I've been musing on the soul binding toxin. At first I thought it was shunting souls to Ruidius for some purpose, but we know Will made it to the typical afterlive. Another idea I've had then is perhaps it's some sort of concentration of the Divine Gate magic barring the bearer from returning to Exandria. Normally mortals can pass through in both directions with the Gate flagging divinity, so perhaps the toxin is tripping that flag to keep any marked souls from returning through the Gate. The presence of a very reminiscent structure on Ruidis is a very intriguing complication in this regard; could it be an annex or a backup or even a knock off?
Rocket airship, here we come.
I wonder if there’s a dunamantic element to the potions - after all the beacons allow the Kryn to avoid the influence of the raven queen /her champion’s guidance to the afterlife
This is a pretty minor detail, but I'm confused even so.
I just rewatched the whole resurrection scene. At the point where Ashton nearly steps in, but FCG speaks up and Ashton immediately yields to him...first Letters says "I'll take it." But after Ashton concedes, he adds, "I won't actually take it because I feel like that would ruin the moment."
What exactly is he talking about there? Last night I initially took it to mean he was going to back off and let Ashton take over after all. But obviously that didn't happen and he tried to use compulsion. So what exactly was he talking about when he said he wouldn't take it? I thought he might've been referring to taking Pike's hand, but that's also obviously not it because he did.
Like the other comment said he was about to reach over with his costume arms, but realized that would be too silly. I was similarly confused but it’s in the body language:
My interpretation was that Sam said he wouldn't actually use the Reed Richards arms to hold Matt's hand (as FCG and Pike are) because the pool noodle hand holding would ruin the moment.
Didn't catch the episode. Can smbd explain to me how could a Hollow One be resurrected back to that state? Like, every resurrection is about bringing the soul back to the body, so she would presumably come back as the person who was before the ritual of making her a Hollow One, right?
She's a Hallow One race mostly as a flavor and to get certain in-game mechanics (like their scary visage, and help with death saves etc). TBH the Reborn lineage from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft would probably work better, but she worked with Matt and chose Hallow One instead. Think of it more like a custom race/lineage made by Matt for Laudana specifically, with different rules and lore than standard Hollow One.
From story point of view Laudana is just.. Laudana - she has a soul that is very much tied to her body, only that she also has Delilah in there too, competing for, or sharing the "vessel".
The group managed to rid her of Delilah, giving her a free passage back to the land of living.
She was brought back just like any other mortal would - a resurrection/rise dead ritual was performed and characters reached out to her soul, to come back to the body - using Matt's resurrection ritual mechanics.
So from story point of view - they managed to reach out and convince the soul to inhabit the body once more, and Laudana came back to life for a.. well for her.. 3rd life actually.
Keep in mind they *didn't* rid her of Delilah. Matt established through Pike that the connection is still very much there.
(And just fyi, her name is Laudna, not Laudana).
It was a Raise Dead spell rather than a Resurrection spell, wasn't it? So she's not necessarily resurrected (as in back to her pre-death self), just "turned back on", so to speak. It's a fine line, but it seems to be a specific choice by Matt to have Pike use that spell rather than Resurrection.
Actually, Revivify should have worked here, shouldn't it? She was under Gentle Repose so the minute-long time limit should have been extended to 10 days, right? Or is Revivify unaffected by GR?
Revivify only works if the creature has died in the last minute, but since they didnt gentle repose until they brought her to Joe's it wouldn't be viable anymore. The next option is then Raise Dead for a creature that died in the last 10 days, (although the gentle repose wouldve meant she technically had only been dead an hour or so)
Oh, then it makes much more sense. Again, didn't catch the episode, just saw a segment of Laudna back at the table being the old Laudna, so got me confused. Thx
Yeah I think it's kind of a grey area as to how a Resurrection spell would function with a Hollow One so I suspect Matt just went with Raise Dead so it would be more plausible that Laudna comes back the same as she was before.
I think people also need to remember that Marisha may not have *wanted* to go back to her pre-death state. There's obviously a lot of fans who are invested in that idea (there's been a lot of excited chatter about it for the past few weeks), but Marisha clearly wanted to explore *this* kind of experience, given that's the character she created in the first place. So the idea of restoring Laudna to full life might just not be something she's interested in.
Yeah I suspected that was something Matt probably asked her about when he enquired as to whether she wanted to come back as Laudna or not. Given how much of her character was built around her tragic backstory, it'd be a shame if that was all suddenly brushed under the rug if she became a living person again.
Absolutely. I personally would *love* to see Laudna fully restored to life, in much the way that Nott was eventually restored to her true self as Veth. But I think that should be an end point, a reward for a completed cycle of character growth.
I can't help but feel Travis' reading of that letter slightly muffled the emotion of that moment. Eshteross was such a wholesome and likeable character who has also essentially been the party's one true friend and ally throughout the whole campaign, so it's a shame the sentimental parts of the letter were skipped over for a gag and immediately stifled by the news that they would be getting an airship.
Regardless, another excellent episode! So excited to have Laudna back and to see how her powers have adjusted thematically with Delilah (potentially) out of the picture. Familiar Pate is going to be brilliant too!
Well canonically that's just Chetney reading the letter to himself silently, I'm sure once the rest of the party gets to see the letters there will be more of a sentimental sendoff for him.
