What Bits May Come | 4-Sided Dive | Episode 30 Discussing Up To C3117

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Hey there, critters.

We are so excited to share with you our brand new podcast from the world of Xandria, the Re-Slayer's Take.

In this audio adventure, you'll be guided through the wild continent of Asilra, home to some of the most dangerous creatures.

Here, the Slayer's Take is the most notorious monster hunting group in the realm.

But, when previously slain creatures start returning from the grave, it's up to six misfit mercenaries to band together and re-slay these supernatural threats as the Reslayers Take.

So come follow along these audio escapades as the second coolest monster hunters this side of Xandria battle a growing undead army of dangerous creatures.

The party is led by a duo of Game Masters, George Primavera and Nick Williams, with the main cast including Jasmine Bular, Caroline Lux, and Jasmine Shion.

Listen to new episodes every Monday anywhere you stream podcasts, or become a Beacon member and listen to the podcast two weeks early and uninterrupted by ads.

Welcome to Foursighted Dive, Critical Role's monthly show featuring a roundtable discussion about the events and characters of our current campaign, alongside a heavy helping of hijinks.

Four-sided dive usually airs the first Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m.

Pacific on our Twitch and YouTube channels, with the VOD available on YouTube the very next day.

And of course, each episode releases right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network the following Friday.

Let's take a dive, shall we?

Four-sided dive.

Thy light fades dim and low.

Done are the days of Query's towering tall, And Broomy, dear, his googled eyes forsworn.

Look there, he leans,

forgotten, cloaked in dust, While Mapo sulks his dark soul left unloved.

Despite the crew's hard labor lifting him aloft, How oft they tried,

and yet the vibe most fell.

The tragedy of mop that welcomed hell.

Hark ye, the aimless din of opens cold, a cursed block, a sea block,

born of dreams, rash were the hands that sought to summon marvels.

Yet sighed the crowd, begone, benign block and cease, cruel chorus of crosstalk, crass, and callow, a verbal salad,

chaos of cacophony,

croutons of lore, so rudely tossed and tainted that then were buried low beneath the fraught and feckless crunch of shard

and maddened mummery.

But here,

Here sits the deepest wound of all.

Poor Liam.

Oh, genteel, witty Liam, oh,

who hosted only once ere now.

Alas, for thirty turns have come to pass.

And he, he twice alone, was bid to wear the crown.

Who fated him to draw these lots so ill?

Why?

Twice?

When he, a heart so true and keen, deserved a hundred chances at the helm?

An oversight of crew, burned out and bleary.

A bit

or not a bit, that is in question.

Tis villainy, I say, a foul disgrace, and my eyes turn to reign my heart.

Twice.

the dive had four sides yet I host it twice

folly

now our revels round to sleep

we thank you critters who did take the dive

for sure a show need not know what it is

To know the hearts of those who take it in

Welcome to Foresight and Dive.

Let's do one final show for campaign three.

Oh, welcome back, friends.

It's so good to have you here.

Thank you, Kyle, for giving me some iambic pentameter meat to chew on out of the bottom.

Real good.

Real good.

Even though I had no idea what you were talking about.

Not sure I did either.

I got crouton lore, and that was...

That made sense.

Well, I did spend months in prep, so I'm a little disappointed in myself.

A little summer stock action.

Mm-hmm.

Well, we've got so much to talk about tonight, so why don't we just get to it?

We're going to begin with our typical discussion segment.

What the fuck is up with that?

The frick.

I get it.

It was a metered poetry joke.

I was there.

I was there with that.

I was there with it.

I just chose not to laugh.

Take that.

What?

What the fuck is up with that?

What is up with that?

It's well.

It starts with the truth.

It's not real.

It doesn't work.

If you cut the what, the fuck is up with that.

That is.

Then you're good.

That's a good standard deviation.

What the fuck is up with that?

Yeah.

Can I ask a question?

It has nothing to do with anything we're about to be talking about.

No problem.

Can someone break down iambic pentameter to me?

Sure.

Really?

Yes.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Because I didn't, I wasn't really like a Shakespeare kid.

I like it.

You've asked the right people.

Shakespeare's great.

I have asked the right people.

Well, pentameter, okay,

the pentatonics.

Mm-hmm.

Doesn't it?

Pent means.

The theater nerds are going to destroy you.

I'm in our audience right now.

So pent means five.

Iambic, I think, refers to the cadence.

Every line of Shakespeare's verse goes, but up, but up, but up, but up, but up.

So stress in those words almost exclusively, not 100% of the time.

Yeah.

Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I.

Language is going off.

Well, but when they're not

an iambic pentameter, usually at the beginning or the end, it's called a trochy.

It's called a troche sometimes, so it's called a standard deviation, which he often wrote in if you need a word that doesn't quite fit in.

And these are divided via scansion, and each of those broken syllables

is what you use to determine poetic meter, and it's interpretable.

And you can add diacritical marks to scan a piece of text.

Those things?

Uh-huh.

Yeah, and it flows really well when it goes but up, but up, but uh.

However, the trochee is, some say, is when you really want to like jar the audience or like have a thought that sticks out.

Instead of going, but up, but up, but up, it goes ba, but but ba.

There was a trochie or two in the cold open.

And I think in,

correct me if I'm wrong, but I think in Lear, he goes, never,

never, never, never, never at a key moment when he's going mad.

That's the opposite of iambic pentameter.

It's also a way that you're able to essentially have the writer direct your actors.

Because if they also know how to read the iambic pentameter, you know what he's, the emotion that he's wanting you to convey by the way that the pentameter is broken up in these trochies, in the scansion and things like that, because it's essentially a way to

have shorter rehearsal periods as well during this time.

And he's just essentially saying, okay, I've given you this monologue and via all of the clues I have left you within the actual way that it is written, I have told you how I want you to read this, how I want you to deliver it.

Nerds!

Nerds!

Nerds!

For my money, just it feels good to say the words when they're in iambic pentameter.

It just flows off the tongue real well.

It's actually one of the closest ways of natural human speech.

It mimics natural human speech.

Well, he also, he has that whole, like, the one soliloquy, right?

That's the

trippingly, trippingly on the tongue.

Speak the speech, I pray thee.

Yeah, speak the speech, I pray you.

Speak the speech, I pray the trippingly on the tongue.

Trippingly on the tongue.

So it's like him writing in iambic pentameter to the actor, I think.

Notes to the actor, like how to say Hamlet.

And even worse, he doesn't always write in it.

It can also mean character distinction.

So, higher-class characters will often speak in poetry, but sometimes lower-class comedic characters will speak in prose to separate them from the rest of the cast.

Your touchstones.

Back when touchstones.

Your people speaks in prose a lot.

Your whores.

Yeah, a lot of people.

Yores speak in

Macers.

Yes.

Oh, man, goodness.

Macers?

What coined that phrase?

I can't even be not going to say it out loud.

Nope, I'm not going to say it.

Blank speak in prose.

Back Back when Robbie joined us on EXU,

I know you from the voiceover world mainly.

And so I was like, oh, we're going to get to know each other even more because we work in the same industry.

But then pretty soon it became apparent that you were a big theater guy, which I just didn't know.

And you and I spiraled.

Yeah, yeah.

Spiraled down, down, down, down.

To the point where you invited me to see your friend in a show at South Coast Rep.

Oh, that was an experience.

Yeah.

Wasn't my friend great in that show?

He was great.

He was the greatest.

So was the show.

And he was great.

He was amazing.

What a great theater.

Everyone should read some Shakespeare.

Yeah, yeah.

I stand by it.

I'm totally lost.

What are we here to talk about?

We are going to find out what the fuck is up with Midsummer Night's Dream is a great starter.

Sorry.

I can actively hear your editors' fingers cutting as we speak.

Well, they're making the prompt or bounce.

You guys, please.

The Malleus Key fighter.

Am I right?

Yeah,

forces.

Wow.

Yeah, we got to talk about the Malleus Key, about rolling up with Vox Machina and friends.

Yeah.

That could be an asterisk.

That's fine.

I'm good with it.

Me too?

Me too?

You're a Toki?

What is it again?

Oh, it's Sir Kohaki.

Mauritius is a toky.

We were talking trochies.

Oh, yeah.

Trochy.

Wow, man.

Never mind.

This is a great way to start.

I saw.

A trokey.

Atrokey was the word that I was looking for.

No, I like the other one better.

How about it?

Not to be confused with chokey, which is another kind of theater reference.

That's true.

This theater stuff is

just

great.

Just great.

All right, so Vox Machina, back together.

The band's back together, more or less, a little less.

We've got divorcees coming together.

Yeah.

Divorcees and horse.

Oh,

wow.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Troy.

Troke rhyming couplet.

Yeah.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

So I don't know enough about the lore, or did it happen off-screen?

There was scanlin.

There was scanning pike a little of this, and then they split?

It happened off-screen.

It happened off-screen.

Kind of a lot of it happened off-screen.

Like, there was always a...

Somewhat of a flirtation, I think, over the years, just as like us being funny,

and then

you know, because there were other very prominent romances happening, yeah,

the table pike was always the one for Scanlon.

I mean, I think

we're there from the tippy-top.

Oh, my goodness.

I kind of feel like they're always gonna be,

I don't know, dancing with each other.

Yeah,

star-crossed lovers, star-crossed lovers, if you will.

So much in your future.

There's so much horseplay and divorce play coming.

I'm into it.

I'll give it a try.

Yeah, it's a, it's, it's, yeah, it was always a, will they or won't they?

I could see

Pike and Scanlon being that couple where they're like,

we're old.

We don't want to be lonely.

Oh, like, like in a ring.

Like, like, if we're both unmarried by the time we're 63, we're going to be.

Yeah, maybe we'll get to that.

Yes, yes, yes.

I really extended that to 63.

I don't know how those characters are.

I mean, they're gnomes, so they'll, they'll

point out go for a while.

I mean, there's a lot of time that they have

on Xandria to explore and to have fun with their lives.

How long will gnomes live?

500 years?

69 years.

69 years?

All right, well, perfect.

In my case, Chutney is old for a gnome at 400.

Okay.

So, yeah, it's like between 400 to 500.

How old is Pike-ish?

Pike,

I

have no idea.

Yes.

How would I old?

How old would Pike never told me how old Pike is, babe?

I got nothing.

She's she has scrubbed her birth date away from Google.

What is that?

We were all just talking about that.

We're all just talking about that.

I don't know.

She's maybe like.

Are you saying it right now?

You're just going to wing it?

You're going to make a canned choice for Pike.

I'm not trying to stifle you.

If you want to do it, do it.

I get mixed up with strange.

What is her casting?

Maybe like in the late hundreds.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Maybe early 200s.

Late hundred.

Oh.

Would that be like midlife?

You're an older woman then, I think, to Scanlon.

I don't think he's over 100.

Yeah, maybe not that.

She is, I think, 99, or like right at 100, like right now.

Oh, well, then I don't know if she would be...

They'd be around the same age.

Do you want Laura or do you want Scanlon Laura?

Yeah, I think they would maybe be around the same age.

Okay, fine.

Could just go with like a nice, even 100.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She made it her centennial.

If you live that long, do we finally get to forget how old we are, finally?

Is it a problem that I forget how old I am every other day?

I do too.

When you hit those like mid to late 30s.

I've been wrong.

I remember I was like, I don't remember which number it is.

Yeah.

You're like, am I 37?

Am I 38?

You have to think about it.

I had a great moment a few years ago where I thought I was X years old, but I was actually one year younger than I thought.

I was so happy that day.

Well,

how long were you thinking about?

Like, did you think you were older?

I think for a year or two, I thought I was.

I really like doing

a year.

I like telling people that I'm older than I am.

Yeah.

Because then you always get the reaction of like, what?

You look great.

Because I always feel like people go the opposite.

And then they're like...

Like, huh.

Yeah.

You know, I want to be like, I'm 50.

Like, wow, you look so good.

That's pretty good to know.

That's a big action.

Blatantly lying to my face.

Blatantly lying.

It's a fun, you know, thing to do.

I love stretching to 50.

I can do 50.

You could do 50.

You think you could play 50?

I think I could.

Well, you'd need some makeup for sure.

Well, to get you there.

Well, I could make it work.

Depending on what I'm wearing, maybe.

I could do 50.

I could be 50.

Oh, man.

This is so apropos of the makeup.

This is so doesn't end up.

Did the fight go as everyone expected?

No.

I am very happy with my choices, as controversial as they may have been at the time.

Are they controversial?

Well, I did that earthquake spell, which

I thought that was clutch.

I think it worked out good.

Yeah.

Matt was like, yeah, if it would have gone down, you would have fucked everything up entirely.

And I'm like, yeah, I knew that.

It didn't.

But it didn't.

There was so much going on.

I had a couple of moments of decision paralysis, I feel like.

Where I like, I like, and also that having never had that build before,

I wished I had some more long-range mobility.

Because the battle map was so big, I often felt like cloistered to a certain area.

And it was hard for me.

And everybody's so OP.

So I'd be like, oh, I want to go help Grog.

Oh, he's fucking killed everybody.

And I spent my whole last turn.

I'm going to go over here.

I felt like that until like mid-battle near the end.

Yeah, but it was very satisfying to watch and participate in.

I had a lot of fun moments.

But like, it was definitely, I think that was my biggest challenge with like a build I'd never played before.

That's definitely like one, a level 20 combat issue, and then also an eight-player table issue.

Yeah, where you'll,

you know, and like Matt and plenty of good GMs will be like, know what you want to do by the time that it gets to you.

And that's

smart advice and all fine and dandy.

Yeah.

Until you're like, all right, I'm going to rush up and I want to help Grog.

And then it changes right before your turn comes up.

You're like,

well,

eight

level 20 players, a lot can change.

in six, seven rounds, and you're fighting high-level enemies.

Like, I'll just talk about it.

I had a combo I wanted to do that I never ended up getting to use the spell.

And I knew, like, when you have, you got so many things you can do, you're not going to get to do it all.

But, like, I had so many moments where I was like, I can't believe I did that.

When I flew into the carapace of the creature that was with the grog was fighting, I have like a, like a, like a, like an explosion, like, one-shot move.

