HEY, there might be some SPOILERS under the thing 0:50 Yeah, but can we hear this song though? 1:55 Liam makes the case for trusting Travis 2:55 Sam’s Liam impression 3:50 Damning footage 5:15 SUBMIT the full clip 6:35 This bit has destroyed Matt’s game 7:35 Sam is gone forever 8:50 Laura’s merch corner 9:55 Intro cinematic 11:30 Episode Starts 13:50 Recap Ends 14:30 Jester creates a Tingle costume 16:05 Are there pics of Taliesin dressed as a strawberry? 17:20 Matt, how dare you bring that up? 19:20 Bailing on Beau 27:00 Jester thanks Fjord 29:45 We built this Fjord on roc and rolls 32:05 Hop on my filthy back! 37:35 The fearsome roc 41:40 Matt and Liam are communicating 43:30 Marisha is a bird momma 49:00 Feed that bird 53:30 High stakes bat wrangling 56:25 Laura angers the sound gods 59:45 Mounting Yonick 1:05:20 Listening for the roc 1:12:30 New Caleb 1:14:15 Beau went to Jared 1:22:55 We miss you, Eric 1:25:40 Sad horn 1:28:15 The new It Follows sounds great 1:36:30 Break Starts 1:45:20 Art Montage 1:58:00 Break Ends 2:05:20 Looks like we made it 2:13:10 Jester is here to help 2:24:25 Surprisingly well stocked 2:25:15 Repainting the sign 2:28:30 Obon-Wan 2:36:50 Oh no, not the flask 2:38:55 Yasha is shifty 2:39:45 That kind of alchemy doesn’t usually turn out well 2:41:05 Laura gets Sam’s eyelash 2:41:35 Fjord and Caduceus 2:48:40 MediClaytion 2:50:00 Yasha’s wakeup call 2:55:10 Sholdiers 2:57:15 Nott’s looking pale 2:59:40 Yasha intimidates Nott 3:00:40 Nott goes crazy eyed 3:06:20 Travis is smooth 3:10:35 Fjord is toned 3:15:40 Workshopping the message 3:17:20 She comes alone 3:18:20 The final message 3:21:00 Isn’t it ironic 3:25:45 Fjord narcs on Nott 3:38:15 Jester and Yasha 3:49:30 Caduceus catches Beau 3:56:00 Weirdly inspirational 4:02:15 The creepiest room 4:15:25 They’re so in sync 4:21:45 Well, hell 4:23:35 Orphanmaker 4:24:50 Episode Ends The in-game start date for the episode was the 11th of Misuthar 836. Sam’s flask says “New Flask Pro by Apple” Okay, well, looks like nobody sold us out to those Brits. I withdraw my endorsement of Sam. I don’t know who to believe anymore, for now I think the timestamps will be a neutral news organization until one or both sides actually try to bribe me for an endorsement. Any moments I missed? Feel free to post them here. Is it Thursday yet?

caleb widogast: significantly more talkative as an eagle than as a human

"A tomb with an exit. The worst kind." Congratulations, Taliesin, on saying the most Cleric thing anyone has ever said.

I feel like Taliesin's entire design for Caduceus was to make a guy who would unironically say ''Life needs things to live''

"You hold Jester's hand, that's your action?" "...Yeah."

3:12:57 Caleb: "You ever wanna talk about your feelings Caduceus?" Cad: "No not really" Jester: "I do" Caleb: "I know, Jester" Jester: "I'm sad" Caleb: "I know, Jester"

"Did we just defeat an entire village when it took us *DAYS* to leave a tree?"

Ukatoa: PUNISH....Return...*other singular words* Wild Mother: OOoooh hell nah.

I now rate: "Hey, Let's Just Climb that rilly rilly Big Tree" as the second biggest m9 sh*tshow so far, coming in just after the chaos of "Eh, Let's Just Go Talk To That Guy at the Docks" and slightly ahead of joint 3rd place classics: "Jester & Nott's Temple Shenanigans" and "Hey, We'll Just Go Scout That Hospital It'll be Fine".. XD

Fjord: "They might not look like much, but we are here to help" > looks back at his team "MOST of us are here to help" > Looks back again "Some of us are here to help" This I think is the best introduction of most "competent" adventuring parties in RPGs, especially the M9

1:10:35 if you also missed Jester stealing Nott's flask, congratulations! your passive perception is below 12

Me: Well, they wouldnt hurt a baby bird would they… *Getting Manticore Flashbacks* Me: Oh no… oh no…

I love how Taliesin's characters went from the party's eccentric cousin to the party's Uncle Iroh

Campaign one Grog- “I have an intelligence of six, I know what I’m doing.” Campaign two Caleb- “I have an intelligence of eight I know what I’m doing.” *Liam and Travis share a knowing look*

"Hi, I'm Liam O'Brien and my voice sounds like sad sandpaper..."

