A Very Special Six-Sided Dive

Thumbnail from "***4-Sided Dive*: A Very Special Six-Sided Dive**" (4SDx14).

"***4-Sided Dive*: A Very Special Six-Sided Dive**" (4SDx14) is the fourteenth episode of *4-Sided Dive*, discussing episodes of the third campaign up through "Reunited" (3x64) with guests Utkarsh Ambudkar, Emily Axford, Aimee Carrero, Taliesin Jaffe, Liam O'Brien, and Marisha Ray.

## **Synopsis**

The Jenga Tower is very wobbly and there are six people around the bar causing vibrations around it; nothing can go wrong. Liam's roll was one higher than Taliesin's but the others' rolls knocked into his die and fixed it, so Taliesin Jaffe is the Tavern Keeper for the evening. Dani is in another world while Taliesin and the cast are (mostly off-camera) getting fighting tips and doing interpretive dance.

### **What the fuck is up with that?**

* Right into the treachery followed by the murder of Bor'Dor. Utkarsh shouts "*Murderer!*" at Marisha and she replies "*Traitor!*".
* What was it like for Utkarsh, Emily, and Aimee coming into CR? Utkarsh is a huge fan and he wanted to come on the show so bad and was amazed by the performances of everyone. EXU was Aimee's first experience, with Opal, she's also a fan and got hooked immediately.
* Everyone loves watching Emily playing; she's so good at it and has a vast knowledge of the game paired with her dedication to her characters. It's kind of intimidating. Emily says she just reads her spells and thinks what would be a cool scene in an action movie. Also, she loves novelty.
* Liam fell in love with wizards last campaign, and Emily's favorite D&D class is wizard by a long shot but she doesn't get to play it that much. Emily didn't want to be the guest that came into the show and killed a PC.
* Liam thinks about Ashly Burch during a certain event in Campaign Two. Marisha says Ashly made the right narrative choice and Taliesin agrees that HE was the one who fucked up during that event. Marisha will never forget that day because Ronin (Laura and Travis' son) was born and a few hours after that, Taliesin's character died in game.
* With Bor'Dor, it was the first time on CR that a guest PC was killed by other group members. Prism punched him while he was already down, Ashton watched and Marisha finished the deal weeping. It wasn't necessary but Orym pushed a little bit for Laudna to do it by nodding.
* It wasn't easy for Utkarsh to come and play a PC that turned on the party. For him, it had to be done either at the first second or at the last second.
* Matt helped Utkarsh building his character -- he liked the idea. Matt told him that the cart and clothes that Bor'Dor was wearing were from a farmer he murdered. So the party was *Scrying* on a dead man's house.
* Bor'Dor could've become a "good guy" when Abbadina spared a soldier but Utkarsh really wanted to use the *Vitriolic Sphere*. Every day he texted Matt, "Is it time?" and he got in response, "That's up to you".
* Liam says they had great moments with Bor'Dor; he seemed like 'just a guy'. Utkarsh and Matt discussed about how good it was with Bor'Dor having this moment of seeming righteousness when Ashton give him the Pipe of Remembrance. The party all thought his proudest memory was about them, but it was the fact that he successfully infiltrated the group and gained their trust.
* The "pipe moment" was the moment that started tipping Marisha off.
* When Aimee was first approached by Critical Role in 2019, she built a character with Matt at a diner in Burbank. She tried her out for EXU but she felt better doing Opal. When she did Narrative Telephone, she wanted to tell a very complicated story, add an accent on top, and have the reveal that she's Dariax's ex. Aimee really wanted to make Deni$e canon. She wanted her to have some sort of connection with the group.
* Aimee wanted for Opal to be a brand new character in the world, like her: not a lot of knowledge and no wisdom about how things worked. For Deni$e, she wanted to play a character that is fucking tired of this life.
* Aimee chose multiclassing for Deni$e because she wanted her to be a tough thief. So Barbarian and Rogue seemed logical and easier than Opal with her spells, but it wasn't.
* Marisha says that Deni$e was almost a part of Campaign Two but wasn't because the pandemic happened right before Aimee was about to come on, and they had to shut down the studio.
* Liam didn't remember Aimee's Narrative Telephone, so when Deni$e's name dropped and he went "What?" it was Liam not Orym.
* Emily pitched a lot of characters to Matt. She wanted, at first, to play a woman who got shunted in the middle of her wedding ceremony, but didn't go there because of the tone. Instead, Emily looked at the party composition and saw that they need information, so she wanted to be a plot hound.
* Emily conceived Prism to be more of an Arthur Dent from *Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*, but then she turned out to be good at battle and liked the adventuring lifestyle. Emily also rolled very well and took it as an omen.
* Emily second possible character was a Paladin of Vesh, the Bloody Siren, a Betrayer God who has annual orgies and then kills everyone but one person and mates with them. Dani reminds them that's Kash's wife.
* Aimee loved it that when Prism did something incredibly violent, she was excited about it.
* Marisha talks about the 149 points of damage from Prism's *Steel Wind Strike*. Emily rolled two crits on the three attacks.
* Liam says that the two last games before the split were insane. Matt paid off a seven-year-long game and broke everyone at the table. That tied so many things together. Liam and Marisha's characters from all three campaigns being within 100 feet of each other was a cathartic overload.
* Everyone was shell-shocked when the party split and having guests at the table was heavy.
* Everyone thought that Bor'Dor was a border collie, an actual dog. When he turned on the party, he stayed Bor'Dor; he didn't change his appearance because Matt didn't want to do artwork for another character. Taliesin says that they had a duck on the show once.
* Utkarsh knew that, as a new player, his lack of expertise would throw them off the scent. They didn't think he would be capable of such murderous intent.
* Aimee says that when they first met Bor'Dor, the fact that he immediately attacked the party because he didn't know where his powers came from kind of covered his tracks. Utkarsh prayed for a low roll during the battle.
* Marisha says that Emily, Aimee and Utkarsh were incredible in the descriptions introducing their characters, with Deni$e pushing her femininity in a male-dominated sphere. Emily is an improviser and Aimee wrote stuff down to remember. Their descriptions were very tangible and evocative.
* In the first character meeting, Emily wanted to play triplets with Aimee and Utkarsh's characters but only two of them were identical. That would have been cool but off the tone.
* The difference between the two split parties was huge. Team Wildemount had a threesome and Team Issylra murdered a man in a six inch puddle and stole his immovable rod.
* During Bor'Dor's murder, Marisha had a range of emotions. She didn't want to do it, but also was trying to be incredibly realistic about where Laudna was at the time and what her mental state was. They've had other people betray them. It was horror and tragedy both in game and on a meta out of game level. Marisha knew that casting *Hunger of the Shadow* would strengthen Delilah Briarwood and was mindful of the sacrifices Bells Hells had made to help lock Delilah away. But Laudna became feral and totally lost control, although at the moment Laudna saw it as reclaiming control.
* Matt said to Marisha after that moment: "I actually see a lot of allegories and lines between Laudna and someone struggling with addiction."
* Bor'Dor had a chance to survive because Laudna looked at Orym and Ashton for reinforcement. Orym gave the extra push because Bor'Dor was Ruby Vanguard.
* Bor'Dor almost joined the forces of good when the angel looked at him with pity in the temple. But then he wouldn't have gotten to cast *Vitriolic Sphere*.

