Cr Spoilers - Blog Posts

Currently 6:49am … I LIVED BITCHES! Also there were so many lines that altered my brain chemistry but let’s be so fr the ending line of “and every now and then your champion comes to visit…”

BITCH STOP.

Watching Predathos be this little alien baby whose hungry while Matt is traumatizing everyone and all my mind could think of was:

Will be thinking about this all day

vax, his hair & his armor in black like a raven. ludinus, his hair & skin as white as the snow of eiselcross. vax, guardian of fate, ludinus, destroyer of it. vax the grim reaper. ludinus the white horse, the horseman. vax, gone too soon. ludinus, alive too long. vax & ludinus, eternally in the purgatory of immortality and undeath. vax & ludinus, both invisible to the matron. vax & ludinus, death & winter. death, winter, and the matron of ravens connecting them.

heretical as it feels to say, they are in some way brothers. kin.

ethedok & vordo in some ways meet again. certainly made in their image.

even as one sheds the others divine blood to end divinity, not knowing he'd choose mortal family over divinity like the other would, too.

someone call Keith David and Blake Roman

Wake up, puppet boy!!!!!

I don’t normally create art for Critical Role, but sometimes you gotta draw a chibi moth Jester

Oh shit oh shit OH SHIT

OH SHIT - C3E52 CONSPIRACY THEORY ALERT (SPOILERS AHOY)

YOU KNOW THE DRILL BY NOW

EVERYBODY ROCK YOUR BODY

LOREM IPSUM BLAH BLAH BLAH

—

Remember back during Chetney’s trial with the Gorgynei, and Ashton managed to open up that wound in his chest, then Orym tried to reach him by showing him the carving of the wolf, and red smoke came out?

[C3E41] MATT: You see in the middle of the chest, around the sternum between the fur, a little bit of red smoke (puffs) begins to trickle out.

And afterward, the ‘corruption’ was purged from him?

[C3E41] MATT: You pull the dagger free, and you all watch as a splash of crimson comes emerging from it. But it just drifts there. It is a red, spectral mist that begins to drift and emanate out… As this light begins to swell and fill the space around you with a bright, blue, midnight light, the series of emotions fill your head once more, saying, “I eat of the scar of an unworthy predator, and leave my scar in its place. You are a hunter, and the wilds wait with you to be unleashed.” You watch, almost like drawing the venom from a wound, this red energy drifts out, and you watch as this cloud of red drifts there for a second, and for a moment, it almost resembles a familiar, ruddy moon before it dissipates.

And just as the Malleus Key was being activated…

[C3E51] MATT: In the invisible space where Imogen is standing, her outline begins to appear as red mist-like energy– Fearne, a faint bit of red mist begins to emanate from you.

So bear with me here…

If Chetney was able to keep his powers because of the Wildmother’s grace and Sahyaadon eating the ‘scar of an unworthy predator’…

DOES THIS MEAN IMOGEN AND FEARNE DON’T HAVE POWERS ANYMORE?!

(I take it back, Fearne might because of her fey nature, plus she took A level in rogue, but Imogen’s powers come from Ruidus… she doesn’t HAVE anything else!)

Hello @vykker I just wanted to say I made a VyKker

I love this small coming I did

My comic spoiler. Page 26 scene 121 of the good ending

Some how I can make Abe voice and I love reading my comic whine it so ire is a piece :)

Here is a very very very rough pencil drawing for Critical Role

sorry the first one is soo. hadestown. how am i supposed to be normal about this

“you came” “you called” vs. “you called my name” “you came”

don’t fckung. do this to me. everything hurts.

If i drew enough reunion hugs in preparation, one of them had to be accurate! (4 of 6 is pretty good!)

⚠️ Spoilers For Chapter 9 In CRK ⚠️

Please Please Please Please Please Let HollyBerry Adopt Pavlova!! 🥹🥹

I'll Make Au For It Help Me 🙃

So, just 35 minutes into exu downfall Brennan already has made a bird reference

is it a proper DnD combat if no one gets swallowed?

ok ok ok imodna enjoyers

listen i know we're all. Slightly in pain from Recent Events.

but consider.

loml by taylor swift as an imodna song in the future. it would be a loss but,,,failing up perhaps

i simply cannot remove it from my head so now it must plague all of you youre welcome!

