
Campaign Three of Critical Role began airing on October 21st, 2021 and concluded on February 6th, 2025. It takes place in 843 PD, a year after Exandria Unlimited and seven years after the end of Campaign 2, in the diverse and beautiful continent of Marquet, once marred by a vengeful god during the Calamity. The story joins the party in the bustling, sparkling Oderan Wilds capital city of Jrusar, carved into five rocky spires rising from the jungle and connected by bridge and cable, overseen and controlled by the Chandei Quorum. They soon discover a conspiracy called the Ruby Vanguard connecting dark faeries, the accursed red moon Ruidus, and arch-mages like Ludinus Da'leth in a plot that would frighten even the gods.
The cast for Campaign Three:
- Matthew Mercer as the Dungeon Master.
- Laura Bailey as Imogen Temult, human sorcerer.
- Marisha Ray as Laudna, hollow one warlock/sorcerer.
- Taliesin Jaffe as Ashton Greymoore, earth genasi barbarian.
- Sam Riegel as F. C. G. (Fresh Cut Grass), Aeormaton cleric and Braius Doomseed, minotaur bard/paladin.
- Ashley Johnson as Fearne Calloway, faun druid.
- Liam O'Brien as Orym of the Air Ashari, halfling fighter.
- Travis Willingham as Sir Bertrand Bell, human fighter and Chetney Pock O'Pea, gnome blood hunter.
Guests for Campaign Three:
- Robbie Daymond as Dorian Storm, air genasi bard.
- Erika Ishii as Dusk, elf warlock
- Aabria Iyengar as Deanna Leimert, gnome cleric
- Christian Navarro as FRIDA, Aeormaton fighter/rogue/cleric
- Aimee Carrero as Deni$e Bembachula, dwarf rogue/barbarian
- Utkarsh Ambudkar as Bor'Dor Dog'Son, half-elf sorcerer
- Emily Axford as Prism Grimpoppy, elf wizard
The cast for the Downfall mini-arc:
- Brennan Lee Mulligan as the Dungeon Master.
- Laura Bailey as Emhira, human warlock of the Matron of Ravens
- Taliesin Jaffe as Asha, wolf/elf monk of the Wildmother
- Ashley Johnson as Trist, human paladin/cleric of the Everlight
- Noshir Dalal as The Emissary, earth genasi barbarian, representative of the Lawbearer
- Nick Marini as Ayden, human barbarian/druid/cleric/paladin of the Dawnfather
- Abubakar Salim as S.I.L.A.H.A., aeormaton sorcerer/warlock of the Archeart
Tropes specific to Downfall:
- 11th-Hour Superpower: The party gradually unlocks their divine powers over the course of the final battle. As it goes on, they end up doubling most of their rolls and increasing their statistics tenfold.
- Action Prologue: The mini-series opens with the gods escaping the collapse of Tengar.
- Arc Words: "Little lies are okay."
- Begin with a Finisher: The climactic battle has top-level characters on both sides, some of them opening with their most powerful attacks:
- One of the enemy mages unleashes a Power Word Kill, a top-level instant-death spell with No Saving Throw. SILAHA has high enough Hit Points to No-Sell it.
- SILAHA takes heavy damage before he's able to act, so he abandons subtlety and unleashes the top-level spell Meteor Swarm to blow up most of the battlefield, killing several of their most powerful enemies outright and heavily injuring the rest.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: The final encounter of the series pits the group against more than twenty high-level enemies, meaning the party has to deal thousands of hit points of damage to win the day.
- Didn't Think This Through: The gods' mortal avatars infiltrate the flying city of Aeor to destroy its god-killing weapon with minimal collateral damage. As the gods are on the cusp of victory, an Aeorian archmage uses a Wish to give every mage in the city the knowledge of how to recreate the weapon and urge them to flee... so the gods simply crash the city and Leave No Survivors in order to erase the threat to their existence.
- Distant Prologue: The opening takes place at the very beginnings of Exandria's creation.
- Doomed by Canon: It's known from Campaign 2 that the Gods destroyed Aeor and its people, so almost no one encountered there survives the arc, especially once the Cognouza Ward's disappearance sabotages all teleportation out of the city.
- Downer Ending: The Foregone Conclusion is still brutal, as Aeor, and all the brilliant and incredible people living in it, is utterly destroyed. The Prime Deities fail in their hope to save the city, which seems to be the inciting event for the Dawnfather’s Character Development into the stern, harsh deity of the modern era. They also fail to reconnect with the Betrayers, who instead redouble on their hatred and villainy.
- Dramatic Irony: Considering that Bells Hells stand in the ruins of Aeor while watching these events, knowing this takes place during Aeor's final day, the mini-arc is absolutely laden with this.
- Fallen Angel: A small coterie of angels have rebelled against the Dawnfather and betrayed the gods' plan to the mages of Aeor. These angels insist they do this because they were created to be good and fight evil, unlike the gods who have made a truce with the gods of evil. They retain their divine beauty, radiant power, and white wings, but whenever they rant against the gods, a small bit of hellfire flares in their eyes as a hint to a bit of devilish influence in them.
- God Mode: Fittingly, when the party deactivates the devices suppressing divine power in Aeor, they get a ridiculous amount of buffs that make them all but invincible. The fight they're in becomes a foregone conclusion as they annihilate multiple bosses with a single spell and reduce hundreds of points of damage to nearly nothing.
- Have You Seen My God?: By the time of Downfall, the gods haven't been seen on Exandria three decades. Their worshippers are beginning to lose faith, their angels are beginning to question their positions, and all are secretly hoping that the war between the gods is long over.
- Kick the Dog: Captain Marcus literally kicks an old gnomish woman off a ship bound for Aeor because she refuses to forsake her faith in the Dawnfather.
- Mook Horror Show: The final encounter was designed to initially make the players desperate to survive so that when they received their godly powers, they brought down a horrifying amount of damage and destruction on their enemies. They do so and only begin to realize the amount of pain they've caused before killing a half dozen of the most brilliant people who ever lived.
- No-Sell: At one point, four arch-mages all use the Wish spell to call upon maximum power castings of Disintegrate and Finger of Death. Despite the mages nearly destroying themselves to do so, they do less than 25 damage total to their targets.
- Significant Double Casting:
- Ashley plays the avatar of the Everlight, the godly patron of her Campaign 1 character Pike.
- Taliesin plays the avatar of the Wildmother, the godly patron of his Campaign 2 character Caduceus.
Word of God indicates he purposely plays the version of the Wildmother he as Caduceus interacts with. - Downplayed with Laura, who plays the avatar of the Matron of Ravens, the god who saved her Campaign 1 character and became patron to her character's twin (Ironic, considering Vex was not the Raven Queen's biggest fan).
- Taking the Bullet: Emhira jumps in front of Ayden to take a sword stab for him. Thanks to a clutch Natural 20 death save from Laura, the avatar of Goddess of Death emerges unscathed.
- Timed Mission: The heist to destroy the Latimus Princeps needed to be completed within one round before the mages of Aeor started teleporting in en masse and destroy the party.
- Wham Line: "We can help you win." Ashley/Trist seems to misunderstand, but everyone else at the table realizes the implications immediately: The treasonous Aeor faction has manipulated and adjusted the Malleus Factorum to only target the Betrayer Gods out of the mistaken belief that it would end the Calamity War, not realizing just how bad it would ultimately be for any god to be killed.
- Whole Episode Flashback: More like whole episodes flashback, as Episodes 99-101 all take place over 800 years prior to the events of Campaign 3.
Tropes for Campaign Three:
- Aborted Arc: According to Matt, everything involving the Beacon was meant to lead into a plot where the party would've learned it could be used to destroy Predathos once and for all, but the party never picked up the plot hook.
- Achievements in Ignorance:
- In the first battle against the Shade Mother, Fearne decided to use a sunlight spell because she couldn't see so well in the underground cavern. Turns out the Shade Mother was vulnerable to sunlight.
- In the fight against Predathos, Dorian's first turn (and the first in the initiative order) is to cast a third level Shatter which deals Thunder damage as an opening move, musing it probably wasn't going to be effective. Predathos turns out to be vulnerable to Thunder damage as the vibrations would cause the crystals to shatter easily. This immediately makes Predathos take Bells Hells seriously.
- Actor Allusion:
- The villain in episode 11 deliberately dropping its restraints led to Liam commenting that it was just like Rock Lee. Liam was previously the dub voice of Gaara, who was famously Rock Lee's opponent in the fight where Rock Lee drops his weights.
- In episode 25, Dusk (Erika Ishii) watches Chetney engraving the names on Fearne's gift, and points out that there shouldn't be an X. Erika just played a character on Dimension 20, Karen Keiko Tanaka, who also went by xXBrokenDreamXx.
