Awesome / Critical Role Iron And The Coast

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

Episode 26: Found & Lost

• The new studio has a lighting setup that can change according to when the group is in battle or not.
  Matt: I've wanted to have a setup like this since high school. And now I can!
• Beau rolls a Natural 20 to cut out an ankheg's acid sack, resulting in "an almost beautiful display of surgically-precise knife-work", as Matt describes it. Keg is aroused.
• Keg rolls a double Natural 20 on her disadvantaged stealth check, shocking everyone.
• Villainous example: Dwelga the druid resists three crucial status effects in a row, as Caleb's Slow and Beau's two Stunning Strikes all fail to affect her.
  • Similarly, Lorenzo, leader of the Iron Shepherds makes an extremely memorable first impression, with an intimidating persona, devastatingly powerful Cone of Cold spell and, of course, killing Molly.
• Beau and Molly both shrug off a Level 3 Hold Person by rolling a total higher than 20 on their saving throws.
• As devastating as Molly's death was, he remained Defiant to the End — instead of giving some final words to his friends, he spits blood in Lorenzo's face.

Episode 28: Within the Nest

• The Iron Shepherds' Barbarian gets a villainous one for using Yasha's Magician's Judge to dispel Keg's Haste and leave her stunned. If she hadn't been taken out shortly after, this could have ended very badly for Keg...
  • On the other hand, Caleb burning said Barbarian literally in half is brutally satisfying after the tragedy of the previous two episodes. Brace yourselves, Shepherds: the Nein are coming.
• Nila, rolling over 20 on a Strength Check, pulls open the bars of her son's cage wide enough for him to fit through. Mama Bear indeed. She later helps her mate pull the rest of the bars apart, with a total above 20 again.
• Frumpkin gets one for surviving a crossbow shot in owl form. 4 damage taken, but Liam rolled the maximum 5 health.
  • Spider form Frumpkin does just as well, living through a 1-damage stomp.
  • Frumpkin surviving his early brushes with death becomes an additional, delayed CMOA given how incredibly influential his scouting assistance was on the course of the following battle. Even if the only difference had been in morale, imagine how differently the infiltration would have gone without him!
• The plan to take out the wall guards goes perfectly. Both guards killed silently in one combat round.
• Hasted Keg. Picture the Dwarf version of the Flash with the Tasmanian Devil's violent abilities.

Episode 29: The Stalking Nightmare

• Keg conquers her fear of Lorenzo to defiantly shout vulgarities back at him as she breaks a door down.
• Clay managing to save Beau and Shakaste after they were both knocked out by Lorenzo’s Cone of Cold, casting Spare the Dying on Shakaste and a healing spell to Beau, bringing her back with 21 hit points. Both are specifically from features from his Grave Domain; being able to bonus action cast Spare the Dying with a 30 foot range and heal someone at 0 HP at full potency.
• Beau takes full advantage of Lorenzo's single tactical error: When he ends one round on the ground instead of floating in the air, Beau spends all her remaining ki points to get up from being knocked out, get up in his face, and successfully Stunning Strike him so he ended up taking no more actions in the battle.
  • This moment was so awesome that the audience started chanting Beau's name, much to the delight of Marisha and the rest of the cast.
• Caleb gets the HDYWTDT on Lorenzo, blowing open his skull with a Fire Bolt and turning him to charcoal. Matt even admitted that he was supposed to get away, but the dice -and his tactical error in making Lorenzo land-took him out.
• In the span of a single (in-game) night, the Mighty Nein successfully infiltrated the Sour Nest and eliminated every remaining member of the Iron Shepherds before finding their missing friends. The most feared faction in Shady Creek Run was basically wiped out in a matter of hours, all with minimal outside help or even planning from the party. In the words of Beauregard, "You do not fuck with the Mighty Nein."

Episode 30: The Journey Home

• Laura and Travis return!
• With a small bit of retcon, due to the live show ending being slightly rushed, the team finally loots the Sour Nest. Beau's investigation roll of 15 while looting Lorenzo's room finds the team a magic item familiar to the players. Yes, the Mighty Nein finally got their hands on a Bag of Holding. The look on Travis' face as Matt describes the item and they experiment with it is fantastic. Even more awesome is when they turn it inside out and a ton of platinum and other treasures come flying out of it. Matt even does something he normally never does, actually show the players his DM notes for the session, just to hammer in that they wouldn't have found that if they hadn't rolled so high.

