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 Soldiers arrive in the Kingdom of Timmony, where local customs are bending against the religious influence of the Candescent Creed…”
The opening/ad read
Unfortunately, that was the most boring cold opening so far. Sorry guys. I think because we’ve spent very little time with Murray and Bolaire for the past few weeks, I’m just not that interested right now. I do think starting out with the soldiers table for a few weeks was the right choice though. There wasn’t much action or movement in the overture, so going on an actual adventure for a while is nice.
I was not prepared for how Taliesin is dressed in the ad read. I don’t think I’ve ever seen his arms before, I was also not prepared for the tail and the dancing. This is a new side to Taliesin and I think he should do the ad reads every week going forward. Marisha and Laura eating the candy necklace while he’s trying to finish the read is too much. These guys are so lame, I love them.
The fact that Ashley still struggles to read off the teleprompter will never not be funny. I can’t believe she’s thinking about auctioning off her dice tray from campaign three. It’s for a good cause so why wouldn’t she, but it’s so iconic. Doesn’t suit Vaelus though so it makes sense that she wouldn’t need it anymore.
Characters
Travis is genuinely the funniest member of the cast. He’s always willing to go with jokes about his character. The bit about being stuck in a tree was so quick from him. Sam tried to make fun of his character, but nope, Travis will take that and run with it. You can’t embarrass him. Well, unless you flirt with his character and then he’s done for.
I am so here for the Tyranny Thimble friendship. Even though Thimble was disgusted that Tyranny eats people. But don’t worry, she’ll only eat dead people. That makes it fine apparently.
I have a feeling Thimble throwing rocks at Wicander was more Laura wanting to throw them at Sam. He’s trying his hardest to wind up Laura in this campaign and he’s doing it well. I should hate Wic, but I really don’t.
I can’t decide if I like Kattigan or if I think I like him because I love Robbie. It’s hard to enjoy new characters when you loved the previous one so much. That’s probably why I’m struggling (just a little bit) to connect to this campaign so far. This has nothing to do with the actual characters, but I’ve really struggled to pay attention to the episode this week. There have been some pretty interesting reveals that I just can’t bring myself to be excited for. Don’t get me wrong, the campaign has been fun so far, I really like the soldiers group, but learning about an entire new world is more taxing than I thought it would be.
Final thoughts
The fact that we’re now seven episodes in and we haven’t had full episodes of the other tables makes me think this campaign is going to be LONG. Like, longer than The Mighty Nein, which I think is their longest campaign? Technically Vox Machina is longer as the first streamed episode wasn’t their first game. I wonder if we’ll get any ‘shopping’ episodes or whether this entire campaign will be story driven. I’m not against no shopping episodes, but it is nice to see the characters interact in a low stakes environment. Well unless it’s the one shopping episode of The Mighty Nein when Caduceus got attacked in the Invulnerable Vagrant.
I love that the soldiers’ table will take time to joke around with each other, that has been missing from the rest of the campaign so far. It’s nice when it actually feels like a bunch of friends playing D&D together. I hope the other tables will be the same. Well, I know Aabria will be like it, but probably at the wrong moments. Hopefully she’s much more chill than the few episodes she was in for campaign three, those were a slog to get through. No hate to her though, I actually quite like her.
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Like this post? Why not read this one too: Critical Role Review: Campaign 4 Episode 6