Wrap Up: Campaign 3 and the Era of Reclamation

Summary

Critical Role Podcast Summary Episode: Wrap Up: Campaign 3 and the Era of Reclamation Release Date: April 3, 2025

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1. Introduction and Anniversary Celebration (04:03 – 05:15)

The episode kicks off with the cast celebrating Critical Role's 10th anniversary, marking a decade of collaborative storytelling and tabletop roleplaying. Host Brennan Lee Mulligan opens the session by acknowledging the milestone and expressing gratitude to both the cast and the community. The atmosphere is filled with camaraderie as members exchange birthday wishes and reflect on their journey together.

Notable Quote:

Sam Riegel (04:31): "But this week we are actually celebrating our 10-year anniversary. In fact, yesterday was our 10-year anniversary."

2. Announcements and Upcoming Content (05:15 – 08:36)

The cast shares exciting news about upcoming projects and exclusive content for Beacon TV members. Highlights include:

• Re Slayer's Take Podcast: An audio adventure set in the wild continent of Issylra, featuring a group of misfit mercenaries battling supernatural threats.
• Fireside Chats and AMAs: Scheduled events with contributors like Nick Williams and George Primavera, as well as an AMA with creators of "Midst Third Person."
• New Shows: Introduction of new podcasts such as "Weird Kids," starring Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe, promising behind-the-scenes insights and exclusive content.
• Merchandise Launches: Announcement of new dice bags and Mighty Nein apparel, with special promotions like free shipping and weekend sales.

Notable Quote:

Laura Bailey (05:34): "We have a few Beacon exclusives coming up this week as well. On Monday at 7pm Pacific, Nick Williams and George Primavera from the Re Slayer's Take Club will be joining us for a fireside chat."

3. Campaign 3 Wrap-Up and Reflections (09:56 – 12:45)

With Campaign 3 nearing its conclusion, the cast delves into a detailed discussion about the Age of Reclamation. They reflect on the major story arcs, character developments, and pivotal moments that defined the campaign. Topics include:

• Character Arcs: Exploration of characters like Orym, Fearne, and the transformation of Ashton into a living beacon.
• Lore Insights: Discussions about the impact of divine beings, the dissolution of old power structures, and the emergence of new threats.
• Emotional Farewells: Shared sentiments about ending the campaign, emphasizing the deep connections formed over the years.

Notable Quote:

Erica Lindbeck (12:45): "It's been 10 years and all of you are the greatest people in it. And I'm just very grateful and I'm excited for all the great things to come. Still feels like it's... We're just getting started."

4. Audience Q&A and Lore Deep Dives (14:09 – 115:43)

The bulk of the episode is dedicated to an extensive Q&A session, where cast members answer questions from fans about Campaign 3 and the broader Exandria lore. Key discussions include:

• Deities and Power Dynamics: The fate of gods post-Campaign 3, their mortality, and the resulting power vacuum.
• Character Relationships: In-depth conversations about relationships between characters like Imogen and Liliana, Fearne and Tevin, and the dynamics within Bell's Hells.
• Campaign Decisions: Insights into narrative choices, such as the handling of Ludinus and the potential repercussions of key events.
• Future Storylines: Speculations on upcoming content, including possible one-shots, live shows, and expansions within the Exandria universe.

Notable Quotes:

Matt Mercer (10:17): "Critical Role fam, what you guys have done, what it is, the community you've built, is life-changing."

Brennan Lee Mulligan (115:37): "Calamity Divergence Campaigns one through three. That really cool extra totally canon Guest Battle Royale. We did that one time. It's all up for discussion."

5. Emotional Campaign Closure and Farewells (115:43 – 159:58)

As the campaign wraps up, the cast shares heartfelt reflections on their decade-long journey. They acknowledge the challenges, triumphs, and the unbreakable bonds formed through storytelling. Emotional moments include:

• Character Goodbyes: In-character farewells as characters like Orym and Fearne navigate their destinies.
• Personal Thanks: Cast members express gratitude towards each other and the community for their unwavering support.
• Looking Forward: Affirmations that the end of Campaign 3 is not the end of Critical Role, with hints at future adventures and live shows on the horizon.

Notable Quotes:

Ashley Johnson (114:16): "What was it like to play around in Matt's map-building room? What's it like in there?"

Laura Bailey (146:58): "Playing this game specifically with the people that I love and care about and have made my found family over the past 10 years. And I can't get enough of this game."

6. Closing Remarks and Community Acknowledgments (159:33 – End)

The episode concludes with final acknowledgments and promotions:

• Shoutouts to Guest Players: Recognition of guest players who contributed to Campaign 3.
• Upcoming Shows: Brief mentions of future shows and content expansions.
• Final Thanks: The cast reiterates their appreciation for the community and looks forward to continuing their storytelling adventures together.

Notable Quote:

Matt Mercer (154:43): "Trudy, I know I speak for many people, but the Critical Role team, what you guys have done, what it is, the community you've built, is life-changing."

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Quotes with Timestamps

1. Sam Riegel (04:31):

   "But this week we are actually celebrating our 10 year anniversary. In fact, yesterday was our 10 year anniversary."

2. Laura Bailey (05:34):

   "We have a few Beacon exclusives coming up this week as well. On Monday at 7pm Pacific, Nick Williams and George Primavera from the Re Slayer's Take Club will be joining us for a fireside chat."

3. Erica Lindbeck (12:45):

   "It's been 10 years and all of you are the greatest people in it. And I'm just very grateful and I'm excited for all the great things to come. Still feels like it's... We're just getting started."

4. Matt Mercer (10:17):

   "Critical Role fam, what you guys have done, what it is, the community you've built, is life-changing."

5. Ashley Johnson (114:16):

   "What was it like to play around in Matt's map-building room? What's it like in there?"

6. Laura Bailey (146:58):

   "Playing this game specifically with the people that I love and care about and have made my found family over the past 10 years. And I can't get enough of this game."

7. Matt Mercer (154:43):

   "Trudy, I know I speak for many people, but the Critical Role team, what you guys have done, what it is, the community you've built, is life-changing."

---

Conclusion

This episode serves as a poignant closure to Campaign 3, encapsulating ten years of storytelling excellence. Through deep conversations, emotional farewells, and exciting announcements, the cast honors the legacy of Critical Role while eagerly anticipating future adventures. Whether you're a long-time fan or new to the realm of Exandria, this wrap-up offers a comprehensive look into the heart and soul of Critical Role.

Transcript

[Matt Mercer]

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[Travis Willingham]

If you've been having your McDonald's sausage McMuffin with an iced coffee from somewhere else, now is a great time to reconsider.

[Laura Bailey]

In the Pacific Northwest, it's never too cold for an iced coffee in the morning. Grab yourself a medium caramel, French vanilla or classic iced coffee for just $2.29. Beverage may cause craving for McMuffin or hash browns. Prices and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal Thumbtack presents the ins.

[Sam Riegel]

And outs of caring for your home.

[Laura Bailey]

Out Uncertainty, self doubt, stressing about not knowing where to start in plans and.

[Sam Riegel]

Guides that make it easy to get.

[Laura Bailey]

Home projects done out Word art Sorry live laugh lovers in knowing what to.

[Sam Riegel]

Do, when to do it and who to hire.

[Laura Bailey]

Start caring for your home with confidence. Download Thumbtack today. Hey there Critter Podcast listeners. We have a special new membership service at Beacon TV where you get early access to all new podcast episodes including Critical Role. For the first time ever. Beacon members also get things like live event presales, merch discounts, access to a private community discord, and new exclusive exclusive series like Critical Role Cooldown. Think of it as our digital Critical Role land. Head on over to Beacon TV to check it out for yourself and start a seven day free trial. Thank you so much for your support for being a podcast listener and for being part of our community.

[Travis Willingham]

Hey there critters. We are so excited to share with you our brand new podcast from the world of Exandria, the Re Slayer's Take. In this audio adventure you'll be guided by guided through the wild continent of Issylra, 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 reslay these supernatural threats as the reslayers take. So come follow along these audio escapades as the second coolest monster hunters this side of Exandria 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.

[Matt Mercer]

Good day critters. Travis Willingham here and I am excited to welcome you to the podcast version of our Critical Role show. If you would like to watch the stream as it airs, you can tune in on Thursdays at 7pm Pacific at Twitch TV CriticalRole or at YouTube.com criticalrole. The video on demand versions are immediately available for our Twitch subscribers or on YouTube the following Mondays at 12:00pm Pacific podcast episodes right here on the Critical Role Podcast network on Thursdays, one week after the initial broadcast. Now that we've got all that covered, let's get this adventure going.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Hello everyone. Welcome to tonight's campaign wrap up.

[Travis Willingham]

Where.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

A bunch of nerdy ass voice actors sit down and talk about how they played Dungeons and Drag. Love you, Robbie. Oh, you can thank my mom.

[Travis Willingham]

Robbie, go.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Wait. Oh no, no, I don't want to. Marisha.

[Travis Willingham]

Okay.

[Sam Riegel]

I swear there's a wrap up happening in here. But this week we are actually celebrating our 10 year anniversary. In fact, yesterday was our 10 year anniversary.

[Laura Bailey]

It's cute. Happy birthday guys.

[Sam Riegel]

Happy birthday.

[Laura Bailey]

Birthday.

[Sam Riegel]

Happy.

[Laura Bailey]

I love you all. I love you all.

[Sam Riegel]

Wait, what is the ten year anniversary thing? Is it wood?

[Matt Mercer]

Paper?

[Sam Riegel]

Paper? No paper.

[Matt Mercer]

Aluminium.

[Ashley Johnson]

I think it's chum.

[Travis Willingham]

No, it's not radium.

[Sam Riegel]

Anyway, we're planning a big year with merch off the wall content and live shows that we can't wait for you all to see. So thank you so much for helping us keep this dream alive for 10.

[Laura Bailey]

10 years.

[Sam Riegel]

It's been 10 years.

[Travis Willingham]

We're only just getting started.

[Laura Bailey]

We're only just getting started.

[Sam Riegel]

We have a few Beacon exclusives coming up this week as well. On Monday at 7pm Pacific, Nick Williams and George Primavera from the Re Slayer's Take Club will be joining us for a fireside chat. They're super awesome. Sam can. Sam's got my back here. They're great.

[Liam O'Brien]

I can attest they are awesome.

[Sam Riegel]

They are awesome. On Tuesday at 1pm Pacific, we will host an AMA with the creators of midst third person aka Matt Rowan, Sarah Weil and Zinn through our Beacon discord. So once again get on that and for everyone who loves the midst cosmos. On Wednesday, you'll be able to enjoy the unend season one roundtable right on the heels of its finale. Available on all platforms. And then Ashley and Taliesin.

[Laura Bailey]

Woody. Oh, wait, hold on. Really quick. What? Okay. It's tin and aluminum.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh.

[Laura Bailey]

Representing durability and flexibility. Flexibility.

[Marisha Ray]

I am not flexible, but apparently durable.

[Laura Bailey]

Anyway. Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, well, honestly, fuck it.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. Should we roll for it?

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

Well, it's really no checking, but here we go.

[Laura Bailey]

So that means you have to do it.

[Travis Willingham]

I do it. We recently announced our new show.

[Marisha Ray]

We just announced our new podcast, Weird kids, starring Ashley and Tal.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Ashley and Taliesin.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's right.

[Marisha Ray]

Got that one.

[Travis Willingham]

Done.

[Marisha Ray]

Join us next Thursday at 7pm Pacific.

[Travis Willingham]

For a live live launch party. Oh, no. Yes. What have I done?

[Laura Bailey]

We're back again next week. Live.

[Sam Riegel]

It's in your calendar.

[Laura Bailey]

It's in the calendar. No, I know it's in calendar.

[Travis Willingham]

I can't read.

[Marisha Ray]

Everyone knows that. We'll share behind the scenes. I'm making this up. Not the teleprompter. We'll share behind the scenes details about the making of the show and take questions from you. And we'll give you all a first look at weird kids.

[Travis Willingham]

You do it.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

We want to celebrate this launch with everyone. So livestream will be available on Beacon, as well as critical roles, Twitch and YouTube. The full first episode will also be available to everyone on Tuesday, March 25, on all platforms. But afterward, two episodes will release every Tuesday exclusively on Beacon.

[Matt Mercer]

Nice.

[Sam Riegel]

Get in on Beacon.

[Laura Bailey]

So get in on it. We have a good time. Anyway, this year does look so pretty as. Thank you so much. The color is so pretty. No, I can't figure out what to do with the color now, you guys, the fern is done at the back, but it's so beautiful, I dyed it red for Fearne.

[Travis Willingham]

Well, fern's not done.

[Laura Bailey]

Hey, Laura. Guess what, guys?

[Ashley Johnson]

There we are.

[Laura Bailey]

Available now in all shops.

[Travis Willingham]

That was actually pretty smooth.

[Laura Bailey]

It's a brand new red me diced bag of hoarding.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, it's too big to cup.

[Matt Mercer]

Is it evil?

[Laura Bailey]

This is all of your evil dice. It's lined. It's pretty, y'all. It's pretty. Pattern art by Savannah Mayor, inspired by our very favorite critter, Christina Arendt. Thank you for designing those bags to begin with.

[Travis Willingham]

This is our favorite critter.

[Laura Bailey]

Well, she made a bag for me. Plus, guess what?

[Sam Riegel]

Big words.

[Laura Bailey]

That was a big word. In all of our shops, we have a free shipping promo going on right now.

[Matt Mercer]

That's Cool.

[Laura Bailey]

Get a deal. And a big sale just this weekend on dice and accessories to help you fill up this awesome dice bag. And for your closet. Oh, this is cool. Heroes and Villains. Nope, you scrolled too far. They made something. Heroes and Villains just released a new set of Mighty Neinite apparel with a grungy, grungy look. Fit for all our misfits. That's right. Oh, yeah. No, yeah, we did. Oh, shit. It's such a high chair. 90s are back.

[Matt Mercer]

Gray and black.

[Travis Willingham]

A lot of gray.

[Laura Bailey]

Black. Okay, look. We got some really cool T shirts. They do such good work.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, God, they're so pretty.

[Laura Bailey]

Badass T shirts. There's a really awesome cardigan. You've worn it. It's the Mighty Nein cardigan. It's so cool. And then there's one that's like a jacket with jester on the back. It's like super punk. It's super punk.

[Matt Mercer]

I like how they just drew ashes.

[Laura Bailey]

Anyway, check it out. Heroesvillains.com.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I don't know what they're talking about. Scrolling and teleprompters. I'm doing this all impromptu. And with that, let's dive into the night's wrap of Critical Role Campaign three.

[Matt Mercer]

Critical.

[Laura Bailey]

Critical Thursday. It's Thursday night One by one we climb until we reach the top Two by two we fall. Will we meet our end or meet our destiny? Hold your breath and roll.

[Travis Willingham]

How do you want to do this?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It's Thursday night. All ye Christma, come join us. It's time to continue our flight.

[Travis Willingham]

There is magic and mystery. Who knows what will happen?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

He might. But one thing's for sure, we never give up on the fight.

[Ashley Johnson]

From the healer to the renegade, we.

[Travis Willingham]

All share the same goal.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Adding more allies, taking more chances. Breath and roll.

[Laura Bailey]

You can certainly try.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It's Thursday night All ye critters, come join us. It's time to continue our blessing. There is magic and mystery.

[Travis Willingham]

From darkness our friendship will rise.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

But one thing's for sure, we never give up on the fight.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, get ready. It's.

[Ashley Johnson]

Heroforge is constantly expanding its catalog of customization options. And right now, heroforge's custom dice are currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter. The custom dice are 3D printed in color, can be added in the Hero Forge dice maker and come in the polyhedral dice shape of your choice. Visit Kickstarter.com projects Heroforge Custom Dice today to gear up for your next big tabletop adventure with our new custom dice. The Kickstarter ends April 4th.

[Matt Mercer]

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[Travis Willingham]

Having your McDonald's sausage McMuffin with an iced coffee from somewhere else, now is a great time to reconsider.

[Laura Bailey]

In the Pacific Northwest, it's never too cold for an iced coffee in the morning. Grab yourself a medium caramel, French vanilla or classic iced coffee for just 2.29 beverage may cause craving for McMuffin or hash browns. Prices and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Welcome back to the Wrap Up Cafe. I get it now. It's hard. It is tough. And the age of reclamation. We're gonna begin tonight at the end. We're gonna cover the most recent arc first and slowly work our way backwards through Campaign three. And here in this magical tome. It's a tablet. I have some questions for you all. Written by the amazing Dani Carr.

[Laura Bailey]

Yay. Happy anniversary. I'm sorry, Robbie.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Anniversary. No, no, please. And if you're in the Discord Chat right now, feel free to drop Q and we may be able to answer it on the air. Is that really possible? That is possible. So we can see technology. And so, let's begin. Welcome, everyone. We have a very first question. And it's not for all of you. It's for one specific person. My favorite of you. Just kidding. It's for sale.

[Laura Bailey]

Wow.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'm just kidding. That's how I'm really gonna win you guys over in this interview process. I got it. Our first question is, how would FCG have felt about the prospect of the gods taking on someone's name Is in the in the thing on top of the question. So I can't read it.

[Travis Willingham]

It's okay.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Technology. They're mortal forms and leaving exandria without divinity for a time.

[Travis Willingham]

Wow.

[Liam O'Brien]

Well, spoilers. FCG is dead. Yeah. So wouldn't feel anything. But hypothetically, I think FCG would. Ultimately, I feel like that's the best way to get out of the pickle that we were in. Which is sort of how I, Sam Riegel, also think about it. I liked seeing the gods up on their perch, and I'm going to miss them up there, but I also don't want to see them being chased around the galaxy. So. What? What you're just laughing at? It's just. Okay, let's get this out of the way.

[Laura Bailey]

Let's get this out of the way.

[Liam O'Brien]

Travis is cutting. Travis shaved his beard.

[Travis Willingham]

Guys.

[Sam Riegel]

We know.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We are aware.

[Laura Bailey]

Okay.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Hashtag.

[Marisha Ray]

We know.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I came into critical role.

[Matt Mercer]

This way.

[Laura Bailey]

I come out.

[Liam O'Brien]

It's also cause of mocap.

[Travis Willingham]

I hate it.

[Matt Mercer]

So does my son explain.

[Sam Riegel]

So I was gonna ask.

[Matt Mercer]

I shimmed it down to just a.

[Sam Riegel]

Must, which was really fun.

[Matt Mercer]

Which was fun. I was like a cop for a day. And then he was like, I hate it, Daddy. So I had to shame him from. Okay. Every time I come in, he goes.

[Sam Riegel]

Throw it back.

[Matt Mercer]

Cause it could take some bit.

[Sam Riegel]

Throw it back.

[Travis Willingham]

Nobody wants this.

[Matt Mercer]

Okay.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I think you look great. You look great.

[Liam O'Brien]

Thank you, Sam.

[Sam Riegel]

It's very circa 2014.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

That's what we're bringing it back around. Right?

[Liam O'Brien]

You look like you're.

[Matt Mercer]

Yes. Full circle.

[Laura Bailey]

It's a full circle situation, which is why it's happening again.

[Liam O'Brien]

That's right.

[Laura Bailey]

Thank you. I'm all for the mustache coming back. The mustache was great. I like the mustache. Yeah, it was really fun.

[Sam Riegel]

I liked it a lot.

[Laura Bailey]

Just the mustache. Just the mustache. I didn't.

[Travis Willingham]

I'm team Flavor Saver.

[Matt Mercer]

Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

It's a little reaction. Sugar Ray on this.

[Laura Bailey]

No.

[Matt Mercer]

Not everybody can be Robbie. Okay. Robbie looks like a cologne commercial. I know.

[Sam Riegel]

I don't think we finish a single question.

[Travis Willingham]

Answer the question.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

This thing is full of them.

[Liam O'Brien]

I'm super disappointed that FCG didn't get to ever really find out the deal with the gods and the Changebringer. And maybe this would be good news, because now FCG could find the Changebringer and have a lot of different questions answered. So ultimately, good news. And also good luck rushing Sigma Nu.

[Matt Mercer]

Sigma Chi. Thank you very much.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, my goodness.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

All right, our next question is for Matt. Everyone loves loot. Are there Any other relics of the red Solstice besides seedling? Does the Ring of Remembrance count?

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, yeah, the Ring of Remembrance. Well, the Ring of Remembrance. Yeah, yeah. Ring of remembrance was actually technically crafted during. No, no, no, no, no. That was some. Sorry, I'm trying to get.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You're checking through.

[Travis Willingham]

I'm ticking through my elements there. Yeah, I get it. No, that was crafted. That would be one of the solstice. Yeah. There are plenty of artifacts that were crafted in the area. Like I said, each era has its own artifacts that are distributed or crafted and then given that delineation for that time period, the vestiges were definitely the most prominent because they were required to be on a certain level of power. Both. Both from a divine scale and from competing arcana in the wake of the Age of Arcana. And so, yeah, there are others. And maybe we'll get to explore those down the road. Yes.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That was the most thorough and nerdy yes I've ever heard in my life.

[Liam O'Brien]

It was perfect.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, bro, the night's still young.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Next question is for Travis.

[Matt Mercer]

Said I look like a handsome Squidward.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

The fuck does that mean?

[Travis Willingham]

You don't know the meme.

[Matt Mercer]

I know it's a meme, guys.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You know Handsome Squidward.

[Matt Mercer]

I don't know Handsome Squidward.

[Ashley Johnson]

Weird images in the chat right now.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, you do?

[Laura Bailey]

Well, otherwise we're not going to be able to see any questions.

[Sam Riegel]

Otherwise it will just be Green Matt.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Jerking off the whole time, which is kind of like.

[Matt Mercer]

Sorry, Robbie.

[Travis Willingham]

I'm so sorry about whenever I'm not here. Thank you so much for joining us, everybody.

[Sam Riegel]

This is going great.

[Travis Willingham]

It's going great.

[Laura Bailey]

This is going great.

[Travis Willingham]

Like a busugarang.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

The next question is for Travis. There it is. Yes.

[Ashley Johnson]

It's perfect.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It is you. I love it. Travis, why did you decide to shave your beard? I'm just kidding. Did Chetney plan to deliver Ashton to the Bright Queen as she requested?

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah.

[Matt Mercer]

I think he definitely would have considered it only. Well, for two reasons. One, because it would have been entertaining as shit to watch.

[Travis Willingham]

Fair.

[Matt Mercer]

And because I think Ashton could handle themselves very, very well even in the clutches of the Kryn dynasty. And I just would want to have seen what would have happened.