And my plan was to fly into his butt and blow up that's what I wanted to do and then by the time it's like oh no drop this head off and I'm like well fuck now I'm sucking a butt you know it's like it was yeah that's the way it goes

yeah

you know I didn't do any of the things I thought I was gonna do with Lee with Liev I she has these two rods one was just for healing for free like crazy but the other one I was gonna plant it in the middle of the battlefield and was gonna help everybody but instead I ended ended up running, playing hide and seek and running to the back of the map.

And then I knew there was the possibility of Vax hitting the field and coming out.

And Vax, with his miniature, I should be able to take him from

his starting point to the parking lot.

Right.

Because his mobility is ridiculous.

He went 15 feet and then the battle ended.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

I was like, I get to fly.

And instantly, that's it.

But you got kind of, didn't you get kind of like Matrix born out of the goo too in the beginning?

You're just like like a little

fetus out there to meet us.

He's been spinning in there rapidly for months.

He's a little scrambled.

It's like you do the thing with a baseball bat and you spin around.

Yeah.

He's lucky he stayed on his feet.

All that aside, it sure was fun.

It was fun watching everybody do their thing.

It was the combat.

You guys play so fast too.

Like even though it takes a long time between everyone, it really

feels like things are moving.

That's good to know.

That is good to know.

It doesn't feel like it was.

I have a limited basis for a comparison, so please don't take that too much to heart.

Over the years, my notion of a round of combat is six seconds, which is technically the rules.

That's not how I think about it anymore.

No.

It's too wow.

It's just, we're just metering out what happens in the fight.

I don't think it applies to our group, the six-second rule.

I mean, like from an imagination standpoint, but a mechanic standpoint, you're still abiding by the rules.

Yeah.

Like for how long spells stay up and all that stuff.

but it doesn't feel like six

seconds yeah yeah for sure because and because i think theoretically

i mean that male yuski fight was only what like five rounds

yeah something like that so it's like oh we did all of that we killed a giant worm beast a giant extra two extra bugs extra brought down four towers and busted out backs in like 20 seconds.

I wanted to get out my old skeletor toy and put him on the back of that bug and just play with my action figures.

That bug was so cool.

The bug was awesome.

I didn't like the worm.

It made me uncomfortable.

Yeah.

I'm glad that's where my fight journey ended.

It looked like other things.

Yeah.

It looked like...

I said it out loud.

The worms always do.

They always do.

Worms always get a little uncomfortable.

What else is on this menu?

Well, I mean, host.

One night.

So after the battle ended and we got Vax out of the vending machine,

I'll say one thing simply.

We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but what's on everyone's mind, what's on my mind most, is what's going to happen between Serkonos and Liev Tell.

Awesome.

If the world doesn't end.

Yes.

I think you can expect that Liev is going to get on his body.

She lives with death,

meditating on death, so often that she fully enjoys life and she has a very active sex life.

And you are just the latest,

latest.

Hey, latest and soon-to-be greatest, just so you know.

You're saying Liev, like,

she's a little party girl.

She gets her own.

She enjoys living.

Liev, tell

me, tell.

She said about Moe when you showed her the wonders of the ages.

You said something to Bertrand back in the day.

Yes, the wonder of the ages, yeah.

I mean, that's why she goes for silver foxes, is because

she's been around so long, she is not putting up with any 20-year-old nonsense.

She needs something,

she needs a man.

Yeah,

yeah, yeah.

Smart girl down to receive.

So she was just like, clamped Bertrand's lips shut,

and that was all that was needed.

Oh, man.

Look, because he can do other things with his lips.

Just

stop talking.

Well, that's not going to be a problem for us.

The stopping topic.

Konos is really getting into the meat man.

Scanlon.

Oh.

I don't know.

What was your thing?

What would Scanlon Shorthalt do?

Was that it?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

His little wrist, his little wrist there.

Yeah, yeah.

What would Scanlon do?

That was just a pick on the fly.

That was so good.

I was literally, we built the character and I was like, okay, I got to do stuff.

And then as soon as the idea came around that you guys were looking for him, I literally just went, wait.

Like if there's someone perceptive out there, you could probably see the moment the idea drops in my B-brain.

I'm like, he fucking loves Scanlon.

He's got no charisma.

It's everything he wants to be.

He's already strong, powerful, everything that he wants to be.

And it's like, there it is.

I wish I could just tell a good joke, and I can't.

I know this guy.

This guy.

That's the thing.

It is an archetype that I feel like we all know.

That guy who's like boring as fuck.

And then he's like, I love going to stand-up comedy on the weekend.

Oh, okay.

I think comedy bang bang every Tuesday night.

Starting the stand-up stand-up classic.

Yeah, I hope you guys.

I think you called it out on the last dive, but one of my favorite moments of the last few games is just Vex with Pike going like, Serkonos, if Pike were available, you'd hit it, right?

No.

No.

Oh, God.

Yeah, yeah.

So, so

lightning fast.

So good.

It was so good.

Oh, man.

I also forgot Serkonos was such a looker.

Yeah, he's when he saw the, I was like, oh, my God, I I forgot that that's what it looks like.

You know, those druids,

man.

I mean, we just live a long time.

We don't age.

You know, you made the mistake of allowing me to communicate directly with your artists.

So

there's 0%

chance I'm not going to make a hide.

I'm outered for what I do.

I mean, to be fair,

I would say, I mean,

of course, over time,

we have our like Veth, our knots, and we have our like Laudanas but let's be honest 80% of the reason you play D ⁇ D or other tabletop RPGs is so you can look hot yes I made the hottest halfling I could like you want to look hot yeah I agree with you you want to just be the hottest you can be Laura Bailey I think somewhere we still have an email for first

VexArt just make her hot yeah

yeah it's true well good nobody sent me the memo but I'm glad I figured it out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's really good.

Because it's in your gut.

It's in your DNA.

I know.

We should, as trepidatious as I am about it, we should probably talk about the question mark that is hanging in the air at this moment, not knowing what the final musical notes of this song are, which is Vax is plopped out.

Boy, I had no idea what was going on in that moment.

So he's here hovering for a night.

We don't know if the gods are going to be gone.

We don't know if the gods are going to be dead.

We don't know if the gods, the status quo is going to remain.

So

the most heartbreaking part of that whole game was when we finished everything and then just looking over at Kalith Marisha.

I was just like...

I just, I, I mean, we talked about this the other day, but I just, I, I wasn't thinking that that was going to be her reaction.

and then just the whole end of the game I was like

oh no

I hope that doesn't

come across this is an overreaction on my part no

because it it it didn't because it was so like it was so grounded to me it felt so grounded and so real because it was just like it was a moment of

oh that's right

Like they haven't had all this time together and they're getting this one right together and like how could you

just

of course you would be excited but also devastated and it was a moment that Matt said is like the as the matron of ravens.

It was a moment that he was like

one night that I was like

fuck.

But also of course and once again we've talked about this

we don't know

what the future holds yet.

We don't know.

Yeah I'm nervous even to like to talk about it telegraph what I feel or think about it just because

it's still playing out.

Yeah, it's still playing out and I don't think there's one way that the story could end.

You know, the matron sees a few different threads branching off from different directions.

But it all depends on what

she can't see yours.

Your thread is hidden to her.

Oh, that's right.

Sorry, Wilmot.

You know what it just randomly reminded me of in the moment for the first time ever was back in campaign one, I think we were in the Knowing Mistress's library and the fact that in campaign, that was randomly how

Percy and Vex's secret wedding plopped out into the group.

Yes.

Don Father, Don Father Temple.

Don Father Temple was a soul.

Yes, I remember it fluently.

And Keeleth just cried out and

Like that's such good news that they're that they're married, but you in the moment said Keeleth cried out and for a split second Vex slash Laura was so confused

like why it's happy news and then I you didn't respond and I just was like

correct

It's difficult.

I mean, it's shitty, right?

It's like a shitty reaction because it's like jealousy, but it's pure jealousy in terms of just like

Cool Good for you, so heavy for you.

Yeah, you can't help but think about like, what about the one I love?

Like I didn't.

Yeah, just time, time being robbed, right?

It was also the fact that Vex specifically told Vax, don't run off and get married

over the year that we're apart.

And then she went off and got married while we're apart.

There were a few things in there.

It's like great wrinkles and complications and contradictions and that's what it is.

Yeah, I mean, it's just very human.

And of course, like...

And we've talked about this on the side like don't get me wrong I love the tragedy of it like there is something like very

you know

Keyleth's

life

kind of got like just kind of chosen as like a

tragic one there after everything kind of happened with the Matron of Ravens.

But maybe there's time to fix that.

I mean Vax isn't playing shuffleboard.

No.

But we'll see.

There might be time

to turn that around 30 years later.

Wee!

What the fuck is up with that?

What the fuck is up with that?

Okay, we'll talk about one night, what now.

I think we can move on to the murdy nerns at this point, right?

Murdy nernn.

Murdy nernns.

That's just a suggestion.

Y'all can talk about whatever you want.

Well, I mean, is there any questions you have, Danny Carr?

About that?

Yeah, I got so many questions.

But I am someone who, in general, I like to wait to see what happens.

And I am the same way about, like, I'm literally sitting over here, like about to like cry because of vaccine kilof.

And so I would love to talk about the mighty nine.

Otherwise, I will start sobbing.

Yeah.

Let's see, the Mighty Nine.

Here's my question for the Mighty Nine.

Why were you guys ragging on my tower the last dive?

Oh, you watched that?

Yeah, you said you had a

beef with me.

Explain the beef.

Where's the beef?

Well, what did we say?

Another great reference for the kids.

They're gonna love it.

Uh-huh.

What did we say?

I'm trying to remember.

What did we say?

Well, you were mad about doors or lack.

You guys were very confused about

what actually exists in there.

You didn't have doors!

So everyone.

I spent.

There were two episodes in campaign two where I spent two hours combined explaining that place.

I wasn't going to break down the architecture of the whole tower a second time.

The second floor has nine walk-in closets with doors that open up and you can open them and say, give me a pile of potatoes.

So the walk-in closets have doors, but the bedrooms do not.

I'd just like to know that if you had infinite level 20 magic, your one wish would be a pile of potatoes.

Second floor is like the room of

the requirement.

Whatever you need, you can have.

Do you need archery targets?

You got it.

Do you need

lots of Legos to play with?

You got it.

Do you need sheep?

You got it.

You close the doors and open them, and they're in there.

It's the one mutable thing in the tower that changes.

Sam was like,

you can just change anything you want.

It's the tower.

He has OCD guys.

It's like the tower is fixed in place.

It doesn't change.

Just the trappings.

You guys had a date on that second floor.

Oh, you did.

Doors opened up and a bar slid out.

There's a date everywhere.

Doors opened up

and a hot pants.

It was everywhere.

Right, hot pants.

The second floor has nine closets and there were bedrooms inside the closet.

But I don't.

There are bedrooms in the closets.

There are like nine garages that opened up and gave you a bedroom.

So is it the size of a walk-in closet or is it the size of a.

Yes, large.

very large the size of a garage and there's two wooden doors that open and close a walk-in closet has seen the like 15 page document that but i think it's because in the show i think you said i think in cr you're just like oh yeah you guys are just all on like you said something about curtains one floor and there's curtains about the four poster beds having black I was making sure

I think I remember the curtains thing too.

I forgot it was the bed.

I think my brain was going to, you know, in like Zelda, in like Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, when you go into an inn and it's just.

Curtains dividing beds.

I think we were, I think some people were imagining an infirmary situation where the beds

were divided by curtains.

Because that was not what you were trying to.

Super sexy and foreshadowing.

On the foreside on the purple.

On the foreside.

Is what I meant.

Whether or not I got it out right.

I don't know.

It's theater of the minds.

You can't see my invisible, non-existent tower.

I have a very clear visual of what the tower looks like in my head.

I actually did too.

And I'm not even one of those people that, like, when I close my eyes and think of an apple, I don't really see an apple.

I just understand the concept of apple.

Wait, you are one of those people?

I am.

You know how some people are.

You are one of those people.

Yeah, how some people like can't see the apple.

Some people see the sketch.

Some people see black and white.

Yeah.

Some people see a vivid apple.

I'm not the apple guy.

I have to, like,

I understand it innately, but I don't see it.

And I could see your tower.

I always find that

I'm just happy to be there.

So wait, when we do do

theater of the mind stuff.

Yeah.

Do you visual?

Like, do you visualize it?

Oh, I do.

I have a

visual holodeck?

Yeah.

No.

So I look up a lot because I am.

imagining, but I don't imagine in a visual way.

I just

understand it.

I don't see it in my mind.

I saw it in the voiceover booth.

What?

In the voiceover booth.

Do you see visuals and surroundings and stuff when you're doing your thing?

No.

I'm just 100% like in the moment in my mind.

So like when you used to have an imaginary partner in theater, I would never look across the way and see a crying lover.

I would just understand that a crying lover was there conceptually.

Is that weird?

Am I outing myself too much as a certain kind of thinker?

No, no.

But there's a word.

There's a term for these kind of people, and I don't remember what it's called.

Aphantasia?

Is that it?

Maybe.

I don't know.

I'm gonna, I have the internet in my hand.

You don't have to diagnose me on the last episode of Warside Die.

No, I find it fascinating.

Shit, I got it.

Yeah, that's it.

Okay, okay.

Wait, wait, wait, read it.

What does it say?

Hang on.

Aphantasia is the inability to visualize.

Basically, the way that this is described is that people have, on a scale of one through five, can either see an apple like vividly and beautiful beautifully on a two they can see like kind of a cartoon drawing of an apple on three they see a black and white apple four they see the cartoon outline of an apple on five they see nothing and I think that's what Robbie is describing aphantasia yeah but I have super vivid dreams oh that's cool you have super vivid dreams very very vivid lifelike dreams you're also very creative oh thank you so it's if so it's weird how some I feel like I those things would go hand in hand of like like really being able to visualize word and language focus Yeah, I've never been much of a visual learner.

I'm more of an auditory tactile learner.

Yeah, yeah, experiential but like when Matt or any any GM describes something to me, I don't have a problem putting myself in the space.

I don't have a problem conceptualizing of it even spatially.

Like totally, I have that kind of awareness.

I just don't see it.

I don't see it.

That's cool.

Is it?

I don't know.

It's weird.

I just understand it.

It's different.

It's just people's brains are weird.

If anyone out there relates, leave your comments in

to critroll.com slash tower.

I was having this conversation with a friend the other day, and he was saying the same thing.

