Bitterness and Dread | Exandria Unlimited: Calamity | Episode 2
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- The Ring of Brass deepen their investigation into Vespin's inconceivable ritual while juggling their own profound desires and lofty ambitions...
Meet the Players!
Game Master Brennan Lee Mulligan: / brennanlm
Luis Carazo: / luiscarazo
Aabria Iyengar: / quiddie
Marisha Ray: / marisha_ray
Sam Riegel: / samriegel
Travis Willingham: / willingblam
Lou Wilson: / sweetlouzinho
Original Music by Omar Fadel and Hexany Audio
Main theme by Colm R. McGuinness
Additional Music by Universal Production Music, Epidemic Sounds, and 5 Alarm
Character art by Hannah Friederichs
Stained glass art by Joanna Johnen
Opening Title by Christian Brown
GM Screen by Dog Might
Minis by Iron Tusk Minis
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HEY, there might be some SPOILERS under the thing
0:10 Marisha’s announcements
2:25 Travis’s merch corner
3:35 Recap
5:25 Bolo is not debris
6:30 Intro cinematic
8:05 EPISODE STARTS
10:15 Travis repressed the end of last episode
16:30 Talon to Wingspan
20:25 Talon is a snitch and Cerrit loves it
22:15 Evaluating Purvan
26:20 Dex on dex
28:30 The sphinx delivered
30:50 The Taxmen cometh
35:05 Is it really so evil to erase random people’s memory?
37:10 The greatest man in Avalir
37:45 Matching Cerrit’s face (bird teeth)
41:55 The Heart of Avalir
43:10 A new machine
45:40 Evandrin’s locket
49:10 Nydus and Laerryn
54:05 The Astral Leywright
55:45 IT’S BEAUTIFUL
1:03:20 Sam has fun secrets (The Dreshari Tithe and the Arboreal Calix)
1:14:15 Alessander can’t lie
1:17:55 5 is not great
1:22:50 Nydas has tan lines
1:24:20 Patia is very disrespectful
1:26:25 Cerrit want a cracker
1:28:10 The Beverage Ball
1:29:55 Debating extraplanar travel
1:34:55 A marital spat
1:41:00 Patia and the Raven Queen
1:45:10 Zerxus makes an inspiring speech
1:48:15 The results of a nat 20 religion check
1:56:25 The Schism
1:57:35 Brennan improvises canon
2:04:35 Patia checks her Nest
2:07:05 Low level spells are useful
2:09:40 A disappointing gift
2:11:45 The fireworks begin (BREAK STARTS)
2:17:35 Art Montage
2:22:20 BREAK ENDS
2:24:20 The Gift
2:25:40 Accidentally gassing the party
2:27:05 Key party of mind-shielding
2:27:55 Interrogating Madara
2:31:45 Seelie saved Purvan
2:34:05 Destroying Madara
2:38:25 Don’t say Xerox
2:40:25 Pre-recorded segments
2:42:25 Seelie sometimes comes in after hours
2:43:50 Seelie is secretly evil (Vespin background)
2:47:15 Zoom and enhance
2:50:30 Tree of Gnomes (Brennan gets womped)
2:57:30 Loquatius is lying
3:01:10 Sam is feeling himself
3:06:10 Laerryn hates restraint
3:07:25 Map out
3:11:35 Battle begins
3:14:00 Jeremy Crawford let’s us know how counterspell works
3:18:40 Box of doom
3:22:05 Laerryn ended the battle
3:23:25 Hard to get Cormorant’s info now (Evokers are dumb)
3:28:35 A letter from the Gau Dreshari
3:35:10 Scrabbles is having a good day
3:39:35 Loras actually loves Nydas
3:41:55 What happened at the Hall of Prophecy
3:52:20 Nydas just takes a bath
3:57:40 Divine sense
4:02:10 Zerxus breaks the buddy system
4:06:45 Speaking with Asmodeus
4:11:30 The betrayal, in Asmodeus’ words
4:26:55 Protection from Evil and Good
4:30:20 Lou reads the prophecy
4:34:35 Akami chokes out
4:37:25 Episode Ends
The in-game start date for the episode was in the year 0 I guess.
So, I think Brennan is doing great, if you want to see more of his DMing you can watch Dimension 20 on the Dropout streaming service. I usually don’t like to promote paid services here, but as a Dropout subscriber, I’ll say it’s been worth it for me, not only for Dimension 20, but Game Changers and Um Actually. So maybe get Dropout.
Any moments I missed? Feel free to post them here. Is it Thursday yet?
You are amazing Flando
FLANDO
HOW
The devil works hard, but Flando works harder
Flando works in mysterious ways
Every time there's a nat 20 on a lore check Brennan has to act as if he's not thrilled for the opportunity to info dump
Such a big DM mood
3:33:49 and it goes both ways, too. He's just as crushed as the players, if not moreso, when it fails
I think he's just happy it isn't Ally or Emily taking him to the cleaners with a nat 20 on some insane shit like banishing the bbeg from Nod lmao
@@PunknPixels"Can I roll to save myself one more time?"
"Yea if you roll a Nat 20 ill let you live"
NAT20!!!
I'm still trying to figure out why a nat 20 matters on a skill check. A nat 20-1=19. A 19+1=20. In this case the 19 is better than the nat 20.
*Devils are highly charismatic. They use their silvery tongues to deceive others towards darker paths*
Me: "Heh, that would never work on me. I'd never fall for something so obviously evil."
*Brennan as Asmodeus*
Me: "Huh, you know this guy's making some good points..."
His character in L.A. By Night was one of the scariest villains I've ever seen because he was so goddamned persuasive. A perfectly reasonable zealot. YIKES.
A good liar need not speak a single untrue word, so long as they can spin the truth to lead the deceived away from the right path.
I feel this so hard. In all the media I've consumed, I've never seen a depiction of evil where I genuinely felt conflicted by them being charismatic/persuasive until now. Like "hey, maybe this literal manipulative devil isn't so bad...maybe...I wish...I really hope..."
@@raychances6251 destiny 2 did this with their most recent villain savathun and it was pretty damn wild knowing this god of lies screwed us over multiple times, killed many of our friends, but was still making so many good points like wtf.
@@dovahfruit9503 "Now look down at that little gun in your hands and tell me, what do you think you're gonna do with that thing?"
"Being able to go to other planes is the only thing separating us and them". The IMMENSE hubris. This is Greek style pride before the fall and I love it
That was honestly what I was thinking. The gods can give power to worshipers l, that is far more than just being able to travel between realms. I cannot wait for them to realize how wrong they are about this.
Tower of Babel
It's literally one if not the biggest misunderstanding of what godhood is all about. For a society of magical thinkers, they're so inferior lol.
I mean, they’re right in all but scale. The gods can grant power, so can arcane casters. Temporary buff spells or magical items. They can smite their foes with great elemental forces, they can communicate to others from afar. Nothing the gods can do mortals can’t replicate, exempting scale, which mortals can replicate via pure mass.
They’re not wrong in terms of what the gods have shown them.
@@clickpause8732 they said it themselves. They don't know how to become gods. One person did it and she immediately erased the path from all knowledge. To be able to manipulate existence itself is the power of god. They can't do that even in scale.
They just think so small and it's so silly. Because if there was any proficient cleric in that city, they wouldn't be so misguided. It's ridiculous that, for some of them that have such high religion, they missed the entire point of religion: the power of belief, and its relationship with existence.
"So here's the issue, right? Five is not great."
I love Brennan *so much*
I love that Travis is still Critical Role's biggest fan. His reactions are just like ours.
His high-pitched "WHAT?!"s and whoops are so much fun to see, we're right there with him! ♥
And he is the CEO
Travis is the player every DM dreams of having
@@Julio.C-b5b there could be no better CEO. Marisha is SO fucking good at production and content planning and has shone like the sun at making things happen, and Matt is the perfect world builder/map maker/wizard of detail and emotion that has rocked the DND world, but Travis is the absolute perfect person to be in charge of the whole package because of his pure love of everyone involved and his obvious skill at keeping the ball rolling in all the right directions. I don't know everyones role in the company, but Travis and Marisha are clearly the team leads and they have been absolutely killing it
@@cancerino666 Couldn't agree more! Everyone watches CR and thinks it's about the voices or the character development or the silly NPCs. Well, all those help, but having a player like Travis on the team just raising everybody up and being their biggest fan is the stuff of legend!
I'm used to the trope of "realizing the prophecy by trying to circumvent it" so it's cool to see its brother "that prophecy is deeply unsettling so I'll enter full denial mode and continue about my day, ignoring all the signs screaming that it's coming".
Loquacious Quay
the real brother
So global warming?