[Marisha Ray]

Suck up, but I'll accept it.

[Matt Mercer]

No, no, it's true. If there was somebody that would. That I would have felt was less capable than. Maybe not, but poor them. If you get Ashton on your hands.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Matt. Matt.

[Travis Willingham]

Robbie.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Do you know where the gods are now? Like, do you. Do you know where they are? Do you know where in Your big old brain coordinates.

[Sam Riegel]

We need time.

[Liam O'Brien]

Are they all the same age? Do they all get instantly reborn as children, as babies, like at the same moment?

[Travis Willingham]

These are all great questions that maybe we'll get a chance to explore down the road. Now, I have some inclinations on a handful of them, but also, for the moment, I'm kind of leaving it a mystery until the opportunity arises to develop opportunities to explore that with exandrian content forever. Absolutely not. But no. Part of this, too, is an invitation for those who are playing Exandria and want to explore a campaign post. The solstice and the whole chaos of Predathos and the katathiosis of the pantheon to where now there can be storylines that we can explore and you can explore that involve this new epic and the hunt for where these gods might be coming to consciousness and awareness in the generation to come.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

So fun and teasery. I love it. Taliesin, Ashton seemed rather different after he came back to life after having become a living beacon. Are they different?

[Marisha Ray]

Yes, for a number of reasons. One, you can only have, I think, so many brain transplants before you start to question the nature of your sense of self. And they're on brain number three now. That's heady pun intended, that. And also they kind of fulfilled their greatest wish in life, which was to.

[Ashley Johnson]

Be.

[Marisha Ray]

Irritatingly heroic in a way that was just inconvenient and obnoxious. So there's kind of a lot of now what? And getting a sense of something that will actually bring some sense of pleasure. Yeah, it was really. I think I'm gonna go travel and find myself, so.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

They're very different for a number of reasons.

[Ashley Johnson]

I think that Ashton and Kingsley should spend some time together. Both characters have had their snow globes shaken real hard.

[Marisha Ray]

I don't know who would be a bad influence on who.

[Liam O'Brien]

Sure.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes.

[Marisha Ray]

Kingsley. That's fair. Very bad influence.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Ashley, what does Fearne think of Ira's warning that. That the Unseelie Court is searching because of Zathuda's death? Is she worried or unconcerned that they might be looking for her?

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, wait, why?

[Laura Bailey]

Why?

[Sam Riegel]

I didn't think about that.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. I don't worry.

[Matt Mercer]

Neither did you.

[Laura Bailey]

That's what I was gonna say. I was like, I feel like. I know that's always kind of been going on a little bit in the background, but I don't. I feel like she's not really that concerned about it. I really do. I feel sad. It just feels more firm to just. Just be like, well, we'll figure that out. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yeah, that's fine.

[Matt Mercer]

Ms. Galloway, you have a whole kingdom looking for you.

[Travis Willingham]

Cool.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, okay. Yeah. I think she's kind of unbothered by it. It's like that meme that. Unbothered, moisturized.

[Sam Riegel]

In your lane.

[Laura Bailey]

In your lane, you know, where it's just like the. The. It's like a capybara that's just like in water, hanging out. Let's see if I can find it.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

There are tens of millions of memes.

[Matt Mercer]

You're good.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. Then it would all make sense.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I don't know.

[Ashley Johnson]

To believe that Nana Mori is paying attention to that fore fern.

[Laura Bailey]

I do too. I do too. I feel like Nana Mori's got a bead on that.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Matt, what will happen to the Allmind's burn seed on Ruidus? You can tell us that.

[Laura Bailey]

Did you know that one?

[Liam O'Brien]

That's a thing that you can reveal.

[Travis Willingham]

I'll reveal elements. I will say with the destruction of the Weave mind and the slow reincorporation of Ruidian culture and kind of into exandria, that alleviates one massive, dangerous power structure on Ruidus. But one unknown entity, now forever changed from two coming together as one, now begins to weave its way further into the rock and stone of Ruidus. So the All Minds Burn and the mycete fungal network of Ruidus independently are no more. Something new has come to that union. And maybe we'll have an opportunity to explore that in the future. I thought it was going to be an answer to a lot of things here, but intentionally there are threads that weren't part of the final dovetail of the main campaign arc that were things maybe we get a chance to do down the road.

[Sam Riegel]

I have a question going off of that. Were we supposed to do that way sooner than when we did?

[Travis Willingham]

That was originally my assumption. And in doing so, it would have altered aspects of the final confrontation and the kind of the return to Ruidus.

[Laura Bailey]

It was always in our mind to do it, but every time I was gonna, something else happened and I was like, I'm not gonna stop the scene just so I can say I'm planting a seed. So you did it so much better.

[Marisha Ray]

I mean. Yeah, we both did.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. We were both like, now, now, now, now, now. Yeah. And then it just kept like. And then we were off of the moon and then we were back on the moon.

[Marisha Ray]

Life happened.

[Ashley Johnson]

Matt or Danny, remind me how many weeks this story was or months. It's not that much. Right.

[Sam Riegel]

Three and a half months.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

I don't even. I don't even know if we got to four. I have the timeline somewhere. I'm not gonna search for it. Right.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah, it's.

[Sam Riegel]

It's like four months maybe.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay, Sounds right.

[Travis Willingham]

D and D.

[Matt Mercer]

Adventurous lifestyle, so.

[Sam Riegel]

But it's gonna be a little sad. They feel like we. We rescued all these people from one hive mind to just, like, throw another one in there and be like, deal with that now.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah, yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

They've got experience, though, so, yeah, they should be fine.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Taliesin, Caduceus asked Bell's hells to be kind when they made their decision regarding Predathos. What does he think of the path they ultimately chose?

[Marisha Ray]

I think he's pleased. I think he's. I think it is. I won't speak for Percy, but at least I can speak for, like, Ashton and Caduceus of, like, they were both.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

Percy's answer is different, though. Ashton and Caduceus have the same feeling of, like, this is the perfect outcome because it's kind to everybody. It's kind to the. It's kind to the gods. It's kind to even, you know, the villainous gods and the character, and it's kind to everybody. People who wanted the gods, people who wanted the gods gone. Everyone gets a little bit of what they want and it's. There's nothing more. That's so rare in life that it feels like everyone got a gift. Yeah, that would be it. Everyone got a gift. There we are.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's a good answer. But finally, the kissy questions that I've been waiting for. This is for Marisha and Liam. Is it enough for Keyleth and Vax to meet up every once in a while, or does that just make them miss each other even more?

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, well, you know, separation makes the heart go fonder and all that. Over 30 years. Well, I imagine, though, you would have, like, an extended reprieve. Right?

[Ashley Johnson]

Well, I don't know what it is, and I don't feel the urge to rush to, like, stamp what it is yet. Like, one of the things I liked about the beautiful ending to Campaign one was it was a very poetic, soft, like, final note. And then it left it up to our imagination and our audience's imagination to wonder what that was like for Keyleth and moving forward from there. And similar to Matt, you saying, like, well, who knows what. Who knows what we'll explore in different ways in the future. I don't know what we're going to do for all of exandria or for these two. But, I mean, it's definitely an improvement than being dead. But I don't wanna. I would rather you guys and we, at least right now, leave that up to our imagination.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah, I think it definitely feels like a very adult relation. Like it's a working relationship. Like, I'm very busy with my career. You're very busy with your career.

[Liam O'Brien]

Dead stuff.

[Sam Riegel]

And we're gonna navigate that as we go.

[Ashley Johnson]

Dead stuff.

[Liam O'Brien]

What is your career now?

[Laura Bailey]

Taking care of your baby?

[Ashley Johnson]

Well, it's like finding the Dalai Lama every several decades, probably looking for the matron. And with Morrigan sort of upholding whatever the new version of her, the matron's flock is, and getting to know his nieces and nephews and eventually their kids. And I don't know, I don't want to try to predict or carve out what we might see in some form someday.

[Laura Bailey]

Wait, I forget. Do you have a long life like Keyleth?

[Ashley Johnson]

Now, that.

[Travis Willingham]

That was part of the hope and intent for this was he continues to be the champion, much like how Pravan lived an extended life as part of that station until eventually he was slain in the calamity. But, yeah, in an odd way, this allows them to enjoy more time together in the theory than they would have otherwise.

[Ashley Johnson]

I also like the idea that, you know, in the past, people said, well, Vax will show up and shuffle everyone off to the afterlife. I think that's still true, but he'll just be at the bedside beforehand. And then off they go at the bedside.

[Matt Mercer]

Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

He becomes art again. Full circle.

[Marisha Ray]

You're going to show up, like, randomly at our beds at like 3:00am going, it's time.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, God.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Now.

[Matt Mercer]

How many times has Vax appeared to Chetney?

[Travis Willingham]

Not yet, you bird.

[Ashley Johnson]

I'm going to explode up out of your hot tub at just the right moment.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's how I'd want to go. Marisha and Matt, is. Was Laudna truly free of Delilah now that she's trapped in her chest? And was it ever possible for the two of them to be completely separate?

[Travis Willingham]

I never want to tell a player no if ingenuity allows them to outthink the logic. In my mind, the magic that keeps Laudna alive like present is tethered to Delilah's presence. So they were more or less. One couldn't continue to exist in Exandria without the other. At this point, however, it's an interesting question in the wake of your decision at the end of Campaign 3 to shuffle off the undead curse. If you will to join Imogen in her natural life. So, I mean, I'd say before that it would be very, very challenging to do so since they were so irrevocably tethered. Now you're alive with a crystal, with a necromancer still in your torso.

[Sam Riegel]

Inside my body. Yeah. She's definitely still there. She's very contained. She's my own little arc reactor.

[Travis Willingham]

As your hands were like, touching each other and you. You got the color back in your skin. Heartburn.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Laura, I have a question.

[Ashley Johnson]

Let me toss something in real quick.

[Travis Willingham]

Toss.

[Ashley Johnson]

And just say that one of my favorite moments of the final game was you guys deciding to go find Leah Abtel. That was nothing. I planned. I didn't even think of that ever. And you just. And I broke into a panic too. And I was like, whoa, Matt's gonna take it now, right? No. Okay.

[Laura Bailey]

Okay.

[Ashley Johnson]

I'm the elf lady again. And. And just seeing the two of you so heartbroken and longing for something, my brain just started going through all the math of my character sheet. I'm like, I'm on a level 20 character. Can I do anything? And it was just one of those accidental magic things. I'm really fond of that moment.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

That was great. That was great.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Laura, I want to hear from you. So you got a multi parter question. Oh, yeah. This one goes deep. You once said, I'm sure you remember, on four sided dive, that Imogen saw Liliana as her savior growing up, keeping her safe in her dreams. How does Imogen feel now that the roles are.

[Sam Riegel]

We blacked that out too early.

[Laura Bailey]

Hang on.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, there we go. Now that the roles are reversed and she's quite literally her mother's savior, how is their relationship now?

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, wow.

[Laura Bailey]

I think their relationship now is kind of starting from scratch. She had an ideal, an idea of what her mother was when she was growing up. Like she was her savior. She's the thing that's, you know, and it's like anybody meeting their heroes, you know, and like seeing, oh, you're human.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah. Wait, didn't we. We had this conversation once. It was. There's a moment every child realizes that their parents are just people.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Do you feel like that occurred through the course of this?

[Laura Bailey]

Yes. Yes, 100%. Yeah. And I think she has to. She has to get to know Liliana now for who she actually is and not a concept in her mind.

[Travis Willingham]

From my mind, Lyanna Post. This main narrative really is. I see her akin to a person coming out of a cult. You Know, a person who is kind of brainwashed by perspective and so deeply close to a particular worldview that they are kind of learning how to be themselves divorced from that being put upon them and kind of probably a lot of guilt about time that she lost in doing what she thought was right. And to your point, like, trying to reforge that relationship.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. And probably find out who she is.

[Travis Willingham]

Too, a little bit.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. Yeah. It's funny because, like, with Jester, it was like, I will definitely get them back together. They're going to have the most fabulous, you know, fairy tale life. These. My parents and Imogen does not feel that way. It's kind of like, you know, I would be shocked if. If they find each other again.

[Liam O'Brien]

Does your mom still. Can she call you in your dreams?

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah, we can still. I can still dream. Talk to people. So.

[Liam O'Brien]

But is it like when your mom calls and you're like, oh, hi.

[Ashley Johnson]

Hi.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yeah, no, I'm fine.

[Laura Bailey]

Fine.

[Liam O'Brien]

I really. I gotta go.

[Laura Bailey]

Is that how you like when your mom calls?

[Liam O'Brien]

No, I love my mom.

[Laura Bailey]

You have problem watching.

[Liam O'Brien]

I know.

[Travis Willingham]

I love her.

[Ashley Johnson]

That's a real problem, though, because in our world, you have to pick up the phone to answer mom. Who knows what you're doing with Laudna when that call comes in.

[Laura Bailey]

Well, luckily. Well, I'll be dreaming. She can't just like. Well, I guess she could pop in. Just like Jester could pop in. Who knows?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Chat. You have Travis convinced he is handsome. Squidward now, please. Oh, my God, Travis, you haven't had enough questions? Did popcon happen? And if so, did Chetney go to it as special guest and headline keynote speaker?

[Sam Riegel]

Yes, of course he did.

[Matt Mercer]

100% yes. If he survived long enough. He absolutely did. It definitely happened. And people flocked from near and far. The. The. The weave stitcher. Weave stitcher. Fate stitcher. That is very powerful. And so popcon sold out of its VIP badges on its first day. Where was the overflow?

[Ashley Johnson]

Where was the venue?

[Matt Mercer]

Oh, shit.

[Sam Riegel]

I mean, it's gotta be on Rumble.

[Travis Willingham]

Cusp has become the new convention spot now.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Absolutely.

[Travis Willingham]

Since TravelerCon was such a success.

[Sam Riegel]

It's like the Joco Cruise.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It's like the. I've heard it's gotten a little too corporate lately.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah, yeah, it's gotten too big.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We are no stranger to watching Matthew Mercer do one man shows as multiple NPCs. But with campaign three being critical role's first major crossover event, the cast also got a taste of what it's like to RP opposite yourself. My friends. Take a Look.

[Ashley Johnson]

Ooh, a package.

[Travis Willingham]

Following the brisk jog of Pike Trickfoot.

[Laura Bailey]

I noticed that Ashton, that's not with us. I'm gonna turn around. And I totally got confused. I saw pike turn around and wave at him and wait for him. Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

Instead of turn.

[Travis Willingham]

Likes my mouth. Cleveland has a strange habit of talking to this tree. He talks? Well, she talks to it.

[Laura Bailey]

What does she say?

[Travis Willingham]

She says it's nice.

[Marisha Ray]

Oh, I was thinking. I mean, the immediate notion would be reverse alphabetical order.

[Travis Willingham]

The first notion would be.

[Marisha Ray]

Actually, it was difficult because it was Ashton's idea.

[Travis Willingham]

So hold on.

[Laura Bailey]

Ashton, you got.

[Marisha Ray]

Yeah, actually, no, it's no problem. It's really nice not to be like the most fucked up in the group for a month.

[Matt Mercer]

Alec is there.

[Travis Willingham]

Lady Keyleth, Lady Lauren, personal.

[Marisha Ray]

Waiting for hands in the beards to come up.

[Travis Willingham]

Professor.

[Laura Bailey]

Lady. Allora.

[Ashley Johnson]

The rest of the game.

[Laura Bailey]

Like, all the buildings look like bodies and body parts.

[Ashley Johnson]

What city was this?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That sounds awesome.

[Ashley Johnson]

Just do remember I got confused again.

[Laura Bailey]

We do have parts of our friend that we keep just. You carry parts of his body? Well, his face. Oh, wait, no, you did that. You know what's interesting about her bow is she can do a message and it's very precise.

[Travis Willingham]

It wasn't posing the same.

[Laura Bailey]

It's a little this, like right to the point. Great. A little less. What? Like, that's hard or something. I could do that too if I really wanted to. I know.

[Sam Riegel]

I like the way you do it.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Thank you.

[Laura Bailey]

It's a total waste if you don't use all your words. I mean, what's the fucking point?

[Matt Mercer]

400 years and counting. I've seen many things, but none of.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Them as pretty as you.

[Liam O'Brien]

Well, Irene, so many suitors today.

[Travis Willingham]

Right?

[Matt Mercer]

Yes.

[Liam O'Brien]

Are you single?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

No.

[Liam O'Brien]

Well, then no.

[Laura Bailey]

It was so good seeing you guys. I'm so glad we got to meet you before we all perish. And a great red doom jester. That is.

[Matt Mercer]

That is not what's gonna happen. Nope, that's not what's going to happen.

[Ashley Johnson]

Is there any kind of time differential between in here and out there? Like, are we gonna come out a couple days later or anything?

[Laura Bailey]

Or. What do you mean?

[Ashley Johnson]

No, we are just one. We are just.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We're still in enemy territory.

[Ashley Johnson]

Away from me.

[Travis Willingham]

Sat. If you've been having your McDonald's sausage McMuffin with an iced coffee from somewhere.

[Laura Bailey]

Else, now is a great time to reconsider in the Pacific Northwest. It's never too cold for an iced coffee in the morning. Grab yourself a medium caramel French Vanilla or classic iced coffee for just $2.29. Warning, beverage may cause craving for McMuffin or hash browns. Prices and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Everything's going perfectly. Welcome to the next section. It is Downfall question. Did you know Downfall? The first one is for Matt. Okay. If Ludinus had been successful in releasing the event of Downfall to Exandrius, how would that have been? How would that have affected things? Thank you.

[Travis Willingham]

It's interesting because, like, from the perspective of the Ruby vanguard, specifically Ludinus, Ludinus loathing for the gods and the history that they in his mind have wrought destruction upon. He's in that mindset of, if other people could see this, they'll see my perspective. Many would have, to a certain degree. Many folks just would have been left kind of questioning. Some folks probably wouldn't have believed it. It would have led to a lot of chaos throughout the world. But I don't think it would have been a total flip of culture in the way that he had wanted. You know, Ludinus is very caught up in his mind. He's hyper intelligent in a lot of technical ways, but his emotionally driven hatred is one of the few blinding things about him, as well as his sense of ego, which you guys were very good about knocking out from under him and pissing him off. It was great. So, yeah, I think it definitely would have caused a lot of social rows and probably a lot of it would have shaken up a lot of the discussion about the history of that era, of the place of the gods in the world, and it would have caused a lasting rippling effect through a lot of Exandrian culture for a long time surrounding faith and mythology. But I don't think it would have had the profound impact he would have hoped for. That's kind of him being blind from his perspective a little bit.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

How much time would you say after a decision like that is made by a player? And this is just me making up a question. I have to know because it's what we're talking about, in essence, a hypothetical. How much time do you spend thinking about the way that player choices could affect this world that you and your cast have created?

[Travis Willingham]

Whenever I'm driving.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Whenever you're in the middle of an existential crisis.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah, all the time. Yeah. And whenever I have a quiet moment, like driving on the road is usually when I'm doing campaign thought process and trying to ponder on what player choices might happen and how it might infect the world. So I can have Some kind of rough background noise that I can pull from. And then often it's nowhere near enough. And then you guys do crazy shit and I have to make it up on the spot and follow the logic. So. Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's awesome. Laura, having played the Matron in Downfall, how do you think she feels about Vex outrunning death so much? And Matt, do you think Vex was also high on the list to be the Raven Queen's champion?

[Laura Bailey]

No, I want to know that one.

[Travis Willingham]

You first.

[Laura Bailey]

That's hard because I. I feel like. I feel like she doesn't really have a problem with it. Cause you know, like the twin is like hers, so it's kind of like payment.

[Sam Riegel]

The noises you are making.

[Travis Willingham]

I know.

[Matt Mercer]

Fully committed to this bitch.

[Laura Bailey]

I just think she never like turned undead or anything. It was all like fair play, you know.

[Ashley Johnson]

That's how I look at it. That the Matron was just doing Vax a solid or steering things through it.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

Honestly, in Campaign one, when you first arrived at the Sunken Temple with the intent of retrieving the deathwalker's ward, I didn't have in mind who that would go to necessarily. There were members of the party it was probably likely going to based on just skillset and abilities, but I had considered it. It could have gone to Percy, it could have gone to you. No one had really built up a rapport with any of the divine forces in the world, aside from Pike. And pike was very kind of. Maybe, I wouldn't say antithetical, but wasn't. Well, partially wasn't even there for half the campaign because you're in New York, but when you were there, the Everlight and the Matron kind of fill very different roles. So I didn't expect that to be there. So yeah, I think Vex could very well have been an interesting opportunity for that, but also a champion in a different sense. Because at that point in time there wasn't. You know, if you had taken the armor upon yourself, it would have been like a chosen more than a champion. You know, much like everyone else kind of became champions as the campaign went on. But it was more like you were given a boon and you represented some of their will and force in Exandria. In this chaos with Vecna, it was truly the fall of Vex and the deal that Vax made that sealed him as a true champion and a. You are now tied to the fate of the Matron and based on how it continued to go in the campaign, further and entirely bound your entire future fate to her.

[Ashley Johnson]

Side note, you can binge all the seasons of Blind Spot right now.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

Love you.

[Laura Bailey]

I love you.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Let's keep the spotlight right on you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you think happened to Trist's children?

[Laura Bailey]

Who do you.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Who do you hope they became?

[Laura Bailey]

I just. I hope they became good people. I mean, I wasn't hoping that they would, you know, become. I mean, obviously they would, but at the time, I wasn't thinking that they would be demigods, but I hope they. I hope they do good in the world. I think when we played it through and then we sort of got to the end and, you know, Triss deciding that she does have to go back with her original family and go with the gods, and I was like, why did I. Why did I choose this as my backstory? Because this is an awful choice that we have to make in this moment. But, yeah, I hope they do good. I hope they're doing good in the world. I think they are also a really.

[Travis Willingham]

Strong example of one of the many ways that a celestial bloodline can be forged that can lead to, like, Aasimar, you know, celestial ancestry variations, as well as just individuals with touches of celestial blood, like Pykaz and Legend of Vox Machina. So fun bits.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Taliesin, did you enjoy seeing Asha's wildmother still have influence in divergence? Was your take on her still Caduceus's wild mother?

[Marisha Ray]

I. Yeah, I mean, I will say that tends to be a bit broad because there is. It's very. It's very bounty. Wildmother versus famine. Wildmother. Nature's got modes. And it was really nice to see that the cruel, the nature desperately trying to, like, crack its way out of. Out of such a terrible environment. It was like, oh, there's my little mice just rooting their way in. Just getting a little seed in that crack and shattering that mountain. Oh, here we go. Yeah, it felt really good.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah, that was a nice touch.

