"4-Sided Dive Episode 20: Discussing Up To C3E82" (4SDx20) is the twentieth episode of 4-Sided Dive, discussing episodes of the third campaign up through "Rush for the Bloody Bridge" (3x82) with guests Laura Bailey, Ashley Johnson, Marisha Ray, and Sam Riegel, and featuring guest host Abubakar Salim.
Synopsis[]
The Emmy Award-winning Sam Riegel was chosen to be the 20th Tavern Keeper for the night. However, Sam decided to bring an actual host for tonight and introduces Abubakar Salim to take it away.
What the Fuck is up with That?[]
- Fey Realm Therapy and Nana Morri's tests: Sam and Matt talked about it prior to the game. Sam gave him some topics that FCG would want Bells Hells to work on to, which were Honesty, Trust and Communication, and two potential activities for each of those. Sam says Matt took those ideas and made them way better. They learned a lot during the Honesty trial: Orym and Chetney said sad stuff and Chetney has a family out there. Sam does not understand Chetney because he's got this whole family but doesn't have any interest in them at all.
- Abu can relate to the family thing and starts a sad monologue. Marisha promises she will put him on Candela Obscura or something. Abu admits he is a chaos player, and Laura says he and Travis would be phenomenal in a game together. Marisha adds that they have category buckets for certain players to give an idea of their play style, and Abubakar will be in the "Will hit red button" category.
- Back on the Fey Realm therapy... Sam thinks there's more in Chetney's reveals but he won't say it. Laura says Chetney is the heart of the group, because he always checks in with everybody but pretends he's a total hard ass about things. That might just be Travis. Laudna sometimes goes to Chetney for advice because Marisha just want to hear it from Travis. Hearing Imogen saying she's disgusted with Delilah being there all the time and watching them, Marisha has still those words playing on repeat in her head. It's so fucked up. The Wisdom saving throw was for the impulses that Laudna sometimes feels within herself, but Marisha doesn't know how much is Delilah's impulses versus Laudna's. It's hard to be a dead lady with a dead lady in your head.
- Speaking of embracing the darkness within, let's move to Fearne and the fire shard. Ashley says both she and Taliesin severely misinterpreted the assignment. BUT, there were moments where Matt described it as a spark for the shard, so she thought it was going to set something off. So by giving it to Ashton, she thought it could turn them into who they're supposed to be. Ashley and Taliesin were on that page but the second it went bad for Ashton and the shard, she was like, "Oh no". Fearne didn't want the shard because they were in an Ashton-centric moment and she thought Fearne wasn't supposed to have the shard. Also Fearne is already "fiery"-- does she need more?
- Watching Ashton exploding was awful. Ashley thinks there's still a conversation that Ashton and Fearne need to have. Fearne's anger wasn't so much towards Ashton; it was watching him almost die because of a decision they both agreed upon and also it was embarrassment too. It was a fuck up on both their parts and definitely on Fearne's as well.
- Marisha says the first and biggest immediate red flag before that moment was when Ashton said he was going to do this away from the group. That felt deliberately shifty. It felt shifty for for Ashley/Fearne too; she wasn't so sure anymore.
- Laudna and Delilah. Laudna let herself going into the darkness a bit more with Delilah when she was in the Parchwood Timberlands near Whitestone. Laudna hasn't talked about it with Bells Hells yet, not even with Imogen. Marisha says Laudna let Delilah's intrusive thoughts go through. Sam says the problem is that power, even evil power, could be handy in the future, like Imogen's Ruidus stuff, Chetney's wolf, and FCG's temper.
- Sam reminds them that FCG is a bomb that the group can blow up if they are in a sticky situation.
- Back to Ashton with the fire shard... There's a part of Ashley that thought maybe Taliesin wanted this to happen, for his character. As players doing this for so long, you want to let the other player to explore more his idea, but sometimes it can go wrong for the character.
- FCG's stress. There are some of FCG's features and abilities that when used, build stress in FCG. For instance, when he Sympathetically Bonds to everybody, he takes stress. When one of Bells Hells gets hit and FCG reduces the damage, he takes that in form of stress. The things that FCG does to help his allies cause him stress but some of the stress goes away at the end of the day.
- Laura says this campaign is very interesting because everybody created characters that are working against themselves. Sam says in prior campaigns, their characters had flaws, but here, most of them are actively compelled to do something that harms either them or their friends, like Fearne being compelled to steal in the worst moments.
- Laura expected Fearne to try to get Percy's spectacles. Ashley says the burning desire to do it was there, but Fearne thinks twice now because it can fuck up the whole day. It's growth. Sam suggest that Fearne's true growth would be not to prevent herself from doing that completely, but that she needs to be honest about it and talk with the group about it. That's probably the worst advice ever.
