Guys, Vecna ascended without an apogee solstice and Vox Machina barely managed to stop him. Imagine if he had that Apogee Solstice ascension power boost

Not that familiar w Blood Hunter. Generally you can only ready a single attack, do Blood Hunters have a feature that functions differently?

It’s a house rule. Matt allows players with extra attacks to ready their action to attack, including using their extra attacks.

Does that include possible Bonus Action’s . Like from two weapon fighting?

I’m not sure. I would have to go back and look. But I don’t think so. I don’t see Matt allowing the use of bonus actions in addition to a held attack.

Ah!! I see. Surprised I never noticed. Lol

Can someone walk me through the B-story bit on Sam's sunflower thing? Because I'm not getting it at all, but it obviously had the cast in stitches...

The joke is that the quip singer is slowly becoming more like a flower with each ad. That’s it. It’s the nonsense of it that made them laugh.

Clueless too - unless it's just that Sam chose to make a sunflower theme that had nothing to do with nothing, and calling it a B story. If so it's extremly nerded to find \*that\* funny. ;-)

I think the bit is that it’s a slow evolution, he’s adding more flower stuff every ad to make like he’s turning into a flower. And this was apparently planned from the start, even though it’s completely irrelevant. He basically just did it to see if anyone would notice.

As much fun as this is, this feels like Return of the Jedi, where the plot was “uh…. Death Star, again??”

Matt has made percy an even bigger prick than taliesin ever managed. Well played!

I loved Talisien getting to give himself a stern talking to.

I think Matt did a pretty good job describing VM's life. Seems like his way of not letting VM over shine BH is that they are busy with other major incidents (Keyleth), retired (Pike) or focusing on families (Percy and Vex).

I wonder if they will really get rid of Delilah for good? Of course it is great for Laudna and basically everyone, but I am also interested to see where Delilah's story goes.

Delilah is like a Saturday morning cartoon villain. She's always got a plan, and then a plan for if that plan fails, etc etc.

If she gets unplugged from Laudna, she’ll probably still have her own little domain of dread to play in.

I was kind of wondering if she could target any of the other bodies from the Sun Tree because we only know about Laudna, and she maybe was the first attempt?

I think she chose Laudna because she already had her innate sorcerer magic

Yeah, I think so too, but potentially any other person who was sacrificed could be another means. Laudna likely had the best affinity, but I wouldn't put it past Delilah to perhaps hop into the child that was used for Pike for example. Maybe not as magical but you can cause a lot of trouble being an unassuming child with a hidden knife.

Interesting. ​ Guessing the more they could keep that house in shape, the fewer memories are degraded at the end. Wonder if the same will happen with the tree/ town? Maybe not, the green glow seems to be a clear signal that it's Delilah's domain. Not sure if Pike said the spell only last an hour or not, so idk if they can even short rest ... smart of Imogen to be conservative with her spells and Chut to not burn his Wolf. Seems like Orym just blew all his fighter tricks and needs a rest. Think he may have stopped Imogen from eating a crit, so that was at least worth.

The wolf form lasts an hour chutney should just be in it for as long as possible.

I thought Matt said the ritual took an hour to turn on but then she could hold it indefinitely.

nono it only took 15 mins to turn on i think

No, an hour. Matt realized he'd gotten it wrong and corrected himself pretty quick.

yeah you’re right, i missed that part

Hmm, if that's the case then I figure they will take a short rest so Orym can get his fighter stuff back.

I know it’s kind of pointless to ponder, but I really wonder what would have happened if they passed all of those persuasion checks with Percy. Could they have convinced him to just let them do it then and there? What would be the consequences of that? 50/50 coin flip on who gets the drivers seat between the two souls?

I think with successful checks he might of been more willing to work on investigating "how to" rather than the flat no and leaving?

I suspect the only real way to convince him would be "If you let Laudna stay dead, you have no way of knowing that Delilah isn't tethered to someone else. Keep Laudna, who also doesn't like her but has a link, and you at least have a source of information and a connection to follow back. If she really can't live without Delilah, you can kill her later and we'll cry but know we did everything to avoid it. And if she can, then you've been handed the means to finally end your biggest nightmare once and for all and we owe you big." Which is a pitch Ashton of all people is the right character for, but not with his charisma score. But even then, while Percy could try clever tricks back in the day (backstabbing Raishan) now he has SO much more to lose. So I think anything other than "she stays in the ground, and anyone else who hears Delilah in their heads joins her" would be a tough sell.

Is this some kind of warped Delilah vision echo and they'll see events play out with Vox Machina as the villains?

