Nightmare Fuel / Critical Role: Campaign Three

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

General

• While it's generally Played for Laughs, Laudna is incredibly frightening. At first glance, she's an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette, which is off-putting as it is. She also sometimes mutilates her own body for mundane purposes, like dislocating her own arms trying to open a door, and barely reacts to it. And then of course there's her magic, which often manifests as black ichor and gives herself a frightening transformation. It's little wonder why other characters (player-controlled or not) are often freaked out by her when she's not even trying.
• There's the fact that at some point Ashton received a head injury so severe that the wound had to be filled with slag glass and that their brain is still visible.
• The third OP actually has a theme of actual nightmares, from Imogen seeing Bertrand Bell and Lord Eshteross again in the red storm, to Ashton reliving getting physically broken, Laudna puppeting Pate and briefly becoming the puppet of Delilah, to F.C.G. seeing his old party dead during one of his berserk killing sprees.

Episode 3:The Trail and the Toll

• The party trails Danas and ends up overhearing her having a conversation with someone who seems to be forcing her into compliance before they all but outright say You Have Outlived Your Usefulness. The party immediately tries to break down the door to save her, but due to low rolls, the door stays intact long enough for her to be killed and her body hidden. By the time the party finishes combat, she's far past the point of being healed, and Matt describes her wound as being an ear-to-ear cut across her throat that nearly beheaded her entirely.
• We get a double whammy at the end of the episode as Matt switches between Bertrand and Imogen:
  • Imogen went to sleep and had a dream that started off as her simply feeding her horse until the sky went blood red and began to envelop her. She tried running away, and upon looking back, saw a figure of an older and refined man getting swallowed up in her place. Which connects to...
  • Bertrand, having decided to go out for a drunken walk, is cornered in an alley by the same figure that killed Danas. Both of them brandish their rapiers at each other, and when Bertrand refuses to go along with them quietly, he's suddenly stabbed twice (one of which was a nat 20). With nobody in sight and his allies far away and unaware of what's happening, he falls unconscious, his last words being to simply gasp out "Lieve'tel..." before it all goes dark. Matt confirmed on Twitter immediately afterward, and it's revealed in the next episode that Bertrand had multiple stab wounds instead of just two.

Episode 4: On the Trail of a Killer

• After bringing Bertrand back to Lord Esteros's place, it's mentioned that the figure that targeted him may come after the rest of the group. Lord Esteros permits everyone to stay at his home for the time being as a result, saying bluntly that it's no longer safe to stay anywhere else.
  • Also of note is that Ashton and F.C.G. were still sleeping elsewhere and the group didn't know exactly where to find them. While they were ultimately fine and met up with the group the next day, for that night, one can imagine the rest of the party worrying that they would meet the same fate as Bertrand since they didn't have a way to check up on them.

Episode 5: The Threat Between the Walls

• Dugger makes his presence known to the group by squeezing his body through a hole like toothpaste through a tube and is described by Matt as having his pale dwarven face and eyes pulled back and his broken back and bones snapping into place as he squeezes through.
• At some point in the middle of the fight with Dugger, the dwarf's cloak falls off and reveals a large...growth protruding from his back, which ruptures and...for lack of a better word, births a shade creeper.

Episode 6: Growing Bonds and Teasing Threads

• Laudna speaks with her patron that night who hisses at her for divulging too much information. They warn Laudna to keep her mouth shut or else she would be nothing without them. Laudna calls them "D". It's pretty clear that she's speaking to Delilah Briarwood.
• As Dorian goes to see who wanted to talk to him, he finds out it's his brother. Dorian asks what happened to their parents and he cryptically tells him he was just "following your lead". Dorian is a bit shaken after the conversation and pretends to be alright when he returns to the group.

Episode 7: Behind the Curtain

• The Wall Mimic. All the staff and patrons who went "missing" were just normal people established to have had their own struggles, hopes, and dreams who were going about their everyday lives and just stepped outside a place they knew and felt safe before being overwhelmed by a horrifying monster they had no chance of escaping.
• The fact that this wall almost killed multiple party members because of a lot of low rolls. Laura and Liam seemed like they had already accepted this right before Robbie killed it.

Episode 9: Thicker Grows the Meal and Plot

• Chetney is trapped in the office of a shady and dangerous NPC, who has realised that someone is in the room with him and has started to pace the room, menacingly sweeping the air with a sword while softly calling out to his intruder, while Chetney cowers in the corner with his hands over his mouth and nose. Made all the more terrifying by the appropriately tense music Matt's playing during the whole scene.
• The name Chetney gets from a book full of money is "The Nightmare King". Who's the Nightmare King? No idea. But based on the things Chetney overheard in the basement, the implications are quite unpleasant. For one, the conversation in the basement turns to doing something awful to children among their other victims, which the half-elf man doesn't want to do, yet his employer "insists".