But

he does law.

He's a lawyer.

And so he's like, yeah, I imagine things like black and white or even in like...

ones and zeros almost.

That's actually a lot closer.

It's just a concept of

being.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think it's fascinating.

One thing, one quirk about me, and I mean, life as an actor has trained me to kind of to make eye contact a lot.

But I think in life, when I'm absorbing, if someone's explaining something complicated to me, I will, my eyes drift away from them often.

Yeah.

And I will just focus on the words where I feel like I get confused to the point where my wife is like, are you not even paying attention to me?

And I'm like, no, no, I have to be honest.

I'm not going to follow

where we're going.

Yeah.

And I listen to a ton of, I mean, I'm the only person in America who listens to podcasts.

I listen to a lot of podcasts and talk radio.

Same, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's interesting.

Well, you're an auditory learner, then.

Yeah.

But I feel like I have the holodeck both in the VO booth and with what we do.

Oh, there you go.

Like right now, she just looks like a dying woman whose hair is falling out and there's a dead rat perched on her shoulder.

I think you look great.

Jesus.

It's your character.

You made her.

She's fun scary.

I was really happy and was pushing for it to get the tower out just because we are on such a rapid climb to destiny that I felt like we would all benefit from taking that time out and injecting some fun.

Yeah, having a minute for heartfelt conversations like

Oren and Dorby Bum had.

No, you want to say Dorham.

It's okay.

No, I don't want to say it out loud.

Don't just ship the name Dorham.

Dude,

you should be glad I didn't hijack the episode.

Rabium.

Rabium.

Lobby.

Lobby.

Lobby.

No, that's a real person.

I don't like that.

I don't like it.

Lobby.

And one of my favorite things from the tower was a decision that I made up on the spur of the moment, which was making Caleb a sea popper.

I I love

that.

Not planned.

Not planned.

Just in the moment it had to be.

Which also tracks

that tracks.

Talks about like how you would collect cat figurines like everywhere you went.

Of course that was the thing.

Yes, and now retroactively

the toys

that little Bren saw in the store are the

shapes, the animals, the beasts that Caleb turns into an adult.

So it wasn't the case when campaign two was happening, but now it is 100% true that Caleb turned into an ape because he was looking at a little wooden ape in a window.

Yeah.

I love a retcon.

I love it, dude.

I love it.

That's not a retcon.

That's just the story revealing itself to you.

Yeah.

Chipping away some more stones.

It's always fun to go back to Mighty Nine.

But I didn't know.

I was absent for the wish, right?

So the existence of sea poppers

was because of a wish Chetney made, or is that debatable?

I wasn't here for it.

I just found out about it.

Still debatable.

I feel like that's chicken or eggy.

Ooh.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, he also.

Because we also don't know any of this, like all of us.

Right.

You can't

work.

Right.

Did he, yeah.

Did he making that deal ripple backwards through time and slightly reorganize the past and bumped Caleb into being a sea popper by making that wish?

Oh, man.

It's very, it's very

the oracle oracle in the matrix sure what's really gonna bake your noodle yes would you have broken it if i hadn't said anything yeah yeah

man i guess 99 has chetney to thank for their existence

also our second matrix reference of we're doing great of the episode 2001

the matrix was 99 right 99 99 baby should we talk about the weave mind battle

Oh, yeah.

That was fun.

And Fungal Friends is on here.

And

Lol Force Cage.

I want to hear about the Mighty Nine fight.

I want to hear about you.

I was a little bit jumping on it.

What was your favorite part?

The mechanics that Matt came up with were.

Well, there were five floating psychics, and they were surrounded by crystals, and it became apparent that we had to break the crystals or we weren't gonna we had to break some of the crystals at least.

Yeah, but they also were all taking if one of them took damage

They were sharing damage and sharing like hive mindship

whittle one character down.

It was just a collective lowering of water.

It's frustrating.

It's so cool.

Anybody's ever played a good TCG or board game

when you're trying to focus in

a special ability that allows you to spread it.

That's tough stuff.

How'd you handle it?

But they, well.

We kind of habsized the strategy.

We did.

And I think that was actually the right call.

Because they also had this ability, this like triangulation ability where they would...

If you were in the middle of three of them.

Oh, that's right.

In the middle of three of them.

So they would all float around and they were trying to make their triangle as like wide as possible.

Pretty mobile?

Yeah,

floaties.

How many of them were there?

Five.

Five.

Five.

Well, you can't make that many triangles with five.

I was going to say, if it was like eight or something, you could be in real trigonometry.

Yeah.

It was very

terrible.

And then so like they would float into a triangle and then one of them, if one of them casts an ability, it would hit everything inside that triangle.

Ooh.

So an area of effect created by

like angle-based maneuvering.

Oh, that sounds fun.

It was awesome.

That's cool.

It was awesome.

That was.

I was excited to use a ninth level spell that I've never used before.

I cast time stop and I rolled the maximum number of turns you could roll.

Oh, that's right!

That was so crazy!

It was fun.

However, some of the choices that I made during the time stop were pointless.

I rolled,

the best part was, is that I put a delayed fireball over some of their heads, and then I threw another fireball to trigger it.

So two of them went off.

But I also cast mirror image.

which failed every time I was attacked and I cast

a spell that makes me be on fire so that if anyone ever hits me, they get burned.

No one ever came near me.

Yeah.

But you probably looked cool.

You're on fire at the late time.

Yeah.

But it was so cool because you just kept taking turns.

Yeah.

You're always like, wait, so you just stop time and you were like, I want to do this.

You cast a spell.

I'll do this, too.

And then it's D4 plus one turns, and I rolled a four on the four so I had to die.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So they all have a turn.

Five turns in a row?

Yeah.

Ooh, funny.

Five turns in a row.

And then they had all these crystals.

So they were these floating crystals.

Uncut gems, you might say.

Uncut gems.

Uncut gems.

um

and the crystals had like abilities

each turn and then they'll also the more crystals there were the more the weave mind would regenerate hit points every turn

oh oh fun so we kind of started we got rid of like 40 of them yeah

40 well and then we I know Travis was kicking himself, which he shouldn't have because it just took us a minute to figure it out.

They were vulnerable to force damage, which is what Eldritch Blast does.

And we kept thinking like, oh, you got to like hit it with melee.

But then

just force damage.

So he was like, fuck, if I'd have known, I could have just been like pop, pop, pop, spell sniping.

Spell sniped it.

Yeah, interesting.

Who took the biggest shit in the whole battle?

Who tripped over their shoelaces?

Who rolled a natural one when they were flying through the air going, this is the final?

Was there anybody just really cocked a roll?

Danny looks like she immediately has an idea.

I'm trying to think.

I don't know.

It was kind of you, babe.

Oh, me.

Oh, what'd you do?

What did I do?

Yeah.

I mean, Belle tells how to keep going.

I just think it's funny when I'm going to be.

Chris took the biggest shit in

Mighty Nine.

I mean,

I took a pretty, I was so mad at myself that game.

What happened?

You kept, your stunning strikes kept failing for like the whole time until like the very end.

But if that's as bad as it gets, then it's probably

good.

Yeah.

Really, really well.

Yeah, I feel like Mighty Nine did really well.

Okay.

To be fair, stunning strike

is deliberately tough to hit because it's so powerful.

But of everybody, of everybody, I think you had the hardest run of it.

But I think that even then, like Mighty Nine kind of kicked fucking ass.

Man, I didn't feel that way.

That's I felt like I did pretty great.

You guys love D ⁇ D so much.

You like defending yourself.

Because you can kind of nail it.

You're like dumping, stunning, and strikes.

In

Bo's defense,

the last one did take.

And just the way initiative went, it was lining up to me.

And I was already considering disintegrate.

And you locked someone into place.

And I went, oh.

It's an auto success.

It was perfect.

My only thing was just Mighty Nine crushed it so hard.

So the only real choice was,

well, I guess it was kind of bow but even then she kicked ass yeah like everybody just fucking crushed Jester's blade wall

caduce's had a couple had a couple goose eggs yeah

not not even really cadoos having the goose eggs but he made the crystals vulnerable and that only like really helped for like one round yeah we tried to take yeah

poor laura she's trying to do this like badass high-level spell that just sends some some butcher knives going

in the air.

Forgot that that blade wall happens.

You know what?

That one's worse.

That one's worse.

That's on me.

Dig that, Laura.

Can't not hear to defend yourself.

That's what happens on this show.

We forgot that it existed.

Not going in the recap.

Sorry, guys.

Whoever's on this show

rounds on the absent members.

It happens again and again and again.

Fuck your tower.

See?

No, now you're.

Stop.

Stop.

Please.

Stop fighting.

Fuck in my tower.

Fuck in these lines.

Look, Caleb, look, it's Caleb's.

Widow Gas Nation nine-sided tower is for lovers.

I'm telling you.

Yeah.

Also,

people this week have asked me or last week or at some point asked me where Essex room is.

Caleb's room is Essex room.

There's not a devoted room for Essex.

Caleb's room.

The share.

It's Essex's room.

Yeah, like my grandparents

work.

They've reached a certain age.

Exactly.

I honestly better if we're not in the same way.

Honestly, the center of the tower where there's no gravity is their bedroom.

Exactly.

What do you think the top floor is used for?

Yeah.

Wait, there's no gravity.

Yeah, there's no gravity.

How do you even purchase?

I'll think about it.

I just saw like half a dozen thoughts.

There were so many thoughts on the graphics.

And none of them were visual, so all were clear.

We haven't put any of those out there.

You know, the wizard that casts reverse gravity and it's on the ceiling.

Oh boy.

How about those fungal friends?

Oh my god, I love them.

Big, big Princess Mononoke energy.

Yeah.

Like the Koroks coming out.

Yeah, four spirits.

When Matt does little creatures like that, I know.

They're just so cute.

And I'm like, let them be real.

Little like Dee Bradley Baker clicks.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, he kills me with

those creatures.

I do always like the potential for them to maybe maybe be bad.

I always, I mean, I like the time.

I felt like they were going to teeter.

They were waiting for it.

Come, come, come.

Well, it has happened before.

Yes.

Oh, it has happened before.

Oh, yes.

Cute little glowing things in the forest.

You're like, oh, look, they're little like fireflies.

And then they're like, ah!

Yeah.

Or attached to a larger killer puffer fish type monstrosity.

Oh, like an angler, like an angler, like a doingler.

Literally, he did that to us.

Yeah.

Oh, that's funny.

Yeah.

You guys, did you know there's a Planet earth 3 out right now like a documentary can we go there like planet earth like the series planet earth they put out a third they put out a third one when did it drop i don't know soon it had to have been like a couple a couple weeks or maybe months ago sure there was nothing better to watch sometimes sometimes

and i was

there is nothing better to watch sometimes

i know when those sometimes are we all know when those sometimes are

like well I mean, not all the time, but like there's times.

Sometimes between the hours of 10.30 and 1 a.m.

Oh, yeah.

Under certain scenarios.

Yes, of course, where you're like, oh, shit, no way.

Planet Earth?

And

everything when you're like.

They're just ants.

You know, you know.

I bring it up because...

I mean, it's Planet Earth.

They always spend 10 years making them and they capture the craziest shit.

Craziest shit.

And there's,

I don't know.

I don't know where I'm going with this.

It's cute animals who are deadly.

Here is where I'm going.

The fungal creatures of Ruidus congregate

below the surface of the moon.

I wish we could do Planet Xandria.

Like just a voiceover of just like

a docu series of like something really nice to put on while you're sleeping.

Have Liam do the voice.

Fantastic.

Yes.

I watch it.

That's That's just your Cosmo Grim voice.

The datho slurks deep within the bowels of Ruidis.

Will he pop his head out?

Yes or no?

I would listen to that and fall asleep to that.

Yeah.

But the slip and slides.

Slip and slides.

That was such a cool gaming mechanic.

But like herdy slip and slides.

Yeah.

They're real in real life, though.

Like I was down at Costa Rica.

Not slip and slides.

Slides.

Did you roll them real?

They're real.

Yeah.

Water slides that hurt.

Water slideslides?

It was a real thing for a short time in New Jersey.

Yeah.

I was there.

No, in Costa Rica, the water slides are all made of just like a rock.

It's like a carved-out concrete.

And you're just hoping you don't get concussed on the way down.

You got to wear jeans.

Yeah.

Have you ever done that barrel?

Water slides, rock slides?

Yeah, yeah, in Puerto Rico.

They're so fun.

Yeah, they are.

You get fucked up.

Yeah, they do.

I don't even have to be fully clothed.

I've done that.

They spit you out 16 feet above the water surface.

Yeah, just this last summer, I was in upstate New York and I went on one that I hadn't been to since I was like a 10-year-old.

And I would go, like, oh,

okay, I'm going to get out.

No, oh my God, I'm going another 200 feet.

I went like

a thousand feet.

I was like, I'm going to die today.

I guess I'm going to die today.

Yeah, you're like, this is so fun.

Is this safe?

No, it means no.

Do people get hurt out here?

There's barely.

People died on this thing.

Let's see, in Kentucky, we would would take tarps and line them up and then like lube them down with like Dawn dish soap and then shoot ourselves into ponds.

That's okay.

Hell yeah.

Hell yeah.

Did you guys ever do like sleeping bags down staircases?

Oh, yeah, first shot.

So that's what

the slides reminded me of.

Because when you go down, you're like,

big cardboard.

Cardboard box or something too.

Big cardboard box.

Laundry bin.

Laundry.

Plastic laundry.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Top match.

Classic.

Went to Dreaded Action Park, which you can learn about in a documentary.

So it actually went there.

I will tell three short stories.

One is one of the best rides there was a super short one that I couldn't stop thinking about on our water slide thing, which is just you climb up, you go into this tube, and it goes down into the ground, takes a sharp right, and then spits you out like 30 or 40 feet above the water.

It's pitch black, and you just go, and your head goes, boom,

every time.

Every time.

There was

another one.

That was great.

That was the best one.

You said that was the best one.

There was another one that was like an almost completely vertical drop slide that then went down, down, down, like probably 100 or 150 feet and then

turned out.

And then you slide out.

The problem is it wasn't one long piece of plastic.

It was like joining segments.

Segments.