[Marisha Ray]

Yeah, that felt fun.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Hey, Matt, I got a question for you.

[Travis Willingham]

Okay, what's your question?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Did you and Brennan work together on the original names of the gods and more and the other name of the original God of death?

[Travis Willingham]

Okay, it's interesting. The original discussion for Tengar was to have the gods names not be legible or recognizable by the audience. It was meant to be like their titles and names were intentionally beyond the concept of a mortal mind to understand. And so as part of that ethereal space of Tengar, the names were more or less like whatever Brennan wanted to create, because they were going to not matter in the final series. Unfortunately. I think the subtitles kind of undercut that when the episode went up. So in my head canon. Those are the best approximations that a mortal mind can make. But their actual true names of that era themselves are beyond language and really concept. Much like how the matron's true human name has been cast from memory and understanding. So that's. That's how I consider.

[Sam Riegel]

But that was a moment. Remember when the entire audience thought that that first like 10 minutes was gonna be the entire run?

[Travis Willingham]

Yep.

[Laura Bailey]

Like I can't do it.

[Sam Riegel]

And I was like, I swear. Just give it a second.

[Travis Willingham]

It was just wait. It was an artistic choice on our standpoint that I still stand by. Yeah, I think it was really. But. But it was. But I could see where it'd be hard if that was your assumption. Was. That was the entire.

[Laura Bailey]

This is it.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We're.

[Sam Riegel]

Now this is just going to be weird. Orbs over people's mouths.

[Laura Bailey]

I'm a talking ball of light.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

My apologies.

[Travis Willingham]

Look how it's a rabbits.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What happened to Halas that. The. The sick little boy that Amir saved?

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, yeah. Halas. Not Halas.

[Travis Willingham]

No. Halas was of another floating city. It's weird over history people gonna have similar names. No, I envision that child. Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

It's weird.

[Liam O'Brien]

My next character is gonna be named Jameson. Please.

[Travis Willingham]

They are legion. They get together every year. They have like a big reunion. No. I think Hollis is likely likely became a figure recovering and helping be a caretaker and protector of survivors through the calamity. Probably being more focused on the communities on the ground. Especially going through that experience. And the terrifying cusp of Aeor in those moments. Likely focused on trying to protect the common folk that were more or less the biggest casualties to the middle of that chaos. So that was my. That'd be my interpretation.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Okay.

[Laura Bailey]

Nice bullshit. He's a loss.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

The teleprompter's telling me to move on. I'm gonna ignore it.

[Sam Riegel]

Wait, I'm gonna jump in.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

I'm gonna take a question from Beacon.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Whoa, dude.

[Travis Willingham]

That's what it's for.

[Sam Riegel]

I know. It's crazy.

[Liam O'Brien]

How can someone purchase. Participate in that sort of discord?

[Sam Riegel]

Well, it's really great.

[Travis Willingham]

You can actually.

[Sam Riegel]

You can subscribe to Beacon TV right now if you want to participate in the live discord chat that's happening.

[Liam O'Brien]

It's my only job right now.

[Sam Riegel]

They're either all.

[Laura Bailey]

I've got one job.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

You're missing out on memes about Travis or people pumping us up. Okay, this one I've seen kind of a version of this a few times, but this is from that guy. Dylan. It's for you, Sam.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay.

[Sam Riegel]

Brayus was brought into the campaign obviously very late. Would you have want to made his character this campaign or another campaign? Because you didn't have a chance to expand on him as much as you would have like in another campaign.

[Laura Bailey]

Sorry.

[Liam O'Brien]

Get it together, dude.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It's not so easy, is it?

[Travis Willingham]

Would you have preferred to make the Nissan neat for this campaign?

[Laura Bailey]

Would you explain it?

[Sam Riegel]

I'm sorry.

[Matt Mercer]

Explain it.

[Sam Riegel]

They did write the look. I'm trying to get through it.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Thank you, Dylan, for that cohesive question.

[Liam O'Brien]

No, I think I certainly would have loved to do more Brais. I really like Brayus as a character, but I don't feel like I missed out. He got a nice little arc, which is all you can really hope for with the character. And he got a big choice at the end, which is all you can really hope for for a character. And he got to woo some people and do some evil and paint some paintings and yeah, I would love to see more of him in the future, but I don't regret not having him around for more.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah, I guess. To the. To the very wordy question that I was trying to get through, I will say this. You made him as a response for this campaign.

[Liam O'Brien]

I did, yes. Yes. We needed some God stuff. We needed some healing. We needed some evil. I will say this though, and this is no sexy. This is no slight against Matt. I feel like Brayus had more questions answered than FCG did.

[Travis Willingham]

FCG was supposed to be a longer journey that got cut short.

[Liam O'Brien]

I have so many questions about.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah, and you would have had them answered in AEOR if you would have fucking made it.

[Travis Willingham]

The whole point was to get him to aor. There were so many answers for FCC into aor.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You should be apologizing to her.

[Travis Willingham]

Storyline, death.

[Matt Mercer]

We'll take a hand and get it there.

[Travis Willingham]

Charm.

[Laura Bailey]

Well, yeah, we'll get it there at some point.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Well, between Downfall and the origins of Ruidus and Chetney totally being Orym's biological father, Campaign 3 was full of exandria shaking revelations. Let's take a look at some of the most memorable.

[Matt Mercer]

And as I walk, I look up.

[Liam O'Brien]

At him and I say, boy, I.

[Matt Mercer]

Bet you think you're real scary. You think? Goods as a gift.

[Laura Bailey]

Get a load of meat.

[Matt Mercer]

My shoulder pops out my back crack.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, yes.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

He's a tiny werewolf.

[Travis Willingham]

He's a terrier.

[Sam Riegel]

Do it.

[Erica Lindbeck]

You're trying to atone me and I.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Didn'T do anything wrong.

[Travis Willingham]

Yes.

[Erica Lindbeck]

And he stabs you through the heart.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

No. Oh, my God.

[Laura Bailey]

As I live and breathe. Wait.

[Liam O'Brien]

You know. No. You know each other?

[Travis Willingham]

No.

[Matt Mercer]

Couldn't be.

[Laura Bailey]

Wait, wait.

[Liam O'Brien]

Are you a gnome?

[Laura Bailey]

Yes.

[Liam O'Brien]

Deanna, turn around.

[Sam Riegel]

Wait.

[Laura Bailey]

What does it say?

[Liam O'Brien]

I wrote a heart. And it says.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Former lover.

[Laura Bailey]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Where there once was a golden, impish, sweet little boy. I'm gonna drop that shit.

[Sam Riegel]

What the.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, my God.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yo, I saw you.

[Erica Lindbeck]

You killed my friends at Marquette.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You were there.

[Marisha Ray]

I'm jumping full speed.

[Travis Willingham]

I need everyone to roll Initiative now.

[Sam Riegel]

What are you.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, my God.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I didn't want this to happen.

[Liam O'Brien]

I guess I'll just buzz.

[Laura Bailey]

We're Bell's hells, and don't you forget it. And I'm gonna keep walking out.

[Ashley Johnson]

Are we? And I run after her. This might be too forward, but do you remember much about the end?

[Sam Riegel]

My parents thought that getting an invitation.

[Laura Bailey]

To the palace, to the castle, to meet the Lord and Lady Briarwood.

[Travis Willingham]

It was a great boon.

[Sam Riegel]

We were promised a wonderful feast and an amazing party. And we were told we were going to be serving a greater purpose for Whitestone.

[Laura Bailey]

That was it.

[Sam Riegel]

They dragged me away, separated me from.

[Laura Bailey]

My parents, was brutally beaten. And then.

[Sam Riegel]

Gets a little fuzzy after that. But next thing I remember was waking up being hung from a tree. It was the Sun Tree, actually. It was quite a spectacle.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah, I gathered.

[Travis Willingham]

Let's cut with lights. Kind of frozen. Eyes wide. Otohan goes for a heart strike. And there is a dark flash in the air. You see where Otohan's blade was. Instead you see a cloak of feathers.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What? What the hell?

[Travis Willingham]

Black raven feathers. Wait. Put it on the bingo.

[Laura Bailey]

Put it on the bingo. His bags over there.

[Travis Willingham]

You see a masked figure with rounds.

[Laura Bailey]

Shut the fuck up, man.

[Travis Willingham]

Shut up.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

No fucking way.

[Travis Willingham]

You cannot be serious. She is now standing over and protecting her body, daggers in each hand. Don't you even dare. The door opens inside a darkness what looks like a closet. And a figure huddled defensively against the back wall. If we could have. If we could please have Sam Regal come to the. And its head shakes and looks down at the rest of you.

[Liam O'Brien]

What's happening right now?

[Laura Bailey]

No.

[Travis Willingham]

No.

[Marisha Ray]

No way.

[Travis Willingham]

No fucking way.

[Liam O'Brien]

I think I know what's happening.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

No.

[Laura Bailey]

Fucking.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Awesome. You look so awesome.

[Sam Riegel]

You look so good.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You sneaky.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, my God.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We're back with the seven founders of Critical Role and Handsome Squidward.

[Sam Riegel]

Andy.

[Travis Willingham]

Robbie Davis.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, yeah, whatever.

[Laura Bailey]

No, I have a question.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I have an answer.

[Laura Bailey]

Are you gonna get any questions?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I've been skipping them all.

[Travis Willingham]

Robbie, you have one.

[Laura Bailey]

Wait, wait.

[Sam Riegel]

I've seen a bunch in. Once again, in our discord about when you realized you had feelings for Orym. That's been spammed a few times.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Who's running this show?

[Sam Riegel]

Well, game recognizes game, motherfucker.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

All right, we'll ask the deep lore after that when it's Liam O'Brien across the table from you. Minute one. That's true. But to be fair, I was eyeing you all. There's actually one story.

[Laura Bailey]

We got a lot.

[Sam Riegel]

Was there anyone else that Dorian had eyes for? Because you hinted about it.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Did Branis have a shot in the first.

[Sam Riegel]

In the first forest?

[Laura Bailey]

Quickly. Who was it?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Who was everybody? I know that's a. I know that's a cop out answer, but I was like, absolutely not. I'm gonna get one of you.

[Erica Lindbeck]

But.

[Laura Bailey]

But you can't.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You can't run from your true love.

[Ashley Johnson]

I wonder. I wonder if Dorian saw the porn they shot.

[Laura Bailey]

DVDs. One star.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Okay, I'll give you a real answer because I've ducked it for however many years there was, and I really did eye you all because you're all except me. Whatever. Well, actually, number one, there was a moment early in the season when I was princess carrying Laudna up to, like, look at the top of a roof, and I had this thought. I was like, is this the moment? Yeah, I thought about it for a second, and then I abandoned it from my sweet.

[Laura Bailey]

From my sweet little boyfriend.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I thought about it.

[Laura Bailey]

Complicated.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'm not gonna blush.

[Laura Bailey]

Sorry.

[Sam Riegel]

You thought your dead girl was gonna be unromancable? You.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I think you got the better end of that deal.

[Marisha Ray]

Robbie has taught us anything you can.

[Travis Willingham]

You can date anything.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You can't t us, anything.

[Laura Bailey]

It is true.

[Travis Willingham]

Coming up in June.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Back to the real. Back to the real question.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, no. I'm going to Fireman Cave.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, baby.

[Laura Bailey]

Him a big loaf.

[Ashley Johnson]

What a baby.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah, him a big loaf.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Matt.

[Laura Bailey]

Yes.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What would have happened if Imogen had given in to Predathos earlier on or on Ruidus?

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, yeah. If you had given in, it would have led to direct Predathos communion. There would have been visions of Predathos past visions of other entities the two original gods devoured. And it would have unlocked additional powers for any future combat that you wanted to do. But Imogen, each use would have brought you closer to more or less leaving with your mother. So it would have been an opportunity for Imogen to eventually get to a point where she leaves the Group and you would have had to make a new character.

[Ashley Johnson]

You're saying that would have transformed her into an NPC technically?

[Laura Bailey]

I assume that every time, if I'd have failed one of the wisdom checks and delved into Predathos, then each time that I tried to block it again, it would have been harder and harder.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh yeah. The DC would have gotten higher and higher each time.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

The idea being that it would have been like an immediate thing. It would have been like. The first time would have been a really intense communion. And that draw would have been there.

[Laura Bailey]

Really intense communion, you guys.

[Travis Willingham]

But it would have been with each one, the draw would have been stronger, the promise of power would have been larger. And each use of the power and each opportunity for you to reconnect would have been a much more intense thing.

[Laura Bailey]

I could have nine eyes this.

[Travis Willingham]

I told you.

[Sam Riegel]

Wait, really?

[Matt Mercer]

Oh, yeah. I wanted her to give chat wants.

[Travis Willingham]

Someone in the chat just said, is it just me or does Matt look more tired than normal?

[Marisha Ray]

They're off taking.

[Matt Mercer]

We played for 10 years and all.

[Laura Bailey]

Of a sudden break.

[Travis Willingham]

And to answer your question, absolutely yes. You thought ending campaign three slowed my life down? Absolutely.

[Sam Riegel]

I was being very sarcastic when I said the chat is pumping us up earlier. That is not what they were doing.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Keeping us humble.

[Sam Riegel]

Keeping us humble.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Speaking of slowly dying on camera. Sam. Hey, how do you feel about FCG's end? Not the way oh I want it.

[Liam O'Brien]

To be the way you didn't mean.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Robbie, you can't breathe.

[Ashley Johnson]

Robbie, that was really insensitive.

[Travis Willingham]

You're gonna be fired. It really is a gift.

[Laura Bailey]

Only an asshole.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Stay 15ft back.

[Liam O'Brien]

So you mean. You mean when I was undergoing radiation?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes.

[Liam O'Brien]

I love it.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Liam O'Brien]

Don't worry, we'll edit this out.

[Travis Willingham]

Out.

[Matt Mercer]

No one will see this.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Listen, the truth is, we're all slowly dying. No one makes it out alive.

[Travis Willingham]

It's truth. It's truth.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

How do you look at me?

[Liam O'Brien]

How do I feel about FCG's end?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I got a full on question.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

How do you feel about FCG's end?

[Liam O'Brien]

Yes.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Were you hoping for a way to save them or are you happy and wanting them to sacrifice themselves? And would FCG even want to be revived?

[Liam O'Brien]

So many questions.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Liam O'Brien]

First of all, very pleased with my. With my end. It meant something. It made a difference. It was, I thought, a pretty nice moment. I am pissed as a character that I didn't get the answers that I wanted. And I hope that right now, after I'm done talking, Matt answers them for me. I don't think that FCG would want to be resurrected? No. They did their thing and they're done. That's it. I think that's death's. Okay.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

And you had kind of chatted to us or me or whatever about. I have this vague memory of you being like, I don't want to be brought back. Right.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Like, that was. That was how you felt when. After it happened.

[Laura Bailey]

For sure.

[Travis Willingham]

For sure.

[Liam O'Brien]

Also, I mean, makes it a little bit more meaningful, but also, you know, I told. I told that story. It had an end. There's no. There's no reason to dig it back up again.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah. I also love the idea that, like, after searching for the. The possibility of having a soul and the question of FCGs got the realest answer, which is an afterlife and a purpose beyond that. Under the path of the Changebringer.

[Liam O'Brien]

But is the Changebringer cool or not? You were giving me all these mixed signals.

[Travis Willingham]

Changebringer changes from moment to moment. No, Changebringer's awesome, but change.

[Liam O'Brien]

She was being wishy washy intentionally? Sometimes.

[Travis Willingham]

Why? Because it's one thing to be told the path to walk. It's another to walk the path and then. And find your way how you're supposed to.

[Matt Mercer]

Fucking A. Fucking A.

[Liam O'Brien]

And then.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Dick.

[Liam O'Brien]

Tell me.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Nice. Get him. Tell me this.

[Liam O'Brien]

What would I have learned if I went to see Devexian?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Well, that is a great segue. You don't even have the questions. What do you think would have happened if FCG had visited AEOR and had he met up with the Devexian?

[Travis Willingham]

I think that's Devexian. One would have had the capability of upgrading elements of fcg. You're missing this with other. Other.

[Sam Riegel]

Sorry, I think Omar farted.

[Travis Willingham]

You think?

[Laura Bailey]

We had to confirm.

[Sam Riegel]

They were like, that was me.

[Marisha Ray]

Was it like nose and tongue and.

[Travis Willingham]

Upgraded?

[Sam Riegel]

So we started, like, with a tongue.

[Liam O'Brien]

And leg or upgraded, like laser beams.

[Ashley Johnson]

They would have made those little flappers.

[Travis Willingham]

The vaccine does not have a tongue, damn it.

[Matt Mercer]

Gathering other parts, like.

[Travis Willingham]

Next question.

[Matt Mercer]

What does he do if he finds other aeormatons?

[Travis Willingham]

Like, not all aeormatons, you know, that were found were repairable. And so Devexian sometimes cobbles them together, sometimes builds new ones from what can be located. And Dyvexion, more or less, is trying to restart the aeormaton. People not locked into the memories of the past in the hopes that they can forge a new future without the weight of AEOR behind them. So Devexian is more or less trying to be a soft messiah for the Aeorian people from the background. You get a little bit of that in re Slayer's take. Actually, there's a fun little interaction in that series with Devexian specifically, but with that Devexian may have given FCG a little more context to what AEOR meant and what their purpose was and the challenges they had in aeor, as in society, as in a robot. Yeah. And would have said to go to AEOR to find the true answers, because only there you would have in aeor, you would have had more memories come up of like what you were built for. The care and the culling was specifically Aeormatons designed as aid helpers and supportive care workers. And you were part of a group of this particular group designed to be given as gifts to diplomatic allies to AEOR that were more or less sleeper cells that would be signaled to then turn on their gifters. Yeah, I love it. And so it would have been a lot of dark history where you were, but a lot of also philosophical ideas of you were not bound by a history you had no control over. Your destiny is yours to carry forward. A lot of fun, good messages.

[Ashley Johnson]

There are a place in Aeor buried deep where there's a whole bank of fresh cut grass models and you're all networked and you set off the memory like Luda.

[Matt Mercer]

Whoa.

[Ashley Johnson]

Maybe we could turn you on somewhere else.

[Liam O'Brien]

You can always turn me on somewhere else.

[Matt Mercer]

The chat is out for the guys, by the way, because I saw a comment that said, laura, your makeup looks so lovely tonight. And then I saw a follow up that said, Liam looks like he's being tortured.

[Ashley Johnson]

I haven't changed in 10 years.

[Matt Mercer]

I don't know what the guys did, but we're high value targets.

[Liam O'Brien]

Not to. Not to give a little peek behind the curtain. We're all wearing makeup right now. We just look extra shitty. It shines through the makeup.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Sam, I really want to stay focused on you. Okay, great. Well, did you end intentionally play a minotaur just to break the trend of many years of playing small characters, or were you specifically trying to create a thirst trap for your previous character?

[Liam O'Brien]

That one.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I knew it. It's the best. It's the joke. It's all for the joke.

[Liam O'Brien]

It's all for the bit. It's all for the bit. I've played larger characters before. Taryon Darrington is a normal sized, also.

[Ashley Johnson]

A second run, follow up character.

[Liam O'Brien]

That's true, that's true. It's just I start campaigns as small halls. That's the only grower.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Speaking of Big hunky guys. Travis, do you know what happened to Chutney's family?

[Matt Mercer]

Do. I don't. I don't see some id.

[Liam O'Brien]

Young man, please.

[Matt Mercer]

This is. This is no alcohol. Non alcoholic. By the way, it says Taliesin isn't catching any hate at all. Which I think we just have to recognize. You're just too fine.

[Marisha Ray]

Yeah, I know where you all are.

[Matt Mercer]

Chetty has no idea where his family is. No, they all fled during the first. What was the Red Dragon's name? Not before Thordak. It was.

[Liam O'Brien]

Before Irvon.

[Sam Riegel]

The Rhyme Lord.

[Laura Bailey]

Yes.

[Matt Mercer]

The Rime Lord. Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

Wow.

[Travis Willingham]

Yep, bro.

[Laura Bailey]

That is my job.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah, it's always impressive.

[Travis Willingham]

We're talking pools of Wittebach. The area outside of where Kraghammer is. Okay, gotcha. Yeah. Erevon, the Rime Lord. That was during the Ice Lost Years. Yeah. Not a dragon, actually.

[Matt Mercer]

Oh, really?

[Travis Willingham]

Large Elemental Lord. Oh, I read that wrong.

[Laura Bailey]

Wait, there was a question that said, what was the deal with Shithead the bird?

[Ashley Johnson]

That's a great question.

[Travis Willingham]

That is an amazing question.

[Laura Bailey]

I totally forgot about Shithead.

[Ashley Johnson]

That's just a bull.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's the one.

[Laura Bailey]

What was the backstory with that?

[Liam O'Brien]

The backstory was fresh cut grass. When I designed, the character was going to have a pet bird with him named Shithead. But then I realized how hard and how stupid it is to have an animal companion. But I had already had the drawing done. I'd already done. Had the art made for Shithead. And so I just. I told Matt right at the beginning of the campaign, I was like, hey, man, I had this art done. I don't know what to do with it. His name's Shithead the Bird. Just have it menace me at some point.

[Travis Willingham]

That was it.

[Liam O'Brien]

And that was it. And that was up to Matt to make it a sort of a harbinger of doom.

[Sam Riegel]

Well, because I remember. What.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What's happening over there?

[Liam O'Brien]

What?

[Travis Willingham]

Don't worry about it.

[Sam Riegel]

It's. I'm roasting you now.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Two Five.

[Travis Willingham]

Our handsomest host here brought down to our level.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Cheers for the savagery in the chat.

[Laura Bailey]

He has such good hair.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'm gonna immediately throw away from the compliments. From tankard to flask. Then a gas can and eventually an infernal Stanley cup, which is just a normal Stanley cup. No one knows how to cause a ruckus with a cup quite like Sam Riegel.

[Liam O'Brien]

We're still talking about me.

[Laura Bailey]

We are.

[Travis Willingham]

It's all you, baby.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It's all you. And here is two and a half minutes of proof.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Woo.

[Laura Bailey]

We Get a.

[Matt Mercer]

My name is Sir Bertrand Bell. It's a pleasure to meet all of you.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You're a knight?

[Laura Bailey]

Are you a note noble?

[Matt Mercer]

Not a noble. A knight is generous.

