Author Archives: Bizarre Brunette

How Natural 1s Furthered Vesper’s Story – Axis Campaign

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Image is a photo of character art of Vesper. She has long brown hair that flows in waves down her shoulders. In the background is a huge castle and to her left is a black hound with glowing eyes.

Since being involved in a regular campaign, I have rolled my fair share of natural 20s and my fair share of natural 1s. In Dungeons & Dragons, a d20 is rolled to either attack an enemy, make a skill check, or avoid a spell effect from another spell caster. Rolling a 20 is considered a critical hit or in some cases a critical success, while a natural 1 is a critical failure. I don’t think anyone enjoys rolling a natural 1, but in my case, I tend to roll natural 1s on a D20 at pivotal moments in our game. I wanted to share two examples where I rolled a natural 1 and how the lower dice roll furthered my character’s journey within the campaign.

Both stories are set in our current campaign where I’m playing Vesper, the Variant Human Sorcerer. Vesper had to make a Constitution Saving Throw after a long battle our group finished. When I stated I had rolled a 1, the DM revealed a disguised enemy came up behind me and removed my eyes. Our whole group was shocked! When this first happened, I will admit I was devastated. I wasn’t sure how Vesper would progress through the story considering that as a spell caster, she needed to be able to see everything around her. In a turn of events, Vesper accepted help from Zariel which unlocked a new feat for Vesper. If she calls on Zariel’s aid, she gets added benefits in battle but she can’t cast all her spells. Vesper eventually regained her eyes and vision with help from the other players in our party.

Rolling a natural 1 in this instance altered Vesper’s story. I don’t think she would have made a pact with a god. There were several in-game conversations between the other players where they expressed concerns over Vesper’s partnership with Zariel. These conversations were fun to have and I think bonded Vesper with the other characters. They expressed their empathy, but also kept Vesper in check and not letting Zariel take over. None of this would have happened had I not rolled a 1.

The second story happened pretty recently. Vesper is currently in a relationship with Cam, an NPC who is Vesper’s academic adviser at the magical academy she graduated from before the campaign started. In one session, Cam had accepted an opportunity that would permanently change his character. Our DM asked me to roll a d100 which would reveal how well this would go for him. I rolled a natural 1 on a d100 which is a 100-sided die. Rolling a 1 on a d20 is one thing, but a d100. I can’t even believe it. As a result, Cam almost died. I did not expect myself to care as much, but I started crying during the session. I thought of Vesper’s feelings toward Cam and how she would lose somebody she loved. With no help from myself, the other players rallied around me and we were able to give Cam assistance to pass his Constitution Saving Throw. I cannot look at d100s the same now.

From a story perspective, this was much needed for Vesper. The way I roleplayed Vesper, she always put Cam at a distance. This comes from her back story, but as a way to protect herself. Throughout the sessions, Cam got Vesper to open up which led to them confessing their feelings for each other. Vesper took Cam for granted and that was intentional on my end. The fact I rolled a natural 1 and almost killed him woke Vesper up to the fact that she truly loves him. As far as how that benefitted the campaign, I think it solidified Cam as a permanent member of our group.

With these natural 1s, Vesper wouldn’t be where she is today without them. I think it’s easy to feel disappointed or sad when a natural 1 is rolled, but hopefully, this gives some reassurance that sometimes, they aren’t always bad.

Favorite Moments of My 20s

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I’m officially in my 30s! Today is my birthday and after I get off work, my husband and I will drive up to Duluth to spend time with family. My husband’s family has never been to Duluth before, so acting as a tour guide and showing them around will be fun. Since I’m entering a new phase of my life, I wanted to share some of my favorite moments from my 20s in chronological order.

Junior Year – Fall 2014

Image is a photo overlooking a view. There are trees with red, orange and yellow leaves. The sun is shining and the sky is filled with light gray clouds. This photo was taken at the Science Museum in Saint Paul.

