#zedash

[vestigesofperversion]

Simulacrum are all the same

[ CAMPAIGN 2, EPISODE 14 ]

M9 gets Yasha amped for her first visit to Pumat

FJORD: You’ll like this. Pumat Sol is— how would you describe, unique?

CALEB: Uhhh well, not one-of-a-kind…

*Cast dies laughing*

MOLLY: Did you just tell a joke??!

CALEB: No.

MOLLY: That’s a shame, it was a very good one!

#the dry delivery #i’m 💀💀💀 #liam you delicious bastard #critical role #cr2 #cr2 spoilers #fjord stone #caleb widogast #mollymauk tealeaf #pumat sol #miss you texblade fjord #the mighty nein #mighty nein #zedash #simulacrum #cr quotes #quotes #cr gifs #gifs

[flashhwing]

Looking at the c2 timeline for fic purposes and the mighty nein did SO MUCH in the first 24 hours of being in Zedash

Went shopping

Went to the inn

Terrorized a town crier

Infiltrated a spy group, slightly accidentally

Tried to go shopping again but now all the stores are closed

Had a full night’s rest

Went shopping again

Took a bath

Terrorized a town crier again

Jester went to the pillow trove

Frumpkin died

Caleb tried and failed (twice) to get into the tri-spires

Jester insults Caleb, mostly accidentally

Got a job

Fought some spiders

#critical role #the mighty nein #I’m like okay some background stuff has to happen between arriving in Zedash and fighting spiders. let’s see how much time I have #ah. less than 24 hours. fuck #realistically I don’t think what I want can fit in 24 hours but I’ll make it work! #this has been a post

[beedreamscape]

VERY LONG POST EXPLORING C3 AND WHY SO MANY PEOPLE MIGHT NOT LIKE IT/MY PERSONAL GRIPES WITH IT.

I ended up exploring a bit of that Reddit community of critical role fans (not the main one) where they basically gather together and commiserate how much they hate C3. It's frustrating to read because at some point you can tell they make no effort to engage positively with the campaign and have a penchant for hating anything about it.

But, from the perspective of someone with very little emotional connection to the past campaigns, I kinda get why C3 feels so different and, in my opinion, it's all about personal stakes for the characters.

As writers, we constantly hear that we must give the characters something personal to care about so that the reader may care about the plot - yeah city-destroying laser beam is a big stake, but if main character's loved one will be used as a sacrifice to the aliens to activate the laser beam unless they do something, the tension doubles.

And with a shallow look over the arcs of the past campaigns, especially the fans' favourites, a pattern I find is of those with heavy personal stakes:

People often point the Briarwoods arc as a favourite. It's not just about bringing down the powerful Briarwoods, it's about avenging Percy's family and bringing his beloved Whitestone back to its past glory, all mixed with the fighting of personal demons.

We also got Vax'ildans overarching arc with the Raven Queen and Scanlan's with Kaylie and his self-worth/discovery in the party.

In campaign three, the struggle of Fjord getting over Uk'otoa's influence and turning to the Wildmother, rediscovering himself. Bright Queen's Favor with freeing Yuza, uncovering Nott's past, grappling with their preconceptions of the empire and the dynasty, and meeting Essek. Losing then Recovering Yasha from Obann. Traveler Con.

This post about the first third of the C2 comparing it to C1 explains quite well how M9 is driven by the party's personal stakes over any obligation to any institution.

Not only personal stakes that build the value of the campaign, but places that grow as their own: Whitestone, Emon, Zephrah, Xhorhas, the Menagerie Coast, Zedash, etc.

That's what's missing from Campaign 3: anchors and personal stakes.

Bells Hells doesn't really care about anything! We're entrenched in the Ruidus plot ever since we learned what ruidusborn means in the beginning of the campaign and yet, what does that mean to them? It was the subject of Imogen's dreams and afflictions but what else? The main victims of it will be the gods, but they repeatedly state how much they don't care for the gods and are in doubt if losing them would be bad anyway.

In a certain perspective, I don't blame them - the plot has grown so massive and subjective, while they haven't - they're still level 10 nobodies against a god-eating moon-shaped monster and the insanely powerful guy that wants to free it.

Bells Hells doesn't care for the places they walk through! Only two members of the party are actually from Marquet! Imogen and Dorian. And both are running from their past! so they don't even want to be there! Ashton hates everything about it and all the others have no reason to cling to it.