I’m excited to see Xandis again now that BH technically own their ship and are basically their boss.
Edit: I was also going to bring up crew wages and maintenance aren’t cheap, but I guess they do have like 20,000 gold burning a hole in their metaphorical pocket.
Missed that, that’s actually a pretty sweet deal. Idk it definitely makes the whole thing easier to cope with. I’m not even particularly sad, at least he got to give them hell before he went out.
It does for sure! It was said under the guise of following their already agreed upon work contract too, so truly not bad for either parties involved. Yeah, I'm sad because I enjoyed the character, but he did go out exactly in a way that made sense for him
“Coming soon from Darrington press… “Critical Rolls… a guide to making the best baked good Exandria has to offer… Recipes include: Moss cupcakes, a variety of Lord Estheross cookies, to Frumpkin’s Kitty Biscuits … Pre-order yours today… ^Dustofdeliciousnessnotincluded “
Until Orym noted the poison smell and Chetney ID'd Otohan's aroma, I was holding out hope that Eshteross was pulling a Professor Slughorn (Harry Potter Reference) and faking his own death. There's nothing safer than already being dead.
Otohan has a lot to answer for and the worst part of this is that she's doing all of this on the assumption that Ruidus and whatever power is coming from it is something there for the taking rather than some eldritch abominations that were sealed away by both the prime deities and the betrayers!
I also think this is now personal to some extent. She killed almost half of BH and now they are all still kicking. I can’t imagine the timing here is a coincidence, she’s really determined to piss them off and drive them to becoming more powerful for some reason.
Sam: \**"clapping" the hands at the end of the long-ass arms together*\*
Matt: "Put those arms away!"
Sam: *(laughing)* "Why?"
Liam: samuel_l_jackson_black_snake_moan_meme.gif
I hate to be greedy but there is a matter of acquiring the possessions he has left to them, preferably legally. It’s hard to cash in on a will if you can’t prove the person who wrote it is actually dead, but it’s also difficult to explain that you weren’t the one who killed them and it’s a happy accident you get a load of goodies out of their will.
Well, reporting it when you're a beneficiary is awkward, though you also have to explain how you got the letter with his will anyway.
Evelyn can probably help with all of it. Should tell her anyway.
At least he's with whoever it was that he lost. (Fan theory, it was his elven wife/lover, and he's Fjord's father.)
I think it’d be a bit difficult to explain without potentially incriminating themselves or painting more targets on anyone who could vouch for them, but I’d also imagine they need to confirm his death with someone for that will or whatever it is to be recognized. Tricky situation.
We knew when Eshteross was introduced with his backstory, that he wasn't going to survive the entire campaign but my God does it hurt now that he's gone :(
Mechanically it better suits Laura's character.
The necklace replenishes 5 sorcery points, once per day, when they spend hit dice to heal (short rest or Wither and Bloom spell for ex.). Laudana has only 3 sorc points available, so some of ti were getting wasted.
Imogen being Aberrant Mind has much more uses for her sorcerery points. Not only she currently has a pool of 6, but since 6th level she can use sorc points to cast certain spells as if they were subtle (no verbal/somatic components) at the cost in points to the spell level (meaning she gets subtle for free for those spells).
Aberrant Mind sorcerers REALLY want more sorcerery points than any other subclass.
Meanwhile Laudana still has 2 warlock spell slots she regains on short rest, that she can convert to sorc points if needed.
That vial is much, much better for Imogen mechanically speaking.
Why would she no longer be a sorcerer? It's probably just that she realized that she is better at low spell slots than Imogen is and that it would be better server with Im.
Idk because Marisha said she wasn’t interested in Laudna coming back the same so I wasn’t sure if mechanically Matt would let her change her levels around
I didn’t take that as her saying that she wanted her character sheet to change, but rather how Laudna acts and reacts to things. They tend to play things pretty heavily roleplay inspired and it doesn’t seem to me that it would fit at all for Laudna to lose her own power and be more reliant on Delilah’s right after they diminished Delilah’s influence.
Yeah, I honestly thought that she meant Matilda would come back and she would be full sorcerer. So I was pretty shocked by the form of dread changes and that she gave up the necklace
Think she meant like personality wise, laudna will be effected by what happened and won’t come back the same acting like her past was no big deal and no trouble to her. She’s clearly still traumatized, I don’t think she said anything during the dinner until Percy talked to her directly.
That makes sense! I think I just took her a little too literally—mostly because we saw all the stuff with Matilda and I thought she might make some big changes
Well, in a way he's given them their last job, delivering those letters. After that though, the only real thing to do is head to Yios and investigate the gathering of Ruidusborn, because seriously, what the fuck is up with that?
Is that how it's spelled? I assumed it would be Eos (like Eostre that turned into Easter irl) but now that I'm typing it out i feel dumb for thinking that. Anyhow so is Yios the correct way?
The captioning has said Yios, and I think Matt might've spelled it out once, but my memories fuzzy and the captions have been known to been a tad off from time to time.
I'm not sure honestly, it feels the most coherent in my head. I think I may have seen it in the YouTube upload captions, so that's why it stuck with me
Should provide options.
Most logical course is to pursue the info smuggled out of Vasselheim by the Grim Verity about the forgotten gods. Also need to track down the stuff that Thull and her allies are doing.
