Critical Role Reveals Soldiers' Table and Motivations

The first of Critical Role's three tables has officially been revealed. Near the end of last night's episode, the Soldiers were revealed as Kattigan Vale (Robbie Daymond), Teor Pridesire (Travis Willingham), Thimble (Laura Bailey), Tyranny (Whitney Moore), and Wicander Halovar (Sam Riegel). The group's initial objective will be to track down the smuggler Casimir Gavendale, who betrayed a conspiracy to rescue condemned rogue Thjazi Fang and then left the city in pursuit of Teor's brother Cyd Pridesire.

Casimir's Crow Keepers (a thieves guild) had attacked Thimble immediately prior to the campaign, leading to her not delivering a glyph that would have transported him to safety. Meanwhile, Kattigan and Teor are old associates of Casimir, as they had all served in a mercenary group that rebelled several years prior to the start of the series. Tyranny and Wicander are joining the party as Casimir had dealings with Wicander's family House Halovar, and Wicander is seeking to rectify the wrongs of his family. Tyranny is seemingly loyal to Wicander, having made a pact with him to enter the Material Plane.

Two more tables will be revealed in Critical Role, presumably by the end of the next episode. One group, the Schemers, will likely look to take on the Sundered Houses and their growing influence on Dol Majkar, while the Seekers will likely be tasked with protecting Occtis Tachonis (Alex Ward) from his family and also exploring the state of the afterlife in the aftermath of the gods' death.

 

[Charlaquin]

Another banger episode. I must say, I was not expecting Wik and Tyranny to be Soldiers! Also, it seems like Tyranny is likely a Celestial pact, with Wik as her patron? Which is such a cool idea! After the first episode I thought the pair would be really grating to me, as the comic relief duo that clashed with the otherwise pretty tonally serious campaign, but they’re actually shaping up to be two of my favorites, which is a very welcome surprise.

It wasn’t said, but I suspect that at the end of the episode the players were already split up into their table groups, and that Julien, Occtis, Vaelus, and Taisha will be the Seekers with Bolaire, Murray, Azune, and Halandil being the Schemers. If so, next episode might be our first glimpse of the three groups’ dynamics, before we start getting full episodes dedicated to each group.

 

[Chaltab]

Looking back at my prediction after Ep. 1

Soldiers - Travis, Luis, Robbie, Laura
Schemers - Matt, Taliesin, Ashley, Whitney, and maybe Sam?
Seekers: Liam, Marisha, Aabria, and Alex (Maybe Sam if they split up Wick and Tyranny.)

I was right about Teor, Katt, and Thimble being soldiers but Wic and Tyranny joining them was likewise a huge surprise to me. (As well as Azune being left behind.)

 

[Charlaquin]

Looking back at my prediction after Ep. 1


I was right about Teor, Katt, and Thimble being soldiers but Wic and Tyranny joining them was likewise a huge surprise to me. (As well as Azune being left behind.)

I suppose in retrospect it makes some sense, since Azune has very strong ties in Dol-Makjar (or however it’s spelled), including his high rank within the local police force. We didn’t necessarily know the soldiers would be leaving the city, so it would have been hard to predict, but now that we know, I can understand the choice. Though, had we known the soldiers would be leaving, I would have been even less likely to guess Wik and Tyranny would join them, so

Seems like the Schemers are going to remain in the city and try to combat the houses in the political arena, very much the King’s Landing analogue subplot. And I wonder if the Seekers are going to be traveling the planes; at least Faerie and Death, trying to heal the metaphysical wounds left on the world by the slaying of the gods.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I thought Wic would be a soldier because of Sam's "I just want to play with my friends and kill stuff" attitude following his hiatus. The other tables sound more like hard work.

 

[Gorck]

I have to admit, those are 5 of my favorite characters from this campaign so far. So it looks like I’ll be anticipating the episodes with the soldiers’ table going forward.

 

[TiQuinn]

So I’m only halfway through Episode 3, and will pick up the second half when it drops on YouTube, but I love the way they’re using Celestials as potential adversaries based on the world building. That’s always been a bit of a conundrum with alignment based D&D in the past, and I really like the setting’s solution.