"4-Sided Dive: That's Just Right" (4SDx09) is the ninth episode of 4-Sided Dive, discussing episodes of the third campaign up through "Compulsions" (3x40), and The Mighty Nein Reunited, with guests Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Matthew Mercer, and Liam O'Brien.
Synopsis[]
Provided with permission by Loquacious Quark.[1]
It's Christmas! We'll pretend this isn't three weeks late as we join Liam, Laura, Matt, and Taliesin. Liam wins host with a 6 and Matt nearly topples the Jenga tower cheering. The host's script instructs him to intro in song ("Motherfucker!") and to The Twelve Days of Christmas we get "On tonight's 4-Sided Dive/We will have for you/A silly gift exchange game, Mercer's Nein Mighty's reunited, Taliesin played as Kingsley, Orym totally died, and Laura Bailey sundered a tree. Let's fucking do a show!"
What the Happy Holidays Fuck is Up With That?
Everyone is sad Eshteross is dead. Matt never killed Allura or Shaun or Essek, so this took the players by surprise. Matt says it was possible in any campaign (Gilmore & Allura did almost die), but it still sucked for him to do. There's been a lot of death for this party in the two-three months they've been together.
Laura says it felt like Otohan was toying with them; the only reason they're not all dead is that she wanted them to live. Matt says it was meant to be a deadly encounter but she was defeatable. Now they have something to work for.
Everyone wants to know where Imogen's mom is. The moon? Yios? Is the city on the moon old or did Otohan set up a popup town?
The were clan was very cool and they were all very attractive. They joke about derailing the campaign to set up a dating sim in the Gorgynei and leaving the moon stuff to Vox Machina.
Matt was so stressed going into the VM stuff, which Liam brings up to discuss as he wasn't on the last episode. "All I could think of leading up to us recording that next session was going, 'Oh shit! I have to do multiple characters of your characters in front of you to each other! Great.'" Everyone agrees that Matt did an awesome job representing their characters. There are a lot of side conversations the players didn't get to see; Matt thinks everyone was communicating with each other on the back end (especially with Percy) while the ritual was going on.
After a dig from Taliesin, Matt reveals that the old Talks faux-pas where some incredibly expensive scotch was mixed with Coke was not actually his doing; it was mixed for him. Sure, Matt. Sure.
Taliesin and Matt discussed Whitestone's advancement and development over the years, since it's a bunch of very expensive resources in a very tiny space. Taliesin tells us that the acid pit has become a low yield battery electrifying street lights at night in the city. "What Lex Luthor could have been with better friends."
Laura protests that she knows nothing about the Ruidus flares and is met with general skepticism. Matt tells us the flares have happened for years with no pattern; this isn't a new thing. However, the recurrences are getting more frequent.
What's causing the flares, the gods trying to break free? Otohan? Laura doesn't think Otohan is on the moon. Laura posits that the city is all the gods' original worshipers; when the gods were bound there, all their worshipers and belief were transported there and bound with them, since that's what gives the gods power. Laura realizes belatedly (and very dramatically) that if this were true, the BH's efforts to figure out what's going on are actually weakening the barriers to belief and helping them be released. Liam has been wondering this for a while, apparently--what if Otohan is the hero and BH are accidentally releasing these evil gods? Horror upon horrors! Matt's poker face reveals nothing, argh.
The Mighty Nein reunited! Everyone loves Kingsley's vibe. Laura regrets not at least calling Caduceus for help. Laura improvs calling him in the moment, and oh my gosh I've missed Cad's voice so much. "Caduceus, Uk'otoa's free and we need your help! Can you come, please? Because you're a healer, and I'm still a healer, but you're better." "Hey. Oh wow! Yeah. Look, I'm kinda stuck here, working on a spell and my house that needs to be fixed. I wish I could help." Taliesin tells us he's in the middle of resetting the Blooming Grove by casting Temple of the Gods, which must be cast in the same place every day for a year. This is partly why Tal played Kingsley; he couldn't justify Caduceus leaving for this, and Kingsley had imprinted hard on the pirate life and would be more fun anyway.[2]
They all loved the incredible fight and AMAZING mini. The tactics were super fun and they loved the opportunities to experiment. Matt thanks Tyler Walpole who designed the mini and Ian of Iron Tusk who did the painting.
