Do we have a problem? It's been a very long day, and the weather's turning.
ojovivo
Aqua Utopia๏ฝๆตทใฎๅบใง่จๆถใ็ดกใ

One Nice Bug Per Day
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
Game of Thrones Daily
$LAYYYTER

if i look back, i am lost
Claire Keane
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me

โ
Sweet Seals For You, Always

blake kathryn
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
Xuebing Du

pixel skylines
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
h

tannertan36

JVL
seen from Tรผrkiye

seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from United Kingdom

seen from Bangladesh
seen from Bangladesh
seen from Bangladesh

seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from United States

seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Pakistan
@kimabutch
Do we have a problem? It's been a very long day, and the weather's turning.

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch โข No registration required โข HD streaming
A little drawing because I canโt wait to see these 2 interact more.
One of my more niche but deeply held Critical Role headcanons is that, out of Vox Machina and their greater extended network, the character who is most likely to have ever been a client of Marion Lavorre's is actually Cassandra de Rolo.
i need sea of sorrows so bad
Saint Sebastian. 24 x 18 inches. Oil on Panel

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch โข No registration required โข HD streaming
Lotus
My print shop: INPRNT
Just realized that CR4 is gonna be on break for pretty much the exact length of my summer break between finishing my master's and starting my new internship. CR really said no to me ever staying up til 3am to finish episodes ever again :(
The whole "Primus asking Wick to kill someone was supposed to be a way of giving Sam agency in Wick's death" thing really does highlight what a fascinating medium actual play is. Like, Sam and Brennan clearly collaborate very well. And have done great work together both in C4 and Calamity (and possibly other places I haven't watched yet). But it highlights such a stark difference in their storytelling instincts for Brennan to be like "ah yes, a chance for this heroic, good person character to get a heroic death" and Sam to go "nope, time for my character who's trying to figure out what being a good person means without the structure of his religion to make a harsh choice." And the fact that they don't have to come to a compromise, that Brennan offers Sam a choice to respond to, and then Sam makes a choice Brennan will have to respond to is so cool! It's definitely something that can cause problems; if a DM and player really aren't on the same page about how to tell a story, the story risks falling apart. But most versions of collaboration on art would require the two of them to find a compromise on their instinct before presenting it to an audience. And actual play instead allows us to see how storytellers respond to each other's instincts. I've said it before, I'll say it again: a major part of the appeal of actual play is that we aren't just watching a story, but watching the process of telling a story. And this was such a fun example of that
โYes. Well, in this wonderful house owned by a great man, in the shadow of the death of another man, I humbly ask for protection, shelter, friendship, loyalty, love, and I donโt know where to go or what to do.
I donโt have anyone and Iโm very scared and could somebody take care of me for a while?โ
- Wicander Halovar, 4x03
One really impressive thing about the first chapter of campaign 1, now that it's wrapped up, is how much character backstory they've already revealed and started exploring. Most characters obviously have more details to be filled in (for example, several characters have family members about whom we know very little), and it's possible that there are some major reveals that haven't really been hinted at, but right now, it doesn't feel like there are any huge gaps or questions in character backstories.
The two exceptions that I can think of are
The question of what exactly went down between Julien and Thjazi during the Battle of Maharlian Falls, which appears to have had a huge impact on Julien's character (and his relationship with other characters) going forward. This seems like it could very well come to light as Julien travels with Thimble, who may have been there. There also seems to have been something that went down between Julien and Tyranny, although it's not clear that this was a major part of either one's backstory.
Aspects of Teor's backstory โ namely, his complex relationship with Cyd, the source of his and Cyd's power, and what made a nama (which we have barely seen this campaign) join the Falconer's Rebellion. I think some of these questions may be answered as part of larger worldbuilding, but others have probably died with Teor.
Either way, that's a lot that's been answered. When I think of episode 31 of C2, there were still some huge character backstory elements that had been hinted at but not yet revealed โ for example, the Veth reveal, Beau's family, Orphan Maker, etc. And that's despite C4 having way more characters!
I think the reasons that we already know so much about the characters' backstory are
the flashbacks, both in the cold opens and occasionally at other times, which have given us a lot of character backstory and probably motivates players to interact with those backstory elements as part of the present-day plot;
how well-integrated the characters are into their worlds, so that character backstories are often parts of the present-day plot; and
Brennan's articulated preference for doing big reveals early, because the most interesting part is the fallout of the backstory, not the backstory itself.
Anyways! Just very cool!
From @featherquillpen:
I would say there are still some major backstory questions that remain. A couple that I've been chewing on are: a) if Murray is a gem heiress from a mining fortune, why does she clearly have so much experience with poverty and dispossession and the criminal life? what happened there?, b) Why do Bolaire and Vaelus know each other and why does she hate him?, c) why did the bond between Wulfric and Kattigan ping as completely unlike anything Thaisha had seen before when she tried to speak to Wulfric in the Overture?
Good points! I think all of those have the potential to have major backstory reveals within them, or the potential to have easier explanations.
For a) it's possible (I'm not sure where I first saw this theory) that Murray was lying about her family's fortune (or even about being part of that family). I've been just assuming that she and her family, as immigrants, fell on hard times, and that their connections meant less in Dol-Makjar than they had in the Sunset Mountains.
For b) it's possible that Bolaire and Vaelus have a more complicated backstory, but I've been taking Bolaire at his word that he helped her access the city to fuck up Thjazi's life. Her disliking him wouldn't be super surprising, since (especially at the beginning of the campaign), she came on strong against most people.
I think c) is the one that strikes me as containing the most potential, since a major theme of C4 appears to be exploring the different types of magic present in Aramรกn. Kattigan's magic appears to be most closely aligned with that of the druids (both in terms of flavour and mechanics; he has the Druid Initiate feat) but he doesn't seem particularly aligned with any druidic order. With regards to what Thaisha sensed, from episode 2:
As you attempt to speak with this animal, a potent magical bond between Kattigan and Wulferic. I'll put it this way. On a nat 20, if you attempt to speak with Wulferic in this moment, it'll be the second potent magical thing you have touched this evening. [...] Wulferic may not be wild in the ways that a typical animal that you would speak to would be. There is something that he is within that is potent and magical.
I don't sense that the Kattigan & Wulferic bond is necessarily "completely unlike anything Thaisha had seen before" but it is somewhat surprising that she, as a druid, wouldn't recognize it as a type of animal companionship, and, of course, that it's so potent. This could definitely indicate that there's a thread that they'll pull on later. At the same time, I could absolutely imagine that they simply have a very strong bond that's the relationship of both friendship and magic, and that that magic in particular is a form of unschooled/self-taught druidic magic, which is why it's not particularly recognizable to Thaisha.
In summary โ I think all three of those, and especially c), have the potential to be major backstory reveals, but all of them have the potential to be a little more mundane. On the other hand, we know that there's something there with regards to Julien & Thjazi and with Teor's magic, as characters have brought it up very explicitly.