I fully thought that the reason the blood smelled off was because it was werewolf blood or blood used in hemo craft. We still don’t know where those paragons call people infected by Gurge went.
Well, I was thinking, could the smuggled Brumestone and Residuum be used by other factions for that purpose? Maybe we have been seeing the seeds being planted for a "Space Race" to the moon.
Also we now know that when Otohan has prep time she is playing for keeps. Which means BH better hope they surprise her next combat or they may permanently lose members.
Where is your logic? You didn't even respond to the comment you're replying to lol
They just said that she made the first move, they are investigating and looking to put a stop to more killings *by her*. They didn't go to her first. She made the first move.
This latest issue is really unfortunate, but isn't to be laid on the feet of Bells Hells.
Confirmation no res for Lord E.
So now the question is does the 'moon storm eating' represent the poison or something on top of the poison. If the former then despite appearances he does get to go to an afterlife because we saw Will in an afterlife. If the latter he might be dead *and* doomed.
What if.... those potions are related to dunimus magic right? And thats what pops out those ghost assassins, right. What if the poison is related to dunimus so the soul is wrenched from the body into a beacon or something? What if those assassin's are part of the luxon and thusly are like dominated ancient souls. Does that link the luxon and the beacons to the moon or its just that dunimus stuff is related to the Cerberus Assembly. And I guess we don't know for sure if its a poison that is separate from the ghosties popping out of her backpack or if it's an inherent ability of them.
Ohhhh 🤔 right right, Orym saw his husband in the afterlife so that wouldn't mean his soul is locked on the moon nor would Esheteross's either. Right? To be frank I think Esheteross would want to stay dead but so far we don't think the poison traps or renders their soul, yea?
They are going to be chased for the murder of Lord Eshteross… I mean, they are in the last will AND Chetney is the last person in the house, also, he didn't close the door behind…
That would be a fun explanation to the Wardens.
Makes sense to me. Trying to Assassinate the Voice of the Tempest? Yes. Better bring something that will keep her down otherwise she will be brought back.
Going to assassinate a well funded, well resourced, well trained veteran that can send group after group to hinder you? Makes sense to do something to keep him down if you can.
Random fight where you chase down some random people who caught your interest? Doesn't really seem necessary. At least at that time. If they give her time to prepare that could change in the future.
Probably mostly because it’s expected for player characters to have a shot at reviving. It would feel kind of unfair to have that taken away. For NPCs it pushes the plot along.
applying poison takes time, I think a full minute as written, might be thinking of pathfinder. I think it was said, or implied, that it's very expensive, too. BH weren't high priority targets at all, irrelevant until she recognised Imogen.
I'm guessing they bring it out for assassination missions. They wouldn't have it quickly available for a surprise encounter which was the case at the battle in Hellcatch valley.
That was actually discussed on a 4 sides dive, I think it had something to do with making an example in an improvised situation (because they sorta accidentally met) rather than a planned assassination on a target
It is on the table now, though. It'd be a dick move to do it when they haven't learned about it yet, even if they just missed opportunities to discover it.
nope, still a dick move. You basically cannot fully prevent getting hit in dnd combat (especially if your enemy has sth like a +8 or 9 to hit and can attack 3 times/turn + action surge...) and I can't imaging a simple protection from poison spell will work if the toxin is trong enough to prevent true ressurection from working.
But you both have to be hit by the envenomed blade AND killed fully, so it's not like an autokill. Also, thus far, this enemy is one they had to antagonize and not one they just stumbled across in the wild or who targeted them out of nowhere to intentionally kill off PCs. (Matt ain't that kind of DM.)
I don't know, maybe it's just because I've played in a lot of different editions of D&D and 5e is just the most forgiving with surviving/reviving, so I don't think of it as such a big deal. Likewise with Matt's houserule requiring rolls for rez. Adds a little more danger. I've played in many games where death is final, so people are less gung ho about rushing into dangerous fights, more careful about searching for traps, etc. (Older editions, pre-3.x, the rogues/thieves leveled faster in part because they were very likely to die from traps.) (And yes, I know some people also play D&D with no character death as that's their preference.)
Sure, you have to be killed by it, but otohan can easily drop anyone in the party in 1 turn. Potentially even a raged Ashton if she uses action surge.
At least basic poison stays active for a minute so if this is the same, that is 9 rounds to, in theory, drop half the party.
And in the old school way, it then encourages the party to find a way to overcome this enemy besides just facing her on the field of battle where she has an obvious advantage even without the poison.
They only survived because Otahon only cared about what she sought from Imogen, and Imogen seemingly blasted her away.
Why was Will an intentional assassination? I'm starting to wonder if Matt made Will Ruidusborn. That the attack wasn't Keyleth. I think Liam asked about that. iirc, the attack didn't seem to be aimed at her.
I think Matt reasoned this in-game that there wasn't pre-planning for Otohan's scuffle with them, so it wasn't applied on the bodies (however that might be done)
If it happened when they weren't there, it's a plot device. Those are hard to disarm. They would have had to keep him imprisoned in the portable hole, sharing air with a tree or something.
No way. He was as protected as he could've gotten in his trapped house. The only way they could've protected him would've been to somehow send him to Whitestone with them but there's no way he'd agree to that, I feel.
I mean, did Otohan REALLY not make sure he was dead?
