Awesome / Critical Role A New Beginning

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

Episode 1: Curious Beginnings

• The first roll of the new campaign? Natural 20, courtesy of Travis.
• Matt's description of the circus performance, which can only be described as verbal Scenery Porn. A real testament to his storytelling abilities.
  • Notably, when describing the Dwarven girl's act, he begins describing her song just as the singing comes through on his music. Even the players are impressed by his perfect timing that only enhanced the enraptured atmosphere.
• Just as it becomes clear that combat is incoming, Fjord gives a very calm one-liner amidst everyone's panic: "Yasha? We're gonna need those weapons back."
• Despite rolling a Natural 1 on Initiative, Beauregard manages to get the first HDYWTDT of the campaign, her uppercut caving a Zombie's brain in with its own jaw. She gets a pretty good Pre-Mortem One-Liner too.
  Beauregard: I thought you didn't allow the sick!
• The moment Ashley reveals what class her character is by yelling "I would like...To Rage". Travis' reaction would be best described as a proud father watching his diminutive and sweet kid growing into a badass savage.
  Yasha: Get the FUCK outta my tent!

Episode 2: A Show Of Scrunity

• Fjord really shows off his smooth-talking and ingenuity this episode: first managing to convince the Crownsguard to release an imprisoned Beauregard (after she made an obvious escape attempt, and after Beau and Jester throw a massive monkey wrench into his cover story), and later using a quick-thinking Disguise Self to evade detection by a guard patrol and talk his way into the building where the body of the victim is being kept.
• Nott's sticky fingers happen to find a flask made of platinum. To put this into perspective, the party is currently dealing in silvers and single-digit golds; this single item is likely worth several times their total party wealth.

Episode 3: The Midnight Chase

• After the battle at the circus, Jester very quickly comes up with the idea of using the horses and cart to get the bodies of the zombie guards out of the circus and dump them somewhere so nobody connects the circus with the deaths of the Crownsguards. Just shows that, under all that ditzy cheer, she's actually a pretty smart cookie.
  • Connected to that, Beau also has a good idea in how to cover up the tracks they make with the cart. Even Molly, who greatly dislikes Beau, is impressed with her idea, noting he's surprised she came up with it.
• We see Fjord's full Hexblade powers on display in this episode, as Matt describes his falchion becoming encrusted in barnacles and seeping magical water, implying a pact with a Cthulhu-eque creature. He manages to make the episode's boss frightened of him, which turns the tide of the battle in the party's favor. And he gets the HDYWTDT.
• Nott, seeing Caleb endangered by the Devil Toad, demonstrates incredible bravery by leaping onto the gigantic Toad with her shortsword and later covering his unconscious body, despite having only 4HP herself.
• Travis' amazing senile old man impression when Fjord tricks the Crownsguard with Mask of Many Faces.

Episode 4: Disparate Pieces

• During her scuffle with Expositor Dairon, Beau manages to put up a decent fight: taking into account that the Expositor is at least 9 levels higher than Beau (as she used Preternatural Counter, an 11th-level ability), the fact that Beau was able to do as much as she did during the battle is seriously impressive. She even rolls 2 Natural 20s consecutively, causing her to legitimately take the Expositor off-guard!
• When the party buys a map of the Dwendalian Empire, Matt surprises the group with a full, hand-made map he had made specifically for the campaign.
• Liam rolls a Natural 20, allowing him to sell his book back to the Burnished Bibelots after using it in the last encounter.

Episode 5: The Open Road

• Matt's vivid nightmare descriptions strike again, this time when Fjord has a vision of his otherworldly patron.
• The party puts their new Level 3 abilities to use in the Gnoll fight.
  • Molly reveals his chosen order: Order of the Ghostslayer, by sensing undead in the vicinity and imbuing his weapons with radiant damage.
  • Beau uses her Deflect Missiles ability to catch an arrow in midair and throw it back.
  • Fjord charms a Gnoll with Crown of Madness.
  • Jester summons a Spiritual Weapon... in the shape of a giant lollypop. Which then lands them the first kill of the fight. She later finishes off the laughing Gnoll with a Natural 20 Inflict Wounds, turning it into a withered husk.
  • Caleb blasts one of the Gnolls with three Scorching Rays for 17 points of fire damage. (Impressive for this level!)
  • Nott uses her new Arcane Trickster abilities to summon an illusion to distract the Gnolls and inflict Tasha's Hideous Laughter on one.
• Despite being the target of multiple attacks from both close range and long range, Beau was able to utilize the Dodge action (and the aforementioned Deflect Missiles) to minimize the damage she took during the battle and cause the enemies to miss her often. That, and some unlucky rolls on the DM's part also helped.
• One for the gnoll pack leader: it knocked out not only a severely wounded Nott but also knocked out Mollymauk with a critical longbow hit.