Jrusar was such a great city with great dynamics that were only half explored and they don't seem to care to return to it even though so much goes unexplored. Yios meant nothing nor did Heartmoor or the Taloned Highlands (and its apparently juicy political intrigues nobody cared to explore) and barely a mention of Ank'harel or the Silken Squall.

WHY do we keep going back to Taldorei???

Marquet as a whole goes mostly unexplored and underused in the campaign and it's so upseting.

Bells Hells have nothing to lose! They hold no personal stakes to the plot, most of them don't have families and those that do feel like something so distant and impersonal, no place or city they love or feel connected to, the only thing they owned (the very valuable skyship rip) they destroyed with barely any consideration. Their morals feel like the only thing at stake and even that feels already lost.

C3 is pulling too much from past campaigns. From the moment they first contacted the VM people, it felt like a mistake, and every appearance since has felt so much like fan service (especially bc specific fan favourites are the recurring appearances, no variety). The time spent in Whitestone, the connections to Delilah, everything with Keyleth, etc.

This last one, in particular, contributes to that group of NPCs feeling, always revolving around some other character struggle - who cares what is going on with Bells Hells when Vax's trapped in an orb and Keyleth is half dying, and Caleb is in an anti-magic collar, and Trent is probably loose, and this character and that character...

We haven't spent proper time with C3-exclusive NPCs excluding Nana Morri since episode 50! No Lord Eshteross or Xandis or Ira or Jiana Hexum or the Green Seekers or Milo. It was so special to me having Dancer and Imahara Joe around even if briefly.

And Lord Eshteross death left such a huge gap in the dynamics of the party with the world. I think it was premature, especially because the thirst to avenge him (which I suppose was meant to fuel their hate and intention to kill Otohan) lasted so little and from there on out began the heavy and meta-gamey (and personally, OOC) relying on VM characters.

The ticking clock on the apogee solstice strained much of the campaign and brought this looming fear of 'if we don't take care of it nobody will so we can't waste time', therefore the alternative paths and personal arcs fell to the sidelines in favor of the elephant in the room, so it felt like several episodes of dragging towards this event, then the peak of ep 50-51, to re-start the drag of post moon beam.

Guest PCs are a whole other can of worms I'm not ready to explore also bc it entails a lot, but it's a shared sentiment that people miss Dorian and what he brought to the table.

On a personal view, the Hellcath Valley was my favorite arc. Bassuras felt so tactile and real and gritty, we had a clear objective of infiltrating the Paragon's Call and retrieving Armand Treshi, Deathwish Run, the mystery of Dusk unveiling into Yu, Fearne's parents encounter, Ira, Imahara Joe and reveals about Dancer and D., first FCG nervous attack, Otohan battle and Laudna's death. SO MUCH.

Special mentions to everything Jrusar and Shade Creepers, Heartmoor and the Museum, Savalirwood, and the time spent on the Silver Sun.

I miss these small-scale objectives, I miss the C3 NPCs, I miss Marquet, I miss turning our eyes to these character tensions and exploration, I miss the one-on-one talks, the unity they shared in those dire moments.

I can't wait to leave the Predathos plot and all the repetitive discussions within it behind.

This doesn't cover everything (interpersonal relationships are a whole other spectrum of discussion) but a few things I feel puts an obstacle towards people liking this campaign when comparing the past ones.

#it feels like i've been writing for hours and I might've been #why am i writing this? well good you asked....... *crikets* #i needed to put this out of my head #i needed to put into words why i can't argue the hateful claims while loving campaign 3 and bells hells #bells hells #cr meta #critical role #cr spoilers #rambles #c3

[casimircrane]

so in the m9's campiagn we all remember when they got their first beacon, right? the attack on zedash, the assassins from the dynasty, ect?

i cant stop thinking about how those assassins had to be high ranking to get a holy artifact from a foreign country. and since they are, they mightve connected to the beacon once or twice. and we know in the lore that those who connect to a certain beacon and die near it, they get reborn into another body. y'all seeing where im going with this?

since those assassins died near the beacon, they had a chance of being reborn in zedash. inside human bodies. where they will get their memories back. and remember the fuck heads that killed them. im guessing here on time, and based off of luc's 'age', they should be around 8-10 years old. we dont know when they get their memories back, buut it would be very funny for a 9 year old to just wake up one day and tell their parents "you arent my parents, im from the dynasty, i need to go get revenge."