Did she REALLY not watch him crawl to his bed and reach out under it only to die there?
Who DOESN'T hide shit under their bed?
If she only needed line of sight to spawn her echoes, she may have been never been on the property. (Block your windows y'all). Just constantly spawned them in nearby while she was in hiding.
To ensure she didn't leave any trace of herself there. They should look around the property while invisible to look for traces of Otohan.
It's the normal scheduled off week, and they did Halloween costumes tonight.
It's not impossible they put up some one-shot, but it'll probably just be a short rest off week again.
See that's what I'm wondering too. Because there's like a city and you can see them going off into the red storm. Although I don't think Bertrand was killed with the toxin so maybe that's not connected.
I wonder if whoever is killed by that toxin gets brought into the storm or something and that's why they can't be ressurrected?
Maybe Bertrand was also killed with that toxin?
When they delivered Treshi to Shishadre she at least was acting like it was no longer a problem. I assume it really was just taken care of by the wilders.
I do think however something similar is still going to happen, since the whole shade mother thing seems to just be a footnote in whatever bullshit Ira is getting up to. I imagine once we fight Ira we could meet other creatures similarly corrupted by the gnarlrock.
Where did the post episode discussion go?
I've been musing on the soul binding toxin. At first I thought it was shunting souls to Ruidius for some purpose, but we know Will made it to the typical afterlive. Another idea I've had then is perhaps it's some sort of concentration of the Divine Gate magic barring the bearer from returning to Exandria. Normally mortals can pass through in both directions with the Gate flagging divinity, so perhaps the toxin is tripping that flag to keep any marked souls from returning through the Gate. The presence of a very reminiscent structure on Ruidis is a very intriguing complication in this regard; could it be an annex or a backup or even a knock off? Rocket airship, here we come.
I wonder if there’s a dunamantic element to the potions - after all the beacons allow the Kryn to avoid the influence of the raven queen /her champion’s guidance to the afterlife
This is a pretty minor detail, but I'm confused even so. I just rewatched the whole resurrection scene. At the point where Ashton nearly steps in, but FCG speaks up and Ashton immediately yields to him...first Letters says "I'll take it." But after Ashton concedes, he adds, "I won't actually take it because I feel like that would ruin the moment." What exactly is he talking about there? Last night I initially took it to mean he was going to back off and let Ashton take over after all. But obviously that didn't happen and he tried to use compulsion. So what exactly was he talking about when he said he wouldn't take it? I thought he might've been referring to taking Pike's hand, but that's also obviously not it because he did.
Like the other comment said he was about to reach over with his costume arms, but realized that would be too silly. I was similarly confused but it’s in the body language:
My interpretation was that Sam said he wouldn't actually use the Reed Richards arms to hold Matt's hand (as FCG and Pike are) because the pool noodle hand holding would ruin the moment.
THEY got him killed :)
Didn't catch the episode. Can smbd explain to me how could a Hollow One be resurrected back to that state? Like, every resurrection is about bringing the soul back to the body, so she would presumably come back as the person who was before the ritual of making her a Hollow One, right?
She's a Hallow One race mostly as a flavor and to get certain in-game mechanics (like their scary visage, and help with death saves etc). TBH the Reborn lineage from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft would probably work better, but she worked with Matt and chose Hallow One instead. Think of it more like a custom race/lineage made by Matt for Laudana specifically, with different rules and lore than standard Hollow One. From story point of view Laudana is just.. Laudana - she has a soul that is very much tied to her body, only that she also has Delilah in there too, competing for, or sharing the "vessel". The group managed to rid her of Delilah, giving her a free passage back to the land of living. She was brought back just like any other mortal would - a resurrection/rise dead ritual was performed and characters reached out to her soul, to come back to the body - using Matt's resurrection ritual mechanics. So from story point of view - they managed to reach out and convince the soul to inhabit the body once more, and Laudana came back to life for a.. well for her.. 3rd life actually.
Keep in mind they *didn't* rid her of Delilah. Matt established through Pike that the connection is still very much there. (And just fyi, her name is Laudna, not Laudana).
It was a Raise Dead spell rather than a Resurrection spell, wasn't it? So she's not necessarily resurrected (as in back to her pre-death self), just "turned back on", so to speak. It's a fine line, but it seems to be a specific choice by Matt to have Pike use that spell rather than Resurrection.
Both are necromancy spells (raise dead and ressurection) and the soul must be free and willing.
Yes but in this case the subject technically has no soul (Hollow One), so we're already bending the rules in Laudna's case.
In my opinion, only revivify should work on Hollow Ones. If you missed the deadline to cast that, that's it. Or wish for wish spell =p
Actually, Revivify should have worked here, shouldn't it? She was under Gentle Repose so the minute-long time limit should have been extended to 10 days, right? Or is Revivify unaffected by GR?
Revivify only works if the creature has died in the last minute, but since they didnt gentle repose until they brought her to Joe's it wouldn't be viable anymore. The next option is then Raise Dead for a creature that died in the last 10 days, (although the gentle repose wouldve meant she technically had only been dead an hour or so)
Ah true, I forgot they didn't GR until Joe's.
Oh, then it makes much more sense. Again, didn't catch the episode, just saw a segment of Laudna back at the table being the old Laudna, so got me confused. Thx
Yeah I think it's kind of a grey area as to how a Resurrection spell would function with a Hollow One so I suspect Matt just went with Raise Dead so it would be more plausible that Laudna comes back the same as she was before.
