Awesome / Critical Role Reunions And Reconciliations

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

Episode 88: Unwanted Reunions

• Caduceus, sweet, gentle Caduceus, has this to say about Trent and Caleb.
  Caduceus: Considering how the past 24 hours went, I feel pretty comfortable saying if he looks at you sideways, we will not leave enough of him to be found.
• After the meeting ends, Caduceus takes Fjord aside and gives him a talk. It's one part pep talk, one part "don't backslide." Taliesin and Travis acted the hell out of it, and it's great to see Caduceus take initiative.
• Yasha has a vision of the Stormlord which shows her that her chains have been broken. The Stormlord is proud of her.
• The Martinet used his influence to obfuscate Yasha's involvement with Obann, so she's safe from reprisal for the time being. The Nein are grateful, but now they owe him and they all know it.
• Trent lies about not having met the Nein previously. Beau calls him out for this, to his face.
• Jester gets the Martinet to admit that he finds her so charming it's disarming. She is the only member of the Nein to get any sort of reaction out of him in any way.

Episode 89: Lingering Wounds

• Fjord makes sure to prominently display the Wildmother's seal on his person, even though her religion is banned within the Empire.
• A super-high Investigation roll (natural 19 for a total of 31) reveals that the dig at Pride's Call is legit, as a sinkhole revealed some ancient ruins from the Age of Arcanum. She also discovers that the "discovery of a beacon" story is actually legit, meaning that there is another beacon which is still in the Assembly's control and which they are keeping to themselves.
• Fjord talks Yasha into keeping her symbol of the Stormlord openly visible.
• Caleb shows off another home brew spell, Widogast’s Vault of Amber, before going to see Astrid. While significantly less flashy than Web of Fire, it’s yet another sign of how far he’s come as a spellcaster since we met him in Trostenwald.
• In Beau's pit fight is against an older half-elven man, a couple of lucky Stunning Strikes leads to her absolutely demolishing the poor fellow. The fight was so lopsided even Beau (and Marisha herself) felt horrible about it.
• Yasha fights her opponent, the arena's champion... and doesn't enter into a rage at all during the fight, pulling most of her punches. Ashley roleplays the EVERLOVING FUCK out of it, intimidating Matt at several points. She loses, but the champion just storms off, pissed off and confused at Yasha's actions. Ashley's response? "I ruin people."

Episode 90: Bathhouses and Bastions

• Fjord goes undercover as Vence to interrogate a captured Kryn agent of the Angel of Irons. Travis and Matt roleplay it to the hilt, and Fjord discovers that the captive was almost certainly mind-controlled by Obann (or possibly another agent of the Angel of Irons).
• Caleb delivers King Dwendal's message, and adds his own urging to it. Liam sells it phenomenally well.
• Between good roleplaying from the party, especially Marisha, Travis, Taliesin and Liam, and a couple of lucky rolls, the Nein gets the Bright Queen to agree to the peace talks.

Episode 91: Stone to Clay

• The Nein talk to Essek, learning a lot more about the process of Consecution. The Awesome bit comes when they learn that some Kryn souls were reborn into Empire citizens after a battle 15 years ago. That's right: the whole "kidnapping kids" plot thread from the beginning of the campaign was about Consecution the whole time.
• Yasha finally finishes reading her book, bringing her Strength score up to 19.
• Caleb, with help from Nott and Essek, finishes the spell needed to turn Nott back into a halfling!

Episode 92: Home Is Where the Heart Is

• Yasha and Caleb have a deep heart to heart about their pasts. Ashley and Liam act it beautifully.
• Beau reunites with her family. The following conversations are full of anger, love, bitterness, and regret, and Marisha absolutely sells every single emotion.
• As the Nein leave the Lionett estate, Yasha asks Thoreau if killing the hag will end the family fortune. He doesn't know. Yasha says it might happen, and it might help him remember what's important if it did.