My early 20s began when I was entering my junior year of college. When I think back on my college years, junior year will forever be a standout. This is the year I met my husband, although I didn’t know that then. I was living with a good group of girlfriends in an off-campus apartment. I was starting to get further into my degree and becoming more involved in Winona State’s Astronomy Club. This year was a great start to my 20s.

Buying My Car – December 2016

Image is a photo of me in my blue mini-van. I am smiling from the driver's window.

For the first few years of college, I did not have a car. I think that was for the best since my school was known for not having enough parking spots and trying to get a parking pass was an extra expense. Eventually, I did bring a car with me to school. I drove a Ford Windstar Blue mini-van that my friend named Bertha.

In my final semester before graduation, I had to do an internship. My internship site was 35 minutes away from my college campus. Unfortunately for Bertha, my car was an older vehicle and I had concerns as to whether my car would withstand the extra miles. I wouldn’t consider myself a car person meaning I don’t have strong opinions as to what type of car I wanted. With my mom’s help, we purchased a Subaru Forester in Jasmine Green. We named our car Ripley Rey. Ripley after Alien and Rey after Star Wars.

Since 2016, I have taken my car on countless road trips including frequent trips to Chicago and Kansas City. I plan on driving my car as long as I can.

Graduating From College – May 2017

Image is a photo of me, my brother, and my mom. We are sitting on a bench and it is bright outside. We are all wearing sunglasses. I'm holding my purple Winona State University book with my degree. I'm wearing my black cap and gown.

This is easily one of the greatest achievements from my 20s. Graduating from college was a longer journey since I spent five years getting my degree. By the time graduation rolled around, I was so ready to be done. I counted the days until I could move home to be closer to friends and family. The weekend I graduated, the weather was gorgeous! It was sunny, but not too hot. It was a lovely weekend when some of my extended family came to see me walk across the stage. I showed them around both Winona and La Crosse. Winona will always have a special place in my heart.

Visiting NYC – Summer 2018

Image is a photo of me outside The Met in NYC. I'm sitting on a set of stairs outside the building.

I went on so many trips throughout my 20s and each trip was fun in its own right. I decided to highlight the time I went to New York City. Everything about this trip was perfect. We walked around Central Park, ate a lot of good food, had a few boozy moments, and took tons of pictures. This was also my first adult flight. The only other plane I was on was when my family flew to Atlanta when I was in middle school.

I would love to go back to NYC someday. There’s so much to explore and while we had a blast, there was no way we had time to see everything.

Orlando – February 2019

Image is a photo of me and my brother. We are smiling and holding our butterbeers to the camera.

Orlando was a great trip. It was the first time I left Minnesota in winter which I would definitely do again. It made winter less long. It was a jam-packed week as we spent most of the time at Universal Studios. Our hotel was within walking distance which was convenient and there was a shuttle in case we were tired and didn’t want to walk back. Unbeknownst to us, this was the last trip we took before the pandemic. It took a while before traveling became safe again and these memories kept me going throughout quarantine.

Mini-Moon – California Trip – Fall 2021

Image is a photo of me at Disneyland. I'm standing in front of Kylo Ren's ship.

I wanted to add this trip to the list since this was the first trip after the pandemic. While Europe was always going to be the honeymoon trip, there were still limitations with flying and taking Covid tests. I did not want to be stranded in another country because I tested positive for Covid. This was my and my husband’s first time in California. We spent time in LA, Santa Monica, Disneyland, and San Francisco. The fun part about visiting Disneyland in the Fall was seeing all the Halloween decorations. It was great to spend time at the beach and walking across The Golden Gate Bridge was a great thing to check off my travel list.

Europe Trip – September 2023

Photo is of me and my husband in Iceland. The road has a rainbow and there's a big church off in the distance.

I can’t forget to mention Europe! This trip was a dream come true. I had been wanting to go to Europe for so long. This trip was everything I wanted it to be and so much more.

New Mexico – April 2024

Image is a photo of me smiling at the camera in Old Town ABQ

I wanted to end with a memory from this year. The road trip I took with my mom was so much fun. The best moments of this trip were sitting at breweries and spending quality time with her. As I have gotten older, it feels more difficult to juggle all of my friendships, relationships, regular exercise, getting good sleep, and hobbies. This trip gave me time to spend with my mom which I will treasure forever.