[Laura Bailey]

That is. Oh, no.

[Marisha Ray]

I mean, we knew that already.

[Laura Bailey]

You know, things happen when you come and go from there. You know, years have gone by, and it only feels like a couple minutes for you. Oh, my God.

[Travis Willingham]

It's a. It's pressed like a dark leather. It looks almost like a heavy, almost oni brow with these horns that curve up.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, wow.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Got my mask ready.

[Liam O'Brien]

What?

[Laura Bailey]

What? That is amazing.

[Liam O'Brien]

It's my human skin mask. First, I'm gonna cast Yassify.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, no, my God.

[Liam O'Brien]

First I'm going to cast Yassify.

[Matt Mercer]

Oh, I'm already tired of it.

[Travis Willingham]

26. Oh, my God.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, my.

[Travis Willingham]

No, there are a number of folks rushing around in similar kind of robes that are.

[Sam Riegel]

Okay.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I actually.

[Liam O'Brien]

I just. I just finished baking a bunt cake. I can give you guys a bunt cake.

[Sam Riegel]

You've been baking bunt?

[Laura Bailey]

No.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Oh, no.

[Liam O'Brien]

I've got.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, shit.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It fell.

[Liam O'Brien]

Go ahead and eat it, Emily.

[Laura Bailey]

Show it to the outside on this.

[Ashley Johnson]

Side of the table.

[Sam Riegel]

Hello.

[Laura Bailey]

It's bad here.

[Liam O'Brien]

I'm gonna do it my. With my special rolling device. It's also a dice.

[Laura Bailey]

What?

[Liam O'Brien]

Seeing all of this action, I have to take a sip from my Stanley Cup.

[Travis Willingham]

Ew, Bro, that's amazing. Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

It'S like the mushroom.

[Travis Willingham]

You did good.

[Marisha Ray]

I think instead of the flask, I think you now need the fan and just need to.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We're back. That was the softest entry. You let me get away with that.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, thanks, team. It's time for questions. Oh, better. Yeah. Race to the moon. All of these start with you. It's just the way it is.

[Travis Willingham]

Okay, let's go.

[Marisha Ray]

You're my world.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I do like this question quite a bit. Was Morrie's deal with ORYM always meant to be a fake out, or did you plan to follow up on it? But they got. Plans changed during the game as it progressed.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Do I look that tired?

[Travis Willingham]

No, I'm kidding.

[Laura Bailey]

You look great.

[Travis Willingham]

I'm kidding.

[Erica Lindbeck]

I'm kidding.

[Ashley Johnson]

No, I really like your haircut, Matt.

[Travis Willingham]

Thank you. I wanted to have like an end of C3 and divergence kind of connotation, you know, cleansing to back in the day when we first started, you know, kind of like a lot of freshly shorn. Back to the question at hand. No, it was funny because thinking from the mindset of Morgan during that time of the fate stitcher, in those moments like her beloved, you know, adopted granddaughter, essentially. And her compatriots were going to be leaving for a dangerous mission that'll have impact on the realms beyond, including the Fey Realm and the space where she has interest over fate. Orym comes to her saying, I request a boon to keep us and your sweet Fearne safe. In which in her mind, she's like, of course I'll give you a boon. And in return, I offer my fealty to you unending. She's like, great, I'll take it. He's like, however, you must promise that we all come back alive. And she's like, I can't promise that you're going to the moon. You're going so far beyond my ability to control that. But sure, I was gonna give it to you anyway. So in the moment it was like, sure, if you want to make the deal. Because if you all come back alive, I get someone bound to me at practically no work from her standpoint. But she's not going to tell you that. She's going to let him believe that and worry about it. Because in my head I was like, she's willing to make a wheel and deal here if he wants to bring it. And the more it began to form, she's like, this ask is a little beyond my ability on where you're going, but I'm not going to correct anything. In the off chance that everything goes perfectly and I get a free servant out of this, I'm going to let it ride. And so when it finally came down to that moment of conflict, it was like, yeah, now you're good. Your friend died, so technically our contract's broken. Sorry.

[Ashley Johnson]

I bet that one of our players would die. So. Thank you for eating shit.

[Liam O'Brien]

I will always eat shit for you.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What are you doing after this follow up? Did Nana make the sea poppers or did they exist before Chetney's deal?

[Laura Bailey]

Yes.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You don't have to reel yet.

[Laura Bailey]

No, he does.

[Ashley Johnson]

Did it reconfigure Caleb's upbringing or did little Bren always. Did he always. Had he always fallen in love with those toys on his scarce trips into Rex syndrome?

[Travis Willingham]

So the best that I could, the best that I could convey this to all of you.

[Matt Mercer]

Take your time with us.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes. Whatever you say will be candy.

[Travis Willingham]

These crafted eggs and such fine woodwork has always existed in exandria. But it's very easy to adjust elements of memory tethered to such things as to who is responsible.

[Laura Bailey]

You didn't even make the wood eggs, but you had one up your butt.

[Travis Willingham]

Or maybe he did. You don't know. Oh, Chet.

[Laura Bailey]

Even Chet thinks he made the wood eggs.

[Liam O'Brien]

Tell me this is Chetney Scanlan's father.

[Matt Mercer]

Yes.

[Liam O'Brien]

Is that true?

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Matt Mercer]

And Orym's dad.

[Ashley Johnson]

That's not true.

[Liam O'Brien]

I believe both of these.

[Matt Mercer]

They're not the only ones, of course.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

All right, this one is for Matt and Tal.

[Sam Riegel]

Things have been said, and I'm so confused.

[Travis Willingham]

I'm going to find someone's yelling at me to grow my beard back. You all need to calm down. I'm a human being, deeply.

[Ashley Johnson]

They just want you to grow tired one you donate it to Travis.

[Travis Willingham]

That's true. Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

So, wait, is he a fraud?

[Travis Willingham]

No, I'm not confirming anything. I'm just saying in the logistics of it. He has made all kinds of stuff in history.

[Sam Riegel]

It's true.

[Laura Bailey]

Does he know if he made the eggs or not?

[Matt Mercer]

I made the eggs.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Yes, of course.

[Matt Mercer]

I made all these toys, you remember? They suddenly got much, much better, I.

[Sam Riegel]

Think, and much more expensive. Am I right?

[Travis Willingham]

I have. I'm to help clarify from my standpoint here, there are some elements of history that are fun for me to answer and confirm, and there are some that are fun to raise more questions about.

[Laura Bailey]

It and read it.

[Matt Mercer]

I made a series of eggs along with a litany of other toys after the Nanamori stuff. The toys got much more intricate, like, much more complicated than previously were. But the originals are still fucking highly sought after.

[Laura Bailey]

But wait, so the eggs you. All of the eggs you made after he had made them before, you'd made them before?

[Matt Mercer]

Okay, I only made two after the deal.

[Ashley Johnson]

Did Chetney carve the interrogation chair from Campaign 2?

[Matt Mercer]

Yes.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yes. That was in Canada.

[Marisha Ray]

No wonder it had so much weight to it. It was extremely ominous.

[Matt Mercer]

Just check under the leg.

[Laura Bailey]

Beautiful.

[Travis Willingham]

So when it said that was the reason to give Nana a tiki bar, I'm pretty sure that was just from discussing a little bit with you, with what your home was about. I think so, yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

We just discussed it.

[Matt Mercer]

It had to have tiki. It had to have tiki.

[Laura Bailey]

It's not a tiki vibe.

[Travis Willingham]

It feels a fun thing to give.

[Laura Bailey]

A hag in the back a great little. Yeah, yeah. Just wanted it to have a fun, fun house.

[Sam Riegel]

Who doesn't want a tiki?

[Travis Willingham]

You guys have a lovely.

[Sam Riegel]

You do have a tiki bar.

[Laura Bailey]

It's, like, inspired by home life. I mean, you instantly know the vibe. When you walk in and you see a tiki bar, you're like, they have a tiki bar. You really do.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Really do.

[Laura Bailey]

You know, you're going to have a good time.

[Ashley Johnson]

Y.

[Laura Bailey]

They're good but you know you're going to have a good drink.

[Liam O'Brien]

Not for sure but it's going to be sweet.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's all we know.

[Laura Bailey]

Going to be sweet.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

All right.

[Travis Willingham]

That's.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah. Ashley, does Fearne have any worries about Tevin Clask and the Lord of the Hells? What. What they have in store for their future?

[Laura Bailey]

Not at all.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

No. Does that care?

[Laura Bailey]

No. I really think. Yeah. I don't. I think she just every fern answer the fucking ride. I mean I think if there was worry there she wouldn't have done it. Yeah. You know and it's just kind of like well, let's just see what happens.

[Sam Riegel]

I will sheaven her finger according to a certain book burned on her hand.

[Laura Bailey]

I mean you know, we'll see how that maybe one day pans out. But.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh. I very much have interest in a future Fearne centric bells Hells game. Really where a lot of these might come into consequence. So exciting.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Moving on. Moving on.

[Travis Willingham]

Too much to then take a sidetrack in the middle of our finale. But definitely something to explore in a post katathiosis era.

[Laura Bailey]

I did have moments during the game where I was like maybe we should go talk to Asmodeus and try to buddy up. Buddy up. Or I don't know. I was like. There was so many possibilities of using that sort of relationship. But I don't think she. I don't think she doesn't care in the world about it.

[Sam Riegel]

Okay.

[Laura Bailey]

I really don't.

[Sam Riegel]

I have a pitch. I have a pitch for a future. One shot.

[Laura Bailey]

Great.

[Sam Riegel]

It's like Fearne but like Love island or like the Ultimatum or something.

[Travis Willingham]

Elevator pitch.

[Laura Bailey]

Where is.

[Liam O'Brien]

She's a host or she's the bachelor.

[Sam Riegel]

She's the bachelorette. She's the bachelorette. And you have Ashen, you have Chetney, you have Tevin Brayus, you have Tevin, you have the ghost pirate that you snuggle.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

You have all these people that you like go on dates with and you go on dates with and it's like redo it. Reality shows.

[Marisha Ray]

We could do it like Marvel's secret war where we're just all stuck there and we can't leave under threat of death. Like it is just under penalty of death. We have to be there and compete.

[Travis Willingham]

If we were dying, if we were.

[Ashley Johnson]

Together in the nine hells how hot would it get?

[Laura Bailey]

Those kind of questions.

[Liam O'Brien]

I love it.

[Marisha Ray]

I wanted it for you.

[Laura Bailey]

Live in the nine hels. What would we do for a first Date.

[Travis Willingham]

Perfect. Dead pirate.

[Laura Bailey]

I love it.

[Ashley Johnson]

Which would be the first bone you would show me.

[Sam Riegel]

Okay. Dead pirate. Got a girlfriend?

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, well, yeah, but I saw the.

[Ashley Johnson]

Tiki bar on his boat, so, yeah, she's open.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, God.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I wish I had a funny question to ask, but they're all just so serious. And it's for you.

[Laura Bailey]

Me? It is for you. Serious?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes. Not too serious.

[Laura Bailey]

Okay.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

How did wearing the circlet change Imogen's perspective on the people around her? Does she keep wearing it in her downtime?

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, gosh. The circlet changed everything for Imogen. I mean, she hated being around people before the circlet, and then it was just like, oh, you guys can be. You're my friends. It's the best. Yeah. So I don't. There were a couple times in the. In the end of the campaign that I ended up taking the circlet off because I had more powerful items that I needed to use. But no. And I did keep it in mind, like, any time that I was unattuned to the circlet, I was aware of the fact that it was kind of back. But I feel like as her power grew, her control of that element also grew. So it wasn't as dominating past a certain point. Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

Like, taught you how to, like, got you to the steps to, like, deal with it in a way.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

That's cool. Yeah, I really like that. Yeah. Because I remember early on, we would, like, try and find the booth in the far back corner and stuff, which was really cool.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. I remember the first time we got out of the city, and I was, like, out in nature, and I could step away, and it was like, oh, my God. Yeah, it was a really cool dynamic. I was just, like, having this conversation a couple days ago about, like. That was a weird choice to make at the beginning of a campaign to choose a character that was, like, tortured to be around people because it was really hard to show her character at the beginning. Yeah. That's interesting.

[Ashley Johnson]

So, yeah, that's a real fun complication.

[Laura Bailey]

It was. It was fun.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I think, also relatable, probably for a lot of people.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

A very different swing from Jester.

[Laura Bailey]

Yes.

[Matt Mercer]

Answer a question for you.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Matt Mercer]

Robbie.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

There are none. There are none on my page. It's not a single one.

[Laura Bailey]

I saw one in the discord.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Uh. Oh.

[Laura Bailey]

What is your mother's name?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You're gonna ask me a lore question? My mom's name is Mom.

[Laura Bailey]

No.

[Travis Willingham]

What?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

She's the best mom in the world. You do have it.

[Laura Bailey]

Help me.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Dad's. Dad's name was. They were all wind puns. I'm afraid there's a zephyr in there for sure, which I think was popping, and Matt's trying to desperately save her. What is it?

[Travis Willingham]

Nephele.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That sounds good.

[Sam Riegel]

You got it the same second I did.

[Laura Bailey]

Thanks, guys.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

See, you need a team to figure out your own lore.

[Travis Willingham]

The two wyvern winds and the up and coming son, Bronte.

[Sam Riegel]

I'm gonna drop it in chat so that they have the spelling.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah, yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Well, yeah, it's one of those things where Cyrus was always the linchpin for moving forward, but as far as mom and dad go, it was more about the concept of them than, like, I didn't have her name running through my head at all times.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

But, yeah, if you want to pop it in the chat, I'm glad we.

[Travis Willingham]

Got to have those moments. At the end of the campaign, it was heartbreaking when he went back to find the Silken Squall outside of Vasselheim and, like, walking in and have her having heard that you had chosen a different name than the one they gave you and trying to, like, yeah, lean into that. It was like, oh.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

And I didn't clock it until we got to RP a little bit, which was great. I just thought that you were calling me that, and then I'm like, oh, no. This is a conscious choice by Matt in this RP moment, and I missed it, which is interesting for anyone who's chosen to go by any name in the world. You go back home to mom and dad, and all of a sudden, you potentially become who you used to be. So I thought that was a really fun way for that to unfold. And thanks for letting me have that moment, because I kind of just took it, which is a scary thing to do in any game.

[Travis Willingham]

That's the best part of these games. Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ashley Johnson]

I have a Dorian question as well.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Uh. Oh.

[Ashley Johnson]

I thought it was fascinating to see how losing Dorian's brother through your whole story on its head upside down.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Sure.

[Ashley Johnson]

What was it like? Like having to reconfigure when that happened happened. Like, that week or those two weeks as you were like, I'm this. No, I'm this. Yeah. What was that like?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, well, thankfully, I've created a character that compartmentalized really well. So that was the aspect of, like, well, how do you play the story but fold yourself into a story that's already been unfolding without, like, oh, I want to shine the spotlight on me. I want to talk about my tragic backstory and then, but also do service to what happened within the game. So I think there was a real craftsmanship in getting Dorian back into the story where everyone was on the same page, and that unfolded between Aabria and Matt. So I feel like, you know, we were meeting at a time when they had just suffered a great loss and I had suffered a great loss, and we could all just feel that together without sitting around the campfire going, let's talk about our dead friends. So it did make me feel like after being away from the table for so long, that at least the wavelengths was the same with the rest of the crew. And then I always felt a little bit unresolved because there was so much to do in the last 30 episodes or so. But having that moment with mom and the guilt of being the catalyst of losing a family member through that scene, being able to give Dorian closure on that and let go of some of that guilt and breathe in the love of his family, was that. That wrapped it up for me in a way that felt okay to where I felt like Dorian could move on. So, yeah, it's really. Yeah, it's a different thing.

[Matt Mercer]

Can you also. Can you tell Chat to relax and tell them that you'll be coming back as many times as we ask you.

[Ashley Johnson]

For forever and ever.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'm still waiting for the contracts to come back from the lawyers. You know, we have some truly really incredible battle maps in Cafe 3.

[Travis Willingham]

We're not letting him go.

[Laura Bailey]

He's not going anywhere.

[Sam Riegel]

One of us.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

And with all those sexy new beauty shots and our amazing crew has been getting, we would be remiss if we didn't pay tribute to some of the standout maps of Campaign 3. Who doesn't like a good map? Take a look.

[Laura Bailey]

Matt Mercer.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Welcome back, everyone. Here's the deal. I'm about to say a bunch of names and everyone's name who I say are incredibly talented. This is a shout out to our amazing crew. Behind our miniatures, Tyler Walpole. Ian Irontos.

[Sam Riegel]

Cross in front. Go behind.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Nice knock, Smiler Burb. Jesse Jerdek. Daniel Airley.

[Matt Mercer]

Airly.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Daniel Airley. Peyton Keough. Laceball. Ron Ogden and Angela Bassett. Yes, that Angela. No, no, not that Angela Bassett. This one goes by DM Ophelia on ig. But seriously, though, could you imagine.

[Laura Bailey]

Sorry, I did that. I don't know what I was thinking. I thought my mic back was falling. I just touched your butt with my foot.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'm sorry if I said your name incorrectly. I still love you very, very much. Team, we got a whole new Set of questions about a whole new art. Are you mentally prepared? Yes, I know I sure am. I'm gonna start at the bottom. Just kidding. It's back to you, Matt.

[Travis Willingham]

Okay.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Give us answers. Okay, this is interesting. What were the personal dynamics among Ludinus and his generals like Otohan, Liliana and Zathuda. How do they vibe together?

[Travis Willingham]

I mean, originally they vibed. Well, they were all brought under Ludinus, who had a very prominent figure historically and between multiple different cultures and communities of power in exandria and especially in the wake of the apex war for Otohan, in which case, if you are a legendary soldier, it's tough in times of peace, especially when you're a soldier that loves the violence like she did. And so she was eager to be part of this for the promise of another opportunity to rise to prominence and lean into the cruelty. She's not a good person. As if you didn't know that. Zathuda, Lyanna, they were all brought together under the auspice of Ludinus plot. And when they were all brought there, they already were within a trusted space, shown enough to see how much work he had put into into this and saw it kind of like more or less a surefire thing. And the more they began to extend these last minute plans that he required them to help with, the more they began to butt heads further and further. And so they got together okay at the beginning, but even with the short time that they all that Ludinus began to kind of relax his grip on his plot and let other people handle things he needed them to do, the more they began to clash, the more they began to dislike each other. And it began to sow these seeds of discontent through the first and foremost Ruby Vanguard.

[Liam O'Brien]

Friends, just buds. Just like best.

[Travis Willingham]

Just chill, bros.

[Liam O'Brien]

Cool.

[Travis Willingham]

You know, they wouldn't consider them friends, but they were definitely compatriots in arms.

[Laura Bailey]

I can't make my knuckles make a sound when I slam them together. Like, how hard did you hit your knuckles together to make?

[Travis Willingham]

Not hard.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, you just did it.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

So schlap, not crack. No, no, no.

[Matt Mercer]

You should definitely keep trying until.

[Laura Bailey]

I didn't know it was a hand to knuckle. I thought it was. Did you guys ever play knucks? Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah.

[Matt Mercer]

You guys ever played knucks?

[Sam Riegel]

Do you ever do.

[Laura Bailey]

Are you talking about sick?

[Erica Lindbeck]

Nu.

[Travis Willingham]

Talking about quarters, smokey.

[Laura Bailey]

Quarters.

[Sam Riegel]

Have you ever done quarters?

[Laura Bailey]

And you're like, that's just the thing.

[Travis Willingham]

I looked out to try and avoid when I was leaving the arcade.

[Matt Mercer]

You want to play Pencil Break?

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, God.

[Laura Bailey]

Ow.

[Matt Mercer]

I sucked at that game.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Back to the Generals really quick. We've all done a ton of panels and answered questions from the audiences, and one of the toughest ones to answer is, what's your favorite? So I'm not gonna ask you that. I'm gonna ask you, who was your favorite of the three generals to play?

[Laura Bailey]

Ooh, good question.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, man.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I know.

[Travis Willingham]

I like them all for different reasons. That's the thing.

[Laura Bailey]

Answer it while doing Just Dance. Lady Gaga's a plus.

[Travis Willingham]

That's a throwback. No, I'm okay. Oh, man.

[Sam Riegel]

We could do Abracadabra now. Cause it's like a full circle, and.

[Travis Willingham]

I get to sit while I'm doing.

[Sam Riegel]

You can sit.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah. So good. No, man. Otohan was so generally terrifying because of how cruel she was of the Generals. She was definitely the most fun to scare the players. So if I had to say, I'd say her. Zathuda, for what time we got to see, was more manipulative and conniving. Definitely playing multiple angles, especially manipulation of Fearne and the hope that he had for his daughter as more or less his chip in the game to get one over the other generals. Liliana was just a tragic figure, and based on how things went, could have ended up much more tragically. I'm kind of happy that it didn't, because it allowed for a softer narrative for you at the end. But, yeah, Otoham probably was the most.

[Laura Bailey]

Dangerous of them all, but Zathuda as a flesh tapestry. So much fun, though, right?

[Travis Willingham]

Honestly, what a terrifying end for him. I kind of love it.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. And I love how you, like, you were acting it out, because I feel like I just saw it. Yeah. And then I was just thinking of the scenes in Brazil, the pulled skin. Oh, God, loved it.

[Sam Riegel]

Did you throw that out in the moment? Yeah, because that's what Nanamori is doing.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, that's right. You did throw it out in the moment. Because you were always talking about the loom, and then it just happened, and you were like, all right, well, I guess I'll just go with it right now.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah. Like, I knew there was a place in the tree called the loom, but I wasn't particular about what it did. I didn't think we'd ever go go there.

[Laura Bailey]

Like, that was a just in the moment thing.

[Travis Willingham]

There's a lot of that.

[Laura Bailey]

Your brain is from you guys, too, though. Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

But you need them out there also does that all the time.

[Ashley Johnson]

I mean, you know, Otahan's the one that's gonna haunt me long after all this. I, you know, I know that the. The episode where we faced off in front of the Malays Key and the whole bringing down Vax Blue blew my mind. But before that, even Otahan seems so terrifying to me with her duplicates on the field and standing over. She's just really, really scary every time.

[Laura Bailey]

I feel like she could have tpked us multiple times.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, I thought it was every time circumstances. I feel like it has to be said to any enemy that can move across a map. Like anyone who can clear a big distance is terrifying.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. That was the scariest fight.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

Laudna and Orym. I was like, this feels awful. Yeah, it was like the hardest fight.

