Critical Role: Chases and Trees
June 3, 2019 2:24 PM - Season 2, Episode 65 - Subscribe
The Mighty Nein continue their trudge through the Barbed Fields, and find beauty and shelter in an unlikely corner...
It’s been a busy week, so I’ve only watched the first half, but it’s interesting to me that Nott is drinking again and engaging in risky behavior.
Also, I’m ready for the slog of travel/fight to be over.
posted by booksherpa at 11:41 AM on June 4, 2019
Also, I’m ready for the slog of travel/fight to be over.
posted by booksherpa at 11:41 AM on June 4, 2019
The second half is really good! There's a few lore drops and change ups, plus the cast makes some interesting decisions.
posted by dinty_moore at 12:02 PM on June 4, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by dinty_moore at 12:02 PM on June 4, 2019 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I went into the second half kind of half-listening because I was waiting for more travel/fight, but I need to back up and re-listen to some of it, because there's some big lore happening.
posted by nubs at 11:27 AM on June 5, 2019
posted by nubs at 11:27 AM on June 5, 2019
TBH, with some of it, I relistened to the relevant times and still didn't quite get what's going on (at least with Caduceus's thing and the sister tree). It's still exciting!
Also Yasha the rock harpist (and Ashley playing air harp), yes.
posted by dinty_moore at 1:16 PM on June 5, 2019
Also Yasha the rock harpist (and Ashley playing air harp), yes.
posted by dinty_moore at 1:16 PM on June 5, 2019
Yeah, Caduceus's dream just left me all WTF. Feeling like I missed something there.
posted by nubs at 1:54 PM on June 5, 2019
posted by nubs at 1:54 PM on June 5, 2019
the sister tree
That part I got! Vasselheim, which is basically where civilization and most of the religions of the world got started, has a massive tree in an area known as the Birth Heart. The tree is sacred to Melora, the Wild Mother. The tree they found is a sister tree to it, planted by Melora in the midst of the Barbed Lands as her last act before she and the other gods were sealed away from the world after the Calamity.
In terms of larger notes -
-booksherpa is right, Nott is drinking very heavily and doing some risky shit. Going to be interesting to see what that is all about; did that start up again shortly after Caleb found out about the letter?
-Clay's reaction to being told that the problems in the Barbed Land are too big for him to fix sure didn't sit well with him, which I found interesting. Not at all sure what to make of his dream.
-Looks like Fjord is being offered a potential way out of his arrangement with Uk'otoa(Uk'otoa) but I doubt it is going to be easy.
Tonight's episode should be off to a roc-ing start.
posted by nubs at 12:11 PM on June 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
That part I got! Vasselheim, which is basically where civilization and most of the religions of the world got started, has a massive tree in an area known as the Birth Heart. The tree is sacred to Melora, the Wild Mother. The tree they found is a sister tree to it, planted by Melora in the midst of the Barbed Lands as her last act before she and the other gods were sealed away from the world after the Calamity.
In terms of larger notes -
-booksherpa is right, Nott is drinking very heavily and doing some risky shit. Going to be interesting to see what that is all about; did that start up again shortly after Caleb found out about the letter?
-Clay's reaction to being told that the problems in the Barbed Land are too big for him to fix sure didn't sit well with him, which I found interesting. Not at all sure what to make of his dream.
-Looks like Fjord is being offered a potential way out of his arrangement with Uk'otoa(Uk'otoa) but I doubt it is going to be easy.
Tonight's episode should be off to a roc-ing start.
posted by nubs at 12:11 PM on June 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
I can't believe none of them pancaked off of that tree - whenever characters without Fly or Feather Fall do high vertical stuff, I expect a d6 filled disaster at some point.
I assume Fjord could switch patrons, given either access to the Feywild or the Nine Hells. It would be pretty entertaining to have Travis charm a fae again.
posted by tautological at 1:27 PM on June 6, 2019
I assume Fjord could switch patrons, given either access to the Feywild or the Nine Hells. It would be pretty entertaining to have Travis charm a fae again.
posted by tautological at 1:27 PM on June 6, 2019
After jumping off the tree, even! I'm interested in hearing how Fjord's possible patron-switch is going to turn out both from a storytelling perspective and a mechanics perspective - is he going to stay hexblade? Is he going to switch classes?
posted by dinty_moore at 1:33 PM on June 6, 2019
posted by dinty_moore at 1:33 PM on June 6, 2019
I'm interested in hearing how Fjord's possible patron-switch is going to turn out both from a storytelling perspective and a mechanics perspective - is he going to stay hexblade? Is he going to switch classes?
I'm very intrigued as well, not least because one of the players in my home game is playing a Warlock and at some point he may get uncomfortable with what his Patron is after; seeing how a DM like Mercer is handling a Warlock at odds with his Patron and possibly switching is fascinating. I have no idea where this might go, this episode just made it feel clear to me that Matt is going to offer opportunities and see what Fjord/Travis do with them.
I assume Fjord could switch patrons, given either access to the Feywild or the Nine Hells.