- Fearne attempts to calm a wolfed-out Chetney with "Hey, big guy. The moon's getting real low." It's a reference to the Black Widow calming the Hulk down in Avengers: Age of Ultron with a similar code phrase. Travis Willingham played the Hulk and Laura Bailey played Black Widow for several Marvel properties. Also, Ashley Johnson (who plays Fearne) had a small role in the first Avengers film.
- Robbie Daymond made a "Sailor Laudna" joke - he voiced Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Mask, Sailor Moon's love interest, for both the Viz dubs of the 90s anime and Sailor Moon Crystal. At the table with him are fellow Viz Sailor Moon cast members Matthew Mercer (Prince Demande) and Liam O'Brien (Nephrite).
- Liam and Laura use their Akihiko Sanada and Rise Kujikawa voices respectively when promoting Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 without namedropping said characters. And although Sam does voice Teddie in Persona 4, he doesn't do his voice but instead delivers the ad. Matt calls it the "The layers of meta."
- Sam Riegel has said that F.C.G.'s accent was based on that of Jack McBrayer. He got plenty of time to study it as the voice director (and voice of Emperor Awesome) for Wander over Yonder.
- In the third Bell's Hells Halloween episode the cast all dressed up as Nicholas Cage characters. Ashley dressed up as Stanley Goodspeed from The Rock. Not the first time she played an FBI agent scientist.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Ashton's response to Yu Suffiad's impression of them. When Yu leaves, they do so by mocking Ashton with a fake voice and flipping the double bird repeatedly at everybody. Once Yu is gone, Ashton admits it's not an entirely inaccurate impression of him, and chuckles a bit.
- Aerith and Bob: Dorian has to make up fake names for Orym and Imogen when infiltrating a classy event, and comes up with "Copernicus" and "Maude".
- Alien Invasion: One of the main villains are the Kreviris Imperium lead by the Weave Mind, who wish to invade Exandria and take over.
- Anachronism Stew: An in-universe example. At The Taste of Tal'Dorei, two of the waiters put on a show depicting how Zan Tal'Dorei defeated Warren Drassig and founded the Tal'Dorei Empire. However, the real Zan never fought Warren, she fought his son Trist, twenty-three years after Warren had already been killed in the Scattered War. Given how young Zan is depicted in official artwork
◊ of her battle against Trist, it's likely that she was only a child when Warren died. - And Now for Someone Completely Different:
- The 2023 live stream from London, The Mighty Nein Reunion: Echoes of the Solstice, takes place just after the Apogee Solstice and depicts the events of what happened to Caleb and Beau after Ludinus activates the Malleus Key.
- Episode 92 - At the mid-session break, Matt asks for everyone to leave the table... then leaves himself. Aabria then sits down at the GM's seat and we switch to the Crown Keepers, picking up a month after the Apogee Solstice.
- Episode 98: As a vision of the past is activated, Matt leaves the table, and Brennan Lee Mulligan (host for the live show) switches in for a monologue that announces that the next three episodes of the campaign will see that vision play out, as a new party portrays the "divine individuals" responsible for the downfall of Aeor.
- Animate Inanimate Object:
- The first fight of the campaign sees the adventurers rush to investigate a crashed cart, only for living furniture to come flying out and attacking people.
- In Episode 7, the party exit into an alley and battle a wall mimic.
- Applied Phlebotinum: Brumestone, which we first hear about as being the required component for the airships flying in and out of Jrusar. After the job from Eshteross leads to proof of brumestone smuggling, it's practically an arc word.
- Bag of Sharing: The group sometimes loses track who has what and they just decide whoever first needs a given item has it in the moment. This comes up in episode 94, where Liam mentions he has no healing potion listed in his character's inventory, but reasons the other characters would've given him one and is allowed to use it.
- Bait-and-Switch: Sam claims that he would only stick to reading Hit Point Press' ad script for episode 1. When Matt expresses disbelief that Sam's ad could be so low-key, Sam promptly launches into a full Broadway-styled skit, dueting with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn.
- Batman Gambit: Ludinus pulls one off as part of his Evil Plan for Ruidus. He lured Keyleth to the site of Malleus Key, and had Otohan Thull severely wound Keyleth with rapid sword strikes. However, Keyleth herself was not the target; the real target was Vax'ildan, who showed up as the Champion of Ravens to save Keyleth's life. Ludinus did this knowing that Vax wouldn't be able to resist pulling a Big Damn Heroes if it meant saving Keyleth, using her as bait. When Vax appears, he's used as a "piece of divinity" and the final ingredient to the Malleus Key.
- Betrayal Insurance: In response to being asked if he trusts the group, Orym says he loves them all deeply... and has plans to kill each of them if they go bad.
- Betting Mini-Game: For Bells' Hells arrival in the lavish City of Light, Matthew Mercer prepared a few simple dice games to better simulate any gambling the player characters wanted to do while there. Little did he know that playing these games would take up a whole two hours as the cast got more and more invested in keeping up their streak of good luck.
- Beyond Redemption: Imogen repeatedly tries to get her mother Liliana to pull a Heel–Face Turn after it's revealed that she's been working with one of the villains, which comes to a head in episode 89. Imogen tries reaching out to Liliana in her dreams. Imogen succeeds, and tries to talk Liliana into switching sides once again. Liliana refuses, gives many excuses as before, and reiterates that she always just wanted Imogen to run from the conflict. Imogen finally has enough and ends the conversation by saying "Maybe it's your turn to run" to Liliana, showing that Imogen is done trying to talk. Finally subverted when Imogen and Lilana reconcile just before the final battle with Predathos.
- Bittersweet Ending: As opposed to previous campaigns, the Bells' Hells' adventure ends on a much less overtly optimistic note: on one hand, Predathos is no longer a threat for now, Ruidians are now able to walk on Exandria, most of the parties get somewhat happy endings, with Vax being alive again. Divine magic still functions and the Prime Deities will regain their memories and can still benefit the world as mortals, as well as psudo-deities like the Traveler still acting as a positive force. However, Ludinus is still out there and any future plans are unknown. Predathos could not be destroyed and is still in space, hunting gods, with Matt hinting it might one day return. Biggest of all, the gods are forced to become mortal to avoid Predathos. This includes all the Betrayer Gods, who very much could go on to become a threat should they regain their memories, even if they can't ascend back to godhood, which Matt hints might majorly backfire on the Bells should the Betrayers regain their memories before the Prime Deities do in a lifetime. It also left many believers, Pike included, feeling lost without their god...and as per
Word of God, a great many of them are none too pleased with Bell's Hells for their part in the gods leaving, which may lead to problems for them down the road. - Black Comedy:
- Episode 4 - Losing a player character this early in a campaign should be a more distressing affair, but you get our heroes going through his pockets and stealing his stuff, passing him off as alive just to move him elsewhere, and even after the session ends, Laura tweets the aftermath of the body being sent to Whitestone like the party were discussing.
- In episode 5, the party almost lose FCG when they are taken down and they have no idea if their healing magic does anything for a robot. They go for it anyway, FCG revives... and Sam acts like FCG has been factory reset.
- In a similar vein, episode 64 involves a messed up teleportation spell that smacks our heroes around like pachinko balls and nearly kills Imogen. When they come out the other end, a different Aeormaton (guest player Christian Navarro) is stuck talking in Spanish.
- Imogen and Laudna's landlady, the elderly Zhudanna, is not exactly in bad shape (she often cooks and cleans for the girls), but the party constantly jokes about going on long adventures and coming back to find her already dead.
- Episode 7 - one of the theater posters advertises "The Calamity: An Interpretative Dance".
- At the end of the episode, the cast joke about how Travis' characters are all going to be killed off before long.
- Episode 14 begins with a script supposedly written by an AI, which repeatedly insults Sam and his mental health problems.
- Episode 34 finds Fearne, in the aftermath of the vicious battle with Otohan, faced with the impossible problem of picking between dead Orym and Laudna with just one Revivify. Ashley (out of sheer instinctual panic) suggests the remaining five characters vote for it, quickly backtracking out of horror at her own words much to the cast's amusement.
- Blindfolded Trip: One of the trust-building exercises the group does in the Feywild is to vocally lead a blind-folded party member through a winding bridge over a wide chasm. The twist is that not only are the characters blind-folded, but their players are too, and the other players must tell them where to move their miniature on a map the blind-flolded player cannot see.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: FCG's creator named her automatons after the smells she loves. There's Fresh Cut Grass, Oatmeal, Apple Pie, and Pussy.
- Breakable Weapons: Ruidium glass weapons are powerful magic items from the moon of Ruidus that score critical hits at three times the normal rate. The only problem is that every time they score a critical hit, the user has to roll a dice and if they roll too high, the weapon breaks permanently.