Matt talks about how they left many long term threads open at the end of C2 "like Law & Order for twenty years." He was glad for the opportunity to come back and close this one.
Uk'otoa is not a god, he's the creation of the god the Cloaked Serpent. He's just very powerful, and when the gods were sealed beyond the Divine Gate, he took his old god's dominion in the Lucidian Ocean by the Menagerie Coast for his own. He converted some of the Ki'Nau people there to his worship which gave him power. It wouldn't have been world-ending if they'd failed to seal him, but it would have changed a large chunk of the navigable waters in that area.
The Tower of Inquiry!
It visibly wobbles multiple times, but Laura manages to get the block pulled. What would your characters' custom cocktails be? Imogen: a dark and stormy with the beer head being lavender-infused. Orym: an Aviation (which Marisha drinks a lot and Liam dislikes), which apparently tastes like potpourri, yuck. Ashton: a drink Taliesin can't remember the name of which involves pouring lots of clear liquors together with fruit infusions, which must be drunk quickly to avoid it seeping through the paper cup. Matt for Weva: Corpse Reviver (gin, Lillet blanc, orange liqueur and fresh lemon juice).
Gasp, an abuse of power: Liam forces Laura to go pull from the Tower again immediately, which she does successfully despite great sturm und drang. #10: what would your characters' phone cases be? Orym: a blue gem case. Ashton: duct tape over a cracked screen. Imogen: full horse girl with a custom case from a photo of Flora. Eshteross: a Blackberry with a silver stylus, ha!
The Deep Dive!
Orym is just trying to do right by his group, lots of push ups and egg whites. He's feeling very overwhelmed all the time, but he tries to focus on the job at hand. There's no way forward without the group, and he's wondering if the current crazy conversations are what Keyleth and Percy used to experience. His death was a moment of certainty in his abject failure to everyone he loved, but he's dutiful and wants to serve, so he keeps his panic quietly to himself. :(
Imogen is also overwhelmed at the minute with the roller coaster of emotion. Her mom's alive but refuses to see her; they don't know what's happening with the moon. Liam marvels at the dichotomy of seeing this path of power before her that she seems clearly fated to master, and yet fearing becoming a villain if she leans into it too much.
Orym is flat-out the reason that Ashton joined the group because of his connection with "Ashari," similar to the "Hishari" keyword connecting Ashton to his past. The moment everyone went down in the Otohan fight was the moment Ashton realized he was genuinely invested and was going to have to put in an effort to build these relationships. Liam loves Ashton's reaching out to people and feels Orym and Ashton have started becoming quietly supportive.
Matt imagined the Claret Orders scattering throughout the world to help those who were cursed. The Gorgynei were a splinter group focused specifically on lycanthropes, and Matt created them in response to Chetney. Matt LOVES taking elements from the characters' narratives (some backstories, some future goals) and getting to tease and reveal it in game. Travis especially "lights up like a lighthouse" when he realizes they're getting into character material. Matt also says definitively that there are no wereherbivores. Alas.
Orym doesn't really blame himself for having his mind read to reveal Eshteross's location; he's a swordsman with no magical defenses. Matt knows a ton about Eshteross's backstory and hopes to get to discuss it soon.
Imogen doesn't think she created her own dreams, even though she can control aspects of them now. Character block break!
Ashton's habitually being left behind causes low expectations of other people. "People come. People go. People die. People don't. It's kind of just how it goes. It's a very low-impact reality." All his intimate relationships thus far have been built on that, with knowing everyone loved and cared for each other while still maintaining a safe distance.
Yios, the City of Flowing Light! It's illustrious and in the middle of the lake and is rivaled only by Ank'Harel in its places of learning. It's a mostly orc/half-orc society.
Orym felt awful about being chosen over Laudna; it echoed everything in his past where the important people were gone and he was still there.
Imogen/Laura "sobbed every single day" Laudna was dead.
Ashton's feelings about his own death are very different to Laudna's resurrection. He deserved what happened to him; she didn't.
Matt considered bringing in Essek to fight alongside the M9 but didn't want to overshadow the main characters; plus, he's still in hiding from nearly being executed. It would have had to be seriously dangerous for him to come out. Matt was glad for the brief cameo at the end.
The Tower of Inquiry, Reprise!