Episode 31: Commerce & Chaos

• Nott, during her downtime, successfully disassembles the gun she stole and rolls high enough to figure out how the detonation mechanism works, with Matt allowing Taliesin (who played Percy during the last Critical Role and who knows guns inside and out) to give the explanation. She uses this knowledge to create a possibly-working explosive arrow.
• Beau's Training Montage is actually very cool, especially as she puts to use her Mind of Mercury to use in catching three arrows shot at her.
• Despite a snowballing comedy of errors, Nott and Jester successfully escape from a chasing group of Crownsguard without revealing their real forms. Their little prank-the-statue-of-Bahamut escapade was even repeated by multiple town criers.

Episode 32: Beyond the Boundaries

• While on the road back to Trostenwald, Taliesin rolls a natural twenty. This lets him discover a hidden catch of gems worth 500 gold that the party eagerly takes.
  • He then rolls high again with an insight check on Gustav, getting a 27 total. Exactly what he got from that whisper Taliesin refuses to reveal, but it downright makes Clay look psychic in ability with how he's able to read a guy he just met.
  • And then once again he rolls high as they are entering the Menagerie Coast, resulting in him spotting the Ettin waiting to ambush them. Since Firbolg speak Giant, he's able to know what they are doing and saying. He follows it up by casting Calm Emotions on the visible Ettin, which results in the other one yelling in confusion at his ally.
• Caleb casting Fear on the second Ettin. It let them get further along and fully ruined the ambush planned. As a result, both ettins combined land a single attack (Caleb sucked up the 19 damage).
• Swoleregard returns! Including a mini that they manage to track down and bring to the table just in time.

Episode 33: The Ruby and the Sapphire

• By offhandedly mentioning The Gentleman to Marion Lavore, it was soon revealed that The Gentleman is quite likely to be Jester's father (a charming water genasi who wears a lot of rings). Matt mentioned at the end of the episode that it was a late-game reveal, but they asked the right questions...
• As in Episode 1 of this campaign, Matt timed his description of Marion's performance so that she began singing on the actual music playing in the studio when he said so, and the song ended when he said she finished singing. Are we sure he doesn't have any Bardic magic?
• The sheer matter-of-factness with which Marion shoots down Jester's plan to help her rid herself of a possessive client.
  Jester: Maybe we can get him to fall in love with someone else!
  Marion: That would be helpful. Though, I mean, I don't mean to brag but good luck.

Episode 34: Encroaching Waters

• In the latter battle this episode, Fjord was on fire (metaphorically). He cannily used both of his spell slots for a Misty Step - Thunderstep combo and a Hunger of Hadar that shut down the fleeing enemies. He finished it off by striding up and slicing off Algar's hand in order to release the control bracelet.
• Thanks to the Fireside Chat, Matt worked on his Cajun accent for Orlie, and threw in some of the Louisiana Creole dialect as well as managing a stutter. The fans gave him a challenge, and he rose to it brilliantly.
• Caleb used Suggestion on Nott to temporarily erase her fear of water, letting the goblin dive through the water on Beau's back with little complaint and no need to be fully drunk to do so.
• Jester and Yasha cleared the way through the drainpipe by removing both metal grates that were there to prevent just such an entry.
• The Lollipop (now with a razor sawblade edge) hit and killed a dwarven bodyguard when Jester couldn't see them.

Episode 35: Dockside Diplomacy

• The Mighty Nein successfully intimidate and convince Algar to leave with a bit of cunning, threats, and Fjord's "Mask of Many Faces" to prove he can literally make it look like Algar himself did certain things. Jester then follows this up with a very accurate forgery of Algar's handwriting to make a letter blaming him for the freeing of the Marid and making it very certain he can't come back to Nicodranas.
• Caleb cast Expeditious Retreat for the first time, and it lets him have a movement speed of 120 feet per turn (20 feet (about 6m) per second) should he do nothing else. That makes him the fastest member of the party save for a Hasted Beauregard using both of her actions to dash.
• The captain is killed on Turn 1, and doesn't get to attack thanks to Jester's Hold Person. Matt ruefully noted that "He was the nasty one".
• For as colossal of a series of fuck-ups as it was, let's not mince words; the Mighty Nein managed to ACCIDENTALLY steal a ship and get it out to the open ocean without anyone taking any lasting damage, and even managed to get Marius onboard and relatively unharmed. They may never be able to go back to Nicodranas again, but the fact that what should have been a failure on par with Molly's death succeeded with flying colors is nothing short of miraculous.
  • Special mention going to the aforementioned annihilation of the Captain by Yasha, Beau getting a good enough Intelligence roll to know how to get the sails to catch the wind, and Jester's well timed (and successful despite the guards' advantage on the save) Charm Person throwing the guards off-kilter enough that they didn't get the name of the ship they stole and giving them enough wiggle room to get out of the docks unscathed, in addition to comboing Invoke Duplicity to make them think Jester had killed herself and fallen into the water, causing the guards to stop and try to find her.