I am looking forward to my 30s. While my 20s have been fun, I’m fully okay with putting these years behind me.

Is a New Life Worth Living – The Midnight Library

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Image is a book cover for The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. It shows a woman highlighted in orange entering what looks to be airplane windows. The airplane windows show different sceneries.

CW: Suicide, depression, death of an animal. None of these will be expanded upon in detail in this post, but more for a forewarning to the content of The Midnight Library.

While at a friend’s cabin this past weekend, I finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. This book had been on my Goodreads to-be-read shelf for years. It’s highly rated with an average 4.0 star rating from other readers. I am in the minority because while I’m glad I read this, I didn’t love it. I had expectations of what I wanted this book to be and those expectations let me down. Instead of writing a traditional book review, I wanted to expand upon some of the themes that were brought up in The Midnight Library.

The Midnight Library centers on Nora Seed. Nora is depressed and after a series of events, she’s committed to ending her life. Nora is suddenly transported to a library where each book within the library represents a different life path for her. For every book she picks up, she sees how her life is different. In one book, she’s an Olympic swimmer. In another, she’s a glaciologist in the Arctic. If Nora is unhappy, she is pulled out of the book and back to the library. With Nora’s reality coming to fruition, Nora must figure out what she wants before it’s too late.

I thought long and hard about this. If I ended up at The Midnight Library, I would not want to view other versions of my life. I am happy with my life. I have an amazing husband, I have several hobbies I balance, and I find joy in simple things like exercising regularly or playing video games. I have a good group of friends from different social circles. I have had several opportunities to travel to bucket list places which I feel fortunate to have been able to do. I don’t think there is such a thing as the perfect life and I wouldn’t trade my life or experiences for anything else.

Throughout the book, Nora has a “Book of Regrets” and that helps Nora figure out which books to choose. Her regrets are: quitting swimming, not going to school to become a glaciologist, quitting a band, and choosing to not marry a man she was in a long-term relationship with. I was thinking about what my version of regrets would be. If I had to pick, I think mine would be: quitting figure skating lessons, not being able to study abroad in college, not finding the time to play the alto-sax, and choosing a different major in college.

I chose to quit figure skating for a few reasons. Figure skating reminded me of my dad and that’s tough when I was navigating the grief I felt after he passed. I will always be passionate about figure skating and I still skate to this day. When the weather is chillier, I want to go to open skating at the local ice arena in my area. Studying abroad in college would have been awesome. However, I was already behind in my degree since I switched majors. Additionally, I didn’t have the money to study abroad. All my international traveling has been post-college and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Funding my own trips has made me appreciate traveling so much more. I played the Alto-Sax in both high school and college. I quit playing because the Anatomy classes I needed overlapped with Band. I am proud of myself for trying Band in college though. It made me a better musician in many ways I wouldn’t have predicted. My Alto-Sax is at my mom’s house. Part of me wants to pick it up and play it. I don’t think I can part with it permanently. The final “regret” is choosing a different major in college. In my professional life, I’m not using my degree. I wish I would have done a more generic degree versus something so specific. Going to college was life-changing for me in many ways and I learned so much about myself. I wouldn’t be the person I am without my time at Winona State University.

I am glad I read The Midnight Library even though I didn’t love the book. This book made me think and reflect on my own life based on what Nora learned about hers. I wouldn’t change anything in my life and it makes me appreciate every memory, hardship, and moment I won’t take for granted.

My First Cosplay Photo Meetup – CONvergence 2024

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I have never been to a cosplay photo meet-up before. At conventions, there will be coordinated times for various cosplayers to meet up and get photos taken. When I plan out my cosplays, I wear what I want on whatever day I want. This year, I happened to time my Harley Quinn cosplay on the DC cosplay photo day at CONvergence. I decided to go because why not. Some of the pictures have been posted and I love all of them.

