My friend works at a place that runs afterschool D&D games for kids, and tonight I went there for a watch party as Critical Role launches its fourth major campaign.
This campaign is a huge shake-up. Matthew Mercer gets to take it a little easier as a player, while Dimension 20's (and DM of CR's Calamity prequel mini-campaign trilogy) Brennan Lee Mulligan steps behind the DM's screen. Along with Mercer, the core seven players, along with campaign 3 regular Robbie Daymond, are there, as well as new cast regulars Aabria Iyengar, Alex Ward, Luis Carazo, and newcomer Whitney Moore round out the rest of the cast.
For this premiere, every single player character gets a moment at the table. In its 4 hour, 12 minute runtime, the premiere blasts us with character introductions, as well as introducing the world itself.
I'm going to be spoiling basically the entire episode 1 here, but figured I'd give my assessments of the various characters (and my speculation on mechanics and other character choices).
So, a Spoiler Cut:
The campaign begins with a cold open: Halandil Fang, Liam O'Brien's Orc Bard, watches as his brother Thjazi is prepared for execution by hanging.
Thjazi is a famed adventurer and hero, who is very popular in the grand city of Dol-Makjar, but he has been convicted of sedition against the noble houses that control the city and of "arcanism." Evidently, arcane magic (maybe all magic?) is illegal here.
70 years ago, the mortal peoples of Araman fought a war against the gods and won (wouldn't Ludinus Deleth be proud?) The order that has arisen in the place of these powers seems to, at least here, be these noble families. Notably, House Halovar, which seems to be the most powerful among them, has established itself as a spiritual order, the Path of Candescence, worshipping not a god, but a broad "Light."
In this cold open, we also meet Luis Carazo's Azune, a human arcane guard (I'd initially assumed an Eldritch Knight Fighter, but evidently a Sorcerer/Paladin multiclass). As a captain of the guard, Azune sees to the prisoner on the way to his gallows, but it's clear that he is working with Thjazi, part of an elaborate plan evidently intent on teleporting him out of the gallows to a safe location the moment he drops and create an illusion in his place to fake the death.
However, when the time comes, the glyph placed on Thjrazi's person doesn't work - the condemned orc seems to realize something is amiss, making his defiant speech to the crowds. He fails to escape the execution, despite all the planning that has gone into effecting his escape.
The bulk of the episode is at Halandil (Hal's) home, where Hal holds a wake for his brother. Hal is a loving father, but with children from what seem to be two failed marriages. He is evidently a playwright and musician, and mostly just wants to build a theater of his own.
The first guests to arrive are Thaisha (Aabria Iyengar) and Occtis. Thaisha is Hal's ex-wife, also an orc, and a Druidic member of the Old Path. They seem to be amicable, and Thaisha is the mother of the young Shadia, who lives with her father here, as well as an older son (who is connected to another character we'll get to). Occtis (Alex Ward) is a human wizard (and evidently a Necromancer, described as such by the DM and also hinted at given that his familiar is a weird patchwork fox made up of parts of different foxes with buttons for eyes). Occtis is a member of one of the other powerful families in Dol-Makjar, the Tichonises, but seems perhaps estranged from them, and Thaisha seems to be a mentor or even surrogate mother figure to him. The two of them were part of the plot to save Thjazi, and Occtis, who's quite young, is panicking that he might have screwed something up that led to the plan's failure.
Arriving with an elderly orcish warrior as his companion is Teor Pridesire (Travis Willingham,) a Nama Paladin (Nama being lion-folk - I assume a renamed Leonin, or perhaps Tabaxi) who, along with Azune, fought alongside Thjazi. Teor is put off by the lack of pomp and circumstance of his comrade's execution.
I believe our next introduction is to Wicander "Wick" Halovar (Sam Riegel), a young human cleric (and boy do his stats make me a little skeptical - he notably has a +0 to Wisdom but 18 Charisma. While "light cleric" would be the obvious interpretation for his character, I have a suspicion that his family doesn't actually have any divine power at all, and perhaps he's unwittingly something like a Celestial Warlock) and Tyranny (Whitney Moore,) a demon warlock who has converted to this Path of Candescence and who studies under Wick to try to learn to be good.