@@VegeMan8394 It's definitely comparable. Though I am still actually not sure if global warming is an actual _apocalypse_. Don't get me wrong - it's definitely real, and it's definitely going to be a "inconvenient" or even "bad", but I am not sure if it is comparable to that asteroid 66 mya, who turned the planet into a hellscape within minutes...
Majoras Mask
Patia: We accidentally killed the Magister
Laerryn, still angry: It wasn't an accident.
Quay: Which Magister?
Patia: Cormorant.
Quay and Nydas: Were you able to talk to him? Get meaningful information and intel???
Patia: That's what Zerxus is for! Zerxus?
Zerxus: Did you kill him or just knock him unconscious?
Patia: No, he's dead
Zerxus: *grunts in tired paladin* Okaay.
This part is so real for any dnd party omfg
"how dead is he?!"
Patia stops to think
"Very dead"
3:23:22 for anyone interested
@@equinoxxed_7502”he has 3rd degree burns on 80% of his body and his chest is completely crushed”
@@Butterratbee "...got it... okay"
I love the detail of how all the oracles went mad in the final days before the apocalypse.
Such a brilliant little detail of world building. They knew what was coming and it utterly broke them.
I'm not even certain they actually went mad though, more like they saw it coming and tried to warn people and nobody believed them. Instead they're now "contained" so they can't warn people/cause panic. I feel really bad for them because even though they know what's coming they still won't be able to escape.
@@astrosplorerwild
SPOILERS:
And what's more, when Nydas heard the prophecy, he also progressively went mad through the rest of the campaign, desperate to prevent the prophecy from coming true.
@@agenttwenty-six6133 spoiler alerts are a thing bro
They didn't go mad. That's why that woman was at peace. She just prophesized the truth, nothing was wrong with her.
Travis geeking out over his imaginary kid is just so darn incredibly wholesome.
You can tell he's had some practice...
I was squealing so hard during that whole bit it was just so gods damned cute
As a new father I was so heartbroken knowing something bad s gonna go down...
Great acting.
Yesss… it was great.
The initial reaction to the parental-imitation from his PC’s kid with recognition & pride, the development of his character’s guilt over absentee-paternal distraction leading to his hopeless fulfillment of a promise that he knew was a lie-of-contrition when it was leaving his own- (beak?)…. All the way to his maintained association with his hopes for his own (in-real-life-)son’s imitation/idolization of him as the “biggest & strongest man in the world” in referencing that Kiran “discovered protein shakes” when he grew up during the wrap-up discussion (maybe internalized & mirrored by his own memories of Travis’ own father and his early passing during his own childhood… maybe also slightly hitting on his own relationship with his brother in the daughter-son dynamic with his asking them to look after each other during what he fully understood was likely his last exchange with his in-game children… g’damn, either Brennan is actually a mastermind-manipulator-for-good, LoL… or these players were seriously the perfect storm of unintentional deep-rooted & compartmentalized trauma resolution! Ha, either way… highly entertaining & engaging, layered (telecast/television?)!
@@masonwheeler6536 να
I’m so incredibly glad that the players are leaning into their characters’ tragic, calamity-inducing flaws. Patia cannot comprehend that the gods exist above mortals, Nydas doesn’t know when to stop progress and expansion, Zerxus is blinded enough by disdain for the prime deities and his broken heart that he’ll fall hook line and sinker for the Lord of Lies’ sob story, etc.
There’s something in the clear unflappable tragedy of these characters that I’ve never seen in an AP; generally character flaws are to be overcome, but we and the players know for a fact that the characters are bringing about their own downfall.
10/10, one of the best AP experiences in the medium’s short history.
I'm curious if each of the cast represents one of the cardinal sins. There are seven hells after all, and six of them plus Asmodeus.
@@ChainedFei I’m super intrigued by this idea. I can see Patia-Greed, Laerryn-Pride, Quay-Lust, Nydas-Gluttony, Zerxus-Anger, but I feel like Cerrit doesn’t fit either Envy or Sloth. Hm.
@@ChainedFei I think there are nine hells in DnD though but I like the symbolism you're going for.
@@emmamcginley5121 lmao Cerrit literally is just a blue-collar worker with wife and kids. So far no suspicious character motivations/ideals which will make it interesting to see his character exploration or how he reacts to the other pcs later on
The classic meaning of the word "hubris" in Greek tragedy: the character flaw that brings about your downfall.
The best thing to ever happen to this campaign was no one ever telling Travis what a force of nature Brennan is. Fucking incredible.
Right? He's accustomed to God tier dming by Matt so its cool to see how much he appreciated Brennans style as well although its much different
Considering how much fun he seems to be having I wouldn't be surprised if we see him in a Dimension 20 mini-campaign sometime in the future lmao
@@clover2309 god I hope so, any CR members joining d20 party will be great
@@boodesultan12 Well, I'd love to join but what stops me is the subscription I need for watching it.
(Because of my [curse word of your choice] ex boss who didn't pay me the whole may I have to be careful with my money, so I simply can't watch them.)
I will tho when I'm financially stable again.
I think what I want to say is that many simply can't watch because they don't have the financial means to do so.
@@woderfulLove [Neotenic coprolite] ?
I can't get over how well Sam and Aabria play a divorced couple. They do it so well I forgot they were just acting
Aabria is great at playing off others. Her interactions with Aimee in Exandria Unlimited as her sister were also believable.
love all the DMS but i think Aabria is my favourite when it comes to responding to things that suddenly/unexpectedly happen, the way she quickly responds to situations like that is incredible
@@fantaaa. she brings such an intense energy with her reactions. It's great
@@michaelbull1566 Matt and BLeeM hear a joke action, laugh about it, maybe pretend roleplay it, and then continue
Aabria hears a joke and it becomes canon
Agreed. Whether she's a PC or the DM playing an NPC, Aabria just has this way with interpersonal interactions, in both small and big moments
“So many snitches in this city. Can nobody keep a damn secret?”
“On a 29 Persuasion: no they cannot” 😂
Luis is just so good and I'm not sure I could survive both him and Liam at a table.
2 sad boys on the table?! Yes please! Make it happen!
as LIam once said about Caleb "Caught in a bisexual maelstrom ..." IM READY
I hadn't thought about that and now I NEED it!
Don't ask for Bisexual and Shakespearean greatness that you can't handle ahahahahaha XD
Meanwhile, I just want Laura and Emily to be at the same table for something
Gotta say, of all of Brennan's brilliance as a DM, one of my favourite things about his games is just how liberal he is with the information he gives his players, he encourages them to make the right checks, shares immense insight into the inner workings of the pc's particular areas of expertise and helps his players connect the dots, guiding them through the mysteries and plots he lays out without necessarily holding their hands. I'm so used to DMs being fairly reticent with how much information they share about their big secret plots, either being too subtle or straight up heavy-handed. Almost as if they're hesitant to let their players in on the obscure intricacies of their worlds as opposed to encouraging them to unravel them. Not to mention I often shy away from playing archetypes of characters far smarter than myself because I'm worried my roleplay alone won't be able to pull it off, but on Brennan's table, I feel like you could rock up saying "Hello yes I'm an astrophysicist and a part-time artificer with an esoteric interest in the arcane makeup of extraplanar entities" and Brennan would just go "I've got you, fam". I really wish more DMs adopted this method of _helping_ their players truly feel like they're adept in the niches they're leaning into, beyond just the roll of the dice.
i like the style too but it likely works really well because of the setting. They are playing so far in the past in such a heavily detailed lore that Brennan cant really have them miss a lot of plot points because they have to get to a certain part of the story and everyone is on the same page. Like he said to Sam you cant fail a check its on a sliding scale, so either way the dm is telling a lore dump. Most DM a lot of the time dont have this much detail fleshed out for them and then want to play for longer than four sessions. They also likely get stumped a lot by players so usually instead of telling their players "i have not thought of that" they reveal what they can on the spot and dont give too much away in case they say something gamebreaking. That is why Brennans works so well because they have a clear end goal already defined that they have to get to in a short time.
But i also agree that DMs should start empowering players more(within reason), it makes for the best games. So I hope you get to play that super smart character one day if you havent already!
@@devoncarr3653 This is incredibly true, and to be fair, not everyone is going to have 48 page intricate lore documents burned into their cerebrums like Brennan does. The man is a force of nature. I do still think DMs can take small notes from his style though, because I've seen it in other games he runs as well, he always tries to empower his players and play into the tropes they choose for their characters. Which helps when you're a new or generally nervous player, stepping out of their comfort zone.
Thanks! I hope so too :D
@@alleycat2297 its really impressive how smooth every player and the dm is keeping their lore and their jobs in tact and running so smooth. Like recalling on the prophecy i would not have thought of that till after session like oh fuck.