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch โข No registration required โข HD streaming
One really impressive thing about the first chapter of campaign 1, now that it's wrapped up, is how much character backstory they've already revealed and started exploring. Most characters obviously have more details to be filled in (for example, several characters have family members about whom we know very little), and it's possible that there are some major reveals that haven't really been hinted at, but right now, it doesn't feel like there are any huge gaps or questions in character backstories.
The two exceptions that I can think of are
The question of what exactly went down between Julien and Thjazi during the Battle of Maharlian Falls, which appears to have had a huge impact on Julien's character (and his relationship with other characters) going forward. This seems like it could very well come to light as Julien travels with Thimble, who may have been there. There also seems to have been something that went down between Julien and Tyranny, although it's not clear that this was a major part of either one's backstory.
Aspects of Teor's backstory โ namely, his complex relationship with Cyd, the source of his and Cyd's power, and what made a nama (which we have barely seen this campaign) join the Falconer's Rebellion. I think some of these questions may be answered as part of larger worldbuilding, but others have probably died with Teor.
Either way, that's a lot that's been answered. When I think of episode 31 of C2, there were still some huge character backstory elements that had been hinted at but not yet revealed โ for example, the Veth reveal, Beau's family, Orphan Maker, etc. And that's despite C4 having way more characters!
I think the reasons that we already know so much about the characters' backstory are
the flashbacks, both in the cold opens and occasionally at other times, which have given us a lot of character backstory and probably motivates players to interact with those backstory elements as part of the present-day plot;
how well-integrated the characters are into their worlds, so that character backstories are often parts of the present-day plot; and
Brennan's articulated preference for doing big reveals early, because the most interesting part is the fallout of the backstory, not the backstory itself.
Anyways! Just very cool!
"please, I had so much dignity."
[id: art of julien running through green-tinted shadow, occtis thrown over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. both of them have stressed, strained expressions, and hold candles in their hands, which illuminate them with twin pools of orange light. end id.]
โThe time for subtlety is at an endโ ๐๏ธ๐๐๏ธ
Does it count as 'sword in the stone' if it looks more like 'sword in the cairn'...?
Image Description: Sword in stone motif which is adorned by lavendar colored flower embroidery in an oval wood frame. The tendrils and hanging flowers trail around a braid that serves as a trellis and warous greenery is sprouting between the stones, all done with embroidery. The semi-preicus stones in different shades of green forming the stone moundare stiched down like pearls and the model sword is stuck inside in King Arthur style.
the gods split into two factions: the prime deities, who loved their mortal children enough to wage war on the primordials, exandria's original inhabitants; and the betrayer gods, who soundly disagreed.
So @artists-guild-of-exandria announced a 'big battles' project and apparently I thought a Normal scale battle with Normal characters would be simple insufficient. Thus: the Schism. (Go check out everyone else's art, there has been some incredible stuff in this project!!!)

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch โข No registration required โข HD streaming
There is something poetic and compelling about Teor dying during what is ultimately a period of massive success for our protagonists. They rescue Mara, plant Wick in the inner circle of the Sundered Houses, and pull the play off without a hitch! The Convergence was, objectively, a huge win for the new budding revolution. When he was introduced in the Overture, no character, even among the other veterans, held the weight of the failure of the Falconer's Rebellion to the degree that Teor did. Some quotes from or about him in the first two episodes include: "Work with Loza concluding in a series of skirmishes that are merely pale echoes of earlier, greater causes," "We take up contracts here and there, help where we can, but it's been hard finding one place to be," and "I don't know [the torn banner]'ll ever fly again. But I know of everyone who would know if the time ever came." His thoughts on Thjazi are also an echo of this grief over failure "This man deserved more. More fanfare, more people next to him, just more[...] How did this man that has done so much for so many far beyond himself, how did he meet an end like this?" Obviously, we don't fully know yet how the other characters will treat his memory and how that might change what he represents. But in the immediate aftermath, it's easy to see Teor as someone who carried the full weight of the failure of the Falconer's Rebellion until it was truly time for a new rebellion to begin. That he did, in fact, fulfill Loza's prediction for him. That he is the one who knew when the time came. That he, in his heart, held the banner until it was time for it to fly again, at which point he let it go
babys first gay fiction podcast my beloved