[Travis Willingham]

Like she. You wouldn't have beaten her if she would have gotten hurt and fled. But she wasn't interested in killing you all. She was interested in trying to get her to exalt. It was very much that kind of like, if I can get her to exalt, she might be useful to me, try to be useful to everything and at the very least confuse her mother, who I don't like. So there was a lot of idea of just like trying to manipulate you, trying to get you to exalt, to see if you were capable of that and being useful to her and the overall plot. So it was fun to kind of explore that. But that final battle was meant to be. Here's the thing. I've been blending these games for you guys for 10 years now. And there are many dangerous fights that I build up that I thought I'd plan well for. And you guys just kind of tactically do well and roll well and you just kind of steamroll it. I'm like, okay, that was a little anticlimactic. Cool. I was not gonna let that happen with her.

[Laura Bailey]

Good.

[Matt Mercer]

No, it did not happen.

[Laura Bailey]

We felt it.

[Travis Willingham]

Horrifying.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Well, you felt it. But when I wasn't at the table, I felt the ripples of what was going on via the Internet. And I. That, that. That evening when you were in that fight, my phone just started going off. Cause I have my notifs on and I was like, what's going on?

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, they're in trouble.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Cause people were like screaming. They were like, come help them. Everyone's dying.

[Matt Mercer]

I'm over to the studio.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

So when your fantasy world reaches its tendrils into the real world and interrupts my dinner, that's when you know that's.

[Sam Riegel]

An interesting thing that just a little like behind the scenes thing that We've had to be mindful of because I remember when FCG died and Christian Navarro texted me that night and he was like so excited to watch the game tonight. And I was like, ooh, did anyone tell him? Did we tell him?

[Travis Willingham]

I need to tell him.

[Laura Bailey]

Yes, right?

[Sam Riegel]

And I was like, hey, I just want to give you a heads up. Like something bad is gonna happen and people are going to be adding you and so be in the know. And he was like, oh God, what? So yeah, sometimes if it's bad, we have to give people a heads up.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

There are a lot of great questions here, but we don't have that much time. But I do want to give Taliesin a chance to get lost in the weeds for just a second because this question is so good. That's gotta be my golden my way through any weeds. Ashton's nature was a huge enigma in this campaign. Dunamis explains Ashton's unique abilities. But what race was Ashton born and how was he transformed into an Earth Genasi?

[Marisha Ray]

Well, as for. I mean, honestly, they don't really have a lot of memory about what when. I mean they kind of. I always assumed they were basically human, some sort of humanoid. And it was going through the portal that really like the elemental portal that kind of kicked that off and we never really got into it because I don't think. I don't think Ashton ever smoked the pipe. That is not a euphemism, just the treated. Well, I don't think you ever got your proudest moment. I don't think I ever did that. I didn't inhale. But should I save that for possibly in game or should I just let that one. Let that sit with you, sir?

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

The slow change into the rock rock form happened when they were younger and when they were in the home under the state's care and it was like everything kind of traumatizing. A life of trauma. Well, yeah, yeah, so yeah, that was the. They were born soft and got hard later.

[Laura Bailey]

I wish to be a rock.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

I will say there was a deep shit kicking that was involved.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

So yeah, sweet. I love how all I said was sweet and you immediately turned and looked at me. Liam, this is for you, my sweet little boyfriend. Is there any information about Will? Shut it, handsome. Squidward. Is there any information about Will's sisters that never came up in game that you'd like to share? For example, does Orym have a favorite triplet?

[Ashley Johnson]

I don't know if I would say favorite, but I think he has the closest connection to Leda who took over for Derrig as master of arms for Zephyra because he trained with her. So Wyll and Leda and Orym were together for years training under Derrig and preparing themselves for a life of service in Zephyra. So he definitely spent the most time with her than the other sisters. I think that's probably the answer to that. And I also. I know that as the campaign made its way, I did talk to Matt about my hopes for Leta taking. Taking over for Derrig and how. How I saw her and the things that I hoped for her for. For her place in Zephyra, you know, even as the story. And I don't know what's happening next, I don't. But I really like her as a character and I like her taking over for her father and I like her being a part of Zephyra.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Here's a completely organic segue. Everyone's got weird habits. Am I right? For you example, my weird habit would be.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah, yeah, think of something on the fly.

[Travis Willingham]

I love it.

[Matt Mercer]

You pair things out of your belly button and eat it.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I wish I did. Oh man, I'm sure I got one somewhere. Yeah, I know I'm weird, but cast members have habits so regular that you could practically set your watch by them. Roll the clip.

[Travis Willingham]

It looks like it was a heavy hit and it's looking pretty hurt already. In one strike of the feywild half undead blood and release the chill touch the two skeletal claws takes four.

[Liam O'Brien]

Max. We can divide and conquer.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Right?

[Sam Riegel]

We're going to run out of time.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah, we gotta go.

[Sam Riegel]

I'll move up towards Ashton. 30ft.

[Travis Willingham]

30.

[Liam O'Brien]

This is a new stance.

[Matt Mercer]

On the desk.

[Travis Willingham]

But whereas once it emanated around you like a cage, now it's just the faintest little tickle on the inside. And as you begin to push inward towards the darkness, the faint. It was indeed confirmed to be sort of an excretion that is utilized by hard tunnels.

[Laura Bailey]

Come on.

[Travis Willingham]

Fucking hate you all so much. Pause a breath as you roll up your hole, which right now is pretty.

[Laura Bailey]

Uh huh. Yeah. Our hole is what's pretty filled.

[Travis Willingham]

It's kind of capacity. It's filled and stanky. You were out and about trying to just spread your legs a little bit. Spread your wings. I didn't even find you right.

[Laura Bailey]

I was all over town.

[Travis Willingham]

I was trying to say. I was trying to say. Can't be done. Can't be done.

[Liam O'Brien]

Stretch you.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Stretch your legs.

[Travis Willingham]

Grab your wings. No, they both collided. Let me grab the mushrooms.

[Liam O'Brien]

Let's let's grab a mushroom right over.

[Sam Riegel]

Okay, let's do it.

[Laura Bailey]

How big is the mushroom Ride the mushroom.

[Travis Willingham]

There are multiple, like, sections of.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Are you going to steer the head.

[Matt Mercer]

Of the mushroom right before the mushroom gets over there?

[Laura Bailey]

I know.

[Liam O'Brien]

Oh.

[Laura Bailey]

Cocked again. Cocked again. Oh, with advantage. What's cocked?

[Sam Riegel]

Cocked.

[Ashley Johnson]

Into the parking lot.

[Sam Riegel]

Ashley.

[Laura Bailey]

I know. That's cocked. That's cocked again. I know that dice so much. Okay, okay.

[Matt Mercer]

Jesus.

[Liam O'Brien]

Jeez. That's also cocked.

[Laura Bailey]

Okay.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, six dice. Rolls to get.

[Laura Bailey]

I know.

[Travis Willingham]

I'm so happy.

[Laura Bailey]

No, it's cocked. It's cocked. I'm really sad. That was almost a natural 22. Okay, but look how good they're almost. That was.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Our mom is hell.

[Travis Willingham]

How does it do that?

[Laura Bailey]

What is that? That's a date. No, it's a what? What is that? I don't know what that is. No, that's a 10. No. Or is it an 8? Or is it a 3? Or is it a 6?

[Ashley Johnson]

That's a lowercase.

[Laura Bailey]

A. Oh, that's an 8. No, that's a 10. It's a 3, guys.

[Sam Riegel]

Several.

[Laura Bailey]

Very. The worst.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

How can you think of three different numbers? One of them has two digits.

[Liam O'Brien]

This dice has no number numbers on it.

[Marisha Ray]

Starting the carnival.

[Sam Riegel]

Zero gravity. Rage.

[Marisha Ray]

Interesting. So let's fucking rage. Let's see what the hell tools I'm playing with. Interesting. Oh, that's fun. So what do I have built right now? Oh, okay. I'm going to rage.

[Travis Willingham]

Alrighty.

[Marisha Ray]

Now we're having fun. Start the disco. Come on.

[Travis Willingham]

That'll do.

[Ashley Johnson]

Come on, Give me something fun. I can make that work.

[Marisha Ray]

Going to rage and see what the fuck happens.

[Travis Willingham]

Here we go. Oh, okay.

[Marisha Ray]

I'm gonna do it the old fashioned way.

[Liam O'Brien]

What does that mean?

[Sam Riegel]

He's not gonna look at it.

[Ashley Johnson]

It's good.

[Laura Bailey]

It's good.

[Marisha Ray]

Plus 8.

[Ashley Johnson]

16 plus plus 8.

[Marisha Ray]

Never look if you want to win. Never fucking look when you want to win.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Ball sack.

[Ashley Johnson]

God damn.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, are we back?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We're so back. It's time for the serious portion of the show. The solstice approaches. The questions get hard hitting. Taliesin, what happened during Ashton's pasta adventure?

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

Fish.

[Laura Bailey]

Fish, pasta.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I have no idea what this is.

[Marisha Ray]

Because I wasn't there. Well, I mean, we got into a little bit of it, but basically ended up accidentally stumbling into what was basically a underworld, like, robbery that was going on. Kind of got picked up into it. Couldn't get out. Ended up going to what was basically an Italian restaurant where there was like mobsters downstairs having A show like a. Like a showdown. Picked a side, hoped it was the right one. There was a mad chase, including helping rob the place. Pissing off people that may come back. I don't know. He doesn't really know who they were. He was just going with it because otherwise, you know, you have to do something. And eventually made off with what they thought was loot, but instead was just a lot of pasta and sauce and bakery and figured, you know, could be worse. And now we gotta get out of town real fast before they figure out that I was part of that.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

These are the answers to the hard hitting questions you want to know. There was a romp. Here's one for Matt. Yours was great, but here's one for Matt. What were the range of possibilities when the Malleus Key was first activated? Was it possible for Predathos to have been released early in the campaign if the party hadn't managed to damage any of the power supplies or destroyed the key in the Fey realm?

[Travis Willingham]

There was a possibility if they had failed to destroy the key and did not do any damage to it, it would have begun the process of unleashing Predathos rapidly. They would have still had. There would have been a chance to still race to the core, you know, like how the campaign ended in a way. But the key would have carved a majority of the path to the actual core of the moon, where Predathos was sealed at the hallowed cage. And so they would have had a chance to then try and race Ludinus and the troop if they followed suit.

[Laura Bailey]

Or like way lower level.

[Travis Willingham]

Correct. Which would have meant there would have been an. Then there would have been a forced scenario where the gods would have likely fled or fled some realm or beyond to try and figure out how to survive this before Predathos actually arrived. And I was going to figure out at that point if Predathos as an entity which may have still been within Ludinus as the vessel, would have begun the hunt for the gods and where they would have been beyond or also into their realm. And it would have been kind of a chase at that point point towards Ludinus as the vessel. I didn't go too deep into like what would have meant because I was, you know, I have loose ideas of the campaign and I don't want to write too much if it's drastically alterable by player interaction, but I had thoughts of what that could have meant. There would have been. I probably would have seen which God stayed behind to take a stand and might not have survived the encounter of Predathos. It would have been chaos. And a part of me did kind of want it to happen, but also, I didn't. I don't want to force a narrative and I want you guys to get the opportun opportunity to do some cool things and prevent it. And it ended up making a really interesting story anyway. But yeah, those were kind of my loose thoughts around what could have happened. Nice.

[Ashley Johnson]

All right, how many times did your brain swivel in your skull when Laura rolled? A natural 20 at the end, bro.

[Travis Willingham]

I swear to fucking God, guys, it's not scripted. Like, it's so frustrating when that shit happens because then it's like, I don't know what to tell you. It was perfect. But, like, also, like, I don't know, I was kind of looking forward to a pantheon missing a few gods here and there, you know, to kind of punch some holes into it, you know, I was just ready to roll to go with what happened. And when you rolled that, I was like, okay, all right. I mean, it's still getting weird, but yeah, it would have been interesting to be like, and, oh, Matron's gone now. Yeah, that been weird.

[Laura Bailey]

Would you have rolled for which one's left?

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah, I was gonna randomly roll for which ones had decided to go.

[Sam Riegel]

Could you imagine what would have happened if the Raven Queen went bye bye? What would have happened to Vex?

[Ashley Johnson]

Vax would have taken over.

[Travis Willingham]

Huh.

[Sam Riegel]

Vex would have been Vex or Vax Vex.

[Liam O'Brien]

And that would. That would have blown the Keyleth Vax reunion.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah. If the Raven Queen went bye bye.

[Laura Bailey]

But Vax would have been the Raven, the Matron. And then. And then. And then she would let Vax go because he's worked hard enough.

[Travis Willingham]

Sure. Next question.

[Sam Riegel]

Sorry, Percy.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

My next question is for Chat Chat. Are you enjoying the compilations and videos? The post team works so hard. They're so cool. I want to see if you are loving the video. I want to see those comments fly. And I'm gonna fly through these next two questions so we can get to some more. This is for everybody. Do you regret crashing your airship?

[Ashley Johnson]

No. Isn't that what you do with an airship?

[Sam Riegel]

Kind of a little bit.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, do what? It didn't.

[Marisha Ray]

Yeah, we didn't get another one. I regret that we didn't just go and get another one.

[Matt Mercer]

It was a cool move.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah, it was a cool move.

[Travis Willingham]

Yep.

[Sam Riegel]

I think I. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. When he, like held up his hand and it just shattered into a bajillion.

[Laura Bailey]

Pieces. Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

And then a bunch of other people just died.

[Travis Willingham]

Powerful wizard isn't gonna be like, oh, a boat's coming at me. Guess I'm done. Like, Wall of Force. Yeah, that was what it was, but it still took out a bunch of the vanguard that was surrounding the Malleus Key. So, like, it had a benefit.

[Sam Riegel]

It was cool.

[Travis Willingham]

It's a cool move, but I couldn't in right conscience be like, no. Lewdness is getting merked by a boat.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Wrecked. Wrecked. Wrecked ship. Wrecked.

[Matt Mercer]

That's, like, one of the strongest things we could do.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, no. It wasn't a bad idea at all. It was a great idea. And I still have benefits to it, but, like, yeah, just how it works out.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's great, Robbie.

[Marisha Ray]

I thought it was awesome.

[Liam O'Brien]

YouTube thinks that you look like Domingo from Saturday Night Live.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Ah, I'm not familiar with the reference, but that's good.

[Matt Mercer]

Somebody was asking what Bertrand Bell's fighter subass was. Oh, he was a duelist, and I think a champion. I think.

[Sam Riegel]

I don't know.

[Matt Mercer]

He was only level five in the end, the old bastard.

[Sam Riegel]

Level five.

[Laura Bailey]

He leveled down.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, boy.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It is a simple question that Matt has asked all of us. How do you like my new vest? And the answer is always, that's a new one. I wouldn't have been so mean to you. But there's another question. I'm not ripping on you, I promise. But there's another question that Matt likes to ask us, and the answer is always incredible and somewhat violent. So let's take a look at some of the top. How do you want to do this? This is from Campaign 3.

[Travis Willingham]

How do you want to do this? How do you want to do it?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

How do you want to do this?

[Travis Willingham]

How do you want to do this?

[Liam O'Brien]

Maybe the audience should say it.

[Travis Willingham]

How do I want to do this?

[Laura Bailey]

Hey, they just. Should we take this one out? Can each of us has it, like, blast from our hands? It, like, shoots out and, like. And, like. So it braids. Yeah, so it braids. Braiding is in your head, you hear? I've been swallowing. That makes me very angry. So I am going to just, like, the top of it.

[Travis Willingham]

Just laser hands through as a free action.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Can I yell, give her bangs?

[Liam O'Brien]

I will swing away with my weapon and strike several times as I'm doing so. The black ichor that's flying off the weapon is making sort of a splatter behind. And you see that the splatter is forming a pattern, and it's the symbol of Asmodeus.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, my God.

[Laura Bailey]

I deserve it.

[Travis Willingham]

I brought it on myself.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I love you.

[Laura Bailey]

It was very fun.

[Sam Riegel]

For, like, I don't know, she just.

[Laura Bailey]

Gives into the dark. Miss.

[Travis Willingham]

A beautiful circle of life surrounds the two of them. You watch the troubled life of Bordor Dogson reduced to ashen memory.

[Laura Bailey]

I'm going to lightning bolt the tree trunk and I'm going to aim it right at the center of the trunk so I can split it straight down the middle and make the two halves crash down.

[Travis Willingham]

The bolt impacts. You watch as it hits the wood. You hear Delilah screech no. Into white.

[Laura Bailey]

No. I'm gonna make eye contact with Verdathos. You're mine.

[Travis Willingham]

As the Dust Slayer begins to settle and the broken, shattered glass head of Predathos itself is crumbled and motionless, I'm going to ask you an interesting question. How do you want to do this?

[Liam O'Brien]

I do have 56 hit points.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, I was looking at the wrong one.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Time for sand and Shadow.

[Laura Bailey]

What? What does that mean?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What does that mean? The intros are gonna keep getting worse.

[Laura Bailey]

A romance novel.

[Sam Riegel]

These are the names of the Arcs. I named all the arcs.

[Laura Bailey]

I wasn't sure if I should be writing romance novels.

[Sam Riegel]

And I definitely made it sound like a romance novel. You're welcome, Laura Bailey.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Sand and Shadow. Sounds like it would chafe. Max.

[Travis Willingham]

Yep.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What happened to Yusuf Ayed after they failed their mission for the unseen?

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, Dusk. Yeah, Dusk. So in my mind. Bing, stop. Dusk. They essentially, as an upper ranked assassin for the Unseelie Court, more or less volunteered for this specific mission and the hope of an honorable return. And failed in their mission. And failed, not out of an attempt to try, but out of genuinely dropping the auspice of killing their target. Which is unforgivable given the context of their work in the Unseelie. And so likely they were unable to return for the time being and are probably laying low either to find a way to clear their name or find a way to convince the Unseelie to allow them to restore the honor of their name. Or perhaps start a new life on Exandria and spend the rest of their existence, much like their target, ducking the Unseelie's interest in sight. So that's my interpretation. But you'd have to ask Erika.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Hey, what was that Gnarl rock shard? What was it doing to Imogen? And what would have happened if she had kept it?

[Travis Willingham]

The Narlrock? Yes. It is a point of very strong corruptive magic in the Fae. And if Imogen had kept it for A longer period of time, she would have seen more or less changes. Put it this way, Imogen as Predathos was pretty terrifying. Imogen slowly, over time through the campaign, looking more and more like Ira Wendigoth would have been a very interesting twist as well.

[Laura Bailey]

God, there are so many opportunities to become the villain.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, but it's supposed to be.

[Travis Willingham]

I mean, it was like. Well, it's like whoever got in the stone, like, whoever got the Norwalk and held onto it, it would have just slowly changed them over time or like into more that look like twisted fan look cool.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Speaking of Ira, what did Ira do to the minds of the Calloways? Like, did they. Did they ever try to escape? What did Ira remove from their memory?

[Travis Willingham]

They tried to escape, but more or less. Ira's a complicated character that, like Ira.

[Sam Riegel]

I love Ira.

[Travis Willingham]

Not a good person.

[Marisha Ray]

I know.

[Travis Willingham]

No, he was useful in ways, and you had aligned goals at times, but is not a good person.

[Sam Riegel]

So.

[Travis Willingham]

No, I get.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah, exactly.

[Travis Willingham]

Much better than Ira. But no, Ira more or less just switched their memory, like, ready to try and flee, would bring them back and then punch a hole into their mind of recollecting them trying to escape and placing memories of more positive interactions to replace them. And so basically had constructed, over time, a false dynamic between them to where they were, how they were when they first kind of interacted. And so, yeah, it was not great. It was not great.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

He's such a scam. Ashley, Matt, Tag team, if you want. Fearne's afterlife looked very concerning.

[Laura Bailey]

Yes.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Why was her afterlife so different from orym? And what would have happened to her if FCG hadn't resurrected her?

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, that. Actually, there was a little bit of that that took me by surprise because when I saw that, I was like, wait, am I a bad person? Because clearly that wasn't a good place where she was going. Which I like because I think it makes sense.

[Sam Riegel]

For I can be with Tevan.

[Laura Bailey]

Cause then I could be with Tevan and then I could just like, you know, I actually would like to know the answer to this.

[Travis Willingham]

In my mind, the Unseelie, the dark, fey tether within your bloodline, specifically the intent of Zathuda's creation of you and what your goal was with the RWBY vanguard. There is a deep thread of shadow that is just inherently in your essence that we've seen you tap into here and there. Yeah. And kind of puts you in this weird place of many oaths. So for that, that was a. A glance at a pact for your spirit. That was sealed without your knowledge, meaning upon birth you were promised. Ooh, that's a romance novel. So. Yeah. So Fearne's spiritual essence still sits under a contract she's unaware of.

[Matt Mercer]

She's not bothered by.

[Laura Bailey]

It was Rumpelstiltskin. Yeah. I mean, it makes sense. There was a. There was. Yeah. I wondered that. That's really fun to know.

[Travis Willingham]

Like I said, I'm very interested in a possible fern one shot. Because you much like how Mr. Burns is only alive because all the diseases are in him and they're all fighting to kill him at once and kind of cancel each other out. Fern Calloway exists because everyone at some point has some sort of contracted ownership over her or some vested interest and they're all kind of pushing at the same time and can't get to her. It's kind of what it feels like.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Now.

[Laura Bailey]

I have to finish this deal. I have to finish this deal. We have to do this.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

It's going to be in court forever when you finally go, which just needs to be non stop. Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

A lot of the last days of.

[Sam Riegel]

Judas Iscariot the play. But it's just fear and soul. Peter Joe for everybody.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Robert Sam Riegel.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yes.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Robert Sam Riegel's sponsored ad reads have always been unapologetic river dreams.

[Laura Bailey]

Great segue.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

But they went to some weird and never before seen places in Campaign 3.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Take a look.

[Travis Willingham]

Welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role where a bunch of us nerdy ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons.

[Liam O'Brien]

Okay, let me shift into first first person view.

[Travis Willingham]

Whoa. Is that.

[Liam O'Brien]

This is so cool. Unless I finish this commercial, I'm never gonna make it and you'll never respect me. Black Willow motherfuckin 69 at AOL. Motherfuckin calm. It's me, Ludo McGillicuddy. Now I have a HUD which is a heads up display and I'm asking. It's asking me do I want to read the next part of the copy or give that part to Marisha? I choose Marisha.

[Laura Bailey]

Why?

[Sam Riegel]

Why me?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What?

[Laura Bailey]

What?