### **Tower of Inquiry**

* **With all of the stressful grand machinations and world-altering confrontations, what do you think has been your character's most relaxed moment in their existence (on or off screen)?** For Ashton, the *What the fuck is up with that?* moment; for Laudna, chilling around the campfire; for Orym, in-campaign was the Byroden fair but in his whole life, falling in love and marrying Will, plus learning his craft from Derrig; for Prism it was the fun times in the Shadow Realm during the Night of Ascension and reading books; for Bor'Dor it was curling up with the wind cougar, and also finding peace in death; for Deni$e it's the little things in life.
* **How does your character differ from the ones you played in previous campaigns and what inspired you to explore this new territory?** Marisha wanted to play someone who was going with the flow and compartmentalized as opposed to Keyleth and Beau; Utkarsh also wanted to play a character that was going with the flow, behind a mask (as opposed to Hitch); Taliesin loves playing characters that have gone through emotional damage and he hasn't done a "punk" person before (he notes Mollymauk also felt the world was stacked against him but dealt with it more lightheartedly); for Emily, Prism is more type A, pursuer, and girlier than she is used to playing as opposed to her characters in Dimension 20; Aimee wanted to play someone who is ambivalent about the gods and the situation and also older than Opal; Liam says Vax was a 'follow his nose asshole' and touched by fate, Caleb was an intense wizard, and Orym is a sweet and kind guy that wants to help a lot, the sidekick or right-hand man to great people.