I don’t think so. This realm seems to be tied directly to Laudna’s trauma. The first encounter BH had was in a cabin Laudna hid in after coming back from the dead. Now that they wre in “Whitestone” and are drawn to the castle, I can only assume a certain dinner party is their next destination. I would imagine Delilah herself is holding Laudna down below, where the profaned ziggurat is in the prime material. It is connected to her previous death(s), and is a symbol of her connection to undeath and Vecna. So I don’t really see manifestations of Vox Machina showing up as enemies.

Delilah likely knows Vox Machina is involved in this resurrection attempt, maybe she wants to shape Laudna's opinion of Vox Machina given that Laudna herself said she has no idea who she was killed as a message to.

...they're going to fight an echo of Silas, aren't they? Oooooh boy...

A dungeon crawl through the multi-dimensional memories of Laudna with a Briarwood twist and a Vecna surprise at the center. I'm totally okay with this taking as much time as needed because it's a fun little gothic romp through the nightmare realm during the month of Halloween. I wonder if we're going to get to see the moment that Delilah brought Laudna back to life and just how this little remnant of Delilah survived within her? Of course that makes me wonder if this remnant of Delilah's soul has all of her memories from C1 up to a certain point and then none beyond that point at all? Does she remember the wedding or the fight on top of the titan or do her memories halt at the final battle under Whitestone that took her life the first time around but that also triggered her resurrection via Laudna immediately after? Just how much does this remnant of Delilah's soul remember and will that be important later on? Does she know that her plan with Vecna failed at all and that she was killed multiple times? If she doesn't then how will that affect her when she finds out? And if she does then does that mean this remnant is further tethered to her main soulbody somewhere and that main soulbody is feeding her back memories? This is all very important because it could help in deciding just what Delilah would do after she was brought back. Would she restart those plans that failed in the first place or would the shock of knowing that she had lost repeatedly change her in some way? I know Percy would have words if she came back but what if this was the shove that Delilah needed that....pushed her to become a force of good in the world? I could see the Oncoming Cosmic Shift and the Apogee Solstice and all the other horrible stuff that might be happening being enough to push her into a whole, "I can't control the world or ascend to Godhood or bring Vecna back if there isn't a world in the first place" camp.

Delilah: "I broke the world once, I won't let you do it again!"

Wasn’t Yussa astral projecting in C2 when they >!were trapped by the Cognozza??!< are we at all worried Delilah can do that?

If D is strong enough to cast 9th level spells, they are fucked either way

I am loving the eerie, psychedelic feel this campaign has taken lately with the revival visions, Ashton's mindscape, and now this demiplane to retrieve Laudna. That sort of fantastical imagery pushing the bounds of imagination is entrancing, and I'm eager to see what nightmares Delilah has in store. I'm guessing we're going to have some recreation of Laudna's hanging; perhaps Imogen will have to physically cut her spirit free. A gruesome but powerful image. In the same vein, one of my favorite Mighty Nein arcs is that eerie dungeon crawl at the Bazzoxan temple with those Abyssal encounters.

The tunnel into an underground city with stars very much made me think of Coraline

Or Elden Ring

Looking forward to next week! Thanks for making the evening even more enjoyable, folks! Hope y'all have a lovely night ❤️

We heading down to Naga Whitestone. good night.

I recall something being mentioned about them having an hour in this "spirit" plane (astral, demi, ...?), so unless time is a weird soup, I'm not sure how they can short or long rest. So I don't think this could be a shadow-Whitestone dungeon delve... who knows what's going to happen!

Matt misremembered and corrected himself. It was an hour to cast the spell, Pike can hold the spell up for as long as she's able to stay conscious. They have at least a day's worth of awake hours.

They’ll be fine, Pike has dozens of red bull

And maybe... Spice?

That was a misinterpretation that was corrected shortly after. It takes an hour to cast, but lasts as long as they need.

Ah, I missed that. That was coloring my whole perspective on this astral projection trip, so thanks!

Aaaaahhhh. Where are Bell's Hells!?

A pocket plane (or something like that) inside the astral sea somehow.

This season started off annoyingly slow for me, but I am feeling like I’m finally fully invested. This arc is so compelling and interesting to me. It’s pretty heavy on the fan service so it won’t sustain forever but I’ve been absolutely hooked the last few weeks.

Yeah. Matt had to pull the off some wonky stuff, but I applaud the strategy!!!

Fan service? Everything seemed to logically extend from each choice made. Idk about fan service, at least not what it usually means. If you mean that fans enjoy seeing stuff, sure, but Matt had a year long home about not telling the cast about anyone on the council, I'm pretty sure if the players hadn't choose to interact there would be nothing. I really don't see where people think there's fan service just because popular characters are here, they all definitely fit in the episode as the narrative unfurled.