Image is a photo of 3 cosplayers. One is Harley Quinn, one is Poison Ivy, and I'm on the right.
Photo taken by Twin Cities Geek
This is a photo of Poison Ivy and me as Harley Quinn.
Photo taken by Twin Cities Geek

I am obsessed with these photos! I have never gotten professional photos of my cosplays mostly because of the cost associated with paying a professional photographer. I may consider this in the future. The quality of these photos is way better than any photo I would take. There were several photographers there, so there will probably be more photos that will be uploaded. I’m glad I went and I definitely want to do this in the future.

I Played Daggerheart – Let’s Talk About It

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In March, I wrote a post about Daggerheart, Critical Role’s TTRPG system, when it was first announced with an open beta. I had reservations based on their initial announcements, but wanted to reserve judgment until there was more released and if I would have the opportunity to play. As it turns out, Badowolf Adventure Studios ran a Daggerheart one-shot which served as an introduction to the system. Now that I have played the game, I feel my thoughts are different than they were a few months ago.

Daggerheart character sheet. It shows a Barnacle, a Ribbet Rogue. It's basically a sneaky frog.

When I originally wrote this post, I mentioned being skeptical about combat. In Daggerheart, there isn’t an initiative order meaning the players decide who goes first. When signing up for gaming events at conventions, it’s random people paired together. I didn’t find it awkward when we figured out who would go. There was always one player who wanted to start and I found that as we all worked together, we would call out who hadn’t gone yet. By not having an initiative order, players can be strategic and pick who goes based on what character is doing what. Another slight concern was how the DM would go after a player rolls higher in Fear. I wasn’t sure how often that would be. During our session, our group rolled pretty well, but I didn’t think it slated the game one way or another. With a one-shot, it’s tough to tell, but I left feeling much better about the mechanics than I had felt before.

Character sheet from Daggerheart from the Guardian class.

Our session was only an hour, so it was difficult to interpret much from one session. I left feeling positive about Daggerheart. It’s one thing to hear all the announcements and another to actually get to play. I’m curious to see how Daggerheart will be finalized upon its release and if Critical Role‘s next campaign will be with Daggerheart.

Cosplaying as Keyleth; Critical Role’s Notable Druid

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In my CONvergence post, I mentioned how I put together my cosplay for Keyleth, the Druid in Critical Role’s first campaign, Vox Machina. I love Keyleth. Keyleth may not always say the right things and can be awkward sometimes, but I think she was an integral member of Vox Machina. For how much I talk about Critical Role, I had it on my radar that I wanted to cosplay as one of the characters in their world. I’m amazed at how well my Keyleth cosplay turned out and I plan on taking Keyleth to Gen Con this year.

Image is a photo of me smiling at the camera. I'm wearing an orange wig, green floral crown, green floral dress, brown arm bands, brown tights. I'm holding a staff.

I spend a lot of time on Pinterest for my usual cosplay prep. The nice thing about cosplaying as a character from a TTRPG live show is that there are many looks to choose from. I have seen Keyleth cosplays that focus on a more autumn-orange look along with Keyleth’s cosplays from her Sideshow Action Figure. I settled on Keyleth from The Legend of Vox Machina which is her green dress, brown tall boots, and her infamous staff.

With The Legend of Vox Machina airing on Amazon, I had a lot of options for cosplay. I found an identical Keyleth green dress on Amazon and it’s amazing! It’s screen-accurate and the quality is great. I was expecting this dress to wrinkle, but it didn’t. The dress came with brown legwarmers and armbands, but after reading reviews, many suggested buying those separately. I’m glad I did because the leg warmers don’t cover my legs which is odd. I bought these brown heels that matched the tone that I was looking for. They have just enough of a heel to give me a boost, but not enough that I can’t walk in them all day. For Keyleth’s antlers, I bought two different options. One is a floral headband with butterfly and leaves poking out of it. The other is not a headband, but a crown that ties in the back. I prefer the crown since it matches Keyleth’s dress, but also, headbands give me a headache after a while. Before CONvergence, I put the whole cosplay on just to see how it looked and I was happy with the results.