Episode 10: Ghosts, Dates, and Darker Fates

• Matt's description of the... thing that is lurking in the hidden lab/dungeon/torture room adjacent to Vali's office is the stuff of nightmares. This seemingly elven person is extremely tall and gangly, much more so that even the highest of High Elves, with long tapering ears, a completely hairless head, and pallid skin. What really takes the cake is when we see their face; noseless (and not even having Voldemort-esque nostril slits), with completely swamp green eyes with no pupils, and a mouth that looks more like it was carved into their face like a Jack-O-Lantern than anything natural.
  • Even worse is that this being seems to have an extremely unnerving fascination with torture and inflicting pain, and if they are the same being that Vali was talking to in the last episode, has no compunction against torturing or doing worse to children.

Episode 11: Chasing Nightmares

• Ira Wendegoth, The Nightmare King, lives up to his name. Not only does he have abnormally long limbs (which includes his neck), but he has a Glasgow Grin that goes past his ears. What's worse, he's confirmed to be some sort of fey; not only does Charm Person not work on him because he's not human, but he recognizes Fearne, and calls her by her last name. Even the normally Cloudcuckoolander fae girl looks unnerved.
  • What's more, the party does not defeat him. They are nowhere near ready to deal with something like him. Ira is simply toying with them, and decides that dealing with them is just too much effort for him, as he's already been half-paid, and dispels an acid spell he'd been preparing, picks up a chest, and teleports away. But not before triggering a Self-Destruct Mechanism on the arcane engine he'd been tinkering with. The party has to escape with Gurge before the entire building explodes.
  • Gurge later explains that the Nightmare King had been conducting experiments on him, trying to spread his "curse," and that he'd been made to bite at least three volunteers for Ira's employer, Armand Treshi. Gurge, who had been a member of a secret order of monster hunters, is not pleased by this.
  • To recap: this walking, chaos-sowing Fey-minoid Abomination Mad Scientist gets away, but not without already creating three werewolf super soldiers, and he also recognizes Fearne by scent. Have fun sleeping, gang.

Episode 15: The Tunnels Below

• We found out who's behind Dugger and Lady Emoth's changes, and it is CREEPY. It's a gargantuan mass demonic, 60-foot slug. At its front, a nightmarish drawn-out humanoid torso emerges with four 10- to 12-foot long arms.

Episode 17: Heart-to-Heartmoor

• Laudna reveals more of her origins to Orym over the campfire. Namely, she was one of the corpses tied to the Sun Tree by the Briarwoods as an "invitation" for Vox Machina.
  • The Briarwoods didn't just murder her. The Vox Machina look-alikes were tortured, for no practical purpose when hanging them would have been just as effective. They even cropped Laudna's ears, while she was still alive, to make her more closely resemble Vex.
  • After all that, after everything Delilah Briarwood did to this girl? She spent the next thirty years as an ever-present voice in the back of Laudna's head. Delilah's been gaslighting her into believing she should be grateful.

Episode 22: Promise and Potential

• With Ashton's consent, Imogen and F.C.G try to probe into their memories of the Jiana Hexum heist. The result is lovingly described by Matt as a chaotic, fragmented mess of recollections. Flashing lights, voices crying out, confirmation that their old teammates left them for dead, and Aston touching an unknown blue crystal that Milo later grafted into their brain. Whatever happened to Ashton that day, it was traumatic. As the spell ends, Ashton's first reaction after F.C.G's Calm Emotions wears off is to beat the shit out of the hotel wall.

Episode 23: To The Skies

• Laudna accidentally shatters Imogen's gemstone, thanks to Delilah briefly assuming control of Laudna's powers. The exchange afterward between Laudna and Delilah shows how much Laudna hates the arrangement, and how terrifyingly little there is she can do about it.
  Laudna: What did you do?!
  Delilah: Don't worry... I've taken care of it.
  Laudna: No...
  Delilah: And thank you.
  Laudna: NO!

Episode 26: Hidden Truths

• Matt sends the main cast away to run a scene with Erika. It turns out that Dusk is an agent of the Unseelie Court, sent to retrieve an artifact and kill Fearne's parents. And now Fearne too, because Dusk's master didn't know about her. And the cast doesn't know.
  • Making this even worse is that, right beforehand, Dusk had a heart-to-heart with Fearne that was sweet and even a little Ship Tease-y. If that was all fake, and Fearne is in fact someone they're out to kill, then Dusk is a manipulator almost on par with Calamity's Asmodeus.
  • After the entire table freaks out at Matt's announcement that everyone except Erika should leave, Erika makes hilariously exaggerated expressions of utter panic, looking around at every party member, even clinging to Travis' hands and yelling "Don't leave!" like a child on the first day of school Played for Laughs. As soon as everyone is in the hall, their expression smoothly morphs into a cold, smug, calculating look, and they give a Quizzical Tilt at Matt, creating a Five-Second Foreshadowing of The Reveal.
• Laura has said in an interview she finds Matt’s descriptions of Imogen’s recurring nightmares terrifying. The one in this episode included a jump scare that nearly caused Laura to leap straight out of her chair in panic.