This is one of my main take-aways from Brennans DMing that I will try to incorporate in my own. He will full on walk you through an entire Sherlock-esque explanation of the unraveling of a mystery and then attribute it to a player character, making them feel like the coolest badass that's ever badassed. (The explanation for seeing invivisble creatures in episode 1 for example. It's not *technically* Brennan that was so brilliant, at least in-game, it was Travis' Character)
It’s like playing a game of KOTOR where you can unlock conversation points or whatnot by successfully rolling a check.
SPOILERS FOR THE END OF EPISODE
brennan is so sick for using HIS voice for the betrayer like. he KNOWS it makes him personable and relatable and sympathetic and it's so much better than some deep gravelly monster voice
Why would the betrayer not have a beautiful voice. He is not a good of fear. He's a lawyer. Smart and charismatic are his things.
Spoilers to many Dimension 20 seasons -- Brennan is known to do this. Not always, but more than once!
To me its more then that, by using his normal voice it throws the literall entire story into being suspect. The entire time (except of course when he's other people) his voice is the voice of the narrator. Everything they took as gosple, because it was in his normal voice was the father of lies setting them all up from the get go. (Yeah i know thats pretty much the DMs role but it feels different here on a meta level)
@@halfwaybrooks4202 oh that's such a good take
Love it
+
@@halfwaybrooks4202 ooooooh that feels so accurate. diabolical
brennan made three people fully leave their seats in the span of one episode i feel like that’s gotta be a record
I almost left my laptop
I left the seat I was sitting and watching the episode as well when Zerxus went through the portal
To be fair, if Brennan is GM and Lou doesn't get up, threaten to, or at minimum say "too much, I don't like it!", it was a low key episode.
bruh maybe it's controversial but i love the structure of this mini series. it's not 'scripted' but like... they have a 30 page lore doc and they know, approximately, how the story is going to end. it's definitely more tightly contained than an average DnD game is, almost more like an interactive novel. There can't be 20 episodes of this, because it's not conducive to that. it's structured like a tragedy, and i think that super works to the narrative's favor! plus the cast and DM are killing it, and obviously having a fun time bringing this glimpse into the past to life.
A large difference between a campaign set to go a hundred sessions and a 1shot/miniseries.
There's no time for shenanigans there's a plot.
Vox machina and mighty nein have tons of time to just run around with no major plot
Its like a movie through the D&D lense its really cool
Legitimately my favorite story told in a dnd format so far. Absolutely spectacular 👌
You would love dimension 20
Short-form D&D is SO GOOD done right. The firm structure lets you tell *a* story far more clearly than a massive open-world campaign.
2:11:45
Lou standing up from his chair just so he can flip Brennan off from the right angle is the true Dimension 20 experience brought to Critical Role.
I don't remember which roll it was but I do remember being mildly upset that Lou didn't make Brennan kiss the die.
This comment. That is PEAK D20 energy brought to CR and I am HERE for it. Especially since it was a perfect, yet classic, BLM fake out.
I love Travis' reaction to it.
I LOVE that I got to that exact moment as I was reading your comment.
@@Helioglyph Brennan doesn’t kiss Lou’s dice. He eats his own.
Brennan's face as Xerxus says "the moment you kneel to one god you kneel to all of them" is so happy and proud
and then!! and then zerxes later does!! He kneels to / with the lord of the hells!!
Dramatic irony and narrative circles and setup and immediate payoff with some really eeky foreshadowing for what comes next!!
I can’t bear or comprehend that this is improv, I love them both so so much 😭
@@lil_archive Does he though? Kneel to Asmodeus?
@@radioactivedetective6876 keep on watching 👉👈
@@ethanwright8674 No no, I have watched the whole thing. And rewatched. When does he kneel? He makes a deal. But I can't remember him kneeling
@@ethanwright8674 in fact Asmodeus gets really mad coz Xerzus talks to him as a child, not as a god. And that's very on brand with someone who is atheist or godless. He places mortals above gods. Which is in line with anthropocentric humanism.
Something really cool I noticed with Brennan's DMing, even as someone who's watched all of Dimension 20's campaigns, is how he's always able to find a way to explain an ability check even with a low roll. Cause most of the time in D20, he'd make a joke or a punchline when someone rolls really low for a check cause overall Dimension 20 focuses on comedy. But here on Critical Role, I can really see how serious he can be when he needs to be. Case in point, when Travis rolled low for the Medicine check, instead of being silly about it like Cerrit just poking the body or whatever, he explains what conclusion Cerrit would arrive to (even with a low roll) as a professional investigator. And as a newbie DM, I just have so much to learn from him.
I'm a Dimension 20 native but I've seen a lot of different groups play now, and Brennan stands as my ideal role model for a D&D DM. I really like is DM philosophy, and he does an excellent job executing it.
it's nice because he acknowledged the characters experience and levels. even if they role low, it makes sense they'll still glean useful info even if it's just a morsel
I feel strongly that Saint Mulligan is best DM. Saint Colville is best mechanics dude, Saint Mercer is best world builder, but Saint Mulligan is probably best actual game-runner.
I just recently started to get into Dimension 20, so I've only listened to one full campaign, and a couple random episodes that my Fiancé has had on occasionally. I loved Brennan's humourous side while DMing D20, but I love watching him here with this EXU campaign. I love his way of story telling.
Description description description! Best way to sound like an experienced dm is to learn to describe in depth what's going on.
They didn't miss, they swung their sword but the opponent ducked just in time for the blade to glance of his armored shoulder.
It really doesn't take much to turn a math based game into a fleshed out detailed world. Keep learning all you can
"When you kneel to one god, you kneel to them all." Holy shit this character is compelling as fuck. Such strong conviction, such pure motives... a tragic destiny written plain.
i just realized... he kneeled with the lord of the hells when he was attempting to cast atonement. but it was WITH, not TO. not yet
if he ends up pledging loyalty to the lord of the hells by the end of this, thats going to be some truly delicious foreshadowing. his flaw is that hes very trusting, after all. and he truly believes that he and this god were kneeling together, that they were equal in that moment, giving each other their trust. but zerxus my dude thats the father of lies. next time, he will be the one asking you to kneel and he will not join you
@@KTr0ck It's complicated. I see 4 angles of sympathy. 1) Dead hot husband 2) Zerxus is not sworn to the city, he is sworn to his home. Asmodeus presents a similar duty, siding with the primordials that existed on Exandria first, not those who ruled. 3) Zerxus wants to know the truth - we see this constantly with him asking for insight, using divine sense. But he's not a detective - the truth he wants is metaphysical. And someone who was there at the start, with an alternative perspective to the one he's been given so far, is way to get that. Asmodeus has already revealed more lore than most people on Avalir probably even care to know about! 4) Zerxus straight-up hasn't seen Asmodeus hurt anyone deliberately yet, but he knows well the harm the Prime Deities have caused. The enemy of my enemy is my ally.
*Dramatic irony: We know he does have a vested interest, but Zerxus doesn't necessarily
@@KTr0ck , no. He's is but a mortal tampering with powers that are beyond him. You can not redeem a lion for eating an antelope. The lion did nothing wrong. It's a force of nature. As is asmodeus.
The sentence got followed by "I don't believe in gods". It got followed by the casting of attonement, acceptance that he was faced with an evil entity. Was followed by the god explaining that he created evil beings and was hated for it.
The character is obviously broken in several ways.
@@LukeLavablade”dead hot husband” of course he was hot lmfao
Zerxus to Asmodeus: “I could fix him.”
Asmodeus and the other betrayer gods: “I can make him worse.”
Even Pally daddies fall for the bad boys
@@romxxii when they looking like you’re dead husband, just a lil… yup. He’s not a snack, he’s the whole buffet!
@@romxxii are you sure it's not the sad boys? He's presented himself as a ball of angst
The clever thing about this tack is that so many of the fanbase are already waxing rhapsodic about how this obviously means Asmodeus is the good guy. It really plays into our modern deconstructivist ways where we want to believe the worst about anyone who's presented to us as morally good. And let's be honest, the modern tendency to swoon for tormented bad boys who swear they'll change for us.
At least I hope that's what's going on, and it's not a cheap and unearned "the good gods were the bad guys all along!" reveal.
I bet that Zerxus is going to become an Oathbreaker Paladin. All he has to do is something evil enough to get him there.
Brennan speaking as Asmodeus is absolutely terrifying, because he both lies easily to zerxus' face and also doesn't technically lie at all
Truly befitting of the Father of Lies
Well, technically the lie of ommission is still a lie, no?