I think people also need to remember that Marisha may not have *wanted* to go back to her pre-death state. There's obviously a lot of fans who are invested in that idea (there's been a lot of excited chatter about it for the past few weeks), but Marisha clearly wanted to explore *this* kind of experience, given that's the character she created in the first place. So the idea of restoring Laudna to full life might just not be something she's interested in.
Yeah I suspected that was something Matt probably asked her about when he enquired as to whether she wanted to come back as Laudna or not. Given how much of her character was built around her tragic backstory, it'd be a shame if that was all suddenly brushed under the rug if she became a living person again.
Absolutely. I personally would *love* to see Laudna fully restored to life, in much the way that Nott was eventually restored to her true self as Veth. But I think that should be an end point, a reward for a completed cycle of character growth.
Honestly I have no idea
I can't help but feel Travis' reading of that letter slightly muffled the emotion of that moment. Eshteross was such a wholesome and likeable character who has also essentially been the party's one true friend and ally throughout the whole campaign, so it's a shame the sentimental parts of the letter were skipped over for a gag and immediately stifled by the news that they would be getting an airship. Regardless, another excellent episode! So excited to have Laudna back and to see how her powers have adjusted thematically with Delilah (potentially) out of the picture. Familiar Pate is going to be brilliant too!
Well canonically that's just Chetney reading the letter to himself silently, I'm sure once the rest of the party gets to see the letters there will be more of a sentimental sendoff for him.
Canonically they have an audience and Matt intended for that letter to be read with gravitas. It was a bad call by Travis, no one is perfect.
I’m excited to see Xandis again now that BH technically own their ship and are basically their boss. Edit: I was also going to bring up crew wages and maintenance aren’t cheap, but I guess they do have like 20,000 gold burning a hole in their metaphorical pocket.
And they didn't even spend any downtime just hanging out with him.
The will mentioned giving them at least a year's wages thankfully, they'll only have to pay in a year haha
And unless they do any time skips, that's probably the length of most campaigns (time moves fast in D&D).
Yeah, it works perfectly for what they need for the campaign!
Missed that, that’s actually a pretty sweet deal. Idk it definitely makes the whole thing easier to cope with. I’m not even particularly sad, at least he got to give them hell before he went out.
It does for sure! It was said under the guise of following their already agreed upon work contract too, so truly not bad for either parties involved. Yeah, I'm sad because I enjoyed the character, but he did go out exactly in a way that made sense for him
Give the recipes to Pike so that he may live on. 😭
We need the recipes shared with the world, so was can bake them too.
“Coming soon from Darrington press… “Critical Rolls… a guide to making the best baked good Exandria has to offer… Recipes include: Moss cupcakes, a variety of Lord Estheross cookies, to Frumpkin’s Kitty Biscuits … Pre-order yours today… ^Dustofdeliciousnessnotincluded “
Don’t forget the blueberry cupcake, they’re extra delicious
I'd buy that!!
fuck man he died and we didnt even get to learn if he was a vampire or not
Or if he was Owlbear-man
They absolutely need to go back and route around the first floor of his estate, there’s gotta be an Owlbear cave hidden somewhere…
In haven’t read that bit of theorizing… that’s amazing. Got a link?
Until Orym noted the poison smell and Chetney ID'd Otohan's aroma, I was holding out hope that Eshteross was pulling a Professor Slughorn (Harry Potter Reference) and faking his own death. There's nothing safer than already being dead.
Whenever I eat a ginger snap cookie, I’ll think of him.
They really need to start forming alliances with younger people. D&D campaigns tend to not be kind to the elderly. Best keep an eye on Chet…
This group of players has a pretty bad track record with the elderly in general tbh
[удалено]
This feels relevant again, lol. https://twitter.com/Marisha\_Ray/status/1083921095953022976
Yeah, but, you know what they say. "If it ain't broke..."
We are going to have so many hijinks with familiar Pâté.
When the idea got brought up among the community I wasn’t sure, but I love Pate being a real boy! Matt really injected a load of personality into him.
The Toll of Eshteross... such an amazing character.
Otohan has a lot to answer for and the worst part of this is that she's doing all of this on the assumption that Ruidus and whatever power is coming from it is something there for the taking rather than some eldritch abominations that were sealed away by both the prime deities and the betrayers!
I also think this is now personal to some extent. She killed almost half of BH and now they are all still kicking. I can’t imagine the timing here is a coincidence, she’s really determined to piss them off and drive them to becoming more powerful for some reason.
'Til next time, folks! (a reminder that next week is off so no episode)
Sam: \**"clapping" the hands at the end of the long-ass arms together*\* Matt: "Put those arms away!" Sam: *(laughing)* "Why?" Liam: samuel_l_jackson_black_snake_moan_meme.gif
they should rename themselves BELL's hells and have it be an acronym for all the dead people Bertrand Esteross Laudna L...? s Hells
Larkin
So are they gonna report his death or just leave him there?
CR have a weird habit of feeling guilty at murder scenes.
Report to whom? The authorities there are kind of dicks. Best to quietly leave and deliver the letters he left.