Episode 29: Dark Portents

• While Yu never causes any overt harm to the party, or even their targets at the time, they cultivate no small amount of doubt and paranoia amongst them. Such that, even by the time they make their exit, much of the party has some now very justified doubts about Fearne's own parents. And Yu further drives home that they've been treating the party with kid gloves and that they're about as nice as an Unseelie Court Assassin as they're going to see. While Yu is a dangerously competent manipulator that can look like anyone, if they don't play ball with Yu a much more dangerous tide of assassins will be coming in their place.

Episode 31: Breaking Point

• We learn that someone else is seeking to tap into Ruidus' power besides Ira. Ludinus Da'leth, leader of the Cerberus Assembly. We have no idea what he wants with it, but given what we know from Campaign 2, it can't be anything good.
• Laudna talks with Delilah, who shows an interest in the group's moon expedition and tells Laudna to continue onwards. She even mentions how powerful the moon is, given her own experience. Laudna is left shaken after the discussion, knowing full well Delilah will make use of whatever they saw on Ruidus.
• F.C.G and Imogen delve into Ollie's mind to check Ashton's suspicions that Fearne's parents had their memories altered. They confirm them, as F.C.G finds several "smeared" memories. What little they can reconstruct appears to show the Calloways getting their things and trying to leave, implying they may have either discovered Ira's true plans, tried to return to Fearne, or both, many times in the past, only for Ira to erase their memories to keep them under his thumb. And he got what he wanted with his telescope and managed to get away with the Moontide Crown.
• Dancer's replies to F.C.G.'s Sendings are a borderline Apocalyptic Log, to the point that the party figures out what actually happened:
  Dancer: How did you find me? What do you want from me?
  Dancer: Please. Leave me alone. I barely got away. I hope I never see you again. You know what you did.
  • F.C.G. takes four points from this. When Laura demands to know "Four points of what?!", Matt simply says, "Four points."
• F.C.G. turning rogue and attacking the Hells, immediately whipping out his buzzsaw to dismember Chetney.
  • Laudna, in turn, uses Hunger of the Shadow and nearly kills him with over 50 points of damage, and describes his body slowly corroding during the fight.
  • F.C.G. verbally lashes out at Fearne and Laudna for attacking him. It is vicious, effortlessly hitting them right in their deepest insecurities.
• Matt describes F.C.G.'s grass markings on his chest plate... noting they could also look like claw marks. We also learn that F.C.G likely was the monster that destroyed Dancer's automatons and wounded her.

Episode 33: Blood and Dust

• The sheer ruthless efficiency with which Otohan wipes the floor with the Hells. Between high movement, legendary actions, and the Echo Knight subclass, she's able to, as Taliesin describes, essentially pinball from party member to party member, cutting them down one by one. Villains from both prior campaigns killed or nearly killed multiple party members, but never this seamlessly, and usually only one would stick. This time, in one of the most chilling near-TPKs in Critical Role history, two party members are left dead, a third dying, and Chetney and Ashton could've followed were it not for some desperate healing.
• While many party members bounce between near-death and consciousness, Laudna's brief comeback has some additional creepy flavor, as Delilah once more drags Laudna back to life from what is described as brutal wounds.
• Orym gets killed by the people who failed to assassinate Keyleth but managed to kill Will. His last words are him recognizing Otohan before they kill him.
• Throughout the fight Imogen has been first defiant, then playing for time, then willing to surrender in the hope of later rebellion, trying to find an angle that will let them escape the battle in one piece. Finally, after Laudna is explicitly and specifically threatened, she breaks enough to give in for real...and Otohan doesn't stop. Imogen's steadily-increasing hysterical terror as she bargains with everything their enemy wanted from her only to be told it's not actually good enough, and that Otohan will continue to slaughter her friends until she gets some nebulous concession when Imogen doesn't even understand what she's asking for, is gutwrenching.
• After seeing Laudna being stabbed and tossed aside, Imogen finally lets the energy take over her and lets out a terrifying scream. Suddenly, the landscape around them changes, covered in red and ruined buildings, as Imogen floats up into the air.