- Brick Joke:
- Episode 2 kicks off with Lord Esteross testing out our heroes by attacking them, leading to Bertrand Bell grabbing a drink off the mantle to hurl at Esteross. And he misses. Eventually the conflict is settled as Esteross makes his deal with them, then sends them on their way while he gets a drink... and then he pieces it together.Esteross: ... Shit.
Bertrand: (panicky) Off we go! - Back in episode 1, Fearne deliberately swipes an earring off an elephant-man, only to lose it just after meeting Ashton, who swipes it off her. It's not until episode 9 when Fearne just swipes it right back.
- A short-range one at the start of episode 93, with an all-new NordVPN "Nordverse" sketch, where Laura and Ashley are hackers who bring up a female President that they answer to. Just before the game starts, Aabria Iyengar who's the temp DM for the final chapter of the Crown Keepers' tale claims she's "reading for the part of madame President."
- Episode 2 kicks off with Lord Esteross testing out our heroes by attacking them, leading to Bertrand Bell grabbing a drink off the mantle to hurl at Esteross. And he misses. Eventually the conflict is settled as Esteross makes his deal with them, then sends them on their way while he gets a drink... and then he pieces it together.
- But Now I Must Go:
- Chapter 14 has Dorian's brother Cyrus arrested and temporarily released, and forces both brothers to leave the group and fly out of Jrusar.
- Episode 64 has Deanna, FRIDA and Prism leave Bell's Hells to find out more information on Ludinis and Predathos.
- Car Fu: When the party are attacked by brigands in Episode 30, Fearne's mother Birdie unwittingly does this when she falls unconscious from acid damage. Her crawler is still running, and she plows right over Maracris the brigand leader, killing him instantly.
- Cast from Hit Points: Some of Matt Mercer's homebrew features use this mechanic.
- Imogen's custom feat, "Call Ruidus," has her declare a certain number of dice and roll them. Whatever she rolls, she hads to the damage of one of her spells, but she also has to take the additional damage herself. As a Squishy Wizard, she only makes use of this ability in the most desperate of circumstances.
- One of FCG's Sympathetic Binding abilities lets him take damage equal to a roll of three eight-sided dice and heal someone for that amount plus his Wisdom modifier. He too, rarely uses this ability because of its steep cost.
- Casting Gag: Out of necessity, Matt Mercer takes over the role of Mister after having played his Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Dariax.
- Catchphrase: FCG greets people with "Smiley day to you."
- Cerebus Syndrome: The campaign is Lighter and Softer than the previous two for about the first 50 episodes, but the moment the truth about Ruidus is revealed and the campaign's true antagonists, Ludinus and the Ruby Vanguard, reveal themselves, the story not only becomes darker, but the morality a lot more blurred. The characters, both party and NPC, are forced to question the role of the gods in the world, and they're coming to different and incompatible answers.
- Cliffhanger: Episode 58 ends with the Chetney-Imogen-Fresh-Fearne party dealing with the Staff of Dark Odyssey, and Laura has to make a roll... but they never reveal the result. The next episode switches over to the Laudna-Orym-Ashton party instead. We learn in episode 64 that the teleportation spell failed, and they have to wait until the next day and try again.
- Cluster F-Bomb: The brigands that attack Bell's Hells in Episode 30 react this way when the party detonates a bomb on one of their crawlers and uses a lightning bolt to blow up the gun on another.
- Combination Attack: Episode 46 has Imogen, Laudna, and Fearne shooting out a Witch Bolt, two Eldritch Blasts, and Scorching Ray on one poor centaur (Laura, Marisha, and Ashley didn't realize that the other two centaurs and the tree were already dead). This is on top of Matt making one of the three roll a d12 with Laura rolling for the group.
- Continuity Cavalcade: Episode 36 sees Bell's Hells going to Whitestone. There are multiple references to Campaign One throughout the entire episode, including several members of Vox Machina showing up — Keyleth, Percy, Vex, Pike, and Trinket all make an appearance. Also, the adventures of Vox Machina are referenced multiple times, especially the encounters with the Briarwoods.
- Continuity Nod:
- In episode 7, the group sees several show posters from previous attractions in the Dreamscape Theater, including one for "To Kill A God: A Scanlan Shorthalt One-Man Show".
- Episode 80 involves a trust exercise where two of the Hells are replaced by doppelgangers, which becomes the perfect time for a nod back to EXU.Orym: What did Cinna Brightbow throw at me when I was tied up on stage?!
Fearne: ...A pie?
Orym: That's wrong but I still think it's you!
- Crisis Crossover:
- The Ruidus storyline sees Bells Hells teaming up with members of both Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein. By episode 51, this leads to the unique experience of all three of Marisha and Liam's campaign characters appearing in one session.
- Episode 92 takes this to a brand new level by making the first half follow the Bell's Hells' plot as usual and by having the second half follow the plot of the Crown Keepers trying to reach them in response to one of Orym's previous messages, with Aabria taking Matt's place as the DM.
- Episode 111 requires the cast to pull double duty, playing their characters from both the Hells and the Nein, the two groups traveling together in preparation for a climactic showdown with Ludinus. This is then followed by the cast pulling triple duty in Episode 112 when Vox Machina returns.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Matt starts giving normal enemies Legendary Resistance in this campaign. The players object when they find out, seeing as this is normally reserved for Dungeons and Dragons's boss monsters, but Matt retorts that he needs to buff enemies to stand a chance against a party twice the size of your ordinary D&D group.
- Counterspell: The Critical Role cast continues their love for Counterspell when Laudna picks it up. She uses it to great effect to stop an angel's fireball, deny an arch-mage a mass fear spell, and even to prevent a Grand Demon from banishing a rival devil.
- Critical Failure: This campaign, Matthew Mercer begins to rule that rolling a 1 on a twenty-sided dice is an automatic, critical failures. Even in situations where characters have ludicrous bonuses from spells and abilities, there's always a 5% chance of failure, at least for ability checks and attack rolls.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: The heroes really should have deferred to Feywild native Fearne's judgment when they come across a cute little fairy. Except that it's not an actual fairy, and rather a carnivorous plant taking the anglerfish route, but they would've been better off having nothing to do with it in any case.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Episode 11 has the party vs. Ira Wendagoth, the Nightmare King, with the players on the receiving end. Though the party comes into the battle completely fresh on spells and abilities and gives it their all, the fight is still enormously in Ira's favor throughout as he tanks tons of damage and shrugs off their most powerful spells with ease. He ultimately warps away after he's done toying with them rather than out of any tactical need, and even passes up the chance to fire off one final spell that probably would've killed them all.
- Episode 33 has Bell's Hells going up against Otohan Thull, a legendary war hero in Marquet. It does not go particularly well for the Hells. For one, the party is low on spell slots and HP just going into the fight. Also, Otohan has mind-reading powers much like Imogen and Fresh Cut Grass, but none of the restraint. During the fight proper, Otohan kills Orym, kills Fearne, almost kills Chetney, almost kills Ashton, and almost kills Laudna twice. The whole time, Imogen has to resort to begging Otohan to show them mercy, and it's only by unleashing Imogen's full power that the battle ends.
- The party, already low on spells and abilities, once again battles Otohan in Episode 91. Imogen manages to separate Otohan from her backpack that summons her Echo Knights early on, but things don't really get easier as Chetney is killed in the first round of combat, though is later revived, little of what the Bell's Hells utilizes makes much effect, and Otohan is able to power up some nasty new perks and abilities with her Exaltant Fury. It takes FCG making the Heroic Sacrifice of detonating his own core, killing Otohan and himself, to save the group from what very much seemed like a Total Party Kill.
- Deus ex Machina: Discussed but ultimately averted in Episode 33 when, during a dire battle, the party muse on whether Dorian can show up to save them in an airship named "Ex Machina".
- Diagonal Cut: Episode 5. Turns out Dorian's Moon-Touched Scimitar is capable of these, as he does such a thing on a shade creeper that attacks him.
- Disc-One Nuke: Due to a D&D Beyond mix-up during Critical Role: Exandria Unlimited, Fearne began this campaign with Stonky's RingExplanation, an ostensibly low-power item that allows the wearer to cast a 5th-level spell an unlimited number of times. Fearne had this when the group only had level 2 spells and used it to trivialize a number of environmental hazards meant to take the cooperation of the whole group.
- Didn't Think This Through: In Episode 30, Imogen blasts a Lightning Bolt up at a mounted gun that uses gunpowder. She does it to destroy the gun, which it does, but not before causing sixty shots to fire from said gun down at everyone on the field. Laura's face immediately plummets when she realizes what's about to happen.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Chetney gains Grim Psychometry, allowing him to see the history and past usage of any item, but ends up suffering horrible effects when the past usage involves multiple deaths. Combined with Chetney's advanced years, it makes him look like a war veteran with severe PTSD.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: "It's Thursday Night" was written by Sam Riegel, with music by Peter Habib, and sung by the entire core cast.
