so i feel the urge to add a bit of context here because i find the vague on-screen text deeply underwhelming.
this is not just "a picture", it's Pale Blue Dot, one of the most famous works of astrophotography ever made public. and it was not just "a dying spacecraft", it was Voyager 1, a probe launched in 1977 to study the atmosphere and moons of Jupiter and Saturn, among other things. both Voyager probes carried on them a golden record meant as an introduction to humanity for any alien species that might discover them (if you saw Kane Parsons' Backrooms, you've heard the contents of that record coming out of a cardboard caveman standee). they did this because NASA planned to sundown these probes by letting them drift out of the solar system to parts unknown. Voyager 1 is currently 16 billion miles away, the farthest any manmade object has ever traveled from earth.
AND it's not even dead! despite supposedly being a "dying spacecraft" all the way back in 1990, Voyager 1 is not expected to be fully out of commission until 2036. to keep the probe alive they've switched off unneeded tools, adjusted its trajectory, even essentially updated the firmware, and through all that time it's basically never stopped sending back priceless data for scientists to analyze.
this is the original Pale Blue Dot, by the way:
it's relevant because "a single point of light smaller than one pixel" makes a lot more sense in the context of the original than it does in the heavily corrected version up top, where our pale blue dot looks more like a vibrant dwarf star. the difficulty of spotting earth in these waving curtains of space IS the entire impact of the picture! the blue dot is "pale" because it's hard to see! by making earth stand out so brilliantly, Terribly Interesting have inadvertently created the impression that earth is this vibrant glowing pearl, bright for all to see for billions of miles around. and it just isn't! the point is not that we can see earth from far away, but that we almost can't, because we aren't the center of the universe! when science educators past have used this image they often referred to one where the earth is circled in bright red, which only further emphasizes how small and fragile our home really is.
but hey, if you DO want an improved version of Pale Blue Dot you don't even need photoshop:
this is Pale Blue Dot Revisited, released by NASA in 2020. this is a reinterpretation of the original data using modern image processing techniques to create a more realistic or at least more high-definition rendering of the scene. it's important to understand that this is not the original image dropped into photoshop and airbrushed. strictly speaking, there isn't an "original" Pale Blue Dot the way there are negatives of traditional photography. astrophotography is almost always the product of raw data being deliberately interpreted by scientists, so the same data can produce many different images (ie if they want to emphasize the infrared spectrum vs visible light). similar work was done by Don P. Mitchell in ~2005 to enhance images taken by Soviet Venera probes of the surface of Venus to be less noisy.
here's an original:
and here's Mitchell's version:
i'm not here to argue which is "better" (and i highly recommend you read the source for this one because it's quite fascinating), just to give another example of the process in action and hopefully clarify how it's distinct from editing a jpeg in photoshop. also i just think it's neat!
which is the real reason i went to the trouble of making this post. Terribly Interesting may indeed find all of this to be terribly interesting, but it appears to be interest for the sake of a vague transient feeling of having been interested and little else. it doesn't name the probe, the photo in question, nor does it give historical context for the mission it was part of. the only substantial thing it says about the probe, that Voyager 1 is a "dying spacecraft", is so frustratingly oversimplified it may as well just be a lie.
so what's actually learned here, if you're someone who knows none of this history? that one time there was a thing and it did a thing? earth tiny from far away?? obviously it's just one image macro but i see this kind of thing making the rounds SO often, a screenshot with like two sentences on it explaining the image with as little descriptive text as possible. it's like there's a space-themed inspiration-posting rulebook that says you can't imply the existence of information not contained within the image. mention NASA? mention Voyager 1? mention Pale Blue Dot? nope! "a dying spacecraft" took "one last photograph", and here's a photoshopped version to make earth more visible.
and it might not even get to me nearly as much if this was any other space photo. i could accept that space stuff is complicated and this kind of fast-food image can only say so much if we were talking about Cassini or JWST's role in helping us find exoplanets. but this is Pale Blue Dot, the brainchild of arguably THE science communicator Carl Sagan! he wrote a book about Pale Blue Dot, he was on TV to announce the image personally! it's arguable that no astrophotograph exists whose context has been more digestibly packaged for laymen than Pale Blue Dot, which just makes it that much more egregious when someone doesn't go to the trouble.
so much of what i love about astronomy and studying the past & future of space travel is that everything you can learn is a doorway to learning more. you can't earnestly read about Voyager or Cassini or Venera or any other mission without finding some odd searchable detail and going "wait, what is that" and immediately falling down an hourslong rabbit hole to find an answer. and you'll never reach the bottom! i love reading articles about cutting edge astrophysics written for people in, like, early grad school, because i fully comprehend maybe 10% of it, vaguely understand 20% (on a good day), can kind of wrap my head around 30%, and find the rest totally inscrutable... but that's still a solid 60% scrutability rating even at the lowest-quality end of the spectrum! i'm no expert and i never will be, but in scouring the written expertise of others i almost always find one or two ideas that end up sticking with me forever. and it starts, every time, from questions about a photograph.
the sin of the above image is that it's solipsistic. it doesn't give you anywhere to put your curiosity or interest, doesn't invite you to leave their website and learn more than they have space to share, it doesn't even tell you anything useful about its subject! it reduces the entire history of Pale Blue Dot down to a vague and nondescript wonder that's just a pale imitation of the highly specific and ideologically driven wonder that Carl Sagan wanted us to feel.
here, feel it for yourself:
----
[P.S.: before you lament that this is an "AI" problem, while yes "AI" has radically increased the volume of low-value (often negative-value) inspiration bait like this, know that this has been a problem in online science education for a LOT longer than chatgpt's been around. this example isn't extraordinary, just close to my heart. nothing new under the sun and all that]
lmao someone else got their knocks in on this post before i could finish writing mine. clearly we are hand in hand re: Talk About How Cool Voyager 1 Is You Fucks
💬 0 🔁 109 ❤️ 245 · Okay, I need to add some clarification and correction to this.