“Ages ago the divine touched the real and your living form is the real reaching back, hand in hand, two dancers twirling in the stars forever.”

Good Evening Mr. Phelps.

30 years ago, the city of Aeor created the Latimus Princeps, a device that prevents divine entry and scrying within the city of Aeor. Since then, our covert agents within the city have learned that Aeor has neared completion of a god-killing weapon known as the Factorum Malleus. In addition, they have created a failsafe protocol spread throughout the city, wherein should they feel there is a threat to the Factorum Malleus, they will disseminate knowledge of how to build it across the globe, ensuring its recreation. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to infiltrate the city of Aeor in the guise of a mortal, sabotage the failsafe mechanism and Latimus Princeps, and destroy the Factorum Malleus. As always, should any of you or your IMF team be caught or killed, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

This message will self destruct in five seconds.

"I just can't stand having anyone else betray me."

When you are busy pondering your cute little orb

Zerxus, after Nidas kills him and gives him a chance to be free of Asmodeus' control: "I believe I can help with that."

oh my gods.

CAPITALISM REALLY WAS THE BAD GUY ALL ALONG

Something something brennan's building up of, over the three Calamity series, an overarching story of how liberal capitalist institutions lay the foundations for fascist elements to infiltrate and take over society, preying on preexisting socioeconomic inequalities, exploitation, and dissatisfaction within those liberal institutions to install fascist dictatorships which push racial violence (up to and including genocide), theocratic justification and mass forced labor extraction in the form of literal concentration camps and perpetual war as a means to both maintain their existence and spread it past their current bounds. And how the only way to defeat these fascistic institutions is through local, grassroots, community-oriented efforts of resistence that slowly chip away at the powers of control until mass action can be taken that crumbles these institutions to the ground something something

So uh..... about that episode.

God, I'm still laughing about Jester blatantly lying about realizing Essek was there. I love the entirety of Vasselheim apparently watching this silly and bewildering exchange. Some random guy in disguise just helped this wizard—from the party the Bright Queen endorsed—resurrect somebody with dunamancy, revealed himself to be of Kryn origin, and immediately evaded a very sudden and pointed attempt at capture by the Kryn contingent. This party who no one in Vasselheim actually met, but who was, to reiterate, endorsed by the Bright Queen, blatantly lies to their benefactor about knowing who this guy was despite the fact that he was basically in the wizard's lap. The Divine Gate shattered ninety seconds ago and here on the ground the most unrelated minute-long melodrama is playing out for seemingly no reason.

The rest of the world suddenly remembers why they stopped inviting Wildemount to anything.

My headcannon for the attendants at the Stone-Lavorre Destination Wedding (on the moon??)

Invited and showed up

Expositor Lionett of the Cobalt Soul (Best Man/ Maid of Honour/New Mother) her wife: The OrphanMakerTaker (renowned harpist and murderer stay at home mom) and an undisclosed number of recently amassed orphans.

Professor Widogast of the Soltryce Academy (Best Man/ Will-turn-into-a-TRex-and-walk-Jester-down-the-aisle) his partner: the Wanted War Criminal Cobalt Soul Archivist Essek Thelyss Seth Domade (designated driver teleporter) and his brother colleague idk man they just know each other stop asking questions: Taskhand Verin Thelyss (Commander of the Krynn Dynasty’s Umbra Watch and canonical Ashari weeb)

Veth Brenatto (Maid of Honour/ Founder and leader of the Wildemount Wildlings/ recovering? Alcoholic) her husband: Yeza Brenatto (owner of Brenatto’s Better Self Apothecary, doing Okay please don’t ask him about that time he was kidnapped and ate his own clothes. Or that time his son burnt alive. Or what’s going on with the current status of his marriage) and their son: Luc Brenatto (Flower Boy - too old to be a flower boy. Mad that he was asked to be a flower boy. Teenager.) Also Nugget the Dog (ring bearer. Ate the rings.)