- Enemy Mine: The big battle of the campaign's first live show sees the group team up against a grand demon with the only one magical enough to send it back to Hell: their arch-nemesis, Ludinus Da'leth. The players are vocally conflicted about whether to accept the help they need or take the opportunity to stab their enemy in the back.
- Every Man Has His Price: The group is not above using bribes in order to "convince" people to do what they want. Ashton bribes a tavern owner for the name of a dwarf patron who visited the inn in the recent past, and Dorian bribes a Dreamscape Theater worker to give the group box seats to a play.
- Expendable Clone: The main villain is more than happy to melt his clones in lava rather than let the heroes get the satisfaction of a killing blow on them.
- Feghoot: During Episode 31, Matt breaks down when he realizes Sam may have (at least partially) created FCG's entire backstory as a build-up to one joke: the One-Eyed-Monster slew my Pussy.
- Fetch Quest: The mini-arc in the wastes of Tal'dorei is all centered around collecting a number of flowers to help heal an injured NPC. It is a perfect example of sidequest, taking place in a location far away from the main plot featuring none of the characters relevant to it and culminating in a fight with a horde of new monsters who drop some prime loot for the group's troubles.
- Final Boss Preview: The group does actually end up in battle with Ludinus Da'leth way before the end of the campaign and do fairly well. They free Fearne from his Telekinesis spell and kill all of Ludinus' goons without a hitch. Things only get dicey when he fires off a spell of 9th-level (the highest possible). Laudna stops him from casting it and he smiles as he walks into a pit of lava, revealing that "Ludinus" was a remotely-piloted clone and the real one lives to fight another day.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Occurs in Episode 28 after the race is over. Imogen uses Detect Thoughts on Dusk, only for Matt to say that it doesn't work because there isn't a mind to read on Dusk. This is just moments before Dusk pulls a Face–Heel Turn and reveals that she's a changeling who's working for an Archfey that wants the Calloway family line dead.
- Flunky Boss: Captain Novos, the reanimated skeleton of a legendary pirate, doesn't see it fit to fight Bells' Hells himself, but instead waits on his ship while his crew rushes to cut them down on the shore. The group quickly learns that this skeletal crew keeps re-animating no matter how much damage they take, so they must either kill or parley with the captain directly for any hope of victory.
- Forced Euthanasia: Discussed. While talking about removing the gods, FRIDA likens them to Aeormatons that are kept "on" by people's worship, and after so many millennia, they deserve rest. Imogen is somewhat disturbed by this and points out that the Ruby Vanguard's goal is to annihilate the gods, regardless of whether or not it would be merciful.
- Foreshadowing:
- Chetney's statistics are very strange for a Rogue; his Strength is much higher than his Dexterity, even though Rogues rely on Dex for most of their abilities. This makes far more sense after it's revealed that Chetney isn't a Rogue at all, but an Order of the Lycan Blood Hunter (though he does later take a level in Rogue).
- After returning from the Feywild, Matt suddenly has both Liam and Marisha roll a few d20s for him. This is not explained until episode 50, which reveals that their campaign 2 characters, Caleb and Beau, were after the Key in the Shadowfell, and the rolls were to determine whether or not they succeeded.
- During their approach to the Malleus Key, the Hells ask Ira if he notices anything about it, to which Ira replies that it looks like the Key is missing a lens. During the climax, Ludinus uses a Batman Gambit to bait the Champion of the Raven Queen Vax'ildan to the site, captures him by compressing him down into a solid sphere, and uses him as a lens.
- Fully Absorbed Finale: Episodes 92 and 93 are effectively this for the Crown Keepers and the first season of Exandria Unlimited, concluding their story arc within the main Critical Role campaign. Unfortunately, it's mostly a Downer Ending for the group, as Opal is taken over by the Spider Queen, Cyrus dies, and the rest are forced to go their separate ways.
- Fun T-Shirt: By this point it's a given that Sam Riegel will be breaking these out as much as the official merchandise announcements — one tshirt they're selling for real is a First Knight of Avalir one, and in a later session Sam is "selling" tshirts with a hideously photoshopped Ashley.
- Gang Up on the Human: In any given battle, the enemies will always attack the player characters and not bother lowering the HP of NPCs. With so many player characters to divide damage between, this is necessary for battles to have any difficulty, even if it means enemies have to overlook the gravity wizards and demon paladins inundating them with attacks.
- Gods Need Prayer Badly: Discussed by Deanna in episode 52. She mentions that mortals are essentially batteries to the gods, as their faith in them is what gives the gods their powers.
- Hammerspace Hideaway: Bells Hells' most invaluable magic item is no doubt the Portable Hole. While it appears to be a very large piece of black fabric, if laid flat on an even surface, it turns into a hole into small pocket dimension which can hold any number of gold pieces, stolen items, or even corpses. The group uses it to smuggle fugitives, hide form interlopers, and trap enemies unfortunate enough to stumble into it. The only problem while the hole is a piece of fabric, those in the pocket dimension only have about five minutes of air. That's bad when their allies are in there, but very convenient when they trap their enemies inside.
- Heist Clash: Episodes 18-21 involve the group robbing a Museum of the Strange and Unusual while competing against a fellow heist team named the Verdict, as part of a wager between several rich patrons (one of whom is Ashton's boss).
- He Knows Too Much: Several people researching Ruidis and the Apogee Solstice have ended up dead at the hands of assassins, including the Lumas twins. It's suggested that powerful individuals or factions, such as some of Vasselheim's temples, are trying to suppress this knowledge.
- Heroic RRoD: The Titan transformation the group unlocks late in the campaign give their users some incredible bonuses to their ability scores and defenses, but once the transformation ends, they take 2 levels of exhaustion. This is the equivalent of going two days without sleep and forces them to move at half-speed. What's worse is that this stacks if they transform again, and if they ever reach 6 exhaustion, they die.
- Hero of Another Story: As revealed in Episode 50, Caleb and Beau have been investigating Ludinus Da'leth too, and were part of the attack on the Key in the Shadowfell while the Hells dealt with the one in the Feywild. Keyleth also led a group of Ashari against an un-sealed elemental titan shortly before the Apogee Solstice.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: During the heist clash, Bell's Hells make judicious use of an Immovable Rod to keep the other team, the Verdict, from following them. In the final room, the Verdict manage to get their hands on the Rod and uses it to block off the Hells' escape.
- Impossible Theft: With a high enough roll in episode 1, Fearne is somehow able to pull a two-foot long earring off an elephant-man's ear without him noticing. Later in that same episode, her luck turns on her when Ashton rolls a natural 20 and somehow manages to take the same earring in broad daylight without Fearne or the six other people around them picking up on it.
- In-Series Nickname: Milo calls Fresh Cut Grass by the nickname "Letters". Several other characters eventually pick up the nickname, too.
- Instantly Proven Wrong:
- Bertrand says that at Lord Eshteross's place, he is "expected at all hours". Then a woman opens the door and says, "I am uncertain the Master was expecting you."
- Later on, Lord Eshteross asks Bertrand what the party has come to see him about (they were there to update him on the smuggling investigation he sent them on). Bertrand tells Lord Eshteross that the party is "perfectly capable of speaking for themselves." Fearne immediately jumps in, saying "we've come to kill you" with a creepy grin.
- Instrumental Weapon: Chetney picks up a harp that functions as a bow after the group goes magic-item shopping.
- Involuntary Group Split: As you would expect, "Far From the Others" is about a couple of members of Bells' Hells being separated from the group and having to fend for themselves. Lost in the cold, even a single monster is a threat when there are so few of them.
- Just the First Citizen: Dorian Storm hails from the Silken Squall, which is a floating city where its leaders are often called upon as consultants to monarchies and other governing bodies, meaning that they weild some actual political power. It's all but stated later on when they join several other other world leaders to address the threat of Ludinus.
- Killed Off for Real:
- In only episode 3, one of the party's player character is killed with no option to revive him. The group tries to mourn, but only having known him for a short time, they move on, soon meet a new party member, and honor their fallen friend by naming the group after him.
- There is a poison in use during this campaign that prevents any known form of resurrection magic to avert Death Is Cheap whenever someone is killed for the plot. Its victims include Ariks Eshteross and Will and Derrig, Orym's husband and father-in-law.
- Kitschy Themed Restaurant: The Taste of Tal'Dorei, a restaurant in Bassuras themed after the continent of Tal'Dorei, with waiters dressed as historical figures from there, such as Warren Drassig, Zan Tal'Dorei, and Errevon the Rimelord.