Me in my Keyleth cosplay and Matt Mercer. A man wearing a long brown wig, blue t-shirt, and a hexagon prop in his left hand.

I decided to wear Keyleth on Saturday since Saturday is one of the biggest cosplay days. It was great timing because I saw a Matt Mercer cosplay and a Pike cosplay while walking around the convention. I got a lot of compliments on Keyleth and a few people who wanted to take my picture which is always a compliment.

Picture of me and Pike! Pike is wearing a white wig, brown clothing.

Keyleth is probably one of my favorite cosplays that I have put together. I can’t wait to re-wear this cosplay to multiple conventions and potentially upgrade it as time goes on. This will be the first of many future Critical Role cosplays.

CONvergence – 2024

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It’s funny, last week I noticed something. I have been writing about CONvergence for so long and realized that instead of capitalizing the first three letters, I was spelling out the convention as Convergence. I have since updated all my previous posts that I had written about the convention. Proofreading is important, am I right? That said, CONvergence was last weekend as it’s usually over the Fourth of July weekend. There’s always something special when I attend CONvergence as it feels like I’m returning to my home base and the convention that started it all for me. I wanted to share a few of the highlights from the con.

Throughout CONvergence, I went to three different panels. The first panel I went to was the “Andor Fan Panel”. I loved Andor because it shows a different type of story within Star Wars. Without stories like Andor, there wouldn’t be a rebellion. I thought the panelists were well-balanced in discussing the show and taking questions from the audience. The second panel I went to was “Wig Styling 101”. This panel was probably the most useful panel that I went to. When I started wearing wigs, I didn’t watch a video tutorial. I threw my hair in a bun, stuffed it under the wig cap, and called it good. The panelists suggested braiding or twisting the hair so that when you put the wig cap on, it lays flat and there isn’t a bump at the back of the wig. This is such an obvious statement, but it never occurred to me to do anything different. Another takeaway from the panel is the panelists highlighted several online websites to order wigs. I always ordered from Amazon not necessarily by choice, but because I didn’t know where else to get wigs. While the panel focused on wig styling, I learned so much more about the basics of wearing wigs. The final panel I attended was “Session Zero: Setting the Stage for Your Epic Campaign”. I have thought about becoming a GM (not a paid one, but for fun). I don’t think I would focus on Dungeons & Dragons, instead, I’d love to GM Call of Cthulhu, Candela Obscura, or another horror TTRPG system. I think what worries me is how intimidating being a GM is, but I have to start somewhere.

Image is a photo of me smiling at the camera. I'm wearing a red cloak with the fur around it.

Besides panels, CONvergence is another convention I cosplay at. This year, I went with Red Riding Hood, Harley Quinn, and Keyleth. Red Riding Hood is a cosplay that I rent. It’s been a go-to comfort cosplay for me and it’s nice to have a breather from wearing wigs. The last time I wore Harley was back in 2023 for Planet Comicon, so it was nice to wear this cosplay again. The Harley wig I have has seen better days, so I might get one more use out of it before needing to throw it away. Keyleth was a character I have been wanting to cosplay for a while. I am so excited about how this cosplay came together. I’m going to write a more in-depth post about prepping this cosplay, so I won’t say much more than that.

Image is a photo of me cosplaying as Keyleth. I have an orange wig on, green dress, and a floral green crown on.

Something I normally don’t do at CONvergence is gaming. CONvergence has always had gaming events, but either they don’t work with my schedule or they conflict with something else. I wanted to prioritize gaming this year especially since this was Badwolf Adventure Studios‘ first time at CONvergence. I signed up for their Daggerheart event which was a play test of Critical Role’s TTRPG system. I wanted to play Daggerheart for a while, so I’m glad I got the chance to play. I have a lot of thoughts about Daggerheart now that I played it, so I will write those in a future post. I’m happy to see Badwolf at CONvergence not only from a business promotion standpoint but also providing more experiences for convention attendees to get into TTRPGs.