This photo is known as The Pale Blue Dot. It was take
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its actually easy to de-enshittify your digital experience all you need to do is install this browser extension and this browser extension and this browser extension and input this custom script into the advanced box and go into your system settings and reconfigure all these options you didnt know existed and change your entire workflow and switch to this alternative operating system and this alternative web browser and this alternative chat client and this alternative word processor and this alternative- sorry that one turned out to be malware delete that one okay now double check your task manager for unwanted background processes and element block these ads and invest in a good VPN and append all your searches with AI blocking keywords and wait a few years until everything you just did becomes shitty too so you can do it all over again okay kitten. its literally that easy.
I have a fabulous lasagna recipe that calls for either make your own marinara or Classico (brand name specific because the flavor profile is known + it's gluten-free).
I wasn't going to make this post, but I'm thinking more about the topic than work, and maybe it will exorcize the thoughts.
I am still so angry about Hannan's death from an out of game perspective because it feels gratuitous and completely out of the control of the player he was most attached to. His death feels like a Hard stop in the opportunity to further explore elven history from a perspective separate from the shapers not to mention just having a hook for Vaelus to explore. I of course could be wrong about this, but it feels like avenues of lore exploration have been shut down forever and I can't help but feel massively disappointed
I just don't understand why he needed to walk up to Obrimus manor in such a brazen manner. Yes he is a druid specifically dedicated to opposing undead looking for a member of his order, yes Thimble would have never recovered Teor and Cyd's bodies without his help, yes you could say that he would not have believed that the Tachonis would have been so brazen as to kill a member of his order in public. Even then I think it's ridiculous that he didn't flee when Primus showed up. You can't tell me that a possibly thousand-year-old warrior that survived prosecution pre-shapers war doesn't know the level of sorcery that the patriarch of house Tachonis would wield. It feels incongruous to his previous characterization that he would protect himself so little.
From the perspective of player agency and emotional resonance it's also infuriating because it doesn't feel like any of the players had any serious way to prevent this. Julien and Occtis were in the scene but they didn't make him go in alone and I don't think there was an in character way to prevent it considering Teor's recent death and their extremely low hit points. If they didn't go in to prevent Thimble from going back into the manor alone they weren't going to do so for an NPC neither of them were particularly close with.
Vaelus' lack of agency in this death is what I really can't make peace with. There is one moment where Ashley could have prevented him from going alone, it was when he offered to take her with him with the lighting. This was clearly a DM invitation to serve as desperately needed backup in the table that was having the most trouble. Even then I think that the rejection was perfectly sensible. They had just had a disagreement, Vaelus was still reeling from her choice to destroy the stone of nightsong to stabilize the bridge, Ashley herself didn't have any way to know that the second act of the play would not need her and that the lethality of the other table was not done. Yes, her decision to not go was a refusal of player agency and sometimes I do wish that Ashley took more bold decisive actions that made her characters take up more space in the narrative, but I think it was not well done to have one of her narrative supports ended with so little input from her.
Lastly I think it was just unnecessary from the perspective of narrative tension. If you wanted to use it to signify that Obrimus Manor was extremely lethal, it's not doing anything that the PC death in the previous episode hadn't already done better, considering that one did have tremendous thematic resonance for the character involved and high levels of player agency in the conclusion. If you wanted to use it to signify that Primus is reaching a breaking point I just don't think it's something that wasn't better shown by him killing his own people and holding the scion of his closests allies at knife point to prove his loyalty. Sam is an incredibly smart player, he didn't need that to drive the point home that he needed to leave the manor as fast as possible. Primus is a terrible person who goes through everything in his path with no regard? Kattigan's entire backstory reveal was nothing ago. The only thing that I could see made this necessary was creating the diversion to get Thimble out, and I of course would never switch an NPC death for a PC one, but I feel like there were ways to make Hannan help that didn't put him in such deeply inescapable position.
This is obviously not a dealbreaker for me about C4, I know I'm basically complaining about not having desert after two fantastic courses. But it does make me tremendously happy that the Convergence is oven and we are hopefully transitioning to more stable tables, because this level of lethality is dangerously close to tedious for me.
I can see why people feel this way; I was also screaming at the television.
But there are two things that provide some rationale to how and why Hannan behaved the way he did and why he died.
1) Hannan's attitude to being immortal
When we first meet Hannan, he basically says "I hate being immortal. When I throw myself into the most dangerous situations in this world, I either fix whatever is broken, or I die: win-win as far as I'm concerned."
After so many missions where he escaped death death escaped him, it seems he developed a sort of nihilistic hubris: I can't die, no matter how hard I try. His thoracic cavity is open to the elements, and he has organs and bones replaced with wood. If that didn't kill him, what could?
That's really my only rationale for why Hannan went and KNOCKED ON THE FRONT DOOR of Obrimus Manor. Even though he now has a reason to live (helping Vaelus save her family), his threshold for reckless behavior is still very high. Because nothing he's done has killed him yet, and you don't unlearn that in two hours.