- Lighter and Softer: While by no means devoid of dark or intense themes, Campaign 3 has so far been much more humorous and silly compared to the early parts of Campaign 2. However, this begins to change around Episode 50.
- Living Battery: The Wizards of Aeor powered their great machines by binding demons to them and then killing them over and over and over again inside. Since demons can only die in the Abyss, this process could go on indefinitely as the demons magic and might were mined for milennia.
- Love at First Sight: Crops up a couple of times.
- FRIDA is immediately taken with Fresh Cut Grass, and has no inhibition on acting on that attraction.
- At the end of the campaign, it's revealed that Imogen all but fell in love with Laudna when the two met, though she wasn't sure how she felt until they'd been together for a long time. Imogen reveals that while she's always had the power to hear surface thoughts, and most thoughts aren't pleasant, when she met Laudna, all she heard was music, and she became infatuated almost immediately.
- Love Triangle: A (possibly?) non-romantic one between Laudna, Imogen, and Delilah. Delilah wants Laudna to draw on her power so she can get stronger, Laudna wants to use Delilah's power to help stop Ludinus figuring it doesn't matter what happens to her if she can help save the world. But Imogen does not like the effect Delilah is having on Laudna at all, and the more influence Delilah has over Laudna, the rockier Imogen and Laudna's relationship gets.
- Mage Killer: Otohan Thull is already a deadly opponent, but her secondary weapon, Scream Needle, makes her a wizard's worse nightmare. It doubles the difficulty of maintaining your concentration on magic when it hits you, and since Otohan could hit a creature with it about eleven times in a single round, it is nearly impossible for a magic-user to keep their spells up if Otohan wants to bring it down. Fearne learns this the hard way when she casts a spell that awakens anyone in a radius from unconsciousness. Otohan then immediately makes an attack on her and Fearne's concentration breaks, ending the spell before it could help a single of Fearne's badly beaten friends.
- Mechanical Lifeforms: Fresh Cut Grass, the small automaton cleric. According to them, there are at least three more made by the same creator: Oatmeal, Apple Pie, and Pussy. They are interested in meeting more like them.
- Metal Muncher: FCG asks Ashton's permission to eat some copper coins. They later reveal that they eat nails (and metal in general) to heal themself.
- Metaphorically True: A magic item in Episode 62 displays a vision that is truthful, but easily misinterpreted due to lacking context. Bor'Dor smokes an enchanted pipe that forms the smoke into visions of your proudest accomplishment. The rest of the party sees Bor'Dor, once lost, finding acceptance and a place with them. In truth, being accepted by the party is Bor'Dor's proudest accomplishment... because he's a Ruby Vanguard infiltrator aiming to kill them.
- Mid-Season Twist: Come into the campaign later than episodes 3-7, and you'd be spoiled with the twist of Bertrand Bell being killed and Travis switching to his real Campaign 3 character, Chetney Pock O'Pea. Come in later than Episode 11 and you'll be spoiled on Chetney being a Blood Hunter Order of the Lycan rather than a rogue.
- Mood Whiplash: A double example in Episode 51. First, Beau and Caleb are revealed to have been captured by the Ruby Vanguard, seriously dampening already slim hopes for stopping Ludinus's plan. But wait! Keyleth arrives along with some other Ashari to help Bell's Hells fight Ludinus. But oh no, Otohan launches a devastatingly fast attack against Keyleth that leaves her barely alive. But wait! Vax returns from the dead to protect Keyleth from Otohan. But oh no, this was all part of Ludinus's plan and he sucks Vax's essence into the Malleus Key to power Predathos' release.
- Mundane Solution: Fearne makes a frivolous Deal with the Devil during the adventure in Zephrah. Dorian Storm gets the idea to get her out of it by roping in his family lawyers.
- Mundane Utility: Episode 77 - when faced with the traditional locked door, Imogen summons a Reiloran through the keyhole on the other side of the door, and gets him to unlock it.
- Nails on a Blackboard: Sam's gas-can-drink-container was designed with an attachable magnetic chalkboard. In an early episode, Sam tried writing on it and caused a squeaky screech that had much of the cast screaming in pain. He hasn't tried to use the chalk since.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Early in the campaign, the heroes run into a Fey who is nicknamed "The Nightmare King." Later on, another player character speaks with a highly-placed member of the Unseelie Court of the Feywild, whose title is "The Sorrowlord."
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Our heroes' investigation at the warehouse ultimately goes butt-shaped when too many people notice them, and Imogen even ends up running into the warehouse manager Danas a second time. This gets Danas and even Bertrand Bell Killed Off for Real.
- No Hero Discount: Fearne tries to leverage the group's heroic defeat of some rogue furniture into getting the innkeeper to lower the prices of their room. The innkeeper answer with a curt "no" and ends the conversation right there.
- Non-Combat EXP: This campaign uses a more systematic version of story-based progression than last campaign. Instead of gaining levels when enough experience points are gathered or whenever a significant story beat is reached, Bells' Hells gains a level every ten episode after they reach level 5.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The ending sees Predathos is driven away, but the gods collectively incarnating as mortals and unable to ascend back to godhood. This sees the Divine Gate be destroyed and the Betrayer Gods returning to Exandria, if at mortals. While divine magic still exists, it has to be drawn from different courses.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: During a fire side chat, Matt admits it's entirely possible the Bells' Hells solution to the Predathos situation might not have been the ideal solution and could very easily backfire in the long run. He specifically mentions that it's entirely possible for the Betrayer Gods to regain their memories and wreak havoc even as mortals should they do so before the Prime Deities, and could even start hunting down the Prime Deities and kill them before they can regain enough of their memories to fight back. He also mentions in the long run, it might have only been a temporary solution, as Predathos could easily return one day anyway. It also made the Bells' Hells a lot of enemies, as many believers are understandably not happy with them for their role in the gods leaving.
- Oh, Crap!: The players have one in Episode 11 when the Nightmare King uses a legendary action. Since the group's members are only level 4 at the time, it leads to the Bells realizing that they're punching way above their weight class.
- One-Steve Limit:
- Averted in episode 2. Upon introducing a character named Karrock, Sam and Laura both point out that they've met a Kerrek in a previous adventure. Matt points out that multiple people having the same name is nothing particularly strange.
- There's also Ira the Nightmare King, who just happens to share the first name of one of the Somnovem from campaign 2.
- By sheer coincidence, Olly of the Green Seekers shares a name with Fearne's father.
- There's a curious case of two different NPCs known just as "D", with explicit ties to two different player characters as well as previous campaigns. One "D" is Delilah Briarwood, who's the original warlock patron for Laudna; the other is responsible for Fresh Cut Grass being elevated to sentience, and heavily implied to be Devexian. Both are also The Ghost when they're first mentioned, although the first one not only reappears, but leads to an additional story arc.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: For Vasselheim. In Episode 64, it's noted that a bunch of armed forces from across Exandria are gathering at Jrussar—including a large contingent from Vasselheim. To quote tumblr user rainbowcaleb:Vasselheim never leaves, and they never send aid abroad—and yet they are here.
- Otherworldly Technicolour Hair: Imogen and her mother are humans who both have naturally purple hair, implied to be because they are Exaltant Ruidusborn, gifted with abilities by the red moon Ruidus which is actually a prison for a god eater.
- Our Fairies Are Different: According to Fearne, fairies in the feywild are pests on the level of New York rats.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Ela Lumas lost her twin children because of assassins who attacked them in a manner similar to how Zephrah was attacked.
- Pizza Boy Special Delivery: Episode 44 starts with all of the party staging a fake (with real being on the table) porno shoot to throw off intruders, which immediately turns into the "pool boy" variety - except it's Chetney, the oldest pool boy you'll ever see.
- Player Character Calculus: This group plays with the group's standard headcount of six or seven characters in a few ways.
- For the first time since 2015, the group adds a near-permanent eighth party member in Dorian Storm, played by Robbie Daymond. He is introduced along with the rest of the party in episode one and stays with them for several dozen hours before getting Put on a Bus. They make it clear it is only a matter of time before he returns.
- The episode "Reunited" sees the party grow to the largest size its ever been at ten. The whole group reunites and they are joined by three of their Guest Star Party Members as everyone catches up and introduces themselves. This process split among ten people takes the whole episode and notably is one of the few guest episodes with no combat. Given Dungeons and Dragons is designed with only four player characters in mind, this is probably for the best.
- Point of No Continues: Episode 55 reveals after Ludinus' machinations at the Apogee Solstice, resurrection magic has stopped working on Exandria.
- Power Nullifier: Post-Apogee Solstice, Divination magic has become weaker across Exandria. Any attempt to cast spells in the school ends in the caster getting hurt.