Episode 34: What Dreams May Come

• We get a flash of Chetney's past at the beginning. It starts off as him reminiscing over his friends and his work, until Matt suddenly shifts to the night Chetney got his curse.
  But within your belly a hunger stirs, an itch hits your skin, an iron smell fills your nose, a howl pierces your ears. You look up to the full, glowing red moon Ruidus above you. From its ruddy light streaks a single beam of pure crimson light that envelops you. You let it wash away the sadness and you give in to the beast, tearing your skin away as you feel the anxious tingle that you always feel at the zenith of this moon now grow into an uncontrollable impulse to hunt, to kill, to eat, to ruin. It sees you now, and it’s found common ground.
• Ashton's past is no better, as we find out that his parents were killed right in front of him as a child.
  Ashton: "Yeah. That was a memory of the last day I spent with my parents. And I remember vaguely, just watching everything go... wind and light and air, and people flinging through the air— cracking and breaking. And... I woke up, wandering the lands outside the city. For however long til they fucking found me."
• After the Hells come back to consciousness, Otohan is nowhere to be seen. After they hide at Joe's, one of the soldiers from the Paragon's Call offers Joe a lot of money for information if he were to ever come upon the Hells. He mentions that the one who's offering the money was Otohan, confirming that she's still alive.
• Immediately upon failing her third death save, Matt describes Laudna's soul being wrapped from behind in Delilah's arms. Death is no escape from a necromancer; unlike Orym's chance at peace and rest, Laudna has no respite to look forward to unless her friends can bring her back.
  Delilah: Death is but a waiting game.

Episode 35: Pyrrhic Return

• Imogen and F.C.G. go into Ashton's mind to try and piece together the holes in his memory. They do come out with valuable information, but are also briefly trapped in his mind. They were able to get out before anything bad happened, but there was a real chance that more of the party could have been lost.
  • Ashton does not notice this, because the entire time they're in his mind, he is stuck reliving the memory of falling from the window, over and over on a loop. In the real world, Orym and the others see him mumbling the same description over and over, while his nose begins to bleed profusely. Even when Ashton regains some semblance of consciousness, they are trapped in a sleep paralysis type state that they don't manage to shake off until Imogen uses a Command spell to force them to wake up.
• The subtle chilling horror of Imogen seeking out Delilah "I Broke The World For You" Briarwood with the message that she is willing to do anything to bring Laudna back. There is no one in the universe more capable of doing incredible damage once given the opportunity to manipulate that kind of desperation.
• Delilah's only guidance on bringing Laudna back is to order Imogen to do "whatever it takes"...because Delilah herself is fading, "and I'll take her with me." The phrasing strongly suggests that it's not a warning of some inevitability—it's a threat.

Episode 36: A Desperate Call

• Pike attempts to resurrect Laudna, but has to stop the ritual when she discovers that Laudna is bound to Delilah. Worse, there is a chance that resurrecting Laudna will instead put Delilah in the driver's seat. Small wonder why Percy flips out, refusing to do anything that could bring her back into the world with his city and his children.
• After so many years, Vex once again sees the woman who was mutilated and tortured simply for looking similar to her. As Vex traces Laudna's face, she pays special attention to the caps Laudna wears over her ears. Matt perfectly describes the guilt and sadness Vex feels for this innocent woman.
• The Hells slowly realize they're in one of Laudna’s memories: where she was accused of being a witch and a mob is out to get her. She was just minding her own business, making Pâté and then there are screams of people outside her home chanting for her death. The memory plays out with her hut catching fire.
  “Hit her!” “Burn the witch!!” “Kill her!!”
• The shadowy figures of this realm attacking the Hells and draining their life force when they get a solid hit on them.
• The plane in which Delilah is holding Laudna's soul hostage is a dark mirror image of Whitestone during the occupation. It's dominated, of course, by the desiccated Sun Tree where she once had Laudna tortured to death.

Episode 37: From the Boughs

• Imogen tries to ask Matilda how they can help her and let her leave this place. Matilda keeps repeating how the tree "won't let me leave".
  • They even ask about Delilah, who she also admits won't let her leave, but the tree scares her the most.
• Laudna's other memories. Despite her cheerfully telling the others she had a happy childhood and brushes off her pain, it's clear her whole life even before getting chosen by the Briarwoods was hard and lonely.
  • The group sees her first crush Andy attempt to trick her into telling him a secret, just so he can throw dirt at her face.
  • She sits alone in a barn sewing dolls and surrounded by her drawings. Matilda says she created the bird so she can i could "take me far away from here".
  • As Laudna's "parents" are helping her get dressed, they don't call her Matilda, but "Laudna". Then their eyes glow green and Imogen growls at Delilah.
• Delilah slowly grows annoyed with the Hells and comments, "Do you know what I do to children?" She then glances smugly up at the tree where the empty nooses hang.
• At what's considered barely a fraction of her original power, Delilah still brings out deadly attacks and wipes out two party members during the entire fight.
  • She then summons some undead by blowing a kiss, taunting the Hells, and imprisoning Laudna in the tree. On the actual battle map Matt pulls out, Laura quickly notices Laudna's figure inside the tree and points it out to the others.
• Even though the Hells had a safety net if they were ever knocked unconscious or killed, it's still a terrifying thing to see your friends suddenly torn away from you in a flash of light leaving no body behind. FCG gets knocked out first, and Orym, who had not so long ago been on death's doorstep, goes next.
• As Delilah and the Sun Tree sustain heavy damage, her physical form starts to fade away, showing her true form instead. A rotting corpse with her original appearance likely long decayed.
• During their tense stand-off, Delilah off-handedly remarks that Laudna isn't her only option, just what's most available at the moment. So when she's ultimately defeated, it's the end of her machinations for now... but she still has options for a future comeback.

