Welcome to Exandria Unlimited: Calamity. If you were expecting a fun one, you’re not getting one! This is a story of grief, betrayal, loss, and the panic of the coming of a new age, Calamity.

That’s right! We’re doing a prequel series!

We are going to be telling a story of a different age in Exandria, an age long past. Rumors and legends abound of this time period in the world. This is prior to any Vestiges of Divergence. Prior to the coming of the Divine Gate and the departure of the dieties into realms beyond Exandria. You will find no Tal’Dorei in this version of this world. For, indeed, it has not yet received that name. It is known by its Elven name, Gwessar. We journey to an age long ago to tell a story perhaps of a more sorrowful and bitter time. Shadows stalk this world. Come with us, but please only if you dare.

Available for viewing on YouTube and Twitch

Runtime Break start
4h 38m 2h 12m

Episode 2: Bitterness and Dread

For those of you coming back, this is episode two of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity. A vision of an ancient past in the world of Exandria at the ending of the Age of Arcanum and the beginning of something strange and horrifying. Last week, we met our wonderful heroes of Avalir in the Ring of Brass, the somewhat-under-the-radar council of those who actually do the moving and shaking of the flying city of Avalir.
We move and we shake.
We met the Guildmaster of the Golden Scythe, Nydas Okiro. The Keeper of Scrolls, Patia Por’co. First Knight of Avalir, Sir Zerxus Ilerez. Herald of Avalir, Loquatius Seelie. Architect Arcane, Laerryn Coramar-Seelie. And Senior Sightwarden, Cerrit “Pinch” Agrupnin.
On the eve of The Replenishment, which is the great holiday where, once every seven years after a long seven-year venture, the City of Avalir travelling along Exandria’s many leylines, returns back to Cathmoira, it’s terrestrial sister city, and re-alights as the peak of the mountain on its ancient base, where once it stood as a full mountain. All of the magic that Avalir has stored up in its Etheric Net. All of the ether that the city has traded for and gathered and bartered for is released into the continent of Domunas, where it creates a flourishing of crops and newfound magic and all sorts of wonders and replenishes the land. We are on the eve of such a Replenishment this very day.
However, some strange tidings have come to the city as some artifacts, some debris, some things broken corroded and dispelled made their way aboard the city from its last port of call. The important thing is this: the detritus of the ritual of Vespin Chloras…

Look him up, they did a whole video about the guy and what he did in the history of Exandria! Literally, you can go look it up, it’s an amazing video, it rules, it’s very cool…

…made it’s way aboard Avalir. Something rotten within the heard of the city has begun to be exposed by our brave heroes. Only time will tell if they have caught it before it is too late. Without further ado, we return to Avalir and Exandria in tonight’s episode of Critical Role.
We return to exactly where we left off. There will be no skipping forward. The events of this night are all a little bit too critical, a little bit too close together. Important things happen in the span of a single breath here on the eve of The Replenishment. We return now to a small room off the side of the grand banquet hall in the Palazzo Por’co, where Cerrit Agrupnin crouches in a room with a dis-animated scarecrow soaked with champagne, a mutilated dead body covered in carved runes and blood, and a cracked mirror in which you now only see your own reflection. Where do we find our intrepid Sightwarden in this moment having just witnessed the screaming visage of Vespin Chloras?
And, I will clarify in this moment, it is a face you recognize. Easily done at the Hawk’s Nest at the Hall of Eyes, back in Cloudstone. Every senior archmage, anyone in any terrestrial city anywhere on Exandria that you have traveled has their image recorded and their arcane mark written down to be recreated at a Sightwarden’s discretion with a Minor Illusion. So you, earlier today, when you were going into the room had Vespin Chloras’ face animated with illusory magic in front of you to know the man by sight. Although, I cannot say that you recognized him well in the mirror, given that most of the skin of his face had been peeled off.