- Ramming Always Works: When the group can't think of any other way to sabotage the Ruby Vanguard, they default to sending their well-staffed and extremely valuable airship crashing straight into their base. Now, it does kill a lot of the enemy, sure, but A) the villains pulled up a forcefield that protected their big evil machine and B) the group had to rely on dangerous magic items for transport from then on out.
- Random Encounters: Whenever the group travels long distances, the party rolls a dice for each day of travel. Each number corresponds to a pre-written encounter Matt has on a chart. Some numbers correspond with nothing more than a change in weather, while others herald the arrival of massive monsters.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: While FCG's death was caused by bad rolls against a Living Legend of an NPC, it was also partially caused by Sam Riegel having to take time off the show to receive treatment for tonsil cancer. The duration of his hiatus was decided by this medical issue, as he had to relearn how to speak and swallow before he could return to the show.
- Refuge in Audacity: It wouldn't be Critical Role without this, but just to name a couple:
- The infamous basement porno shoot from episode 44, which started out as Chetney suggesting they do a Wounded Gazelle Gambit to explain their trespassing, but then going with the porno shoot just because it was funnier.
- Chetney's past with Deanna involved them Making Love in All the Wrong Places, like up and down the length of a beach, leaving body prints in the sand that practically played out the whole process. Basically a porno From Here to Eternity.
- Reincarnation Rivalry: Discussed. In the "Downfall" flashback mini-arc, 6 of the Prime Deities and 4 of the Betrayer Gods chose to reincarnate as mortals, growing up on Exandria until their memories of their godly selves returned so that they could infiltrate Aeor's anti-god shield and destroy the weapon there. Arcadia suggests they don't reveal their past lives to each other, so as not to stoke old rivalries for the sake of the greater good. However, Ayden and Trist, the mortal selves of the Dawnfather and the Everlight, are naturally suspicious of Milo Cowst, the obvious incarnation of the Lord of Hells, since he had previously betrayed her and killed most of the Everlight's followers. This turns out to have been exploited by Asmodeus, who used Milo as a front so he could operate in secret as Arcadia.
- Replaced the Theme Tune: The campaign doesn't use either the Critical Role theme by Jason Charles Miller or "Your Turn To Roll". For the first six episodes, a snippet of the eventual theme tune, "It's Thursday Night", plays over the show's logo in flames. Per Marisha, this is simply because the opening title sequence wasn't ready at the start of the campaign, but also because Travis is in the intro, and his actual campaign character joins the table at the end of episode 7.
- A Rotten Time to Revert: When Fearne transforms into a rat to spy on some city guards, one of them accidentally steps on her, breaking the spell in full view of them. They're not convinced by her claim that she slipped in to warn them about some dire wolves.
- Running Gag:
- Sam continues to play a small character whose race and class were chosen by Liam (automaton cleric), drink out of a comically large container (a gas can this time), and wear the same shirts he wore in corresponding episodes of Campaigns One and Two. And once again, like with Tary and Veth, he switches characters (sheets) mid-campaign.
- The game of "rollies", which is rolling dice to see who gets the higher number.
- Thanks to an oddly high number of successful perception checks, Sam has taken to deliberately talking over the perception whispers by simply re-reading his Product Placement from before the session started, often with help from the rest of the cast. By episode 80 they actually have a designated "whisper sponsor" (meaning it might have gone unread if nobody got a whisper!)
- Werther's Originals candy being either solely for old people or are hopelessly outdated.
- Fearne and Ashton stealing from each other at every opportunity.
- Whenever Laudna casts Message, the other players add creepy whispers and echoes to her statement.
- When someone describes their character as "making their way" to a location (which happens surprisingly frequently), at least one of the others will jump in and start Waxing Lyrical with "Making my way!"
- Sam referring to FCG having a "meat tongue", an actual tongue of flesh, which Matt vehemently refuses to admit into canon.
- In the spirit of the Leaky Nip from Campaign 2 (the result of confusing two different eating places, the Evening Nip and the Leaky Tap), the Soot 'n' Swill in Jrusar is often misread into the Sit 'n' Spin.
- There's one that started at the tail end of campaign 2, when Ashley had another tab on her device that played a video about scientists trying to recreate the voice of a long dead mummy, except
the audio was replaced with a sort of screaming goat sound,note which Ashley helpfully recreates. It started gaining traction in campaign 3 due to Ashley's new character Fearne actually being part goat. - Whenever Braius has to use a reaction to use his plate armor to impose disadvantage on attack rolls, Sam will always say its full name, "Truthbearer, Fabled Plate of Uther Vendrock".
- Russian Reversal: Prism Grimpoppy (guest player Emily Axford) is a socially inept apprentice mage, paired with Dynios, a much more powerful wizard sealed within her spellbook, who ends up giving her the You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech.Laudna: You're being read by a book!
- Sadistic Choice: Two in Episode 34. First (and somewhat simpler) is FCG choosing whom to Revivify between Fearne, Orym and Laudna; the choice is easier since he knows Fearne can use her own healing to help the others. The real gut kick comes when Fearne must choose between Orym and Laudna for the one Revivify spell she can use, toggling back and forth over Orym's self-sacrificial nature meaning he'd likely be willing to give his life for Laudna to live, and Laudna having already died once at the Sun Tree and potentially being able to come back again. In the end, Fearne's choice — decided by a coin toss — is Orym.
- Schmuck Bait:
- While on watch in Episode 17, Ashton and Laudna spot a little fairy-like creature. And despite knowing they shouldn't mess with it, they give in to the temptation to try and make contact, even waking up Imogen and Fearne to aid them. It is, of course, a trap.
- Ashton was warned multiple times that :absorbing the shard of Rau'shan would almost certainly kill him, while anyone else would be fine and probably get some cool powers out of it. Ashton proceeds to trick the Hells into letting them absorb the shard anyways. He barely survives the ordeal, and the only things he has to show for it are a new arm made of volcanic rock, a permanent two point reduction of his Constitution modifier, and the destruction of every bit of trust the party had in them.
- Sentimental Homemade Toy:
- The werewolf gnome woodcarver Chetney Pock O'Pea is a Grumpy Old Man (over 400, and proportionately grumpy), but as he becomes friends with the Player Party, he starts making each of them a personalized wooden toy.
- In an attempt at extending an olive branch after a power-up gone wrong, Laudna makes Ashton a doll that looks like him. Ashton is so genuinely touched that he nearly cries, and promises to try to be better as he carefully attaches it to his vest.
- Shape Dies, Shifter Survives: Polymorphed creatures gain the new form's Hit Points; lethal damage ends the spell and transfers any extra HP loss to the original form. This causes some embarrassment when the City Guards Fearne is spying on in rat form step on her, causing her to revert in front of them.
- Shipper on Deck: Rare literal example when BH briefly become guests on a ghost pirate ship, and in very little time, realise that the captain and the navigator have potential to be together. Unfortunately this was just after Fearne seduced the captain...
- Social Deduction Game: Matt Mercer takes some cues from games like Werewolf and Mafia in the first half of "A Test of Trust." An NPC tests the player character's trust by telling them two of them have been replaced by a shapeshifters and will try to prevent them from collecting three items they need to escape a cavern she's brought them to. Mercer expresses this in game mechanics by giving every player a card which tells them if they are themselves or a shapeshifter and how to act respectively. Naturally, the group quickly goes about testing each other for mistakes and casting doubt on everyone's actions, facial expressions, or even just their laughter.
- Sole Survivor: FCG's previous party all died while investigating a silver mine, except for them. They woke up afterwards without knowing what happened. Episode 31 hints that there was a reason for that.
- Stating the Simple Solution: In Episode 4, the group needs to get the name of a dwarf that they're looking for, managing to track his last known location to an inn. While everyone is discussing how to get the name from the tavern's owner — mostly coming up with ideas that are either risky or illegal — Ashton suggests just bribing the tavern owner to tell them the name. Twenty gold and some sly wording later, Ashton has a name.
- Starts Stealthily, Ends Loudly: Their mission to disable one of the Malleus Keys ends like this. They manage to subdue two guards, sneak in stealthily, do reconnaissance, and come up with a plan on what to. But once they destroy some arcane orbs, the whole thing explodes and alerts the guards, who up until this point had been totally unaware.
- The Stinger: Played for laughs at the end of episode 29, when the party leaves Bassuras for their next destination and Matt calls an end to the session... only to restart it again when they realize they left someone behind, and go back to the city to pick him up before leaving again.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The party are held up by brigands when they're on their way to the Calloways' hideout in Episode 30. Things go very badly for the brigands as Bells' Hells damages one of their crawlers with a bomb, Imogen blows up the main gun on another crawler with a lightning bolt that triggers its black powder, and Laudna blinds the driver of a third crawler, causing to drive straight off a cliff.