Mechanically, I'm assuming Tyranny is a reskinned tiefling (maybe an Abyssal Tiefling if they're keeping the distinction between demons, devils, and other fiends). The dynamic here is very fun: Tyranny is clearly having a very hard time acting all pious and obedient, and seems to be a total chaos gremlin, but Wick is also clearly very naive. Wick had tried to advocate for a commutation of Thjazi's sentence, which he thought was guaranteed up his grandmother, who leads this Path of Candescence, took back any promises of leniency at the last moment. Hal had gone to Wick to plead for his brother's life, and Wick must apologize for his efforts not having been enough.
So:
Azune and Occtis confer with one another, trying to figure out what went wrong: Azune had scanned Thjazi with a Detect Magic spell before the execution to ensure that the teleportation glyph was there, so why hadn't it worked? They know of a hiding place where Occtis had worked on the glyph, and they go there to investigate, taking Teor along with them. When they arrive, they find a bloodbath, where a deadly battle took place. The hidden laboratory has been ransacked and pillaged, but they find Thimble (Laura Bailey) on death's door beneath a grate in the floor. Thimble is a fairy rogue (and unlike the official Fairy species, she's actually only 4 inches tall,) and was Thjazi's trusted and constant companion. In the nick of time, Teor heals her. Under the grate where she was hidden, she has the real glyph, which evidently never made it to Thjazi.
As they investigate, finding that an artifact known as the Stone of the Nightsong was also taken from this place, a figure appears there: human ranger (almost certainly a beastmaster because he's accompanied by a giant wolf) Kattigan Vale (Robbie Daymond) shows up. Kattigan was another comrade that served with Thjazi, Teor, and Azune, but seems to have had some kind of fall from grace, and is half-drunk when he shows up. (Also, his wolf Wulfric seems to recognize Occtis' familiar Pin - seriously, there's a ton of connections between these characters).
More people show up at the wake:
Bolaire (Taliesin Jaffe) a human (we think) Warlock, is a friend of the family, a museum curator who has a strange, magical mask permanently affixed to his face. While this gives him some seriously gothic-creepy vibes, he seems to be a fairly level-headed and friendly person.
Murray Mag'Nesson (Marisha Ray), a dwarf Wizard, is a brassy, boisterous friend of Thjazi's.
Sir Julien Davinos (Matt Mercer) is a human Fighter/Rogue, and has a complex history with Thjazi, having fought against him when Thjazi rebelled against the his own wife's noble house. Julien is the only person here to have real animosity toward the deceased, but also comes there as an escort to Thjazi's estranged and now widowed wife, Aranessa. Julien is also currently training Thaisha's (and Hal's?) son. Notably, Julien spits on Thjazi's corpse, which seems to cause some dark spirit to arise - a thread that isn't really resolved here.
Finally, as Thaisha and Julien have a confrontation outside of the house, a tall figure in black mourning attire and swinging a censer arrives: Vaelus (Ashley Johnson), an Elf (maybe drow?) Paladin who bring some really intimidating vibes: she comes in and identifies Thjazi as a thief, and demands the Stone of the Nightsong, which he took from her order, which still reveres the now-deceased elvish goddess of life, Sylindri. (Ok, I guess Julien's not the only one who shows up with animosity toward the dead guy). She refuses to leave until it is given to her.
The episode ends with a bit of a cliffhanger: a silver box that Thaisha had brought, belonging to Thjazi, is opened and fragments of a mask very similar to the one that Bolaire has stuck to his face coalesce, and some form of chaos is sure to follow.
So, here are some takeaways:
This is part of the "overture" arc, which I think will be multiple episodes establishing the world and characters before the three tables: Seekers, Soldiers, and Schemers, break off from one another. There's not really a clear indication as to which characters are going to which tables just yet.
Dol-Makjar seems to me to be predominantly human and orcish, and the noble families seem to skew toward humans, but not exclusively. Thaisha belongs to a renowned family called the Lloys, and I don't get the sense that being orcs confers any lesser status.
