Transcript:End of 2019 Fireside Chat

MATT: Whoa, I think we're on. Hey everybody!

MARISHA: Hello everybody! Welcome to our end of the year Critmas Fireside Chat.

MATT: Yeah

MARISHA: We're gonna answer some questions, do some reflecting.

TRAVIS: We don't even have a fire though.

MARISHA: Enjoy.

LIAM: It's right there.

MATT: The fire was the friends we made along the way.

LIAM: The warmth of the community.

MARISHA: Plus we have our fakey fire.

MARISHA: Maybe if we feel like it, we'll play a few rounds of Jackbox because games are Christmas. That's what you do.

MATT: Yeah.

MARISHA: But first, Travis, take it away.

TRAVIS: Yes, thank you, Marisha.

MARISHA: You're welcome.

TRAVIS: Some of you may noticed that some of our content has begun migrating over to our official CR channels. We love you guys. This process takes a little bit of time and we are incredibly thankful for your patience while we get all these things moving. We will have more about it soon. It will be back, just give us a little bit of leeway. Love you guys!

MARISHA: Yeah. And now...

TRAVIS: Should we do it?

MARISHA: Yeah. The thing.

TALIESIN: There's a thing?

LAURA: What thing?

TRAVIS: Does anyone need like food or drinks or stuff?

LAURA: I dont have a drink and I just realized it because I'm eating the jalapeno pizza probably.

MARISHA: Aww

TRAVIS: Here, have some mystery drink.

LIAM: Could someone pass me a slice of pizza please?

TRAVIS: Yes.

TALIESIN: Also, throw me a tiny slice.

MARISHA: If anyone has any questions, feel free to shoot them off in chat. We also have the amazing Dani Carr doing some curating for us.

MATT: The challenge of seeing where the robe ends and pants begin-- it's intentional, like a camouflage into myself.

MARISHA: (Laughing)

MATT: So you're seeing me against me.

ASHLEY: Somebody is asking where Sam is.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Sam could not make it because he's stupid.

MARISHA: (Laughing)

TRAVIS: That's not the real reason. Sam could not make it beacuse he's too sexy.

ASHLEY: Yeah, that's pretty good.

TRAVIS: Sam could not make it because his teeth overtook the rest of his body.

MATT: Also true. That's viable.

LAURA: Sam is the Laughing Hand.

MATT: Don't spoil it.

TALIESIN: It's hard to get all of us in a room and if we can get almost all of us and we'd usually call it a win.

TRAVIS: That's true.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: Um, yeah. So thank you guys for joining us. Do we have the iPad somewhere?

MARISHA: I have it. Oh, you have it.

LIAM: We can all read from there but the gang is curating questions for us.

MATT: Indeed.

TALIESIN: Um, wow, chat is it's...

LIAM: Awesome Shadow 17-- oh my gosh, somebody's typing real fast here-- wants to know what our favorite Christmas cookies are.

MARISHA: Christmas cookies. Gingerbread

LAURA: Sugar cookies with icing. Yeah, with like the regular old cake icing on the top.

MATT: I respect that.

TRAVIS: Oh, we're going complex. I'd say, snickerdoodle with a little coffee ice cream.

MATT AND MARISHA: Ooh

TALIESIN: I kinda wanna branch out of cookie into-- I like a rum-soaked British fruitcake, the kind that are designed to last seven years or eight years.

MARISHA: Oh, the kind that you used to enjoy in 1862.

TALIESIN: And it's still fresh. It's still fresh and you don't know what thoses little green bits are but they're like a black light reactant.

MARISHA: Uh huh.

TRAVIS: So Taliesin, what did you call them when you first invented them?

TALIESIN: Jaffa cakes

MATT: Jaffa cakes. I like it. I like it.

ASHLEY: I like fruitcakes.

TALIESIN: Fruitcakes are the best.

ASHLEY: I love it.

TALIESIN: I love it so much.

ASHLEY: Oh my god, I love it.

TALIESIN: Yeah, if it's too tough to eat you just soaked it in rum until it's soft enough to stab with a fork.

LAURA: Never had fruitcake.

ASHLEY: It's kinda weird. It's kind of like-- you know. We're gonna need to--

TALIESIN: We're gonna have to bring some fruitcake.

MARISHA: It's gonna be good, like the right fruit cake, right?

TALIESIN: Of course.

ASHLEY: There are some fruit cakes that are not great.

MARISHA: Okay.

TALIESIN: They famously last so long that they often get regifted year after year and someone's like-- "I think I made this for you." It's still just like ugh because it's so alcohol.

MATT: Someone just asked what Ronin is getting for Christmas.

TALIESIN: They almost get like cardboard sometimes.

LAURA: Aww. Ronin is getting a little kitchen.

MARISHA: Aww

LAURA: A little wooden kitchen

TRAVIS: Ashley's getting him some throwing stars.