- Stunned Silence: When Laudna gets a killing blow on Fresh Cut Grass with her Hunger of the Shadow in episode 31, the entire table of players is silent and agape for several seconds—until Matt realizes he made a mistake with FCG's HP.
- Super-Power Meltdown: When Imogen first gives into her power as a Ruidusborn, she blows up a city block in a flash of white light.
- Teleportation with Drawbacks: The Staff of Dark Odyssey can cast the Dungeons and Dragons spell Teleport with several additional drawbacks besides the normal ones:
- For one, using it all does around 25 points of damage to the user. On top of the Teleport's spell potential to Tele-Frag you, this makes it really dangerous for the Squishy Wizards in the cast to use flippantly.
- More significant though is its limited use. Teleporting with the Staff uses nearly all of its power and cannot be used again until the next dawn, so if you end teleporting to the wrong place, you're stuck there for a full day.
- But the oddest malfunction is one that a guest player came up with on the spot. After a teleportation malfunction, Christian Navarro's character, F.R.I.D.A., started speaking exlcusively in Spanish and then manifested telepathy for the first time. None of these were drawbacks dictated in the Staff's description, but Christian came up with them in the moment and the party seemed to enjoy working through them.
- Temporary Party Member to Villain: In terms of guest player characters:
- Dusk joined the party after being rescued and told everyone she was close with Fearne's long-lost parents. She was revealed to the audience to be working with the Unseelie and later revealed to the party to be a changeling named Yu, who was hunting Fearne's parents down over their theft of the Moontide Crown and used Fearne to lure them out of hiding.
- After Bells Hells was split up on the Apogee Solstice, the half that landed in Issylra was joined by three guest players. After telling Team Issylra he was a simple shepherd with no magic experience and spending multiple episodes traveling and fighting with them, Bor'Dor was pressured by Deni$e into confessing his lies, immediately attempting to kill the group and revealing that he was one of the Ruby Vanguard who was fighting against Bells Hells on the Apogee Solstice. He became the first player character in the history of Critical Role to be murdered by another party member because of this. Even worse, according to
Utkarsh, Bor'Dor's original plan was to attempt to kill them mid-teleport.
- Tempting Fate: Before rolling one final death saving throw for a dying player character, Marisha says, "Fuck Ruidus," and rolls the Ruidus dice anyway. The red moon apparently didn't take kindly to the insult, as the die rolled a natural 1, and Laudna dies.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Dorian Storm has been known primarily for his clutch plays until episode 98."I cast Otto's Irresistible Dance! 16 TO SAVE! DANCE, BITCH!!"
- Time Zone Troubles: Jester impulsively delivers a magical Sending to Braius's estranged ex-fiancee, forgetting that she lives far to the east of their current location. It wakes her up in the middle of the night and goes downhill from there.Matt: ...being dusk here in Issylra, it is early, early morning.
Travis: That's never a consideration. - Toilet Humor:
- Sam's gas can, the latest in his series of comically large drinkware, says "I have gas" in the first episode.
- Jokes are made of FCG getting a chamberpot dumped on them in Episode 1.
- In Episode 5, Fearne finds a chamberpot in decrepit old house and decides to keep it, saying that she could clean it and use it as a big soup bowl. The rest of the party, already disgusted by her taking the pot at all, immediately shoot down the idea of using it for food.
- Turns Red: It turns out the big bad guy has been recruiting powerful people who have the ability to become "Exaltant" when subjected to near-death experience. That means that when fighting a random group of his minions, there's a chance one of them will start glowing and gain a whole bunch of new abilities to challenge the party with. This power also extends to the bad guy's Exaltant generals, giving an in-universe explanation for the bosses in this campaign to have a second phase.
- Useless Useful Spell: The group shies away from using powerful spells that impose conditions on enemies (think Polymorph, Command, Banishment) during boss fights because they know they could just use their Contractual Boss Immunity to ignore the effects entirely. You'll see them shooting Lightning Bolts and Scorching Rays most of the time.
- Visual Pun:
- FCG uses Spiritual Weapon to create an official-looking paper. It's a cordial invitation to an ass-whooping.
- FCG decides on a holy symbol for the Changebringer - it's a coin. Because it's the Changebringer.
- Waxing Lyrical: Many times during the campaign, if a spoken line can be remotely be linked to song lyrics, at least some of the cast will break out in song. The most common is the Running Gag of "Making my way".
- Wham Episode:
- Episode 3 introduces a creepy villain, who cements his status by ambushing and killing Bertrand at the end of the episode.
- Episode 14 ends with Dorian Storm (and his player, Robbie Daymond) saying "But Now I Must Go" to the group and leaving Marquet, exiting the show. Also, Imogen names the group as "Bell's Hells".
- Episode 17 has a few lines for characters' backstories. Also, the characters leave Jrusar to go into the jungle and head for the Heartmoor.
- Laudna: "My parents thought that getting an invitation to the palace, to the castle, to meet the lord and lady Briarwood was a great boon." This reveals that Laudna was one of the people hanging from the Sun Tree in Whitestone to serve as a warning to Vox Machina in Campaign 1.
- Orym: "It's to help me remember my husband." When Chetney asks about the moon tattoos on Orym's arm, Orym reveals it's a Tragic Keepsake to remember his husband Will, who died in the attack on Keyleth six years prior.
- Ashton: reveals his skin was not always made of stone, it slowly changed to stone when he was a child and he's not sure why, though he has theories.
- Fearne: tells the party that the last time she heard from her parents was when they sent her a postcard from Aeor.
- Episode 26 has some doozies. First, we learn that Dusk is secretly an agent of the Unseelie Court sent to kill Fearne's parents, and now is also out to kill Fearne to end the Calloway line. Then, we learn that FCG's creator Dancer might be alive after all. Then, we learn that FCG is really an Aeormaton from the Age of Arcanum.
- Episode 31 sees a lot of developments, especially for one particular member of Bell's Hells. Ira makes off with the Moontide Crown, Imogen updates the Voice of the Tempest on happenings, Dancer telling FCG to leave her alone because he knew what he did, the first actual inter-party fight happens when FCG snaps and buzzsaws Chetney, and The Reveal that FCG was likely the "one-eyed monster" that killed their party and salvaged their parts in one such rampage episode.
- Episode 33 hits extremely hard. A Curb-Stomp Battle with Otohan Thull killed Fearne and Orym. Thull manages to get Imogen to snap and give into her powers. FCG, the party's sole cleric, is now afraid of healing as he is unsure what it might do to him. The episode ends on a Cliffhanger, with Laudna between life and death, Letters trying to get to Orym in time for Revivify, and the party ending the episode seeing only "white". The beginning of Episode 34 also has Laudna die from this battle, diverging Bell's Hells into a desperate mission to bring Laudna back and to prevent Delilah Briarwood from taking her over.
- Episode 51 is the Apogee Solstice, so it's the climax of the Long Game. Ludinus reveals that he was playing the Long Game with a Batman Gambit by using Keyleth as bait for his real target, Vax'ildan, who shows up in a Big Damn Heroes moment for Kyleth, only to be compressed into a sphere and used as the final piece. The Malleus Key appears to go off despite Bell's Hells best attempts at interference, sending Ashton, Laudna, and Orym to an unknown location of craggy rocks. At the same time, Chetney, FCG, Imogen, and Fearne are sent thousands of miles away into a snowy desert, meaning the party has been split. On top of that, Ira was banished back to the Fey Realm, Imogen's mother appears to have made her choice to stick with the Ruby Vanguard, the Silver Sun is destroyed in a suicide crash, and there's a beam going from the ground to Ruidus, leaving a lot of fates up in the air.
- Episode 91 has perhaps the nearest Total Party Kill the cast has ever had as they face off in a rematch with Otohan Thull, Chetney outright dying in the first round of combat but being managing to be revived. In a final, desperate Heroic Sacrifice, FCG charges and detonates his core at point-blank range, killing himself and her. With just the head and a few other small pieces of the aeormaton body left in the aftermath, any chance of resurrection seems difficult if not impossible.
- Episode 92 begins like a normal episode. But then Orym tries to contact Dorian for the umpteenth time ever since he left and Matt asks everyone to leave the table in response. Everyone includes himself. Aabria gets in and takes seat at the DM's place: this episode is a crossover with Exandria Unlimited and now it's Matt, Robbie, Aimee, Anjali and Erica's turn to play.