2) Above the table
I think in a campaign as complicated as this one, Brennan has done a very smart thing and made it even more complicated. There are too many threads for the group to follow; they can't do them all. This lets the PCs have big wins in the plans they make, but also keeps the threat level (aka the narrative tension) high because those other issues keep chugging along in the background. The clearest example is the Schemers' arc: most of their plans went off without a hitch. Azune was able to slip the Tachonis ring into the Lady Cormoray files without even rolling for it. Bolaire's Archanade minions mess up the admin paperwork without him having to roll for it either. Murray is able to spend her day crafting spell glyphs, and Dean Kora doesn't ask what she's doing. Their big wins still happen and they feel great! But if they solve everything 100%, the story ends at level 5. Conflict and failure still needs to happen.
Failure for the PCs isn't because they "didn't do good enough": it comes from the threads they have to drop because of limited resources (King Gus). It's the PCs fault in that they could have prevented it, but (above the table) it's not their fault because it is intentionally impossible for them to catch everything. If they prioritized King Gus, maybe Demodus dies. If they try to get both of them, something else happens.
There is another source of failure that is within the PC's control: losing track of information (Lady Cormoray's blood on the original Pariah Blade) or not sharing it with people who need to know (NOBODY OPEN THE WIGS WITH LICE BOX).
Hannan didn't have to die. There was more than enough time for either Vaelus or Azune to tell him "there is a team going to rescue Mara. You don't need to go, we have people on it right now." Neither of them did.
Whether it's because the players forgot that Hannan didn't know about the overall plan (that the larger group had split into Teams Theater, Spy, and Birdwatching), or they chose to withhold the information to lessen the impact of Vaelus's betrayal ("it's not just that I didn't trust you, I trusted other people over you"), Brennan played out the subsequent scenes based on the conceit that Hannan thought he was going solo.
Unfortunately for Hannan, Primus Tachonis has had the WORST possible day and now has been summoned home early because someone broke into his house (and he doesn't even know that his heir is dead yet). It didn't matter how intimidating a figure Hannan was or that killing him would be incredibly foolish: Primus was in a rage and that's what happened.
(It is a little ironic that the Schemers nailing the evidence against the Tachonis led to Hannan dying.)
I'll be honest I completely forgot about the first conversation because I haven't rewatched any of the previous arcs before writing meta like one should. It does make some sort of sense that he would just walk up to the front door then if he's been passively suicidal for that long. If anything it makes it terribly tragic. he has been wanting to die for ages and when he finally finds something that changes his mind his inability to change his actions from his previous patterns is what finally kills him. That's honestly more upsetting than not understanding why he did it, thanks.
On the second point, I think that's a very elegant idea, almost like the game self regulates and I do agree that they forgot about Hannan at the beginning of these last sessions. That being said my problem is that I think the consequences were excessive in comparison to similar situations. Let's take king gus for example, the Schemers did put researching him aside because of time constraints but when the assassination happened they were there. They had options to prevent it completely, things happened as much from their actions as from their inactions and they were given opportunities to fix their mistakes. Meanwhile, I just simply don't feel like Ashley specifically was given enough warning to know something of that magnitude was going to happen because of her inaction. I think if you had clearly put the decision in front of her she would have gone with him. I just honestly feel like especially in the convergence with this many people around you can't punish players (and the audience) this severely for dropping plot threads, it's just going to happen. It's even polite to take a back seat so all episodes aren't 6 hours long with the understanding that eventually more solo situations will arise in the next arc.
I do admire Brennan's commitment to realism and to treating NPC's like autonomous beings that will continue to do things without the players' involvement. I'm sure there are tons of people that are so pleased somebody is really doing follow through with the stakes, even I am in most cases (Teor's death has really grown on me). I just feel like some grace has to be given to not lose thematic resonance that really can't be found anywhere else.
Eh, I'm of the opinion that Brennan gave BOTH of them ample opportunities to say "We sent a team". Looking back at the transcript, it is 4 minutes between Hannan finding out where Mara is and Hannan exiting the scene. I would say Brennan having Hannan still present when Vaelus and Azune finally leave the cave was a pretty big hint towards "Anything else you want to say to him before he runs into Obrimus Manor? The place that I balanced for 13 PCs and you only sent 4? Okay..."
I do think Hannan was up to something though. Like he started doing this ritual to either help Thimble once he saw her or be obnoxiously druidic to the Tachonis. Or maybe, like Thjazi, he realized something in that exact moment that changed his decisions.
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I wasn't going to make this post, but I'm thinking more about the topic than work, and maybe it will exorcize the thoughts.
I am still so angry about Hannan's death from an out of game perspective because it feels gratuitous and completely out of the control of the player he was most attached to. His death feels like a Hard stop in the opportunity to further explore elven history from a perspective separate from the shapers not to mention just having a hook for Vaelus to explore. I of course could be wrong about this, but it feels like avenues of lore exploration have been shut down forever and I can't help but feel massively disappointed
I just don't understand why he needed to walk up to Obrimus manor in such a brazen manner. Yes he is a druid specifically dedicated to opposing undead looking for a member of his order, yes Thimble would have never recovered Teor and Cyd's bodies without his help, yes you could say that he would not have believed that the Tachonis would have been so brazen as to kill a member of his order in public. Even then I think it's ridiculous that he didn't flee when Primus showed up. You can't tell me that a possibly thousand-year-old warrior that survived prosecution pre-shapers war doesn't know the level of sorcery that the patriarch of house Tachonis would wield. It feels incongruous to his previous characterization that he would protect himself so little.