LAURA: He's obsessed with pulling all the pots and pans and bringing them into the dining room and then he'll go put all the pots and pans away and go back in the dining room and walk over to where he had them and he'll start going "imitates eating sounds."

LAURA: He pretends that he cooks!

TRAVIS: He literally hugs trees so, you know.

MATT: You're basically raising Caduceus.

TALIESIN: Cooking the trees. Cooking the trees, man.

LIAM: Matt, how's the intramural basketball team going? Asks LickTheCow.

TRAVIS: I love this timeline.

MATT: Oh, my god.

MARISHA: As more and more people keep discovering it.

MATT: Props to the hard times for their-- I mean, their incredible staff of writers that put out a volume of content-- quality content that is insane. I just happen to occasionally be in that [indistinct], it seems, and that's a little off-putting.

MARISHA: You're a cultural touchstone.

TALIESIN: I'm not going to do it, so I'm going to tell you that I was thinking about doing it. Of installing a basketball hoop while you guys were out of town.

MATT: I've played like three games of basketball in my life. They were all in elementary school.

TALIESIN: I wasn't entirely sure that you would know what it was. I was a little worried that you'd be like-- is like this is a bird feeder or something?

LIAM: So what what position are you? Like a forward or a goalie or a shortstop?

MATT: I think you're joking.

TRAVIS: One of those was correct.

LAURA: A kicker? Is there a kicker?

TRAVIS: There is not in basketball.

MATT: No.

TRAVIS: They're not legally.

TALIESIN: Or weaver.

ASHLY: There's a thrower.

TRAVIS: You had the mad handles in that picture though. Mercer was looking up while he was dribbling. That was good.

MATT: People asked what the people of Tal'Dorei do for the holidays or Christmas. That would be Winter's Crest. Winter's Crest Festival, which actually is specific to Tal'Dorei. It has not spread into Wildemount. Wildemount has their own kind of winter solstice-type event.

MARISHA: Wait, what?

MATT: Yeah. Winter's Crest is specifically an event that celebrates the victory over-- a terrible time in Tal'Dorei's history specifically. It's location-specific.

MARISHA: But what does Wildemount do?

MATT: What does Wildemount do? I'll have to look it up for you.

LIAM: They decapitate one dissident on the steps of the capital.

TALIESIN: Are there people in Wildemount that celebrate Winter's Crest but do it weirdly?

MARISHA: What time of year is it?

MATT: It's past the new year.

TRAVIS: Yeah. This is like Australia, it's like summer right now.

MATT: Yeah, you guys are coming on Traveler Con.

LAURA: Yeah, I don't know what time of year that is. I just know it's a month.

MARISHA: Did we miss Christmas in the Happy Fun Ball?

MATT: I think no. I think you guys would have probably been on the seas, pirating.

TRAVIS: Did you miss the holday decorations up?

LIAM: This means we can have Christmas again in the summertime.

LAURA: That's right. Christmas in June.

TRAVIS: 50% off Christmas trees.

LAURA: Christmas in Du- Du- Duthamar. I don't know the names of the months.

MATT: Dunalar?

LAURA: Dunalar.

LIAM: By the way, Winter's Crest spawned out of all of us begging Matt to make us a Christmas-themed D&D game while we were playing at home.

ASHLEY: One of my favorite games we ever played.

TALIESIN: That was a really good game.

LIAM: We did a couple of them.

MARISHA: Was that-- we fought a tiny dragon, right?

TALIESIN: Tiny dragon.

ASHLEY: Yeah. It was a brunch day. You decorated the table like it was winter wonderland.

LIAM: One of those years we bought presents for each other and some of them were like in-character gifts. I think you gave me the mirrors for looking at your pores like you have giant coke bottle glasses on--

LAURA: Yeah, because you and I talked about how we're obsessed with looking at our pores.

LIAM: Pores.

LAURA: It's fucked up.

LIAM: It's a problem.

TRAVIS: It is a problem.

LIAM: But the mirrors-- you said that they were mirrors for him to-- for Vax to look around corners.

LAURA: See around corners.

LIAM: And look at his pores.

TRAVIS: I gave Pike a set of pine cones.

ASHLEY: Pine cones.

TRAVIS: Pine cone earrings.

ASHLEY: And I put those-- every year I'm reminded of that because they go on my Christmas tree every year.

TRAVIS: The best part was I took them-- she opened them up and there were these little gold pieces of string on them and I was like, "So, those are--" and she was like, "Earrings?" "Yes!"

MARISHA: That's right. You won, because you gave gifts from Grog.

TALIESIN: And they were so ridiculous.

LAURA: They were so good.

TRAVIS: There was only one bag of rocks. I think it was for that asshole.

ASHLEY: And I think on mine when you wrote "Pike", I think the K and the E were backwards. It was like, "To Pike, from Grog."