So there was a seed

between every piece and it was like you got caned on the way down

welts all up and down your back I just involuntarily grabbed my pieces in fear

we've got the tape Jim I literally do then there was the alpine slide which were like little go-kart

yes and you sat in a little like go-kart thing with a lever and you would pull the lever back to slow down or just let it go forward to go and I watched a kid 100 feet in front of me fly off and smash his head on another and out.

Sure.

I mean, people literally died on that ride, right?

Who died on that ride?

Yeah.

Yeah,

Action Park.

Watch it, y'all.

It's

better so many people who didn't die.

Am I right?

Yeah, and that reminds me of Liliana Temult.

Yeah, yeah.

You've only hosted this show twice.

She almost died.

But then she almost almost died, yeah.

Yeah.

And she didn't even go go to Action Park.

We would have lost her for sure

if we had just fucked up one earlier.

One more time.

For sure.

If enough of us had fucked up our roles so that the average was super low, that would have meant dead mom.

I feel like we were doing so well that Matt was a little tough on us in one sequence.

Like we had one mid-roll and he was like, man.

And I was like, what?

Why?

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

I know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, there was that one time where I think it was like after we were in the fungus room.

And

you know, when you were in the fungus room.

The fungus room.

Is that it, Titan's animation?

I was also, I was wondering if like Ashen giving over the seed was completely fucking us.

I didn't know what was going on.

That was so much over.

Are we doing the right thing?

There was so much going on with that.

Say it like that.

Yeah,

that was very funny.

Sorry.

Sorry, sorry.

Am I right?

Wow.

And then

when we were like, oh, we got Calamar.

We got it.

And then Matt was like, oh, you talked to the Myceet and they shoot you down another water slide and it's like an express path.

Red marker.

And I was like, the fuck?

Yeah.

Took a little.

Why?

I didn't understand that either.

But he's got his reasons.

He's got his reasons.

Of course.

Maybe we shot like a quarter mile off in the wrong direction.

Right.

I don't know.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Maybe it seemed good.

Yeah.

So the seed, I wanted to ask about the seed because I missed the seed.

You guys got a seed at some point.

Yeah.

And how long had Ashman been holding on to that?

A long time?

Very long.

40 episodes?

So potentially something that could have been forgotten in a bag

and not used.

Do you think Talison, he's not here?

I'd love to ask him.

Do you think he just saw an opportunity?

Because I felt like those were awesome, beautiful, like mystical kind of moments.

It was right before the first time you went to Ruitas.

So it's fewer than that.

It's more like 20 to 30, I think.

You got it at the All Mines.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it was the last trip to the All Mines, but it was right before y'all went to Rubitus the first time.

That was in

Bastro.

Bastards.

It just felt like a really cool tableau that I'm glad Matt latched on to and like ran with like

once it started happening.

It was.

And that alien life and this seed now have a beautiful relationship either for the rest of eternity or the next 90 minutes.

I know.

Yeah.

That was my, like, I don't know if it was supposed to go sooner and maybe

the All Mines Burn might have more of a psychic connection on the, on the moon, which would have helped us along the way, or if this is like

long-term shit.

I'm just not sure.

I think it could have helped us along the way if we would have done it.

Because I think we just kind of forgot.

Yeah.

As a side note,

I didn't do it sooner.

As a side note, I love when with Matt's running of this story, I love the juxtaposition or the mixing of different elements.

Like he gave us the desperation and the fear of losing Liliana and rushing there.

Gave us little cute fungal things and a water slide,

right?

And then

a fight where we were racing to stop.

a woman from being like evaporated in front of our eyes.

And like Matt is just really, really great at

even in dire times, like we are still playing a game, we still like wonder and imagination and fun.

So like I really appreciate how much sort of light and sparkle was mixed amongst the

thrill ride of this end game that we're in.

Yeah.

Anyway, compliments.

It's also so indicative of real life represented in fantasy.

Like if you want to go down the rabbit hole, you can say, okay, the outcome of that fight was saving Imogen's mother.

And how much could that potentially impact her decisions moving forward?

We don't know.

How different could her arc have been had her mother died?

I think that, for her, character art is such a coin, or character arc, character arc is such a coin toss of how that could have landed.

And in reality, it was decided by something as innocuous as how well we rode a water slide.

And if that's not what life is, I don't know what else it is.

Serendipity, being at the right time at the right place, or wrong time at the right place, and how it can all go.

Any innocuous thing you do can inexorably change your life, or arguably every innocuous thing you do does.

So, yeah, I don't know.

I think it's so cool to think about it that way.

Curse fate is you can't find your car keys for 20 minutes, but that's the thing that stops you from getting totaled by a bus in an hour.

Sure.

Stuff like that.

Yeah.

That's life.

You might get hit by a bus.

Hey, Lobby.

Too dark.

I do like those final rounds, though, where it was like, oh,

we have four player turns.

Yeah.

Or Imogen's mom dies.

And it's like each one had to.

And then it was right after

Breyus like biffed it.

Breyus took all those swings on Lee Miss and biffed it.

Who took the most giant shit?

Yeah, but that was a great.

Because he held a turn.

Oh, he set it all up.

Set it up and then biffed That sucks.

And then after that, it was like, well, damn.

And then you set up that beautiful Force Cage.

It was Force Cage.

It's time to shine, baby.

It was.

It was time.

There's no better person to trap in a box than glutenous deleth.

Yeah.

I just, I just, it's been such an abject failure for me the whole campaign.

I was so scared to use it.

Yeah.

But we were literally a turnout before my turn.

And I was like,

that's the right play.

It's the only play.

We're one turn away.

I was looking at you

90 feet across the map.

I only saw one route for you to get there.

And then it's also not my decision to make.

It's Imogen's decision.

So I've got to ask her if I can do it.

And thankfully, it worked out, but it had never worked out before.

It was brilliant.

Like, I had a thing I was going to do, but I rated it maybe a third of a chance, one-third chance it would succeed.

Yeah.

I literally smacked my head on my dice and poked myself in the forehead with the D4

when I was like, this has never worked.

Oh!

Instant

insult to injury.

But it worked.

It worked for as far as we know.

Boy, I'll tell you,

if Liliana had kicked the bucket, I think Imogen's chances of picking dark choices would have gone up like 45%.

Oh, yeah.

That's 45%.

I think

Ludinus's chance of survival also would have been even lower.

I think you would have caught a little dark image in it, which maybe is fun, but maybe we still will.

I don't know.

Well, this has been so great talking about

what is up and all that.

But we do have other portions of this game.

We have a little bit of the Tower of Inquiry to tug at.

Tower of Inquiry!

Pretty simple.

If you haven't watched the show, we're going to take turns pulling blocks from the tower.

If you haven't watched the show, show, Danny reads us the corresponding fan question.

What a time to tune in!

And we each give our own answer.

And if for some reason the tower should fall on the first pull or after, there will be a consequence for the one who destroys it.

Robbie Diamond, step up to the plate.

How dare you?

You know, I always pawn this off on somebody else, so I'm actually glad to do this.

Bob's your uncle, one, two, three.

Whoa!

I missed it.

That was...

You are the auntie, Laura.

A wild choice.

Wait, wait, you gotta put it back on.

Oh.

I'll even go to the bottom.

I'll leave her put it on the same shot.

Oh, I can't do that.

Yeah, no.

What is it?

Easy peasy.

Jacob.

Let's hit it.

All right, number five

from Amelia.

Loved seeing Xerxes animated in Vox Machina.

Wow.

It was so seamlessly blended with some of my favorite plot points from campaign one.

And I was wondering what the conversations are like around altering original campaign moments to include beloved characters of other campaigns like Xerxes.

Are there any ideas around this that ended up not being used that you thought were cool?

Oh my goodness.

That's a big question.

It's a big question.

We've answered versions of this a few times across many interviews.

There's a bajillion ideas that hit the writer's room floor, hit the cutting room floor.

You just don't have time for all of it.

I'll answer this one.

What are you talking about?

I mean, you know.

I'm good.

You still know.

Ultimately, I think it's just trying to weave together what is a

several hundred hour long story into

12 episodes a season,

30 minute episodes, 22 minute episodes.

Right.

And we were already messing with the reality there.

like in the campaign they did not go to the nine hells for that right they got that in the elemental plane of fire

what are you talking about sorry well i'm talking about animated right like we are we messed we fused a few things for the visit to get the play of the dawn martyr and where we met xerxes and originally i think that was just going to be a devil yeah but no you know like there's not a lot of investment in that so there's you know in the writer's room there's a lot of like what if it was this guy yeah what if we pulled this over from 50 miles away?

Well,

Yank was the grease road that had

the Spire of Conflux at it.

And then so we just kind of put Yank because we still really wanted to have the Yank in Virigal or Origal battle.

But we basically got rid of the Spire of Conflux

being a thing in this

in the show.

Right, we decided Keeleth is the Spire of Conflict.

Keyleth is the Spire of Conflux.

Her leveling up is her armamente.

So we didn't want to, like, it's a little bit of a hat and a hat in the animated series.

The Yank Vorigal fight is just one of those flags that in the beginning of the season were like, boom, this has to happen.

Yeah.

Now let's figure out how it does.

And everything is built up to get there.

A lot of what we changed and built up in the animated series is pike story stuff.

Yeah.

Primarily because you were in and out so much.

Yeah, the

blind spot.

We had to figure out a way to

make that.

I mean, it kind of, I feel like, was a cool opportunity to bring a lot of stuff in.

That you didn't get a chance to explain.

That I didn't get a chance to explore, but also like stuff we wanted to try with the story of like, well,

we can't have Pike going in and out because that wouldn't make sense in the series.

So let's

just have fun with it.

Which I love because we can't tell the same story that we tell at the table in 22-minute episodes in a season.

You know, like, what's the best way to tell this story?

Yeah.

Solving a Rubik's Cube.

I also really love Pike's greater presence and stronger through line through that season because it had such a ripple effect into Scanlon's story as well and changed the tenor of his melody in the season as well.

That was very cool.

It just ended up, because I remember it was after Calamity.

Literally, like after shooting Calamity, and we were still at the table, and I was sitting next to Travis, and he was like, and we were going, if you remember, episode four was no pen intended, hell.

And everyone is having a hard time trying to figure out

how to make it make sense.

Break it.

How to break it.

And then he was like, it's Xerxes.

It was a cool moment.

I just love LVM and

AU that is just answering the question, what if Pike was there?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Kind of.

Oh, man.

I know.

We'll never know.

Pick it up.

Do a thing.

That's right.

He beat me to it.

Go pull it back.

It's so natural.

I'm so naturally good at it.

Nope.

All right.

This poll brought to you by Lobby.

I feel like this is like.

No.

This is a little tilted already.

It is a little

askew.

Oh.

48.

Whoa.

48.

48.

He's still the wrong word.

That's one point.

48!

What a number!

41.

Higher than five.

This is interesting, considering we're so close to,

since so close to the end of the campaign, but Kayla Cabral asks, what do you think your character would be doing right now if they hadn't joined up with Bell's Hells?

You said Kayla Cabral?

Kayla?

I thought that was the start of the question.

That's a badass fantasy name, Kayla.

That's a great

name.

Talk to me about the Kayla Cabral fight is what I was expecting.

What would they be doing?

What?

As the world falls down around them, what would they be doing right now?

They hadn't met up and fallen down this journey together, and Lewiness still would have been doing Lewdeness things.

Oh.

No magical furniture, no Bertrand.

Yeah.

I mean, I feel like for Fern, she'd still be stuck in

Nana Maury's

protection.

Yeah.

But she had left before

she had left that before she met Bel Sal, before she met the Crown Keepers.

You are correct, Danny.

She went out and about in the world.

But I mean, so much of that leaving was because of...

But if it's only that she hadn't met come come part of...

Like,

let's say that it, let's say it's instead of, instead of him bringing you, instead of Auram bringing you, what if you had stayed with Opal and Dariaks had gone with Dorian and Auram to Marquette?

She never would have, never would have been part of Belle's house.

Never would have been about, but part of Belle's House would have just like...

Well, and you had a moment, right, where you're like, do I stick with Fern

or mix it up?

Yeah.

After we had talked after EXU.

Is that too much how the sauce is made?

Like the idea that you were trying out your characters in EXU?

Well, because I remember talking to you guys, and I was like, look,

it would be awesome to pull people over, but also

if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.

Or if you're like, I don't want to play this person for the next three years.

I know you had been building a lot of things.

Oh, I've been thinking about it for a long time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because you were toying around.

Oh, I was toying around with so much.

Yeah.

We had so many of those

We had so many games just playing and figuring stuff out and trying different

trying different classes, trying different types of characters.

And

I never was planning to ever play a druid.

It just kind of made sense for Fern.

I always wanted to play a rogue.

Yeah.

And I just never ended up.

finding the right character.

But I think after playing Fern with the crew, I was like, oh, I like this.

Yeah.

I like this dynamic with Dorian, Aurum, and Fern.

I want to keep her going.

You got your level as a rogue in the end, though.

Yeah, you tipped your hand.

I did.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just to steal shit.

How many people?

Which later I was like, how did I do that?

Three?

We got three rogue?

Three rogue?

Sure.

I don't know.

Guys, I don't know.

You did go, I think, Arcane Trickster to give yourself some wizard spells.

If Belle's Hells hadn't congealed, do you think probably Ladna and Imogen would just be wandering together?

Probably.

I imagine we could have probably stayed

in Drusar for maybe a little longer before like

both of us felt like we needed to get the fuck out of Dodge.

But they're still Rudisborn, so they'd still be having like dreams.

I wonder if...

That's fair.

I wonder if you can argue that.

No, well, fair, Fern's never had dreams.

I mean, it was still part of the puzzle.

That's the thing.

Yeah.

well and there was also the whole like draw of rudisborn kind of being

going on the being pulled in going on their like pilgrimage so i could fully see

laudna being like well we have to figure this out

liliana would be reaching out to her daughter somehow no matter what yeah i with that in mind I feel like Fern probably would have been pulled into the bad side.

He's been like, oh, sure, I'll help out.

I can see that.

I could.

You're my father.

Cool.

Oh, great.

Oh, probably.

Always on the edge of like slipping into a cult accidentally.

Oh, for sure.

For sure.

I love that.

Literally, beginning, beginning.

Even EXU times,

you were always in question.

You had a shadow version of yourself being like, yeah, I'm on over.

Yeah.

She's Faye.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She's Faye.