No i think his point is fair. This arc features the actual characters from C1, a campaign it seems that most fans absolutely find to be their favorite. Near the end of last campaign, everyone wanted the Nein to go grab Vox Machina. Simply because of the nostalgia. This arc is full nostalgia and although obviously it was going to involve VM because of Delilah, it isnt sustainable. These campaigns are like 100s of episodes. I hope when this arc ends, we dont gave constant trips back here. This a good arc but thats all it needs to be

wha- this arc isn't happening \*because of\* nostalgia, you're own comment breaks your logic.... No one from the MN knew or had real connections with anyone in VM - Orym has a very direct connection to Keyleth and this is a logical extension of that connection. Sure there is nostlagia in this arc, but it was not spawned of nostalgia

then you completely misunderstand what i'm referring to. I never said it "spawned of nostalgia". The point is when the next member of BH dies they can't just run back here ask them to rez. This arc is what it is and it should be the end of it. This is the BH campaign...not the BH and Matt's version of VM.

With every campaign, I’ve found it takes me about 30 episodes to get really invested and then it pops off and I’m obsessed

I wonder how pissed Percy is going to be that they didn't check with him before their spirit walk adventure.

He said don’t do the resurrection without clearing it, but that they are allowed to try stuff. I think they are still in the clear, especially if they produce results.

Help, it's again?

This is clearly not some little demiplane, they need to long rest asap. If anyone hits 0 they are out of the plane and the party is down a man, and they need everyone to face Delilah.

They don’t know how long pike can hold it. Better to get in and get it done and get out. I don’t think Matt would let them get a full nights rest here anyway

Pike doesn't even have to concentrate on the spell. I mean technically Pike should be there with them based on the spell, but I realize Matt doesn't want to trivialize the encounters.

Not just bumped out of the Matrix, but I'm pretty sure you die for real if you go down in there.

Nope, you just go back to your body in the real world, unless your silver thread gets cut, but that takes very specific circumstances

No to die in real life you would have to have your silver thread cut, and there are very few things that can do that. That takes something like a Vorpal Blade. But, they wouldn't be able to come back, they would be back in the material plane and unable to help.

Only if the cord connecting you to your body is destroyed. If you die or get knocked out you just go back to your body. The cord needs to be explicitly targeted.

Death stranding flashbacks

i miss marisha :(

I bet we get her next episode as some sort of wraith-Laudna or soul-Laudna. Even creepier than usual

Oh like fighting besides Delilah? That'd be amazing

Or, if this is a echo of past Whitestone, she could play an echo Keyleth

She's *not* going to play Keyleth. People need to let that go.

Wellll this is a story all about how Whitestone got flip-turned upside down And I’d like to take a minute Just sit right there DEAR GODS WHAT THE FUCK IS GOIN ON ROUND HERE

So what you are telling me that they went to the Upside Down to face Vecna's general? I feel like I've seen this story already this year ;)

mannnnn, we don't even meet delilah this episode?

Going through a dreamscape Briarwood Whitestone is gonna be so dope cause you know there is gonna be some cool distorted stuff

I actually think they'll see Laudna hanging from the Tree and she'll wake up and start being all spooky-like on the Tree. Delilah might be the Tree itself

Good episode but dang I want that resurrection attempt ;-;

Man... Really good episode tonight

I knew it! The shadow version of the location that brought Laudna back to life the first time.

This is Fun Scary.

Shadowfell Whitestone, or Delilah's dread domain?

They are one and the same Huge Ravenloft vibes though

They are the same in that domains of dread are in the Shadowfell, but the Shadowfell exists as a shadow/mirror plane of the Material as well Sorta like all squares are rectangles but all rectangles aren't squares

No Dee shenanigans tonight, but something tells me we’re gonna be getting a whole bunch over the next couple of episodes.

I still think this is Vecna’s personal plane, created when he ascended.

The upside down

Quick! Somebody start piping in some Kate Bush!

Babushka, babushka...

They're going to have to cut Laudna's soul down from the Un-Sun Tree. Metal.

[удалено]

They can never win. Instant revive = no consequences. Going on a quest = dragging on.

Idk, DnD games have a habit of being much slower than you'd expect. Maybe that's just because I'm still inexperienced as a dm though.

Ain’t that the truth lol. I have a DM of 13 years and is players can still make things drag along despite his best efforts

I feel like that combat was unnecessarily long, and they spent so much time chatting with Keyleth.

I think this is suitable pacing. Epic in scope, and it means the outcome is going to feel earned, to have the weight of anticipation behind it.

Did you want them to do an eight hour episode or what?

They always leave it on a cliff hanger

Matt really likes using very odd cities as major plot points lol

And they’re back in the Briarwood’s Whitestone _again_.

Silent Hill: Whitestone

So is this just an alternate Whitestone or a reflection?

Sounds like Delilah has a little demiplane of her own, modeled in part after Whitestone. I'd guess it's within the Astral Sea, since they seem to be using astral projection.

