I mean, if anyone was gonna get it, it was always gonna be Brennan. This is his lore, and Matt retrofitted it perfectly, just like Brennan did with EXU Calamity.

I thought I wouldn't love Matt's additions to the ACoC on episode one. I don't like grand conspiracies orchestrating massive plots like the FDA--but the twist on their true nature was good, and this Lovecraftian addition to the lore was just so bloody good. And the end boss was heartbreaking in the best way. I was so sure by the end that more than half the party would die.

@@Spiritoftherain I was taken back at first too, but now I'm realizing there's this neat parallel. EXU Calamity had this grand knowledge of a prequel of "Whatever happens, the heroes will lose" and it turned into a series of well-known, public heroes, accidently being involved in this grand conspiracy unwillingly that brought upon the Calamity. Then in ACoC:RW it starts with these relatively unknown heroes uncovering a conspiracy, a conspiracy that will bring about a calamity to the kingdom. I'd a nice rally between the two of them, but I also found it jarring to start with "secret council controlling everything".

I honestly stopped after the first episode of Ravening War. Not because there was a secret council, just because it felt like none of the players' choices seemed to impact anything. Like Aabriyah's character being forced to be an idiot and ignore obvious evidence that Raphaniel was lying, or their skills which were basically tailor made to figure out at least *something* about this mysterious council not being able to determine anything, and then at the end there's a big time skip that made the whole session feel totally pointless. It would take a *hell* of a second episode to make me change my mind.

@@jessicafrost7579Well a lot of what you complained about is explained later on, and if you don’t find the ongoing deception check joke funny and are in fact THAT put off by it then I don’t know what to tell you

that line is a reference to the lovecraft quote about strange aeons lol

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die." - It's from the Call of Cthulhu and The Nameless City by HP Lovecraft, as an in-world quote from the Necronomicon by the "mad" Abdul Alhazred who Raphaniel embodies here haha.

He was riffing off very well-known lines from Call of Cthulhu. He changed it enough to fit the current situation and it's still incredibly witty, but it's not like he assembled the framework off the top of his head.