TRAVIS: I think there was a Y instead of an I.

ASHLEY: I think there was a Y.

MARISHA: I think you gave Keyleth a bunch of leaves and a handful of ripped grass. They were all crunched leaves in a bag.

TRAVIS: Might have been more Christmas shopping than I've ever done in my life.

MATT: Barren Eve. Barren Eve is-- the winter holiday is called Barren Eve. It's winter's longest night.

MARISHA: Barren Eve.

MATT: Yeah. Second of Duscar. It is technically a day of mourning for those lost in wars of old. So it's a somber--

ASHLEY: We missed it. Time to go back!

MATT: It's somber, but it is also considered a time for family and people to get together.

ASHLEY: Wait, so what time-- how far away was that?

MATT: That was a while back.

ASHLEY: So maybe what we just need to do then is just go back to that time--

MATT: That was three months ago, in-game.

ASHLEY: Let's go back three months and then I'll just play all those games.

MATT: There you go.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

LIAM: For the rest of the campaign we just game the Happy Fun Ball. Go into it for like four days. Come out-- it's Christmas. Get back in, stay there four days, come out, it's Christmas.

TALIESIN: Halas was not an immortal-- he wasn't an immortal wizard at all. He was just using the ball to live long enough to solve his problems. What an asshole!

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Oh my god. You made the Doc Brown of...

MATT: Yeah, he's an asshole!

TALIESIN: He's like a D&D Doc Brown.

MATT: I was wondering when you would figure that out. His whole ability to adjust time within his own space was part of that reason. He could jump forward and slow down when he needed to.

TALIESIN: This is why we should have the Council on the Fun Ball. Just putting it back out there.

TRAVIS: There's a question. Who is on the Council of Tal'Dorei?

MATT: Yeah, I don't know, man. Probably some important people.

TALIESIN: "Happy Fun Ball 2: Back to the Ball."

MATT: Every time you ask the question one of them dies.

TRAVIS: How does Essek celebrate the holidays?

TALIESIN: With great difficulty.

MATT: Probably reading.

LAURA: Reading.

MATT: Studying.

MARISHA: I bet he'd be a wonderful figure skater, though.

TRAVIS: That's some bullshit cheating. Like, "My god, triple axel, or...

LIAM: He's never fallen, not once.

MATT: "Look, no gravity! Whee!"

TALIESIN: Oh, god, you guys have kids now. Are you gonna do Santa's Village?

LAURA: Where's Santa's Village?

TALIESIN: Up in the-- just up like towards Big Bear.

MATT: I've never been. I've only seen commercials for it growing up and it looks terrifying.

TALIESIN: It's great, it's amazing--

LAURA: What is it?

TALIESIN: And if you ever go there, if it's not too crowded you can ask Santa Claus to figure skate for you, because he's a very impressive figure skater.

TRAVIS: To figure skate for you?

TALIESIN: To do all the crazy tricks, and it's Santa Claus just fucking going.

TRAVIS: Did you say that was terrifying?

MATT: What?!

TALIESIN: Yeah, it's amazing.

LAURA: That sounds amazing.

TALIESIN: Yeah, it was so cool.

TRAVIS: Is it like full contact figure skating?

TALIESIN: He was like, "I want to go figure skating later." I'm like, "We want to see that! Yeah!"

LIAM: I have a new question, from Ginger of Death. Question:

MATT: Yes, Ginger of Death.

LIAM: "Besides everything that has happened to you guys with Critical Role, what is something you were happy to have happen this year?"

TALIESIN: Whoa. I gotta think about what this year was.

MATT: Happy to have happened this year: finally getting Ashley back.

ALL: Yeah!

[Applause]

MATT: For good.

TALIESIN: That's a big one.

MATT: That's a big one.

TRAVIS: Having you guys fund an amazing Kickstarter for our animated series.

LAURA: Heck, yeah.

TRAVIS: I don't think we'll be forgetting that anytime soon.

MATT: Man...

TALIESIN: I really enjoyed terrorizing you in the--

TRAVIS: Don't [indistinct] me, goddammit.

MARISHA: Also terrorizing you in Travis's Spooktacular.

TALIESIN: Oh, that was good.

MATT: That was good.

MARISHA: That was great.

ASHLEY: That was amazing.

MARISHA: That was fun.

TALIESIN: That was a lot of fun.

LIAM: You guys are all defying this question.

LAURA: We saw Hadestown.

LIAM: There you go.

LAURA: I fucking love Hadestown.

LIAM: Hadestown.

TRAVIS: And Liam introduced us to it.

LAURA: That's right.

MATT: We need to see if we can get tickets for...

LAURA: That was so good.

TALIESIN: I've got a whole bunch of concerts that I'm excited to go to. That's nice.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: I haven't done them yet. I've just gotten tickets. But that's really cool.