Champion of the Wildmother Caduceus Clay (Best Man/ designated cleric ‘will cast lesser restoration after you throw up’ / caterer it’s ok there will also be non-vegan options) and an unknown number of his parents and siblings that have never been to a wedding before and probably shouldn’t have started with this one)

Current Plank King Kingsley Tealeaf (Best Man/Fjord invited him here so he could steal back his boat) and a handful of miscellaneous pirates here for the free booze

That group of weirdos they met on the moon and didn’t expect to actually survive show up, including Lesbian (Purple / Beau and Yasha wanna fuck her ), Bisexual (Dead / Beau and Yasha wanna fuck her), Short Guy (Gay Sad Fighter) , Blue Guy (heading up the wedding band), Fire Lady (Hot, Wants to fuck Beau and Yasha), The Minotaur (Evil? Veth is gonna ruin her marriage tonight for sure Officiant???), Rocks (Rocks. free light feature.) and Strange Old Man (Caleb wanted him here. They hoped he might have passed in his sleep by now)

The Ruby of the Sea, Marion Lavorre (Mother of the Bride. Semi-retired courtesan. Agoraphobic. Wishes her daughter would’ve please just thrown an indoor wedding.) her husband? boyfriend? paramour? They’re not putting a label on it yet: The Gentleman, Babenon Dosal (Father of the Bride. Semi-retired crime lord mob boss human smuggler (repented) man of ill repute, kinda mad he wasn’t asked to walk his daughter down the aisle but whatever. Getting slammed down Big Style tonight and every night by Exandria’s Wet Dream)

Vandran (Father ‘Old Guy Who Was Nice To Him At A Pivotal Age’ of the Groom. Is having a number of rather concerning Tusk Love flashbacks. Thinks he probably should’ve stayed on his island. Jester keeps trying to set him up with Captain Adella (formally of the Drensala Vis. Now of Stone’s Throw Shipping) … there might be something there.

Marius LePual (pirate sailor, still not a murderer, immediately hammered)

Seafaring legend Orly Skiffback (pirate tattooist, is not tattooing for free. Is not in charge of Marius tonight)

Dwarven explorer Dagen Underthorn (no one’s sure he’s definitely here tonight. Beau thinks she saw him by the magic portapotty. Beau is drunk)

Enchanter Pumat Sol. And also Enchanter Pumat Sol. And also Enchanter Pumat Sol. The fourth one couldn’t get the time off work (half of the enchanted party decorations here are rentals from the Invulnerable Vagrant. They are not giving jester her deposit back)

Kiri (Flower girl. A more age appropriate choice. Luc is teaching her how to Crossbow uncle Fjord when he’s not looking) also the entire Schuster family is here too.

The Lightbringer of Uthodurn, Reanmimere (Flower girl back up ring bearer after Caduceus retrieved the rings from inside nugget it was super gross she bears the rings as a giant snake)

Professor Eadwulf Grieve of the Soltryce Academy (former-government-spy-assassin-wizard, currently the Cerberus Assembly’s equivalent of the gym teacher who also covers sex ed. Was startled by a Jester-Sending in the middle of the night and RSVP’d yes on impulse. Astrid wouldn’t help him get out of it. She kept laughing at him and it was mean)

The Traveler (Officiant / not a god / sometimes a weasel)

Sprinkle (always a weasel / dreams of a cosmic death / dyed blue to be Jester’s something blue even though… Jester… is blue?? Sprinkle is not having it)

Invited but did not show up:

Expositor Dairon of the Cobalt Soul (said to Beau ‘dear gods don’t make me go, I’ll do whatever you want.’ Is now covering Beau’s paperwork until she’s back from vacation)

Calianna (still hunting bowls. Sends her love.)

The Bright Queen (returned an official notice flanked by two armed guards to please not contact her by message spell again unless there is a war.)

Archmage of Civil Influence Astrid Becke of the Cerberus Assembly (absolutely thrilled that Eadwulf accidentally agreed to this shit. Would rather submerge herself in hot oil than be at this wedding herself. Said so to Jester’s face. Also the Soltryce Academy is currently down two faculty members and somehow that’s her problem and you have no idea how hard it is to find a good substitute who isn’t gonna teach the kids evil.)