[Travis Willingham]

That's illegal.

[Laura Bailey]

Paul pilot.

[Travis Willingham]

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

[Sam Riegel]

Can you at least release me from the ghostly curse that binds my soul and let me escape this eternal hell?

[Liam O'Brien]

You know what?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Sure.

[Liam O'Brien]

You're breaking up.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Shh.

[Liam O'Brien]

It's a bad connection.

[Travis Willingham]

I gotta go.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Bye.

[Laura Bailey]

Wait.

[Sam Riegel]

No.

[Laura Bailey]

It's been decades.

[Liam O'Brien]

It's my dog. Do nothing. If it's really your dad. Your dad. See, it's me. You really gotta hurry.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, I'm. Oh, I'm Okay.

[Liam O'Brien]

It's okay. It's okay. Hi, I'm Sam. Did we meet before? I feel like. No.

[Ashley Johnson]

Hi, Sam.

[Liam O'Brien]

No. Okay, we're on.

[Travis Willingham]

We're on camera. Run.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Destiny's Call. It's time. It's time for Destiny's Call. Matt, we're always gonna throw it to you to start. Oh, boy. I know, I know. This is your world. You've gotta live in it. What? Why is your finger so thick?

[Travis Willingham]

That wasn't a finger.

[Ashley Johnson]

Wasn't a finger.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Ta da.

[Marisha Ray]

Thick fingers willing.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

A lot of amazing dream sequences in this entire thing, Matt. Why did Imogen see people in her dreams after their deaths?

[Travis Willingham]

For me, her burgeoning exultant status made her very psychically connected to figures that were either themselves exultant or had a recent close connection. So deaths that were close to her that she either wasn't present to witness directly or perhaps was in that in between heavily infused psychic state. There was a vision of that spirit transference, their essence more or less passing beyond. And it was a fun narrative device for me to frame some of these moments as they occurred in the game. But that was mainly the inspiration behind it was just showing that kind of burgeoning psychic resonance and the fact that there was a much stronger power within Imogen beyond what she understood, like the.

[Ashley Johnson]

Thumbprint of their psychic soul before it gave her away.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What was the story behind the theft of Gianna He Maxim's Golem?

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, that was a whole side quest that never happened. I have like four pages, four pages of a full, like, jungle excursion. And that's how it goes, though. That's how D and D works. Yeah, it was a whole side quest that was going to lead you to like, this other group of smugglers that were working near Jrusar and the Returning. It was going to be another way to get in with Gianna and to learn more about her dealings with the Cerberus assembly and kind of set up some of the elements that would come to play over in Bassuras, and then it just never happened. So that's what that was supposed to be.

[Laura Bailey]

It's all good.

[Travis Willingham]

We got there eventually.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I have super fond memories of early, early Campaign three, just because it was just such a wild. But I really gravitated toward your character of Lord Eshteross. Oh, I Sure. I just thought really great, really great character. What can you tell us about their past as a mercenary? And what was the nature of their relationship with Mistress Prudache?

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, yeah. So for Eshteross, I envision somebody who made their name at a young age as a very dependably dangerous soldier of fortune and likely had been kind of fur hired at the highest bidder in times of the Apex war, likely more on the side of a shanador and probably had clashed previously with a younger Otohan during that conflict. And so when it's in my head, well, I didn't really get a chance to express it as much because the. The story wasn't quite open at that point in time. But when Otohan did end up assassinating Eshteross early in the campaign, that was a blood feud they had fought before, and that was her more or less closing the loop with now exultant capabilities that she didn't have previously.

[Sam Riegel]

So much with this Apex war that I kind of understand in a lot that I don't.

[Travis Willingham]

We didn't get to go into it as deeply as I wanted to in the campaign. We kind of swerved and went in a different direction. But the Apex war more or less was a massive geopolitical conflict between the Stratos throne and Ashenador, which are the two southernmost regions of Marquet. And during it was a number of years of conflict between the two that eventually just led to a stalemate. Both sides were expending so much resources and so much money, and neither really was gaining any sort of benefit over time until they eventually just decided, like, after much influence from Ank'harel and Jassar and many of the other powers around, like the Pentagrep sands. And they all kind of went like, guys, no one's winning this. And it's really kind of wrecking the region and wrecking both of you. And so they eventually agree to give them to a ceasefire. And there was no victor over the war. And it's been kind of a period of recovery ever since. And there's still some tensions there, but mostly they kind of keep to their own, aside from necessary trade. But the warriors that were using that war as a way to rise to prominence like Otohan, were not happy that there wasn't a victory, that there wasn't a place for them to become a historical champion that won this cause. And that was around after some time of that made her a very easy target for Ludinus to bring under his banner. But Eshteross, through some of that conflict, was in the side of Ashenador and kind of just. It disillusioned him to war. He spent his life fighting for others and others causes for money. And through the process of seeing both the terrible impact it has, but also the kind of lack of impact that it does. It is not a way to. In his mind, to solve conflict on that scale. And so one of his great patrons and a friend that he made over time, Pradaj, more or less like she passed and left everything to him. They had, I will say, an unresolved romance in my mind. Like they. It was. For lack of a better term, they never actually got together. But there was a deep affection and profound respect and.

[Marisha Ray]

Well, over the pants stuff.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Over the pants, yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Otphj for sure.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah, yeah. But yeah. And I think a lot of his kind of dealing with and coming to terms with that was a lot of like kind of their discussion and her helping them through that and as they bonded over it. And he didn't have much, especially as a soldier of the force and his contract did not complete as a war was not won. Sorry. I could wax put about this for a long time, but yeah, that's kind of the general concept for Eshteross. And instead him wanting to kind of take others under his wing and see other people not following that path that he did.

[Sam Riegel]

A few people in Discord have said exu. Apex wars, which could be sick.

[Travis Willingham]

That could be sick.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Well, just. Just listening to you talk about what.

[Sam Riegel]

Big old novel or big old novel.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Listening to you talk about Eshteross backstory, I think really affected the way that they were played because obviously everyone in chat. There's a lot of shared love for that character. So I think it's obviously so fleshed out in your mind that it came across on screen and people gravitated towards.

[Travis Willingham]

I'm glad you guys liked him.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Speaking of fan favorites, Liam is Pretty related to Buddy. Son, nephew, cousin, it says.

[Ashley Johnson]

Please, I'll leave that to you to decide. I just assumed on that.

[Sam Riegel]

No, make a choice. Make a choice right now.

[Liam O'Brien]

It's your guy.

[Marisha Ray]

Make a choice.

[Laura Bailey]

Actor.

[Ashley Johnson]

But Buddy doesn't know. Didn't know nothing about nothing.

[Travis Willingham]

Obviously all ogres know each other, right?

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah.

[Liam O'Brien]

But they have the same.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I didn't write the question.

[Ashley Johnson]

I have a semi related question. Was Pretty the ogre like an on the fly creation or something that you had waiting in that town?

[Travis Willingham]

No, I think Pretty was on the Fly. I fleshed out that particular tavern, that inn. But I think Pretty was just an on the fly creation in that space.

[Liam O'Brien]

Pretty.

[Ashley Johnson]

I think I snuck into the subconscious noodles of your mind and you grabbed. You made a big. They're cousins. What if they're like second cousins?

[Liam O'Brien]

Why not first Cousins because you want them to get together? Is that why? And that's illegal.

[Ashley Johnson]

I mean, we don't know what's going to happen with Exandria moving forward.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You did just call yourself a noodle grabber, basically, is what you said. How about a question you can answer? Orym always has a green sash in his character design. What is the meaning behind it?

[Ashley Johnson]

That is a super simple, basic answer. I just thought of it as a Zephyran design that he never wanted to let go of and reminded him of home.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, nice.

[Ashley Johnson]

I never said that out loud, but that's what it was.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I like simple answers. Let's finish them all. Matt, what happened to the Shade mother?

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, I mean, she's still infesting jrusar, just in different tunnels.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Laura, what kind of horse is Flora?

[Laura Bailey]

She's a horse.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What does she look like?

[Liam O'Brien]

You know all the breeds of horses?

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah, I know all the breeds of horses, Painter. No, Flora was like a. I don't know the breeds of horses. I can tell you the color.

[Travis Willingham]

Just say quarter horse.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Just say quarter horse.

[Matt Mercer]

Look it up. Before the campaign.

[Laura Bailey]

Shut up.

[Travis Willingham]

She was role playing a horse name.

[Sam Riegel]

Shut up.

[Travis Willingham]

You. You asked me, you said Neil Revenge.

[Laura Bailey]

I looked it up at the time.

[Travis Willingham]

Shut up.

[Laura Bailey]

It's not count.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Name your top five horses.

[Laura Bailey]

Listen, I looked it up back then, but I don't remember it now. It's like a soft, light tan with a white mane. I know. That's a type of horse.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That answers the second half of the question. What does it look like? Very good. Everyone. Lightning round. What area of Marquette was your favorite to explore? Is there any location you wish you could return to in the future?

[Liam O'Brien]

The one with the. The crazy car race.

[Travis Willingham]

Bass.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. Bassar is. That was awesome.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

I liked Jassar.

[Travis Willingham]

Every one of you like Jasar.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. I kind of saw jar. I did. You know what I saw a long time ago that somebody suggested for our group name and I saw it after we already named our group and I. I really loved it. It was the Silver Reach. Because in jrusar, every single fucking ride we took was a silver each. And the Silver Reach was such a good name.

[Sam Riegel]

And because we're all taking Centrum silvers now.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I like the good joke. That's a good joke.

[Sam Riegel]

Thank you.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Speaking of old people about to die, Chad Knee. I wanna give. This isn't in the script. Not in the script. Oh, I wanna give you because Chad is begging for it. One last opportunity to kill your a quick daddy.

[Sam Riegel]

Let's go, let's go.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Let's do it. Let do it.

[Matt Mercer]

Three pairs of D100 pairings.

[Liam O'Brien]

So you're gonna roll three times?

[Matt Mercer]

Yeah, three times.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Three times.

[Matt Mercer]

It won't matter. We've done this.

[Travis Willingham]

One for each.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I gotta do it anyway. They want it.

[Matt Mercer]

64. No. 46.

[Travis Willingham]

46.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Come on, number two.

[Matt Mercer]

Come on. Die.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Come on.

[Matt Mercer]

37.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, come on.

[Matt Mercer]

Come on, Uk'otoa.

[Travis Willingham]

Die. This would be the one.

[Laura Bailey]

42.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Matt Mercer]

42.

[Travis Willingham]

Hey.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It worked.

[Matt Mercer]

He lives another day.

[Liam O'Brien]

Isn't that the meaning of life?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That is about it. For the Campaign 3 portion of this wrap up when we come back from break, we'll be joined by Brennan Lee Mulligan. And it's gonna be a free for all for all Exandria related questions. Calamity Divergence Campaigns one through three. That really cool extra totally canon Guest Battle Royale. We did that one time. It's all up for discussion. Oh yeah. You know the one. But before that, a loving send off to Campaign three. And all the amazing memories it made.

[Travis Willingham]

Aw. Having the privilege of being able to tell these stories with this group of people that I care so immensely about, it's hard to not think of it as the greatest honor of my life. I'm very grateful. Keyleth smiles and nods at the rest of you. Lady Fearne Calloway, Fae Sion of the Ancient Flame. Laudna Veil, Mistress of the Shadow Tree.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh shit.

[Travis Willingham]

Ashton the Reforged Hammer of Paradox. Chetney Pakopi, High Hunter in Lupine Paragon. Dorian Storm. Master Muse in Son of the Wind. Imogen Tumult, Exultant Hope of the Red Storm. Orym of the Air. Ashari Savior, Blade of the Tempest. She says with a smile.

[Laura Bailey]

Playing this game specifically with the people that I love and care about and have made my found family over the past 10 years. And I can't get enough of this game.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Why do we tell stories? To try to make sense of a world that can be terrifying and enormous. In Exandria. I don't know that your story will long be known. I don't know who will remain to tell it. But it did happen and it did matter. And though Calamity is here because of you, it will not be here forever.

[Ashley Johnson]

Our real lives for me are really intertwined with the ones that we've lived in Exandria. So there's no aspect of it that doesn't feel precious.

[Laura Bailey]

I'm gonna go to Laudna, sort of push her hair to the side. We'll find a way back for you, I promise. No. Oh, I don't like how this is making me feel. Okay, I'll go to Orym. Can you please come back? Because I'm getting a little scared.

[Liam O'Brien]

The stress being so high and it is so. It is so intense that for the first time I realized that I am made of metal and wire. But I am.

[Ashley Johnson]

I am alive.

[Liam O'Brien]

I'm alive for the first time. And I am alive. Not because I was made by D or Dancer or even the change burner. I'm alive because they made me alive. And it's the connections that I made with all of them. And it's a feeling of joy. And I. I'm happy to do this because they saved my life and I'll save theirs.

[Laura Bailey]

It's amazing and heartbreaking and wonderful and exciting and it's every emotion. I don't even have the words for it.

[Travis Willingham]

And you immediately recognize the silhouettes of Laudna, Orym, Ashton and another image in Laudna.

[Sam Riegel]

You guys, I skid her over.

[Laura Bailey]

You're alive.

[Sam Riegel]

You're alive.

[Laura Bailey]

Where's Orym? Orym.

[Ashley Johnson]

There's a rapid patter of feet along the wooden floor. And then Orym flies through the air and latches around Fearne's neck.

[Laura Bailey]

Well, I'm still a raccoon dog.

[Ashley Johnson]

My lips her up.

[Laura Bailey]

I. You did it.

[Sam Riegel]

Good boy.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I like you, fcg.

[Liam O'Brien]

I like you, Frida. Oh, boy.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Faithful caregiver suits you.

[Liam O'Brien]

Guess so.

[Laura Bailey]

Now I lean in and kiss.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

And you hear the clink. Yes.

[Laura Bailey]

Ow.

[Travis Willingham]

Actually, the amazing thing is this thing.

[Ashley Johnson]

Is, despite how uncomfortable, I haven't been honest with you. I have feelings for you. I think almost from the day I met you.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Well, I feel like the worlds have.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Kept us apart ever since I've been.

[Travis Willingham]

Back and I just wanted the tiniest moment with you.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

And I couldn't sleep either. You are the reason I'm here. You've always been the reason I'm here.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yep. Just another day where we're getting our makeup ready. Just another day.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, hi.

[Sam Riegel]

You don't have to listen in to get my thoughts. I'll always show them willingly. You didn't just ask.

[Laura Bailey]

Can I kiss you? I can't tell if it's all right or not anymore. All right, all right, So I will. I do. I do. I kiss her.

[Liam O'Brien]

Describe it.

[Laura Bailey]

No.

[Travis Willingham]

Use your imagination.

[Sam Riegel]

I mean, you were role playing across from BAFTA award winning Laura Bailey. Like, it's always so surreal when you're doing this. And everyone is just so good at, like, giving and taking. That's why we all cry all the time, because it's so damn real.

[Laura Bailey]

I'm just gonna stand behind her head and brush your forehead. I'm not gonna tell you to come back. I'm not gonna try to compel you to come back. Because that choice, Laudna, is yours now. No one gets to control you anymore. All right? Just know that I love you. Oh, man, it's so many feelings. It's sort of the end of an era.

[Liam O'Brien]

I think the. The last things I see are Bertrand and Dorian and Frida. And I just feel connected to everybody. And some. Some connections are made with wires and some are made with blood and some are made with bone and some are made with wood, but they all matter. Even in this dark, dark cave, they make every day a smiley day. So I just sign off and go.

[Matt Mercer]

Why, hello there.

[Ashley Johnson]

This is Critical Role's resident art dad, also known as Liam O'Brien. We are continuously amazed at the artwork this community creates. That's why each Thursday at 8am Pacific, we share a curated gallery of submitted fan art over on critrole.com if you'd like to submit your art for consideration, visit critrole.com submit and thank you to all of the incredible artists who share their talents with us week after week.

[Matt Mercer]

Hello, you beautiful people. I'm talking to the audience, not the cast. I just want to wish you a happy ten year anniversary.

[Liam O'Brien]

Ten years? That's insane.

[Laura Bailey]

And yeah, I think.

[Matt Mercer]

Trudy, I know I speak for many people, but. But the Crit Roll team, what you guys have done, what it is, the community you've built, is life changing.

[Travis Willingham]

The fact you even got me to.

[Matt Mercer]

DM for the first time ever in my life is like an achievement and an incredible confidence boost. So, yeah, happy 10 year anniversary.

[Laura Bailey]

Hello, Critters. Erica Lindbeck here. I just wanted to congratulate everyone on a wonderful 10 years of critical Role. I hope you guys do it for another hundred. It has been one of my greatest joys to sit down at the table as Morgan joined the team. I remember when I first came in for Kymal, I was so nervous and everyone made me feel right at home. I don't know why I thought I had anything to worry about. And by the end of that first little series, I was ready to play all night long. But yeah, I love you guys. I think you're incredible entertainers, but more importantly, you are some of the most magical and kindest people I've ever met. And it is an honor to breathe the same air as you. So, yeah, love you guys.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Hey, Critical Role family, this is Luis.

[Liam O'Brien]

Carrazo and I just wanted to say really quickly, congratulations to Everybody on their 10 year anniversary and wrapping up their third campaign. It was a truly incredible experience to be able to play Zerg and Exu Calamity.

[Erica Lindbeck]

And if I had to choose a.

[Ashley Johnson]

Favorite moment at the table, it would.

[Liam O'Brien]

Have to be giving the Lord of Hells a sponge bath. Nothing quite like that, at least in my top three.

[Erica Lindbeck]

But honestly, my.

[Liam O'Brien]

My favorite thing about doing this was.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Being able to share the table with.

[Liam O'Brien]

Such incredible storytellers and being able to be a part of this incredible, awesome community. And I just want to say thank you everybody. Can't wait to see what comes next. And I will see you all around. Congratulations.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Much love.

[Travis Willingham]

Hey.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Critical Role and critters out there.

[Travis Willingham]

Just wanted to say congratulations on 10 years.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Pretty epic.

[Travis Willingham]

Happy birthday.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Getting to join Downfall and play Aiden the Dawn child. My sweet, sweet Aiden was such a.

[Ashley Johnson]

Gift and I love y'all. It was just a blast.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Getting to try and bring a broken family back together.

[Liam O'Brien]

And may the sun shine upon you all every day.

[Laura Bailey]

Love ya. What's up, critters? It's Anjali Bhimani. Well, if there is one thing that I have learned from these several years of getting to hang out with all of you, thanks to the dear, dear, dear humans over at Critical Role, it is that critters show up in the world for each other. You guys are just utterly amazing. Thank you so much for letting me be just a small part of this beautiful community that you've created. You are living proof of what Fiera Rai once said. Not all family is blood. Much family is chosen. So here is to 10 years of critical Role. And to many, many more years of love and light and creativity. And not just the tiniest little bit of ridiculousness. And of course, to many more years of found family. Now I gotta get back to some reading I was doing.

[Travis Willingham]

Excuse me.

[Liam O'Brien]

Ten years. Oh, this is madness. I don't know how you do it.

[Travis Willingham]

Critical Role fam.

[Liam O'Brien]

You are amazing and I love each.

[Marisha Ray]

And every one of you.

[Ashley Johnson]

Some of the best storytelling I have ever witnessed and that I've ever been.

[Liam O'Brien]

A part of have been in Critical Role. And I think a big reason for.

[Ashley Johnson]

That is because anytime that magic happens at the table, it doesn't matter how outlandish, how big the characters are, it's.

[Liam O'Brien]

The actors bringing their genuine self to the moment.

[Ashley Johnson]

And so to all the critters out.

[Liam O'Brien]

There, I hope you will take that.

[Ashley Johnson]

To heart and remember that celebrating your.

[Liam O'Brien]

Unique, beautiful and genuine self will always be where the best adventures lie. And where all the magic happens.

[Ashley Johnson]

I love you, Critical Role, and thank you.

[Liam O'Brien]

Happy anniversary.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Welcome back to the wrap up of Critical Role's Campaign three and the Age of Reclamation.

[Laura Bailey]

Not the whole break.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What I just thought of it in the moment. I planned nothing for the show.

[Laura Bailey]

Really was really cool.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Now that we've gone through Campaign three, it's time to come up to open up the discussion to a bit of exandria overall. And who better to add to that topic than the man who gave Calamity a beginning, a middle and an end. Brutally balling it.

[Laura Bailey]

Get your ass out of here.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Bam.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Calamity.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Hi, buddy.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Aw, that is good stuff, dude. Yeah, we're gonna give you all the hype. You're the second act opener. This had better be good, baby.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Yeah, and it will be. Hello, I'm Brendan Lee Mulligan. It's nice to be here. Thanks for having me.

[Sam Riegel]

Thanks for sitting in the lobby while we digged around and made fun of Travis.

[Erica Lindbeck]

It was great. I had a lovely pesto sandwich and I got some emails. Done.

[Sam Riegel]

Hi, buddy.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, yeah, it's like, I'm not done.

[Erica Lindbeck]

I'm not done. More pets.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You know, strangely enough, you were not on the top of the call sheet for who I should ask a question to first, but I feel like it should be you.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah, for sure.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah. You're here. Yeah, it's gotta be you.

[Laura Bailey]

Are you reading that tiny, tiny little font?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I am.

[Laura Bailey]

That's why his eyes are water. You can spread it.

[Sam Riegel]

You can spread. Yeah, you can.

[Travis Willingham]

You got it.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Robbie, right here on camera.

[Travis Willingham]

Spread it with your fingers.

[Laura Bailey]

I can't.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I can't.

[Sam Riegel]

Spread your legs and stretch your wings, baby.

[Ashley Johnson]

You have my attention.

[Laura Bailey]

Spread your legs. Yes.

[Travis Willingham]

Give the focus to Robbie.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Hey, I don't want to take this moment from you. You two are bonding on a deep level. What's it like to play around in Matt's map building room? What's it like in there?

[Erica Lindbeck]

That map building room is so sick. You have no idea. Because not only is. Is it lovingly tended to, beautifully painted, rendered. Okay. All of that exquisitely organized, may I dare I say it, Intuitively. Intuitively organized. So you end up having these wonderful like, oh, the dungeon tiles are where the dungeon tiles should be, and here are the humanoids. But it is very funny to look at them and be like, humanoids one, Humanoids two. And you're like, what gets you in Humanoids two? And are they jealous that they're not in humanoids at all?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Are they sad?

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

These are the hard hitting questions I've been looking for all night long. Who you calling a humanoid? Next year I'm gonna end up in humanoids 1.