From the perspective of player agency and emotional resonance it's also infuriating because it doesn't feel like any of the players had any serious way to prevent this. Julien and Occtis were in the scene but they didn't make him go in alone and I don't think there was an in character way to prevent it considering Teor's recent death and their extremely low hit points. If they didn't go in to prevent Thimble from going back into the manor alone they weren't going to do so for an NPC neither of them were particularly close with.
Vaelus' lack of agency in this death is what I really can't make peace with. There is one moment where Ashley could have prevented him from going alone, it was when he offered to take her with him with the lighting. This was clearly a DM invitation to serve as desperately needed backup in the table that was having the most trouble. Even then I think that the rejection was perfectly sensible. They had just had a disagreement, Vaelus was still reeling from her choice to destroy the stone of nightsong to stabilize the bridge, Ashley herself didn't have any way to know that the second act of the play would not need her and that the lethality of the other table was not done. Yes, her decision to not go was a refusal of player agency and sometimes I do wish that Ashley took more bold decisive actions that made her characters take up more space in the narrative, but I think it was not well done to have one of her narrative supports ended with so little input from her.
Lastly I think it was just unnecessary from the perspective of narrative tension. If you wanted to use it to signify that Obrimus Manor was extremely lethal, it's not doing anything that the PC death in the previous episode hadn't already done better, considering that one did have tremendous thematic resonance for the character involved and high levels of player agency in the conclusion. If you wanted to use it to signify that Primus is reaching a breaking point I just don't think it's something that wasn't better shown by him killing his own people and holding the scion of his closests allies at knife point to prove his loyalty. Sam is an incredibly smart player, he didn't need that to drive the point home that he needed to leave the manor as fast as possible. Primus is a terrible person who goes through everything in his path with no regard? Kattigan's entire backstory reveal was nothing ago. The only thing that I could see made this necessary was creating the diversion to get Thimble out, and I of course would never switch an NPC death for a PC one, but I feel like there were ways to make Hannan help that didn't put him in such deeply inescapable position.
This is obviously not a dealbreaker for me about C4, I know I'm basically complaining about not having desert after two fantastic courses. But it does make me tremendously happy that the Convergence is oven and we are hopefully transitioning to more stable tables, because this level of lethality is dangerously close to tedious for me.
I can see why people feel this way; I was also screaming at the television.
But there are two things that provide some rationale to how and why Hannan behaved the way he did and why he died.
1) Hannan's attitude to being immortal
When we first meet Hannan, he basically says "I hate being immortal. When I throw myself into the most dangerous situations in this world, I either fix whatever is broken, or I die: win-win as far as I'm concerned."
After so many missions where he escaped death death escaped him, it seems he developed a sort of nihilistic hubris: I can't die, no matter how hard I try. His thoracic cavity is open to the elements, and he has organs and bones replaced with wood. If that didn't kill him, what could?
That's really my only rationale for why Hannan went and KNOCKED ON THE FRONT DOOR of Obrimus Manor. Even though he now has a reason to live (helping Vaelus save her family), his threshold for reckless behavior is still very high. Because nothing he's done has killed him yet, and you don't unlearn that in two hours.
2) Above the table
I think in a campaign as complicated as this one, Brennan has done a very smart thing and made it even more complicated. There are too many threads for the group to follow; they can't do them all. This lets the PCs have big wins in the plans they make, but also keeps the threat level (aka the narrative tension) high because those other issues keep chugging along in the background. The clearest example is the Schemers' arc: most of their plans went off without a hitch. Azune was able to slip the Tachonis ring into the Lady Cormoray files without even rolling for it. Bolaire's Archanade minions mess up the admin paperwork without him having to roll for it either. Murray is able to spend her day crafting spell glyphs, and Dean Kora doesn't ask what she's doing. Their big wins still happen and they feel great! But if they solve everything 100%, the story ends at level 5. Conflict and failure still needs to happen.
Failure for the PCs isn't because they "didn't do good enough": it comes from the threads they have to drop because of limited resources (King Gus). It's the PCs fault in that they could have prevented it, but (above the table) it's not their fault because it is intentionally impossible for them to catch everything. If they prioritized King Gus, maybe Demodus dies. If they try to get both of them, something else happens.
There is another source of failure that is within the PC's control: losing track of information (Lady Cormoray's blood on the original Pariah Blade) or not sharing it with people who need to know (NOBODY OPEN THE WIGS WITH LICE BOX).
Hannan didn't have to die. There was more than enough time for either Vaelus or Azune to tell him "there is a team going to rescue Mara. You don't need to go, we have people on it right now." Neither of them did.
Whether it's because the players forgot that Hannan didn't know about the overall plan (that the larger group had split into Teams Theater, Spy, and Birdwatching), or they chose to withhold the information to lessen the impact of Vaelus's betrayal ("it's not just that I didn't trust you, I trusted other people over you"), Brennan played out the subsequent scenes based on the conceit that Hannan thought he was going solo.
Unfortunately for Hannan, Primus Tachonis has had the WORST possible day and now has been summoned home early because someone broke into his house (and he doesn't even know that his heir is dead yet). It didn't matter how intimidating a figure Hannan was or that killing him would be incredibly foolish: Primus was in a rage and that's what happened.
(It is a little ironic that the Schemers nailing the evidence against the Tachonis led to Hannan dying.)
one of my favorite things about campaign 4 is the un/intentional allegory of dol-makjar, a city of orcs who can see in the dark because of darkvision, getting overtaken by humans who "wield the light" and have absolutely no darkvision. and it got really hammered down in episode 31 when the sons of the dawn and the grey tower guard were surrounded by magpie orcs and the wind snuffed out all the lights.