MATT: I'm going to drag you to a concert. Of a few people, I think you're the only other person who's really prepared.

TALIESIN: Oh, I know exactly what I'm getting into. That's one of three. I'm doing three shows next summer. I'm so excited.

LIAM: I enjoyed going to Burning Man after hearing about it for eight years.

MARISHA: Taking you out to Burning Man was so great.

TALIESIN: You did so well.

MARISHA: For the first time.

LIAM: It was nice.

TALIESIN: Man.

MARISHA: What else did we do?

TALIESIN: We do some weird-- I mean--

LAURA: I had a really, really good doughnut.

MATT: Yeah!

ASHLEY: Yes.

TRAVIS: This year? One doughnut stand out?

LAURA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: It was a really good doughnut.

LIAM: Illaflame asks, "what are you looking forward to doing during your downtime IRL?"

TRAVIS: What's IRL?

LIAM: In real life.

MATT: In real life.

TRAVIS: I think that's an internet term.

TALIESI: I mean--

MARISHA: So many things.

TALIESIN: I'm mostly working through it. I don't know what that means...

MARISHA: Yeah, I [indistinct] mostly write. We're gonna be visiting your parents in Hawaii.

MATT: Yeah, my brother and his wife's gonna be out there. It's gonna be a little family gathering which would be really nice.

MARISHA: And I like Hawaii because it's quiet and maybe I can actually get some writing done.

MATT: Yeah. Same. Our downtime is still working, but at our own pace.

TALIESIN: I'm gonna bring pen and paper to the beach and work there. It's gonna be great.

ASHLEY: That's a good idea.

LIAM: I'm going to go beekeeping.

MATT: I'm jealous about that.

ASHLEY: I'm jealous about that, too.

LAURA: What? Are you really?

LIAM: I'm traveling around California to places in California and one of the things that the fam and I are going to do is beekeeping.

LAURA: That's so cool!

LIAM: Yeah. I'll try not to get stung all over my body.

LAURA: Will you bring us back some honey?

LIAM: Sure. Just for you, though.

TRAVIS: We were excited to see a movie in an actual movie theatre.

LIAM: Dare to dream, parents.

LAURA: We were really excited about it.

TRAVIS: A pretty rare occurrence. Monday.

MARISHA: Was the last time you guys went was when we went to go see...

TRAVIS: Endgame?

MARISHA: Endgame, yeah.

MATT: Wow.

MARISHA: Was the last time we went when we saw Endgame?

LIAM: What year is it?

MATT: Yeah, I think so.

LAURA: Hello, bees!

LIAM: I just saw Frozen 2.

MARISHA: Oh, I can answer this one. "Marisha, All Work No Play coming back?"

ASHLEY: So I hear.

MARISHA: Yes, All Work No Play is coming back.

TALIESIN: Work hard, play harder.

MARISHA: Top of the year.

LIAM: Boom, you heard it here.

MARISHA: I'm not gonna give you an exact date yet. It's coming.

LAURA: Did you answer what your favorite thing that happened this year was?

ASHLEY: Oh, gosh. I think just coming home. That's a big thing.

MARISHA: That's a huge thing.

ASHLEY: So, yeah. It's getting started. Getting started being back home.

TRAVIS: You didn't have like a favorite cup of hot cocoa or something?

ASHLEY: Let's see. I've had some pretty good cups of hot cocoa. But I'm glad to be home.

MARISHA: I think New York has great hot cocoa.

ASHLEY: I miss New York coffee, man.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: We do have [indistinct] though.

MATT: I enjoy seeing all of you guys without Sam. That's a good thing. That's a great thing right there.

TALIESIN: We've been hanging out more, so that's been cool, too.

MATT: Somebody asked whether or not there were vestiges of the Betrayer Gods. The answer is yes, there are, actually. Vestiges are from all levels of creation, both good, bad, and in-between.

ASHLEY: What?

TALIESIN: One of those will murder one of your favorite player characters pretty soon.

LAURA: So we could find some vestiges in this campaign?

LIAM: Some nasty shit.

ASHLEY: Ex-squeeze-me?

TRAVIS: How do we find those? We'd have to know what they are first, right?

ASHLEY: Yeah, but we're good people and we'll make them good.

LAURA: We could search and find some vestiges.

TRAVIS: Oh, shit.

MATT: [Indistinct] know about vestiges. You might--

MARISHA: I could research it.

MATT: You could research it if you knew why. You could, possibly. I'm sure it'll be really easy and not have any sort of consequences.

MARISHA: Sam's calling you.

LIAM: Here's a question from Sam Riegel-- oh, he's calling.

LAURA: He's calling.

LIAM: He's probably mad that I'm not asking his question.

MATT: I was joking, Sam. What? No. We love you. I was joking.

SAM: (On phone) How dare you?!

(laughter)

MATT: Why aren't you here?

