#cr2e88

Laura is at the Video Game Awards for the beginning of the episode, but makes her grand entrance 40 minutes in, dressed up and looking BEAUTIFUL. I thought Travis' heart eyes at his wife were the greatest thing. Turns out, she just left the award show without waiting to see if she won her category, because she saw on Twitter than Sam was using her dice ! And she wanted to play D&D with her friends. ICONS ONLY. STAND-UP OVATION FOR MRS. LAURA BAILEY. Sam, 100% serious : "I think we all admire your priorities."

Jester, very cheerfully, about Trent : "We could just kill him, chop him up into little tiny pieces, and then we escape to Xhorhas and we never come back !!" Seems like a good plan, honestly. If anyone deserves that, it's Trent. Also love that Caleb flash-backed to the time where Jester just put an axe through a dude's head.

The Mighty Demands : 1) to not be forced to go anywhere on the spot 2) they will not go back to Xhorhas supervised 3) they will not go until they see the beacon the Assembly claims to have 4) they want to know what the Empire and the Cerberus Assembly actually want, because if they doin't want something, what does that mean ? what's the logic ?... this line is not a hard line actually it's a paragraph by Caduceus 5) a 1000 platinum 6) the Empire should cover their incidentals at the hotel, come on ! 7) chocolate 8) armements, not almond mints 9) the Empire should not be alone in charge of the fane under the Cathedral of Pelor 10) pastries !

Oooooh, how I like how Caleb is lying to the Martinet about the Mighty Nein's journey into Xhorhas ! The best lies have some truth in them, and that is absolutely what he's doing, he's just twisting some details.

The Mighty Nein finally have a good idea for the neutral territory in which to hold peace talks, and that is : in the middle of the ocean, on their boat ! The Martinus Ludin'eth Deleth : "What's it called ?" The Mighty Nein, immediately realizing their mistake : "... It's called The Balleater."

Jester called Trent "Mr. Icky-Thong". POWER MOVE !!

WOOPS Nott tried to let the Beacon take her mind and grant her a re-roll, and Trent immediately guessed the Mighty Nein were familiar of how the beacon works. WOOPS. If he's intelligent (and he is many things but stupid is not one of them) I think he can now know what happened to the beacon lost in Zadash.

Love that the Mighty Nein are deflecting this line of questioning by being assholes about the tripod. Very MN behavior.

Obsessed, Obsessed I say ! with the way Jester is 1) aware of her cheerfull behavior and kindness 2) aware that she's not on the same level as "normal people" regarding said kindness and behavior 3) will USE KINDNESS AS A WEAPON or at least a means to an end. She really managed to distract the Martinet and Trent. i JUST !! love her so much. It takes courage, it takes spirit, it takes kindness and care to do that.

I love Caduceus, and I respect his "the truth will set you free" approach, and it has indeed worked very well with the Mighty Nein, because they were so used to being shifty motherfuckers, but ! In this instance, with the Assembly, inside of the political nest of vipes that is Rexxentrum, I trully think that proposing to tell the truth is a bad idea. The Mighty Nein needs to be shifty motherfuckers once again.

Did Marisha had the early idea for Laudna with this crazy cool shopkeeper character Matt put on ? I wouldn't bet money against it.

Fjord : "Well, if we're not going to Pride's Call, and we need to kill a few days in town... Should we enter a fighting tournament ?" Matt, forgetting his impartial role as the DM : "Yes !! FUCK YES !" Fjord : "Does such a thing exist in this town ?" Matt, still not impartial : "I can make one !" This is so rare too see of Matt that I laughed so much.

Dani : "This... mayb be the horniest episode of Talks Machina. And I've been keeping track !"

Xenophobic Old Man is my new favorite NPC. Poor Nott has gotten so used to Xhorhas that she forgot how people typically react to her :(

If I has met Beau as a kid or teen my Bi ass would’ve had such an idol-worshipy crush on her. Just open-mouthed speechless adoration. 

Honestly I want that for Beau. I want her to feel the pride of mentoring someone who thinks you’re The Shit 

Fjord and Caduceus! God their relationship is so dear to me. Tbh it’s even more incredible with the forsight that Clay is aro/ace, because their bond is so obviously intense despite being platonic. And not even in like a heart-warming way like you get with, like, Caleb and Beau, but in this epic-tale-of-soul-saving kinda way. Its just very good, these boys care for each other so much. I’m not crying, you’re crying!

TRENT IS SO SCARY WTF MATT. I don’t know how he does it but Matt managed to make a character that is genuinely one of the most unsettling things I’ve encountered in the campaign so far. I think it had something to do with his odd level of intensity. His eyes kinda bugged and he was maybe just a bit too enthusiastic about everything. I couldn’t out my finger on it but it did it’s job real friggin well. This is gonna be such an excellent villain, I can already tell.

I swear to god that moment with Eadwulf felt so much like an awkward exes moment omg. You could totally see Matt giving Caleb the once-over with his eyes, and “you look good” feels like such a specific comment to me. I always thought the art and stuff of the Blumendrei as altogether was really far from canon, but..maybe it wasn’t? Who knows.