Well, a lot of it IS a lie, according to the larger canon. In the original canon, the primordials were the ones who were invading the realms. I'd also point out that we've never heard the story of the Exandrian primordials from any other source, so the whole story of the betrayer gods might be fabricated by Asmodeus.
@@Metrion77 Not exactly, they were in Exandria before any of the gods got there. The only reason they started rising up was because the gods made mortals that started taking over the land, so the primordials starting using the elements in response to curb them down. So he gods then gave the mortals powers to alter the elemental forces as they wished and it got worse as mortals spread everywhere. So for them, they had their world which they allowed the gods to come in and play around in, soon invaded and infested by the creations of outsiders. And when they tried to resist it some gods joined them and others did not.
@@Ashbrash1998 you are literally repeating exactly what Asmodeus, the god of lies and ruler of hell, said as canon. A story that no other being in Critical Role has confirmed. Why do you assume he's truthful about the primordials?
And when I say "in the original canon" I'm not talking about Exandria. I'm talking the actual dawn war with the overgod AO and the war between the gods and the primordials for Abeir-Toril written 15 years ago by WOTC.
In that world, the primordials were an invasive force, their very presence corrupting the very nature of existence and breaking it into raw elements and forming the elemental chaos. Evil from beyond reality known as the Obyrith corrupted Tharizdun and he drove the primordials to wage full war on the gods for conquest of existence. As the primordials were culled, Tharizdun planted the seed of evil in their elemental chaos and formed the Abyss and the Obyrith formed the demons. The demons waged their own war, and Asmodeus and his kin set out to kill as many demons as they could, inheriting their tactics and infernal features to better kill demons. Eventually, he was so evil, the gods agreed to give him a plane and the souls of anyone who deserved punishment if he would just go away.
I love how Brennan is so Irish that every time he experiences any emotion, he instantly turns bright pink.
He's like one of those flashing squids.
my people
The Irish are essentially ham golems
It's the curse we suffer for our good luck
That's what we got. The full spectrum is pale blue, paper white, bright pink, and slightly tartan
Luis here is a such a standout, can we please get him back? I would love to see him and Liam go toe to toe in drama and seriousness.
We're not prepared for that
Even as a guest player at the table with Liam would be great.
The amount of BROOD would be too much for us mere mortals.
Glad you mentioned that, haha. I was definitely getting serious Liam vibes from Luis too.
That corner of the table would darken permanently
"You have no idea what secrets I have kept. For you." I don't know what the context is yet, but something tells me Sam's fabulous little changeling man is about to shatter my heart.
Spoilers (I just realized you might not have finished the episode yet lol oops)
Well, the missing news articles about Evandrin and his ex wife carrying around Evandrin's locket and looking at it filled with guilt might be a thing...
@@mayaenglish5424 It sounds like Zerxus maybe doesn't know how Evandrin fell ill, but the cause was one of Laerynn's early experiments with the Astral Leywright.
@@Fafhrd42 mmmmmmhm that's what I'm thinking.
That's _Definitely_ not going to blow up in their faces soon at all...
i think he rigged an election or used blackmail or something to get her the position she has so that she could pursue her dream. Meanwhile she left him behind and ignored him to which he felt bitterness as he made it happen for her.
@@Fafhrd42 Honestly I'm starting to wonder if he's even dead or if he's trapped in some horrible limbo in between planes or something, suffering. Because there was no body, he just slowly faded out of existence, like he was flickering/traveling between planes maybe? Asmodeus said he wasn't in his realm, which is a good thing but also, can Asmodeus only sense souls in his realm or can he sense whether someone's dead or alive? It seemed like he was just sensing his own realm, my next question would be where is he, do you know?
Lou’s shaken delivery of “O-Obviously…” and follow up was SOOOoooo chilling, especially how jovial he had consistently been acting up to that point.
It was unbelievable, between the oracles and then Nydas, it was as if the prophecy itself was infectious. Anyone who read it went mad. Nydas, for all of his ambition and greed and jovial nature, it all slowly went asunder as he began to realize the prophecy was real and he became desperate to make sure it was not, even if it meant lying to himself in the process. The rest of the campaign shows even further how reading this one prophecy changed him.
timestamp?
@spoilerguy7285 i got you boo 4:31:43
Whoever decided to put Aabria and Travis next to each other - THANK YOU. Thank you so much
Their hype is so contagious!
Seeing them play off of each other and reacting to each other's reactions is SO MUCH FUN TO SEE!!! ♥♥♥
Brennan’s entire dialogue as Asmodeus was so good. I was not expecting him to actually yell out the way he did. Really sold the story and mood of the moment.
That whole interaction was positively riveting. Absolutely loved it. Both the content of the discussion and the slow burning tension of the situation that culminates with Asmodeus' outburst.
I highly recommend replaying the scene while watching the reactions of the bottom row, because they are all absolutely gripped and its beautiful
You know shit is going to get real when ever he does xD
I really can't think of a better DM to portray Asmodeus.
They said it would change our views on Exandria and BOY THEY WERENT KIDDING
I have a theory that as a character prompt, they were all told to have a secret that could *potentially* cause the calamity and it's going to be a whodunit to see if any or all of them are the ones to backstab or pull the trigger
Sam's secret: BOLO
Agreed
Yup agreed 😁
Isn't it canon for Critical Role's version of Exandria that Archmage Vespin Chloras caused the Calamity by freeing the betrayer gods from their prisons?
@@robertmacneish4470 It is yeah. He basically summoned them back.
Sam "was that the big bad of the whole arc? did we do it?!"
my brother in christ your group is technically the big bad in this story
I came to this late, so I already knew that, but did the players know? That line had me wondering if they were under the impression they were going to merely fail to stop the calamity, rather than directly cause it.
@@BradGreer i dont think its necessarily that the player didn't know, but more that the Characters themselves didn't know.
@@BradGreer I'm pretty sure they knew, maybe not that they would be the direct catalyst, but somehow be responsible. It's general knowledge that the calamity was brought about by the hubris of the age of arcanum, and all of the characters either tie into or directly embody that hubris. I think they were all supposed to have some flaw or ambition that would be a possible cause for the calamity. Per example, directly with Lerryns ambition with the leywright and Zerxus' pride, indirectly with Loquacious amd Cerrit covering up or turning a blind eye to their friends' misdeeds.
Yeah. This is it.
What are you doing here writing this shit under episode 2
An atheist paladin giving a spongebath to a devil and forming a covenant is now my favorite moment of the entirety of CR. Easy.
*cough* oath breaker *cough*
@@pablothecoffeelover2551 I mean he is a man for the people of the city but the city of crowns aren't "his people" the city or Thrones is below with his son. He pretty firmly didn't like these sanctimonious prideful people.
So yea, I think Oath breaker fits really well here.
@@Caiphex I KNOW RIGHT
but again it could be that asmodeus is playing him so it could also be bad thing
@@pablothecoffeelover2551 oath of devotion. Way more wiggle room and awesome RP potential. Essentially as long as you have a cause to fully devote yourself to, whatever it may be, you can harness your powers. Lots of cool corruption arc potential or tests of faith where they may possibly become an oath breaker. But devotion is cool because it's much more personal and can change and shift with the character's virtues.
@@Caiphex hes not oath breaker is he? cus it depends what his oath was, does not matter what god he is under since its the oath that gives him power
I cannot believe that during the entire conversation about the Astral Leywright and whether or not they 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 make such a machine, Sam Riegel's character is the voice of reason.
Considering the Mighty Nein in the Halls of Halas, maybe it's just that the word "Astral" is his Winter Soldier trigger word that causes him to err on the side of caution.
Sam's always the voice of reason. He hides it by acting like a goof, but he frequently drops sarcastic comments to remind people what the sensible thing to do would be.
This is a general truth in Critical Role. When _Sam_ is the voice of reason, this is where you know that things have gotten severely off track!
@@IcyDragonPolaris He's basically the party's jester(Not to be confused with Jester).
The existential dread i felt watching this episode was INTENSE. This event is a fixed point in Exandrian Lore and knowing that their utopia will be gone in a matter of days is utterly terrifying. Its Cosmic Horror at its finest.
Like Rogue One to Star Wars
How is that cosmic horror?
@@dalanology I think that sorta refers to the background context of the horror mystery of the forgotten betrayer summoning Brennan is going with, fairly lovecraftian
*Matter of hours. There's so much worldbulilding, lore and action packed into the 4 episodes that it's easy to forget that the events being told take place over a 24ish hour time span, though the fallout will last for centuries.
cool spoiler bro
The amount of self restraint it must have taken to NOT call this episode 'Sympathy For The Devil' is just unimaginable.
Or, if they wanted to be even more obscure, "The Rolling Stone."
@@flippedturtle4739 HA! Love it.
