#like it's so obvious but holy fuck aabria!

[asexxxualauthor]

I think the best part of finishing Burrow's End is the moment about six or so hours later, where you're chilling in the shower or in the middle of dinner, and you suddenly realize that the tape—you know, that tape—wasn't all five of the Firsts dog-piling and murdering Dr. Winnebago, but literally just Phoebe. And just that one stoat was enough to cause the carnage the kids found in the store room and turn the doctor into a Meat Dave when she didn't even know how to speak human yet.

#dimension 20 #burrow's end #d20 spoilers #burrows end spoilers #hey aabria what the fuck? like what the actual fuck? #I am all for grizzly death and body horror in my D&D campaigns but that is absolutely fucked up #like when I first heard that recording it was horrifying as hell #I'm right there with Brennan being #nope no thanks I'm out #but once you get the extra information from Silence's notes and we find out that it was just Phoebe who went into the store room #like it's so obvious but holy fuck aabria! #that was fucked up!

[captainsspnanon]

ESO Pt 1:  Death & Taxes - liveblog

Starting the ESO one shots, because why the fuck not.

Hi Laura.  You now own me.  HOLY FUCK.

Sam’s PC is actually reminding me a little bit of FCG?  Not entirely sure why

lol at Taliesin’s PC being in charge of food again.  Is Taliesin a big fan of cooking?

...I miss long hair and beard Matt.  Yes, the look does age him, but he looks fucking DASHING.

LOL at Sam THROWING Slaughter’s entire backstory out in the first *checks time* 12 minutes.  And that’s counting the intro and title card sequence!

Michelle is new to me and I already adore her.  I do need the PC cards though, I can’t remember like, ANY of their names!  I only remember Slaughter because of the list of family names.

HOA!  Thank you Aabria and Laura for saying it!

...Laura playing a surly orc is SENDING me places, omg

Slaughter’s not really hitting for me at the moment, I feel like Sam likes to play these super uncertain nervous one off characters (his Critmas elf is what I’m thinking of) and it just feels a bit overplayed?  Or like, heavy handed?  One note?  Not sure how best to describe it.  (though even as I’m typing this I’m remember his Lorelei PC was very boisterous and not nervous at all, so maybe not XD)

“Aren’t we all new beings on this beautiful planet that we call” *helphelphelp* LOL new geography who dis?

A handful of gold but no tip?  How much does a single ale cost?!??!?

And Mallory has now won me over too.  I love how much Tal is just cracking up everyone else with stuff that, in context, has no humor at all.  It’s BRILLIANT.  (also I keep wanting to type Molly, so that’s gonna be a thing)

also, I am DELIGHTED whenever anyone can make Matt break when he’s in character, and Tal did it FABULOUSLY.  I feel like Matt’s the hardest to break, with Liam next, and then maybe Laura next?  Though Sam’s good at not breaking, I feel like that’s more of it’s harder to make him laugh than the others.  HE’S GOT HIGHER STANDARDS XD

LAURA IS FAKING THEIR TAXES!!!!  also I full on don’t remember her name, except that it starts with a G.  Aabria I think is playing Tavina?  Which I can only remember by thinking Tavern.

OH GOD LAURA YOUR ROLLS

New proprietors have to carry over debts from previous proprietors????  I am desperately hoping that this is just a thing made up for the game solely because I wouldn’t be surprised if this was something that actually happened in the US now.  (pretty sure it doesn’t, but still.  I have no hope in the world anymore.)

Also this is making me giggle a little because imagine that Laura had rolled a nat 20 for the dex check and a nat 20 for the deception check and Matt just went ‘yup all your taxes are in order, whatever plot hook this is is now gone, enjoy just randomly serving customers for the next three hours’ XD  It’d never happen, but it’s fun to picture

I’d totally be on the ‘let’s just murder hobo this dude’ train, but they are very respectful of obvious plot hook. XD

Then again I just realized this dude’s been drinking glass in his wine, he’s probably dead man walking

I am super surprised that Matt’s not teasing Aabria about the DM curse.  Though, did this come out before ExU or after?  Maybe they were trying to keep that hidden?