"You see a rock formation" Me, thinking he is still saying Roc: oh shit, they doing the flying V

Welcome to 'Liam wants everyone to know he can make a bird noise too' the episode

Liam assuming the Marisha-style perch is strangely threatening.

Laura: "she comes alone.... But she comes more with another person" Travis: "thats my wife, and the mother of my child"

It brings me no end of amusement that Travis is playing a character that is really insecure about not having huge muscles when Travis IRL is a giant of a man with very large arms.

Taliesin: "I'm gonna cast Bane on the Bat." Matt: "Ok, the bat is Baned." Me: "Oh I hear the sound of a back breaking."

I love how much matt genuinely enjoyed being a bat

Fjord as a pally of the wild mother and warlock of Ukatoa combine together into the surf and turf Fjord Fusion.

“That’s a 17 to hit” “You’re lucky I rolled a 4 on that one” You *WHAT*

I love that Taliesin actually takes on a paramedic-persona whenever he heals someone, asking people how they're feeling and explaining what he's doing to make them feel better.

I love Sam's absolute refusal to meta-game. He knew Jester stole Nott's flask, but stayed completely in-character and ignored the entire thing. Only his facial expressions showed his knowledge.

New motto for this campaign; "You can't tell from this distance"

Laura Bailey is just amazing. She just broke me with: “she comes alone… but she comes more with another person!”

"the orphan maker has arrived. where can we find you? do do do do-do do, do-do do do do-do, do do do" is the funniest message Sending has ever contained on this show

I love how Liam does bird body language mannerisms basically the whole time Caleb is polymorphed. It's adorable.

Liam and Matt having so much fun playing birds at each other is so pure. Never grow up, this is the best of life

Liam O'Brien: "Sometimes it makes me wonder why I even bring the thunder." A couple seconds later thunder strikes at my place

Jester: I have a crush on fjord Also Jester: ( Almost kills Fjord by Polymorphing the roc he was riding, plummeting him 70+ feet )

Matt: our first REAL rival has finally been decided [Roc] Taliesen: oh yeah cause Lorenzo wasn't that bad *sheds an Eldritch tear* not that bad at all.

seeing Matt so just innocently happy that his giant murder bird got turned into a bat and playing out the bat fight is litteraly the best thing that i have seen in a month, and the reason i keep watching critical role

20:45 Caleb saying “I have an intelligence of 8. I know what I am doing” is a throwback to campaign one when grog said “I have an intelligence of 6. I know what I’m doing.”

The party inspecting a tree for hours then just running past a whole group of orcs is such a classic painful dm-ing moment. but also what makes it great

Taliesin in the first campaign played the guy WITH serious issues, now in the second he plays the one who HELPS with other party members issues

My favorite part of the DnD Beyond soap opera is watching Laura, Taliesin, Ashley, and Matt react to whatever insanity their friends came up with

Mats reactions to Sam’s bits are like a very tired creative writing teacher watching his high school students preform that week’s assignment

Yasha's "I'm fine pressing on but I know for some of you that isn't wise" aka "I can handle my own shit but some of y'all are squishy and weak so let's be safe" is the epitome of Yasha's thoughtful yet awkwardly honest personality and I loved that line

I think they missed a trick by not calling this episode ‘Between a Roc and a hard place.’

Liam saying that Caleb was on the floor laughing in character when Jester did the boops at the end of her message... wholesome shit

I love that Liam is wearing that tshirt, I think "support your local library" describes the point where Liam and Caleb converge very well

Matt and Liam squawking at each other Is the funniest thing and I don’t know why.

"I have an intelligence of eight, I know what I'm doing."

Confirmed the traveler is just Matthew Mercer

I love the fact that Travis says I want to be as unappetizing as possible. Then turns into basically roadkill. A scavenger's favorite meal.