Welcome to our fair city. I hope that you enjoy your stay.
absolute fucking banger. i'll be forever thankful that brennan made araman and campaign 4 as a love letter to the orcs of lotr, the first and greatest victims of sauron.
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Reviewing Critical Role Campaign 4 Characters - Up to Convergence Arc
The first full phase of Aramán appears to have been completed, as the heroes - appearing to be adopting the collective name 'The Flock' for now - have branched out, met up, and begin to branch out again.
As I did last time, and as promised in my last post, I'm gonna review the characters again to see what's changed in the 27 episodes since the Overture ended
Spoilers for Campaign 4 Up to Episode 31
So last post I did mention that I may do these splitting off into the smaller groups and...yeah nix that this feels easier to do given how the Convergence did help with character growth and changing some perceptions. Ironically though we start with the character we won't see in future episodes
Teor Pridesire - Paladin (Oath of Glory) - Soldiers -> Deceased
After the Overture I did mention how we needed more of Teor in the arcs to follow, but Travis did stay out the limelight a lot with our Lion Man. Teor remained a strong and stoic sideman but also provided some fun comedy moments with 'Only Teor is Teor', his fear of climbing trees, and being threatened by a redcap. It was nice to see them achieve in rescuing their brother, for however brief it was, and to be almost the bridge between getting Thimble and Wick to get along and Kattigan to bond with the group. However, Obrimus Manor was where both he and his brother would fall; honestly, it's a familiar situation I had with FCG wherein their death made them more interesting, I suppose it was only when he died that I realised how much of a glue he was to the Soldiers, and what his name meant to the Torn Banner. Narratively his death felt impactful, one of the last living and commanding bastions of Thjazi's rebellion gone. Alas, those are how the dice are rolled, we will have to wait and see who Travis turns up as next, my gut instinct remains the lizardfolk hotshot in the letter, though with Mara meeting with the Professor also mentioned in the letter it could be him, or neither, there are many options.
Tyranny - Warlock (Fiend) - Soldiers -> Schemers
Tyranny continues to be entertaining to me, but while I do definitely continue to enjoy her dynamic with Wick I've found myself additionally drawn to her unique bond with Kattigan. The knife incident was telling for both sides, and the aftermath has put them in a somewhat parent-child dynamic where they both trust one another with tragic backstories and reassurance. Tyranny's mysterious nature continues to simmer in the background, not yet ready to boil to the full surface, but there are mentions here and there that suggest that Tyranny by name and behaviour is more than the archetype she feared she was bound to be, and given that her father has voiced approval for her acts against the Creed and that she wields a knife that is meant to hurt those who hurt the ones they love, Tyranny's chaos may in fact be the driving force that'd undo the power structure of the Sundered Houses - but to who's benefit? She's still a demon (and there's nothing wrong with her) with quirks that befit her species but Brennan has done well to emphasise that she's not bound to an alignment, nor are any other demons such as Tsul'rekshi or her chaotically calamitous sisters. Remaining in Dol Makjar does mean she's close to the danger that the Creed and her family may be involved in, but it also allows her to further engage with mortal customs and culture, while also thrive in subterfuge and rebellion.
Murray Mag'nesson - Wizard (Divination) - Schemers
At the end of the Overture I enjoyed Murray, but following the Convergence I think she's my favourite character right now. Remaining consistently funny and quotable, her intelligence thrives in Scheming especially when she doesn't have to engage with Dean Kora. The combat encounters during the Schemers arc also proved how capable she can be provided that she gets Invisibility up first to spare her low as fuck AC from inevitable damage. Her relationships with Azune, which I can't quite lock down whether it's all platonic or not, and Demodus Blix also add to her 'more tough love but soft on the inside' mannerisms, as well as her strong sense of morality and equality as she champions magic being available to all who wish to learn it. I additionally love how Marisha describes her using Divination magic, as if to resonate with the frequencies of time and the weave - I can already hear the chorus of 'what's sexier than wizards?' - but in the many situations Murray has been put in to either glean, present or collect information she's rose to the task. Staying in Dol-Makjar is of course the right choice for her at the moment; she cannot leave the Pentreval without raising suspicion and the network of their Tiding of Magpies (even if the Sundered Houses are aware of them) is still young, with Wick and Tyranny added to their group it'll be interesting how she engages with the Sorcerer Halovar heir - especially compared to how she was with Occtis. Also can Brennan throw her a bone and let her get some stress relief, nothing wrong with King Gus being gay but ass steaks can only feed a girl for so long XD
Thaisha Lloy - Druid (Circle of Land) - Seekers -> Soldiers
Thaisha went through it a lot with the Seekers arc; unable to find her son, at odds with her fellow Old Path Druids, attacked by demons, attacked by birds, having to enter Tannessar and find a fountain of Orc blood, it was only natural that Thaisha was consistently on edge. It was saddening how such stress was aimed at Occtis, given how close the two were following the Overture, but the Convergence was able to allow Thaisha to have a few wins and release the tension she had been shouldering. That said, she still absolutely kicks ass; maybe not with a giant crossbow but she's proven to be an incredible presence against the Halovars; from standing down Zebani, infiltrating the Villa Aurora with Hala in snake form, and terrorizing Tyranny's sisters. The ritual at the Hallowed Round was also a big moment for her, allowing Aabria to powerfully express the cultural significance of not only the play and the ritual but also the scene where she needn't reshape the Pariah Blades since through Hal and Shadia they have already been reshaped. Being then able to guide the fallen souls of past rebellions from the Orcish afterlife to a nicer destination through Thjazi's ritual served as a beautiful moment, creating new angels (Kaedra) and strengthening the Old Path in a cathartic moment after several episodes of knowing that it is under threat of the Tachonis. Thaisha is the beating heart of the culture that runs through Aramán, but as Aabria rightfully takes some time off to take care of baby Wizard See, Thaisha is in for a long and perhaps uncomfortable journey to Dol-Rungja as she belatedly accepts her grandmother's summons. We may not see Thaisha so frequently in this phase, but the floor is set for when she does to continue being a powerful presence in the story.