[Erica Lindbeck]

I can taste it someday. Yeah, keep trying, Fred.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

So you felt like you could get to work right away. Like you felt like you were in the space and it was there for you to be taken.

[Erica Lindbeck]

There was a really funny thing, actually building the Torm's Hill battle set for Defense Divergence, where I was like, I got to work in there. And it was like. It was like, okay, Torrensil, we'll start. And I was like, oh, you know, it's been so long since I've like built a map by hand. Even when I was playing growing up, it was like, you know, cabochon moncala beads and like a dry erase map.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Erica Lindbeck]

And I'm like. I'm like, all right, we don't have to. We don't have to overthink it or go overboard. It's a small little town. It's like a little camp. And I was like, but these trees are kind of nice. Ooh, a well. And then suddenly you're just like. And then it's like 90 minutes and you're like a fully rendered tell.

[Travis Willingham]

You understand.

[Erica Lindbeck]

You understand. It is like a flow state. You wouldn't. It's like matrix line code. Like, oh, my God. Everything, the world at your fingertips. It's intoxicating.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, it's lovely. So, okay, in Exu Divergence, when did you get the idea to have some of the party members be gods, specifically for Matt to be the All Hand Hammer?

[Erica Lindbeck]

Right away.

[Laura Bailey]

Right away.

[Erica Lindbeck]

No, because it just felt like a. I love Matt with all my heart. And Matt of Matt's many virtues, generosity of spirit is key among them. By which I mean you have to fucking overpower this guy to give him his flowers and you have to force the compliment. And so I did it through trickery and it was really lovely, but it was just too like the idea of knowing Matt's connection to dwarves and also the idea of divergence being this period of the gods leaving. And specifically too, because we've had mortal gods in downfall and they've been, you know, that. That idea of katathiosis and embodying mortal form, it just felt like a beautiful way to have a story that was so much about mortals picking up the pieces that even the gods were like, oh, if we're gonna help, we have to be people, right? And that to me, that was the moral of Divergence was that it was about mortals saving their own worlds. And even the Gods that want to help go. The best way for us to help is to be mortal.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'm going to throw up this and ask a question in my own brain. When you're starting off the process of crafting a story, do you like to come at it from a plot driven or are you looking to impart a thematic idea first? What drops into your head first? Because your work is full of obviously themes and ideas that you want to impart, just obviously from the question that you just answered. So would you say you start with an idea or would you say you start with character and story?

[Erica Lindbeck]

It's really funny to forgive a really, like a nerdy answer, but it's like talking about space and time and they kind of can't coexist without each other. So, like plot and character, or plot and character and theme, they don't. If you move any slider to zero, they all disappear. Right. So there's a sort of like. But what's interesting is all of these were love letters to different parts of exandrian lore and just depends on the series we're talking about. So with Calamity, the initial thing was the calamity. What we know in the lore is the calamity was started by a guy named Vespin Chloras. And the very first fun creative challenge is we know that we're going to have six players at the table. How do you make all of them responsible for something that a guy named Vespin Cloris did? And how do you make all of them share the sin of the Age of Arcanum, which is hubris? And so you go, oh, that's the first step is thinking about six people experiencing hubris and how. How Vespin's error was compounded over a cascading disaster. So that's how you started with calamity and then moving to downfall, it was just like, what's the, you know, in the destruction of that? What's the most painful part of that? Yeah, I guess pain directs me. I'm driven by pain. I'll unpack that later. But it was like, oh, well, the prime deity's experience of that has to be the most painful part. So getting to a personal first person experience of the prime deities destroying a mortal civilization and the crisis of self caused by that, and then for divergence, it was like time for the little.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Guys.

[Erica Lindbeck]

And really wanting to show that the thing that moves exandria out of the calamity is actually not something as acute. The start of calamity is the most acute and the end of it is the most diffused. The era ends, and now every single person shares an equal slice of responsibility for building the world again.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, well, you touched on it a little bit, the connectivity, which is a good segue into this. Question. How much of the trilogy of Exu, Calamity, Downfall, and Divergence was planned beforehand? Like, did you. Did you know where you would continue? Like, where to connect next series to series? Or was it more like a stepping stone that you discovered along the way?

[Erica Lindbeck]

Over the past several years, I've been falling down the hill of my own life at top speed. None of this is planned.

[Matt Mercer]

Life.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Yeah, yeah. Just like cans and my wallet and my shoes are off. So to answer the question as honestly as possible, every single one of these miniseries I have approached with total focus on that and that alone. So there was no sort of thought of what was to come after it all grew organically, which is, like the intoxicating and mesmerizing part of this art form.

[Sam Riegel]

Well, yeah, because we knew we wanted to do something with you. We had kind of already been toying around the idea of thinking of wanting to do something in Calamity. Aabria, of course, had come in and done the first Exu Arc, and I remember being like, man, I think Brennan would crush, like, a Calamity miniseries. But if he wants to do something funny or something like pirates rumble Cusp, that's something cool, too. And then Brennan came in for a pitch meeting, and he was like, look, I could do something funny like pirates, or I could. Or I could do Calamity. And I was like, thank God.

[Travis Willingham]

Yes, do that.

[Erica Lindbeck]

It was like a lunch with Matt and Travis, specifically, where. I think it was at Sizzler. At Sizzler.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, yeah.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Eat fresh. What is it?

[Travis Willingham]

What do they say at Sizzler?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Not much.

[Matt Mercer]

We'll see you later.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Pizza. Pizza. It was because Matt had mentioned, like, hey, as we. As we, like, open the sandbox up and we want to play with our friends and have people come in and share stories, it really was this moment. I don't know if, Matt, you intended this, but it was like you were like. And we could do anything. It's like, there's Wildemount, there's Marquette, and then we can even play with time. You could even do the Age of Arcanum. And that's how underlined it felt to me when you said it. And I was like, ooh, Matt likes that. And of course, it immediately made me. It immediately made me go like. And then I went and reread the Lore and looked at it. I think you guys had already made the video that was the, like, Schism through Calamity explainer video at that point in time. Just beautifully made video. Go check it out. And it was like. I just looked at that and I was like, oh, man, you could do a sick disaster movie of these mages in their fucking towers and everything. Everything's. Yeah, we did it.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's a sick log line, too. Everything's.

[Laura Bailey]

I think everybody knows.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yeah, that's true.

[Travis Willingham]

I saw one question there. Someone asking about what happened to Patia's orb. Oh, yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's actually a question on here, too. So it must be a good question.

[Travis Willingham]

Look at that.

[Sam Riegel]

You should watch Divergence.

[Travis Willingham]

You should watch Divergence because it explains part of that. But you're here for spoilers, so I'm gonna talk about it anyway. Well, no, because it was the end of Calamity with the entire sequence of Patious Orb and the release of it that immediately, even just watching it happen when we were filming it, it was like, what an interesting jumping off point for the Cobalt Soul. The idea of an entire collection of minds through history that are about the collection and safety of dangerous knowledge and disseminating and protecting that for an entire age. And so once that happened, it was like, well, that is going to be the spark. But we just kind of kept that in the heads until the opportunity came for that being a book or something else. And instead, you got to actually work it into Divergence, which was awesome.

[Erica Lindbeck]

And again, the fact that Marisha launched an orb filled with all knowledge through space and time to be caught by her beforehand, but centuries later, it was so fucking sick. It was just awesome. It was so cool.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah. In my mind, currently it exists, deeply sealed somewhere on Exandria, in the deepest of vaults beneath the most carefully guarded monastery of the Cobalt Soul. And a library subterranean vault that no one has probably stepped foot in for hundreds of years with these ass eggs.

[Ashley Johnson]

With a stone statue of a swole dragonborn sitting in lotus position above it.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

It's also an incense burner, though.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Yay.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, God.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, God.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Liam, how exactly did Brennan go about recruiting you for this? His sneaky Divergence plans.

[Ashley Johnson]

Oh, man. Well, it was a great session, Zero, and came with, like, two or three loose ideas. But my favorite one, the one that I was like, I could do any of these. Whatever works with the chemistry of what we figure out here today. But I could. I. I've been thinking about a Dragonborn who is just sort of a lone wanderer on the Road. Like, we're in Cormac McCarthy's the Road. And I remember saying Gold Dragonborn out loud. And in the middle of that meeting, Brendan's like, let's talk about that later. So I just sort of accidentally walked in, ready to conspire. Before I even knew it.

[Erica Lindbeck]

I was just gonna say that it was such a huge layup. And again, because, like, the. I don't know, there was a lot of confluence. Like, there was very little trap laying on my part. The shapes all kind of took place. And especially because I feel like the Platinum Dragon and the Allhammer were not gods that we had necessarily seen the most of or had, like, dedicated PCs for, but also are dedicated to things that are very, like. What's the word I'm looking for, that feel very heroic. There are a lot of gods that have domain. Like, the Stormlord's domain is fucking enormous and of the natural world. But you have, like, honor, justice, craft, creation as being really things that are in the domain of what mortals do. So it felt very fitting for those two to be like, no, we're 0th level. We're trying to make the world better. We have this one last task, and then the gate is built.

[Travis Willingham]

I just wanted to make an old.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Dwarf, and, baby, you made the oldest.

[Ashley Johnson]

I want to know what the fucking.

[Travis Willingham]

Damn it.

[Ashley Johnson]

Early conversations were, because I knew that he inceptioned you toward that outcome. But the early conversation, like, did you float a couple of ideas? Or was always like, this is my chance to play the quintessential Dwarf, or, how did it go in the beginning?

[Travis Willingham]

I mean, it's hard to think back. But, like, I love dwarf PCs. I love dwarves in general. They've always been, like, one of my favorite races in, like, the fantasy genre. I love what they represent. I love their sense of family and craft and legacy through building and art and construction. And I just. No one barely plays Dwarves in our games. You're the only person who diptoes into it with the Darrington Brigade. And I was like, I'm just going to bring another Dwarf. I don't care. I don't get to play a PC very often during the Dwarf. But I also just love the idea of. Of playing a character that is at the very kind of end of their life, especially a very hard life, and having that opportunity in their final days to make a difference. And I feel like they left the world better than they found it. And I was truly, fully invested in the idea of the Bookend of Divergence, letting him kind of be the theme of the end of the age is also the end of this poor torn dwarf's existence and finally leaving something meaningful in the world and then just. Just fading into stone and dust. And you're like, yeah, about that. Instead, I'm gonna punch you in the soul for the rest of your life. So cool. Thanks.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

In the C3 finale, though, we're talking about creating and crafting the Divine Gate is destroyed by all the Gods together. Was the Allhammer wrong about the gods not being able to destroy it? Or was he just saying meant that only one God can destroy it, but all of them together can? Or was it destroyed in some other, not exactly godly way? And this could be for either of you, of course.

[Travis Willingham]

So, I mean, yeah, if you want to go ahead.

[Liam O'Brien]

I'll take this one. I'll take this one.

[Travis Willingham]

I defer to math. Well, in modern day Exandria, the Divining Gate, after it was finally placed and constructed, it could not be deconstructed unless there was a complete agreement. If there was all those that were responsible for its construction, and all gods, to a certain degree, all lent to the creation of the Divine Gate, the Primes, at least, and it could not be dissolved unless all the Primes were in agreement to it to prevent an inner corruption from causing this terrible cataclysm. So that was kind of the initial design, but in those early development stages of actually building it, there's a whole bunch of weird, fun, kooky things that come up. Which I thought was a fun question that got brought up in divergence.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Yeah, I took it very much as the All Hammer thwarting an attempt for a single God to bypass the gate on their own. Right. That essentially, it's like, this is how we get around. Cause especially beyond Exandria, the gods are, I think we talked about this before, almost even more omnipotent as they get that one step past. You know, they're even more vast and cosmic. So the idea of, like, I've decided I'm done with this ping and the gate, like flies open. That there would be. Yeah, that there's a big difference between unanimity and some God being sneaky and being like, oh, I left my keys, I'm going back.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

If you're talking about, like, crossing that threshold, what would have happened if the kid crossed the threshold and was taken by the Lord of Lies? Like, would we know that Asmodeus ends up beyond the Divine Gate? So if his plan worked, how would you have dealt with that?

[Erica Lindbeck]

That's not my problem. That's the PC's problem, I don't have to. I'm not here to have solutions in mind. I'm here to throw sticks at bicycle wheels. And I do that, and I do that and then they fix it. I would say the kid would escape. You know, the Lord of the Hells would be like, quickly away to my vast chambers that I might quickly speed run puberty and then take this world by storm. And they'd have to find the kid and exorcise him. You know, I can imagine.

[Liam O'Brien]

Crazy montage.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Crazy montage.

[Travis Willingham]

The Divine Gate. They cannot cross the threshold back into Exandria. But there is precedent for gods being shunted through the Divine Gate and beyond. That's how Vecna was sealed with the divine trammels at the end of Campaign one. So there could have been an arc in which Asmodeus was locked on the other side. And there would have been probably a narrative in the future to explore in some way in which how they finally managed to exorcise and punt him back beyond the gate and seal him once more.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

So you're giving your players tools and responsibilities and things that could hurt them or help them. How did you decide what vestiges to hand to your players? Were there any Vestiges and divergents that we didn't see that you maybe would have liked to add or.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Oh, my God. Well, I got to hand over some of my favorite ones. Like, there are a bunch of amazing ones that some of which we haven't gotten to see on stream yet, which were, I believe, the storm girdle, which was so fun condemner. Now, one of them I kind of lied a little bit about, which was that infiltrator's key was not. It was sort of a super modified infiltrator's key that had that little soul ruby in the middle.

[Travis Willingham]

When that happened, I was like, huh, what an interesting take on that key.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Well, because there's no. In the text of the infiltrator's key. It's like made from the blood of 12 master thieves. And I was like, that sounds like some devil shit to me. And the absence of text, I was looking at the source book and I was like. Just like you, Asmodeus, to not reference yourself in the text of your own magic item. You've left it all out, haven't you?

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

Why would the Kobold soul know that? Why would they know that?

[Erica Lindbeck]

Yeah, but that's not. It's one of those things where if I was there and someone was like a Vestige the blood of 12 master thieves. And I'd be like, should I have this? That sounds awful.

[Travis Willingham]

Do as you're told. Just do as you're told.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Well, these. These answers are incredibly astute and so fun to listen to, but I think there's one that is burning in everyone's mind. What happened to Grubbling? Did he make it to Torms Hill and join the Roach gang?

[Erica Lindbeck]

Did. Gubbling.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Gubbling.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Sorry, yes, gubbling did. In my head, he did. And I think that he went to go join the Roach Gang and then they explained what they did and he went, that sounds frightening. And then just became a farmer.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Good.

[Erica Lindbeck]

That's exactly.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's the happiest ending to just become a farmer.

[Matt Mercer]

Agriculture sounds good.

[Erica Lindbeck]

This was never presented as an option for me before.

[Laura Bailey]

I just want to spade.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

For Matt and Liam. Did experiencing exu divergence make you really think differently about certain characters who lived through it, like Ludinus, or did it sort of solidify in your mind the reasons why those characters are so hardened by the life they endured?

[Ashley Johnson]

I mean, every. Every human being, every mortal reacts to the stimulus around them in different ways. Right. I don't know. I would love to get a Ludinus, a look at Ludinus life in those days to see what knocked him around.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah. In my mind, Ludinus lost a lot as a young man, kind of coming into the worst age of the calamity and probably raised in a very loving environment and then watching each person he cared about torn from him in horrible ways and often from his vantage point and with no reason to believe otherwise, as a direct consequence of these conflicts. And then to watch them all just disappear, to watch them all just go away and to feel abandoned, destroyed, and kind of left with this knowledge that what was the purpose, what was the reason? You know, he's someone that I can empathize with what he's been through and despise who he's let it turn him into. Yeah. People have an opportunity to explore that in depth in some other way. I don't know.

[Marisha Ray]

I love that we didn't see him in the game too. I love that we never saw him in the game. It felt good that he was like, as inconsequential to us as humanly possible.

[Sam Riegel]

Did you almost fall in the chair?

[Marisha Ray]

No, I just almost broke it. There's a difference. I would have stayed in it except the chair would have gone down.

[Travis Willingham]

Fair.

[Ashley Johnson]

I'll add in that I like that Arrow's mortal life was an antithesis for Ludinus. Because he dove after his brother, knowing he was gonna lose his memory. I think that. The way I think of it is he aimed himself at two of his most faithful and even keeled followers, which were Arrow's parents, a priest and a paladin of the Platinum Dragon. To get him raised right and get him. And to reinforce who he already was as a deity. And then the idea of having him travel across half the planet and lose so much was, you know, he's the God of justice. So his end result, his decision is, we really have to get out of here. It's not just what we're doing to these people. So the way to, like, drive that into the bones of this mortal, doesn't remember he's a God is to make him lose horribly. So he lost his father. Fleeing crossing the sea, he got over here, I imagine sort of a Roanoke situation where survivors got here. Some of them went off to look. They came back, those people were gone. Some sort of a. They found a settlement, lived there for a little bit. Disease. His mother died. He had sort of an adoptive father, like an associate or a friend of his parents. And then that guy died. And then he. He kept traveling alone. He kind of got embittered. Then he found a woman who made him find joy and love again and had that ripped away. So, like, I wanted him to kind of get hit hard so that when he remembered who he was, and this is me above the table as Deputy dm, when he remembered who he was, he could look back at the life he'd had and be like, what we've done here is not right, and it's time to go.

[Erica Lindbeck]

My favorite thing about that, too, was that it would be so easy to be like, oh, Arrow disproves something about Ludinus. I think that's maybe overly simplified because Arrow had the soul of a God and lost faith. So the calamity was pretty fucking bad. You know, like, calamity's pretty bad. Someone who's literally got divinity in him. Well, that was my favorite thing, too. And Sellia, who played Nia so beautifully, shout out to Sellia. So brilliant. I just love that there was a dynamic that Sellia was not aware of where she was going. Like, I know the gods won't let us down. And two gods were like, they might. Whatever faith you have. Let me be clear. It would be gross if I had that faith in myself. Like, have some fucking humility. But also, like, I don't know, man, I'm tired. I loved that.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What a great.

[Erica Lindbeck]

That was a Perfect dynamic. I loved it so much.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

All right, we're gonna open it up into general Exandria questions. Wait, what happened? Yeah, kick him again, Robbie.

[Liam O'Brien]

I saw one from chat. It was by a username, Vespinclideris.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, great.

[Laura Bailey]

Great.

[Sam Riegel]

Name.

[Travis Willingham]

Solid name.

[Laura Bailey]

Woo. Solid name.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

They had asked some lady.

[Liam O'Brien]

Is the Nord verse Alex Exandria?

[Laura Bailey]

No.

[Liam O'Brien]

Oh, and I think, yes, I think the Nord verse is. Is in Exandria somewhere.

[Travis Willingham]

No, it's in a snow globe.

[Liam O'Brien]

Is in the.

[Travis Willingham]

The greater cosmos.

[Marisha Ray]

Yeah, it's in a snow globe.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

It'S what was left when Tengar was destroyed. It's the Nord verse. Oh, man. I saw a question earlier that I found. Somebody mentioned that when the matron did the ritual of katathiosis, someone asked why she knew about the beacon. Does she understand the nature of the luxon? And I was like, the gods do not fully understand the nature of the luxon. The luxon is still a large mystery, though they have their suspicions in more or less a subconscious understanding or theorem of what its cosmic essence would be. But the matron, more than any other God, is very familiar with the power of Dunamis and the beacons because they are specifically one of the things that breaks the cycle of death that she looks over. You know, the passage of the soul into the afterlife was the structure the gods created when they came to Exandria. And the consecution process of the Kryan dynasty that the beacons can maintain essentially breaks that cycle and tears those spirits away from the entire realm that she oversees. And so she is very familiar with it. In fact, even utilizing it in that final ritual was a very conflicting point for her. But was another one of those examples of doing what was best for the great of her and her brethren, using something that up until that point, she largely despised.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

That's interesting.

[Laura Bailey]

There's just this one city in Exandria.

[Sam Riegel]

That just keeps giving her the finger.

[Travis Willingham]

More or less. Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

So the gods are mortal or about to be. So what does that mean for beings like Galdric and Uk'otoa now that they're gone? I know I messed it up. It's okay.

[Travis Willingham]

No, it's okay.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, it didn't mess it up.

[Travis Willingham]

No.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Did I do it right? Really?

[Travis Willingham]

I'm so proud of you.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Oh, man.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'll learn my lore someday. With the gods gone, can they rise.

[Travis Willingham]

To greater prominence when the cats are away? Baby, like, divinity's gone for a while and in some cases might be gone for extended periods. So lesser idols and, you know, Beings of great interest and ambition. This is. There's a power vacuum. There is a time for them to do their best, to claim what space they can. This new age is likely going to be a very tumultuous one. There will be a rise of demagogues and cults of personality and many entities that have been lying in wait and in the shadows under the watchful eye of the primes. And now that they're away, this is an opportunity for them to seize. So, yeah, it's gonna get real interesting in Exandria.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

So a power vacuum might be bad.

[Travis Willingham]

It'll be interesting, okay, for the make.

[Ashley Johnson]

Believe people, but for the people playing.

[Laura Bailey]

Or watching, great subject for just one second.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

Have you ever thought about singing? It's hard to be the bard. Have you ever heard that song?

[Ashley Johnson]

I love that song.

[Laura Bailey]

Isn't it so good? And I was just like the whole time you were talking, envisioning you singing it. It's actually very. So good at it.

[Travis Willingham]

Thank you, Laura. You've now imparted the Internet's drive to force me to sing that. At some point it'll be.

[Laura Bailey]

Has anybody already said it before?

[Travis Willingham]

No, but now it will follow me to every event and convention.

[Ashley Johnson]

Luckily, you're an excellent singer.

[Travis Willingham]

I thought she was about to apologize and she's like, no, it's not perfect.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Quick, Laura, what was Imogen's grandmother first name? I'm kidding. You said in the past that Imogen could have gone evil.

[Laura Bailey]

Obviously.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What events?

[Sam Riegel]

Like, like 12 different ways.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

So what events of those 12 different ways in particular do you think could have pushed over the edge?

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, like personally, if, like, outside of just like, exploring Predathos body.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh.

[Laura Bailey]

If Laudna had died. If Laudna had died.

[Sam Riegel]

Died, yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

I don't think Imogen would have stayed good and happy. And if Laudna, not only if Laudna would have died, died, but if Laudna would have, like, given over to Delilah.

[Sam Riegel]

I would have broken bad with you.

[Laura Bailey]

I know.

