Awesome / Critical Role Orphanmakers Ordeal

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

Episode 58: Wood and Steel

• Thanks to some awesome rolls and some excellent roleplaying, Fjord is able to put Bodo the arrogant foreman in his place. And it won't be the last time...
• Yasha rolls a Natural 1 for stealth, causing the giants to notice her and throw a large boulder at her... at which point she rolls a Natural 20 Strength save against it, and stops it in place.

Episode 59: Perspective

• Fjord's first move in the fight is to cast Charm Monster at 5th-level, charming two of the giants to his side. This move not only proves crucial to the fight, but also allows the Mighty Nein to parley with the giants afterwards and gain a deeper understanding of the situation.
• Caduceus' Sentinel at Death's Door prevents an auto-crit from the Chasme against Fjord, which Matt reveals would have killed him instantly (due to the necrotic damage reducing his max HP to 0).
• The fight against the Chasme ends with a rare NPC HDYWTDT, as the giant Landspeaker Soorna splatters the demon against the wall with a thrown boulder.
• The party discovers another Abyssal Rift, and tries to close it. Jester's Dispel Magic fails to close it this time, so Yasha uses Magician's Judge, and Ashley rolls a Natural 20. The Rift is no more.
  • Ashley's shit-eating grin before she reveals the 20.

Episode 60: A Turtle By Any Other Name

• Matt's dream descriptions are as vivid as ever, this time describing two dreams of Yasha's: one a nightmare from a demonic or devilish figure from her past and the bodies of her companions including Mollymauk, and one a vision from the Stormlord.
• Fans of the previous campaign likely flipped out when they heard Matt, as the Stormlord, tell Yasha "Where do you find your strength?" As Yasha struggles against her shackles in the dream, her withered wings begin to feather. It only lasts a moment, but it's a glimpse of what Yasha could become given time and Character Development.

Episode 61: Agreements

• Jester casts Scrying, and successfully watches the man who left the rift-conjuring device in the Braan. While she doesn't get a name, she now knows the appearance of the culprit and that he's researching something related to the Betrayer God Torog. She also gets the Mighty Nein a solid lead when she overhears the man talking about some kind of plan to be sprung in 13 days involving a place called the Overcrow.
  • This is all the more impressive because Jester knew nothing of the man beforehand. All she had was a swatch of fabric torn from his robe. That's enough for the spell, but it imposes a penalty on the saving throw. Matt managed to roll low enough for it to work anyway, and Jester managed to roll high enough on Perception while scrying to pick up on additional details.
• Marisha demonstrates her potential for blistering improv once more with Beau's reading of the embarrassing letter found at the steelworks. Bodo, unable to convince her to stop, can only faint from embarrassment as the Mighty Nein fully crush his confidence in front of every single worker in the camp. Made even better thanks to Caleb's Seeming spell turning everyone but Beau into images of Bodo and the woman in the locket.
• The Mighty Nein now have a house!
  • Even better, it's a manor Matt found online and loved so much he didn't alter a thing. Props to theredepic for their awesome work!

Episode 62: Domestic Respite

• A map of Xhorhas appears, courtesy of Deven Rue once again.
• Caduceus' feather token being used to sprout a 60 feet tall tree atop the guard tower of the Mighty Nein's new residence. It not only makes the house incredibly easy to spot from a distance (so much for keeping a low profile), but it is also the only tree within the city to have green leaves. And then they add magical lights to it!
• Caleb is able to persuade Essek into teaching him two fate-and-destiny-type Dunamancy spells.
• Jester's scrying on the blond man leads to more crucial information being uncovered:
  • The words "my liege," are uttered during the meeting, implying that King Bertrand Dwendal himself was present and is involved in the plot against the Kryn Dynasty (it was previously assumed that the Cerberus Assembly was keeping the king in the dark about a lot of their activities).
  • The term "scourgers" also pops up, which, thanks to a natural 20 on her history check, Beau is able to recall information about, identifying them as royal assassins thought to be bedtime story boogeymen. Caleb makes the connection with his own past, realising that he and his friends from Blumenthal were being trained by Ikithon to eventually become scourgers.
• Beau and Nott thieving from the stockroom leads to a twin connection with Campaign 1 - Beau grabs some "spices" that turn out to be suude, while Nott grabs some glowy green powder that is identified as Whitestone residuum.

  Taliesin: I knew it!

Episode 63: Intervention

• Caleb uses one of the spells taught to him by Essek. Much like the dodecahedron, it bestows the target with a fragment of possibility, allowing them to re-roll any one dice roll.
• Fjord has a couple this episode:
  • First off, covering for Jester, whose Polymorph adventure ends with her tumbling off a roof and loudly crashing into a stack of crates, by disguising himself as a drunk drow and distracting the hostel owner that was alerted by the noise made by Jester.
  • Then, after rolling high enough on a Perception check, using Counterspell to prevent the mysterious drow from teleporting. Ultimately, the drow does still manage to slip away from the Mighty Nein.
  • Finally, convincing guards alerted by the ruckus at the apothecary that an official covert operation on orders of the Bright Queen is being conducted.

Episode 64: A Dangerous Chase

• A moment that doubles as a CMOF happens during the Sorrowsworn fight. Nott manages to roll a natural 20 on her attack, which causes her crossbow to do double damage and get an immediate free attack. The CMOF aspect kicks in when the roll for said attack is a natural 1, thus meaning the crossbow damages itself.