Episode 93: Misery Loves Company

• On the way to Isharnai, Jester takes a moment to build a small altar to the Traveller so that she can cast Commune. The rest of the Nein see him manifest to her! They can't hear what he says to her, but they saw him, and he registered to Fjord's Divine Sense.
• Fjord's Divine Sense on The Traveller combines with Matt's initial misreading of the spell's effect proves, in a single turn, that The Traveller is not a Celestial, Fiend or Undead. Since the Traveler was confirmed to not fall into one of those three categories, it means that Divine Sense reacted to him because he can be affected by the Hallow spell. This narrows down the possibilities of what he could be to either an Elemental or a Fey.
• Fjord's scene with Isharnai. He keeps calm, attempts to offer another favour in exchange for her releasing the curse. And, when she tempts him with whatever he might want to make a deal, he very politely turns her down with only a brief moment of hesitation; something that took others a bit more time to push away. Considering where he started as the one most tempted by power, this scene shows he's truly begun to embrace being a Paladin of the Wildmother and finding acceptance in who he is.
• Nott's selfishness. Why? Because you know she's thinking of her loved ones and knows the Mighty Nein would sacrifice for her. She knows Caleb would for sure. Knowing the misery requirement, she makes the pragmatic offer upon asking and getting confirmation it doesn't have to be her or the group's suffering. It is cruel and selfish but it is rooted in her status as the resident Mama Bear; her family won't be harmed if she has a choice.
• As heartbreaking as it is as well, Beau being willing to sacrifice herself for Nott says volumes about how far she has come. Though it's in part rooted in her own issues, the fact she would do so speaks of love and how she's grown from being "just an asshole" like she was at the start.
• The entire end of the episode is one amazing moment for Jester. After an entire second half agonizing over what to offer Isharnai in order to break the curse she’d placed to trap Nott in goblin form (the item needing to be one that would cause great misery to lose), Jester enters her hut and tricks her into thinking that she’s offering her hands (and with them, her ability to paint and cast spells with Somatic components). A high Persuasion roll allows her to convince Isharnai to share one last blueberry cupcake with her...which Jester secretly sprinkled with the Dust of Deliciousness, which imposes Disadvantage on Wisdom Saving Throws to the eater. This lets Jester successfully cast Modify Memory on the witch, making her think she had such a great time with Jester that she willingly agreed to lift Nott’s curse. With this clever trickery, Jester ensures that none of the Nein have to sacrifice anything of value to finally return Nott to her true halfling form- just a cupcake. The whole conversation is a beautifully acted reminder that Jester is a Trickery Domain Cleric for more than just her pranks.
  • Making this even sweeter: Laura has not always had the best luck with her dice rolls, which on at least one occasion has led her to think that she is bad at playing D&D. This moment right here is definitive proof to the contrary.
    Travis: For every Inflict Wounds that has failed, that your dice have failed you on, THAT was payback!
  • Also, Isharnai is portrayed as an archetypical Wicked Witch, so it's really fitting that she's beaten by being tricked into eating a baked good secretly drugged with magic detrimental to the eater. As Taliesin puts it:
    Taliesin: You Gretel'd his Hansel! You fed a witch a baked good!
  • Matt was frustrated by this development, but that wasn't all he felt, which is exactly how a DM should feel. Crosses over with Heartwarming.
    Matt: As a Dungeon Master, that was one of the more frustrating moments, like, as a person that's built to an intense, like, encounter like this, and one of the most proud I've been of a player outsmarting me.
  • Another cherry on this cake; Isharnai is a creature that sustains herself off of the misery that her deals bring on the ones taking them. The fact that Jester's spell made a creature that might as well be Made of Evil experience a genuine moment of happiness that didn't come at another's expense would have been equivalent to Jester hitting Isharnai with an emotional Logic Bomb, especially given how Matt described the hag being confused at the incongruities in her memory. According to the spell, the modification fills in any gaps of logic that the caster didn't take into account during the casting, meaning that Isharnai being able to slightly pick up how her memories weren't matching up shows just how alien they were and how much Jester genuinely fucked with the hag's brain.

Episode 94: With Great Power...