Vilya of the air ashari (the second that Rumblecusp was floated as a location she decided she was actually super busy that week.)

Jamedi Cosko (said ‘I don’t know you’. Is sticking by that.)

Allura Vysoren (sent a very expensive gift. Is making the conscious decision to separate herself from the Mighty Nein for the sake of her blood pressure. One adventuring party to babysit is more than enough) and Kima of Vord (barely remembers who these people are except the tall one and her hot wife)

Keg (currently a centaur. It’s awkward seeing the girl you once fucked be happily married with stolen orphan children while you’re currently a centaur)

Yussa Errenis (missing in action. They’ll figure out what mess he’s gotten himself into after the honeymoon. At this point it’s on him when this shit happens)

Not invited but showed up anyway

Gelidon, The Nightmare in ivory (angry)

Avantika (dead. angry.)

Isharnai the Prism Sage (angry. wants her promised hands)

Professor Thaddeus (bird. angry.)

One thing that I feel is really interesting and often forgotten about Essek is that fundamentally, his characterization has been from the start based upon his desperation for external perspectives and connection, which, along with much of his narrative and mechanical positioning, means that he actually has an extraordinary and almost (but not actually, as I'll show) counterintuitive capacity for both growth and trust.

(Buckle in. This is a long one.)

In particular, I would argue, knowing now that many places where the plot touches Ludinus have long been marked for connecting back into the current plot, that he was quite possibly built as a prime candidate for radicalization by the Ruby Vanguard. He felt isolated from his culture, he was desperate for other connection, and he was certainly of the type to believe he was too smart to be drawn into such a thing, given his initial belief that he could control the situation and the fallout. If things had gone any other way, he easily could've been on the other side by now.

As such, he has been hallmarked by being fairly open to suggestion, perhaps for this reason, but the thing about that kind of trait is that it is both how people are radicalized and deradicalized. This is certainly true of Essek, who experienced genuine kindness and quite frankly strangeness from the Nein and was able to move from the isolation the Assembly had engendered to meaningful and genuine connection, largely propelled by his own internal reflection. By the time Nein are aware of his crimes, he's already begun to express regret to an extent and, furthermore, doubt in the Assembly, including explicitly drawing a line against Ludinus, even in a position where he was on his own and probably quite vulnerable.

Similarly, when the Nein reach the Vurmas Outpost some weeks later, he has moved from regret for the position he's ended up carrying a heavy remorse. This makes sense! He's fairly introspective, seems used to spending a lot of time in his own head, and was left with plenty to mull over. It's not some kind of retcon for him to have progressed well past where the Nein left him; it just means he's an active participant in the world who has done his own work in the meantime.

This is another interesting aspect to him. I've talked about this a bit before but I cannot find the post so I'll recap here: antagonists in D&D have significantly more agency than allied NPCs. Antagonists are active forces, against which the party is meant to struggle; allies are meant to support the PCs, which means they tend to be more passive in both their actions and their character growth. Essek was both built as an antagonist, in a position that gives him significant agency, and also was then given significant opportunity to grow specifically to act as a narrative mirror for Caleb's arc. Even when he becomes a more traditional D&D ally, he still retains much of that, though he occupies a supporting role.

I believe that this is especially true because of the nature of Caleb's arc, which I've already written on; the tl;dr of this post is that Caleb is both convinced that he is permanently ruined and also desperate to prove that change is possible. Essek is that proof, because he is simply the character in a position to do so. But this also means that his propensity for introspection and openness is accentuated! He has to do the legwork on his own, for the most part, because that's where he is in the meantime.

But he still ends the campaign necessarily constricted; he is under significant scrutiny, he's at risk from the Assembly, and he goes on the run fairly soon after the story ends. He spends most of the final arc anxious and paranoid, which is valid given the crushing reality of his situation. It would be very easy to extrapolate that seven years into this reality, he would be insular, closed off, and suspicious of strangers, even in spite of the lessons he's learned from the Nein and their long term exposure.

