Critical Role: Fair-weather Faith
February 1, 2021 12:25 PM - Season 2, Episode 123 - Subscribe
The Mighty Nein must contend with eye-opening revelations and ever-shifting power dynamics as they continue to forge towards Aeor...
Yeah, the battle in that session would have been a nightmare to DM - 5 NPCs to control, exhaustion on half the party (but only half), a lot of buffs/debuts, and then the second unplanned fight that could have easily spiraled into a TPK.
For as tense as the situation was, I don't feel half as worried about the party as I did at the end of the last session - the eyes don't let Lucien control them directly, they still have a threshold crest, nobody died, nobody even went unconsious, they got away with Lucien (even if he did brand Fjord, well, Cree could track them anyway), and are heading towards a confirmed ally.
And they got rid of Vess's body! Not on purpose, but if she's found dead in the ruins of Aeor, well.
Halfway through the tomb taker fight I joked to Mr. Dinty that Lucien was a beholder, but the more I think of it, the more it might be true. Or maybe a proto-beholder? How do beholders happen?
The one thing that I think would have been interesting is if they'd tried peeling off the other tomb takers a little more - again, a little hard to do with Lucien having direct control over them, but Veth succeeded in getting Otis to help her get Beau back - it wouldn't have taken much to point out that Lucien would probably also leave them to their deaths (as it seemed on the lava flow).
posted by dinty_moore at 3:53 PM on February 2, 2021
For as tense as the situation was, I don't feel half as worried about the party as I did at the end of the last session - the eyes don't let Lucien control them directly, they still have a threshold crest, nobody died, nobody even went unconsious, they got away with Lucien (even if he did brand Fjord, well, Cree could track them anyway), and are heading towards a confirmed ally.
And they got rid of Vess's body! Not on purpose, but if she's found dead in the ruins of Aeor, well.
Halfway through the tomb taker fight I joked to Mr. Dinty that Lucien was a beholder, but the more I think of it, the more it might be true. Or maybe a proto-beholder? How do beholders happen?
The one thing that I think would have been interesting is if they'd tried peeling off the other tomb takers a little more - again, a little hard to do with Lucien having direct control over them, but Veth succeeded in getting Otis to help her get Beau back - it wouldn't have taken much to point out that Lucien would probably also leave them to their deaths (as it seemed on the lava flow).
posted by dinty_moore at 3:53 PM on February 2, 2021
An exhausting episode with two major fights; I'm willing to forgive the mistakes. There was a big cognitive load on Matt for both encounters.
I was texting with a friend during the dragon fight, saying it could prove to beneficial as the M9 could get a read on the abilities of the Tomb Takers and get a big clue about maybe not fighting them....and then the 2nd half of the episode.
Halfway through the tomb taker fight I joked to Mr. Dinty that Lucien was a beholder, but the more I think of it, the more it might be true. Or maybe a proto-beholder? How do beholders happen?
I had guessed the anti-magic field effect, but the other abilities he has are different enough from a beholder to make me think that Matt has made Lucien something unique. Would love to know the direction of the campaign if Mollymauk had survived.
posted by nubs at 5:51 PM on February 2, 2021
I was texting with a friend during the dragon fight, saying it could prove to beneficial as the M9 could get a read on the abilities of the Tomb Takers and get a big clue about maybe not fighting them....and then the 2nd half of the episode.
Halfway through the tomb taker fight I joked to Mr. Dinty that Lucien was a beholder, but the more I think of it, the more it might be true. Or maybe a proto-beholder? How do beholders happen?
I had guessed the anti-magic field effect, but the other abilities he has are different enough from a beholder to make me think that Matt has made Lucien something unique. Would love to know the direction of the campaign if Mollymauk had survived.
posted by nubs at 5:51 PM on February 2, 2021
That was so stressful! Made worse by me losing a PC in one D&D campaign and narrowly avoiding a TPK in another within a week.
Can we just have a beach episode next, please?
posted by slimepuppy at 12:59 PM on February 3, 2021
Can we just have a beach episode next, please?
posted by slimepuppy at 12:59 PM on February 3, 2021
I was kind of hoping they would be able to Word of Recall out to a place to regroup, but that wasn't possible.
The thing is, I think a fully rested M9 likely could handle the Tomb Takers, but they seem so uncertain about themselves...and reluctant to go after Lucien for fear of somehow preventing Molly from ever returning.
posted by nubs at 5:41 PM on February 3, 2021
The thing is, I think a fully rested M9 likely could handle the Tomb Takers, but they seem so uncertain about themselves...and reluctant to go after Lucien for fear of somehow preventing Molly from ever returning.
posted by nubs at 5:41 PM on February 3, 2021
And they got rid of Vess's body! Not on purpose, but if she's found dead in the ruins of Aeor, well.
Weren't they keeping the Cloven Crystal in the bag too?
posted by nubs at 8:04 PM on February 3, 2021
Weren't they keeping the Cloven Crystal in the bag too?
posted by nubs at 8:04 PM on February 3, 2021
Yep! Which could be a Godzilla vs. Mothra fight, or just U'katoa getting unleashed (beach episodes may not be as restful as one might hope, alas)
Also, they specifically have a shit ton of fireworks in with the Vess's body and the threshold crest in the vault of amber. Not that that is going to cause anything quite as horrible as the cloven crystal, but Lucien is only going to have more questions.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:57 PM on February 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
Also, they specifically have a shit ton of fireworks in with the Vess's body and the threshold crest in the vault of amber. Not that that is going to cause anything quite as horrible as the cloven crystal, but Lucien is only going to have more questions.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:57 PM on February 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
That was a fun combat episode.
I really wanted to scream when Marisha had mammoth!Beau pick up Fjord and only go 40' instead of just zipping past him her full 80'. And Fjord should have just stayed on the mammoth. I don't remember if owl!Jester was wasting movement that way too, though I think she could have flown straight up. Of course they also could have spread out some, too.. Like I think it probably should not have come to the slow cast anyway. I could be wrong, idk I was feeling tired and panicked just watching them.
But still some real clutch decisions mixed in with the stress.
Caduceus running to Caleb also reminds me of Jester always trying to get in contact with Essek, like, there's no real plan or anything, just wanting proximity. TBH I thought Essek might show up this epsiode to save the party's bacon.
I have a suspicion when I'm done with this I might just watch S1 all the way through.
posted by fleacircus at 1:45 AM on September 12, 2021
I really wanted to scream when Marisha had mammoth!Beau pick up Fjord and only go 40' instead of just zipping past him her full 80'. And Fjord should have just stayed on the mammoth. I don't remember if owl!Jester was wasting movement that way too, though I think she could have flown straight up. Of course they also could have spread out some, too.. Like I think it probably should not have come to the slow cast anyway. I could be wrong, idk I was feeling tired and panicked just watching them.
But still some real clutch decisions mixed in with the stress.
Caduceus running to Caleb also reminds me of Jester always trying to get in contact with Essek, like, there's no real plan or anything, just wanting proximity. TBH I thought Essek might show up this epsiode to save the party's bacon.
I have a suspicion when I'm done with this I might just watch S1 all the way through.
posted by fleacircus at 1:45 AM on September 12, 2021
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Slightly deflated that the clutch moment (failed concentration check for slow) came from an incorrect ruling*, but figure it was probably 1am and everyone was exhausted.
* Concentration check: half damage OR DC10. Damage was 12 and they rolled an 11, so passed the DC10.
posted by coriolisdave at 1:58 PM on February 1, 2021 [1 favorite]