I had so much fun at CONvergence this year. It’s always bittersweet when this convention is over, but it gives me something to look forward to every year.

Star Wars: The Acolyte “Night” Episode #5

Posted in Bizarre Brunette Big-Screen Watches by
Image is a poster of The Acolyte. It shows various Jedi holding lightsabers and a menacing character holding a red lightsaber.

This is the first Star Wars series where I watch each episode as they air. I would normally wait until all episodes were available on Disney+ but I don’t want to see spoilers, so I have been making time to watch each episode. I finished watching the fifth episode of the show and I could not believe what I was watching. This episode was intense and I loved it. There will be spoilers below, so please be mindful if you haven’t watched the episode yet.

Major Spoilers for The Acolyte

This episode was brutal. The mysterious warrior is shown violently killing several unnamed Jedi. Jecki, Yord, and several of the characters race to help. As Jecki pulls off the warrior’s helmet, he stabs her with his lightsaber three times. Each time you see the burn through her chest and on the back of her robes. JECKI NOOO. I liked Jecki and figured she would be around for the whole series, but apparently not. Shortly after Jecki’s death, Yord rushes into help and his neck is broken by the warrior. I am in shock. Killing off several of the characters in such a short amount of time, I was unprepared. Is this the Star Wars version of the Red Wedding from Game of Thrones?

As I watched this episode, I liked the dialogue between Qimir (played by Manny Jacinto AND the person revealed to be the warrior) and Sol. After Jecki’s death, Sol says something along the lines of “She’s a child”. Sol is disgusted by how Qimir fights with his lightsaber and that he kills a child. Qimir responds with “Why did you bring her here?”. Qimir has a point. The Jedi are supposed to be on the side of the light yet they are training children to enter war or fight to defend themselves. The Acolyte, in my opinion, is helping to set up the prequels. The prequels show the Jedi downfall, but that doesn’t happen overnight or in five years. This type of story moment takes decades to build and The Acolyte provides context for those moments.

This episode of The Acolyte hit me hard. I was not at all prepared for what would happen. This episode completely changed the tone of the series and I’m intrigued by how the rest of the episodes will play out. Are you watching The Acolyte? I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially about this particular episode.

Libraries, Dice, and Faeries – July TBR

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I am excited to read all the books I picked out this month. Last month, I let myself be a mood reader. Mood reading is exactly what it sounds like. I didn’t pre-plan what I was going to read, instead, I chose whatever I wanted to read without any rhyme or reason. It was a nice break from the TBR format from previous months. The theme for this month is shorter books. Every book I plan on reading is 330 pages or less. Here are the books I plan to read in July.

Image is a stack of three books. The first book is The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. The second book is Duneons and Drama by Kristy Boyce and the third book is Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett".

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Nora Seed wanders to The Midnight Library, a library between life and death. Each book in The Midnight Library allows Nora to view a portion of her life if she made a different decision. She wants to build the perfect life for herself, but is that even possible?

I think the concept of The Midnight Library is fascinating. I don’t think I would go to The Midnight Library if I had the option. Things worked out in my life how they were supposed to. Viewing alternative choices would only make me feel worse. I’m curious to see how this book plays out.

Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce

Riley has big dreams of working on Broadway. She has been busy working on this year’s high school musical which she enjoys. Riley is grounded and as punishment, she has to work at her dad’s game shop. Riley meets Nathan, one of the employees at the game store who also runs a DnD game. Riley realizes that her initial flirtations with Nathan might be something more.

This book was written for me. Romance involving table-top roleplaying games, I mean c’mon.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde is a professor at Cambridge who studies Faeries and folklore. She travels to a small town to continue her studies and meets her academic rival there. Emily is determined to stay busy and not make friends with anyone. In her path for knowledge, she discovers potentially dark fae magic that could threaten to destroy all she holds dear.

The first three sentences in the Goodreads preview of this book are “A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love at the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series”. This sounds right up my alley. I didn’t know that curmudgeonly was a word, but now I have to figure out how to use this word more often.

