Critical Role Review: Liam's One Shot
By: I.Am.No.Man.
The Song of the Lorelei
[arve url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8t8IPgrI4M&t=307s" /]
Recap
On the edges of the Cyrengreen forest, not too far from the city of Deastok lies the Lorelei Castle. The Lorelei family dates back many generations and has continually proven their worth to the king of the empire in times of war and conflict. Years ago, Alfar, patriarch of the Lorelei family was bitten and cursed with werewolf blood. The curse passed from generation to generation, and though the family had to fight to tame their wilder, more violent tendencies, they rose up to wealth and prominence in the land.
Our five siblings know their history well. Their father, Haldor, has taught them well and the stories are used as warnings for the children. The siblings’ grandmother, Genvieve, was a wild and tumultuous woman who refused to tame and suffered for it. She was murdered when Haldor was a young child and the boy was raised by his Aunt Caterine. Caterine was also extremely influential in raising the five children and they have only known love and acceptance.
Aurra, the eldest daughter, has eschewed her family responsibilities in her adult years and has retreated to the forest, running wild, and growing strong in the ways of nature.
Lucius, next in line, has also forgone the taming and has found purpose in life as a cleric of the Moonweaver. He spends all his time deep in the woods with her other worshipers.
Portia is the heir apparent to the Lorelei Castle since her older siblings have abandoned the family. She has eagerly stepped up into the role and is the picture of Lorelei regality.
The twins, Benicio and Lawrence, couldn’t be more different. Benicio has focused his energy into being the strongest, fastest, most agile fighter. He also has a rambunctious side that has gotten him into trouble many times, including accidently blowing up his brother’s study, and himself, in a prank gone wrong. Lawrence is a studious lover of books and knowledge. He believes his mind will lead him in life and devotes his time to improving his vast knowledge.
The siblings had all gone their separate ways for the most part, but a recent mysterious letter from their father has called them all home. They cautiously return to the Castle, but find it cold and dark, very unusual from what they were expecting. The siblings sneak in through a secret back entrance and find a horrific sight. A scene of death and murder greet them as they break in. They recognize the bodies as townsfolk and employees of the family. Cooks, servants, guards, local farmers and their children have all been brutally slaughtered. The siblings’ blood boils and they search the rest of the house for any sign of their Aunt Caterine or their father.
They find their Aunt Caterine in her room, her body run through by blades. She put up a fight but was overrun by the intruders. They find a horrifying clue in their father’s study. His severed hand clutches a note leading the siblings to the crypts.
As the siblings approach the graveyard and family crypts, they spot torch light and movement ahead. Anticipating a trap, they circle around and attack from the back. Three humans hold glowing orbs and a hoard of undead greet the siblings. The five leap into action, taking out as many reanimated family members as possible, while trying to take out the three intruders. The humans seem to lose control of the undead and the skeletons begin to tear the humans apart instead of attacking the Loreleis. Using this fortunate turn of events, Aurra manages to trap one of the humans, a woman with red hair, and interrogates her. The human says they were paid to ‘soften them up a bit’ before the siblings ventured down into the crypts to meet their father’s captor. Aurra throws the woman off the roof and impales her onto the wrought iron fence below, leaving her to die.
The siblings now make their way down into the crypts and find an elfin man with stark white hair and dark skin waiting for them. He holds a weapon to their injured father’s throat. Before the drow can even say a word, the siblings leap into action and begin to launch their attack. The drow calls out to a being behind the siblings. They turn to see a terrifying sight. The sealed off tomb of their murdered grandmother Genvieve has been destroyed and a hulking undead werewolf lumbers out of the tomb. A think black smoke pours from her decayed eyes, nostrils, and mouth. She begins to claw and bite at her grandchildren. The drow uses the chaos to invisibly escape and launches his spells from safety.
A harrowing battle ensues with the siblings desperately fighting against the unseen drow and their powerful grandmother wolf. Aurra, transforms from her werewolf form into an even more powerful, feral Direwolf form and latches onto Genvieve’s corpse. Benicio and Lucius manage to rescue their father, though accidentally almost kill him in the process. Benicio manages to get the killing blow on Genvieve, running his glaive through her body. Aurra manages to spot the drow after he casts a spell and unleashes a deadly Windwall his way, thrashing his body against the walls and floor until he is dead.