Or 'The Most Naive/Gullible Paladin in the World"
@@markwells3289 redemption paladin gonna redeem (or "die" trying)
"Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name. But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game..."
the hold this mini-campaign has on me is unmatched
It consumes my thoughts
RIGHT?! ♥
I feel like I'm watching a movie rather than friends and voice actors 'round a table! This is amazing and I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO very glad that they've decided to do this campaign! ♥
It's like watching Troy bring the giant wooden horse through the gates. You KNOW it will not end well. You KNOW people will die. But you cannot look away. You WANT to see the gates open, hear the wheels turn as they bring their doom into their very city. And you know this is happening because no one believed the prophecy foretelling their death.
@@Squeekysquid that‘s actually the perfect description. It‘s exactly how feel. Every new thing has me like „oh no this is bad. I LOVE IT!“
4:17:28 "Our promises were to the Primordials, and were called Betrayers!" Goosebumps man, what a great line
Could you help me understand that monologue a bit? I got lost at a couple of points, maybe missing background knowledge (but that doesn’t seem like it because this is a prequel series)
Lord of the Hells says he was a celestial, and he came to Exandria with the rest of the “Prime Deities”, as he puts it, correct?
Mentioned they were all talking, and much was already said before he got his chance to speak. Was this the Prime Deities and Betrayer gods (is there a a name to refer to both groups?) and the Primordials having a discussion? If so, about what exactly?
He said the his gifts were spurned? Hated? What were his gifts exactly? As a whole what were the “gifts” that were given? And who were they given to?
Was humanities creation one of the gift or were humans/sentient races already there?
Pretty much I felt the emotion of this scene, but I didn’t understand much of what has happening😮💨
@@Majyenta there's a video critical role posted a year?? ago that's called "Exandria an intimate history" and goes over the basics of wtf is up with the gods :)
@@Majyenta what they were all talking about was what to do with this new world that would later be named exandria. this was way before the schism which locked away the betrayer gods and the primordials. at that point they of course werent called betrayers because they hadnt done any betraying yet.
and hes the lord of the hells asmodeus. the god of lies and deceit. his gifts were just "bad" things, likely lies, betrayal, murder etc... he gave these gifts to the gods and primordials creations which were mortals and all the other "good" things
so just remember that before the schism so they were just the gods and the primordials. primordials were already on exandria and the gods came later. the schism is what started the labeling of "prime deities" and "betrayer gods"
@@Majyenta His gifts were evil and suffering and betrayal. He’s arguing that to truly have the greatest good you also have to have the worst evil, to have true loyalty there has to be the possibility of betrayal. Brennan’s showing off his philosophy degree because that’s an interesting philosophical debate that people have been arguing over for centuries.
I’d argue he’s right, to have light you have to have darkness, but I doubt that his true motives were offering these as “gifts”. I think he made them to torment humanity but is twisting it into this philosophical argument to hide those true motives from Xerxes.7
@Majyenta basically the primordials were on exandria first. It was there home and when the gods arrived they began trying to create life and the primordials allowed them to up until they granted mortals the power of divine magic, which the primordials felt threw off the balance of their world. Then the primordial started to destroy the mortals the gods created cause they viewed the mortals as a threat now. The prime deities after trying to convince them to stand down came to the conclusion the titans must fall, asmodeus and other gods did not agree with the prime deities and were imprisoned by them for it and labeled betrayers/ the betrayer gods. This series follows the days that lead to the begining of the calamity, an event where the betrayer gods escaped their confinement and engaged in a bloody destructive war on exandria which ended when the prime deities fought them back into confinement, created the divine gate, and left the world of exandria forever.
4:10:46
"A door opened, yes that's true"
I love the irony that Brennan says the Lord of hells doesn't lie, really, he just repeats back what Zerxus says that Zerxus wants to hear. Go back like, five, ten minutes to them getting into the hall, they all laughed at Nydas for doing the exact same thing to Sofyra.
You're right!!! I never caught that this is just that exact tactic but looked at on both ends aaa
1:36:47 The whole interaction of:
Laerryn: "I'm not convinced you were going to keep a world-changing technological achievement fucking secret!"
Loquatius: "You have no idea what secrets I've kept *for you*."
Brennan: "Sam, I'd like a deception check."
Sam: "Deception...32."
was Fucking AMAZING.
I don't really think he was even lying tho. I'm sure he's kept secrets for laerryn so she wouldn't get in trouble
@@adlerofrowe9224 Brennan did say that deception check wasn't about him lying about that though, it was for probably his lingering feelings for Laerryn... So he's hiding the reason he's keeping the secrets and not lying about the secrets themselves.
@@ESPHMacD goootcha, that makes sense
“You have been lied to…”
“The ones you can trust are very few…”
“This will protect you from myself, celestials, fiends… and fey…”
Sam: “$&@*!!!”
The mouth muscle control Brennan has when playing Asmodeus is insane. The little lip curls that are at times too small to see. The resting position of "Im fully listening." Everything about his whole demeanor. Outstanding acting.
Can we all appreciate the depth of the lore of Exandra that Brennan has digested and put to memory. Obvs he must have been able to sit with Matt and discuss at length, many times. Still, for a world not made of him, he clearly knows it's lore inside out.
He is close to Matt. I think if they swapped campaigns, Matt has so much info about Brennan's world that the backstory is as beautiful as what is being weaved.
He also has reigns of lore for now..so.
Exandria* oops haha
Watching these videos after finding him from Um, Actually put into perspective why he knew so much in the games. Dude is a knowledge hound. It’s crazy
@@Sweet.peach21 he’s the picture of a “Game Master”. He figures out the angle of a game itself and reverse-engineers it, using the existing laws of reason to fill in blanks. It’s so brilliant to watch how he soaks up so much of the lore as written that it’s almost impossible to tell what was already written by Matt vs. what he developed on his own.
Luis' reaction to Marisha saying, "What good is loyalty to a dead person?" hurt me deeply
do you have a timestamp for that? Please
@@arcanearcade617 1:34:16
@@arcanearcade617 1:34:15
That's especially harsh considering she seemed at least somewhat connected to her family's legacy. And then her talking about others as being privileged and given everything, unlike her... I really need to know what her story is.
I mean they were deals to powerful druids and as we all know level 20 druids live for a LONG time. 119 years is nothing.
It’s trippy watching Brennan’s eyes when his players are talking, the man is clearly paying such close attention to his craft
The greatest challenge of speaking to a master liar: you'd be a fool to trust a single word coming out of their mouth, but you'd also be a fool to discount everything that they say as a lie. A great liar tells just as much truth as they do lies.
I'd argue that the best liars tell no lies at all.
To quote a legend: "It's all true, especially the lies."
@@DanKaschel And indeed, Asmodeus never lies. It's bad PR.
But to o-so-sweetly manipulate the truth while speaking it... that's his area of expertise.
@@aidancox5481 Garak is the best
I'd argue that Asmodeus tells the truth 100% of the time. Carefully selected truths, to be sure, but truth nonetheless. People who only focus on him being Evil forget that he's just as Lawful.
Even after just two episodes of ExU Calamity, I would love to see more mini-series of high-level characters. The lore, dynamics, and drama is just so addicting to watch!
Escape from the bloodkeep from deminsion 20 is a great watch with high level players if you haven't seen it yet! Also as a bonus Matt is a player with Brennan as a DM. ❤️
@@nateg452 Seconded. All the Characters are great but Matt’s goes through an incredible arc told not just by the players but by the die. The fates colluded to make Matt’s story amazing.
@@trevorford8702 honestly, Dimension 20 has poetic rolls in a lot of seasons. Ally gets a clutch RP crit in at least 2 seasons, and Murph’s rolls in The Unsleeping City C2 are kind of glorious in their own way
I would recommend the unsleeping city by dimension 20 as the best Brennan run thing.
I'm going to go against the grain here....
Aside from his character in Deadwood I haven't liked Matt as a player in any other game... Including bloodkeep
I've been thinking the same thing. It took a long time for the C2 party to get to the highest tier, and the campaign came to an end shortly after. it's fairly unsustainable to run a campaign with massively powerful characters, but a "we are golden Gods!" one-shot is great every now and then.
It's upsetting that nobody else thinks it's hilarious that Travis's impression of infernal is deeply growling out "OSHKOSH B'GOSH."
Man this was the greatest "sympathy for the devil" moment I have seen played out in any form of media. An atheist paladin unwittingly making a pact with Asmodeus himself. Absolutely Fing incredible.
fuckin forreal. that whole conversation between zerxus and the lord of the hells was inTENSE
"What's the biggest, dumbest statue in here? It's *mine* now."
With a single line, Laerryn gave Fearne a run for her money.
They are both great. They'd make a great team.