Sir Julien Davinos - Fighter (Daredevil)/Rogue - Seekers
I noted before that the person Julien could become was more interesting to me than who he was during the Overture, and to be fair the same is true, but on the plus side we are getting there. It does serve that for a lot of the Seekers arc Julien has been less of an asshole at unnecessary times; there are times where his assholery has been justified and targeted at people who deserve it - like Frons Tachonis, basically bullied off a cliff, and Koral Tachonis, danced till he was dead - but we've also seen him soften to his companions, and show off his more charming and flirty attitudes such as with Ingrid 'I have the blood of giants, I can fix him' Einfasen. His dynamic with Occtis grows more intriguing, the argument outside Obrimus Manor hinted that despite his insistence that Occtis is merely his bait for other Tachonis he has grown a little fond of him, though it's told only through mannerisms than words that he is still very reluctant to admit. His unique situation of being cursed with Thjazi bound to his shadow makes for some more very interesting dynamics as he has to effectively live with his nemesis - who he technically saved from their common enemy thanks to old magic - and he's gonna continue to be surrounded by those Thjazi is close to because of that. While his decision to leave the Pridesires to fight his undead father robbed audiences of a Father-Son battle and drew ire for those who (wrongly) blame Julien for Teor's death, it was telling to learn more about Julien's family from his intimidating mother, Maya, and his sickly sister who he now has the means to heal. It's still a slow growth for Julien, but he's just gotta keep riding that edge and hope he doesn't fall over it.
Bolaire Lathalia - Warlock (Mask) - Schemers -> Seekers
Bolaire's another character where my stance hasn't quite changed. Overall I still don't trust him as far as I can throw him, and given that he's a sentient mask I can throw him pretty far - like a frisbee. It's not to say that Bolaire hasn't had his moments; namely his relationship and admiration for young Demodus Blix - and his illusionary familiar, Figment - but otherwise Bolaire's role in the Schemers and Convergence arc is to frighten, kill, and deceive. When I've said in other people's posts that Bolaire is more a villain entrapped on the side of heroes I don't mean it jokingly, there's a lot about Bolaire that's useful but also incredibly dark and villainous, it's only a benefit to the heroes that Bolaire values them - even if it's not enough to give them all the information that'd be important to them - and in rare cases can be charmed or sweet-talked into liking people. Bolaire's story however feels catapulted into the foray by his more interesting but also more dangerous sister, Termina, who is now bound to the already ultra-powerful Amirya Cormoray and has now accidentally been led towards aiding the villains in becoming a god while also being convinced against not trusting their brother. Bolaire leaves a dangerous wake in departing Dol Makjar in hopes that Termina will follow, but also is in search of his family of other masks who he now seeks out after Termina called him out about it, whether that's for better or worse remains to be seen, especially given how Thjazi's ritual may require a sibling to be a component for another anchor. The biggest problem with Bolaire right now is that, ironically, we have to take everything he says at face value; we had hoped when he crossed paths with Thimble that there would be more explanation towards his hatred of Thjazi, but the Convergence arc only sought to vindicate Thjazi while leaving Bolaire's hatred for him a big ol' question mark, and that's harming his character the longer this reluctance to elaborate goes on.
Vaelus - Paladin (Vengeance) - Seekers
While Vaelus was one of my favourites coming out of Overture, it was a mixed venture going into the Seekers arc with her. At the time it wasn't made clear exactly why she was mourning Sylandri, and the more we learned about how oppressive and controlling Sylandri could be the harder it felt to rationalize why she would want someone like that back. The uncertainty only truly eased when Ashley - in the Seekers arc rundown - clarified that Sylandri's return would only be a means to an end, and it was her sisters that she truly mourned and wished to restore. Vaelus was still a cool character, despite unfortunately dreadful rolls by Ashley, remaining as someone who knew when to stand her ground; but while Vaelus' bonds with Thaisha, Julien and Occtis seemed to broaden her understandings it was her bond with the druid NPC Hannan in the Convergence arc that truly shone with her development. While also learning more about elves in Aramán - including how Sylandri made them unable to breed and thus a technically extinct albeit unaging race - Vaelus allowed herself to change, find perspective, and achieve a little more closure in accepting that Sylandri was wrong. The biggest test of the ritual and having to choose between allowing it to continue or to hijack it and save her family emphasised Vaelus' position as a kind and selfless character that has changed from leaving her cloister and engaged with a greater variety of people. The sudden death of Hannan at the hands of Primus inside Obrimus Manor (I am begging Brennan to have set up some Xenia/Hospitality druidic old law that curses Primus for killing a guest in his home) is a sad end to a blooming relationship (platonic or not) which looked to focus Vaelus on finding another means of guiding her family to the afterlife - one that could be achieved by continuing Thjazi's plan - and it'll likely have similar ripples to that of Vaelus and Occtis' friendship, hopefully less so because I do enjoy the sleepless goths, now that the Stone of Nightsong is destroyed and bound to neither of them. It'll also be interesting to see if Vaelus' Oath is affected by her denouncing Sylandri and whether the Seekers group will splinter off into two so she will have backup confronting her fellow sisters at Mournvale.