Episode 38: A Dark Balance

• Laudna gets revived in Whitestone, which immediately sets off her Trauma Button. She sees the Sun Tree, and her vision around it begins to blur, seeing ropes swinging from the tree and the fringes of decay at the corners of her eyes. It reminds the audience how messed up Laudna's time was in Whitestone, even if she's trying to move past it.
• Now that Laudna has the Pact of the Chain, Pâté is alive, can fly, and is sentient. His wings are described as his ribcage tearing out of his back. Even Laudna seems unnerved!

Episode 39: The Momentum of Murder

• Chetney has an uncontrolled werewolf transformation triggered by a Ruidus flare, something he didn't know was possible and wasn't prepared for in the slightest. While transformed this way he's completely feral and unthinking, attacking Orym and Fearne on sight....and everyone is trapped with him in a skyship. Luckily Fearne and Orym were able to bring him out of it, but judging by Chet's own reaction to the thought of potentially biting, things could have gone very bad. And now his transformations are even more unpredictable than they were before.

Episode 43: Axiom Shaken

• The Reveal, at long last, of what exactly is sealed behind Ruidus, and the fates of the two missing gods: way, way back in Exandria's history, before even the Schism between the Prime Deities and the Betrayer Gods, something came to Exandria hunting the gods; the gods not only recognized it, but they feared it. With good reason, as it turns out, as it ate two of the gods . Everywhere it went it left "twisted life" in its wake, as it endlessly hunted the pantheon. The gods and the Primordials pooled their resources to create a prison for this thing that eats gods, carved off a chunk of Exandria and turned it into a prison, and deliberately cultivated an heir of superstition and fear around it to keep anyone from looking too close, and they hoped that would be enough. The name of this thing from beyond the stars? Predathos.

Episode 45: Ominous Lectures

• Fearne and Imogen meet with Professor Kadija Sumal, another member of the Grim Verity who keeps the remains of the Omen Archive hidden in her office. She's paranoid, has 7 locks on her door and constantly checks the doors and windows as she's speaking to the two ladies, but eventually agrees to show them her remaining papers. She has only barely started leafing through the papers when all of the locks on the door suddenly snap open, and none other than Ludinus Da'leth walks into the office.
  • Ludinus is relatively friendly towards Fearne and Imogen, but not so much towards Professor Sumal. He casts a spell on her that makes her pliant and suggestible, and she hands over the Archive without a word of protest. As Ludinus leaves, Matt notes that she's sitting at her desk, a vacant smile on her face, and a Single Tear rolling down her cheek.
  • Sumal remains affected even as the rest of the Hells arrive, and they're worried that her mind may have been permanently broken. Ashton is uncharacteristically gentle as he asks her simple questions, but even basic information like how old she is is beyond her, and Planerider Ryn eventually takes her off to see a much more powerful cleric who may be able to fix her. Now keep in mind: Ludinus likely tried to cast the exact same spell on Fearne.

Episode 51: The Apogee Solstice

• After everything the Mighty Nein did to stop the war against Xhorhas and the Cerberus Assembly, it turns out Ludinus still had a Luxon Beacon, which he uses to jump time forward to the arrival of the solstice. It's likely the war itself was part of Ludinus' Long Game to research the potential of the Beacons, just for this event, which in itself is a horrifying thought.
• The back end of the episode is a roller-coaster of cruel Hope Spots, especially for long-time fans. First, Beau and Caleb are incapacitated and captured after some bad rolls from Marisha and Liam. The Cavalry finally arrives in the form of Keyleth, Voice of the Tempest... who Ludinus instantly hits with Power Word Stun, and Otohan tears into her, destroying her Earth Elemental form and badly wounding her. Before she can deliver the deathblow, Vax steps in to stop her... only for Ludinus to reveal this is exactly what he was counting on, as a sliver of divine power was the last thing needed to power the Key. The Hells can only watch as Vax is compressed into a tiny mote of energy and used as the device's ultimate power source.