You never know.

I think Aurum would have still ended up being a minor role in it all, only because if shit was hitting the the fan on a global level,

he would have been continued to do like sort of traveling soldier ambassador work for the Ashari, but then when shit hit the fan, he probably would have either been summoned back or felt compelled to go back and lend a hand on like the battlefield that surrounded Vox Machina and everything.

Yeah, he would have been at the Malius Key Fight, probably no matter what.

As part of the onslaught, but not any of the stealth teams.

Yeah, I could see that.

I think Dorian I'd have to take it back to

pre-EXU, I would say, if he'd never met up with that squad, just because

that's, I think, where he found his mooring.

I feel like he would be in high-level trouble.

Like, I feel like he's so down for anything

that

without foundation,

he would have worked himself into, he would be in trouble in a mess.

Somehow, he'd be wrapped up, but in a way that is not good.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, I could see that.

Maybe recruited to the Vanguard.

Oh, maybe.

Maybe.

That'll be so sad.

All right, Marisha.

Yeah.

Watch me pull a brick from the tower.

Oh, wow.

Bait and Swiss.

That's really good.

I could see Dorian and Cyrus being like vaudeville people who are like running scams on people and you scam the wrong guy.

Dorian and Cyrus, just like, just having like a hat and cane routine.

We picked a pocket of this lewdness fella.

Yeah.

That's your thing.

That's your thing.

That's your thing.

You'd be our third scamp.

Yeah, I probably would have.

We would have found each other.

That's a three.

That's a three.

Right.

What?

Wasn't Robbie amused by numbers?

We already figured out.

Maybe I only have numbers in my brain.

Let's not push it any further.

So this is from Lacecap on Twitter.

Which non-furniture-related mystery in Xandria is the biggest splinter in your mind from this campaign?

Mine is the hidden ice fur city that BH ended up in when one of their teleports misfired.

I keep wondering if it's connected with Sarah, Maya, and Pesha's orb.

Hilariously, I can answer that question for you if you read the recap for that episode.

I tell you exactly what city that is.

Read the recap.

I forgot about that city.

No.

Me too.

Like, unanswered mystery we left in.

What happened after we fled the shade mother?

She's still down there?

Yeah.

Oh.

Still

controlling people with Boogersnot coming out the plumbing in that city.

Never look back.

Had bigger things to think about.

At the Green Seekers dealing with her, so hopefully they took care of it.

Hopefully they took care of it.

Where are the Green Seekers at?

Yeah.

Mine feels small and selfish, but it's was my brother savable.

I think that's still lingering in the back of my head, even though the hope is a sliver.

That's still lingering.

Yeah.

Small and selfish, but

I think the character thinks about it.

You're careing about your brother.

Yeah, I think we'll allow it.

Listen, the world's about to explode.

I don't know.

I mean, this, I don't know if this is a mystery,

but

I cannot stop thinking about FCG's coin that we dropped down

the bottom.

No, that's right.

Early, early on.

Who's the creepy tunnels?

The creepy tunnels under Drusar.

I'm not sure about Shade Mars.

Duggar?

No.

The Course Buyer, yeah.

Like, basically, there's a whole probably other city under Drusar that we haven't even, like...

Oh, my God.

We've barely scratched the surface.

Not even scratched the surface.

Wow.

It's not really a city.

It's more that there's like mines.

Yeah.

There's mines below.

Hey.

Every city

needs good tunnel people

living in there.

You know I love them.

You know I love molecular people.

Yes, exactly.

Exactly.

You know, I'm the first one to be like.

Is it mole people?

I feel like it's probably mole people.

Probably mole people.

When in doubt.

Mole people.

When in doubt.

Yeah, so I just feel like there's.

I still, I think I've said this before, where it's like one of the side quests that I want to do

is be like, hey, let's go get FCG's coin.

That's kind of fun.

Yeah.

God, I can't think of anything right now.

Letters connection to the old world.

We would have explored probably quite a bit more than we did.

Yeah.

And it ties to like Devexian.

Yep.

We still haven't figured out anything with Devexian.

Not really.

If you want to hear more about that.

That would be...

That would...

That's something I would want to know about.

If you want to learn more about Devexian, you should listen to the Reslayers take on Beacon.

Ooh.

It's family friendly.

All ages.

All ages.

All right, it's four-sided dive.

So, that being said, let's round out with one fourth pull from the top.

Oh, we're going to do it.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

I'll do it.

Last, last pull?

Last one.

Last one.

Let's see.

Let's see.

I feel like

woodpecker approach.

23.

34.

34.

34.

There you go.

34.

You're holding it like a price is right.

Nice.

Wow, beautiful.

I'd like to buy a vowel.

34.

Okay, Vanna.

All right, from Shaffy.

For everyone, do you think any of the previously established characters from past campaigns, NPCs, and player characters are rheumatist-born?

Oh, interesting.

Victor.

Victor!

Oh, may he rest in peace.

May he rest in pieces.

Yeah, literally.

I feel like there were a few that Matt had kind of sort of alluded to.

He's not everybody was for some reason, but I guess not.

No.

She's just from the beginning, but she's just a ginger.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Keylith has enough.

Yeah, not going on.

She's got enough of a ton.

And I'm like, oh, yes, they're one for one.

Yeah.

Ginger and and rudisborn.

Same.

I could see like Gilmore being a rudisborn.

Zara.

Zara.

Oh, Zara could be a Rudisborn.

She's got moonshit.

Oh, I'll go back, EXU, Posca.

Posca!

Posca

like her lot in life.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm surprised she hasn't shot.

Yeah, what is she up to?

Well, you guys in

Kymal.

Did you kill her?

She still

actively hunting us when last time.

She was, yeah.

He fled on the floating balcony.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They did a car chase.

Or they, yes, they did.

Yes, car chase, yeah.

What if the quad roads lotto winner guy still got a bunch of money?

Oh, yeah.

When he came back,

he was at the ball, right?

Wasn't he?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Preston Drodalon.

Nice.

Maybe, um, maybe um

uh

buddy

just on a cliff somewhere.

All of Darrington Brigade.

Yeah.

I love

he's theoretically Ruda's born, but too dumb to like receive the message.

Yeah.

Just thinks it's pretty.

Yeah.

Maybe all of Darrington Brigade.

Yeah.

They just none of them knew.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We still have

a broken

plane rider in in our bags don't we no she she she uh oh no we don't she came back she almost put her together dashed she dimensioned

she door dashed that's right door dashed away

she door dashed and she didn't have time because we were in a crunch but we tried to be like come back seedling after its level up for the person who's attuned to it can regrow any limbs, arms, fingers, peens, anything that gets lopped off.

So if we had just an hour, I was going to lay the sword on Rin like the Lady of the Lake or something, so that

there would be attunement.

You know, once we brought them back, and then I would just be a loner for an hour.

It would have been like a little magical

think of the wild mother, and they could have got their arm back, but we had to go.

Yeah, that's right.

We had to go.

She can do that in the future.

If we don't all die, she she lives.

Yeah, she lives.

That is cool.

Plane riders are all right.

Anyway, wow.

Chetney's the last full-plane plane rider.

Shetney?

Yeah.

Well,

thank you, Shaffy, Lace Cap, Amelia, and Kayla Cabrawl.

I took it as Caleb could brawl.

Yeah.

I thought it was like a one-shot or something.

And if you have a question for our Tower of Inquiry, ah, well, you shit out of luck.

Now

it's time to slide into the deep dive where lorekeeper Dan Carr passes out mugs filled with questions.

Caleb Kubrall.

So like the ley lines are messed up for a day and all we got is fist to cuffs.

Yep.

And it's just a wizard fight.

Just oops all Calebs.

Yeah.

That's fun.

Weak noodled slap fight.

Oh, that sounds good.

Nothing's got hands.

Oh, sure.

Well, definitely we answered a few of these.

So I enjoy, just go, you know, run through them.

You know, if you feel like you answered something already, just we're going to go around and take turns pulling the questions out.

And hey, Robbie, you go first.

Oh, do you know how I know it's the holidays?

I am so ashy.

I just noticed on camera this is definitely a guy who worked on a tropical vacation, came back and didn't moisturize for a week.

Anyway,

comment if you relate.

What's it been like?

As Dorian with Bells Hells and the Mighty Nine, do you feel like the only human in a cast of Muppets?

If so, are you more like Michael Cain or a Tim Curry?

Who writes these?

And I was really proud of that one because I love the Muppets.

It's cute.

I'm so tough on you, Danny.

I just, I tease.

Fuck me, Robbie.

Teasing's my love language.

Oh, it was so fun.

Are you kidding me?

It It was unhinged.

It was delightful.

It was

watching

a masterclass at what you guys have been doing this for a decade.

It was a blast.

If Dorian was a grounding force at all to be supportive while you guys went through your machinations,

I was glad to be there.

Just talking to each other.

It was super fun.

And everybody was down to clown.

I loved when Yasha jumped in and we just played background music for

all the various scenes.

You mimed with me for like 30 minutes.

Yeah, we did mime for a really long time.

I was like, I all mimed till the end of time.

I was committing someone else to the bit.

And I was like, she's still committing to this bit with me.

It was the best.

Well, you kept going, and I was doing the same thing.

I was like, fuck, he's still fucking miming it.

I'm okay.

I'm killing this ground.

I probably

fancy myself

a Tim Curry, but I'm maybe more of a Michael Cain, I would would have to say.

I would agree with that.

Yeah, yeah.

This was the best.

You treated the Muppets very seriously.

I would say you're more of a Michael Caine.

Yeah.

You treated the Muppets with, you treated the Muppets very seriously, whereas

as opposed to a Tim Curry, who's like, no, I am also a Muppet.

This is my only musical number.

Quote from Muppet Treasure Island.

Yeah, it was awesome.

It was literally the best.

What does it feel like?

What did it feel like?

It felt good.

Let's go to Asholi.

All right.

I chose this one because this is...

I really, I really like this question.

This is for me, Liam, and Robbie.

Sorry, Mauritius.

Sorry, go ahead.

Was it strange to see Opal while inhabiting different characters?

What would your Bell's Hell's character have done if they had been there instead?

Oh.

Wait, what was the question?

That's a great question.

Was it strange to see Opal while inhabiting different characters?

Oh, yeah.

What would your Bell's Hells character have done if they had been on this stuff?

I think try to see if she was reachable and try to get her to stay with us.

100%.

Would have cocked the whole fight.

I would have gotten diverted.

I would have gone off.

I would have gone off target.

As Dorian, for sure.

I'm bad at that stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, same.

I think Fern would have just...

Yeah,

same.

I'm like, no, no, no, we're not leaving you.

You're coming with us.

We're figuring this out.

Because she just, she loves Opal so much.

It would have been a problem.

Yeah, Orm would have stuck to mission and would have been fucked up because of it.

It would have messed up so many things.

Yeah, the world would have ended.

Yeah.

It was great, though.

Yeah.

It would have been awesome.

Yeah.

But that's when, I gotta assume that's why Matt did it there instead of elsewhere.

Yes.

Because these characters have no motive.

It's just a stranger.

But what a cool moment.

That was badass.

But it was it, like even going back with the, with the matron fight.

We just got the simulation.

We just got the simulation, but like as Fern, I hated it.

And it made me mad at the matron because I was like, why are you making me fight somebody that I love?

Like I know this is a test, but I hate this.

Like this isn't going to make me want to support you.

It was a little bit proving Ludinus's point,

which is you're using this person, just not even here, but you're using this because you know it will push us or test us or like we're in some little lab experiment for you right now to make to see if we can do what you need.

Yeah, that's what it felt like.

And I was a little, like, there was a part of me that was like, What if I just didn't fight?

Just didn't take the turn.

Like, I'm not gonna do this.

But then I couldn't do it because it's DD, and I'm like, I'm not gonna

not take my turn.

But

anyway, yeah, I'm glad we it would have been very different if it would have been Bell's Hell's been like, Obal?

Girl, have fun.

Yeah.

Liam, talk about that clutch disintegrate that took the weave mine down.

I had been weighing that for a pair of rounds, but the thing about disintegrate is it's big, risk, big reward.

And if they succeed their deck save, it just nothing happens and you've wasted a high, high level spell.

And it really was because

Beauregard...

set up the the bowling pins and gave Caleb a perfect shot and it was just a big old dose of damage right at the end.

It felt good.

Well because I because we like

we have our little combo move Caleb and Bo.

Yeah, which we didn't get we talked about doing but didn't get to do it.

I didn't get it to it.

Where I can

I'm blanking on the damn name right now.

Oh, what your monk, your cool monk shit is that does it.

Yeah, where I like debilitating barrage, I think is what it's called.

I think it's just a taint punch.

It's just a taint punch with flavor.

A little bit of hot sauce on it.

So it burns.

Right.

So Bo sets the person up for mega damage, then Caleb.

That's right.

I'll do this on Ukilla.

We did this on a

Yes, and while in the aftermath between campaign two and campaign three, obviously

Bo and Yasha have a great marriage, great sex, apparently all over the planet.

Why would you not?

When they're not off hours, Bo and Caleb will form sort of like a shh, it's not one-for-one, but like a Sherlock and Watson

fight problems in Rex Interim and Around.

Yeah.

You said Sherlock and Watson.

I was still thinking about their love life.

I got confused for a second.

I mean,

let's be real.

You know, Code and Doil Rolled that way.

Yeah.

Let's see what I got.

Marcia.

Should I not?

Were you still talking?

I'm done.

Okay, good.

I'm done.

Bo is clearly still very guarded around new people, correct?

With her trust in the Mighty Nine above all, correct.

Has her time with the Cobalt Soul hardened her more?

Yeah, I mean, I don't think, I'm jumping off of exactly what you're about to say, I don't think doing what she does specifically with the Cobalt Soul and with Caleb makes her any more trusting of people.

Yeah, her whole thing is rooting out corruption.

Like, that does not gonna lead you to being the kind of person that's like, I'm super trusting.

Yes.

Even if you've grown as a person, especially with your tight-knit group of friends, you're only going to trust them.

Yeah, 100%.

And you're going to be extremely wary of other people always.

And on top of that, Bo's always been a little shit talker.

So, of course, she's also going to be like,

She's going to be like, can you all handle this?

Because you guys seem like you suck.

I love it so much.

Yeah.

