Spoiler: 50 "You know I'm not scared of death. I'd die by a dragon, I'd die by a beholder, as long as it was a beautiful death. But I don't want to die by Kevdak. Not him." GROG T_T coherency is hard rn bc sleep aid but I am loving everything about grog's backstory and history with kevdak, I am not used to complex emotions from grog, I like it also can someone throw the sword in an acid pit, that's what we do with cursed weapons around here, right? that's the approved disposal method?
Spoiler: 23 - Between this and The Adventure Zone, I do wonder how many D&D players are wrestling nerds. Anyway, damn, I was on tenterhooks during that fight! JFC. Grog's glorious return was almost ruined by an opponent no-selling punches to the balls. - After Vax gave that kid what is probably the most confusing crush in the history of the world, Tiberius unspooling on him about how he's BETTER than that and how Tiberius could totally kick Vax's ass if he tried... yeah, I ship it spades. - I'm glad SOMEBODY at that meeting twigged to Percy's facial expression when they mentioned the Briarwoods. Percy's whole "I want to surprise them! definitely not with murder! ha ha ha (I'm going to murder them)" speech was so transparent.
Spoiler: 24 - I've discovered that if any of the party members tear up, I end up crying too. I was okay until he tried to tell Vex that she didn't have to get involved and immediately all of the party members who were there were like "NOPE, you are our Percy now and we will murder the shit out of them." Even Keyleth, who we later find out has ethical concerns with the whole situation, is right there with him. <3 <3 <3 - Sam really committing to that gag where Scanlan sits low in his seat. - Gilmore bolting back to see Vax! - I love that Tiberius scored the date (?) and just. Walked away. Twice. - Vax shaving off half of Grog's beard in the continuing prank war. - Vex fake-crying over their dead party members. - Keyleth totally bombing while negotiating with Sherry. Anything to do with Charisma and Keyleth gets the Wheaton Dice Curse. - "Hello, I'm Tiberius Stormwind!" I died. - Poor, poor Trinket and his bows. Vax is the best/worst uncle. Keyleth is the best/worst pet groomer. - That dinner was AGONIZING. So tense. The chat was right, I kept waiting for Rains of Castamere to start up. - Vax, you fucking moron.
Spoiler ehehehehe ehehehehehehehehehehe I love it when people get to this part because I'm not kidding when I say Vax and the Briarwoods is one of my fave parts of all of CR
god, you know you're a nerd when some obscure bit of D&D lore comes up in CR and you remember which supplement it's in and run to look it up Spoiler: 42 the "rod of human tongues" in the possession of the Clasp is definitely the Despoiler of Flesh from the 3.0 Manual of the Planes does it still belong to Tapheon, the nalfeshnee lord of the Fortress of Indifference on the 348th layer of the Abyss? If so how the fuck did they get it
Spoiler: 25 - The speech about what Vax thought about as he was dying. JFC. </3 - As soon as Vex came around the corner, I was thinking, "ohhh, Briarwoods, you are so FUCKED." And lo, Laura rolled two crits, and it was good. Thank you, probability. That Vex immediately knew that Vax was in dire straits and felt that dread was just. Heartbreaking. - NO MERCY PERCY, y'all. I, um. Whew. The thing where he came around the yard bellowing Sylas's name, Sylas called him a puppy, and Percy shot him in the face! Percy reaching the point in the Broker battle where he had had it with these motherfucking mercs on this motherfucking plane! "Your soul is FORFEIT." I am so into it. - The black comedy sequence with the old woman, including Mercer's running motion and the Monty Python jokes. I was dying laughing because I am a monster. - Tiberius losing his intelligence and licking everyone's face is really ridiculously endearing. I love that he used the dragonet for ask for help. (Even if help is not an emotion, fucknuts.) Orion was hardcore meta-gaming there but Liam's croaking "help? help?" made up for my annoyance. - I know "how do you want to do this?" is the Big Damn Line in the series, but I'm also coming to love it when Mercer responds to questions with "you can certainly try." - Grog saying that only HE got to kill Vax. Vax is an enormous pitch slut. - Scanlan realizing slowly that he was leading the charge against the Briarwoods. Sam has such a great, expressive face. "Hello. What a lovely dinner we haLIGHTNING!" - Keyleth's facial expressions were also gold, from her "oh fuck no" glower when the Briarwoods said Percy should visit his family more to her o.O face after Percy clipped off on the Broker. - I really liked Lilith and wished that we saw more of her, because she used really great spells. Her completely deadpan line about how what mattered on the inside = her entrails was perfect following the gory/hilarious beatdown of the Broker's team.