Episode 56: By Goat or By Boat

• Sheep and cows eating ground-up sheep and cows is what caused Mad Cow Disease, back in the day. The Flotket goats may well have some issues from eating Jerry, as will anyone who later eats them.
• Only a few moments into the ruins of Molaesmyr and the party encounters an elk-like creature... with ten legs and two giant humanoid arms that drag behind it. This "spider-elk", as Travis dubs it, instantly creeps out the entire cast.

Episode 57: The Sorrow of Molaesmyr

• Molaesmyre is the gift that keeps on giving horror-wise. We see corpse trees that give off strange red spores that fill the air, the ghost of the town dead seeking a living host to possess, meet the Wolf-King which turns out to be the dire-wolf answer to a rat king, the tower interior is described as having a "papery" substance that is compared to a snakes skin shed that covers all the walls, and the session ends with them facing a creature that is described as a "weird quivering globule, trying to decide what form to take."

Episode 59: Somewhere Out There

• We learn that the Hells weren't the only ones affected by whatever scattered them across Exandria. Random people were also teleported far from home. The three we met are capable of taking care of themselves, but how many others were as lucky?
  • Bor'Dor stands out. He's a simple shepherd who has been living in isolation and shelter on the mountains of Wildemount. Suddenly, he's dumped in Issylra (on a whole 'nother continent, far from everything he has ever known), he developed the powers of a 9th-level sorcerer that he can't really control yet, and he suddenly ends up in a fight for his life with monsters that he's never even seen, let alone fought.

Episode 60: Faith or Famine

• While the source they get it from is dubious at best, Team Issylra learns that someone got stranded in the ocean by the Solstice. Even if Joan was lying through her teeth, the possibility that someone else met the same fate is still there.
• Hearthdell, full stop. Initially coming off as a sleepy town of pagans struggling with the increased presence of the Dawnfather, things start going south when Bor'Dor agrees to owe the local herbalist a favor instead of gold. The town elder, Joan, quickly shows her true colors as a zealot heavily implied to worship the primordials. She uses the chaos of the Solstice and the party's arrival to whip the townsfolk into a frenzy, roping both into a siege of Pelor's temple as nature itself seems to come to her aid. Her rhetorics during the speech also implies her ambitions go far beyond her home.
  Joan: For tonight, the children will inherit the world.

Episode 61: Crisis of Faith

• This episode is a showcase of how carried away even good hearted adventurers can get in combat, as this half of Bells Hells slaughters several guards and Flame Guide Kiro, then summon two demonic entities, one of them bound by the blood of the freshly slain holy person, and eventually kill an angel. Even Elder Abbadina is disturbed.

Episode 63: A Haunted Past

• Endearingly Dorky farm boy Bor'Dor? He was actually a member of the Ruby Vanguard all along, and planned to attack the Hells from the start. The slow realization as he tells his story is already terrifying, but it gets worse.
  • Bor'Dor's first attack is an acid sphere that knocks Prism unconscious and keeps damaging her with acid every round.
  • Prism's sense of betrayal hits hard, especially to anyone who's had to deal with a False Friend in real life. Bor'Dor was one of her first friends, and she thought they were bonding as fellow combat rookies. It was all lies.
  • Laudna, already in a bad place and having seen enough betrayal and tragedy, completely snaps, enters her Form of Dread and attacks with the intent to kill. Thanks to a punch from Prism, she succeeds, in one of the few player-versus-player deaths outside of a oneshot. Marisha tears up and says she doesn't want to do it, but Laudna does.
  • This results in Laudna hearing a faint heartbeat, a flash of familiar purple energy, and her Form of Dread begins to revert to its initial appearance. Delilah may be coming back. All the work the Hells did severing their souls may have been undone, all for "one moment to feel in control". Laudna knows this, and she feels horrible.

Episode 65: A Path of Vengeance

• Chetney's past actions with the shopkeeper he terrorized came back to haunt him, in the form of a bounty hunter sent to bring him in. The hunter was both dangerous and effective, and he would have had him easily had he caught Chetney alone. And now he knows that Chetney has powerful friends. And he promised he'd see them again.
• Crosses over with Tear Jerker: After they escape the bounty hunter, Chetney, Fearne, and Orym go to a temple of the Duskmaven, where they have a vision of the excavation site. Everything is horrible, and all they can hear is screaming. It's Vax.
• A clutch Scry attempt confirms that not only are Liliana and Ludinus already on Ruidus, but so is Ira. And he's conversing with one of its inhabitants on good terms. Who knows what he's planning, but the Hells might've made a bad call in bringing him to the Malleus Key...

Episode 69: Nice

• Laudna decides to meditate on the edge of a cliff to see if Delilah has returned or not. She hears nothing, and prepares to walk back to the others after talking with Imogen... And then a voice creeps into her mind.
  Delilah: No matter who you pray to, no matter who you reach for... You are, and will always be, mine.