*looks through the comments because it’s late at night and I’ve lost focus*  Someone described Mallory as a cross between Caduceus and The Owlbear and that feels spot on.

Oh dear, with combat not being standard 5e stuff I’m used to, it’s definitely going to have me zone out during.  All weird spells and stuff….at least it’s the standard action/bonus action/movement it seems.

Oh hey, the only clip of this I’ve ever seen!  Which is Laura swapping out her dice mid-game XD  I lean towards Liam and Sam’s view of dice which is that the dice don’t care, but I do adore Laura’s rituals and such.

Plot device note found on a 6.  Yup!  Those you gotta find even on the nat 1s, just to make sure that plot can move along.

Sam goofing around that he doesn’t play ESO makes me wonder how they decide who among the main cast is going to be in the one shots.  I always assuming that Liam’s in a ton of one shots because he loves d&d so much, whereas Sam is in a bunch of one shots because he’s the humor boy, but it does make me think.  *looks at actual attendance*  So Liam is in 31, Matt in 30, Sam and Tal at 29, Marisha at 28, Laura at 27, Travis at 24, and Ashley unsurprisingly at 11 (which I’m sure will pick up more now that blindspot is no more).  (aww, it looks like Matt only got to play in 7 of them, had to DM the rest).  You know, look at that now it’s actually way more balanced than I would have suspected!  Though also looking at these, not sure if I’d actually count some of them as Critical Role one shots, as it includes the Campaign Tips/Critical Troll, as well as the Kinda Funny and Gamespot one shots as well.  ...what is this Sloth and Sundry?  *takes a peek* ….OKAY watching this next, I think.  And the Stephen Colbert one shot is on here too….. ALRIGHT so my own headcanon list of what counts toward the ‘official’ count and whatnot is clearly skewed, so I give up XD

Speaking of costumes (we weren’t but that’s okay) I hope that everyone is a comfortable temperature.  This group is such a mix of costume weights that I feel like either Michelle’s got to be freezing, or Taliesin and Sam are going to start sweating.  Glad that Michelle’s ears look to be on a headband though, I was worried she had them actually on her ears cause that would be painful as fuck for any longish period of time.

Wow I have never seen Matt basically give someone proficiency just to get them past the point where they are stuck.  (again, difference of a one shot vs a campaign, but still!)  This group is rolling SO BAD.  Also they have super low HP, so I wonder if they’re like, level 2/level 3?

Laura asks for and gets flanking, and then doesn’t roll with advantage XD  aw bby

Ah!  She remembers! Yay!

Grelnock is giving me the Barbarian!Laura that I’ve wanted.  Tanky damage dealer, yes pls

It’s an interesting combination, I’m enjoying watching Aabria play, but at the same time this PC feels like all the NPCs from ExU.  I think I said it at the time, but it holds true now.  Creating a ‘character’ doesn’t need to be an integral part into d&d, because she’s just as enjoyable as the other players without feeling like ‘someone different’.

(I am NOT going to go into dRaMa here, but watching this is also reminding me that there are things that some CR cast does in their regular style of play which I just don’t vibe with overall.)

LOL Mallory looks SO disgusted by Baked Alaska, but intrigued by Bananas Foster

I love watching Matt desperately nerfing damage because all the rolls are TERRIBLE

When Slaughter yells the complicated order to the skull and throws it and Sam rolls and goes “NATURAL -” I 1000% thought he want going to say 20.  I was not expecting the 1.

SLAUGHTER FINALLY GETTING A HIT, AND IT’S THE KILLING BLOW

Grelnock’s Skull. Hell. Yes.

#critical role #elder scrolls online one shot #laura bailey is too hot to be allowed #i apologize for my thirst