This was definitely, I actually really liked Bo in these like couple of episodes we got to see her, especially interacting with Bell's Hells, because it was very clearly, at least to me, her putting up this front of just immediately just like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you guys all of these things and I'm gonna say like, oh yeah, my wife and I hated each other whenever we first met and all these things because you don't want them to know anything about you.

You don't want them to know the truth.

You don't want them to know that you were crazy about her like the moment that you saw her and stuff like that.

She was, that she was monochrome in a world of color and stuff like that.

That's the kind of stuff you tell random strangers that you don't trust.

You're going to be like, oh no, I didn't like her.

What about it?

You want to know more?

No, I don't like you either.

Like, I love it.

It was just such a great encapsulation of who Bo is and how she presents herself to other people that she is still not quite on the level with.

Like, you got to chip away before you get to real Bo.

100%.

I love it.

I love her.

100%.

I love her.

I'm sorry for saying that she was shitty in the fight because she wasn't.

She was perfect.

Oh, well, I forgive you.

Okay, I love you.

Next.

I hope I pull a question where everybody tells me how much they love me.

Sucked.

Oh, God.

How did you approach playing Serconis for the table?

We did talk about this a little bit.

Yeah, I'll make it brief.

We got a lot of questions.

Yeah, I mean, the scaling idea literally came, dropped in in the moment.

There's a great thanks to whoever contributes to all the the wiki stuff.

The wiki was great, made my build a lot easier, things that I knew I had to do.

Went back and revisited the Vox Machina episodes, tried to watch clips of kind of like what that was, and then the rest was filling in the gap of what 30 years looks like

for a guy like that.

But the wiki helped because I'm like, oh, he only ages one to 10.

He's got these responsibilities.

So, you know, a lot of my character building throughout this whole thing, Dorian included, is making it plug-and-play for myself so I don't get too lost in the sauce.

So, you give me a character that's got 10 years worth of lore, connected to a large group, and the easiest thing for me to do was to make him stalwart and sort of like dedicated to duty and isolated.

And then it led to some just unintentionally funny character choices

that once they started to develop in the moment, I was like, oh, this is fun.

This is where I can find the fun in this.

And yeah, I mean, it was just a pleasure to play.

true improv.

Two days before, I was like, fuck, what am I going to do?

And

it makes me want to go back to the animated series and retroactively put in shots of him, like in front of a mirror, going, You've got the sirconos.

Yes, yes.

Yeah.

Scanlin does something funny.

He's like, ha ha.

You see where it builds.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

This is for the future.

I was going to say, honestly.

Season four.

If there is a sirconis in season four,

okay, one of these, like,

we did answer, but

I do.

I told them.

You only do that.

I do that sometimes because I'm like, I know I answered this.

I know we don't have a lot of time.

Yeah, just do it.

That is the last one for campaign films.

I know, that's why I was like.

Okay, so I'm going to answer.

Okay, let's go with this one.

How does Fern feel about the Ruby Vanguard treating her like a VIP hostage?

They called her a prime acquisition.

Is it especially strange after the death of her father?

I actually forgot about that they called her a prime acquisition.

I forgot that her father died.

I was like, wait, her, huh?

None of this, I know.

I feel like,

at least how I've kind of been like playing it with Fern and in moments like these.

I feel like

the VIP thing or like the prime acquisition, I feel like it doesn't make her feel

any different because she's like, well,

they think they know what the story is here, but they have no idea.

None of us do.

I don't know if that makes any sense.

Like.

I think.

I'm trying to think of how to word this without giving too much.

I don't know.

It's not that like Fern doesn't think highly of herself in any way or that she does not, but...

I don't know how to answer this question.

This is a hard one.

She is a princess professor.

She She is a princess.

She's professor princess.

She does think, yes.

Professor Princess.

Professor Princess.

I think it just, it's all the same to her.

Like, if that makes any sense of we just have a job to get done and life is just going to go on.

And me being this VIP hostage isn't like...

It's,

it's...

Like, nothing's going to change.

I don't know.

I don't know how to make sense of this.

Let's go on to the next question.

I'm not answering this correctly.

Sorry, Danny.

You're perfect.

Great.

I liked it.

Sorry.

So I was like, oh, wait, no, Danny.

It was a very Dow of Fern answer.

You're just cruising down the river.

Oh my God.

Yeah, yeah.

I feel like it makes sense for Fern.

She's just like, yeah, good.

I'm the important boss.

Hold on, because it's going to get us in.

Great.

To get us in.

Further down the river.

Incubus.

Incubus.

She's a little bit of an incubus.

What was it like for Caleb to mentor other young adventurers like Imogen to open his tower to those who might need it.

I think that Caleb is kind of in his Allura era.

I actually really love the sort of corruption fighting Zemnian kids story that I hope to one day tell.

That is a big favorite of mine.

But I also love Caleb as a teacher and

guide for young people.

And I don't think of him as ever wanting any kind of like laurels or or fame really the way that like Box Machina is legendary and known.

I still think

in a way he's like that's not for me because while I have come to

accept my past and everything that happened,

my life is still meant to be one of service to counterbalance the darkness of my beginning.

And the best he can do is mentor other people and

Imogen is her own character and her own person, but clearly to Caleb Caleb, there is a lot of turmoil in there, and just he's looking at a young person who's not sure what is right, and I think was gravitated towards that in a teacher or

like an uncle or mentor fashion.

Professor Princess.

It's sweet.

Yeah, Professor.

Caleb is definitely a professor princess.

Definitely.

But is he a pillow princess?

I'm sorry.

Wow, Danny.

Sorry, it came out.

I'm sorry.

Danny, go back to my corner.

That's the next question.

Yeah.

There it is.

It is just a jump off of what you were saying.

Seven years have gone by and the Mighty Nine are still like unsung heroes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We will be for forever.

Forever.

That's your story.

Yeah.

Like we got, we got sucked in on this rudest business, but even still it's like, we'll throw these things at you guys.

We're still and in the end, it's only going to be of these three groups.

It's really only Vox Machina that's going to be like that that were thrust into this massive spotlight.

But L's Hells were like a weird little screwball unit that nobody should have bet on.

And Mighty Nine, I think, are all super fucking confident, but they're going to continue to work angles and pull strings invisibly for the

good of the world.

Yeah.

We're just going to keep doing our community service.

How does Laudna feel about the Matron of Ravens now?

What does her connection mean to her?

Yeah, it was very fun and felt good to have a character that wasn't like, fuck you, matron, for I think the first time in this campaign.

But I think it's still just an extension of like Lodna

kind of always like craving

to be seen a little bit and kind of craving and also having that infatuation with like people of stature and people in power and

you know she's always

kind of admired lords and ladies and regency um and i think it's kind of like that but on a godlike scale so just even a little bit of like the nod and then also so many people have looked at laudna for so long as this like

abomination

of her being undead and not really

you know existing between between the veils So to have the, and yeah, I was convinced that the matron of Raven was going to be like, mm-mm, you're not good.

You're a bastardization of what I represent.

But the fact that she was like,

yeah,

I like you, kid.

Maybe that would have been a reaction 30 years ago, but with everything that's going on, it's like

a dang mask.

Got to get it back from the cow first.

I got it from there.

You got it back?

I got it from there.

Okay.

Oh, oh, oh, yeah.

Imogen telekinetically pushed it into her bullied hands.

It was really good.

Yeah.

I was just waiting for the right moment.

I think we could do we could do two more rapidly.

Yeah.

Rapidly?

I think so.

A little quicker.

Answered it.

Talk about Dorim.

I'm going to lose my shit.

Answered it.

Talk to us about the relationship between Orum and Dorian.

You wielded into being their scene of confession and how they're doing in this new romance.

Is it a romance yet?

That's a good question.

To me,

it's only the possibility of the love I think the the love the the attraction

for my part the passion is there but like to me a romance requires uh the time to to activate and I think you said something beautiful when we first said that it was like what could have been if only we had more time if only if only if only and uh I think that's a beautiful place for love to begin and love to exist because I feel like for a lot of people that's there that's how unrequited or or or a lot of love stories sort of end up is like

it was just never right and sometimes you never find that so you know I mean this is coming from someone who like like I used to date my wife in college and we didn't see each other for seven years didn't talk and now we're married and have two little babies like for me that's one of the things where it's like one of my favorite stories

I love it when you know you're it's your person you know it's your person yeah And you've always got something in the back of your head.

And I think that's always been on my mind since episode

one of EXU.

And to be able to say it open and freely and to admit that this isn't the right time.

It's not the right place.

Fucking figure it out later was really freeing.

I finally am glad just to do it.

Yeah, I think they're still earning,

and it's only going to be another six or 24 hours or whatever it's going to be, they're earning their

their way toward a reprieve from the insanity.

And then they can,

just like Vax and Keelith, like it depends on, it really depends on what happens in the next 12, 24 hours.

But it goes back to EXU for me as well.

And you never, like, I couldn't predict where the campaign were going to go or if my other role player at the table would be even interested in following that thread with me or not.

But I can remember, I knew that I wanted this story to be like

Auram's

like wandering out of the woods and going like can I start again was was one of the things I wanted to sniff out and I remember just randomly role-playing in one of those exu episodes where either you or Matt narrated like I nestle up next to the other one and so Dariaks and Dorian were like nestled under a tree and I and I had Aurum was awake doing guard watch up in the tree And all the way back then I was like,

I remember that.

Not for me, but I wish.

I may not be able to visualize things in the moment.

But that image is etched in my head, too, from way early on.

And I think that was the birth of it.

And I think Dorian was like still finding his own freedom in a sense of literally being...

released into the world for the first.

So I was exploring all sorts of options.

I think for Dari X, there was a moment there at a certain point.

And other characters.

You can just three game in, anything going on.

Yeah, our first four-sided die.

Who do you have a crush on?

And I said, he got, you know, some romantic vibes around the table from other things, though he never really

kept a distance out of it.

Okay.

Okay.

What did I do, bro?

What?

What?

I was wondering.

I was wondering.

Because, okay.

Oh, yeah.

Spill the tea.

Because I was like, is he crushing on Imogen?

Is Han Pong gonna crush him?

Imogen, that's interesting.

It's good.

It's glad.

I'm glad I know your ships.

Yeah, seriously.

What's your question, man?

No!

Yo, you thought of a bitch.

Should we guess?

Bold of you to think it's one person.

And that was true, not just a red herring.

Like, there were other characters where, you know, even though Aurum was kind of always where my head was at, if another opportunity within the group had presented itself, I don't think Dorian would have like shut it out because he's there for the experience of life.

So, yeah, it was.

Because I remember, I thought you had a crush on Imogen for a minute.

Maybe.

You were the first one I princess carried.

So that's right.

Ah!

Oh, the fans hate it.

They hate it.

I want to break up your favorite chip.

But no, no, it was always, it was always aurum.

Yeah.

No, I love it.

Yeah.

Man.

I answered my other questions, but I will just say

how

fun it was to jump back into Yasha.

Yes.

I didn't have Yasha questions which I'm okay with.

No, there was one.

There is a question I think for it might be a Marisha question but it's for both of y'all.

Where I talk

where it's a it's a

Yasha and it's a Yasha Yasha and Oboe.

Here I'll lend you a question.

There was also a question about Ashton in there, or there should have been.

What were some of the there is and that is one question that I was like should I answer this?

I think I'm gonna wait.

Yeah, that is totally fine.

I'm glad that you told the fans that you're gonna wait so they don't think I didn't ask.

No, no, no, there is a question here about Ashton, but I was like, I need to figure some stuff out first.

What were some of the dynamics that you two wanted to bring to Bo and Yasha's relationship seven years later?

Well, so much of that was so last minute.

Yeah, we were like, oh shit.

Because there was so much like

tonight you guys are playing these characters and tonight you guys are gonna, tonight you're jumping in an M9.

And I think there was just like there was a lot going on.

There's a lot going on in the last few games of like figuring out.

Both of your graph favor relationships, it was last second.

What are we?

I mean, I mean,

I don't know.

I feel like with Bo and Yasha, just it's it's so easy for me to slip in to just being in love with Bo.

Yeah.

Because I just love when Marisha gets in her just like

just frustrated and like mad with everybody and just every day like every day

okay i love it i love like she's just it's fair

i love her so i've i don't know it's easy to to hop back into and there's like a comfort in it too of like the two of them and figuring out

where their lives are gonna go and what their wants are gonna be and there was a very last minute of like wait did we

say we adopting kids yeah didn't we say we were gonna adopt kids did we do it yet and then we were like we can't just we can't just like decide that right now.

Yeah,

too weighty of a decision.

Yeah, we'll just talk about it again.

But you can.

You literally can't.

We could have just said, yeah, I mean, that's it.

We could have.

But then, I mean, we kind of brought it into the game where it feels like

probably what Bo and Yasha have probably been discussing it for.

When things calm down, we can.

Yeah, when things, you know, I think just

after this winter solstice.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

After this winter solstice.

Fast forward 20 years later to Palm Springs.

I remember when we were going to be able to do that?

After this, we'll talk about it again.

Yeah.

That's funny.

Yeah, but it's just, it's so great.

Yeah.

Anyways.

All right, my last one.

One last one for me.

One last one for you, Marisha.

As we move into the final phase of Bell's Hell's Pradothian journey, where is Aurum landing on the God question?

Where are they all right now?

So I'll kick it off and you can jump in.

You know, only in the last few episodes do I think that there is a little bit of waver or wiggle to Oram's thinking on it just because of their meeting with the Archheart and the Matron

and realizing that the gods are just as conflicted as the mortals are, that he now a little bit doubts that there is a

hundred percent right answer.

He knows that he that they have to stop Ludinus from doing what Ludinus wants to do,

but

he is only 95% sure they need to stop it all from happening instead of 100% sure.

What about y'all?

Good question.

Before you get to your question.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I think we'll find a time where we all like,

it feels like such a cop-out,

but I do think like there will be a moment, the moment will present itself and we all go like,

this is it.

This is the right moment.

And I've kind of said that a few few times in game where it's like, well, we got to talk this out.

We got to all be on the same page.

We got to have a plan.

And it's like, what?

Yeah, plan.

Plan for what?

We don't even fucking know what we're walking into.

Yeah.

And so I think it's going to be like an in-moment thing where we're just all going to like trust in each other and know that it's right.