- Imogen and Ruidus. Imogen has fully given in to the moon now. It seemed to Laura that it would be good knowledge to have. Imogen always resisted the pull from the moon in her dreams and Sam really wanted her to let it go and was happy when she did it, but maybe it was the wrong time. What if they know what Imogen did? It could be bad for Bells Hells who have now just arrived on Ruidus. At least Imogen warned the group that she would have a dream and give in to Ruidus.
- There are multiple factions of Reilorans: some are clearly bad and some might be good people. There's a whole ecosystem on Ruidus, which is a piece of Exandria. Dani Carr jumps in! It's a prison for Predathos but since Ruidus separated from Exandria a long time before The Calamity, there's been some time for this piece of Exandria to adapt, evolve and become something new, whatever was on that piece of land. Predathos was also able to manipulate and twist the life around it.
- Nana Morri and her deals. Both Orym and Chetney made a deal with her. Chetney's deal was badly worded according to Sam, since it could mean anything: "the most notorious toymaker on Exandria". Orym's deal was that everyone would make it back safely after the mission and he would serve Morri. If Dani was Orym, she would come back and serve Morri a sandwich and then done, goodbye, deal fulfilled. Orym shared with the group how lonely he is, maybe he could use a love of his life at some point, but he has more of a need to take care of people that comes before his loneliness. Grief and depression can do a lot to an individual and one bonding session is not gonna be enough to break that.
- Marisha says everyone in Bells Hells leans way more on the belief that they're not coming back alive from this that their previous characters did. Maybe it's because they feel so low level compared to what is happening. Dani reminds the cast that the Mighty Nein, right before going to face the Somnovem, had also a goodbye tour and Fjord reassured everyone.
- Race to Ruidus. Bells Hells infiltrated the Bloody Bridge with the help of a diversion. Bells Hells was supposed to do an additional diversion, like taking a tent and flying through the hole, but they didn't and just snuck in. Also, they have a Reiloran transformed into a possum with them.
Spreadsheet of Inquiry #1[]
- As an actor, what part of your character is the juiciest to dig into? Was it something you added intentionally, or did it arise organically in play? Additionally: How do you collaborate to facilitate those situations while in game? For Sam, you need to come with some things prepared in advance or else you're just going to be floundering; Marisha enjoyed diving into the relationship because that's always fun, but also relationship tension is fun; Laura doesn't like conflict at all, even in game; Ashley likes inter-party conflict in game but hates it in real life; Abubakar likes to come with some things for the game he likes to discover as they go along in the story. Also, you have to have a group of people that are cool with that too.
- Throughout the campaigns, there are various plots and subplots that player characters and non-player characters become a part of. What are the determining factors for you when deciding whether or not to pursue any of these threads? Matt is pretty good at giving some options early on in the game. This campaign in particular is very moon related, maybe because as soon as they heard the word "moon", they were immediately excited. The Fey Realm tangent was not plot related but everybody in Bells Hells was on edge and needed a break without losing time. The cast choose the plots to pursue because they like them. For example, in Campaign Two, the choice was the Empire or the resistance, and they went straight to Rosohna.
- "What are three visual details about your characters that you enjoy seeing in fan art? I.e. weapons, accessories, poses, symbolism, palettes, emotions/expressions? Marisha loves seeing people's interpretations of Laudna's Form of Dread, especially the more spooky and creepy ones and also Pâté. Sam likes fan art of FCG in human form. Laura likes seeing freckles and glasses on Imogen because she really wanted her to have glasses, and told Matt she wanted to find glasses in-game. When they did (the Eyes of Charming), they went to Fearne instead, and then Fearne gave them to Gwendolyn de Rolo. Ashley just loves all the fan art.
The Deep Dive[]
- Ashley: How does Fearne feel about Chetney making a deal with Nana? How would she feel if she knew Orym had made a deal as well? She thinks it's fantastic. Fearne thinks the absolute world of Nana and she hasn't seen the repercussions or consequences of deals gone bad, so she doesn't fully know what could happen. Yes, there are the "bush people" but Fearne doesn't know why they're that way.
- Marisha & Laura: How are Laudna and Imogen feeling about the state of their relationship right now? Delilah is once more part of the equation and Imogen is more drawn to Ruidus than ever. They haven't talked about it in game yet, but Delilah's presence might affect their intimate times. Regardless, Marisha thinks it's exciting because in-game they've always had happy relationships, and this could get juicy.
- Sam: How is FCG feeling about the Changebringer after the conversation in Whitestone? He trusts her less but there aren't really other options, like "god-shopping". She's helped a bit but has acted a bit cagey.