With the enemy defeated, and their father miraculously saved, the siblings retreat to the castle to tend to their wounds. Their father tells them the harrowing story of the infiltration and kidnapping. The drow brought a small army to bring down vengeance and revenge on the family. A dark, secret past has been uncovered. The Drow was in fact their grandfather, Genvieve’s lover. He was called away to war in his homeland and returned to find his bride slaughtered and hidden away, erased from the family. The siblings are haunted by this knowledge but will use this tragic history to make the future a brighter one for the Lorelei family.
Review
Muthafuckin’ Werewolves!! This one shot was pretty amazing. Watching Travis’ utter joy at finally being able to play a werewolf was just the best. The characters were unique, interesting, and the role play between the siblings was spot on.
The guest stars both crushed it as well. TJ Storm definitely did not disappoint and stole the show. His obvious ease and comfort with the game left his with lots of room for role playing and character building. Lucius was a joy to watch. Erica Luttrell played her first ever game, live on camera, in front of 40,000 viewers. I think she did pretty well considering all those things. She stayed deep in character practically the whole time, and her calm, cold and slightly aloof attitude set a real tone for the others to role play off of. She also picked one of the more difficult classes to learn for a first game. Playing a shapeshifting werewolf druid, with a monstrous Direwolf final form, comes with a stack of rules, spell lists, abilities, and features that even an experiences player would find difficult to remember.
Travis, Laura and Sam all had a blast as well. As usual, Sam’s character Benicio knocked it out of the park with role playing and hilarious in-character hijinks. It was so unsettling to hear Travis’ voice coming out of Sam’s mouth. Laura settled right in to her character, Portia. She reminded me a lot of Vex, beautiful, confident, and regal. Travis was the rock star this episode. In a hilarious change of character, he plays the bookish, timid, weak stomached Lawrence. The voice, the mannerisms, and the snobbish jokes were all so perfectly balanced. You could absolutely tell that Travis was having the time of his life during this one shot. Watching him werewolf hulk out for the first time was like watching a kid at Disneyland.
Liam, as usual, crushed it as DM. His stories are always some of my favorites. He’s not afraid to tell a dark story, tear at the heartstrings, really go there. You know, all the good stuff that make stories interesting. It’s no fun if everyone lives. He really gives us a deep back story in this one shot, tying this episode into the canon of the main campaign. I would love to see the Mighty Nein coming across an eerie castle in the dark with hints that something isn’t quite right about the enigmatic Lorelei family. Liam fully admitted that he is still pretty new to DM’ing, so battles and backstory and action may not be as well balanced as Matt’s encounters. The story did seem to run a bit slower than Liam planned, with him having to end his story by telling the end as an expose instead of letting the characters discover the ending on their own. It happens. Every one shot I’ve played has always run twice as long as expected. The story was worth it though. He wonderfully painted a picture of the history of this family and their troubles.
The action and story pacing did pretty well, considering it’s a nearly five hour episode. The ‘soften em up’ battle in the crypts ran a little long, as did the exploring of the Castle. But the final battle and all the hilarious character interaction in between were great. I feel like the descriptions of the three humans waiting in the graveyard were an easter egg that was glossed over and never addressed. The descriptions too perfectly matched Matt, Marisha and Taliesin to be coincidence, and Liam does have a love of killing his friends in his One Shots. The surprise of Aurra’s final wolf form was pretty badass, as was Tj’s incredible management of spells and actions during his turn. I was blown away by how many spells he was able to cast and damage he caused per turn. I guess that’s what 30 years of playing and DM’ing D&D looks like. The “How do you want to do this” moment was something else. The dead grandma jokes, paired with the reanimated corpse wedgie were…memorable to say the least.
All in all, this was an enjoyable Burning Man break from the main campaign. It’s a dark, fascinating, funny adventure into the lives of a werewolf family that is so perfectly the best of Liam, Critical Role, and D&D all at the same time. It’s a bit long to use it as an introduction for anyone new to D&D, but worth it for any Werewolf enthusiasts interested in the game. I am working on an article rating all the Critical Role One Shot episodes so keep an eye out for that. Also, there is no new episode of Talks Machina this week as they are working on some new content for us. PLEASE lord let it be a new episode of Liam and Sam’s podcast All Work No Play. It’s about damn time. The main campaign picks back up this Thursday, September 6th with all the regular cast back.