I haven’t been this excited about a series in a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I love the main campaign, but this is something else. I’ve never seen Brennan before and this is AWESOME.
I recommend checking out Dimension 20, especially Escape from the Bloodkeep (free on UA-cam) where Matt is a player. Brennan is a top notch DM.
@@rosesleeps I was the same when I watched the first episode of ExU calamity, immediately subscribed to Dropout so I can go on a Dimension 20 binge and loving it so far.
He's an absolute joy on Dimension20, but usually those campaigns are lower stakes than this. All of their campaigns are limited series, 12 episodes max, so taking on the job of playing out the most epic pivotal moment in history for a world that's been built over - what is it, 250+ episodes now? That's new. It would be for anybody.
"A Crown of Candy" was probably the most serious high-stakes mini-campaign we've ever seen on D20. He's knocking this out of the park, though.
I love that this is your first time seeing the tied-for-best-online-DM to ever do it in Exandria. Please do check out some of his other stuff, he's always gold, and so is his cast, all CollegeHumor alumni.
@@stevesmith5883 My recommendation for Dropout D20 has to be A Crown of Candy. So many puns and gut punches. It starts off as a spoof and evolves into something so much more than expected.
@@rosesleeps I'm planning on watching all of them in order, on episode 12 of fantasy high atm. So will be reaching Crown of Candy in a few campaign's.
The whole conversation between Zerxus and Asmodeus was SO good, dear god. Brennan and Luis killed it. The acting, the tension... I know a lot of people are talking about Zerxus being manipulated and buying the lord of lies' lies, but I'm so fascinated by the idea that Asmodeus might have been telling the truth - that Zerxus wasn't tricked because he didn't NEED to be tricked. Asmodeus wouldn't even have to lie to Zerxus to get him on his side, because Zerxus already dislikes the gods. And Brennan has a habit in his other campaigns of showing religion from complex angles (celestials are not all good, fiends are not all bad), so I honestly think that there was at least some truth to what Asmodeus said about his feelings of betrayal toward the gods, and even about why he gave the gifts he did to the people of Exandria.
Luis played Zerxus so beautifully, and I don't think he played Zerxus as a sucker at all. Oath of Redemption paladins are idealistic, but not stupid. I think he has a good read on their interaction. He isn't 100% on Team Asmodeus - he doesn't help Asmodeus escape or enter Exandria - he just barely heals him, which didn't really do much besides ease his pain (Asmodeus already pointed out that he can't actually die). I think that, basically, Zerxus has acknowledged what the rest of the party has not - that the betrayer gods are coming to Exandria and there's nothing they can really do to stop them - and so he begs Asmodeus to not take out his anger on the mortals when he arrives. Which is a very realistic response, honestly? Tbh I think he's the only PC in the party who's genre-savvy enough to realize that they're in an apocalypse story right now.
Also the homoeroticism of it all was off the charts, holy shit. tenderly tending to a fallen angel's wounds as he wears your dead husband's face,,, asking him to kneel with you,,,,,,, he tells you he will never forget you, for as long as he exists,,,,,,,,,,,,, Brennan Lee Mulligan if you make the bad-but-sad devil guy pure evil I will not actually be surprised but I will be very angry with you for playing with my heart like that
I'm here to tell you that a) I love your entire comment so much, especially the take on Xerxus having accepted that if the gods coming to Exandria is inevitable, the best thing to do is to appeal to them. But also b) I can't wait for you to come back to this comment after episode 3
a thing that is stuck in my head is when zerxus tells asmodeus to swear he won't lash out on them, asmodeus swears...that he will never forget him, the way he slimly dodged that promise
Alternative title for this episode: Sympathy For The Devil.
Wow, beautiful comment and analysis. Thank you for this. And I so agree on the beautiful work and complexity of that scene between Zerxus and Asmodeus. Absolutely incredible (and I agree with you on the homoeroticism, I mean, I'm not gonna lie -- I ship it).
@@HenriqueGdeC Yeeeeah, I had chills when he said that. He didn't have to tell him a single lie by just omitting the full truth. Zerxus is in for a terrible awakening...
As much as I love this mini-campaign, I'm glad it wasn't any longer than 4 episodes. Timing and length is just as important as any other part of a piece of media, and avoiding any time jumps in this story and *forcing* the players and the audience to live every moment before the apocalypse is SO enticing!!! The reason so many people are GRIPPED by this series is because EVERY! MOMENT! COUNTS! You can't look away because if you blink you miss an important step in deciding the fate of Exandria
This would make a HELL of a movie, but turning it into a series would kill it. I agree.
For me, it's when Brennan lets Aabria talk through the machinery, then when she gets to the Arboreal Calix, he stops her and says "actually you haven't worked much with it..." with the tiniest smirk on his face. I didn't notice that my first time watching.
Whoever sits next to Marisha becomes her emotional support grabby-person
i volunteer as tribute
(Dolph Ziggler voice, cuz I can't post a gif here)
IT SHOULD'VE BEEN ME!!!
Literally read this post, looked at the video and she was mid grab 😂😂
she literally sucks at the game and is an obnoxious player.
😄
I love how Brennan brings out the box of doom, he simply cannot resist the allure. I also love how Brennan can’t help but make mirrors fucked up and ominous (cough cough the seven/fantasy high sophomore year)
But I doubly love the fact that they have a CR-brand box of doom now
I am Baron from the Baronies, and I am your romaeance partner Riz Gukgak
As soon as he mentioned that he wanted to roll in front of the camera, I thought "Box of Doom!!" It's too exciting for him to not do
@@chuckle5253 I still have ptsd from that
@@chuckle5253 “It is not my fault that I am born of lies. It is the fault of the deceiver, Riz Gugak.”
Fucking terrifying.
"We should continue to consider that false."
The talent at everyone at this table never ceases to amaze me, but damn did this episode knock it out of the park.
In a show full of devastating lines, that is definitely in the top 5. It's just a subtle little turn of phrase that speaks volumes. It's so deeply unsettling and I genuinely felt so bad for that poor woman who's world was falling down around her ears, only to be left with THAT line as the coldest of comforts potentially less than 24 hours before the beginning of the End.
@@mayaenglish5424 yes, it was chilling! The birth of denial almost immediately upon facing the horrifying reality, and the nesting recursive effects on the person in front of him; she knows he knows, he knows she knows he knows etc. But they decide to continue to consider it false. Devastating is a great word choice.
@@Lucy-ks9qb Here's the thing, I think it's even worst than that. I think this woman has been clinging to the premise that this prophecy IS false by the tips of her fingers. Maybe some small voice in the furthest reaches of her mind have been whispering doubts to her, but powerful people who she deeply respects have told her it's false, and of course it is, nothing so horrific could possibly come true... Right? Of course. There's been an infection or a disease, or we're under mental attack by something sinister.
And at the end of the day, even people who profess to hate the government and want to burn it to the ground would, in a scary situation of crisis, probably have been relieved that somebody else was handling the situation and find it genuinely soul crushing to realize the government was covering up something real.
So when he said that I think that little voice in the back of her head that knows better than the false comfort of authority heard what he _Actually_ said and realized what he meant by "We should continue to consider that false." and felt true fear, before swallowing and dismissing it once more, but this time, I think that little voice is going to be much louder.
The way he says it, without any of his usual flourish or energy, is so haunting. one of my fave scenes of anything, ever
wait can i get a timestamp?
Brennan showing his mad love for his friends by repping his Naddpod sweater while DM'ing on Critical Roll with Lou Wilson!
My favorite part!
Absolute bon Frere behavior
@@tylerkeating3784 someone call Coretta Scott-King.
I smiled so big when I saw the sweatshirt, and then smiled again when he stood up later on and it was on full display 🥰
Callooh callay!
As someone who loves her clerics hearing Brennan's explanation for the growing strengths of leveling clerics gave me such a happy moment and LOADS to think on in my games!
the absolute chaos of the D20 classic episode ending of "i'm gonna everybody roll initiative and that's all for this episode" and the CR cast's reaction to it is perfect. Lou's resignation as he pulls out his dice to roll initiative - i can practically here his inner monologue going "this is where he's gonna end the episode, i can just tell. of course this is where he ends the episode"
"Gods are colonialism" is not the take I was expecting, but then again it's Brennan DMing so I should've seen it coming. Loving this so far, the whole table is amazing, there are no weak links whatsoever. I can't wait for everything to go horribly, horribly wrong.
All rhetoric justifying colonialism involved "guiding those less capable to a better future" and taking care of them because they were "like children". Gods are colonialism.
It’s such a good take, too! It’s brilliant storytelling and a brilliant philosophical approach.