- Marisha: Despite Laudna's own nerves about their chances on Ruidus, she was the one encouraging the others about the moon and encouraged Fearne to take the shard. Is Laudna's resilient optimism coming to the forefront again? Laudna will always try to be optimistic, maybe to a fault. Laudna/Marisha said it was "the Season of the Witch" and was leaning into giving in to the power just a little bit. It's a little chaotic, a little optimistic but also a little scooch of that probably power-hungry kick that she has in the back of her neck.
- Ashley: What was it like for Fearne to go off on her own in the woods of Whitestone? Did she consider leaving Bells Hells or did she just needed some space? She just needed some space. Fearne is uncomfortable with showing her emotions. There was a lot of tension and she didn't know how to handle what was going on, so she went away to deal with this on her own and then come back in a very unhealthy way by pretending everything is fine. Even with the Fey trials, at some point, she will get a little bit more comfortable with being able to talk about her feelings. Fearne grew up with the Fey creatures that Morri created and didn't really have other social interactions.
- Sam: With the successful group bonding, does FCG feel like they are getting better at therapy? How does he feel about having his memory taken by Nana Morri? It was the best therapy session that FCG has ever been a part of by far. The problem is, he's not sure how much was him and how much was Nana Morri. He hopes at least half of it and also hopes he will organize other therapy sessions like that.
- Marisha: Did Laudna consider reaching for Pâté for comfort when she was in Delilah's grasp? How does she feel about her familiar now that he can actually talk to her? Pâté came about later in Laudna's journey, so Delilah was first for a long time. But being close to Whitestone and Delilah's influence, Laudna reverted and went back. Pâté is great but he's not a complex conversationalist; he's there to keep her sane and he's basically an extension of Laudna's subconscious. So with him, she's really talking to herself whereas Delilah is a whole other thing.
- Laura: What was it like for Imogen to trust her friends as they guided her during Nana's test? It was great.
- Laura: How does Imogen feel impersonating her mother or leaning into being Liliana Temult's daughter at the Key? Very nervous about it. She doesn't know her at all and has no real memories of her. Imogen is conflicted about who Liliana actually is. Imogen always heard her voice when she was a kid when she had a nightmare and she knew it was her mother protecting her. But now Imogen is not so sure; she didn't help during the beginning of the Apogee Solstice. So Imogen apparently read it wrong and her mother is in fact a terrible human being.
Spreadsheet of Inquiry #2[]
- If given the opportunity, do you think your character would rather meet their past or future selves? And why? FCG wants to meet his past because he doesn't know who he was exactly or if he's more than that; Fearne can go either way but that will scare her in both; Laudna wants to meet her past because of Matilda when she wasn't already burdened and also, she's already dead, what's her future?; Imogen would go into the future because she wants to know if she went bad or not.
- What is the most fascinating aspect of Exandria's world-building to you? (e.g. myths, legends, geography, fauna/flora, culture, etc.) For Sam it's the complexity. For example, there's probably a reason why a flower has a certain name but only Matt knows it and they will discover it three years from now. Marisha is impressed by Matt's concept of time and the fact that things keep happening in the world even if the party isn't directly involved in them, and how to avoid the "main character" syndrome. For Ashley, it's the rich history of a place, like the Barbed Fields. Tt was so visual with the spikes and Matt gave some informations but there's more to uncover.
Let's keep talking![]
- What accessory would your characters have secretly or not in their inventory? Fearne has had people's braids in her pockets since Exandria Unlimited Prime because she just loves it. She also collects teeth because Ashley likes teeth. Maybe it's the endgame of Fearne to become a tooth fairy. FCG obviously has a teledildonic device. At the beginning of the campaign, Sam had the idea that FCG would've saved and liked different motor oils but he dropped it. FCG also has some baking stuff. Imogen has a scarf, a green ribbon and the Scarf of Intrusive Intent; Laudna has her scissors, but Marisha thought a lot about FCG's lost Coin of Delving because losing it made him so sad.
- Abu: What class are you playing in your D&D game? At the moment a Fighter but it's the Mass Effect variant of the classic D&D game so it's a Soldier. But when it's classic D&D he goes Paladin with the Oath of Conquest.
- The cast talks about Sci-Fi versus High Fantasy and their favorite Sci-Fi movies.
- We learn Dani has a serious Thing about snakes. Particularly the flying snakes she learned about from National Geographic.
In a very serious way and with just a little glitch, Abubakar wraps up this episode of 4-Sided Dive.
Quotations[]
Trivia[]
- In this episode, the cast doesn't pull blocks from the Tower of Inquiry. Instead, Dani Carr used a Google spreadsheet with the submitted fan questions and read them to the cast.
- There was no game played at the end of this episode. Dani joined the cast on the couch and they carried on various topics of discussion.
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