Episode 6: The Howling Mines

• Nott rolls a 24 Dexterity save against a trap, and later a 21 Dex roll to pick a lock, despite having Disadvantage from being drunk.
• More badass Vicious Mockery one-liners from Molly.
  Molly: [In Infernal] You will feed the dogs in hell!
• Via his Armor of Agathys spell, two enemies attacking Fjord end up turning themselves to ice and shattering.
• Beau manages to perform a Wall Run (6 levels before she formally gets the ability from Unarmored Movement)!
• That. Fucking. GNOLL! That refused to die. Took a long time for them to take that Gnoll down. Had a good run indeed.

Episode 7: Hush

• During the climatic fight against the manticore, Nott runs up to the creature's newborn child and murders it. This creates a distraction effective enough to save a paralysed Fjord from certain death and allows the manticore's remaining captives to flee. Nott the Brave indeed!
  Nott: (yelling to the manticore) You wanna save this thing?! (stabs a baby)
• Shakäste gets the HDYWTDT on the manticore: as Matt notes, it seems to be a tradition for their guests.
• This whole episode is one for the party. They managed to get through multiple fights, including two boss encounters, without any deaths, and with only one short rest to recover spells. They even killed the manticore, something they could've easily just fled from.

Episode 8: The Gates of Zadash

• While Laura fails spectacularly at composing a famous song on the fly, Jester cosplayer Ginny Di composed and sang a full song titled "Ruby Of The Sea" which Matt Mercer said, "I'm continuously in awe of this community."[1]
• Jester manages to get Fjord a letter of recommendation from the Lawmaster, blackmailing him with the fact that he visited her mother, a famous courtesan. It's so effective that Matt doesn't even ask Laura to roll for it!
  Jester: The Ruby of the Sea says hello.
  (The Lawmaster's face goes pale.)
• After leaving Alfield, the party is attacked by a group of brigands, who try to intimidate them into giving up their valuables. One bout of trickery (involving syphilis) and a single round of combat later, the brigand leader is burned to a crisp from a single spell thanks to Caleb's high rolls, another brigand is dead, and they have the shit intimidated out of them to the point they start stripping just because Jester orders it (with some help from Mollymauk's Charm Person).
• Matt introduces a firbolg shopkeeper that provokes instant love and adoration from the cast. That there are four of him only ups his cool factor and causes instant comparisons to Gilmore.

Episode 10: Waste and Webs

• With a Natural 20 on her Constitution save, Yasha flexes off the brunt of the Phase Spider's poisonous bite attack.
• Molly gets the HDYWTDT against the Phase Spider that's been killing guards and citizens... by boiling its blood via Vicious Mockery. Even he can't really believe that just happened.
  Mollymauk: I've never seen it do that before.
• Beau tries to convince a halfling man to tell them about The Gentleman, but he refuses to budge or tell them anything. Enter Nott with a Natural 20 Persuasion roll: speaking to him in Thieves' Cant, she gets him to tell them what he knows.

Episode 11: Zemnian Nights

• Fjord suggests an even better plan than the one the Knights of Requital came up with: frame the corrupt noble they're targeting as the leader of the Knights of Requital, ensuring she goes down and throwing suspicion off the group at the same time.
• To let the party sneak into the sewers, Fjord casts Crown of Madness on a crownsguard and compels him to attack another guard as a distraction. The guard manages to fail 3 different saves against it, giving the Mighty Nein enough time to slip past.
  Fjord: Kick his ass, sea bass.
  • The party hits a brief snag when Nott is unable to pick the lock on the sewer door. Before she can try again, Jester steps in and breaks off the lock with her bare hands.

Episode 12: Midnight Espionage

• When deciding how to forge an incriminating letter, Sam (in character as Nott) has Laura (in character as Jester) copy a sample of his handwriting. Laura manages to do a pretty good job out of universe - good enough that Matt decides that he's not even going to have her roll for it.
• Beau uses Step of the Wind to leap onto a rooftop, and later rolls a Natural 20 and finds a single brick in the fireplace that unlocks a safe! This prompts Nott to excitedly send a message.
  Nott: We are the fucking best! You can reply to this message!
• While infiltrating the High Richter's house, Caleb finds a scroll case containing something implied to be extremely valuable (possibly a higher level spell scroll). The infiltration is already going south, so Caleb attempts to pocket it to gain something of value. Fjord notices and tells him to put it back, as anything missing jeopardizes the frame-up mission the Mighty Nein is trying to accomplish. Caleb refuses, so Fjord summons his falchion right to Caleb's throat. Upon seeing this, Nott pulls out her crossbow, to which Fjord responds by readying an Eldritch Blast toward her. The resulting standoff is both INCREDIBLY tense, and a testament to both Liam and Travis' acting skills. Fjord states, under no uncertain terms, this is Caleb's ultimatum—he's either with the group, or he's on his own (again). After a few tense moments, Caleb drops the case and leaves.
  Fjord: We're either a team, or you're working for yourself. Decide.
  • Once the room is empty, though? Nott slips in and steals the case anyway.
• Matt ends the episode on a cliffhanger of nearly Chroma Conclave proportions. The heist of the High Richter's house goes horribly wrong and Ulog has to pull a Taking You with Me on her... but as the group is fleeing, the Zauber Spire explodes and Zadash seems to be under attack from Xhorhas.