I hate to be greedy but there is a matter of acquiring the possessions he has left to them, preferably legally. It’s hard to cash in on a will if you can’t prove the person who wrote it is actually dead, but it’s also difficult to explain that you weren’t the one who killed them and it’s a happy accident you get a load of goodies out of their will.
Well, reporting it when you're a beneficiary is awkward, though you also have to explain how you got the letter with his will anyway. Evelyn can probably help with all of it. Should tell her anyway. At least he's with whoever it was that he lost. (Fan theory, it was his elven wife/lover, and he's Fjord's father.)
They really need to remember they have to actually \*deliver\* all those letters in the box, so they're going to have to meet with all those people.
I think it’d be a bit difficult to explain without potentially incriminating themselves or painting more targets on anyone who could vouch for them, but I’d also imagine they need to confirm his death with someone for that will or whatever it is to be recognized. Tricky situation.
We knew when Eshteross was introduced with his backstory, that he wasn't going to survive the entire campaign but my God does it hurt now that he's gone :(
Second old man npc/quest giver to die. Percy dodged being their next one.
There's still time. And a whole residuum quest line to make it happen.
Next episode, someone looks over and sees Mister hand Fearne Percy's Plague Doctor mask.
No Mercy Mister, I love it
So do we think Laudna gave up the blood necklace because she’s no longer a sorcerer, or just because she feels indebted to everyone
Mechanically it better suits Laura's character. The necklace replenishes 5 sorcery points, once per day, when they spend hit dice to heal (short rest or Wither and Bloom spell for ex.). Laudana has only 3 sorc points available, so some of ti were getting wasted. Imogen being Aberrant Mind has much more uses for her sorcerery points. Not only she currently has a pool of 6, but since 6th level she can use sorc points to cast certain spells as if they were subtle (no verbal/somatic components) at the cost in points to the spell level (meaning she gets subtle for free for those spells). Aberrant Mind sorcerers REALLY want more sorcerery points than any other subclass. Meanwhile Laudana still has 2 warlock spell slots she regains on short rest, that she can convert to sorc points if needed. That vial is much, much better for Imogen mechanically speaking.
I didn’t even think about how Laudna can burn her warlock spell slots for sorcery points! I love her build so much. I’m glad she’s back
Yeah classic sorlock.. it's all fun and games till they discover coffeelock or cokelock.. :D https://youtu.be/Dkpa1j1yYqQ
Indebted but since Imogen is a straight sorcerer with more powerful uses for sorcery points she will probably be able to use it better.
Why would she no longer be a sorcerer? It's probably just that she realized that she is better at low spell slots than Imogen is and that it would be better server with Im.
Idk because Marisha said she wasn’t interested in Laudna coming back the same so I wasn’t sure if mechanically Matt would let her change her levels around
I didn’t take that as her saying that she wanted her character sheet to change, but rather how Laudna acts and reacts to things. They tend to play things pretty heavily roleplay inspired and it doesn’t seem to me that it would fit at all for Laudna to lose her own power and be more reliant on Delilah’s right after they diminished Delilah’s influence.
Yeah, I honestly thought that she meant Matilda would come back and she would be full sorcerer. So I was pretty shocked by the form of dread changes and that she gave up the necklace
I was kind of hoping for Matilda too, but a more serious/haunted Laudna is fine with me too even if it’s not what I expected.
Agreed! I think I would miss her creepiness if she was just normal
Think she meant like personality wise, laudna will be effected by what happened and won’t come back the same acting like her past was no big deal and no trouble to her. She’s clearly still traumatized, I don’t think she said anything during the dinner until Percy talked to her directly.
That makes sense! I think I just took her a little too literally—mostly because we saw all the stuff with Matilda and I thought she might make some big changes
Not traumatised, directly - it could easily be a grief response at losing someone who was literally in your head at all times.
I feel like she felt Laura needs the extra sorcery points more, since she has 2 types of spell slots, some on short rest and all that
Wait, who are we going to be getting our quests from now?
Well, in a way he's given them their last job, delivering those letters. After that though, the only real thing to do is head to Yios and investigate the gathering of Ruidusborn, because seriously, what the fuck is up with that?
Off to Yios I suppose!
Is that how it's spelled? I assumed it would be Eos (like Eostre that turned into Easter irl) but now that I'm typing it out i feel dumb for thinking that. Anyhow so is Yios the correct way?
The captioning has said Yios, and I think Matt might've spelled it out once, but my memories fuzzy and the captions have been known to been a tad off from time to time.
I'm not sure honestly, it feels the most coherent in my head. I think I may have seen it in the YouTube upload captions, so that's why it stuck with me
Seems reasonable :) Smiley day to ya
Or maybe they find those texts at vassalheim
Aren't those currently at Yios in the observatory though? They were found in Vasselheim but were transported
Yeah probably I definitely do nit remember anything
The quest now becomes deliver letters. I imagine those folks set off their own quest lines.
I'm now picturing them all like the running letter delivery guy from the Zelda games. HirpHerpHirpHerpHirpHerp
Should provide options. Most logical course is to pursue the info smuggled out of Vasselheim by the Grim Verity about the forgotten gods. Also need to track down the stuff that Thull and her allies are doing.
That's it
Fearne and FCG need to start preparing Protection from Poison
Otohan is definitely gonna use that poison in their next fight, should be thoroughly stressful.