Occtis Tachonis - Wizard (Necromancy) - Seekers
The hollow prince may not be in the top 2 of my personal rankings but he still remains up high. Alex had mentioned many times before that just because Occtis is the black sheep of an evil doesn't mean he doesn't have his own dark sides, and there have been times where Occtis' Tachonis behaviour has come into play for the morally grey. That said, Occtis learned a lot about his murder through the Seekers arc, not that it was much comfort to know that you were killed to become a murder angel but he took it well all things considered. The Seekers arc was rough on Occtis' relationship with a slow rift forming between him and Thaisha, but the Convergence managed to restore it when both had a moment to relax and acknowledge how much stress they were under. Much like Murray I've enjoyed when Alex goes into detail with his magic, the descriptive elements of how he is doing what he's doing, it works for Wizards because they have to study this rather than it coming naturally to them. While there have been times when Occtis has had a manic look about him performing Necromancy, there is still a heart in there; Occtis is of course much different to Laudna in that he's still figuring a lot of his body out, but I do like how there are some behaviours and reactions that seem less of the body and more of the soul; his worry and relief around Thimble, his discomfort after seeing ghouls, even if the body is dead the soul is still very much alive and hanging onto life. While Occtis has also hoped for the comfort of having not all his family be awful, he has also managed to gain a lot of support through Thimble, Thaisha, Vaelus (despite the aforementioned friction after the stone's destruction) and Julien, and I feel like as he travels with the Seekers to the Golden Orchard (and maybe Mournvale) by way of Timmony alongside the new set of Seekers we can see Occtis grow more confident and more capable of defending himself with the people who see only the 'Tachonis son'.
Kattigan Vale - Ranger (Beast Master) - Soldiers -> Seekers
Kat has been a bit of a sleeper character for me. Much like the Overture he like Teor liked to sit on the sidelines for much for the narrative. That said as I mentioned with Tyranny his bond with the demon is unique and kinda sweet; his anger towards her about the knife was justified but also opened the door for a character who is extremely closed off. It's only later that we confirm that for good reason; a wife and daughter gone, likely dead, without a trace and only the face of Primus Tachonis as a clue. Despite such a sad and dark backstory while will hopefully come to a head with a multi-person stompdown of the old bastard (likely in an antimagic field just to be safe) however, Kat's inability to socialize has also provided some genuinely funny moments, where we'll be thinking about apple pies without the apples for a while. Post-Convergence he's back on the road again which'll be his more natural environment, and with Thimble alongside him they could perhaps help each other mourn his 'battle-buddy' Teor and try to help complete Thjazi's master plan. It is curious how he'll fare alongside Julien, both of whom are vengeful fighters who want to kill Primus, both have grieved lost family, and both have fallen into the bottle to quiet the voice that tells them they aren't who they were meant to be, there's a lot of parallels that can be made that I'd like to see explored.
Halandil Fang - Bard (College of Eloquence) - Schemers
After the Overture I did express that Hal was in a place of inaction, a watcher rather than a doer. The Schemers arc further explored Hal's feelings as more of Thjazi's plans were coming to light; struggling between the frustrations of being excluded and the burdens as being the one who has to pick up where he left off. It was a slow build with a great payoff though, because for all the wonders of what Thjazi's play was the answer was that the play was the play. The opening night at the Hallowed Round became a culmination and cathartic moment for Thaisha as well as Hal, not only being able to express his culture but also be vindicated that - despite Bolaire's snipes - his brother wasn't up to something potentially nefarious. Liam has been able to put all his theatre kid energy into Hal which has worked well in the theatre, but Hal will continue to be forced into unfamiliar territory which he is yet to adapt to. It'll be interesting however how he'll be in the next Schemers arc; he's most certainly in the Halovar's corsairs, and he has some history with Wick, and as mentioned the Sundered Houses know about the magpies which means everyone associated is in danger, but without Bolaire in his ear would he be more willing to plunge into Thjazi's unknown dealings? And now that the Hallowed Round is Hallowed, Mara's warning about all faiths looking to target it will likely come to light.
Azune Nayar - Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline?)/Paladin - Schemers
Luis has rose high in the ranks thanks to his lies work in the Schemers arc. Still carrying the burdens and grief hard, to the point where he is out-sadboying Liam, Azune is carrying more and more pressure the deeper into the rabbit hole he goes. His lies have been of a great benefit to the Schemers, and his relationship with Murray and Hal have served to keep him from completely crumbling under it, with Wick and Tyranny now being a potential throughline to sow misinfirmation to the Halovars that burden may be eased a little but there are further mysteries at hand. There has however been additional concerns for Azune outside of the scheming following the surprise return of his sister Mayali on the side of the Argosian assassins attacking King Gus and Yanessa Halovar (though the latter was likely part of the plan), while the trail has gone cold the shock revelation will still linger on his mind. Also we have to address the elephant in the room...or well, the dragon in the lake! The implications that Azune's sorcery comes from a Draconic bloodline is very interesting, especially since the lore puts dragons as pre-Shapers, what does that mean for his family? his people? His allegiances? The Einfasen descend from pre-Shaper entities too but we don't know what the relationship of wind elementals, giants and dragons were, plus Azune has put a lot of work into making the Einfasen believe that his bloodline may descend from theirs. Despite the dizzying amount of lies Luis is playing Azune phenomenally - alongside a lot of phenomenal rolls - and now that there's more lore to descend into it feels like it's just a matter of when Azune will unearth it rather than if.
