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.

 

[overgeeked]

Which I think you and I are at least in agreement was awesome!

Yes, it was an awesome scene. The only way it could have been improved is if he did pull the trigger.

Had he actually just killed her instead of giving that warning, that would have struck me as too fast of an escalation with too little warning.

We're reading that scene differently. To me every word from his was a warning. His manner from the start was "Go away, kid, you bother me." He warned her off and so did the Dean several times. But she didn't listen until he literally threatened to kill her. That was a whole lot of Marisha either completely misreading the scene or choosing to ignore the warnings.

Well, I mean, she did listen. And she walked away from that interaction alive, and thanks to a lucky saving throw, unharmed. I was even fine with him saying “if you keep talking to me, I’ll kill you where you stand.” That was a very clear and direct warning that the character was in immediate danger, which she heeded.

She did eventually listen, yes. There was more than one warning. Practically every sentence out of the guy's mouth was some version of "Why are you talking to me, speck?"

 

[Chaltab]

She did eventually listen, yes. There was more than one warning. Practically every sentence out of the guy's mouth was some version of "Why are you talking to me, speck?"

Still don't see how that escalates to a murder threat when he was the aggressor in that situation. Real Karen energy.

Wait he's a necromancer.

Real Charon energy.

 

[Charlaquin]

Yes, it was an awesome scene. The only way it could have been improved is if he did pull the trigger.

We're reading that scene differently. To me every word from his was a warning. His manner from the start was "Go away, kid, you bother me." He warned her off and so did the Dean several times. But she didn't listen until he literally threatened to kill her. That was a whole lot of Marisha either completely misreading the scene or choosing to ignore the warnings.

She did eventually listen, yes. There was more than one warning. Practically every sentence out of the guy's mouth was some version of "Why are you talking to me, speck?"

I mean, “go away, you bother me” and “why are you talking to me, speck” don’t usually translate to, “I am about to kill you.” That’s what I mean about the escalation being very fast. Which is fine, that teaches us something interesting and valuable about the character, that he can and will kill over a minor annoyance. But, until he actually said he was going to kill her, she had no way of knowing that was what his repeated warnings were hinting at. She probably thought he was threatening her career, something she might have been more willing to risk in that moment than her life.

This is a little bit analogous to like, using the bodies of dead adventurers to hint that there’s a dangerous monster or trap nearby. It doesn’t take a genius to recognize that hints at danger. But, it’s easy to misread how much danger it’s hinting at. Does it mean “this is way above your CR, you will die if you proceed?” or does it mean “a tough but winnable challenge?” Or does it mean “get ready for a fun fight that will show off how much more powerful you are than these poor dead saps?”

Likewise, the rich noble NPC acting annoyed at you may warn something, but what? That he’s going to kill you? That he’s going to cast a nasty save-or-suck spell at you? That he’s going to get you fired? That he’s going to make your job inconvenient and hope you resign on your own? That he’s going to trade verbal blows with you and then storm off in a huff? All of those would be reasonable guesses, and if you think it’s anything other than the first one, and then he kills you, that’s going to be a pretty frustrating experience. If, on the other hand, he actually says “If you keep talking to me, I’ll kill you where you stand,” and then you keep talking to him… yeah, that’s not unfair, that’s messing around and finding out. Or, if he says that and you leave, you get to learn how unhinged this NPC is without losing your character. Both are preferable alternatives to him just killing you without any more warning than signaling that you’re annoying him. Which is why I’m glad that’s what actually happened. It was pretty cool.

 

[nyvinter]

I thought he just said that Primus wasn’t performing any spellcasting components but not necessarily that he wasn’t the one casting. But I could also be the one misremembering. I do remember that the implication seemed to be that it wasn’t from Primus, and my assumption was actually that he had some invisible henchman in the room doing it. Which I thought the scene at the end of the episode kind of soft-confirmed for me. But, I was holding the possibility in my mind that it may have been Primus after all and he may just have some special ability to cast without components.