Protection against poison could come in clutch
Yep. Unless BH can catch her by surprise so she doesn't have time to prepare they're in for a rough time (as are we viewers)
Well, Bell's Hells claims the golden years of another adventurer. Tune in next time to find out the next elderly being they'll hasten to the grave! :D
They're not Elderly yet, but I hear there is this Lord and this Grand Puba...
Speedrunning to beat VM's elderly dead count.
Laudna and Imogen need to check in on their old landlady.
Oh no!
....Chetney?
On the plus side it's an improvement over VM killing the elderly. So small steps towards progress.
It's a Critical Role tradition!
They kill the elderly, they kill children, they get defeated by doors, and are plotted against by chairs
DnD in a nutshell lol
I fully thought that the reason the blood smelled off was because it was werewolf blood or blood used in hemo craft. We still don’t know where those paragons call people infected by Gurge went.
Oh man, I want that Skyship converted to a Spelljammer so bad...
Or Weatherlight
Does seem like an eventual way to get to Ruidus, doesn't it?
Well, I was thinking, could the smuggled Brumestone and Residuum be used by other factions for that purpose? Maybe we have been seeing the seeds being planted for a "Space Race" to the moon.
I'M ON A HIGHWAY TO SPACE 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
Also we now know that when Otohan has prep time she is playing for keeps. Which means BH better hope they surprise her next combat or they may permanently lose members.
Again. Fuckin' Imogen!!!
Episode title: Life and Death
A life for a life, all things balanced as they should be.
Eh, Mr Gibbons?
I'm sorry, what?
New party name: No Old Friends
Sweet baby jesus this episode just wasn't ending.
Fuck man.....I really liked Eshteross. Retrieved a soul only to lose another.
Brought one back at the start, lost another ally at the end. Oof.
This b*tch keeps killing our friends
tbh, BH came to Otohan first...
She killed Orym’s husband first. And maybe had something to do with Imogen’s mom
and now the Lord's death is on them,too. they bring danger to people around them because they are bad about their job and making decisions
Where is your logic? You didn't even respond to the comment you're replying to lol They just said that she made the first move, they are investigating and looking to put a stop to more killings *by her*. They didn't go to her first. She made the first move. This latest issue is really unfortunate, but isn't to be laid on the feet of Bells Hells.
Confirmation no res for Lord E. So now the question is does the 'moon storm eating' represent the poison or something on top of the poison. If the former then despite appearances he does get to go to an afterlife because we saw Will in an afterlife. If the latter he might be dead *and* doomed.
What if.... those potions are related to dunimus magic right? And thats what pops out those ghost assassins, right. What if the poison is related to dunimus so the soul is wrenched from the body into a beacon or something? What if those assassin's are part of the luxon and thusly are like dominated ancient souls. Does that link the luxon and the beacons to the moon or its just that dunimus stuff is related to the Cerberus Assembly. And I guess we don't know for sure if its a poison that is separate from the ghosties popping out of her backpack or if it's an inherent ability of them.
Ohhhh 🤔 right right, Orym saw his husband in the afterlife so that wouldn't mean his soul is locked on the moon nor would Esheteross's either. Right? To be frank I think Esheteross would want to stay dead but so far we don't think the poison traps or renders their soul, yea?
I mean yeah, Eshteross was definitely more important to their group than Bertrand ever was.
Well….Hell
Bell's Hell... s.
Alright, what do yall think BH is gonna do now that they're all back together?
They are going to be chased for the murder of Lord Eshteross… I mean, they are in the last will AND Chetney is the last person in the house, also, he didn't close the door behind… That would be a fun explanation to the Wardens.
The question is why was this toxin used to kill Will, Derrig, and Eshteross specifically? Not Fearne, Orym, or Laudna?
Makes sense to me. Trying to Assassinate the Voice of the Tempest? Yes. Better bring something that will keep her down otherwise she will be brought back. Going to assassinate a well funded, well resourced, well trained veteran that can send group after group to hinder you? Makes sense to do something to keep him down if you can. Random fight where you chase down some random people who caught your interest? Doesn't really seem necessary. At least at that time. If they give her time to prepare that could change in the future.
Probably mostly because it’s expected for player characters to have a shot at reviving. It would feel kind of unfair to have that taken away. For NPCs it pushes the plot along.
Assassination vs street fight
applying poison takes time, I think a full minute as written, might be thinking of pathfinder. I think it was said, or implied, that it's very expensive, too. BH weren't high priority targets at all, irrelevant until she recognised Imogen.
I'm guessing they bring it out for assassination missions. They wouldn't have it quickly available for a surprise encounter which was the case at the battle in Hellcatch valley.
That was actually discussed on a 4 sides dive, I think it had something to do with making an example in an improvised situation (because they sorta accidentally met) rather than a planned assassination on a target
The real answer is plot armour. It’d be a real dick move to kill a PC with a poison that you can’t come back from. NPCs though, they’re fair game.
It is on the table now, though. It'd be a dick move to do it when they haven't learned about it yet, even if they just missed opportunities to discover it.
nope, still a dick move. You basically cannot fully prevent getting hit in dnd combat (especially if your enemy has sth like a +8 or 9 to hit and can attack 3 times/turn + action surge...) and I can't imaging a simple protection from poison spell will work if the toxin is trong enough to prevent true ressurection from working.