Wicander Halovar - Sorcerer (Clockwork) - Soldiers -> Schemers
Similarly to Azune, Wick is feeling the weight of his lies, deception and newfound powers. After the Overture I was curious where Wick's culture shock would take him and the answer was through the wringer; downed several times, kicked in the dirt, sleeping in the wild or in places where there are no beds, not to mention upon his return to Dol Makjar he's been threatened by Zebani and Primus. Wick has had to confront his own sense of innocence and purity multiple times, compromising such values to survive, and it is definitely weighing on him. It's not all been doom and gloom though; Wick has managed to prove himself sly and persuasive even against his own grandmother, a fantastic monologue earning a no-roll nat 20, and his innocence and kindness has warmed him to his other companions who didn't like him so much at the beginning. As much as Sam has done both sides of the holy man character in C3, Sam is seeming to thrive more as a tainted soul using their corruption for good than a pure goody two-shoes archetype, using the inherent goodness to catch those who underestimate him in a trap or a loophole. He's still prissy, entitled, and used to a certain comfort lifestyle, but Wick is also shown that he can be a valuable ally so long as he has people who can support him when the burdens feel too heavy to bear. Staying in Dol Makjar as I mentioned would help with spying on the Halovars, less so the Tachonis given Primus' warnings but when have daughters ever listened to their dad when he tells them to 'stay away from that boy'?, but he also has his former flame to cross paths or at least get information on. It'll be interesting to see how his dynamic with Hal is, given how he is the benefactor to the Hallowed Round, and how Teor's death will motivate him going forward.
Thimble - Rogue (Swashbuckler) - Soldiers -> Seekers
And finally we return to Thimble and her rollercoaster of an arc. Although she was able to kill Casimir, it didn't fill the void, and then after being told that Occtis was dead she was close to spiralling into more grief, but then Occtis was alive*, and Thjazi is still on this plane for her to engage with via Julien's shadow... but now Teor is dead, and the Orchard - the closest thing she had to Faerie since the doors closed - has been destroyed by the Tachonis assault. It has indeed been a whirlwind for her, but Thimble continues to be an entertaining character who doesn't bother to hide her feelings; Thimble will let you know exactly how she feels about you and I do enjoy that be it from finding comfort with Occtis - and now with the bracers Teor's death boon attuned her to she can size herself up or size him down for full sized hugs - or pelting Wick with stones, even if she's quietly admitting to softening to him. Thimble's connection to the other fair folk has worked in Brennan's favour for storytelling, and with the seed to the Miller's Road on hand, the Hallowed Round connecting to the still-closed Faerie, and Thjazi's anchors connecting the afterlives, Thimble has plenty of intertwining goals that will be able to give her hope beyond the grief of what she lost - which I do hope she finds. The Thjazi revelation and the infiltration of Obrimus Manor has seemingly given her and Julien common ground so it'll be interesting if that grows or falls apart during their travels, and with Bolaire accompanying them we could confront in detail why Bolaire hates Thjazi so - especially since Thimble staunchly defends him, even when he's omitted information from her like his conversations with Mara the Wing. The positives that Thjazi's still around is a comfort to Thimble, but it also does somewhat get in the way of her having to learn to live without him, especially given that they're still following his lead, but she's proven time and time again that she's strong of heart and mind (and now body given that her strength went from -4 to +4) and she still has people she wants to protect.
Here’s a little trick I’ve used in D&D games where the premise of your campaign calls for the party to have access to lots of Stuff, but you don’t want to do a whole bunch of bookkeeping: the Wagon.
In a nutshell, the party has a horse-drawn wagon that they use to get around between – and often during – adventures. This doesn’t come out of any individual player character’s starting budget; it’s just provided as part of the campaign premise.
Before setting out from a town or other place of rest, the party has to decide how many gold pieces they want to spend on supplies. These funds aren’t spent on anything in particular, and form a running total that represents how much Stuff is in the wagon.
Any time a player character needs something in the way of supplies during a journey or adventure, one of two things can happen:
1. If it’s something that any fool would have packed for the trip and it’s something that could reasonably have been obtained at one of the party’s recent stopovers (e.g., rations, spare clothing, fifty feet of rope, etc.), then the wagon contains as much of it as they reasonably need. Just deduct the Player’s Handbook list price for the item(s) in question from the wagon’s total.
2. If it’s something where having packed it would take some explaining, or if it’s something that’s unlikely to have been available for purchase at any of the party’s recent stopovers (e.g., a telescope, a barrel of fine wine, a book of dwarven erotic poetry, etc.), the player in need makes a retroactive Intelligence or Wisdom check, versus a DC set by the GM, to see if they somehow anticipated the need for the item(s) in question. Proficiency may apply to this check, depending on what’s needed. The results are read as follows:
Success: You find what you’re looking for, more or less. If the group is amenable, you can narrate a brief flashback explaining the circumstances of its acquisition. Deduct its list price (or a price set by the GM, if it’s not on the list) from the wagon’s total.
Failure by 5 points or less: You find something sort of close to what you’re looking for. The GM decides exactly what; it won’t ever be useless for the purpose at hand, but depending on her current level of whimsy, it may simply be a lesser version of what you were looking for, or it may be something creatively off the mark. Deduct and optionally flash back as above.
Failure by more than 5 points: You come up empty-handed, and can’t try again for that item or anything closely resembling it until after your next stopover.
As an incidental benefit, all the junk the wagon is carrying acts as a sort of ablative armour. If the wagon or its horses would ever take damage, instead subtract a number of gold pieces from its total equal to the number of hit points of damage it would have suffered. The GM is encouraged to describe what’s been destroyed in lurid detail.
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