Golden Girls intro.”
Goth advice for the week, courtesy of Taliesin: Best style eyeliner is eyeliner on day 2. Put on the eyeliner before the shower. Know if your choker’s loadbearing.
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Rockland: Misfits vs Professionals early speculation PT 2
The date of this post is 5/6/19. Please note that information revealed at this time via Patreon or any of the creator’s blogs may be subject to change after this date.
I suppose I’ll keep using this title set for now since I have yet to fully distinguish the two groups by anything other than their titles or by the few members shown. In this post however, I’m solely going to be talking about the Misfits based on a short story recently put up.
So straight off the bat, is seems like a few things I had speculated before hold some ground. I said that I doubted the Misfits were a mafia/mob group. Indeed the group is described more like a bunch of masked hooligans. The officer also refers to them as “kids,” though I don’t know if that implies they are all under the age of 18, or just young adults (college kids for example).
One question I had asked to myself last time is if they keep their organization a secret. By the looks of it, there seem to be qualms about saying the group’s name out loud. The member who is investigated even corrects the officer (someone currently in opposition to them) on what their group is called. It is possible that the unknown member is just using the word literally here, but it seems fairly careless to describe yourselves using the group’s title IF no one is supposed to know they exist.
My secret society guess is still on the table for the moment. The beginning text makes it clear that it’s unknown how many members there are and who is a member. What’s more, if “you can’t prove they’ve done anything wrong,” then they seem fairly adept at keeping their activities a secret. This makes this a group vaguely known to the local area at the very least. They’re hiding out in the open basically.
The possibility of their group being more antagonistic is also still there because they’re “the group no one wants to mess with them.” Or at the very least, they’re rather difficult to handle.
Right now if I were to throw in two more guesses, there’s the possibility that:
a) They are a group of individuals who prefer anarchy (if antagonistic)
b) They’re a group individuals who take a more vigilante approach to local happenings (if they aren’t completely antagonistic, but still untrustworthy)
The officer (and other people it seems) refer to them (or whoever the assailants are) as “Purgers.” He even references the movie “The Purge.”
Now "to purge” means “ to rid of whatever is impure or undesirable; cleanse; purify.” According to dictionary.com.
The Purge films are about a single night of the year where crime is completely legal. I always thought it was a strange title to use based on the definition, because I would see those who commit these crimes as impure. I haven’t seen the films myself, but I’m guessing in this context the purge is actually used to help people ALLEVIATE themselves of violent thoughts that build up throughout the year.
It’s not confirmed at the end if the Misfits are the ones who committed the crime of kidnapping the one boy. The member who is interrogated does a fairly good job of acting like he has nothing to do with this. Not extremely defensive. He only acts up when Ashton is not referred to appropriately, but that’s a separate matter from the interrogation itself. Saying the kid was likely dead I also wouldn’t necessarily conclude as solid evidence he was a part of it. If a person is missing for two weeks, sadly that is a good guess as to what happened to them. Otherwise, it would mean the person is being kept hidden somewhere or even moved to another location entirely. The better evidence against the group is the photos and how it’s very easy to spot these members out and about.
Let’s say for now that the Misfits are indeed the “Purgers.”
a) If they’re a group who prefer anarchy, then they may have a mindset like the people who commit crimes in the Purge films. They may feel that there should be no need to hold back ill thoughts. That it may be better to simply do as you please if you want to be truly free, or maybe even healthy.
b) If they act more as vigilantes, then they’re working with the original definition of “to purge.” They’re possibly clearing the streets of more unsavory individuals without regard to what the authorities would do/prefer when it comes to how to approach a case.
The questioned member denies they are “Purgers” though. This is either a denial that they were the ones who committed the crime (either because they really are innocent OR because he’s covering up the truth), OR simply a correction to the name. The correction could just be him saying, “That’s not what we call ourselves, don’t just go giving us a random name” here. Or the correction could be because neither of the purge ideologies apply to their group.
It’s funny when I’m not sure what I should be taking literally and what’s an actual red herring in this scenario.
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