LAURA: Ask him if he wants to answer a question.

SAM: (on phone) I went to a party for my kids but the party never started, so I'm just sitting here watching the stream.

LIAM: You sound like you're in a dentist's chair.

SAM: I'm just sitting here on a bench.

TRAVIS: I really hope somebody comes up to you and goes like, "Oh, you watch Critical Role?"

MATT: Oh, Sam.

SAM: (on phone) Trying to be a supportive parent and go to my kid's party...

ASHLEY: You should pull a Laura and leave. Just leave your kids, it's fine.

LAURA: Yeah, just leave. [indistinct] going to be awesome when you get here, though.

MATT: Oh, buddy. Well, if for whatever reason you give up on the party, you could always come here.

SAM: (on phone) Yeah, I might do that. (Laughter) How do you guys feel about sixteen seven-year-olds joining us on the stream?

MATT: Uhh... We'll have to get the kids to sign waivers first.

MARISHA: Yeah, exactly, we need permission from their parents. So don't bring the kids.

TALIESIN: That's a lot of permission slips.

MATT: We'll keep them off-stream.

SAM: (on phone) Have fun, guys.

MATT: Thanks, buddy. We miss you.

ASHLEY: Bye, Sam!

SAM: (on phone) Bye!

MATT: Love you, man.

TALIESIN: Oh, man.

TRAVIS: It's always something.

MATT: That's funny.

MARISHA: That's funny.

MATT: That troll.

LAURA: What else you got?

LIAM: Sam Riegal asks, "Why is Sam Riegel the best and handsome-est?" He also asks if anyone has any New Year's resolutions.

LAURA: Oh.

LIAM: Feel free to answer either of those.

TALIESIN: I've had the same New Year's resolution for like fifteen years.

LAURA: What is it?

TALIESIN: To get a better work-life balance

ALL: Yeah.

MARISHA: I think that's all of us, right?

TALIESIN: Yeah, pretty much.

MATT: Good work.

ASHLEY: That's a good resolution.

TALIESIN: Yeah. It's never come true, though.

MATT: To find more ways to use this good will put our way for good and to help others. I guess that's a big big one for mine. We've got some stuff coming up that fits into that which I'm really excited about.

LAURA: Yeah, very excited about that.

MATT: Next year.

TALIESIN: Next year. Stuffs.

MARISHA: Big things.

TALIESIN: I wonder if people know how far ahead we plan some of this crazy, crazy stuff.

MATT: They'll find out soon enough.

ASHLEY: Yeah.

MATT: We've had big plans for years now, and we're finally getting a chance to do some of these things, so it's exciting.

MARISHA: Yeah. A lot of ideas, too, that you kind of put on the shelf for a little bit until you were able to make sense--

TALIESIN: Oh, yeah, often you're like--

MATT: Yeah. Able to actually do it.

TALIESIN: Oh, man.

MATT: We got stuff. We got stuff coming out.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: I'm super excited about it.

TALIESIN: There's so many good questions, I'm getting distracted. There's so many of them.

ASHLEY: I know. It's hard because stuff keeps going up. I'm like, wait.

MATT: I will take a moment here to say a couple things since it is the end of the year. One, super thankful and so appreciative for all of our hard-working mods that work so hard to moderate our community spaces here, both on the stream, on the channel, all of our content, all of our official community spaces online, and just-- you guys do incredible work and if you haven't had the opportunity yet, please show some love to them. They are awesome, awesome people. Also to our wonderful crew, our hard-working working people here that make this with us every day, that help us develop, create, produce, and all the stuff. I know I'm not alone in saying this. I'm so appreciative we have such good folks working on this stuff with us, so thank you, guys.

TRAVIS: Avocado pants!

TALIESIN: The crew is playing-- wearing pajamas. Is that Jerry? Who's in the avocado pajamas?

TRAVIS: Yeah, it's right over there.

MARISHA: That's Schmidt.

MATT: Oh, Schmidt, yeah! Rocking it.

LAURA: He's like, "They're not pajamas, dicks."

MARISHA: On our cozy Wednesday.

TALIESIN: The avocados are magical.

MATT: I love it.

MARISHA: Yeah, our crew is awesome.

TALIESIN: Avocado Wednesday.

MATT: I think it is. Do we have any other burning questions?

LIAM: Sure.

TALIESIN: Oh, yeah.

LIAM: Sure.

TRAVIS: Kyle's got some.

LIAM: Swagger Pappy asks, "What artists have you listened to the most this year?"

ASHLEY: Oh.

TALIESIN: According to Spotify, Chvrches.

MATT: According to Spotify, Billie Eilish.

TALIESIN: A lot of Billie Eilish.

MATT: A lot of Billie Eilish.

TALIESIN: I'm going deep.

MATT: She is amazing.

ASHLEY: Yeah, that Spotify thing was actually pretty cool.

