How about that for a fortuitous roll of the dice? Although it’s not an attack roll, just an insight check, it’s pretty cool that the very first roll of Critical Role Campaign 4 resulted in a Natural 20. That’s what we call an auspicious beginning to a new campaign. But what did this excellent first roll of the dice reveal to us in Critical Role Campaign 4? We break it down.
Critical Role Campaign 4 begins with something of a prologue. It’s the execution day for a very important figure, Thajazi Fang. Basically, every character we meet in Critical Role Campaign 4 has some relationship to Thajazi Fang, and it is this connection that brings them all together so we can go on our next great adventure. However, one of the most important characters associated with Thajazi Fang is his brother, Halandil Fang, played by Liam O’Brien. Although Halandil Fang has tried very hard to save his brother from execution, in the end, he is forced to stand in the crowd as Thajazi is hanged for “crimes against the state.” But just before the end comes, Halandil Fang is allowed to roll for an insight check—and lo, Liam O’Brien rolls a Natural 20 to kick off Critical Role Campaign 4.
Usually, a Natural 20 might be the cause of great celebration in a campaign. But in these first moments of the first episode of Critical Role Campaign 4, Liam O’Brien’s Nat 20 roll arrives at a very somber time. As Thajazi Fang begins his last moments of life, the Natural 20 that O’Brien rolls allows Halandil Fang to connect to his brother one final time. On a Nat 20, Halandil’s Bardic magic swells around him, and he is able to tap into the residue of Azune Nayar’s message cantrip. Azune, an Arcane marshal whom the nobles think works for them, had cast the spell in a previous moment to communicate with Thajazi Fang.
Now, this first Nat 20 roll allows Halandil and Thajazi to speak mentally in the prologue to Critical Role Campaign 4. Just as they connect, Thajazi sees something in the sky that Halandil cannot see from where he’s standing in the crowd. And this vision in the heavens causes him to panic. Unfortunately, the intensity of the moment means Thajazi isn’t communicating very clearly.
Through the power of his Critical Roll role, Thajazi tells Liam O’Brien’s Halandil, “Murray, you got to help Murray… the Pentevral… You have to help her… There’s paint waiting for you with Bolaire.” Murray, of course, is Murray Mag’nesson, a dwarf played by Marisha Ray. Meanwhile, Bolaire is Bolaire Lathalia, played by Taliesin Jaffe, a kind of masked socialite full of mystery. The Pentevral appears to be a type of arcane text studied in some sort of school, perhaps by Necromancers.
Ultimately, though the Nat 20’s power connects them, Thajazi does not clearly tell Halandil what he sees in the sky that frightens him so in Critical Role Campaign 4‘s cold open. Instead, as he nears execution, Thajazi is waylaid from offering more clear insight (ironic on an insight check that resulted in a Nat 20 roll) by the need to be in the moment of his death. The orchestrators of Thajazi’s murder, those known as the Cadescent Creed or House Halover, wish to know if he has any last words. And so he must speak to the crowd, preventing him from focusing on this telepathic communication. Thajazi shares the following out loud: “The false authority that now condemns me to death will fall. I regret only that I will miss the glorious celebration when your calumny and destruction comes to an end.”
And internally adds, “Tell Thimble not be scared.”
Then to the crowd, “I can still hear the falcons cry!”
And lastly, “Tell her that I—“
But what Thajazi Fang wanted to tell Halandil to tell Thimble, his pixie companion played by Laura Bailey, not even Liam O’Brien’s Natural 20 roll can tell us more as Critical Role Campaign 4’s first episode begins… Because at that moment, the lever pulls, and Thajazi Fang dies by the hangman’s noose.
Will any of the insight gleaned from Critical Role Campaign 4′s first auspicious roll of the dice change the layout of the story to come? We won’t know until we see more from the series. But the answer is probably yes, in this story, the roll of dice means everything, and a Nat 20 is no simple feat. This insight, meaningless as it is right now, may yet prove to be the difference between victory and defeat. And that’s what we love most about Dungeons & Dragons.
May the rest of Critical Role Campaign 4‘s rolls be just as exciting as this.
Critical Role Campaign 4 premieres Thursdays at 7 pm PT on Beacon.tv and streams to Critical Role’s YouTube and Twitch channels at that time, with the VOD available for everyone the following Monday and podcast episodes available in two parts: the first one week after the premiere, and the second on the following Tuesday. In the meantime, don’t forget to go back to the first roll of them all and enjoy all of Critical Role so far.
The post The First Roll of CRITICAL ROLE CAMPAIGN 4 Is a Natural 20 appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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