Churches, colonialists, and capitalists - the trifecta of Brennan's BBEGs
it makes a lot of sense though. like i’m new to the critical role fandom and i’m actually starting with this after watching Matt’s history of Exandria video and when he said the gods came and fought elementals to tame the planet i was like “that doesn’t seem morally right this was their land and you’re just showing up and killing so it can be your- ohhhhh”
@@liamross340 you havent watched the next few episodes have you?
Watching this mini-series is like the first time I watched Revenge of the Sith: I KNOW how it has to end, but I am still somehow praying that it can change
And that, kids, is what we call Tragedy with a capital T!
“You underestimate my powers.” - Avalir, probably.
@@Poodlestroop "Don't try it." - The Prime Deities probably.
Reminds me of the theme of Hadestown. "It's a sad tale, a tragedy. It's a sad song. We're gonna sing it anyway."
Like the last seasons of the clone wars, holy crap they are good. The sense of fatalistic despair and angst is just so oppressively pressent.
Goddd Sam’s timid “I can be late” in Aabria’s face absolutely killed me
It's peak Fae energy.
Aabria had some KILLER glares this episode lol. She did the same thing to Lou when Nydas asked if figuring out the Arboreal Caelix could wait.
Spoilers:
The fact that the name calix is itself a reference to a botany term for the protective layer of a flower bud is some of the greatest story telling.
(Arboreal Calix = trees sepal or saplings shell)
Laeryn: kills a dude in 1 round
The look on Sam's, her ex husband's face: I am in danger
Or confirmation...?
Scare-oused?
loquacious: well, mark me down as scared AND horny!
One of the fun things about a series this short is that every moment something critical is happening, there's no down time it's all calamity all the time
It's so. Damn. Stressful!... I love it 😂
It feels like a campaign's ending from the very beggining, and I'm all here for it
Not only that, but some of the characters don't seem to realize the danger they're in and how important everything is. That's one of the most tragic things about tragedies, is that the characters in them don't realise they're in one
Brennan stringing us along as the devil himself is a thing of beauty
Right? This is the type of villain I've wanted to see him play on D20 for ages - powerfully sympathetic but also very sinister if you think about it
@@raychances6251 he does something similar in LA by night as Adrian! absolutely chilling and beautiful performance!
@@raychances6251 A Crown of Candy's Sugar Plum Fairy had a similar energy
Right?!?!
I know Asmodeus is playing him. But damn I want to believe him too.
The way marisha has picked up and absorbed Matt's terminology and isms, and now she absorbs Brennans favorite word "Incredible" lol. Just very cute.
I love Aabria being the audience representative and making Asmodeus and Zerxus kiss with her hands as soon as Brennan says he's beautiful 😆
Words can’t begin to express the love for everyone on this panel and the next level role play happening here…. Sam and Abryia as a divorce couple….Travis and his son interaction…Lou and Marisha’s overall immersion into the time period…Brennan’s and Louise’s deep interactions episode 1 and 2 are literally sooooo good!!!!!
5/5 stars good stellar amazing !!!!
It hurts so bad knowing their all gonna fuckin die
Luis*
Partway through this episode, I was starting to feel a little bad for Luis; his character is fairly quiet and it seemed like he was along for the ride without having an opportunity to shine. Then we got to the Hall of Prophecy, and all doubt vanished. What a scene! What a cast! What a game!
Lou knows exactly when to strike
Ok, so the way everybody is showing their hubris and playing into their desires to do "good" even though they have a million red flags screaming at them that they're in the wrong and need to take a step back has got me shook.
Like it is insane watching them all orchestrate their own demise with absolute blinders is wild how they're pulling it off.
And Brenna's depiction of Asmodeus floored me. I have never felt such sympathy for evil before, and what's worse was that my takeaway was that everything he said was true. Everything he felt was true, and it was SO true, that he basically TOLD Zerxus, all of this is true, which means so is my role and my job. I HAVE to play my part. I HAVE to deceive you. But I will ALSO protect you from me as a show of good faith to protect you from yourself against me.
I fuggin cried lmao
The whole interaction honestly felt very raw and real. Especially the part where Zerxus questioned if he's being deceived and he just said "Mortals always ask that and I never know how to answer" part of the conversation. I mean we're dealing with literally D&D's version of the Devil here. It's an obvious question that almost every mortal will ask and it would be nearly impossible for Asmodeus to satisfactorily answer. It's entirely possible he does what he is known to do not because it's his truest desire, but because it's the lot he has been given and he knows it would be disappointing if he didn't play the role even if he has no desire to do so for that specific person.
Edit: I would also like to point out the way he spoke with Zerxes was as that of an equal. Almost as if he's nodding respectfully to the fact they can use magic of the divine realm on their own.
@@morgantaylor84 exactly, and the finale pretty much cemented it. It was no longer private dreams or that 1 to 1 backstage intimacy. The curtain was drawn, the stage was set, and it was time for the devil to be the devil.
Now you should know that this is my first full run of anything d20 or critical role related, but the thing i get between what i watched and the points you make is, how can you discern decite from an individual who speaks nothing but truth? Especially when you just got to know them! When it comes to tricking Zerxus any form of lie would be found out quickly and put him off when revealed.
(Now that i have not seen anything Alexandria related aside from shorts and this is my first full run through any thing d20 or critical role. I know how this saga ends but i came to see what impact the line "i am beneath no one" really had so i am really thinking about anything Zerxus related).
@@jeremiassandstrom2874 I loved that line in the finale. Brennan delivered that love so fuggin raw, I was just in my car, mouth agape, or ohhhh noooo. Xerxus, you f***ed uuuup.
But it also kind of served as a bit of proof to my earlier point. When you view yourself as someone so superior to everyone else, you have no need to lie.
Like I did in my original post, I felt like he was telling Xerxus straight to his face what kind of person he was and what he was dealing with, but he delivered it so smoothly with such casual reassurance like he was explaining the process of boiling water.
Luis also explained in later interviews Xerxus' fatal flaw, and that combined with Asmodeus bread and butter. Like, yoooo that man was doomed the moment he laid eyes on him
What I love about Brennan is how he is not afraid to include a lot of exposition in his explanation. He is really excited about this world, and all of the moving pieces in his story, and he doesn't want the players to miss anything.
truly obsessed w brennan bringing back the biz glitterdew voice for travis's kid
Palimpsest
_THAT_ is who it was!!!! I couldn't place it!!!!!!!!!
Oh my goodness i didn’t even realize, i was to busy laughing…brilliant!
It's like bizs voice with rizs personality
I knew it was familiar!
I love everyone at this table, but Lou's energy at ANY given time is just a flame that stokes itself and livens everyone up. So great to have Brennan and Lou on here.
Well said! They make it obvious they do comedy that’s for sure 😆 but even when they aren’t doing comedy they have an energy
If you haven’t seen any D20, I highly recommend it. The first season, Fantasy High season one, is a great place to start. The two of them are electric.
@@Glmorrs1 Oh i have. I was hooked from the very first moment of Fantasy High. Cathilda/Fabian, Fabian/Bill Seacaster, Kingston/Liz, so good. I was ecstatic to hear not only was Brennan the DM for this but that Lou was also coming on as a player.
Anyone else notice Luis literally crying at the mention of evandrin around 45m? I am just amazed at the sweetness of his openness and marishas kindness getting him tissues. It was so sweet and cute 🥹
I was looking for a comment like this.Because YES...holy shit! This guy jumped straight into immersion! I love it! ^_^
Normally we observe these stories from the "Hero's" perspective, but I feel like this story is about how this group successfully caused the Calamity as opposed to failing to prevent it.
Or to have all been witnesses to who or what causes the calamity we shall see so excited for next few episodes this story is amazing
I love the idea of knowing the end, but having no idea how it’s going to come… the ultimate suspense
Yeah. This reminds me of the finale of Star Trek TNG. They hop through time trying to prevent the universe from ending, but they realize it was their own actions to prevent the end that made the universe unstable in the first place.
Similalry to Calamity, I'm thinking that our players are unwittingly helping / garunteeing the thing they think they're preventing. We all know it is _not_ going to end welll. Now the part we get to watch is brilliant story telling with that knowledge. Can't wait for ep. 3 & 4!
Me, not knowing Brennan's DM style: This will be interesting to watch. I hope we can get a few laughs in.
Me, now, having an idea of Brennan's DM style: now what kind of fucked up shit are we going to get?
A great intro to Brennan's DMing style is a DImension 20 video called "Brennan's the Bad Guy (Compilation)."
Rule of thumb: never trust this man if he says there's mirrors in the room, spooky fucking shit happens when Mulligan mentions shiny surfaces!
The Unsleeping City, Escape from the Bloodkeep, and Fantasy High have their first season free on youtube, they also really highlight how he rolls.