[Sam Riegel]

We got close.

[Laura Bailey]

We did.

[Sam Riegel]

We got close to breaking bad.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. And then when it came down to it, I was like, no, I know.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

I chickened.

[Sam Riegel]

You did?

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

It felt like, oh, I think I said this, that. Have you seen that fail video of the two girls, like, jumping off the cliff?

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

And one chickens out at the other last minute, and it causes the other girl to kind of slip each falls down the cliff.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah, I let you fall down the cliff.

[Ashley Johnson]

Also, though, if you break bad, you're handing your character. Character away. And sometimes it's hard to let go.

[Laura Bailey]

I know, I know. Honestly, that seemed kind of fun. But.

[Erica Lindbeck]

I have a really. I have a really silly question for people. If I can. Everyone I've gotten to. I was realizing I've gotten to play with everyone here in one time in the past. I got three people. I got Travis, Sam, and Marisha. And Calamity. I got Ashley, Laura, and Taliesin. And Downfall. I got Matt and Leah. And Divergence. Which of your prime core of the present exandrian characters would have been the worst fit for your prequel? Like, if you had to swap out your prequel story character with one of your core exandrian characters?

[Sam Riegel]

Bo would have been horrible.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Bow placed into the ring of brass.

[Sam Riegel]

And she'd be like, I hate. Hate this. This is exact. She'd be like, I'm gonna fucking bring this whole city down myself. Vespin, who fucking forward of the hells.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Opens the tree up like, hello. Oh, it's burning already.

[Sam Riegel]

Shit.

[Matt Mercer]

I think Chetney would have probably been a pretty decent eye of Avalir, but Grog would have been just prime run amok. No wonder that city fell.

[Travis Willingham]

Ring of breast gather. Ring of brass gathers and the doors open and Grog walks in. The rest of them just go, Rachel.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Right, I'm here.

[Travis Willingham]

Ring of brass, Purdue.

[Sam Riegel]

This is the new guy.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I love it.

[Sam Riegel]

This Nepo baby.

[Laura Bailey]

I think it's.

[Marisha Ray]

I think.

[Laura Bailey]

I think it's pretty obvious.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Jester would have been horrible for Secret for Mission Impossible. God style.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. No horrendous. Like, she would have had too much power as a God number one. Like, it just wreaked havoc. But also, she would have, like, really tried to make Asmodeus, like, come to the good side. Like, she really would have thought she could have, like, helped.

[Travis Willingham]

Wow.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Zerxus Round 2.0.

[Sam Riegel]

Yes.

[Erica Lindbeck]

2.0.

[Laura Bailey]

100%.

[Marisha Ray]

The Ashton combo would have been great up there. I feel like we would have really. It would have gone great.

[Laura Bailey]

They need to hang out.

[Marisha Ray]

I know. I'm really excited for, like, any time we finally get to do that.

[Travis Willingham]

That looks breakable.

[Marisha Ray]

You want to hit that?

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

I wonder what that button does.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, my gosh.

[Ashley Johnson]

I think that Gren Aldrich Ehrmandrud would have died of dysentery at age 7. But Vax probably would have helped. Helped Phaedra start the roach gang. Yeah, he'd have been fine.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Totally, totally.

[Travis Willingham]

But you good?

[Liam O'Brien]

I mean, if. If Taryon Darrington were a broadcaster, I mean, it might work for a while, but I think he would just be so overwhelmed with all the attention that he would be like, huge crack. I think he would just love it. And he'd be like, I'll do whatever you want. If you get into TV.

[Laura Bailey]

More.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Druids.

[Laura Bailey]

Let's.

[Liam O'Brien]

Let's do bad on TV.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's great.

[Ashley Johnson]

And the 75th annual Hunger Games begin.

[Matt Mercer]

Pompadour.

[Laura Bailey]

Ashley, I. I'm going. I'm going with Fern because I just feel like it could go either way.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

The chaos could go either way.

[Erica Lindbeck]

I feel like is that would admit. Yeah. Following that track down where it's like one of our companions has alerted the Magistry that this is all happening.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, no.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Like, the idea of the degree of chaos that would have unfolded from that would have been.

[Laura Bailey]

I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to.

[Marisha Ray]

I don't know.

[Laura Bailey]

I just, like, misunderstood.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

Oh, Ashton, definitely.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, for sure.

[Marisha Ray]

Yeah. Justin. Especially if. Yeah. Fearne and Jester too. I just. That that trio would be.

[Travis Willingham]

Would be.

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, it would be immense.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Fearne, Jester and Ashton infiltrating aeor surreptitiously.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's great.

[Travis Willingham]

I kind of want to see it.

[Laura Bailey]

We're here.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Which of your. How about NPCs for you, Matt or who would you. Yeah, who would your.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, my goodness.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You have a broad palette.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, our tagging entirely. Just playing all sides. Oh, be so gaz Tomo.

[Erica Lindbeck]

It's like, all right, let's get this. Let's rebuild this hill town here.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, my God. They're asking for the song now. Laura. Thank you. But, hey, I am singing on April 4th.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

For Critter Karaoke at the Vermont Theater in la. Get tickets. They're on my Instagram. Me and Freddie Wong and stuff. I am now. Because they're asking about karaoke stuff.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah, it's true.

[Travis Willingham]

We need to move tickets because it's fun.

[Sam Riegel]

Well, I think. Oh, what are you saying?

[Ashley Johnson]

Well, I have two questions from Voice of O'Brien.

[Sam Riegel]

Okay.

[Ashley Johnson]

The first is for Brennan. One is why the Lord of Hells? What is it about the Lord of Hells that you love the Prince of Lies so, so much. Is it something inside of you?

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Ashley Johnson]

Is it just rich, fertile territory to mine?

[Erica Lindbeck]

I don't know. I feel like there was a. Because the Betrayers. I was told that if I came and ran miniseries for critical role, I could take my own Betrayer home. Basically, they have bags at the door.

[Travis Willingham]

Thank you.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Well, I think. Look, so I went to school. I went to SUNY Ulster, and I studied with an incredible professor there who's a philosophy professor. I've been obsessed with ethics, the formal study of ethics, for a long time.

[Ashley Johnson]

It's pronounced Essex, actually.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Ethics and Essex. And there's something about. There's a line from Calamity where, you know, I've talked about. There are. And especially too, because I feel like Matt. I've talked with Matt about the Chained Oblivion and how special a position the Chained Oblivion holds and the evil of that being so alien and so monstrous. And it's the evil of looking at outer space and feeling like there's something out there that doesn't. It just doesn't know what I am. I don't even register on its wavelength as something living. And it's like, that is a type of evil that is so frightening. And I think the other side of that coin is the intimacy of something so human. Because trickery as a domain is not alien. Right? It's deeply fucking human. There's a line in Calamity where it's like the Lord of the Hells hates you because he knows he hates you because he knows you and he needs you to know that you deserve it. Like, that idea of punishment of like, oh, you're bad because I'm bad and you're here to punish me. That is so frightening. And I think it's a type of evil that is really freaky, but captivating to watch and to perform because it's. It's personal. He doesn't hate you dispassionately. He really sees you and fucking hates you.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Why are you pointing at me?

[Erica Lindbeck]

I'm giving you.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's the green chair.

[Sam Riegel]

Well, that's the thing with Brennan, because, like, you are one of, like, the kindest, most standup guy. You are an arbiter for all that is good. You, like, are a fighter for humanity and human rights. And seeing the way you play the Lord of the Hells and some of the other bad guys, I'm like, oh, you thank God you wake up and you choose that every day that you choose to be good, because it is fucking terrifying.

[Laura Bailey]

Real good at being bad.

[Sam Riegel]

You'd be so good at being bad.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Thanks, guys.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I would.

[Ashley Johnson]

He's got us trying to murder us all now. Voice of O'Brien's second question is for Matt, and that is in campaign two, there was moonstuck. So when were you cooking lewdness in your mind for the top of the pyramid? In Campaign three, mid Campaign two, prior to Campaign two even starting.

[Travis Willingham]

So I wanted to eventually get to Ruidus centric lore by the end of Campaign one, I decided if we Got to a third campaign. I want that to be kind of Ruidus involved. And in Campaign two, I began to consider what. That. How that lore would tie into a future event of Exandria. Like, I already had the idea for Predathos in my head and kind of where that fit into the history. But I didn't want to show the hand too early. And so I began to drop little hints throughout Campaign two, just little ones. And Ludinus, when I first created Ludinus, was. I hadn't thought about as a whole backstory. And so the two weren't immediately tethered. I just had these two disparate ideas. And the more that the Cerberus assembly came to reality in the early, like, third of Campaign two, I thought ludinus is exactly the person in a position of power, of longevity and political influence to set up something on the scale that I would hope to unveil in Campaign three. And then I began to, through Campaign two, develop in my head the history of Ludinus and how that would tie into the Rhuidian chaos and the apogee solstice in Campaign three. So that's kind of the timeline, best I can recall.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay. Satisfied?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Travis, you love werewolves. I was shooting for the worst transition ever. Why did you choose to have a mechanic? The D100, where you could randomly kill your character and take away your sweet, precious werewolf at any moment. Why? Why'd you do it?

[Matt Mercer]

Look, Chetty was just supposed to be fun. His old ass was supposed to die, but he wouldn't die in the fights. And then I was like, okay, wait, wait, wait, wait. What do old people do? They die in their sleep.

[Travis Willingham]

What do old people do?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's my favorite children's book.

[Matt Mercer]

Plus years old. He's gotta be on the cusp of that thing. I gotta make a mechanic for this. And I even told Matt. I was like, if I roll trip zeros, could I die in my sleep? And he goes, if you want to. I was like, can I have it grow so that with each level that I grow, the number gets larger and larger. He goes, I think that's pushing a little bit. I regret it now because he's still alive.

[Sam Riegel]

Why did you want him to die so badly?

[Matt Mercer]

Because it's never happened in the game before. Because you would have to wake up after succeeding or failing and being, as we do, all stuck in one budget room and somebody's laying next to the dead guy. And that would be amazing.

[Ashley Johnson]

All right, tomorrow we take on the Malleus. Keith Chetney, you Ready?

[Liam O'Brien]

Yes.

[Travis Willingham]

Chetney.

[Liam O'Brien]

And he smells weird and shit's happening. Yes, yes. It would be sad stuff, but that.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Would have been great.

[Travis Willingham]

And then I would bring something new in.

[Sam Riegel]

I sat next to Travis, and I. I swear to you guys, he got close a lot. You got close and just no cigar.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yeah, just.

[Matt Mercer]

I edged a couple times.

[Sam Riegel]

You did, you did.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, this is.

[Travis Willingham]

Now.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

This is a transition I like. Speaking of edging, is Chetney Oram and Or Scanlan's father?

[Laura Bailey]

Oh, geez.

[Matt Mercer]

Yes, yes.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We locked it in. For sure. For sure. You. You.

[Liam O'Brien]

You.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You agree to this?

[Ashley Johnson]

I don't know my father, so it's out of my hands.

[Matt Mercer]

He doesn't really have a say in it. There are franchises all over Exandria. He was very bad business. He traveled a lot, and a lot of people liked his toys.

[Travis Willingham]

Wait, sorry.

[Erica Lindbeck]

We just referred to children as franchises.

[Matt Mercer]

100%.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

Region to region, for sure.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

He does this in real life too.

[Travis Willingham]

That is the most Chet me thing.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'm stuck on chat right now.

[Erica Lindbeck]

The branding is strong.

[Ashley Johnson]

What do you think happened in America in the 1800s?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Were there any toys that you made that you didn't get to distribute?

[Matt Mercer]

Yeah, yeah, there were two. There were two or three. I. I started writing down after the Nana Mori packed a bunch of designs. Things that would, like, unfurl or fold or crawl or unwind. There was, like, a tumbling aurum that he made. There was. What's the. What's the Russian egg that has smaller. Thank you. Yeah, one of those. That was each of the characters, and inside was one of the eggs. Yeah, yeah. Small one. Don't tell Fearne. There was a whole bunch of stuff. But I was also trying to drop toys for Predathos and Matt's, like, that's fucking cute. Pick that shit up.

[Sam Riegel]

Trying to distract us.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, it was Ludinus.

[Matt Mercer]

He tried to drop him for Ludinus.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Ashley, we all know you want to steal Chetney's eggs, but you did steal a lot of stuff. Is there. Is there anything you wish you would have stolen?

[Laura Bailey]

The Beacon.

[Liam O'Brien]

I tried.

[Laura Bailey]

Easy peasy. It's just a shiny.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

What a wild. It's a shiny. I mean, I want it.

[Sam Riegel]

What a wild mirror. That would have been to Caleb handing over the Beacon a campaign ago and you being like, yoink.

[Laura Bailey]

This is so pretty.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You do it.

[Laura Bailey]

Hi, wallet.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You do have this. The skein of fate now.

[Laura Bailey]

I do.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Do you think that Fearne would ever consider playing with the strings of her friends?

[Laura Bailey]

Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

[Sam Riegel]

For good, right?

[Laura Bailey]

Just like, just Like a little, you know, nothing crazy.

[Travis Willingham]

Why not?

[Laura Bailey]

Just like. Not like a big pluck, just maybe like a flick. But I feel like with Fearne, it'd be like. You'd flick it and then be like, that wasn't big enough. I want to see something cooler, you know?

[Travis Willingham]

You know, just strum that banjo.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. Hang on.

[Sam Riegel]

I have a question.

[Laura Bailey]

Hook us all up.

[Sam Riegel]

Arisha, Ray has a question. Speaking of the beacon and. The beacons.

[Travis Willingham]

Yes.

[Sam Riegel]

Where were they during the calamity? During the Age of.

[Laura Bailey]

Good question.

[Travis Willingham]

They were uncovered. They've been undiscovered.

[Sam Riegel]

They were still undiscovered.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah. There was one. The first one was discovered towards the end of the calamity by the Bright Queen.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah, well, she found it.

[Sam Riegel]

There was also the one.

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, no, no. There was no actually prime artifacts. There would have been two. So. No. So there was one that was uncovered in Aeor, you're right. And was being experimented on. Correct. I was thinking of the actual lore.

[Sam Riegel]

And I were thinking of two different.

[Travis Willingham]

Two different lore points. Yeah. No. EOR did uncover a beacon and was in the process of studying it. And there was the one that the Bright Queen uncovered and began the Kryn Dynasty after they had gotten out from under the Spider Queen and then came to the surface and started in the ruins of Xhorha and kind of built the city of Rosohna.

[Sam Riegel]

So the Bright Queen has been around for as long as Ludinus has.

[Travis Willingham]

Correct.

[Sam Riegel]

About a thousand years old.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. Whoa.

[Marisha Ray]

2001 A Space Odyssey.

[Travis Willingham]

But also, she's lived through many lives.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

You know, and that has its challenges.

[Ashley Johnson]

More about it in her Dark Horse comic.

[Travis Willingham]

Indeed, indeed.

[Matt Mercer]

That bong on fake creatures to stay alive.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Yes.

[Travis Willingham]

But yeah, the lore of the Luxon, which you actually get to see some cool representations of it in the Bright Queen comic, is a precursor to any other life on Exandria. It's early. Early creation myth. Maybe not myth, but yeah. All the beacons, the fragments of the Luxon, have been there from the very beginning and have just laid dormant, undiscovered until then.

[Sam Riegel]

Sick dang. Was Aeor trying to use the beacon that they had uncovered for the Malleus?

[Travis Willingham]

They had just begun to research it. It was one of those things where it's like, we got this strange thing here. It seems to have some strange properties.

[Sam Riegel]

They were using it to. It's what y'all were finding whenever y'all.

[Laura Bailey]

Were going through Aeora's the Mighty Nein.

[Sam Riegel]

They were using it to do the, like, long rest tubes. It's why 4 got his hair back. And why Y'all were able to have a long rest, but they were like.

[Ashley Johnson]

Look at this rod of uranium.

[Sam Riegel]

Yes, exactly. And that's what they were. And they were studying time travel with it. That's what Caleb disintegrated. Not a beacon. But their research. Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah, it was. It was more or less like they were like, there's something to this. With enough study, we'll be able to. What's that? Klaxon?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes.

[Ashley Johnson]

Are we allowed to know where it came from?

[Sam Riegel]

Matt will never tell us.

[Travis Willingham]

The story's not over, y'all.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It is.

[Travis Willingham]

You're the only one who got fired.

[Laura Bailey]

Everyone else is staying.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

And speaking of which, there are about a billion deep lore questions that we could spend the next several hours on. But the night grows long. We gotta wrap this baby up. Is there anything, Thoughts that you have in your mind, things that you wanted to say during the show? You didn't get a chance to. Closing thoughts from anyone and any.

[Liam O'Brien]

I feel like we should just give a shout out to all of the guest players who played with us for this campaign.

[Sam Riegel]

So many parsh.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Bria.

[Liam O'Brien]

Erica.

[Laura Bailey]

Amy.

[Marisha Ray]

Amy.

[Travis Willingham]

Emily.

[Laura Bailey]

Christian.

[Travis Willingham]

Wilfred.

[Laura Bailey]

Something. Why'd you start naming individually?

[Sam Riegel]

We're gonna forget Nasheer.

[Liam O'Brien]

I already said three.

[Travis Willingham]

You didn't see Emily.

[Laura Bailey]

We have Emily.

[Sam Riegel]

Nasheer. Oh, my God. Alex Ward. Abubakar. Oh, my God.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Nick Marini.

[Sam Riegel]

Nick Marini.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Erica Lindbeck]

Lou Wilson.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

Lyn back. Coming in kicking ass uniform.

[Sam Riegel]

Anjali.

[Travis Willingham]

So many. So many incredible people. I'm so grateful. Fuck you guys. Keep talking. I'm gonna get emotional. Keep going.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Who's Louise?

[Sam Riegel]

I think it is worth talking about, you know, look, you guys do this at the end of every campaign where you're like, there's so much to wrap up. There's still so many lingering plot threads. And the answer is, yeah, that's true. Because hopefully 10 years isn't the end of this.

[Laura Bailey]

We're just getting started.

[Liam O'Brien]

Are we gonna do more Exandrian Content?

[Sam Riegel]

We are gonna do more Exandrian content. In fact, do you want to know who is Dungeon Mastering the next bit of Exandrian Content? Ooh, Marisha, it's you, Sam Riegel.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Holy shit.

[Laura Bailey]

What?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What a perfect time for a pitch.

[Laura Bailey]

Utkarsh. Thanks, Utkarsh. We film.

[Sam Riegel]

We film next week. So if you could come up with an idea and put it on my desk by end of day tomorrow, that would be great.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Sure.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yeah. Yeah. I might have to borrow you for some.

[Erica Lindbeck]

I'm always happy to Lend a hand.

[Sam Riegel]

But there's obviously going to be so much more to do. Obviously. I know there's been a ton of people being like, it feels like there should be repercussions from Bell's hell's actions. Yeah, no, no. It's been 20 minutes. Yeah, man.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah. If I'm be honest, like, we had a very long finale and there's so many things that I could have put in there and then decided we'll get to later. Otherwise it would have been so much longer. And with the way this year began, I think also it was best to not touch on some of the more intense, darker moments as well. Cause I think after the fires and many other reasons in our political sphere, best to not touch on that. Let's just keep it happy and. But indeed, there are many ramifications to the events at the end of C3 and Bell's Hells. And maybe we'll get to touch on those in future future stories.

[Sam Riegel]

Which stories? Future live shows. We have Australia coming up. Wink, wink, hint, hint.

[Matt Mercer]

Chicago, Indianapolis.

[Liam O'Brien]

Wink, wink. What are you. What are you. What is it?

[Laura Bailey]

What are you trying to hint at?

[Sam Riegel]

I'm hinting at the live shows that everyone already knows about. Hint, hint, hint, hint.

[Liam O'Brien]

You're already sold out.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

All right, last chance for romance. Any more plugs?

[Liam O'Brien]

Robbie, you did so good tonight.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Aw, thanks, baby. That's a nice. It's easy.

[Liam O'Brien]

Cheap him, guys.

[Sam Riegel]

He already said his contracts are with the lawyers.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Ah, it's easy when the company's good folks. It's been fun, but it's late and we are all talked out.

[Travis Willingham]

I have one more thing to say that's okay. Just because we're at the end of Campaign 3 after 10 years celebration here. Yes. I think I've got my emotions together a little bit here. This is the wildest, stupidest journey these past 10 years and 12 and a half for us since our home game. And that family has expanded in so many wonderful ways with so many wonderful people. The fact that we get to collaborate and build and tell stories in ways that make means so much to us and that also means much to you folks as well. Through all of its wonderful, messy, chaotic swings here and there, dice rolls and motions. This is the greatest thing in my life and all of you are the greatest people in it. And I'm just very grateful and I'm excited for all the great things to come. Still feels like it's. We're just getting started.

[Ashley Johnson]

Well, guess what? I'm gonna say something too. At the end of Divergence when I was standing behind a curtain listening, trying to hear what was going on with everybody, I was so nervous. Probably the most nervous I've been in years, because I wanted to thank you fully and properly for everything that you have done for everyone in this room. For a decade you have kept us on the edge of our seats and kept us guessing and made us laugh and laughed at yourself and made us cry. And just the amount of sleepless nights and effort that you put into telling stories for this group, it has not gone unappreciated. Far from it. Quite the opposite. And thank you for setting me up for success. To thank you so fully and properly. We love you and thanks for 10.

[Sam Riegel]

Years, Matt guys, as Brennan said, it was the greatest love letter.

[Erica Lindbeck]

None of you are safe around me. Stay on your.

[Travis Willingham]

I think that's the perfect segue.

[Liam O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Travis Willingham]

Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Thanks so much for joining us tonight. We got so much in store for you this year and beyond. So stick around, follow us on our socials and be on the lookout for our next State of the Role I've been Robbie Daymond. Who knows what I'll be later. And is it Thursday yet?

[Travis Willingham]

It's got.

[Sam Riegel]

Thank you for listening to Critical Role. If you've enjoyed the adventure, please consider rating and reviewing this podcast. Your insight can really help support the show by bringing new critters into the fold. Until next time, Dear Critters, adventure awaits.

[Travis Willingham]

If you've been having your McDonald's sausage McMuffin with an iced coffee from somewhere else, now is a great time to reconsider.

[Laura Bailey]

In the Pacific Northwest, it's never too cold for an iced coffee in the morning. Grab yourself a medium caramel, French vanilla or classic iced coffee for just $2.29. Beverage may cause craving for McMuffin or hash browns. Prices and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer or combo. Me.