This will be a great reading month for me. In a few weeks, I will be going to a friend’s cabin and there’s nothing that I love more than sitting in the sun and reading a book.

The Legacy of Mollymauk – The Mighty Nein

Posted in Bizarre Brunette Big-Screen Watches by

Major Spoilers for Critical Role’s 2nd Campaign – The Mighty Nein

I have been watching Mighty Nein which is Critical Role’s second campaign. There’s an episode that many fans refer to as THAT episode where something major happens. I had this spoiled for me beforehand which honestly, I’m thankful for. In episode #26 “Found & Lost”, The Mighty Nein is tracking down some slavers who may have kidnapped their friends. In the process of launching an assault on those responsible, Mollymauk Tealeaf (played by Taliesin Jaffe) is brutally killed by Lorenzo (an NPC voiced by Matt Mercer). I wanted to talk about this moment in greater detail.

Image is a picture of me in London. I'm wearing the Mollymauk button up shirt that Critical Role released.
RIP Mollymauk – Mollymauk button-up short-sleeve shirt that I’m wearing can be purchased from Critical Role’s online store.

Molly’s death is a series of unfortunate events. Due to Laura and Travis being away on parental leave, there were no other party members who could heal if anyone fell unconscious or lost their hit points. This episode had guest star, Ashly Burch, who played a fighter. I don’t believe the guest stars should have to pick a class that they don’t want to play, but it still played into Molly’s fate. Before going after Lorenzo, I don’t think the group stocked up on healing potions which would have been smart considering they couldn’t be healed otherwise.

As the attack happened, it became clear as the episode carried on, how unprepared this group was for Lorenzo’s crew. Lorenzo was a spell caster which the group didn’t know previously. As such, many of the characters lost half their health early on. On top of that, Nott (played by Sam Riegel) will attack and then hide right away. Keg (Ashly’s character) was freaked out and instead of going into battle, she ran away which didn’t help Molly’s situation considering Beau (played by Marisha Ray) and Molly were the only ones up trying to take out Lorenzo and his crew. Watching this episode knowing what was going to happen eventually, I think it’s fortunate that no one else lost their characters.

Leading to Molly’s demise, Molly wanted to use one of his Blood Hunter abilities against Lorenzo. For those who are unfamiliar with the Blood Hunter class, Blood Hunter abilities will require the player to roll a die and take that much health for the ability to happen. When Molly did this, he rolled high on his die which caused him to fall unconscious. Since Molly was in close combat with Lorenzo, Lorenzo stabbed Molly, so Molly couldn’t roll any death saves to try and save his character. When Matt asked Taliesin what his final words were, I loved when Molly spat in Lorenzo’s face. Knowing he was going to die, he wasn’t going to let Lorenzo see him afraid which I thought was admirable and perfect for his character.

Regarding Molly’s death, I think it would be easy to react with judgment. Why would Molly have used his Blood Hunter abilities when his health was so low? To reiterate, the Blood Hunter class at this point in time was brand new. Matt Mercer customized this class to Taliesin, so no one else had played this type of character before. As such, it’s easy for all of us to judge (including myself since I have played as a Blood Hunter), but it’s an important reminder that at the time, Taliesin was still learning how to play this class and Matt was learning how to create a class that felt balanced.

It’s interesting because out of all the characters in Mighty Nein, Molly was probably my least favorite. I thought Molly was arrogant and selfish and would often pick a fight with Caleb even though I felt Caleb was in the right. I was surprised by how emotional I felt after Molly’s death. I felt so bad for Taliesin because not only do you see your character die, but it’s being live streamed so now everyone can see your first reaction. I would hate that. I find that after my own DnD sessions, I need time to emotionally process what happened and I couldn’t imagine doing that in front of a huge community.

It took me forever to finish this episode because I knew what was coming. I want to see the Mighty Nein get revenge on Lorenzo and honestly, I miss seeing Travis and Laura. I think the group dynamic is different with them being gone and I can’t wait for them to return.