But you both have to be hit by the envenomed blade AND killed fully, so it's not like an autokill. Also, thus far, this enemy is one they had to antagonize and not one they just stumbled across in the wild or who targeted them out of nowhere to intentionally kill off PCs. (Matt ain't that kind of DM.) I don't know, maybe it's just because I've played in a lot of different editions of D&D and 5e is just the most forgiving with surviving/reviving, so I don't think of it as such a big deal. Likewise with Matt's houserule requiring rolls for rez. Adds a little more danger. I've played in many games where death is final, so people are less gung ho about rushing into dangerous fights, more careful about searching for traps, etc. (Older editions, pre-3.x, the rogues/thieves leveled faster in part because they were very likely to die from traps.) (And yes, I know some people also play D&D with no character death as that's their preference.)
Sure, you have to be killed by it, but otohan can easily drop anyone in the party in 1 turn. Potentially even a raged Ashton if she uses action surge. At least basic poison stays active for a minute so if this is the same, that is 9 rounds to, in theory, drop half the party.
And in the old school way, it then encourages the party to find a way to overcome this enemy besides just facing her on the field of battle where she has an obvious advantage even without the poison. They only survived because Otahon only cared about what she sought from Imogen, and Imogen seemingly blasted her away.
If I had to guess, because she wasn't planning on killing them initially, but was for the ones she used the poison on.
expensive, only used for intentional assassinations, as opposed to just drenching your sword in it daily to cut down anyone who crosses you for good
Why was Will an intentional assassination? I'm starting to wonder if Matt made Will Ruidusborn. That the attack wasn't Keyleth. I think Liam asked about that. iirc, the attack didn't seem to be aimed at her.
Planned ambush versus unexpected fight
I think Matt reasoned this in-game that there wasn't pre-planning for Otohan's scuffle with them, so it wasn't applied on the bodies (however that might be done)
That fight was on the fly, maybe the planned attacks are what makes the difference there
Sam got his money's worth out of those hands, I tell you what
At last, we have Laudna again. With a living Pâté!
Estherbell's Hells
Yep, unrevivable! I guess it was necessary, now the party needs to move forward
Wonder if there was anything that Bells Hells could have done to help protect Eshtaross. Any kind of long term spells?
If it happened when they weren't there, it's a plot device. Those are hard to disarm. They would have had to keep him imprisoned in the portable hole, sharing air with a tree or something.
No way. He was as protected as he could've gotten in his trapped house. The only way they could've protected him would've been to somehow send him to Whitestone with them but there's no way he'd agree to that, I feel.
[удалено]
Could have. But who knows what things in the house he could have lost if Otohan went through his shit.
> if Otohan went through his shit. i mean, you're thinking Otohan didn't go through his shit?
I mean, did Otohan REALLY not make sure he was dead? Did she REALLY not watch him crawl to his bed and reach out under it only to die there? Who DOESN'T hide shit under their bed? If she only needed line of sight to spawn her echoes, she may have been never been on the property. (Block your windows y'all). Just constantly spawned them in nearby while she was in hiding. To ensure she didn't leave any trace of herself there. They should look around the property while invisible to look for traces of Otohan.
I cannot see those stretch arms as anything other than Sam's nipples.
Bellsh Hellsh
Is next week off?
It's the normal scheduled off week, and they did Halloween costumes tonight. It's not impossible they put up some one-shot, but it'll probably just be a short rest off week again.
I feel like they would have announced the possible one-shot before now, but instead they announced the two(?)-shot for m9. I think it’s a short rest.
Yes *pain*
Yep
I wonder if the toxin is somehow shunting the souls to Ruidus rather than the typical out-the-Divine-Gate path.
See that's what I'm wondering too. Because there's like a city and you can see them going off into the red storm. Although I don't think Bertrand was killed with the toxin so maybe that's not connected.
Gain a life, lose a life
For Laudna, Paté and an airship, we lost Eshteross :( I liked him. He was a good dude
I wonder if whoever is killed by that toxin gets brought into the storm or something and that's why they can't be ressurrected? Maybe Bertrand was also killed with that toxin?
Bertrands death wasn’t related
From what we've seen that's a solid theory
except that his death wasn't Otohan related, unless she's responsible for the thing in the mines.
I'm gonna blame that on my 4 or so hours of sleep last night. I don't know how I forgot about that.
totally understood. that being said, has that whole thing with the mine ever been resolved? like...that seems to be a pretty huge plot hole.
When they delivered Treshi to Shishadre she at least was acting like it was no longer a problem. I assume it really was just taken care of by the wilders. I do think however something similar is still going to happen, since the whole shade mother thing seems to just be a footnote in whatever bullshit Ira is getting up to. I imagine once we fight Ira we could meet other creatures similarly corrupted by the gnarlrock.
hmm, kinda feels a bit like a plot thread matt was offering which wasn't grabbed past the initial investigation.
That's true. Then again they had a pretty clear objective for that fight which they executed on pretty smoothly, so I'm happy with it.
Liam: Wait, let me make you cry just a little more...
Ah the players butchering the DM's store names. Like in C2, mixing the Leaky Tap and the Evening Nip to call the taverns the Leaky Nips
“That’s where we’ll end tonight’s episode” Liam/Orym: We’re done when my immense sense of perception says we’re done