Yeah,

I think we'll all land on, I mean, it's going to have to be, right?

Whatever we decide, it's going to be, it's going to have to be right.

Yeah, I feel the same way.

Not if we pile rocks on top of that force cage.

Yeah, definitely.

Can't move.

I think Dorian shifted from

sort of the opposite of a man of faith, like a little bit of a God hater,

into his true

canonically chaotic neutral self of a utilitarian.

I think he'll do with whatever the gods that most benefit the people that he loves.

Which is weighty when you say it out loud, that you're willing to sacrifice the gods

for your mortal friendships, but I think that's where he's at, wherever it goes.

If it means keeping him around, he'll stomach it.

If it means getting rid of him, all the better.

As long as the people that he cares for are end up on the right side of it.

So, so, yeah, yeah, definitely utilitarian about it.

I just feel like Fern is just like, as long as my people are safe,

the world could burn.

Yeah,

Doesn't matter.

That feels like the one thing that we are, even if we have different flavors of it, it feels like all of Belle's Hells is kind of like

we're kind of the adventuring party like for the people.

I feel like we've kind of always been that way a little bit.

Maybe that's the root of our consternation with this God issue is that we have no

objective way of determining of whether the gods are for the people.

The arguments have been made that they're very self-interested, you know, all those things.

And then arguments have been made that no, the gods are here to

protect us and they love you and they want you to flourish.

And they've given you all these powers.

Why else would they do that?

So I think that might be the source of our conflict: are the gods for the people.

Yeah.

Hard to say.

I think I get like torn too because I think like, regardless,

just in like faith

in

real life,

people need faith

too you know like even if we're like well fucking whatever we can like have a godless world and keep doing what we've been doing this whole time there are people in exand like it is undeniable that the gods are important important to a they know important to a lot of people in xandria um

so i think that that has to be

taken into consideration as well you know it's in a way i think oram treats it like that moment in oppenheimer where they're about to do the test and he says there's the this percent chance that we'll cause the end of the world.

And they just don't know.

Yeah.

And that's what Aurum worries about, but there's nothing to be done.

There's no like sitting it out because

lewdness is going to wield it.

So there's the only choice is to run toward lewdness and stop lewdness from whatever it is he thinks he's going to do.

That's heavy.

That's really heavy.

Yeah.

I mean, that's been an Auram the whole time.

It's like there's just, it's a question mark.

No idea what releasing Prodathos actually means on a tangible, forget about the gods, good, bad, help us, love us, a detriment to us.

We don't know what the physical releasing of whatever Prodathos is would do.

An Aurum is a soldier.

I mean, he's a...

Well, you say man of the people.

He's thinking of keeping the global population safe from extinction event.

The ultimate protector.

Hope we don't light the atmosphere on fire.

That part.

These are the last questions?

This is the last question.

Last question?

Yours.

I'm going to do a twofer, just once again,

so people know.

She's a twofer.

What does Lauden think of the Liliana situation?

I mean, that's basically Lauden's mother-in-law.

Yeah, I mean,

I'm glad we saved her.

Obviously there was a time where Ladna was not super stoked with Liliana because she was like, you kind of abandoned your daughter and I love your daughter and so that fucking sucks.

Once again, I don't think it's like too dissimilar than a spouse.

Most marriages.

Who has, I mean, like,

you know.

That's my partner and yeah, what did your dad do?

How many people have had that where you're like, I don't care if it's your father, he's being a fucking asshole right now.

So yeah, she kind of had that, but I mean, obviously, I think she's come around a lot to Liliana, and I think, especially after her situation with Delilah, I think has kind of has a little bit of a different understanding on the whole situation of getting like

kind of being trapped in a circumstance that's not necessarily of your own creation

and feeling that guilt from it as well.

Last one.

How is Keeleth doing with the return of Vax?

You kind of touched on this a little bit.

I feel like it'd be a good one to end on.

Me too, me too, me too.

To have him back, but only for one night is both a blessing and a curse.

Yeah, I mean, I guess just to,

I don't know, clear the air or whatever.

Yes, I was upset at the end of that episode.

But I think I do want to paint it and like make sure everybody knows,

you know, I'm not upset with the way the story or anything went.

It is just because that is like how

intense and real these like

characters feelings are

in all of us.

Like

it's silly to a certain extent where you're like, oh, this imaginary person has had such this like

profound effect on my life

and it's not even like a it's not coming it's not driven from like a

point of self-pity

if that makes sense like it is not like

oh Marisha feels bad with the way these circumstances are it truly is like

Keleth is this whole other person who lives not just in my head, but in all of our heads.

Everyone's heads now, like thousands of people's heads.

yes

so when I think about like their situation it is like this profound empathy and like sense of sadness for Keeleth as a person

which is like I said weird since she's you know birthed from my head but it is like a very removed

sense of like emotional connection.

So that's where those feelings were coming from.

And I think like Sam said it in our cooldown.

He was like,

this, I feel, he, I think, was the first one to say, I feel so bad for Keyliff.

And it was like, yes, correct.

Yeah.

Because it's just like, damn, just either give her peace or give her.

resolution or give her her man back.

And yeah, we we've, I don't want to say much at all.

We have, Liam, and I have talked about it on, like,

we'll find that sense of resolution.

We just don't know what that means yet.

Don't know what the landscape is.

Don't know what the landscape is.

But you know what's crazy?

It's like you saying,

like, yeah, it's wild to think about, you know, playing these characters.

Obviously, it's fantasy.

They're not real.

But all of us have spent so much time together as those people.

We've lived the dynamics of those relationships.

Yeah, so they totally feel like I think at the end of that, I was just like, I know like Keila's story, but at the end of it, I'm just like, that's my friend hurting.

Yeah, exactly.

And like, knowing that she has to go home alone tonight, clearly you don't.

But like thinking of it, I'm just like, she goes at home alone at night and

always holds a candle for this person that is just not gonna ever come back.

Like it kills me.

Yeah.

Well, and Keylith, I mean, and once again, I know we've all talked about this as a group.

Like, she's definitely a very real allegory.

I mean, not even an allegory.

She is like a real example of what a lot of grief can manifest as.

Yes.

And currently, she is kind of stuck.

in this worst

case of grief, which is like the inability to move on yes and that sucks

it's tragic it's tragic that's also

yeah yeah you know like

but it's just like god what a what a what a story you two

i don't what a story i don't think it's weird at all to feel those feelings in a in a visceral way because you know again outside looking in from what you guys have done We started the night with poetry and lots of millions of people, hundreds of thousands of people have favorite poems and books and films and uh pieces of art that affect them on their day-to-day life that are basically cooked up in a vacuum until they make their way out into the world and what's unique about what you guys do here is that those stories are alive currently every single day and they're being crafted uh in the moment based on your own understanding of the characters.

So for me, just watching it unfold, feeling the feelings of those characters is not only expected, but like, what a blessing.

How many people would love to have the opportunity to step in to be the protagonist of their own favorite book?

And,

you know, that's a special kind of sadness that just feels earned and totally reasonable to me.

Yeah.

We also all love happy endings.

I love happy endings, but we also, there's a reason why Medea and Romeo and Juliet and and other works tragedies are you know resonate 2000 3 000 years later yeah i mean

once again we've talked about this but i think um

we've all had our hadest town kick and at the very end of that show you know they say like why do we tell this stories we tell this story again like the the play ends with the way it begins and it is a story of Eurydice and Orpheus.

It is a story that has been told millions of times.

And it's like, why tell it again?

It's like,

we're going to do it again anyway, because.

My favorite part of Hamlet 2 is when Hamlet comes back to life and gets pooped out of an egg, and he's just a gooey baby.

That's my favorite part of the Hamlet story.

Matrix!

We did it!

Three for three, baby!

We like art like

that because it makes

you feel so intensely that you learn about the human heart.

Yes.

Yes.

Sure.

And like stories like that, like you learn something different every time too.

Like there are so many of my favorite.

It's like why do you watch your favorite movie again and again?

You've seen it.

Air buttons, totally.

Fuck yeah.

Is he gonna make that basket?

I'm more of a golden save the day.

More of a golden receiver fan.

It says a dog can't play basketball.

Run to the clown or to the boy who loves him.

Which is even a kid.

And now people recreate that exact same moment on Instagram every day.

I'm sorry, did I derail your final point?

Nope, that was my point.

We tell the same story again and again.

Well, buds.

That's it for the deep dive, which means we're almost done with this four-sided dive.

But before we go, it's time for one more round of questions from the Tower of Inquiry

Campaign 3.

Surprise!

Get up there, Dreaming.

One last time!

Let's go!

Oh, I was pontificating over here.

I'm gonna same side it.

This one is tight.

This was the last four-sided dive.

Oh my gosh!

37.

Here we go.

That was a good year.

Everyone's gonna pull one.

Mr.

Person,

many characters will at some point reach a major crossroad where taking one direction or the other determines their path forward.

Class, personality, etc.

Does he choose the clown?

Football or master.

Or the king.

Yeah.

Pick a sport, bud.

He truly does not.

Y'all had me crying over there and now I can't even get through this question.

Fuck y'all.

Airbud is bittersweet.

It's a beautiful story about the love between a boy and his dog.

You have to win state to make shit.

That's not what matters.

How'd you play?

Please look back on the street.

Mr.

Person, Mr.

Person, what we're doing.

Mr.

Person,

please look back on one such crossroad for any of your characters and tell us who they would be if they'd gone the other way.

Oh.

Look at your crossroads.

Starring Britney Spears.

At the crossroads,

so you don't get lonely.

Well, man, I'll throw a big one on the table.

What would have happened if I hadn't decided

early in campaign one, well, I guess I'm just going to trade in my character so that Laura can keep playing hers.

Like, it would have affected the tenor of everything.

Probably in the sunken, in the tune.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

If we're talking all three campaigns, like

me, spur of the moment, and that moment was just like, shit, Laura's really sad.

She's going to lose her character.

I don't want her to do that.

I'll lose my character.

It's fine.

Domino, domino, domino, domino, domino, domino.

Black marble.

I was pretty bullish in campaign two

about sacrificing Bo with Sharnai

with the hag.

And then

Queen Laura Bailey came in with the

dust of forgetfulness and the muffin.

Those cakes.

You let that copy.

But I was, yeah,

I was pretty,

pretty stern on relinquishing myself for the greater good.

Yeah.

Crossroads.

Crossroads.

You probably would have picked up that phone call from Marisha Ray

in December of 2020 or whatever that was.

I was in my car.

I was like, who's this?

Yeah.

Great answer.

This is a great answer.

Great answer.

And that's why we got dink.

Oh, dink base question.

Get out of here.

No, I think there was a serious moment where Dorian could have just walked off into the sunset with Deriaks, believe it or not.

When he, after that whole thing went down and he was just like, we're at town, what do we do next?

If he hadn't white-fanged him,

I

get out of here.

You can't.

I thought about it.

Yeah.

Oh, that's interesting.

Yeah.

Just never would have jumped.

Never coming back.

I like you guys, but not that much.

Yeah.

That's interesting.

Is it when you booked the job on Blind Spot?

I mean, if...

I mean, if we're going, if we're taking that route.

Also, kind of a point, though.

Also, kind of a point.

Because

that honestly would have been

such a crazy game changer.

Because I literally would have been here full.

I mean,

that's a life, that's a life crossroads.

Yeah.

You also booked that role like

weeks before we started.

Yeah, what was it?

Like two weeks, three weeks before we started streaming.

We were geared up and you were like, well, fuck.

Crazy.

Yeah, which is totally crazy.

Yeah, wild.

One of the goonies that moment, I remember.

You're going to come live with me now

oh shoot I had just forgotten what I thought of one of them and that one took Sowie that one took over no no no that was a let's go with that yeah that was a big cross that's I don't think anything that I say is gonna be much

more of a change than that guess you'd better pull a brick down I'll go pull a brick down I will also

to jump off of your Vax throwing the

throwing caution to the wind on his on with Laura

I would say the even bigger question, I feel like the way that you played Vax, he was always going to choose that for for Vax.

My bigger question is, if he had not chosen to go with the matron after he was disintegrated by the whispered one, if he had chosen to wait for Keeleth to see if she could bring him back

instead of taking the matron's offer to make him a revenant.

I just feel like that's another one.

That's one I think about all the time.

Just like, man.

It would have been a whole other story deep dive of trying to get a true resurrection.

Yeah.

Because y'all would have had to go try to find those diamonds.

Yeah.

In my mind, I mean, like, anyone can play anything, any way they want, but in my mind, the promise had already been made.

Yeah, for sure.

There was no veering off of it.

I committed to the bit.

And that's how I've looked at it the whole time.

Like, do I wish they had had a happy ending?

Part of me does.

Forever Will wish that he got to sunset.

At the end of that, I can't listen to Tokyo Sunrise and hold it together.

But

I really just felt like

I was following the breadcrumbs as they led.

And

I don't feel like there was

any bearing off of it.

Tokyo Sunrise.

It's an amazing song by LP that I put on my third Keyless playlist, I think,

in honor of Vax and Keyless.

Good song.

It's a great song.

Very tragic.

Second Bell Sales playlists.

At any point?

Pull a brick, Ashley.

I did.

What did you get?

13.

Lucky number 13.

Spooky.

I'm not putting it up because Robbie didn't put it.

Oh, do them both.

Yeah.

No.

What?

Come on.

We'll do it together.

Oh, no.

What if a tower falls?

Oh, hang on a minute.

Okay.

Last one ever.

Oh, my God.

What?

Take that.

Take that.

Take that.

There's no rules anymore.

Make a team.

That's true.

That's true.

Let's get freaky.

Yes, do it.

Oh, I'm so excited right now.

Honestly, come on.

Yes.

What happens if just those two fall?

Let's go.

Now we're playing games.

Okay, I started in a really bad spot for this.

That is very stressful looking.

I can't even live over that.

Number 13 from Valnar.

Which NPC from Xandria would you like to play in a slice of lifestyle spin-off campaign?

Facts of Life.

Slice of Life spin-off campaign.

Been there, done it.

Soconos, baby.

That's kind of true.

Slice of Life spin-off campaign.

Oh!

What's the name of the smut peddler?

Oh, Iva?

Iva!

Hi, girl?

Yes, your girl.

If you want to read more about Iva's adventures,

Chronicles of Xandria, Volume 2, the Mighty Nine is coming soon.

