Campaign synopsis: “Hero to many. Enemy to some. When Thjazi Fang is marked for execution, various figures from across his remarkable life unite to uncover the truth behind his grim fate. In a land still suffering from the fallout of dead gods and living in the shadow of a tumultuous rebellion, these disparate people will come together across the fractured world of Aramán and connect in ways they never imagined.
As hope and victory fade, a question hangs over Aramán. Without the Gods, what great deeds now fall to us? And who, or what, shall grab their crown from themselves?”
Episode synopsis: “The druids of Shaungarent question Thaisha’s decision to bring the undead Occtis to their sanctuary and debate their continued aid…”
Cold Open
I’m so happy to see Travis and Laura again. It’s only been two weeks since the Soldiers arc ended, but it feels like forever ago that they were sat at the table. You can tell this was recorded more recently as Laura’s hair is a little longer.
God, I’ve missed Travis. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, he’s the funniest member of Critical Role. Only Travis would look down at magic bracers he’s wearing and shout “work” at them. I feel like the accent is making it even funnier.
Random note, but I’m genuinely so surprised that Laura only has like five sets of dice on the table. I love that they’re Thimble themed too.
We Need to Talk About Occtis
Thaisha and Julien’s beef is my favourite thing about this table so far. I feel like only Matt and Aabria could pull it off. Imagine if Thaisha had beef with Vaelus, I couldn’t imagine Ashley playing a character like that. Even though Vaelus seems very cool, calm and collected on the surface, we all know Ashley is a chaos gremlin at heart.
I’d love to see Occtis trying to be intimidating animated. Firstly, because he’s such a cutie patootie and secondly, because he got a natural 20 for the roll. His new undead nature will definitely help with this, I loved how his shadow stretched unnaturally to support his intimidation.
Matt is such a good actor, you can really see the disdain Julien feels when he’s apologising to Thaisha. It’s actually pretty nice to see him so humbled – not that I don’t love his arrogance, it’s a different look for Matt and it’s great.
Between Shadow and Light
Is this the first proper combat for the Seekers table? I feel like it is but I could be remembering wrong.
This map is so cool! They’ve all been really great so far in campaign four. I still have no idea if Brennan makes them himself or if it’s someone in the production team but either way, kudos, they’re beautiful.
“Pin-jamin, his God-given name” is one of the best things to come out of this combat.
Arabia saying “I wild shape into a mean girl” after verbally attacking their enemies also gets a special mention. Her jokes have been pretty on point so far this campaign.
The random exaggerated British accent Ashley did makes me wish she committed to whichever voice she was going to give Vaelus. Imagine if she was British, that would be great. Would make her stoicism even better.
Alex was on form in this episode, not only (most of) his dice rolls, but the quips. “I’m going to use my bonus action to take a minute” is possibly one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard during a D&D session.
Ashley getting mad at her dice is the best part of this episode. Her consistency at rolling bad in every campaign needs to be studied.
Cooldown
What makes the dice thing even funnier is Ashley rerolling all of her dice once the episode had finished and getting pretty much only great rolls.
The whole conversation about Tyranny’s sisters voiced exactly how I feel about them. You should hate them but they’re actually too funny. Brennan’s comment in the episode about them making Tyranny look like the serious one was too much, but also very true. I hope we get to see them again soon. I’d quite like Murray to face up against them just for the one liners Marisha will 100% throw at them.
Check out Young Creative Press on all socials
You can also check out my StoryGraph here
Like this post? Why not read this one too: Critical Role Review: Campaign 4 Episode 13