TALIESIN: I know. I really enjoyed my...

LAURA: I don't use Spotify enough.

ASHLEY: Really?

TALIESIN: I've been using it for so long, I got a really big long breakdown. It was decade by decade, like--

ASHLEY: Yeah, me too!

TALIESIN: And it was so good! So good!

ASHLEY: It was awesome. I was like, Oh, shit, this is good.

LAURA: Brandi Carlile is probably one of my tops.

MATT: Ooh, nice. Good choice.

LAURA: Maggie Rogers.

TRAVIS: My split is weird. I think it's like Disturbed, or Greatest Showman.

LAURA: I mean, Greatest Showman is probably at the top of both of our lists because that's what Ronin wants to hear all the time. That, and Moana.

ASHLEY: I just love Greatest Showman...

TRAVIS: So did Giant Man.

MATT: I feel like if you're to be profiled by the government just based on your music tastes, Travis, you'd be on like seven lists.

TRAVIS: Yeah, pretty sure.

LIAM: Lot of Lizzo.

MATT: Lot of Lizzo. Lizzo's good shit. So is some [unintelligible], actually.

ASHLEY: I've listened to a lot of Phoebe Bridgers, which she's actually on my-- the first song on the Yasha playlist. It's depressing music.

LIAM: That's okay.

ASHLEY: That's usually a prerequisite for my listening tastes.

LIAM: Up top!

TALIESIN: I'm always finding new new weird local stuff. I love finding new weird local bands.

ASHLEY: Yoke Lore. I listen to a lot of Yoke Lore.

LAURA: Yoke Lore?

ASHLEY: That showed up. He's another great singer-songwriter.

TRAVIS: His name is Yoke Lore? One word? Two words?

ASHLEY: Yoke Lore. Two words.

LAURA: Okay.

MARISHA: I listened to that Khalid album on repeat.

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Also, apparently, as Spotify told me, the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse soundtrack.

TALIESIN: It's really good.

MARISHA: It's a great fucking soundtrack.

MATT: It's like the best soundtrack in the past year probably. It's so good.

LIAM: I've played Hadestown to death. To death, to death.

ALL: Yeah!

MARISHA: I found a really good playlist towards the end of the year that I've been listening to on repeat that's called Zelda and Chill.

LIAM: I introduced that to you.

MARISHA: Yeah, that's right, you did!

LIAM: Where were we? We were on a retreat or something. It was the three of us. We were relaxing that day.

MARISHA: Oh yeah, that's right.

LIAM: It's so good! To work to, or--

MARISHA: It's just Zelda music and Breath of the Wild music--

LIAM: Lo-fi Zelda music.

MARISHA: That they did lo-fi chill music.

LIAM: I'll show you guys after.

ASHLEY: The really cool thing that I-- Sorry, I feel like I'm like doing a bit for Spotify. I swear I'm not getting anything from them.

TALIESIN: Spotify genuinely improved my life.

ASHLEY: That's what I use. But it's how it talks about your world listening. Like what genre-- what parts of the world that you listen to, and it was like, "You listen to music from all over the world," and I was like, "Ooh!" But I actually found a lot of really great music when I was in Iceland that I'm...

TRAVIS: Oh, shit. That was this year? Iceland was this year?

ASHLEY: ...Yes? Like in March.

LAURA: That's crazy.

MARISHA: Yeah, that's crazy.

ASHLEY: It was in March.

TRAVIS: You got that crazy bug from it, right?

MARISHA: Oh, yeah.

TRAVIS: You brought the Iceland bug home.

ASHLEY: Yes, that's right!

MATT: You were Patient Zero.

ASHLEY: That was my fault. It was some deep shit, yes.

TALIESIN: It was almost the end of Critical Role right there. We would have just zombie-played.

TRAVIS: Ashley's Viking blood weathered it and then all of us went like [dies].

MATT: Destroyed.

ASHLEY: Oh, god. But yeah, I'll try to share some of the good stuff that I found.

LIAM: Here's a D&D question.

MATT: Oh.

LIAM: What is your favorite moment this season? Asks The Perks of March. Maybe this campaign?

LAURA: Yeah. Favorite thing so far in this campaign. That's a lot.

LIAM: I'll talk because I have had this in my head for two minutes. I think maybe one of my favorite moments or spot in the entire campaign was everybody on the ship confronted by Avantika and setting the boat on fire, and then Beau just sprinting up a thousand stairs and everybody teleporting in different directions, and it was just like-- there were so many-- everybody had great meat in that, and it was such a cool setting.

TALIESIN: It was a moment like, Is this gonna be a pirate game? Is that what's happening? Are we a pirate game? Sinking the ship was in there for me..

LIAM: And the cherry on the top was Avantika at the end of that thread, which I won't say out loud, but was pretty interesting.

MARISHA: Yeah, I think that was actually one of my favorites as well.