• The Nein go to Essek and persuade him to teleport them to Whitedawn Lagoon. They get him to just cast the spell, without scrying on the place first. Matt has one of the players roll a d100. Taliesin makes the roll, and rolls a 99. They arrive at the Lagoon with no problems, and Matt reveals that because Essek only had a description of the place, there was a 75% chance of some sort of mishap.
• Last episode saw Fjord try to use Deception on the swamp. This episode sees him try to use Intimidation on the jungle. He gets a 21... and it's not enough. He gets eaten by a carnivorous plant, leading Yasha to have to save him. Crosses over with Funny.
• We finally discover the truth about the Traveler: He is Artagan! He found Jester as a little girl, felt a kinship to her, and decided to playact as a god for her benefit. That led him to seek out others to help as well, and that set him on the road to divinity. He has attained more followers, and more divine responsibilities, and he now turns to Jester for help, because he doesn't know what he's doing!
  • Even better: Matt confirms that he's turning to Jester for two reasons. Firstly, which the Traveler/Artagan admits, is because she was his first and favourite follower, and he values her very much. Secondly, which Matt reveals, is that Jester's amazing bluff of Isharnai convinced him that she is the perfect person to help him.
  • Watch Marisha and Ashley during the conversation. When Matt describes how the Traveler looks when he takes his hood off, you can see them each put the pieces together. Taliesin figured it out shortly after. Laura revealed on the following episode of Talks Machina that Artagan being the Traveler was her idea, but Matt had never actually confirmed it her prior to The Reveal & there had been times she thought Matt had taken the character in a different direction.
  • The very fact that Artagan ascended to godhood. Vecna could only do so by accomplishing a miracle of terror so great that all of Exandria would fear him, and that was only to take his place in the heavens. He was already a minor deity at that point, and the methods for which he accomplished that are unknown^note In his canonical Greyhawk backstory, he ripped his way out of the Demiplane of Dread, stole the essence of a demigod and nearly tore the multiverse asunder. And Artagan accidentally did it by making a lonely child believe in him.

Episode 95: Blessing In Disguise

• After the fight with the bugs, Nott tries to steal her flask back from Yasha. Sam rolls poorly, but Reliable Talent still gives a Sleight of Hand result of 23. Ashley rolls a Natural 20 on her Perception, which gives her a result of 23, allowing Yasha to notice the attempt and slap Nott away.

Episode 96: Family Shatters

• After a grueling battle, Caleb scores the HDYWTDT on the gorgon with Widogast's Web of Fire. The gorgon actually made its save, but the damage was still enough to finish it off. The fire penetrates the body and melts the sand around it, turning it into a statue of metal and glass.
• Caduceus finally succeeded in his quest to save the Blooming Grove! He has the crystals which will restore the grove once planted there!
• Thanks to a clutch Fortune's Favor spell from Caleb and a Guidance from Caduceus (resulting in a Medicine result of 25), Jester is able to piece Corrin together well enough that she can be restored properly. She's a little stiff, and probably will be for the rest of her life, but she is alive.
• After stressing about it for so long, Jester successfully converts someone to the Traveler: Nott.