Spoiler: 26 - As Uriel was listing the various shit that Vox Machina have done over the last few days that look REALLY BAD, I love the slow "oh crap" expressions on all of the players. Because they had a justification for attacking the Briarwoods, yes, but it looks terrible, and they have no justification for torturing Desmond or killing the old woman. And Percy not turning up to the Come to Jesus meeting looks realllllly hinky. - Overall they're killing it in how they've dealt with Talesin's absence. Mercer is great at portraying Percy, like to an eerie degree, and it's very in character for Percy to retreat to his workshop and to refuse to engage. - Desmond was heartbreaking in general, and is so dead. So very, very dead. - Drunk Tiberius was briefly funny but then I was glad they let it go pretty quickly. - Man, poor Keyleth. She's in a bad position. These are her friends but she has such a strong moral compass, and then Vax throws the fact that she killed a kid in her face. Small wonder that by the time Tiberius got drunk Keyleth was so. fucking. done. - The tense negotiation that was as gripping as a battle. I was so relieved and proud when they resolved it nonviolently. Keyleth is such a badass!
Spoiler: 26 I LOVED LOVED how Mercer dealt with how cavalier the team has gotten with butchering their enemies. It's one thing (or is it?) if it's illithid or duregar, where you can be pretty sure that you're gonna be attacked on sight. But also just how unrepentant Tiberius was about that much overkill on a defenseless target made me really uncomfortable and sour on his character quite a bit. I was super proud of Keyleth for sticking to her guns on disapproving. It's easy to get caught up in the video game mentality of killing everything, but this is dnd and you can do all sorts of things to neutralize threats and you're kind of an ass if you just murder everyone who stands against you. Also everything about the cows was perfect. I love how this show makes me just laugh my ass off sometimes.
Spoiler: Episode 40 I spent the entire episode with a project spread across my keyboard, just stuck listening and making distressed noises at my computer as i work and it was a super intense episode so here's all my post episode reactions THE COMMUNAL SIGH OF RELIEF AS THE SESSION ENDS: DID U MEAN ME? "HEY GUYS D&D IS FUN!" SHUT THE FUCK UP MERCER "HEY GUYS WE'RE ALL COWS" YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP TOO "SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO ABSORB TEARS" "CAN WE PLAY LONGER?" NO ASHLEY I CANT TAKE ANY MORE "I'D SAY IM SORRY FOR THE EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER BUT..." YOU FUCKING SHOULD BE MERCER "To [pawful]: I HATE THIS SHOW FOR MAKING FEEL EMOTIONS [pawful]: I'm glad you like it"
Spoiler: 51 just me writing "grog + battle psychology" on my notebook surrounded by little hearts, that's all (fakedit: also "scanlan and kaylie's realistically strained yet still oddly heartwarming familial relationship", but that one just took up the whole back of the thing.) ("YOU CAN'T HATE ME OUT OF BEING YOUR FATHER." "I CAN TRY.")
Spoiler: 27 I'm only an hour in but Orion just dropped the "oh hey, I have a personal army!" shortly followed by mentioning his chubby and everyone else looks so screamingly uncomfortable. Hell, I feel uncomfortable for them!
Spoiler I still feel like Travis was about to come over the table at him (with laura not far behind) on the "chubby" comment - I think he thought Orion was speaking out of character at first.
THAT WAS THE BEST FUCKING EPISODE SO FAR Spoiler: 44 One-year anniversary (with commemorative limerick!), my two favorite guests + Lady Kima, absolutely hilarious shenanigans and character interactions, epic beholder fight, and sudden out-of-the-blue nailbiting drama in the revivify ritual for Vex... I also love how all the major NPCs and occasional PCs are congregating in Whitestone. I feel like Zahra and Gilmore will get along really well.
Spoiler: 49 Scanlan casts magic missile at the darkness; Taliesin facepalms; nobody else recognizes the meme
Spoiler: the briarwoods arc I spent the whole time trying to figure out what the Percy equivalent of grimdark is. Gritdark? Also that whole arc is my jam to an embarrassing extent.