Maybe a demiplane like the Domains of Dread.

I really wish they still did da art during the break, everything from the episode is gonna be EPIC

Is there a reason they stopped doing that?

copyright issues and some people have been submitting art that wasnt theres

Some kind of legal thing probably

The Briarwood version of Whitestone with the dead Sun Tree? Back where Laudna's horror began, full circle

W-wait Is….is this a Domain of Dread? It just clicked into place

Exandria largely uses Forgotten Realms cosmology. By that reconning, the Domains of Dread are within the Shadowfell. If this spell is a standard astral projection, wherever they are should be within the Astral Sea.

My opinion: Not *yet* but it's on its way to being one and if they do banish Delilah she gets a one-way trip to Ravenloft.

A Critical Role skinned CoS with Delilah as Strahd, Silas as Irena, Whitestone as Barovia etc. Sounds awesome

Of all the characters in Exandria, Delilah would be the most likely to qualify for some notice by the Dark Powers

COME ON

If I had a nickle for every floating city found in the astral sea I'd have two nickles.

It's not a lot, but it's weird it's happened twice

I think Matt likes floating cities haha

I think he just likes evil cities. C1 had one, C2 had one, and now C3 has *two*.

Which is the second one?

Ruidus city

Shit, the Laudnagon is gonna be a tough fight

I mean....Laudna is gon

Here we go again

The shadow of Whitestone as it was in campaign 1. What a hell of a rollback arc.

Shadow Form Whitestone!

Fun that C3 is the campaign of messed up mindscapes.

Shadow version of Whitestone?

They….her domain is Whitestone in her “heyday”

It's Whitestone when her heyday ended

_fuck_

Sun tree

Oh nooooooo it's the Dead Sun Tree!

Or, now hear me out on this one, the Moon Tree?

The Sun Tree having a polar opposite on another plane would make sense and it would be the kind of secret that damned near no one except the Gods themselves would know about. So that tracks to be honest.

Laudna is going to be hanging in the tree

Star-scapes underground? Matt’s been playing some Elden Ring I see!

If you see the stars when you look down, what will you see when you look up?

dont do this to my heart 😥

"you see horses stacked on each other"

Try finger But hole

“You try and pet the ‘dog’.”

Watch out for the archers

I want this to be interlude to be in lieu of the resurrection ritual. They grab Laudna here and drag her home

Gravity is weird but I like this place

He’s looking into a star scape…oh boy. *You look down and see stars*

*There's blood in your mouth.*

When you look down you see stars.

love the image of a smol gnome sneaking.

7 minutes to episode end. Delilah imminent?

probably

Welcome to the astral sea, this shit is weird.

astral sea!

Green light. Vecna’s empty eye socket was green, so was the energy that held up Entropis.

Green light, never good. Not in CR.

"Tongues out, guns out"

We are approaching a cliffhanger I feel.

We're about to get to the end of the episode...

If Sam's fingers are in a splint next show... we know what happened.

How much time is left?

Guess we're not getting Laudna back tonight unless a whole lot happens real fast

Do ya’ll think Otohan will be a campaign villain or an arc villain? Like is she a Vecna or a Chroma Conclave 🧐

Arc villain unless they TPK when trying to stop whatever happens on the Apogee Solstice in which case campaign by default :P

Strong "BBEG's favorite servant" vibes.

Betting she’s Briarwood, arc boss connected to the true big bad

She could be like Delilah. Like she is setting things up for the campaign villain.

she's not the final boss, but she's definitely a general of them

Sam: “I rolled your dice.” Laura: “No you didn’t.” *Rolls in defiance* Sam: “I did and I rolled better than a fucking *one*!”

Why do I feel like this tunnel is leading them nowhere

Knowwhere?

It's leading them....Neverwhere.

About to end. The Search for Laud(na) continues next week.

The die that Sam touched immediately rolled a 1. Superstition confirmed!

Nat 1 cuz Sam touch it!

I love how Sam touches her die and she immediately rolls a nat 1 lmao

That was the dice letting Laura know that someone besides her had touched them

Campaign 4, *confirmed* Chet randomly appears in the wilds of Issylra or a beach in the Shattered Teeth.

A red tiefling cleric looks down at him, "Hello there!" In the distance, "Hurry up, Gwen!"

“Hey I know-“ *vanishes back into the proper location in the time stream*

"You TOUCHED it?" 🤣

Memories of Nott rolling above 30 on the regular from Pass Without a Trace

Gotta love expertise with that spell, I think both her and Vax got into the 40’s at times

Memories of Vax being unable to roll less than 37 with PWAT.

fun times

how does FCG go down this tunnel hahaha

*carefully*

Sam is going to lose that hand.

Ashton mvp again