TRAVIS: Going into the Happy Fun Ball for the second time. I was such a happy little bitch. I was like, Wait, we don't get to leave until we find we're looking for? I'm so happy!

ASHLEY: I want to go in the Happy Fun Ball.

LAURA: Aww, you haven't been in the Happy Fun Ball?

ASHLEY: No.

TALIESIN: We're going to go back to the Happy Fun Ball.

TRAVIS: There are things we haven't done in there yet.

LAURA: There's so many things.

ASHLEY: I'm ready.

MATT: There's a lot in there you haven't done.

LAURA: We've seen like 10% of the Happy Fun Ball?

TRAVIS: It's all dangerous.

MATT: About 20%.

LAURA: 20%...

TRAVIS: Oh, my god, we gotta go back.

MATT: What could possibly go wrong?

TRAVIS: Nothing. Nothing.

LIAM: Matt could just keep carving up more rooms in his mind and extend it forever.

TRAVIS: I won't touch things I'm not supposed to.

MATT: No, not at all.

LIAM: You can just make the Happy Fun Ball for us. Forever.

LAURA: That's a whole campaign.

ASHLEY: Forever.

TRAVIS: Forever.

MATT: I mean, the only person that can tell you how to adjust the time element of the interior of it to slow normal or fast, you kind of fucked over. So good luck figuring that out,

LIAM: Who could tell us how to make it go backward?

TRAVIS: He's a meatsack. He's in a gem.

LAURA: Yeah!

TRAVIS: We'll just tell him his body looks just fine.

LAURA: He doesn't know.

TRAVIS: He can't see.

LAURA: Can he read minds?

MARISHA: Who knows, like, passage of time? It might be like five minutes for him.

TALIESIN: That's gonna come back to bite us in the ass.

LIAM: I'm sure he had the best of intentions with us. I'm sure he was just lonely and wanted friends.

MATT: Yeah, totally.

ASHLEY: That whole moment going through the mouth of the creature...

TRAVIS: Astral Sea.

TALIESIN: I was so proud of everybody.

ASHLEY: That was so cool.

LAURA: That was great.

MATT: I was like, "They're doing it. They're doing it."

TRAVIS: [unintelligible] came back was nasty.

TALIESIN: That was the version of a sign that just says, "Beware of the leopard." I'm like, I'm going in that room.

MATT: There was the Nikki Dawes art of the front of it that looked kind of ethereal that was amazing.

LIAM: Question for everyone. From The Protagonist 7. Greetings to one through six. What piece of creative work or creation are you most proud of from this year?

MARISHA: Oh. Undeadwood was bananas. Stoked about everything that the crew pulled off with Undeadwood.

TALIESIN: I'm proud of Cthulhu.

MARISHA: Proud of Cthulhu, too, yeah.

MATT: It's interesting. There are a lot of things that we've been working on all year that don't really hit until next year and those I'm super proud of, but we'll get to those eventually.

TALIESIN: The stuff we can talk about.

MATT: Yeah. the stuff we can talk about that's been out...

LIAM: I mean, everyone knows that we're making an animated series.

MATT: And that has been...

LIAM: Thrilling.

MARISHA: Incredible. Yeah.

LIAM: All aspects. Which we can't talk about, but--

MATT: Every script that comes in, every art approval we go through...

LAURA: Yeah, it's awesome.

MATT: I can't wait to show you guys. It's so great.

TRAVIS: Wednesday mornings are fun.

MATT: Yeah. This morning we got some stuff and it was like-- I think we all stood up at one point out of our chairs and went like, "What!?"

TRAVIS: I know. You've still got to come on a Wednesday--

LAURA: I know!

TRAVIS: You've got to come on a Wednesday--

ASHLEY: I know.

LIAM: It's a lot of fun.

MARISHA: It's great.

LIAM: We've been in the recording booth together and it has been dreamy.

LAURA: Yeah.

LIAM: Great to go back.

MATT: It's very surreal. Very surreal to have us all in the room together recording and then have Vox Machina come to life. Like the early days Vox Machina.

TRAVIS: It's cool. It's really cool.

MATT: It's surreal. Yeah, it's pretty intense.

MARISHA: Crazy.

LIAM: Let's do like maybe three more questions and then play some games.

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: Play some games, yeah.

LIAM: Okay, um...

TRAVIS: Question: Did Avantika worship Uk'otoa? Yeah!

LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: She had a tattoo on her chest about it.

TRAVIS: Yeah, that's what I thought.

MATT: She had a whole thing.

LAURA: That didn't count as one of the three questions.

TRAVIS: No, no! I did it quick! It was a quick answer.

MATT: Go ahead.

LIAM: What's everyone's game of the year? Asks the Great Galleon. Aside from Dungeons & Dragons, I assume.

MARISHA: We didn't play much game.

LAURA: Yeah.

