Pike's Deja-Vu

Anonymous asked: Watching back through everything from the beginning again, and I picked up on something I'd never really paid attention to before. In episode 1 at 55:05 pike (mercer) says "I feel like I've been here before." Have we ever learned what that meant, or is that another loose end waiting to be tied?

That was in reference to the vision Pike had of the Underdark, the same vision where she also ‘visited’ the sea of bone and glass that Vox Machina crossed in Episode 8.

Pike's Consequences

anonymous asks: I've been trying to hunt down the episode and time when Pike's Holy Symbol cracks after murdering an unconscious foe. Thank you for any and all help :)

Pike’s murderous actions (Ep07, 0:39:07) resulted in the crack in her holy symbol, first noticed as Vox Machina prepared to cross the expanse of glass and bone (Ep08, 1:26:27). Sarenrae repaired it in Episode 15 (0:48:56). 

Monster Analysis: Abyssal Abomination

Gif by Critical Role Source

• First appearance: 08 Glass and Bone
• Armor Class 20
• Speed 50 ft
• Immune to poison damage
• 450 damage taken, 42 HDYWTDT by Percy

The Abyssal Abomination is a Mercer original, an amalgamation of various fiends, aberrations, and other creatures by K’Varn to form one truly intimidating encounter, in an equally intimidating arena. “I tried to think of what sort of things K’Varn might try in his experiments, and also which of those would survive the experiments that K’Varn put them through,” Matt explained when we asked him about it. “‘Let’s see if this works … no. How about this …? That worked,’ before he sets it loose and goes onto the next one.”

The first version of the Abyssal Abomination.

In addition to the above abilities, the final creature also had a healing factor that regained 10 HP each round. This furthers the theme of an abomination that could survive K’Varn’s test, as one that could self-repair would definitely have a higher chance of living through them. Its poison gills provided another wrinkle to the battle, dealing an estimated 5d10 poison to those who failed the Constitution save (i.e., Trinket). Additionally, Matt reminded us that though its health started around 208, he modified it accordingly to provide an adequate challenge once he was sure of how many players would be present for the session.

The Sea of Bone and Glass provided another interesting element to the fight, one that the party approached with wisdom and caution both before the creature was encountered and during the fight. That said, the dice really didn’t favor the Abomination. It’s likely it would have been a significantly more difficult battle had they not been able to blind it for so long. (It also would have made figuring out its stats much easier if it wasn’t blinded, though we’re still pretty pleased with what we estimated before we got confirmation!)

We’d like to offer a huge thanks to Matt for providing both his notes and his commentary for this monster and the analysis!

anonymous asks: This blog is really entertaining, keep up the good work! As you were mentioning #LeaveTrinketBehind: How about the number of turns/spells/items that were used (wasted) on saving Trinket?

In an attempt to follow CritRoleStats Rule #6, the objective criteria we used to measure this one were:

• Would this spell/turn/item have been used without Trinket’s presence?
  • The uses of Seeming in Whitestone aren’t on this list because Vox Machina needed Scanlan to cast it on them to walk around the city, with or without Trinket.

• Likewise, could this spell/turn/item have been used on a member of Vox Machina, or to do something else, had it not needed to be used on Trinket?
  • Had Trinket not been there in Episode 13, Tiberius could have used one of his Fly castings on a member of VM, which is why it’s included on this list.

01 Arrival at Kraghammer

• Keyleth (1:17:55) Fog Cloud
• Keyleth (1:18:15) Wild Shape (Bear)
• Keyleth (1:18:15) Polymorph (Mouse)

08 Glass and Bone

• Keyleth (1:27:58) Polymorph (Kitten)
• Keyleth (2:38:09) Grasping Vine (already cast previously)
• Vex’ahlia (2:43:31) Healing Potion
• Pike (2:47:15) Cure Wounds

11 The Temple Showdown

• Tiberius (2:35:21) Fly

13 Escape from the Underdark

• Tiberius (1:32:28) Fly

17 Hubris

• Keyleth (3:01:13) Cure Wounds

19 Trial of the Take Part 2

• Lyra (1:19:30) Stoneskin

27 The Path to Whitestone

• Tiberius (3:00:28) Fly

28 The Sun Tree

• Keyleth (0:28:42) Cure Wounds

36 Winter’s Crest in Whitestone

• Keyleth (2:01:12) Polymorph (Human)

40 Desperate Measures

• Grog (0:45:27) Spent his turn moving frozen Trinket
• Pike (0:47:57) Cure Wounds

41 In Ruins

• Keyleth (0:50:00) Polymorph (Red Panda)

Seemingly

anonymous asks: How many times has Matt said "Seemingly" .... this will be a daunting task.

It was, indeed. Times Matt used “Seemingly” in a sentence: 20

Updated through episode 36.

03 Strange Bedfellows

• (0:37:14) “…meaning things were seemingly either fleeing…”

05 The Trick About Falling (rusty-diamond)

• (2:07:22) “… seemingly unaffected by the damage…”
• (2:10:50) “… seemingly unaffected by the additional damage.”

08 Glass and Bone

• (0:24:08) “You seemingly do so…”
• (0:27:09) “…the mountain, seemingly out of nowhere, extends…”

10 K’varn Revealed

• (1:05:28) “…seemingly unaffected by the bolt”
• (2:26:36) “This also serves as, seemingly, a laboratory for K’varn.”

14 Shopping and Shipping (rusty-diamond)

• (0:44:30) “… you’re all seemingly healthy and still here…”

15 Skyward (rusty-diamond)

• (1:21:52) “They are seemingly employees.”

19 Trial of the Take Part 2

• (1:08:34) “…this long, seemingly…”

20 Trial of the Take Part 3

• (1:10:41) “You pull it off, seemingly without him noticing.”

21 Trial of the Take Part 4

• (3:50:55) “Seeing this little druid girl, seemingly unphased…”

25 Crimson Diplomacy

• (1:54:50) “…standing there, seemingly unscathed by the event.”

29 Whispers

• (0:21:52) “…Seemingly uneventful…”
• (1:13:30) “…Seemingly without recurring incident.”

30 Stoke the Flames

• (2:02:01) “Largely empty, and seemingly unkempt”
• (2:04:02) “She’s gathered as much and is seemingly off-put by the whole presentation.”

31 Gunpowder Plot

• (p1. 0:15:24) “…with guards, all seemingly prepared.”

32 Against the Tide of Bone

• (2:56:00) “…as it seemingly, out of nowhere, this giant feast…”

35 Denouement

• (p1. 1:39:20) “Seemingly featureless across its body…”