It's amazing how quickly the situation can shift from "lighthearted shenanigans" to "the creepiest survival horror"

"The Bat is Baned" *Dark Knight Rises theme plays in the distance*

Episode 3: Beau beats up a little girl. Episode 66: Beau hits a baby bird. Some things never change.

THEY REMEMBERED BEAU'S EVASION FINALLY

Travis after jester's lewd joke regarding yasha: *uncontrolled laughter* my wife, mother of my son...

I'm convinced the first hour of this session was a cancelled Monty Python skit.

There seems to be such a FINE line between the things that excite and terrify Travis.

Can a collection of words be MORE quintessential to Caduceus's personality than the phrase, "It's a tomb with an exit. It's the worst kind."

Fjord: "What do you do to connect . . . with . . . her? Caduceus Clay: " . . . Well, she's everywhere soooo, I mean honestly the best things to do are to sit still and breathe slowly. andah . . . One of the things I like to do althoughits harder to do in a place like this, is just, slowly count the number of sounds you hear and listen for each and every thing and start to name what it is as it goes by, and slowly . . . you'll see her and hear her in everything that is, that is around, every plant that's growing, every animal that's hunting. Uh, it's all . . . While her power may wax and wane depending on where we are, it is something that's always, nearly always, available?" I love Taliesin so much.

"The Orphanmaker has arrived. Where can we find you? Do do do do do-do doo~" Never change, Jester!

Fjord: *Teleports onto roc's back* My weak, pun-addled brain: For those aboard the roc, we salute you

Caleb: I'm gonna start weaving some sigils and casting these spells with the int- Jester: B E E S

Wow they should really make an app with guided meditations done by Talesin as Caduceus

14:05 - Caduceus and Yasha slowly deciding what to do while their friends are falling from a giant tree (and being hunted by a giant bird), is a big mood.

Caduceus: yeah this a holy landmark of my god Fjord: *gets saved by this god in a dream* Also Fjord: Ima thunder step

1:05:32 Sam was so into the narrative that he thought his life was in actual danger when he heard the bird sound, just look at the way his expression shifts and the absolute panic, followed by the "OH GOD"

“So your action is to hold Jester’s hand?” yes matt, this is my adorable emotional support tiefling cleric and holding her hand is a valid action

I love how Laura is regretting stealing the flask after hearing the alcohol prices and watching people buy it for Nott.

“Look I just watched John Wick 3” is a terrifyingly incredible thing to hear a monk say

I love how every single time a player makes an insight check Matt whispers something into their ear, that could very well be nothing relevant at all. But every single time this happens, everyone else goes crazy like they just broke the game.

That look of pure joy on Matt's face everytime he attacks with that bat.

"she comes alone, BUT SHE COMES MORE WITH ANOTHER PERSON" very nice

Sam Riegel’s D&D Beyond ads have more continuity than most prime time TV shows.

“How much?” “25 gold.” Laura: *uncontrollable Vex noises*

3:51:24 as soon as Matt mentions an obelisk (and especially with the daemons appearing around here) I immediately think of D&D Story: The Obelisk Encounter from Puffin Forest and Tomb of Annihilation.

Orcs: exist Jester: My suitcase of bees will handle this!

Love how Matt made that fireball trap just so Sam will try to search for traps in the future. Because he knows Sam only forget to detect trap for the fun of it. He always laugh when he gets paralyzed or poisoned or get spilled with acid traps because he knows his character can handle it.

This part reminds me of the time I was going through the Witcher III main story, and there was such a smooth logical transition between the quests, that I spent like 10 hours going through a string of absolutely separate side missions while being completely sure that it was a part of the main storyline. Couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened the journal after it finished and discovered that it was marked as a side one. Literally couldn’t place the moment I strayed away from the main story. It’s the same with the flow of this story. They came to Xhorhas on Nott’s quest, and basically while still being on Nott’s quest they somehow start unwrapping both Caleb’s and Beau’s quests with the Luxon thing and while doing that, never even looking the other way (well, except for the tree), they somehow find themselves full scale into Yasha’s quest at the same time.

Jester sending doo doo doos into the mind of a very evil man has made me laugh harder than almost anything else all month. Laura Bailey is a treasure.