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  • UltragrampsOPMEnglish
    2·
    7 months ago

    ♪Episode Song References♪

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    Highlights

    • 00:16:32 Historic Crit Moment The first covert comms of “Wingspan” (Cerrit) and “Talon” (his son, Kir) discussing how “Egghead” (Cerrit’s daughter, Maya) is planning on going out past her curfew. He also mentions “Cleareye” (Cerrit’s wife, Wrayne).
    • 00:30:52 Brennan:“You want me to activate The Taxmen?” (12’ tall steel constructs)
    • 00:37:44 Cerrit:“Guard your faces, don’t give anything away with your expressions.”
      Sam:(gestures)“My face turns into your face.”
      Cerrit:“Right down to the teeth. God it’s uncanny.”
      Aabria:“You have teeth?!”
      Travis:“No, I don’t have any teeth.”
    • 00:55:55 Nydas:“It’s beautiful! It’s totally incredible!”
    • 01:04:56 Lore Drop Toramunda was originally founded by "the Gau Drashari, an ancient order of druids that tended to the holy sites of the history of Toramunda, or actually the mountain itself, Mount Ygora, the ancestral mountain, where the Dawnfather and the Wildmother defeated two of the greatest primordials of Domunas, back during The Schism and sealed them away under the earth and was part of the ending battles of The Schism. It was a place where elemental magic permeated througout, which the druids tended to. Some of the earliest Gau Drashari were genasi. Also, that elemental permeation is what attracted a lot of wizards here after Toramunda was founded. When the wizards came and said, ‘Hey, can we take the top half of this mountain and have a cool flying city?’ the original druids were like, ‘No. You may not.’ and The Replenishment was the concession of those wizards. In the Age of Arcanum, The Replenishment is sold by the archmages of Avalir as being a great act of charity.
      It’s not a great act of charity.
      It was an obligation to the Druids of Toramunda, something that they said they would do justify taking the top of the mountain. The Replenishment does renew the crops and bring back magic. There were also, in your knowledge, a bunch of important things the druids wanted to do with that magic. Now, cynical minds might say, that’s the druids cut for letting the mountain go. But the druids also said that there were really important things they wanted to do with that magic. So, the Drashari Pact, also known as the Pact of Crown and Throne, right? Was the original agreement between the wizards and the Druids. Crown and Throne became Avalir, the City of Crowns, and Cathmoira, the City of Thrones. It was all about how they would apportion this magic.
      You’ve been building out the Etheric Net for a long time. 25% of the city’s Ether is spoken for from that pact. You’ve got 75% to play with, 25% has to go to these things that were part of the original agreements. So, the reason you don’t know a lot about the Arboreal Calix is that that’s your utility spell. You’ve just always needed to send a certain percentage of stuff there. But, when you look at it, you see that that Calix alone is more than 50% of the tithe. That engine is-- This one engine that you know doesn’t do anything that you know to be useful takes up a double digit percentage of your entire city’s reserves of magic. As you’re looking at the energy structure, you see that it flared up when you did this thing with your Leywright. It sucked up a lot of energy as you did that. The last thing I’ll say is, when you look for an instruction manual…there is none. You’re (Laerryn) looking through your own spell book, your records preserved here in crystal memory.
      Everything built by mages comes with incredibly explicit and precise detail about what they were thinking, why they built it,
      This one says, ‘This is the amount of energy that you must apportion to the Arboreal Calix during The Replenishment.’ End of list.”
    • 01:12:00 Brennan:“This is the first Replenishment after the ascension of the Raven Queen.”
      Sam:“I need yarn. I need thumbtacks…”
    • 01:21:30 Nydus comes in like a wrecking ball.
    • 01:22:53 Nydus’ handprint sunburn and the internal soundtrack while witnessing a tear between his and the Celestial Plane.
      Lou:“Oh shit, that’s bright.”
    • 01:26:33 “Polly want a a cracker?”
      Cerrit:“Excuse me!..do… do you have a cracker?”
    • 01:41:06 Lore Drop You (Patia) remember the first time someone explained Apogee Solstices to you. It’s a woman that you knew as a child. You don’t remember her name anymore because nobody does. (implying The Raven Queen’s mortal name)"
    • 01:44:48 Zerxus:“We know that it has to do with The Betrayers”

    Best name for a CR-themed Doom Metal band?