- Episode 93 picks up from the cliffhanger of the previous episode. Opal tries to bargain with the Spider Queen, but she is adamant: either Opal convinces her friends to leave peacefully, or she will have her kill them. Eventually, Opal manages to charm Dariax and Dorian into going look for Orym; but she defies the Spider Queen as she is watching them leave, and the goddess retaliates by killing the already injured Cyrus. Morrighan, seeing her companions leaving and following the order of the Raven Queen, leaves too with Cyrus's soul and some uncorrupted crystal memory from Opal. Fy'ra Rai stays to realize that taking the Circlet from Opal would kill her, but she manages to bargain with the Spider Queen to remain as Opal's protector for as long as her interests align with the Wild Mother's. It's the end of the Crown Keepers. A couple of days later, Dariax and Dorian reach Zephrah: Dariax is tired to fight against gods and monsters, but Dorian wants revenge for his brother's death. Dorian leaves Dariax in a tavern to find Keyleth, and thanks to her he comes back to the Bell's Hells just as they return from their mission on the Moon.
- Episode 98 is a big one for many reasons. Bell's Hells find Sam's new character, a Paladin/Bard devoted to Asmodeus who infiltrated in the Ruby Vanguard with some fellow followers until the members of his previous group started to kill each other due to Dominox's influence. Many members of the party receive visions, but they take them mostly in stride and instead try to communicate with Dominox, who wants them to destroy the crystal that keeps it imprisoned. The Hells seem to be interested in a bargain, but eventually they end up fighting Dominox: thankfully the prolonged confinement and the starvation made the Grand Demon weaker than it would normally be, and the Hells manage to injure it and, thanks to the unexpected help of Ludinus Da'leth who opens a portal to the Abyss, they manage to kill it for good. Bell's Hells immediately try to attack Ludinus. The Archmage replies that he understands their reaction, but he just wants to talk and show them something he just found that could help them understand his actions. Imogen decides to follow him and everyone else follow her. Ludinus shows them an artifact from the last days of Aeor and activates it. Matt quietly leaves the chair and Brennan Lee Mulligan takes his place and starts narrating about a light palace the Bell's Hells are envisioning thanks to the artifact. The session ends and it is announced that the next three episodes are going to be a three-part special about the group of divine beings who caused the Fall of Aeor named Critical Role: Downfall, featuring Mulligan as the Dungeon Master and starring Taliesin, Laura and Ashley as players with the special guest Noshir Dalal, Nick Marini and Abudukar Salim. The fact that this episode was recorded live and an actual audience was there to react to one of the most shocking moments in the history of Critical Role is just the icing on the cake.
- Wham Line:
- A meta one in the first episode, revealing that one of the Exandria Unlimited players would be joining as a Guest-Star Party Member for the start of the show.Matt: I would like Liam, Ashley and Robbie to come to the table.
- Episode 6 has Laudna say that a Briarwood "lives in her head", suggesting that one of them is her warlock patron. Said patron communicates with Laudna later, where Laudna refers to them as "D", suggesting this patron is Delilah Briarwood.
- During the fight with Ira in episode 11, Chetney drops an amazing one: "You think Gurge has a gift? (starts growling, voice deepens) Wait 'til you get a load of me!" What follows is him turning into a werewolf.
- Separately during the same fight, Ira looks to Fearne and says "You smell familiar. Like home. Like...Calloway." Everyone theorizes he's had contact with her grandma, but episode 29 reveals he's been working closely with Fearne's parents.
- Episode 11 has Imogen finally get access to the school library, researching dreams, red storms, and psychic gifts. She eventually find a list of names. On that list is the name of Liliana Temult, Imogen's mother.
- In Episode 12, after Imogen uses Detect Thoughts to try and help FCG remember their past more clearly, Matt ominously tells Sam "you take 2 points." He doesn't specify whether that's damage, or a hidden character-specific mechanic, but there's clearly more to Letters than it seems. Episode 31 reveals that it is, indeed, a hidden character-specific mechanic, a "Stress Level" which grows high enough that FCG's eyes turn red and he attacks Chetney.
- Played for laughs in episode 13, with just a word rather than the whole line, when one of the guests at the classy ball casually mentions that he was at one time "Lord of the Quad-Roads" of Vasselheim. Everyone slowly realizes that he was the drunken hobo that got his fortune from the Deck of Many Things thanks to Grog himself — Grog never caught his name so the word "quad-roads" was the only clue!
- Special Guest Erika Ishii joins the table as Dusk, who just happens to have a locket with pictures of Fearne's parents, due to having met them. Come Episode 28 and Fearne's mother finally shows up, and...Birdie: (to Dusk) I don't believe we've met...?
- In Episode 29, Birdie reveals something that ties Fearne (and the Feywild) into the Ruidus Myth Arc.Birdie: You were born Exandrian, before we took you back to the fey. You were born under a flash of that ruddy-ass moon, and since we brought you back, that moon's been showing through in the Feywild, where it isn't supposed to be.
- Also in Episode 29, Imogen tries Detect Thoughts on Birdie and probes deeper. A failed saving throw prompts a long whisper from Matt that leaves Laura speechless, and she begins to convey what she learned to the party with one question.Imogen: (to Birdie) How do you know the Nightmare King?
- Episode 30 has the party meeting with Fearne's parents, who are building a telescope to look at Ruidus with the help of the Nightmare King. Everything seems on the up-and-up and Fearne's parents and their helper are all very forthcoming with what they're doing, but then just as the telescope is completely and the party is invited to look through it, Chetney drops a major bomb:Chetney: Fearne, you should really ask your parents why the Unseelie court asked your parents to stop building the telescope the first time.
- This is followed up very quickly after Chetney explains his reasoningnote by another Wham Line.Ollie: Ira, what are we building?
- This is followed up very quickly after Chetney explains his reasoningnote by another Wham Line.
- Episode 36 sees Pike (from Campaign One) giving one of these as she attempts a resurrection spell. She has to stop the ritual to revive Laudna from the dead because of what else — or rather, who else — she finds in Laudna's spirit.Pike: There's two souls bound to this body, and I can't separate them. Not like this. [...] And one of them is Delilah Briarwood.
- In Episode 51 amongst many tense moments, Keyleth endures a withering amount of attacks and damage from Otohan, only for none other than Vax'ildan himself to appear to her rescue.Matt: Otohan goes for a heart strike, and there is a dark flash in the air. You see where Otohan's blade was. Instead you see a cloak of feathers, black raven feathers. You see a masked figure with long dark hair who is now standing over and protecting her body, daggers in each hand:
- In Episode 91, during an absolutely grueling battle with Otohan that leaves most of the party unconscious, F.C.G. just barely survives an attack from the murderous monster, and then gets his turn.F.C.G.: In my berserk anger, fueled by stress, I will take out my Changebringer coin, I will hold it out in front of me, and I will cast, at my highest level left, Guiding Bolt, at level 4, on myself, straight through the orb portal glass thing, and I will aim it at my heart, and I will trigger a nuclear reaction, if at all possible.
- Another meta one in Episode 92. Matt asks everyone to leave the table. After the players leave, Matt himself takes his notes and leaves. After a shot of all the empty seats, Aabria Iyengar quietly walks in and takes seat at the DM's place.Aabria: I think it's time to see the other side of this story.
- A meta one in the first episode, revealing that one of the Exandria Unlimited players would be joining as a Guest-Star Party Member for the start of the show.
- "What Do They Fear?" Episode: The insecurities of Bells Hells are on full display in Episode 97 and Episode 98 as the Grand Demon Dominox haunts them with the visage of those they wronged or had a complicated relationship in the past during its attempts to eat their fears and manipulate them into releasing it from its ruined prison. It paints itself in the guise of Dorian's brother Cyrus accusing him to have caused his death with his actions, Imogen's mother Liliana accusing her of hating her for her absence and having left her to die on Ruidus, some children that Chetney might have killed during a rampage, and even as the recently fallen FCG accusing Ashton of having wanted their Heroic Sacrifice because Ashton can't bring themselves to die for their friends' sake.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: This campaign marks the first real case of this trope due to two unlikely races in the main party for the first time, an undead (Laudna) and an automaton (Fresh Cut Grass). While FCG is often regarded with genuine curiosity, and sometimes mistaken for a possession of one of the other main characters, Laudna is almost always striking fear into anyone around them (though, to be fair, that is explicitly one of Laudna's racial abilities). This becomes especially interesting in Downfall, when the Archeart — the literal god of beauty and magic — chooses to be reborn as the Aeormaton S.I.L.A.H.A., and the other Aeormatons are shown to have rights and lives outside of their programmed functions even under the rule of Aeor.
- Wizard Duel: The seven members of the group is tasked with restraining a single wizard before they can teleport away and it takes all their magic just to keep her occupied. They try to grab her telekinetically only for her to plant herself to the ground, trap her in cages of force only for her to dismiss the spell, try to tie her hands down with vines to keep her from casting only for her to switch hands, and finally, they have to drain all magic from the room to let their barbarian physically hold her down without getting enchanted.
- The Worf Effect: Bell's Hells's first fight against Otohan Thull opens with her knocking Ashton unconscious in a single round, just to hammer in how hopelessly outmatched they are against her.