What we've seen of Orc culture seems to have a bit of an Irish (or maybe more broadly Gaelic) vibe. Not only is this very much an Irish wake, but Hal's house also has an iron nail to detect fairies and fiends, and there are some orc terms used that have words that end in "v" sounds that are spelled with an "mh." (Like how the name Niamh is pronounced "Neeve.")
It's pretty clear that House Halovar is full of crap - we see Wick's grandmother affect an entirely different voice when she speaks to a crowd, right after she flippantly breaks her promise to her grandson that Thjazi will be spared, and the piety that is demanded of Wick is quite extreme. Notably, Tyranny is not the only demon who has been converted to this Path of Candescence, and I'm worried about those who are taking it far more seriously than she is.
Likewise, the charge of "arcanism" feels very trumped-up, as it seems there's actually quite a lot of arcane magic being practiced in the city fairly openly. Likely the kind of technically illegal activity that the powers that be can arbitrarily enforce when they want to turn the screws on someone.
One important detail whose significance remains unclear is that the way to Faerie is closed. Thimble has started to age, which she evidently didn't do before this happened, but this planar closure also seems to mean something for the various noble houses, including Julien's (he's from what is presumably a lesser house, vassal to Aranessa's house).
Certainly some characters got, I think, more of a spotlight here than others. Even with four hours, that's a ton of major characters to meet.
To run down the player characters, I'm going to say what I believe their subclasses are (they're starting at level 3, so the non-multiclass characters should have one already). Also, of note, there are going to be some bespoke subclasses here, which I obviously cannot predict.
Thimble: Fairy Rogue, I believe Assassin, based on a promo interview.
Azune Nayar: Human Paladin/Sorcerer (no subclass just yet - not very clear which would be for each).
Kattigan Vale: Human Ranger (Beast Master, almost certainly)
Thaisha Lloy: Orc Druid (possibly Wildfire? Not an obvious implication here, other than some note of her sending heat waves off of her when she is close to Wild Shaping).
Bolaire Lathalia: Elf (according to the wiki) Warlock. I wonder if the mask is the patron, though this could mean just about anything. Could be a custom subclass too.
Vaelus: Elf Paladin. I mean, Oath of Vengeance certainly seems like a possibility, as she might wish to avenge her goddess. Definitely giving off a dark vibe (which Ashley Johnson pulls off amazingly in her introduction, and then reverts to classic Ashley Johnson as soon as she has to roll any dice. It's adorable).
Jir Julien Davinos: Human Rogue/Fighter. No subclass as of yet, of course. Genuinely not sure which he'd go with for either, though I feel like the classic "DM's subclass" is Battle Master (he's also an instructor to Hal and Thaisha's son Al, which would fit with a battle master).
Tyranny: Demon (again, guessing reskinned tiefling) Warlock. I mean, Fiend would make a lot of sense, but also possibly Celestial if she's committed to this whole "serving the light" thing.
Halandil Fang: Orc Bard. College of Tragedy from the Tal'dorei Campaign Setting Reborn feels like it would be right up Liam O'Brien's alley. There was some mention of him being primarily focused on words, which to me sounds like it could be Eloquence or even Creation.
Murray Mag'Nesson: Dwarf Wizard. Purely a throw-away line where Marisha Ray describes her as having a special quill affixed to her finger like a false nail, but I could imagine that implying Order of Scribes. But also could just work for any wizard.
Wicander Halovar: Human Cleric. If he really is a Cleric, clearly the Light domain. However, given that he has 10 Wisdom and 18 Charisma, I'm... I'm real skeptical. Much as Chetney was originally introduced as a Rogue in campaign 3 until he revealed his lycanthropy and the fact that he was a Blood Hunter, I feel like there's a chance Wick is, like, a Celestial Warlock or Divine Soul Sorcerer.
Occtis Tachonis: Human Wizard. We know he's a Necromancer.
Teor Pridesire: Nama (again, I assume a renamed Leonin, as he's a lion-folk) Paladin. It's a thin lead, but just the fact that he was concerned a lot about the proper pomp and circumstance that he felt Thjazi was denied in his execution makes me think Oath of Glory.
Anyway, we're here at the outset of a years-long campaign in which we will find out much, much more about all of these characters. It is exciting, with a whole new world to discover and all these new characters.
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