I don’t usually wax lyrical about public figures often. Just because someone’s made something you like, doesn’t mean you should assume all their future projects will be winners. Creative endeavours flounder all the time. Managing expectations is good. The keyword, however, is usually, because I’m happy to call it now: Critical Role’s new campaign is going to be so very peak.
A new short trailer, released yesterday, sees Dimension 20 and Worlds Beyond Number DM, Brennan Lee Mulligan, in some fantasy-political speech about something or other; Arm-deep in a monologue I wouldn’t be shocked to find out was improvised off the cuff. Mulligan can live-generate villain speeches like no other, lemme tell you.
Watch On
What’s that? You want actual analysis? Fine, but only because you asked nicely—it’s likely a speech or set of last words being given by Thjazi Fang, as per the plot intro summary on Critical Role’s official Campaign 4 website page:
“Hero to many. Enemy to some. When Thjazi Fang is marked for execution, various figures from across his remarkable life unite to uncover the truth behind his grim fate. In a land still suffering from the fallout of dead gods and living in the shadow of a tumultuous rebellion, these disparate people will come together across the fractured world of Aramán and connect in ways they never imagined.”
Using my cunning detective’s mind, I posit that “here in the darkness of a jail cell, marked for death” refers to Thjazi Fang, because, uh, he was marked for execution. Please hold your applause, I put my trousers on one leg at a time like anybody else.
In all seriousness, Aramán’s world seems to be one fresh off the back of revolution, where the overthrowing didn’t quite throw as much over as one would’ve liked: “The Sundered Houses are stronger than ever, the Revolutionary Council a shadow of its former glory.”
Having been an avid fan of Worlds Beyond Number, wherein Mulligan recently pulled off one of the best Kool-Aid drinking imperialist villains I’ve seen in fiction, let alone D&D actual-play? I am chewing at the bars of my cage. I am positively rabid to see him pull this off.
Campaign 4 debuts October 2 at 7 pm PT / 3 am BST on Twitch and YouTube—and if you aren’t subscribed to Critical Role’s service, Beacon, you’ll be able to catch the VoD for free on the following Monday, October 6.