Yeah, and it's real good.

You'll learn how she and Yusa became pen pals.

Yeah, that's right.

It's real cute.

I'll be her.

I'll just do that.

Iva's great.

She was the best.

I was like 40 middle-aged women

every day.

I feel like Estros had like a rich.

I feel like he had a ball.

Yeah, let's give him his own like Fraser sitcom.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

But he's low-key doing cool shit on the weekends though for sure

yeah yeah constantly is hiring like a new assistant who is trying to to survive in his house full of death traps oh it's like a spinal tap like they're always dying yeah

spinal tap 1974

speaking to the youths

they know that this goes to 11 back to linkedin honestly everyone should watch spinal tap i stand by that oh so good uh

oh you got a favorite npc you want to see?

I'm thinking, I'm thinking, I'm thinking.

I mean, I always go back to Victor because I just love Victor so much.

But, I mean,

what would...

That's just because I like

Matt doing that voice.

Yeah.

Like

a Joey-esque show starring Gaz Tomo?

Oh my god, Gaz Tomo.

Like maybe, depending on what happens in the next 24 hours, he ends up on Xandria and it's just like like him fish out of water,

learning about the Blue Promise.

Yeah.

What's this?

Or like

Devexian becoming a real boy type of a thing.

That's fun.

Like

being his own man or being his own, you know, whatever.

And

his own person.

Now I'm thinking of Daz having like a born yesterday type of like stumbling

through

just discovering what the Blue Promise has to offer.

It's a good show.

Chocolate in the peanut butter?

Yeah.

Jeez.

Did you like a buddy comedy with him and the guy who pulled the wish card?

Oh, yeah.

That idiot.

Just double idiots.

Yeah, yeah.

Just a little dumb and dumber action.

You're with me.

Yeah.

Oh, you're with me.

Oh, my God.

Okay, we did pull pull.

There's something there.

I feel like you created the show, so I'm going to pull a block and then you'll pull the final block.

Yeah, that's what I'm doing.

Okay, I love that.

Okay.

Do it, do it, do it.

But like, the thing is, if it falls like this, should there be consequences?

Yes.

Consequences in the box, babe.

All right, all right.

But what happens?

Oh, it is wiggly, baby.

Now you touched it.

Oh, my God.

It is wiggles.

It's because Laura said it out loud.

No, no, those are the holes.

If you touch it, you got to take it out.

Oh, look at that thing.

Oh my god.

Damn, bro.

I hate looking at this.

Oh, come on.

Come on, baby.

What are we doing?

Let's go!

21 Blackjack.

This is

one Michael Last.

Sure.

Yeah.

But also, you created the show.

All right.

Captain Locke, when do you start connecting campaign story and character history when creating new characters before start of a campaign?

Does it go hand in hand?

Or do you first create the characters and then find their place in the story?

That one.

Yeah.

I think of the story that I, the kind of character and the story I want to tell, and then I figure out where it fits into our universe.

Yeah, I would say for our main campaigns,

that's

how it is for the core group.

Guests who come on obviously have a different experience because they're going to be a little bit more of the former where they're kind of trying to figure out

where they fit in and what makes sense.

But it doesn't mean that that has to dictate their personality or what class or anything that they play.

And then I would also say like

an extension of that, it's a little bit different as well when it comes to say

calamity or downfall.

Because then once again, we have you kind of come to the table with an assignment.

Yeah, it's been so different.

Yeah.

Like you guys knew you were playing gods in downfall.

Right, I would say with a longer campaign and you're going going to be living in that for a really long time.

So

I work on that very carefully, but for shorter run things,

there's so many different factors like what's needed,

what's a muscle I can stretch that I haven't done for a super long campaign.

So I do something different than my other stuff.

It feels like

reverse character study for theater, since we talked so much about theater today, right?

Usually you get the text and it's informative, they're their choices in the moment.

And then if you're one of those actors, you can then go back and create an imaginary backstory that motivates you throughout that if you're not just an off-the-page kind of person.

And this is the opposite: you make up the backstory, and then you get thrust into the theater, and it in it, and you and then the plot unfolds.

Yeah, yeah, it's interesting.

And then you're just kind of reacting in real time.

Yeah.

Because, yeah, like with

Calamity, with Pesha,

you know, Brennan had kind of spit out a bunch of lore.

And I told him, I was like, oh, oh, well, I want to be a Kennedy.

It's basically exactly what I said.

And so I was like the granddaughter of

the guy.

So, anyway, it's a little bit different every time.

Yeah, it's a little different every time.

There you go.

Oh, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Pull that block.

Get it, get it.

Pull that block.

Pull that block.

Feel it.

All right, all right here.

Oh, that is so.

It is wobbly.

Yeah, that is

a lot of fun to look at.

That's stressful.

What is that?

That...

Never mind.

Where are we going with that?

I don't know.

You could do this.

You've got this.

I am like.

I mean, you could do an easy one, or...

You could also just deck the tower.

I know.

I thought about it.

I'm like lightheaded.

Nope.

That looks good.

Oh, that is a bold move.

Oh, look at it, Jiggle.

Look at it, go.

Yes.

Oh,

what's the number?

Oh, 31.

31.

I kicked it.

I kicked it.

I kicked the bar.

God, I don't even want to look at this.

Starcross lovers, make that crisscross.

Oh, God.

Come on.

It's gonna.

Come on.

It's gonna be

fine.

Come on.

I like it.

I like it.

Pin up, pin up.

Pin up.

Yes.

Look what you made.

I did this.

Don't you, don't you do it?

Not for the Lord.

Dissonant Faye on Beacon Discord asks, the Mation of Ravens had the imp Slitch held in a glass amulet on Downfall.

If your character could have any creature creature held in a glass amulet to bamp out at any time, what would it be?

Trinket doesn't count.

He also has a glass amulet to bamp out at any time.

Dang.

Any creature.

Any creature.

Do we know how the weight goes?

The consequence goes right ahead.

Yeah, it goes blood, chaos, ring.

What's in the box?

What's in the box?

Should Danny take the consequences?

Yes!

I've never had a consequence ever.

Ever in your life.

Ever.

Never done it.

We're going to take this consequence.

Alright, well, first you have to answer about the glass bubble.

Okay.

Okay.

Any creature in a bamp out.

Any creature.

I just want my dog Yaga.

I just want my little baby.

Does a gold one.

I would pick an emotional support dog.

Yeah, for my dog.

I want her right here so that I can get all times.

Damn.

That's a good idea.

Any creature?

Oh, yeah.

Oh,

fantasy.

Back my buddy.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Or grog.

Or grog.

Technically a creature.

I don't don't know.

I feel like I'd...

I'd almost want it to be a little funny, though, like an emotional support fish.

That's good.

And you like bamp it out and it like flaps around.

And then I'm like, okay, I don't know.

And you throw it off a cliff, maybe?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Easy.

Airbudge.

Doesn't matter the sport.

It's going to be a good time.

He can play every sport.

He's so good at it.

He's airbud.

He's an airbud.

I'm not going to lock it.

I think we solved it.

So thank you, Mr.

Person, Valnar, Captain Locke, and Dysnip Fay.

And if you have a question for our pile of inquiry, you're SOL.

Before we move on,

our consequence,

which I think is just to make Kyle feel better about himself.

Whomever destroys the Tower of Inquiry in episode 30 of Four-Sighted Dive must say five nice things about four-sided dive.

Oh, wow.

Well, there is five of us.

We could split the five.

There are five.

I think that's right.

We all get to say one nice thing about this show.

Okay.

Okay.

I have to do some research.

I didn't get a stocking.

Do I count?

Yeah, you count.

Wait, you didn't count.

You knocked it over.

You share the load of this wavy task.

Yeah.

Very difficult task to say five nice things about our show.

Can I take the snowman out?

Yeah.

He can be your friend.

You gonna get him?

Where do you get him?

Release him.

The snowman?

Or the Sandy?

That's not a snowman.

That's Santa.

That is Santa.

I know my holidays stuff.

Who wants to start?

One.

Wait, this is looking like five nice things.

You just have to say one, though.

One.

Yeah, we're gonna split the load.

From the cradle to the grave.

I was here for one.

I was here for 30.

Glad to see you born.

Glad to see you die.

Damn.

Not true.

Tell us how you really feel.

You shit on my question.

You shit on the show.

How long do you date?

How's your friend?

How's your friend there?

Look at him.

Look at his tummy.

Kim got a tummy.

Look at him.

What's the matter,

sir?

What if he just turned to you?

I would throw it and I would run.

What is your nice thing about four-sided dive?

Oh, it's been fun.

What did you think of it?

And she stole it.

Oh.

Wait, did someone else say it?

And I wasn't paying attention.

No, I was

saying that.

Liam, your thoughts.

I'll say that

a lot of us are hard workers and we're constantly thinking and planning and building and doing and performing and role-playing.

And what's nice about this show is that we get to kind of just come and shoot the shit and there's a little less pressure to like

do a triple Lutz and and I just like hanging out with you guys on the show.

But just you three the rest can I could do that.

I agree with that.

But in seriousness,

it actually, it is really fun a lot of the time to talk about

things that we don't get to in the game when you're like, well, I need to explain myself.

Yes, for sure.

Like,

it's therapeutic.

It's nice.

It really has been fun.

Yeah.

I tease too, but yes, the

long-form hangout

podcast is vibe, and I like it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Go to sleep.

Go to sleep.

Go to sleep.

Is that four sentences?

Everybody helps.

He knows the MMA.

Didn't you go and then I'll close it out.

Okay.

All right, executive producer, who is my boss.

I would say my favorite thing is getting to work with Kyle Shire

on making this show for y'all every single month and getting to collaborate with him.

He is one of the most brilliant people that I truly know and that I count as a friend and a wonderful co-worker.

I love, love, love getting to make this with him and getting to make each other laugh.

He makes me laugh constantly with his ideas for this and really the whole show has just been us making each other laugh.

So and really you guys were just kind of third on the list.

Yeah, baby.

I was trying.

Oh, no.

You're trying to pick my name.

I was trying to, yeah, a little bit.

I was trying to boop you.

A little bit of a boop.

No, this is a lot of people commented and were like, why doesn't Danny just hang out behind the bar?

It's because of this.

Because if you look at Marisha and Liam in their standard form, it's just my boobs.

I'm very short.

The whole show.

It'll just be this, guys.

It's just this.

And that is why I had to find ways to be behind the bar that made sense because it's just this.

It's just my tits.

That's why.

Amazing.

I love it.

Yeah.

This isn't a cop-out.

No, I have the last thing.

I have the last thing.

This isn't a cop-out, but it's kind of jumping off of what Danny said.

There was so much about this show that was a bit of a scramble.

There was, we wanted to mix it up.

So we were trying to be very experimental.

I want to say a massive thank you to our audience who gave us that grace.

I know some people didn't like it, and I don't care.

We had reasons.

We had reasons from top to bottom of why we did this show the way we did this show.

I do think the format ended up growing on people over time.

And so

I am a firm believer in firm like as a creative director and just creator in general

you can't always

come out with the final product

and if anything I think that is like a massive detriment to creativity because if you keep trying to

Come up with what you think is the final iteration of something oftentimes you'll never release anything

creativity often has to happen inside of a box and you work with

your format, you work with your limitations, you work with what you have.

And so when we started Foursighted Dive,

so much of it was an experiment and it remained an experiment from episode one to episode 30.

We tried new things, we tossed out new ideas, we mixed it up, and I love that about the show.

We did some incredible bits,

We had some incredible guest hosts.

We had people come in.

We had some cold opens.

Some crushed, some flopped.

But we were always

empowered.

And of course, and same,

same that Danny already said, have to give a shout out to Kyle Shire.

Four-sided dive has been his baby from top to bottom.

He wrote so many of the bits.

He, you know,

he wrote all the bits.

He wrote all the bits.

Come here, Kyle.

Come here.

Get out here.

Come on, Kyle.

This is your ambut moment.

Come on, this is your rambud moment.

Come here.

Can you see my tent?

Yes, it's good.

You're good.

It's feeling good.

Wonderful.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

But yeah, I always, I hope it came through.

I wanted you to continue to experiment.

It didn't have to be the same every time.

You know, we always tried to find the format and find what works best.

And

yeah.

I'm really,

I don't think you guys can hear me, but I'll speak up.

Talk about my boobs.

I'll talk experiments.

Thank you guys for giving me a playground to play in and whatnot.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you for all the trust.

I hope I didn't make you guys act a fool too many times.

No, it was amazing.

You're an anti-ston.

My pain is a scon.

Scott, we're finally

Yeah, this show, I think that is the perfect actually encapsulation of it.

This show for the past three years has been our playground.

And I love it for that.

And

yeah,

it's had some incredible moments.

There have been moments in this show that I have laughed so hard I peed a little.

And so, yeah.

Stain is.

I'm going to lose this episode.

Chairs will have to be replaced.

But anyway, yeah.

Yeah, it's been great.

It's been good times.

Oh man, I want to thank everyone here.

Marisha Ray, Ashley Johnson, Robbie Damon, Danny Carr, our lore keeper, Kyle, the entire crew.

I'm Liam O'Brien, your 30th tavern keeper.

And I guess this is our outro.

Friends around the table, time to celebrate.

It's a party, hit the lights, here we go, go, go.

Waste the night away with a little escape.

It's a chance to lose control.

So let's just leave this

world behind.

Everybody, come on, take a dive.

One by one, we roll the dice, come on.

Critical go

for another round.

Your friends are here to cheat you on.

Throw it back, it's good times all night long.

Let's go,

critical go.

No way to lose when you're having this much fun.

It's your turn.

No way to lose when you're having this much fun.

Bye.

Bye for a slide and die.

Okay, we're going, we're going, we're going.

Oh, God.

One more, one more, one more.

Okay.

Yay.

There's Groomie.

He gets a new somewhere.

That's it for the podcast version of this episode of Foursighted Dive.

If you've enjoyed this deep dive into the campaign, be sure to drop us a rating and a review on whatever podcast platform you're using.

Your thoughts may just encourage a new critter to take the plunge.

Four-sided Dive normally airs on the first Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m.

Pacific on our Twitch and YouTube channels, with the VOD available on YouTube the very next day.

And of course, each episode releases right here on the Critical World Podcast Network the following Friday.

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