Episode 74: Roots Between Worlds

• The Hells make great progress in their quest as they reach Evontra'vir and get the location of an immensely powerful artifact, a shard of Rau'shan, the elemental titan of fire. It's only after this information is revealed that Evontra'vir suddenly notices something off — a scrying orb hanging in the middle of the space. Ludinus has been spying on the Hells, and likely heard everything.

Episode 75: An Ancient Flame

• The first half of the episode is pure claustrophobia fuel — the group ends up having to spelunk down a narrow lava tube, making Athletics or Acrobatics checks on the way to ensure they don't get stuck. Matt even mentions that he's just inflicting his own personal nightmare onto his players.
  • At one point, Fearne and Orym find that the tube is blocked by some sort of smooth rock. Orym tries to pry it out... and discovers that it wasn't a rock at all, it was a skull. Some poor orcish person tried to navigate this exact same tube feet-first, but got their head stuck midway through and died there, either from dehydration or a broken neck.

Episode 77: The Promise and the Price

• Against all advice, Ashton decide to absorb the shard of Rau'shan. It almost killed him. In fact, it technically did. He was only saved by the Ring of Temporal Salvation. He only had one of those. If had not gotten extraordinarily lucky with the rest of his saving throws, or if Fearne and/or FCG hadn't been pumping healing spells into them the entire time, he'd have died for good.^*Even if resurrection magic hadn't been disabled by the Apogee Solstice, Ashton's body would have been completely destroyed by the force of the shard. Barring homebrew, the only spell able to bring a dead person back if the body is destroyed is the 9th level spell True Resurrection, which F.C.G. and Fearne only get access to at level 17.
  • Ashton's death is not pretty either: his head snaps up to the ceiling as two beams of bright light shoot out from his eyes, and his entire body explodes. It's only thanks to the ring that the dunamis inside Ashton kicked in, freezing the pieces in mid-air and pulling them back together, placing him back at the second before his demise and giving him the strength to hold on just a bit longer.
  • Matt spared no details when describing exactly how badly the process fucked up Ashton. He lost a few body parts and had his face ruined. He was reformed when the process ended, but still.
  • Ashton knew the others would try to stop him, so he asked everyone except Fearne to leave under the pretense that she would be the one to absorb the shard. It's only because Imogen decided to check in on them that the rest of the Hells even realized something was wrong; if she hadn't, they would never have made it there in time to save Ashton's life.
    • The way Imogen realizes something is up is creepy as hell too. She gets worried about Fearne and telepathically contacts Ashton to check up on how things are going, but the only thing she hears is Ashton desperately praying.
      Ashton: From the earth, of the earth, to the earth. From the earth, of the earth, to the earth. From the earth, of the earth, to the earth.
  • Ashton has absorbed the remnants of two titans. He may have survived, but he doesn't know what he is now and he may still be in trouble as time goes on.

Episode 78: Fractures

• Ashton vomits up the shard of Rau'shan as soon as the episode starts because the Emperor of Fire has rejected him as a host, meaning that he won’t be getting the power of two titans after all. While this is already a terrible result of an even more terrible event that could have very nearly killed him, it also means that everything that Ashton went through in the last episode came very close to being a Senseless Sacrifice.
• After Ashton vomits up the shard, Laudna walks away, not trusting Delilah near an object of such power. Matt promptly has Marisha roll a wisdom save. She makes it, but Matt describes Laudna's legs very nearly not obeying her. The implication that Delilah is growing powerful enough to attempt to override Laudna's boldily autonomy is disturbing, to say the least.

Episode 79: To Hurt Is to Heal

• The Communication trial is a challenge where three people are blindfolded and have to navigate a winding path across an endless chasm, while the others give them directions. Chetney and Imogen make it through alright even with the added challenge of a swarm of angry thunder hornets, but Ashton panics when he ends up in the swarm and slips off the path, failing the challenge. Morri offers the Hells a redo... but this time with a five minute timer, and no safety net. Orym makes it through alright with Chetney and Imogen's help, but the fact that he could have gotten killed during a trust exercise makes one wonder just how far Morri is willing to go.
  • Worth noting: while the cast members are simply blindfolded during the challenge, the characters have their eyelids fused together. And whenever someone has taken their turn giving instructions, their mouths are sealed in much the same way.

