Nordverse

The Nordverse, also known as Nord by Nordwest: The Quest for the Ultra Codex Reloaded, is a recurring segment created by Sam Riegel as a way to promote Nord VPN during the announcement portion of Critical Role episodes. It features several Critical Role cast members acting as their "hackersonas", speaking in an exaggerated and often nonsensical computer jargon.

Characters
BlackWillow73 Sam's hacker persona is blackwillow73@aol.com, often shortened to BlackWillow73. He appears in every Nordverse segment as the main character. He has an old telephone receiver taped to the side of his head.

CryptonicOverride CryptonicOverride is Laura's hacker persona. She has appeared in all but the first Nordverse segment. Although she initially tried to hack BlackWillow73, she became his trusted partner in their quest to defeat the Ultra Codex. CryptonicOverride wears her signature keyboard on her arm.

Cereal Killer Cereal Killer is a character from the 1995 movie Hackers. Matthew Lillard reprised his role during a special appearance on the third Nordverse segment.

FreezerBurn Taliesin's hacker persona, FreezerBurn, was a level 12 master hacker who retired after spending 10 years in nano-jail for electro-crimes against webmanity. He came back to help BlackWillow73 and CryptonicOverride escape the internet, then sacrificed his hacking powers to help them. He used a power glove for hacking.

MadHatterson MadHatterson is Ashley's harcker persona who helped FreezerBurn save the main two hackers. She speaks in a cockney accent.

The Ultra Codex BlackWillow73 and CryptonicOverride searched for the Ultra Codex tirelessly, then attempted to take it down unitl it was finally revealed that Matt had been the Ultra Codex all along!

History
 BlackWillow73 made his first appearance, attempting to hack an unspecified target, but couldn't get past the protection of NordVPN.

 BlackWillow73 refused to use NordVPN's protection, believing he didn't need it, but was suddenly hacked by a faceless enemy calling themselves CryptonicOverride. BlackWillow73 quickly booted up his Nord VPN fail-safe disk and managed to ice out the hacker. CryptonicOverride admitted defeat, but warned that they would be back to defeat BlackWillow73 and find the true source of the Ultra Codex.

 BlackWillow73 joined forces with CryptonicOverride to reach the Ultra Codex. After 18 straight hours of side channel spoof dashing, they were about to reach it, when they were suddenly simul-sliced! They were joined by Cereal Killer, who told them that hacking Ultra Codex was possible, and suggested they use the legendrary Mobius device. The three of them joined forces, but it turned out to be a trap! BlackWillow73 and CryptonicOverride were trapped inside the internet, where they could never stop Cereal Killer's Ultra Codex.

 BlackWillow73 and CryptonicOverride had been trapped inside the internet for nano-days, avoiding and fighting obstacles along the way. After an amazing display of skill, they stared into each other's eyes lovingly, but CryptonicOverride interupted the moment, reminding BlackWillow73 that they had to get to safety. They took refuge in Dani Carr's Pinterest account and wondered who could have the power to save them... in the outside world, Taliesin shook his head and put on his hacking glove for one last slice, even though he had swore not to go back to his hacking ways.

 Taliesin explained his dark past as FreezerBurn, a level 12 master hacker, and began trying to pull BlackWillow73 and CryptonicOverride from their internet prison. However, this was a two-man job, and so MadHatterson joined the fight! Working together, they managed to bring back the other two hackers. Upon arrival, BlackWillow73 told the others that everything had changed, and that he had a secret to tell them all...

 BlackWillow73, CryptonicOverride and FreezerBurn were ready to take down the Ultra Codex, but... BlackWillow73 and CryptonicOverride lost all their hacking powers! FreezerBurn offered to transfer his 1.21 gigaflops of brain archives to them, but he'll lose his powers forever. The transfer worked, the two hackers are cured, and FreezerBurn is no more.

 Happy Hack-oween! BlackWillow73 had been hard at work trying to hack into the Ultra Codex, but was focused on eating candy tonight. That is, until he found out that his bag of candy bars had been hacked, replacing all his sweets by candy corn! After investigating the crime scene, he found a hidden USB drive that revealed a mysterious message: "Eat this, you latex dork". Matthew confusedly pointed out that "latex dork" is his Playa name at Burning Man, then discovered that BlackWillow's stolen candy were on his desk! Someone was trying to turn them against each other, but who?

 Thanks to NordVPN, the internet had been totally safe for the past few gigaflops, and the Ultra Codex had gone into cyber hibernation. Blackwillow73 and CryptonicOverride were taking the entire Critical Role cast on a VR tour of hackerspace. It all went well and everyone was having fun, until Travis was suddenly hacked and became paralyzed! The hackers couldn't believe it... only the Ultra Codex could have done this, and that could only mean one thing: the Ultra Codex was someone in this room! Piecing together hints from previous adventures, BlackWillow73 finally learned the truth: the Ultra Codex had been Matt all along! Matt laughed and told BlackWillow73 he was too late. He would only unfreeze Travis once his demands were met!



Trivia

 * Laura mistakenly called Sam "BlackWillow69" during the segment that aired with.
 * There was a Nord VPM sponsorship during that did not feature a Nordverse bit.