Episode 97: The Fancy and the Fooled

• This episode was a live show, and supposed to start an hour earlier than normal. However, problems with the tickets led to the show actually starting an hour and a half later than scheduled. The chat mods deserve props for keeping things going properly for the folks at home, and the staff at the event deserve props for handling things on that end (the event was held in a large, packed theatre).
• Liam doesn't usually roll well when making Stealth checks for Frumpkin, but he makes a good one when he sends Frumpkin to spy on the Cerberus Assembly members aboard their ship.
  • This allows them to discover that Essek is (to an extent) in cahoots with the Cerberus Assembly! Doubles as a Tear Jerker.
• Jester gets Marion to agree to accompany them to the party. This is a huge step for her in overcoming her agoraphobia.
• Nott prepares to transform back into Veth.
  Caleb: You sure you want to do this?
  Nott: No. But I'm going to do it anyway.
• THEY DID IT! Veth is restored to her original form!
  • As this is revealed, Nott's portait morphs into Veth's, and her name changes to go along with it.
• Jester is given 25 Platinum (250 gold) to use to get formal wear for the Nein. She and Caduceus go shopping, and their picks for each member are spectacular.
• Jester confronts the lord who drove her out of Nicodranas, who is in the middle of being a creep to Yasha. He storms off and she casts Charm Person on him. She uses it to make him go on a balcony and find her supposedly lost gloves. When he's alone, she locks the door and Veth uses the Dagger of Denial to seal the keyhole shut so that it cannot be opened until the Dagger is used again.
  • Even better is that this session was held in front of a live audience who know exactly what happened to Sharpe in the first place to start his feud with Jester.
    Jester: No, no, but you know what you could do though? …I left my gloves out on the balcony.
    [the audience starts howling with laughter]
• Yasha is not happy with the dress, but Jester and Caduceus reassure her: if a guy comes on too hard, and gets grabby, she should just clock him. There's no excuse for being a creep, and what she's wearing is irrelevant.
• Veth goes to drug the disguised Essek. Sam's result on the Stealth roll is a 30. Nobody sees it happen.
  Matt: Beyond the eyes of the gods behind the divine gates, they're watching on going "Oh shit, how'd that happen?"
  • Even better, Sam didn't get the DC of the poison he used, so Matt had to choose one. He chose a 12, made his roll... and rolled a 6. It worked.
  • This sets off an effort to get Essek alone. Caleb uses the Manacles of Stasis, which don't quite work, so Caduceus uses Command to make him stop for a round. Each time, Matt just barely fails the contested rolls. Finally, the Nein (minus Beau and Fjord) get him to agree to come with them.
• Fjord and Beau confront the disguised Dragonborn, and Travis' Intimidation result of 28 gets him to talk.
  • Of course, Travis' resulting Natural 1 on the Insight check makes the roll a bit less impressive.
• Caduceus sees right through Essek, and his empathy makes him tell them the truth: he's the one who gave the Beacons over to the Empire, and he tried to keep them away from the truth, but he didn't count on coming to care for them. Doubles as Heartwarming.
• Yasha to Essek, when he asks if the Mighty Nein will let him go if he comes clean to them.
  Yasha: I won't let you leave unless you do. You can certainly try.
• Caleb calls Essek out on his actions, and urges him to lean on the Nein as he came to. Liam's acting in this scene is what sells it, as how much self-loathing Caleb reveals is great character work. To the point that after Liam finishes talking, the live audience applauds.
  Caleb: (to Essek, in a whisper) Maybe you and I are both damned. But we have the power to do something... and make it better than it was before.
• Veth and Beau call Essek out on the thousands of innocent people who died in the war.
• Veth's words to Essek, which serve as the ending to the episode:
  Veth: You are a broken person who had ill intentions, and wandered aimlessly into a path you had no idea how to complete, and yet somehow along the way you found a heart. You sound like all of us. Welcome to the Mighty Nein.

Episode 98: Dark Waters

• Caduceus' rejection of retributive justice, stating that he believes the only real closure comes when "everybody's in the ground".
• Yasha receives another vision from the Stormlord. In her vision, she follows a path and then falls into a chasm. She calls on the Stormlord to save her, but he basically tells her to save herself. She unfurls her wings and flies out of the chasm. When she lands, she sees that her wings have become feathery. She is no longer Fallen!
  • The Stormlord then tells her that she is worthy of both being his champion and of forgiving herself. She has a long road again, but he won't let her stray from it.
• During the fight with the sea spawn, Fjord gets up on the mast with the crow's nest. On his next turn, he leaps off, casting a spell on the lead attacker, and then used his bonus action to teleport back up into the crow's nest.
• The deep scion that killed Fjord attempts to Dimension Door away with his body, but Caleb stops it with a clutch Counterspell.
  • This was just after Caleb, in Tranquil Fury, had blasted said deep scion with Disintegrate for 68 points of damage.
• Yasha gets the HDYWTDT against the deep scion that killed Fjord, breaking its neck with a hurricanarana a la Black Widow, and tossing its body over the side... but attaching its claws to the deck of the ship so that the body hangs over the deck as a warning.

Episode 99: High Stakes, High Seas

• Caduceus casts Greater Restoration on Fjord, getting the last orb out of him. Caleb then stores it away in Widogast's Vault of Amber so that nobody can get at it.
• The war ends. Despite all the apprehension of something going wrong during the peace talks, it goes off without any drama and without the Mighty Nein needing to step in. Instead, the group get to watch as the pieces they put together negotiate a peaceful, somewhat terse, end.