Yeah, just rewatched that part and my bad. The curse comes just as he stares down at Murray so it implies that he did so with some metamagic. And after this failed Murray continues to poke and call him Primus so his first reaction was not to kill but to embarrass.

So it went (1) "stop assume you're on my level, commoner." (2) Curse when that continued. (3) Warning that he would kill her if she continues to speak to him. (4) Murray still don't take the hint until the dean counterspells and sends her out.

Is it an overreaction? Of course. But they also forced the first public execution of the state because "Thjazi killed some of their guards". Overreaction for every conceived affront to their pride seems to be what they do.

 

[Retros_x]

At any rate, I hope the similarities to Game of Thrones this campaign are superficial at best.

If you are not familar with GoT, you couldn't tell the difference anyway? But don't worry, the only similarities are powerful noble houses in a political struggle.

Great episode, really enjoyed it, the plot starts to get momentum and I really enjoy the characters. Almost all of them have something interesting or intriguing for my taste and the dynamics between them are already great.

 

[overgeeked]

The much discussed scene starts around the 51:30 mark. If we‘re talking about escalation, Primus insults her teeth as the 2-3 thing he says to her and her response is a literal F you. It goes hot from there rather fast.

 

[wicked cool]

Wow what an episode especially the ending

I didn’t see/expect the soldiers table outcome but it’s going to be enjoyable

I have 1 complaint- did it feel pre planned? Almost felt like they knew before the episode where they were supposed to go especially when one goes all wolf form . Now I assume schedules were laid out ahead of time but the one character going into wolf form to run into another scene felt forced along with other characters in that group. I went 2 smoothly

Still outstanding plot and acting

 

[Charlaquin]

If you are not familar with GoT, you couldn't tell the difference anyway? But don't worry, the only similarities are powerful noble houses in a political struggle.

I seriously wasn’t comparing the campaign to Game of Thrones in any significant way, I was just saying I expected the Schemers’ episodes to take place in Dol’Makjar and involve lots of politicking, like how in Game of Thrones the episodes focused on King’s Landing involved lots of politicking… I could just as easily have compared it to, like, Washington DC.

 

[Charlaquin]

Wow what an episode especially the ending

I didn’t see/expect the soldiers table outcome but it’s going to be enjoyable

I have 1 complaint- did it feel pre planned? Almost felt like they knew before the episode where they were supposed to go especially when one goes all wolf form . Now I assume schedules were laid out ahead of time but the one character going into wolf form to run into another scene felt forced along with other characters in that group. I went 2 smoothly

Still outstanding plot and acting

I mean, they obviously know which of the three groups they’re all going to be in, and that they need to be split up into those three groups by the end of episode four. If that’s too much pre-planning for your tastes, I don’t know what to tell you. There’s really no other way they could have done this whole three-subgroup structure and had a four-episode overture with all three subgroups involved.

 

[wicked cool]

Wow what an episode especially the ending

I didn’t see/expect the soldiers table outcome but it’s going to be enjoyable

I have 1 complaint- did it feel pre planned? Almost felt like they knew before the episode where they were supposed to go especially when one goes all wolf form . Now I assume schedules were laid out ahead of time but the one character going into wolf form to run into another scene felt forced along with other characters in that group. I went 2 smoothly

Still outstanding plot and acting

I mean, they obviously know which of the three groups they’re all going to be in, and that they need to be split up into those three groups by the end of episode four. If that’s too much pre-planning for your tastes, I don’t know what to tell you. There’s really no other way they could have done this whole three-subgroup structure and had a four-episode overture with all three subgroups involved.

i agree but let’s play devils advocate

1) why and how much did they know. Did Travis know before his rescue that he was traveling with Sam? Was aabria told before and then runs to her destination. Never seen this before and no it’s not 2 much but yet felt scripted

2) if let’s say Laura failed her death save was her new character always a warrior group

3) occtis appears to have a bond with another group but then is seemingly moved to another. It didn’t feel like a natural fit after what just happened

I have zero problem with it as I’m all in for now watching but at some point I’d like to know what the cast knew