Laura pulls a third block even faster than the last two, but the tower wobbles dangerously. What would your characters hoard as dragons? Ashton: things that are not useful: string, packaging from iPhones. Caleb: a pile of flame-retardant books. Orym: a pile of pies; Vax: a horde of days in the sun, ouch. Percy: a mine of money and magical rocks and oh, right. Jester: sweets. Imogen: a field of flowers.
The Tower of Inquiry, Matt Edition
He baaaarely manages to pull one successfully, but does. Laura: "Let me propose something to you. If we stop pulling from the tower now, then whoever does 4-Sided Dive next is going to have to suffer the consequences of our actions." Liam: "You're asking me to band together with you and turn on them. I'll take it into consideration."
Is it hard to keep character backstories from each other? Liam prefers delighting/disappointing people at the table, so it's not hard for him. Taliesin likes keeping it secret as well, but did talk with Travis about blood hunters. He often tells secrets to Dani because she likes knowing secrets, ha! Laura has a tough time not discussing it with people.
Liam is gone to the bathroom and orders Laura to pull another block while he's gone. However, mutiny from the inside reveals no block pulled and a charade played by all remaining actors instead. Except--a second twist! Liam doesn't actually go to the bathroom, he goes to play a wolf puppet with glasses whose mouth hardly ever moves (I get the impression Liam is having to work very hard to stay up with the teleprompter). Wolfie tells us the story of Winter's Crest with more racing hot rods and Errevon the Rimelord vs. Santa than I think I remember from C1.
Post-Break Shenanigans!
A gift-exchange game based on die rolls, apparently a combination of White Elephant and Dirty Santa, along with questions scattered about throughout.
Weva was created as an interesting mirror to a society that can speak with the dead and bring the dead back to life. She reminds Matt of the theater goth girls he knew in high school that used to ask him if he knew about rotten.com.
Orym has gotten glimpses of Percy and Vex in the past, and it was cool for him to be in the company of greatness.
Ashton is growing more comfortable with physical contact from the BHs the more he gets to know the BHs. Strangers cause worse pain.
Matt was very excited to get to play the Uk'otoa oneshot. The Earthquake spell at the temple really shook up his plans, ha ha ha.
For Laura, killing Delilah twice was beautiful. She was terrified to fight her at that level.
Laura keeps rolling the "steal a present" number and holds the entire stack in her arms like a child. It's hilarious.
Jester loves living at sea; all she wanted when she left home was to have an adventure, and this is a chance for her to get to destroy and create. She thinks she and the Traveler have become really good friends but she understands him better now; it's like knowing your parents after you've grown up, where you understand better where they've come from.
For Laura, seeing Vex in all her glory was fabulous. She thinks Matt well understood Vex's motivations and her greed/generosity.
Liam felt so low with Orym's death. "It was not the way I would have ever wanted his story to end." Seeing Will was beautiful.
Caleb went to the Soltryce Academy because it's better to keep your enemies close, and also Beau made him.
Final gift tally: Taliesin: looseleaf tea, a ball of Band-Aids (ew!), a laser pen, and deer knuckle bones (fitting) Matt: an Oculus Quest 2 (!) and staffer Jerry's stapler Laura: a small digital camera that insta-prints photos, A BAG OF SAM'S BABY TEETH GOD WHY Liam: a ream of printer paper, the original shellacked Tower of Inquiry (ha!), candles from Cantrip Candles, and duct tape and gaffer tape
(It should also be noted that I was tracking these in real time as they switched and stole from each other, and at one point Laura gave Liam the shellacked tower in exchange for another gift--only at that point the tower was actually TALIESIN'S and not hers to give, so clearly the whole thing is moot and ought to be redone)
Liam makes Laura draw one last time from the Tower due to her earlier truthlessness, hahaha. No topple, though this sucker is now precarious. Theme songs for characters? Imogen: Barracuda by Heart. Orym: Queen. Ashton: War Baby.
We close on a gripping monologue about the tragic ephemeral joy experienced by seasonal decorations from a set Santa statue in a pilgrim hat. Who's writing these??
And that's it! Merry Christmas, and is it Thursday yet?
Quotations[]
Trivia[]
External Links[]
References[]
- ↑ Originally posted at https://www.tumblr.com/loquaciousquark/704655365200035840.
- ↑ See "4-Sided Dive: That's Just Right" (4SDx09) at 22:44.
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