Since Fjord is a Hexblade, the Shadowfell would be another possibility - though in this episode, there might be a dangle of a Celestial patron. It would be fascinating for Fjord to find a Patron like the Traveler, for example...though Melora would make another good choice, as she is goddess of the wilderness and the sea.
posted by nubs at 2:17 PM on June 6, 2019
I'm very intrigued as well, not least because one of the players in my home game is playing a Warlock and at some point he may get uncomfortable with what his Patron is after; seeing how a DM like Mercer is handling a Warlock at odds with his Patron and possibly switching is fascinating. I have no idea where this might go, this episode just made it feel clear to me that Matt is going to offer opportunities and see what Fjord/Travis do with them.
I assume Fjord could switch patrons, given either access to the Feywild or the Nine Hells.
Since Fjord is a Hexblade, the Shadowfell would be another possibility - though in this episode, there might be a dangle of a Celestial patron. It would be fascinating for Fjord to find a Patron like the Traveler, for example...though Melora would make another good choice, as she is goddess of the wilderness and the sea.
posted by nubs at 2:17 PM on June 6, 2019
So, as ya do, I rewatched Caduceus's Commune scene and his dream scene, and transcribed them. In the interests of preventing spoilers for those who started with Campaign 2, I won't go into detail about the tree, except to say that it's a throwback to campaign 1. If you watched Campaign 1, VM were given a task by a creepy AF non-villain in a strange place in barter for that person's assistance. Hopefully that will ring bells if you've seen it, and be vague enough if you haven't. Some of the comments by folks out of character were references to Campaign 1 stuff, and that's why it may not have made sense.
I feel like Cad's dream was, in some ways, Melora's response to Cad's frustration at being told "It's too big to fix. Your path is your own." in the Commune scene. It definitely felt like he was being given visions specific to his goals, which are still pretty much unknown to us. I rewatched the scene twice - once to transcribe, and once to watch Taliesin's reactions. "Snow and ice-capped mountains" got an Oh! of recognition from him. "Iron pool" made him look up in thought, to remember something maybe. "Grains of greenish glass like sand" got a nod - and rings a faint Whitestone/whitestone bell for me. When Matt started to describe the jungle, and essentially verbally "zoom in" on the temple, Taliesin seemed to be reacting to that whole scene with appreciation/familiarity/sensing where it was headed. In particular, he smiled and nodded at the reveal of the temple.
As an aside/theory, the purple crystals probably have something to do with arcane magic - there have certainly been past descriptions of magic that talked about a purple glow/aura. Since the purple crystals and greenish glass sand grains seem to be related, if the Whitestone connection is accurate, it would make sense for the purple crystals to be arcane.
Anyway, this is all to say that there were some small bitty hints, but there was also stuff that you would need to know Campaign 1 to react to, and mostly stuff that I think is *supposed* to still be confusing and unclear to us. Nubs, I don't think you missed anything. I think the dream made sense to Taliesin/Caduceus, it showed on his face, and it wasn't supposed to make sense to the rest of us.
I'll confess that Taliesin is probably also my favorite of the players, as hard as it is to pick, and I adore Percy, Cad, and the relationship between Tal and Matt.
posted by booksherpa at 4:47 PM on June 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
I feel like Cad's dream was, in some ways, Melora's response to Cad's frustration at being told "It's too big to fix. Your path is your own." in the Commune scene. It definitely felt like he was being given visions specific to his goals, which are still pretty much unknown to us. I rewatched the scene twice - once to transcribe, and once to watch Taliesin's reactions. "Snow and ice-capped mountains" got an Oh! of recognition from him. "Iron pool" made him look up in thought, to remember something maybe. "Grains of greenish glass like sand" got a nod - and rings a faint Whitestone/whitestone bell for me. When Matt started to describe the jungle, and essentially verbally "zoom in" on the temple, Taliesin seemed to be reacting to that whole scene with appreciation/familiarity/sensing where it was headed. In particular, he smiled and nodded at the reveal of the temple.
As an aside/theory, the purple crystals probably have something to do with arcane magic - there have certainly been past descriptions of magic that talked about a purple glow/aura. Since the purple crystals and greenish glass sand grains seem to be related, if the Whitestone connection is accurate, it would make sense for the purple crystals to be arcane.
Anyway, this is all to say that there were some small bitty hints, but there was also stuff that you would need to know Campaign 1 to react to, and mostly stuff that I think is *supposed* to still be confusing and unclear to us. Nubs, I don't think you missed anything. I think the dream made sense to Taliesin/Caduceus, it showed on his face, and it wasn't supposed to make sense to the rest of us.
I'll confess that Taliesin is probably also my favorite of the players, as hard as it is to pick, and I adore Percy, Cad, and the relationship between Tal and Matt.
posted by booksherpa at 4:47 PM on June 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
I met Taliesin back in 2002 at Burning Man (his roommates at the time gave my then-girlfriend and I a ride out to the playa) and at the time I didn’t realize that we were both roleplayers. They dropped a couple of Burning Man references into this episode (“playa mud” and the tortoise shell being an installation from a previous year).
posted by Parasite Unseen at 4:30 PM on June 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Parasite Unseen at 4:30 PM on June 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
That's awesome! I knew that Taliesin (and Matt and Marisha) go every year and have for a while, but I didn't know enough to spot the references. Also, I'm quite jealous that you've gotten to meet him. :)
posted by booksherpa at 5:15 PM on June 8, 2019
posted by booksherpa at 5:15 PM on June 8, 2019
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posted by nubs at 10:34 AM on June 4, 2019