#the mighty nein #campaign 2 #critical role #critical role campaign 2 spoilers #spoilers? #anyways #i just think that it would make sense #and that it would be very funny #like a small 9yo #with their little 9yo voice #says “i need to get revenge” #not to mention their abilities #like #imagine a tiny little kid having eldritch knight abilities #imagine the kid next door just starts hating on humans while being one

[foxqueen-katarian]

ok I know I already sent in an ask about them, but Percy and the Caleb we meet in episode one for the party dynamic meme, would that change anything?

Overall, no I don't think it would change much. Both of them are still highly intelligent people, and Caleb is still someone who enjoys learning for the sake of learning.

That said, the road to getting there is a little more fraught. They come from very different worlds, and I imagine there is some friction when it comes to money (think the 'argument' between Caleb and Jester during the Zedash arc).

I also like to think they both have separate moments of 'Oh no he's hot', that neither one of them really wants to unpack.

#critical role #percival fredrickstein von musel de rolo iii #caleb widogast

[broodygaming]

Gosh, I’m listening to CR2 near the end like ep 130 something and Caleb said some thing in passing that just made my Drama Brian start reeling.

He says that in a pinch they could just send Veth back. They’re all talking about being ready to die and everyone agrees that they Can’t let Veth die. She has to get home to her family.

Could you imagine?

Lucien and Co looming over them, most of the party down. Cold snow soaking into their clothes as their purple (friend) enemy stalks closer, going on and on about some shit he believes in. Caleb knows he’s next. He’s not going to make it. He sees his dear small friend hiding, about to spring out and fire a shot at Lucien. Caleb knows this will draw his wrath and his friend, a mother a loved one a protector a child, will die…. and instead he sends her AWAY.

To be Veth in that moment. Of fear and panic and adrenaline coursing through her? Ready to die ready to fight. To be jolted into the warm sticky basement of a bar in Zedash? She would scream and rage and be so angry at first, for being sent away. All that energy and fight, with nowhere to point it to. An impossible distance away. Knowing right Now her other family is being slaughtered. To feel the comforting hands of her husband and child on her and just for a moment hate them too. But it’s just the heat. The rage. The fight. And it would drain from her. Like a leak in a flask.

Until she’s just a young lady with her family, holding a small crossbow and dots of magic snow not melting in her hair.

#critical role #Critical role campaign 2 #veth brenatto #sam riegel #mine

[lt-sarai]

I'm having a difficult time watching these couple episodes (78 & 79) of the Mighty Nein and I'll tell you why.

Watching the events fold out (teleporting from Zedash to Rexantrom to Port Domali and back, Jester getting shot twice, and getting banned from 2 archives in the process)

AND THEN doing essentially THE SAME BULLSHIT with Essek in going to the wrong part of the forest and asking him to bamf them to the part they meant

From the perspective of the players, this is hilarious.

From a storytelling perspective, as an audience member, it's cringe af and terrible and I hate it.

I totally get it from a player perspective bc it's funny and it's 'not real' but from my audience perspective it's so many dick moves on top of already being assholes and I am not liking them right now for taking advantage of people, even if these people are just NPCs. Idk how Matt feels about this as a DM, but I would get pretty frustrated pretty quick.

#The mighty nein #Critical role #Cr2 #Crc2

[batwingsandblackcats]

once and formerly haunted

chapter 3: darling it's cold outside

Read on Ao3

3/? | Chapter word count: 3,269 | Current total word count: 9,418

co-written by @sageobo31

Summary:

It's getting cold in Zedash, and Laudna's fed up with Imogen's seasonably inappropriate outerwear.

Notes:

Hey all, hope everyone's doing well!

Sage is actually the one who wrote this chapter, but she didn't feel like adding a note, so I'm filling in lol. I helped out with the description of Laudna's apartment and some of the dialogue, but otherwise, this chapter's all her!

We came up with the title of this chapter about five seconds ago: "lol we could actually call this chapter 'baby it's cold outside'" "wait but that's actually cute-"

This seems to be how most of our ideas go, so I don't know why I'm surprised, really.

Anyways, we hope you enjoy this chapter, and thank you for reading! Hope everyone has a great holiday and a great week in general!

—batwingsandblackcats

#critical role #critical role fanfic #imodna #imogen temult #laudna #fluff #bookshop au #TIBSAU #The Imodna Bookshop AU

[all-thestories-aretrue]

If they fail to go to the pillow trove to get that letter that may be from astrid while they are in zedash i will scream!!!!