"you're a leaf on the wind, nothing bad ever happens to a leaf on the wind"... HOW DARE YOU MATTHEW!!

As a struggling alcoholic, it's really relatable how Sam portrays Nott's dependence on alcohol. I know he makes jokes about it on Talks, but when he's Nott, he really does commit to the addiction. And I appreciate how Caleb recognises that Nott's needs are serious, and it is not up to anyone else to decide when or how she should quit. Stealing the flask was not cool, but I love that Laura did it. Jester was just being Jester (heart in the right place coloured by naivety)

58:12 Caleb giving Beau a piggyback ride while picking fights with a baby bird. And below, the mama roc is a bat, inside of a cloak, fighting with Cad and Jes. Edit: Jester is STILL in the leaf costume, Nott and Yasha are trying to get Yannik to listen, the fuckin bat-roc/roc-bat is pissed. This episode is literally batshit crazy lmaodkslsl

Matt for president. He always thanks D&D Beyond. Liam and Sam forgot what it's all about, man.

"Let lie the king's instrument, deathless and detained, until the world ends." Matt has been reading Lovecraft.

"did we just defeat a whole village in like 30 seconds? but it took us days to leave a tree?" dnd in a nutshell

M9: Obann is moving we need to go Also M9: Spends half a day climbing up the tree and looting the nest

Okay but the fact that Laura doesn’t fucking break while Nott is lucking for her flask while Matt is red of laughter is just amazing

Caleb: *spends a bunch of gold on booze for Nott* Fjord: *spends a bunch of gold on booze for Nott* Caleb & Fjord: *don't actually give any of said booze to Nott* Me: ????????

3:23:35 Travis insight checks Matt for 20 straight seconds and it's adorable

Ok so I have an idea of how Sam is rping Nott with the missing flask. I believe Sam knows it was Jester who took it (she whispered but they’re next to each other and it looks like he realized). However, Nott doesn’t know this. Even with her heightened paranoia due to withdrawal she never questions Jester. I think this is because she truly trusts Jester. She definitely trusts Caleb and never accuses him of stealing and asks him to help. She does the same with Jester, asking her to use locate object, she even leaves it be when Jester used lesser restoration and says that she needs to save her spell. On the other hand, she instantly accused Yasha, specifically saying that she doesn’t trust Yasha and thinks she shifty. After that doesn’t work out (Nott pickpocketing Yasha and not finding it), she moves on to the next person she doesn’t like or is wary of. Fjord, we all know they have this dynamic so this makes the most sense. She never accuses Jester or Caleb and instead only asks then to help not anyone else. If she accuses anyone else next I believe it would be Beau as she knows that Beau has always been shifty. Cad would also be an option if he wasn’t well ya know Cad. This whole stupid theory rant was just to show how much Nott trusts Jester compared to the rest of the party (Caleb being the exception for obvious reasons).

Damn. I was just listening to the show, not actively watching it, and I didn't hear Laura narrate that she was stealing Nott's flask. That was perfectly timed. Everyone was talking and distracted. Beautiful.

I love how Tals pendant sits perfectly in the middle of the upper circle of the DnD “&” on his shirt

"You're a leaf on the wind, nothing bad every happens to somebody who's a leaf on the wind." NO! BAD MATT! NO! TOO SOON!

jester reassuringly saying "im still with you" sent me back to the happy fun ball fight and ouch my heart

You merely adopted the Wildmother. I was born with her, raised with her.

Vox Machina :: LET'S FIGHT A DEMI-GOD!!! Mighty Nein :: LET'S NOPE AWAY FROM A CREEPY DOOR!!!! Total opposites.

Yasha: The sun'll come out, tomorrow! The Krin: It better fuckin' not.

I love staring at Matt's face when one of them gives a wild guess and we know they're close to the truth from future episodes but his face gives almost no reaction to it. And then every once in a while someone looks at him to also look for cracks in his demeanour.

I seriously would have loved if that Roc did end up chasing them forever lmao, just every random episode is it finding them haha

I love Liam, especially after watching him rp as an eagle.

I’ll be honest, a Harp designed for Rock/Metal sounds sick, especially considering that a video exists on KZfaq where someone made a metal song with a harp and it sounded fantastic.

Liam: "We will pay premium." Also Liam: *Tries to bargain.*