Episode 65: Chases and Trees

• While climbing the tree, Jester loses her grip and falls. Thinking quickly, Fjord leaps off after her and (with a Featherfall assist from Caleb), grabs her and manages to Thunderstep them both to safety.
  • Meanwhile Beau, as a level 9 monk, embraces her abilities and parkours up the massive tree with zero issue.
• The appearance of the Wildmother in Fjord's dream, shielding him from Uk'otoa's influence and demands for him to return to the ocean temples to release him.

Episode 66: Beneath Bazzoxan

• The entire roc encounter is tense and it takes some quick thinking to handle. Luckily, though Caleb's attempt fails, Jester does manage to successfully turn the roc into a bat, rendering it harmless and giving them time to even loot the nest a bit!
• When Nott is distracted by some loot Jester takes the opportunity to steal her enchanted flask. It's a pretty awesome move for Jester to be able to take the flask from Nott without the latter noticing, but even more impressive is that Laura made the request so stealthily that a lot of viewers completely missed it and were surprised later in the episode when Nott discovered the flask was gone.
• While resting in Bazzoxan Fjord and Caudecus discuss Fjords vision of the wildmother in the previous episode. This leads to a moment that is both awesome and heartwarming. Fjord, on Caudecus's advice meditates and focus on contacting the wild mother, and succeeds. He has a vision of the ocean that is warm and comforting and rests peacefully for the night.

Episode 67: Beyond the Eyes of Angels

• Nott gets the HDYWTDT on a giant spider, as a result of rolling a natural twenty and some very high sneak attack dice roles, totalling 68 damage and following with another shot due to her crossbow's ability to fire again on a natural twenty. One look at Matt's face shows this was not supposed to happen.
• The episode ends with the highest kill count since Pike arrived in Whitestone back in Campaign 1! Special note goes to Caduceus & Jester’s use of Turn Undead:
  • Jester ends up killing 18 undead during the episode - doubling her total kills for the entire campaign in a single episode!
  • Caduceus finishes the episode with 32 kills - more than Molly, Fjord or Yasha have killed throughout the campaign at this point, and over four times his own personal kill count since he joined the Mighty Nein!

Episode 68: Reflections

• After making their way across the bridge while a single noise triggers maddening whispers that can compel you to dive off the edge, a surprise Roper on the ceiling grapples Beau... while the party is tied together with rope. This could have lifted them all 30 feet into the air... above a thin bridge over a sea of flesh and mouths, not to mention the Roper itself. This extremely bad situation is resolved with one clutch spell: Banishment from Jester, which succeeds and sends the Roper to another plane, freeing the party.
• When Nott falls into the river of flesh, Laura tells Travis via text to have Jester jump after her. Travis is hesitant at first (he doesn't want Jester to die while her player isn't at the table) but decides to trust her, and it pays off as Jester Dimension Doors herself and Nott to safety.
• Comments on the Youtube VOD sum it up: Jester managed to be the MVP while Laura was playing her via text and not physically present!
• As Caduceus finishes off the reflections, he delivers a beautiful Bond One-Liner while examining the skull of his reflection.
  Caduceus: Cheap copy.

Episode 69: The King's Cage

• Obann's death. Beau lays into him with a Flurry of Blows while he's stunned and leaves him "looking really rough", but on his turn he tries to fly away. Fjord swipes at him with the falchion, leaving him with 1 HP! Just as despair sets it, Travis remembers Hexblade's Curse adds damage to his attacks. Cue mass cheering from the table.
• The sheer fact that the Nein got through the fight with no deaths, through some incredibly close calls.
  • Caduceus barely survives a round of attacks from the Laughing Hand, using Sentinel at Death's Door to cancel a Natural 20 against him.
  • Fjord ended up grappled by the Laughing Hand, flanked by a Shadow Hound, and attacked by Yasha, and he lives thanks to Relentless Endurance, allowing Beau to rush in and drag him out of danger (and her Step of the Wind allowed a successful disengage from Yasha to keep him alive). He even manages to kill the Shadow Hound, which clears the way for Beau!
  • Nott successfully disengages from Yasha, who could have easily slaughtered her if she was luckier with her Sentinel attack.
  • Jester's Mirror Image turns out to be clutch three times, once against an AoO from The Laughing Hand, another to avoid an attack from a Shadow Hound, and in the end to avoid a Sentinel which would have pinned her from Yasha.
  • Caleb manages to pull off a Big Damn Heroes for Caduceus and tank for the party by turning into a Giant Ape. With a large HP pool and Strength + 40 feet of movement, he draws the Laughing Hand's attacks towards himself, and when Caduceus is paralyzed by fear and on death's door, he physically picks him up and carries him to safety. It's also an act of absolute courage that the Caleb we met at the start wouldn't have been able to do.
• The whole scenario deserves a round of applause for Matt cause holy crap was the tension there the entire time. The description of the Laughing Hand in particular is sheer nightmare fuel and only one round of combat is necessary to realize why it can only be sealed and not killed.
• The roleplaying at the end; refusing to run from their actions and what happened, they all agree that as soon as Jester can she's using Sending to contact the Bright Queen and inform her of the terrible danger they weren't able to stop being unleashed. On top of that, Caduceus believes there is a way to seal the Laughing Hand again thanks to visions sent by the Wildmother; a Kiln of the Wildmother that was gifted to the Allhammer.
• This animatic that bring the betrayal sequence to life with the show's characteristic mix of heartwarming, tearjerking, hilarious, and concentrated awesome.