Episode 85: Intense Interrogations

• When Ashton opens the portable hole to give the trapped Willmaster some air, he abruptly gets subjected to what Taliesin describes as "every barbarian's worst nightmare": the Willmaster takes over his mind and commands him to start attacking his friends. He only gets in one swing on Imogen before she and Fearne snap the hole shut, but this leads to an even creepier moment when it turns out that that only prevents the Willmaster from issuing commands, it doesn't end the mind control. Ashton abruptly stops moving altogether, standing still like a statue awaiting orders until Orym's Pushing Attack snaps him out of it.
• Fearne and FCG go to escort some released captives back to a caravan, and Otohan is there. The Hells are in bad shape after two major back-to-back encounters without a Long Rest; the casters are nearly out of spell slots, Ashton is nearly out of Rages, and most of them are down significant amounts of HP. After unsuccessful attempts to avoid notice and bluff their way out, Otohan decides that while Fearne is useful, FCG is not, and begins attacking him with the same overwhelming maneuver that nearly killed Keyleth. All FCG can tell the rest of the group is "Otohan has us. Run." The rest of the Hells do not consider any other option for even a second. The only reason that they weren't killed and/or captured was because of the Wind Walk spell and a very, very clever use of Banishment by FCG with his last spell slot so that they and Fearne could transform in safety. Even then, they take some bad hits after the Banishment fades.
• While exploring some underground caverns, the Hells find out that the continent lifted from Exandria to create Ruidus was inhabited at the time, as they discover a chunk of an ancient elven city in a large cave. The most disturbing aspect is definitely the fossilized skeletons embedded in the walls, implying that the former inhabitants of this settlement were fused with the stone itself when it was lifted into the sky.

Episode 86: Doorways to Darker Depths

• The gate that leads them back to Exandria emerges in a lake in Issylra. There is a Ghost Town on that lake some distance away. The Hells eventually discover why the town was abandoned: there is a monster in the lake that can charm people who linger nearby, causing them to walk into the frigid lake and drown.
  • Most everyone eventually makes the saving throw and gets out of the monster's grasp, but Ashton has a negative Charisma modifier and ends up being pulled deeper and deeper in. F.C.G. eventually figures out that Turn Undead works on the creature and manages to blast the tendrils apart, at which point Ashton finally makes his saving throw and comes to his senses... right as he realizes the entire floor of the lake is covered in bones.
• While Bell's Hells are obviously happy that Sending works again, the fact that nobody seems to know why it's working puts them all on edge. Ashton theorizes that something is happening to the tether, which is probably not good for Exandria.

Episode 90: Mission Improbable

• Imogen, Chetney, Laudna and Orym quickly discover that the Engineering Bay they're meant to infiltrate refers to bio-engineering. The four of them end up having to fight a half-formed vidulch (a massive insect-creature bred for war), which was freed from its pod too early and is visibly falling apart the entire time. When Chetney manages to kill it, Matt describes its carapace remaining standing while its insides just liquefy and pour out onto the ground.
• Ashton, Fearne and F.C.G. severely underestimated the amount of firepower Ira brought with him on the demolition mission, and the fact that F.C.G. told him to set a timer for only one minute on what amounted to the firepower of a small nuke meant that they did not have time to clear the blast radius.
  • Ira and Fearne warped to the surface using Ira's Dimension Door just as the bomb blew... which they experienced as the ground bowing outwards before collapsing into a massive sinkhole. Fearne is nearly buried in the rubble, only saved by Ira casting a Wall of Force for her to climb on top of and use as a shield against the shrapnel flying upwards.
  • Ashton and F.C.G. were not as lucky. Since Ashton's Time-rage allows them to move 160 feet in a turn, the two of them barely make it to the entrance to the mine when the bomb goes off, and even Ashton's Titan-form is blown away like a leaf in a hurricane. Matt proceeds to roll several handfuls of damage dice for a total of 158 Force damage (halved because both made their saving throws), followed by more Bludgeoning damage as they hit the ground. F.C.G. survives it by just 2 hitpoints, and both are left completely blinded and deafened by the explosion for a time.
• The Cliffhanger. As the two groups are trying to get back to the Volition hideout, Imogen and Fearne suddenly hear an enraged scream. Immediately after, Ashton, F.C.G. and Fearne watch as a nearby building explodes and a woman that looks suspiciously like Imogen shoots up out of the roof and hovers in the air. The assassination attempt against Liliana failed... and now she's out for blood.
  Liliana: Did she know?!

Episode 91: True Heroism

• The party comes incredibly close to a Total Party Kill against Otohan, and the players reach a level of hopelessness rarely seen on the show. F.C.G has to blow himself up, taking Otohan with him, in order to save them.
  • To emphasize how much of a force of nature Otohan is: she kills Chetney in her first turn, before any of the players have even gotten to do anything. Luckily Revifify is working again, but Chet spends the rest of combat either unconscious or weakly crawling around, trying to get the others up.
  • Imogen manages to rip off Otohan's backpack very early on, meaning she can't summon her shadow clones to fight with her. If this fight had been attempted with the backpack, nobody in Bell's Hells would have made it out alive.
• Otohan's Exalted form. Her AC is bumped up to 25, and she becomes resistant to damage, period.