@@romxxii gonna kill that dog!
My first real into to him was the priest in LA By Night. Never in my life have I encountered a more, utterly unsettling and unpleasent character. Brennan's got impressive range.
As a long time d20 viewer. Seeing Brennan get his flowers from the CR community truly warms my heart! He is built different!
I love Matt and Brennan both, but I think I prefer Brennan a little more because he leans in to the silliness of the game a little more than Matt does, but it also depends on my mood. They’re both such brilliant storytellers, and it doesn’t hurt that both have such amazing players at their tables.
Honestly, we're blessed to have those two beautiful men work together. I'm entranced by Brennan's storytelling!
I gotta say, as a long time CR fan who only knows Brennan from from his gameshows and comedy sketches, he's a fascinating comparison to Matt. I'd say Matt, at least for me, does a better job embodying the various NPCs and making them come alive (talented voice actor, who'd have thunk it?), but Brennan paints a scene and plays with tone and timing better than anyone I've ever seen. My gods, I'm watching/listening to this while pottering with other chores and the like and he's still managing to creep me out being home alone.
Luis made such strong moves when he was dealing with Asmodeus. With everything being so bad bad bad with that situation, him still playing that First Knight, Godless Man of the People was just amazing and gave me so many goosebumps.
Truly, just some masterclass heavyweight RP
I looked up what Ceremony: Atonement does after watching this and wow what a ballsy move
Watching Travis play a father is the most endearing thing I have probably ever seen. Ronin is gonna have a great childhood.
This whooooole campaign can be summarised to one, single, horrifyingly destructive word that will definitely bring down everything: Hubris.
Yeah, and gods does it show.
Hubris and love. Love of Evandrin. Love of Laerynn, love of family etc. Hubris+Love= Antigone
Im honestly surprised that the fandom doesn't refer to Laerryn's device as the Hubris Cannon
Just because she could do something does not mean she should. But this is the Age of Arcanum and hubris is king.
HUUUUUUUUUUUGE-bris
I need more Lou and Travis interactions. They make each other laugh and bounce off each other so well!
On my second replay since Thursday now, and 46:50 - 47:50 might be my favorite moment that I hadn't noticed. Marisha sees Luis get emotional, gets a bit emotional herself, then without a word gets up and returns with a box of tissues for him. That's so sweet.
Nice catch I didn't even notice that
This is my first time experiencing CR, I love her
aww
Was coming to comment if I didn’t see anyone else did
CR crew "so, you're ready to DM this 4 part mini series, Brennan?" Brennan: "Mini series? I prepped a campaign!"
The amount of work that BLM did for Matts world here is staggering.
He clearly did an incredible amount of prep here, complete with nods to fans and the CR cast. He is incredible.
I read this and was so confused how Black Lives Matter had anything to do with preping the campaign and now I realize that I'm just an idiot lol
I also fully read this as Black Lives Matter I was like hell yeah sure
a lot of fans use BLeeM to avoid confusion
I love how Brennan gives them information after ability checks, he really frames it in terms of their character's experiences and knowledge. And he also like tells you things about the world in general in his answers. Idk i really enjoy it!
Look at the actual pride on his face when Brennan plays his son like he’s genuinely reminiscent of like his own kids- he genuinely spoke with love I love that shit
He doesn't have kids
@@adlerofrowe9224 I think the he in this case is Travis, rping and thinking of his son ronin ❤
The thing is, I love Sam Riegel not least because he often looks like he's tuned out or not really paying attention -- or half-attention (and by his own account that's sometimes true) -- but then he pipes up at a moment like 2:01:13-2:02:08 and goes full galaxy brain "Insighting/Inciting the World" on par with the DM.
Sam spent years gaslighting this fandom into believing that he is doing this casually and he doesn't know D&D that well but in truth he is the one player who is on top of *everything*, who pays attention the most and has a VERY strong grasp of the game, the universe and the capabilites of his own character. Dude's masterful.
Sort of.. In this case he was drawing on CR 1 scenario with vecna that he thought of that point.
@@hazarozgen6508... Well, for everything that isn't when a sneak attack is allowed in any case lol
Kinda feel it’s a bit heavy this round. Matt wouldn’t put up with this.
It could be that he is sending Brennan info, so I can’t say too much
It's really rewarding watching another professional DM like Brennan. He doesn't miss a beat keeping it fluid. I've learned so much watching him and Matt
I can’t stop watching Aabria while Luis is describing how he thinks the tree is what made Evandrin sick because SHE KNOWS that’s what happened to him! I love it
Also when Asmodeus says Evandrin isn’t in his realm, she looks crushed
It makes total sense that Asmodeus would be the one "leading the charge". He's one of the most clever and cunning beings in the universe. He's the ultimate strategist with plans that span millenia. This is a being who was put on trial by the angels of Mt. Celestia, accused of corrupting mortals to sin, and had the god of absolute law declare him innocent becuase he was such a wordsmith and manipulator.
All of this is assuming that he was actually guilty? The story Brennan tells here could be a potential reality for history in that world. No mortal can ever know if the gods actually just scapegoated the Betrayers for doing what they were expected to do. It also makes sense because it's not like Pelor is going to just go "Let me bring lies, pain, etc into the world to make truth, love, etc matter more" because then the humans would hate him. The prime deities needed the betrayers in that way. (Although it comes down to the esoteric argument of wether or not the concepts of "good, love etc." can exist without their counterparts. I'm of the opinion that they can't but that doesn't mean you can't live a life filled with only good. It just means there is a balance for your goodness somewhere in the universe. At the end of the day both are needed for the chaos that rules life.)
Apologies for the esoteric rant, it is late and my pagan spirituality needed an outlet.
@@Eadwulf_Skald this is the most based take on this
@@thelastcube. Thank you very much! The way Brennan framed this story is the reason I have always been drawn to neutral and evil gods in D&D but also in my own spirituality.
I just find it funny that people place human morals onto their gods when the whole point is them just having a place in the world, evil or otherwise.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it was declared a mistrial? So neither innocent not guilty. He was then gifted the Ruby rod.
I can't speak highly enough about Brennan's DMing skill, I have not seen any other DM be able to transition between serious and silly as well as he has. So props to him really and I would love to see more of him on CR.
He's definitely the best at meshing tones :) Dimension 20 is where you can find more of him
Pretty sure Laerryn did an experiment that made Evandrin sick and Loquatius covered it up. Really excited for this secret to cause the calamity :)
Oh my God that would explain the missing file on the reporter and Quay's line "the secrets I kept for you."
@@Star_on_a_Staff also why Laerryn keeps saying "it was worth it" to Evandrin when she addresses him in her memories
I was thinking Xerxes and Evandrin’s son was actually her and Evandrin son
I thought the same thing. Him saying: 'you have no idea what secrets I kept, for you.' was so intense it had to be true, and then the missing file and such.
That would be awesome !
1:30:38 "Did you see the fondue?" and Zerxus' "I did, I saw it all." was dripping with disdain. Love it.
Sam straight up wearing the leopard print suit, if I didn't think his character wasn't the guy from fifth element before, oh it absolutely shows it now.
He was copying one Aimee Carreos EXU looks according to Twitter
Vitas xD oh my God he really kind of is
Ruby ROOOOODDDDDDDDD!
Pretty sure he also has glitter in his eyebrows.
Oh man I hadn't made that connection yet but it so fits! I was thinking more along the lines of Caesar Flickerman in hunger games (especially with the initial introduction as he gave the morning announcements to the city)
*Zerxus sees Asmodeus:* Pretty ✨
*Asmodeus:* Too Easy
*Me:* Does. No. One. remember Tumor PUPPET !?!?
LITERALLY!!! Like that happen TONIGHT!!!
Just a silly little child who needs to say “sowwy” and it’ll all be okay! Redemption paladin *sighs*
I can't believe we finally got a wizard fight, and almost immediately the old joke of "Only Fireball" became true
I DIDN'T ask how big the room was, I SAID I cast Fireball!
Somehow the Fireball didn't destroy the century old tree bark letter either. The first thing I thought when she cast Fireball was killing him on the spot is one thing for intformation gathering, but also risking the destruction of evidence and material information AS WELL? All INT no WIS, uh?
Well, it is an amazing spell and perfect for this kind of situation. A bit regretfull that Laerryn immediately went for the kill with her construct after that when she could have the stone soldier grapple him instead, it was clear he was pretty fucked up anyway. The immediate killing seems counterproductive to me.
@@bdletoast09
She clearly did NOT expect that to kill him at all.
I actually love the Brennan does not suffer the joking and mutterings. He is ON POINT and stays on task. Really drives home the seriousness of this mini-series.