    • 01:52:30 Infernal Vocabulary: K’nauth: ('nowth) noun. synonym: puppet: *A follower that does not need magical controls to obey."
    • 01:56:10 Lore Drop You live in an age (Age of Arcanum), where the Prime Deities walk Exandria openly. The Schism is the myth following the creation. You know there was a time in which the Prime Deities, in a world of strife and chaos, sought to give divine magic to their children, to mortals, and the Primordials that had existed in the world, the elemental Titans that had existed in the world prior to the arrival of the Deities, who, before The Schism, there was not a distinction Prime Deity and Betrayer. No “betrayal” had happened. There were just the gods and the Primordials. The gods fractured when divine magic was granted to mortals. The Primordials rose up to correct that imbalance, and the Betrayers joined the Primordials against the cause of mortals.
      The Prime Deities were so thorough in sealing the Betrayer Gods away that the Betrayer Gods were not able to grant spells.The worship of the Betrayer Gods was completely fruitless.
    • 02:02:22 Loquatius does an insight check on THE WORLD.
    • 02:07:25 Dean Lycretia Hollow, Necromancy Archmage of the Ring of Silver, is implicated in Vespin Chloras’ plot. The same one who both invited Purvan Suul to the gala, and openly mocked him upon arrival.
    • 02:11:54 Le Epic Troll from Brennan.
      INTERMISSION
    • 02:28:11 Patia:“Follow me.”
      Magda:“Yep.”
    • 02:31:02 Magister Cormorant is implicated in the plot of Vespin Chloras.
    • 02:32:32 Looks like Loquatius and Zerxus saved Purvan Suul from being assassinated by an invisible necromancer.
    • 02:36:40 Marisha saying “Magister 'cum’orant” skeets past unnoticed.
    • 02:42:00 Fireflies effect in the background (nothing to do with the story, just thought it was neat!)
    • 02:44:53 Elena Tuvaris, the reporter who wrote the most on Vespin Chloras. “It goes against every virtue of this age to believe that something that is achievable by one is not, at least in theory, achievable by all.” - V.C.
    • 02:47:22 Loras, of The Weaver’s Mask, is implicated in the plot of Vespin Chloras.
      Lou:“And he was so cool!”
    • 02:49:55 “The City of Crowns bears the Tree of Names.” (The Arboreal Calix)
    • 03:01:29 Sam’s erotic interpretive dance celebrating his deception win over Travis’ investigation check.
    • 03:06:19 Laerryn:“I can do you one better.”
    • 03:06:33 Fan Art Moment Massive Spell Knight statue under the control of Laerryn’s Summon Construct spell destroying a doorway. “We answer the call of the Architect.”
    • 03:07:25 Laerryn:“Show yourself.”
      Brennan:“Roll initiative.”
      (arrival of Battle Map! of Magister Cormorant’s office)
    • 03:22:20 Magister Cormorant is dealt with and Brennan takes one last sad look at the map he worked on so long with Matt, already used up.
    • 03:28:22 Fan Art Moment The Letter from the Head Druid of the Gau Drashari in silver ink on birch bark (summarized):

    Honorable Magister, your assurances are taken in the most generous spirit possible. I do not distrust you, the person, for all people are children of Exandria. But what I distrust is enchantment. the enchantment of a people and of their ways.
    The wizards of Avalir have proven time and again that they do not see limitation. They do not see the limitation of a city that will be born aloft into the sky, nor do they see risk. I wish that I could trust you. I wish that my order could trust you. I wish that we could, in good faith, tell you of the tree’s purpose. Sorrow fills my heart, for even if you kept your word, the wizard behind you, if they knew the nature of the tree, I can only imagine, would see all that they could do With It, and not what they could For It.
    I implore you. The endless skies of Exandria are yours. The wonders of your imagination are your only master. Please, simply tend for this tree and do not ask again. We cannot trust you with its secrets.

    • 03:31:17 Lore Drop Letter dated to approximately the same time the Arboreal Calix was constructed around the Tree of Names. "You see records here that, after the Matron’s ascension, basically, the city landed a year after that and the druids all came aboard Avalir, and said:“We need to update.”
      “You see there’s an ancient piece of ritual about the Emperor Rau’shan, and the Empress Ka’Mort, which are the Primordials that the Dawnfather and the Wildmother defeated at Mount Ygora and sealed away.”
    • 03:35:16 Fan Art Moment Construct thinking happy thoughts for being the one chosen to be awakened while carrying the crushed remains of the Magister away. “We did it, baby. Yes! Wizard woke me up!”
      Laerryn:“I’m gonna call him Scrabbles.”
      Construct:“I have been named.”
    • 04:02:55 Lore Drop Zerxus and the Betrayer God
    • 04:30:42 “The stars are leaving us. Our hands cannot reach the limbs of the tree, can no longer scribe the name of our deliverance. We will soon be as broken as our promises. Avalir shall fall. All shall fall. And from our folly will the hands that forge the world banish themselves from the broken things they have made.”
    • 04:34:37 The Helmswoman of Avalir is killed mid-conversation with Laerryn.