So seeing his openness and lightness now is surprising, but at the same time, given this combination of factors in his position in the narrative over time and his defining traits, it's not by any means unreasonable.

But one thing that I found so delightful is how much trust he exhibits, which is obviously a wild thing to say about Essek in particular, given much of what he learns is both earning and offering trust, which was something he says explicitly in 2x124 that he's never really experienced: "I've never really been trusted and so I did not trust." It makes up much of the progression of his relationship with Caleb, and the trust that he is offered by the Nein in walking off the ship is the impetus he needs to grow.

But I think it's easy to talk about trust when it comes to people who have proven themselves to you or to whom you've ingratiated yourself, and that's really the most we can say about Essek by the time he leaves the Blooming Grove. There is this sense in a lot of discussion of trust (not solely in this fandom) that it is only related to either naivete or love, but there's far more to it. Trust at its best is deliberate—cultivating an openness to the world at large is a great way to combat cynicism and beget connection instead. It allows a person to maintain curiosity and be open to experience, but it can be incredibly difficult to hold onto.

It is clear that the Essek we meet now is a very pointedly and intentionally trusting individual. He trusts Caleb and by extension Caleb's trust in Keyleth, as he shows up and picks up a group of strangers from a foreign military encampment and walks in without issue. He trusts the Hells to follow his lead moving through Zadash and to exhibit enough discretion so as to avoid bringing suspicion upon all of them. He trusts that Astrid will respond well to his entrance, but he also trusts himself and the Hells enough to execute a back-up plan in the case that she doesn't. In the end, he even trusts them enough to give them his name and identity.

He doesn't scan as someone who has spent half a dozen years living like a prey animal, afraid of any shadow he runs across in an alley, withdrawn into himself and an insular family, which would've been an easy route for him to take. He scans as someone who has learned the kind of trust borne of learned confidence and a trained eye for good will and kindness, which are crucial weapons one would need for staving off cynicism in his circumstances—as if he has survived thanks more to connection and kindness than paranoia and isolation. (If we want to be saccharine about it, he scans quite poignantly as a member of the Mighty Nein.)

So it is easy to imagine this trust and openness as a natural progression of his initial search for perspectives external to his own cultural knowledge. Though he makes those first connections with the Assembly to try to vindicate his personal hypotheses, he finds in them exposure to the deepest corruption among Exandrian mortals, which could've—and did, for a time—turned him further down that same dark path.

But it's also this same openness to exposure from the wider world that allows the Nein to influence him for the better, and in spite of the challenges he's certainly faced simply surviving over the past seven years, he seems to have held onto this openness enough to move through the world with self-assurance and a willingness to extend the kinds of trust and good will that he has been shown.

(I would be remiss not to mention that I was reminded about my thoughts on this by this lovely post from sky-scribbles and their use in the tags of 'light' to describe Essek's demeanor this episode, which is really such an apt word for it.)

essek's disguise getting dispelled in front of bells hells has the same energy of that comic panel where some villian is shapeshifted into the flash and he takes of his mask to discover the secret identity and is like 'i have no idea who this is'

Essek skyrocketing my pulse making me come out of my hiatus hole and sketch at 4:30 am

Astrid hid in the smut shop because she thought it would be the one place Essek wouldn't go. Unfortunately for her he has been inured by years of friendship with Jester and smut shops are now his favoured terrain.

"and genuine hot boi!"

There's something so bittersweet, though, about 'Seth Domade', sorcerer and archivist of the Cobalt Soul.

Something about Seth being from a tavern family, a place where you'd be surrounded by laughter and life; no pretension, no expectations, no loneliness. Something about Essek's mother being an Umavi, and Seth's being an ordinary tavernkeep. 'My mother has never made Kraft cheese' vs 'my mother can stop time with her ale!' Something about Seth being a sorcerer, a class that just gets their talent and doesn't have to work and work and work to achieve more, until you've shut out everything else but your studies. Something about Seth being in the Cobalt Soul, where he'd always have peers and where all knowledge is shared.

Something, too, about Seth being a human from a humble family who realised he had arcane talent, and went off and studied and was happy. Something about Seth being a combination of the life Caleb should have lived, and the life Essek never could.