#critical role #mighty nein #cr2 #m9 #cr2ep78 #this episode has been rather uneventful thus far #even with all the traveling #and they missed so many opportunities to check in on people #yussa #bryce #they missed shakaste too #orly #so many connections!!! just passed by #ugh #its fine #its fine im fine #i also expected a message or two to dairon or essek

[softly-speaking-valkyrie]

Watching Critical Role all week really do be having me wanting to write a book that would be stocked in Chastity’s Nook.

#critical role #critter #chastity's nook #zedash #the mighty nein

[vestigesofperversion]

Beau Does Vandalism, Breaks Caleb

[Caleb, Beau, and Yasha, among the tomes of Zedash’s Cobalt Soul Reserve, having just made some early breakthroughs in the Vess / Aeor investigation]

Marisha, to Matt: “I rip out the page documenting The Tomb Takers.”

Caleb: “I.. could have memorized.. that poor book...”

Beau: “NO TIME.”

Yasha, consolingly, to Caleb: “She’s allowed to do it.”

Liam, to Matt: “Caleb just goes — thousand-yard stare — for a full 30 seconds.”

Travis: “You massacred a book.”

Matt, describing Caleb: “Just a slight twitch in the left eye.”

Travis: “🎵 Who can say where the road goes… 🎵”

#critical role #cr2 #cr2 ep111 #cr2 spoilers #mighty nein #the mighty nein #aeor arc #zedash #cobalt soul #vess derogna #mollymauk tealeaf #lucien #lucien nonagon #nonagon #caleb widogast #yasha nydoorin #beauregard lionett #beauyasha #cr quotes

[flashhwing]

man I wanna rewatch the entire eiselcross/aeor arc but that like what. episodes 111-141. 30 solid like 4-5 hour episodes. why can’t this show have small easily digestible/re-watchable arcs. I don’t wanna dedicate 120 hours to rewatching one thing

#the first thirty and the last thirty episodes have to be my favorite #it’s only about 50% because those are the episodes where molly/lucien/kingsley exist #the other 50% is vibes #zedash and aeor #nott the brave and adventurer veth/stay at home dad yeza #runaway beau and expositor beau #throwing up seawater vs fjully realized champion of the Wildmother #stinky hobo and deadly powerful motherfucker #like the middle is good. I love ALL of campaign 2 #but the beginning and the end are undoubtedly the best parts #Molly’s death and Caduceus’s introduction #meeting Lucien and seeing so much of Molly in him #meeting KINGSLEY and knowing as much as he is your old friend he is also a new person who deserves the room to BE that new person #accidentally stealing a beacon. scrying on the guy who is actively killing your employer and somehow not realizing it #the leaky tap. widogast’s nascent nein sided tower #‘we can’t add any more members or else there’ll actually be nine of us’ -> ‘mighty nein you finally fulfill your number’ #nott dragging caleb kicking and screaming into forgiveness. the entire m9 (but mostly caleb and jester) dragging essek kicking and screaming #into forgiveness #pumat sol #finding the beacon and having this incredible powerful artifact that you can barely scratch the surface of #warping the very fabric of time and space so your friends can take a nap #there’s just so much I love about these arcs #critical role #this has been a post #the mighty nein

[witheringfears]

How many heists have the planned that have gone, as Caleb puts it, "pear shaped?"

#there was zedash in like episode 14 #the hospital was earlier #then Lord zutan #then the tumblecarves in 76 #that guy got a red neck the #now this shit and they made it that way #critical role #cr spoilers #I'm honestly just confused

[bitchyessek]

I was listening to ep 8 “the gates of Zadash” again and god I’m so stressed that no one picked up when their tour guide said “I know better than to cross anyone with Xhorhasian blood” in reference to molly like the amount of times hints to his backstory were just totally ignored or missed by the Nein makes me lose my god damn mind y’all

#critical role #mollymauk tealeaf #the gates of zedash #i feel like taliesin did that shit on purpose tbh #like molly didnt care so be was just like yall fuckers are on your own lmao #alis posts

[sinistea-enthusiast]

trying this blended apple cider tea without sugar. it was too sweet last time

#from a tea shop outside zedash called DavidsTea i think

[olyrik]

I’M ALIVE! Sorry for taking so long on this post, I’ve already explained myself in a past post so I won’t bother doing it again, but as an apology for taking so long expect more posts today, their are meany, meany, more to come!

#Pokemon #pokemon fusion #fakemon #rapidash #zebstrika #Zedash