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Critter Corner: Highlights from Critical Role Episode 2

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Hello! Nerditor Doug here to welcome you to the second installment of Gin’s musings and thoughts on the new campaign of Critical Role, Geek and Sundry’s mega-popular live stream gameplay starring Matt Mercer as Dungeon Master with a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors playing D&D. New episodes stream every Thursday at 10 p.m. eastern. Viewers can watch through Alpha Project, Twitch and recently YouTube live as well.

VOD of each episode is typically available within 24 hours through Alpha, 48 hours on Twitch and within a week on YouTube. The posting schedule underwent some changes with the new campaign and I’m not 100 percent certain on those details. Down below you’ll find a video from the Nerdarchy YouTube channel where Nerdarchists Dave and Ted share their thoughts on Critical Role too. The new campaign was the perfect jumping on point for them to join the Critter family. These videos will post on Wednesdays, with a two week window giving Critters time to watch if they missed the live game. But enough from me, let’s hear what Gin has to say…

*spoilers for Critical Role, Campaign 2 Episode 2 ahead

Let’s dive in to thoughts on Episode 2 of Critical Role

Greetings Critters. For any newcomers not yet familiar with the campaign or Critical Role, here’s a quick reminder of who’s who in the game:

Critical Role

The amount of awesome fan art for Critical Role is staggering. Check out #criticalrolefanart on Twitter for a sample. This one was shared by @delsinsfire

Episode 2: A Show of Scrutiny picks up with the Crown’s Guard arresting Mollymauk and two other members of the circus, Carnival Master Gustav and Bo the Breaker, for releasing a monster into a crowd of attendees. Caleb, Nott, Fjord, Beau, and Jester try and offer some support in hopes of preventing the actual arrest (seeing as how they all believe the carnies are actually innocent), but it seems the guards merely function as a brute squad, and actual investigations/judgement fall under the purview of higher ranking individuals.

Jester and Fjord accompany the group headed to the stockade, but Caleb and Nott decide to follow at a distance. With Nott leading him by the hand, Caleb uses a magical ability to scout through the eyes of Frumpkin, his feline familiar.

Meanwhile Beau has snuck off to try and help one of the other performers, a young dwarv[amazon_link asins=’1934547840,B076QF8YCP,0786966114′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’nerdarchy-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’9dd828d5-072a-11e8-a54a-2d423546b162′]en singer named Toya. Toya and the rest of the performers haven’t been arrested with the other three, but they remain under watch at the carnival site. Fueled by what Marisha later revealed on Talks Machina as Beau’s personal experiences in a similar situation, the monk attempts to encourage Toya to make a break for it.

Unfortunately, Toya seems to be content to stay put with her strange lizardfolk friend/coworker, and Beau’s shenanigans catch the attention of other Crown’s Guard in the area. Despite having clearly stated just a few minutes prior that jails are not her favored terrain, Beau gets into a scuffle with the guard and shortly finds herself bound in chains and headed for the stockade.

At the prison itself Jester, Fjord and Molly are speaking with Law Master Noda in attempt to convince her of the carnival folks’ innocence. Between their not-very sophisticated arguments and Gustav’s openly accepting responsibility for everything, Mollymauk is the only carnival member to avoid incarceration. While not ideal, the scenario wouldn’t have been so bad if Beau hadn’t arrived moments later, still chained, and muttering “help help help help help help” as she stumbled by.

Critter

I’m really looking forward to learning more about Yasha, played by Ashley Johnson. This image comes from artist Aleksis Agustin (@thealeksdemon on Twitter)

There’s another conversation with the Lawmaster, and once again the group tries to talk their way out of the problem. Unfortunately things don’t go as well this time, possibly because they attempt to lie their way out of trouble instead of just being straightforward and honest. Ultimately Beau is released, but all four present (the group minus Caleb and Nott) are told that they have to remain at their inn until the Crown’s Guard investigation is complete.

Before everyone reunites at the Nestled Nook Inn, Caleb and Nott have a brief conversation about what they want to do. Caleb had hoped they’d find some additional companions to travel with in this town, but he’s got real misgivings about the “lunatics” they spent the day with. Nott, however, advocates for a bit of patience. She thinks running with lunatics mightn’t be such a bad idea.

“It’s the perfect camouflage. No one’s going to be looking for the little goblin girl because they’ll be looking at the crazy people, the tieflings running around smashing shit.” – Nott, played by Sam Riegel

After an evening of drinking and getting to know each other a little, the group heads out the following morning to do their own investigation. Since only Caleb and Nott are permitted to leave, there’s some spellwork and disguise kits employed to get past the guards stationed outside. They make it past the watch no problem, but don’t learn much around town. The man who turned into a zombie was a quiet, elderly gentleman without many connections in town. The best successes of the day were Caleb finding some arcane texts he didn’t have the money for, and Nott stealing a few few pricey items without getting caught.

However, the party isn’t completely discouraged; they wait until the wee hours and sneak out to do some more sleuthing. Once again there isn’t much to be discovered around town, but things get interesting when they head back to the carnival. Fjord and Caleb use magic to make themselves look like Crown’s Guard (and damn does Travis really steal the scene on this one), while the other four sneak into the performers’ tents to question them directly. Jester discovers the demon toad creature really *is* a fiend, despite all the other performers having thought he was just lizardfolk. However, on an offhand comment from Toya she and Nott decide that no, is must be Orna the fire dancer who is guilty!

Hilarity and shenanigans ensue as a round of whispered, rapid fire accusations get thrown around between the carnival folk and the party. Luckily, Fjord and Caleb are still investigating elsewhere. Once again using Frumpkin to scout the area, Caleb watches as a dark figure emerges from one of the tents, and without touching anyone, turns two of the Crown’s Guard into zombies. This time Caleb catches the additional detail of the victims’ blood turning to sand, but unfortunately the culprit takes off and the episode ends before anything else happens.

Stay tuned for next time, though. I’m guessing Matt Mercer will start off with a combat scene between the the party (who already used a number of their spells earlier in the day, btw), and the newly made zombies. I’m also looking forward to seeing just how bad their social roles go once they have to explain to the Crown’s Guard exactly how they came to be on the scene of the crime for the second night in a row.

 

Behind the Nerditor’s desk

If you want to see Gin doing her own awesome roleplaying, check her out in Nerdarchy’s weekly Scarlet Sisterhood of Steel and Sorcery live stream game.

If you haven’t checked out Critical Role yet, do what the rest of the Critter community does and head over to Project Alpha where new episodes live stream Thursdays at 10 p.m. EST. If you want to play D&D in the same setting, pick up Matt Mercer’s Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting and explore Exandria at your gaming table. And with D&D Beyond as an official sponsor of the show, you can find Critical Role content at DDB too.

Whether or not it’s Thursday yet, stay nerdy!

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Gin Anderson

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