### **Deep Dive**

* **Taliesin**: Ashton believes that they were judged and that the gods don't care about them. How does this color their anger and his feelings about the gods and Ludinus' plan? As someone who's really had a bad time forever, it's interesting when someone points out that maybe there's somebody to blame, which was the point of the cult. Ludinus is still a problem regardless of what Ashton believes.
* **Aimee**: What tipped you off about Bor'Dor and his shady shenanigans? When the party *Scryed* on his brother and there were no good answers, that was very strange.
* **Emily**: What inspired you to make Prism from the Shadow Realm? What interested you about that area for an upbringing? Matt sent her a video about the Matron of Ravens and told her more about the Shadow Realm. She wanted to be someone with a complicated past with religion. She wanted to think the Shadow Realm was good until she wised up when she joined the Cobalt Soul. Prism respects the Matron but does not worship her.
* **Liam**: What was it like for Orym to see the tomb of Oma-Dua, a Gau Drashari ancestor of the Ashari? He thought, "How did it all get so fucked like this?" Everything made sense when he was younger and everything is now coming apart in world-ending ways.
* **Marisha**: Laudna was reunited with Imogen. What was it like to be parted from her for so long and how is she feeling now that they're back together? It feels weird. It's like when your best friend goes away on vacation and comes back but it's a different person now. Also Laudna didn't take it well when Imogen had a tender moment with F.R.I.D.A because she was traumatized.
* **Utkarsh**: Is there any chance that Bor'Dor could still be a polymorphed Border Collie? That's a fan theory, he has no idea. He thinks he should come back as a Great Dane.
* **Taliesin**: Ashton took time to comfort both Laudna and Prism after everything with Bor'Dor. Why do you think protecting comes so naturally to him and why did they want to ensure that Laudna and Prism were okay? Prism because it was her first murder, they didn't want her to be scarred for life. For Laudna, they were well aware that there was no stopping her and also what this was going to mean.
* **Emily**: Prism referred to Orym as her best friend. When did she decide that he was the person she was closest to within the group? She wanted to win the new group over when they were all reunited. It was the funniest thing for Prism to say at that moment, because it was the most unexpected and he was the only one who wouldn't care if she didn't say his name.
* **Aimee**: What was it like interacting with Orym as someone who wasn't Opal, but still knew the Crown Keepers? For the player it was interesting to see Orym's evolution, from a team leader to someone who needs comfort from somebody else. Deni$e doesn't really know Opal but she's probably jealous and Deni$e is probably a better listener than Opal.
* **Liam**: Orym gave Laudna a nod to show his support of her killing Bor'Dor. Why did Orym agree that death is the answer and how did that nod make Laudna feel? As soon as he realized that Bor'Dor was a threat and from the Ruby Vanguard, Orym would've killed him no matter what. It had to be done. Orym had an inkling that Laudna was opening the door for Delilah and he thought the group was "going to need that".
* **Marisha**: Laudna has likely woken Delilah back up. How is she handling her descent into darkness and the possibility that Delilah is back? Laudna thought that this might be a means to an end, and maybe she needs this. Currently, she's feeling deeply guilty, troubled and conflicted.
* **Utkarsh**: What was it like for you to play the long game with Bor'Dor, knowing from the beginning that he was an enemy in sheepherder's clothing? Were there hints that you dropped that no one noticed? It was nerve-wracking and terrifying the whole time, he hated it and would never do it again, because his natural inclination is to be very happy and it was hard to lie with people that you really love, while knowing if he went too far, all would be revealed. The first tip was when Bor'Dor didn't give a shit about the reindeer.

### **Tower of Inquiry #2**

* **If you had to pick, what is your favorite city in Exandria and why?** Marisha, Utkarsh, Emily, and Liam: Zephrah. Liam also loves Rexxentrum. Taliesin: Whitestone; Aimee: Byroden.

#### **Liam knocked over the Tower of Inquiry!**

* **What three objects would your character choose to have if they became trapped on an island alone?** Marisha: rock chisel, the red ribbon and Pâté; Utkarsh: Bor'Dor's family; Emily: spell components for self-replicating spells; Aimee; a tuft of hair, cooking tools and bathing suit for Deni$e; Liam: Caleb's components for his Tower, the beacon and a teleportation scroll; Taliesin: booze, music and the hole from Ashton.

### **One Night Werewolf**

No more leftover questions were asked during the game.

Because Taliesin was the Tavern Keeper for the night, he grabbed Moppo and started cleaning the set.

## **Trivia**

* Utkarsh had to leave early before the end of the episode. His last words were "What's a cantrip?".
* Liam knocked over the Tower of Inquiry. His consequence was to do a Natasha Lyonne impression with no explanation and it somehow infected the entire game.

## **References**

**Art:**

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