ASHLEY: I'm still on Red Dead. There's a lot I haven't played, though.

TALIESIN: I haven't played a lot of anything.

LAURA: Yeah, I haven't played a single thing.

ASHLEY: But also-- I can't remember if I've talked about this before-- I'm obsessed with a game on my iPad which I've already completed all the levels and I need you guys to make more. I'm such a commercial for this whole entire game. This game called Hidden Folks.

LAURA: Oh, my god, they need to make more!

ASHLEY: They need to make more.

LAURA: It's so fun!

ASHLEY: It's basically where--

LAURA: They haven't released a new level in forever.

ASHLEY: No! And I love it so much. It's like Where's Waldo but it's only black and white. But it's also a little bit animated.

LAURA: Yeah. So like if you touch random things it's like they go (squeeks). I can't describe it. But it feels like-- and if you touch certain things it opens other little areas, but it's like a teeny little doodle. It looks like somebody's awesome doodle that has come to life.

ASHLEY: Yeah, they drew--

LAURA: So much.

ASHLEY: Somebody drew these huge--

TALIESIN: That's really pretty.

ASHLEY: I love their style.

LAURA: It's so intricate.

ASHLEY: It's so good.

TALIESIN: It reminds me of little art books that I had as a kid with the weird worm that would drive a car on occasion and wear a hat. That thing was vaguely disturbing.

ASHLEY: And Monument Valley.

TALIESIN: I love Monument Valley.

ASHLEY: And the music is so good in Monument Valley

TALIESIN: And The Room. You've played The Room, right?

ASHLEY: Oh, yeah.

MATT: Me and Richard are still playing such catch-up on games. The two big games that we've played through recently are like Stardew Valley--

TALIESIN: Oh.

MATT: Many years later.

MARISHA: That was fucking awesome.

MATT: That was great.

MARISHA: That's mine. Game of the Year.

MATT: There you go. For me--

MARISHA: A five year old game. Game of the Year.

MATT: Same thing. I just finally played through all the content for Bloodborne, after like playing halfway through and then not playing for four years. And I just played through it all again and it's so good! But also came out in 2015. So if it's gonna be a recent game... like I really enjoyed Observation for it being a short sci-fi kind of thriller game.

MARISHA: You can play that in like a day. It's almost like a movie length game. That was awesome.

MATT: Ten hours.

MARISHA: Observation. Yeah.

MATT: That was fun. That was fun.

LIAM: I'm a big Metroidvania addict and I played through and beat Dead Cells. On the Switch. Just wore my thumbs down on it.

TRAVIS: Is that the game with Sheamus in it?

LAURA: Okay, next question.

TALIESIN: I can't pronounce the character correctly.

ASHLEY: I'm also still playing Mario Odyssey on Switch.

MATT: That's so good.

ASHLEY: It's so good. We're all so behind.

MATT: I know. We're catching up.

TALIESIN: I started Star Wars. I didn't get very far.

LIAM: Great Garden asks--

MATT: Great Garden? Great Garden!

LIAM: Great underscore garden underscore.

TALIESIN: Great garden!

LIAM: Question for everyone: What has been the biggest challenge in transitioning into your own company?

TALIESIN: (laughs loudly) Sorry! The least challenging part, that might be easier.

LAURA: Well, it's not the biggest challenge, but can I just say I've had a really fun time helping design-- doing all like the design stuff on the office space.

ALL: Yeah!

LAURA: I mean, it's not just me, it's Jessica, too. But oh my gosh, it's been so fun working with her and making the offices look so freaking cool.

ASHLEY: Design show.

LIAM: Maybe we can massage this question into: How's it been? What's it been like starting company?

TALIESIN: Oh, yeah.

LAURA: We designed offices!

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: They're not done.

LAURA: They're not done.

TRAVIS: We did.

TALIESIN: We're still working with construction.

LAURA: I'm so happy about it.

MATT: I think it's been exciting growing the family a bit, realizing what we need to do the things we want to do and getting the right people into that. Also learning as we go and making up for past mistakes and getting everything in a good place and... yeah. Getting to do it with all you guys.

TRAVIS: We're a unique shop. There's not a lot of companies that have been born from this, or made up of friends, and share the things we do. So we make a lot of mistakes. We do a lot of things right. But I think like just checking in with each other, and as we get busier just coming back to what sort of started it all has been really, really key, and it just keeps us tight.

LIAM: Focus on-- because we work together a lot now, and just setting aside time to not work and, you know....

LAURA: Hang out.

LIAM: Yeah, relax, hang out, eat nachos.

MATT: Yeah.

TRAVIS: We used to book work, and now we book hang time.

MARISHA: Hang out time. Yeah.

MATT: But that's important. Doing this all together.

LIAM: It's at the core of us.

MATT: It really is.

TALIESIN: And we've been hiring some cool people.

MATT: Yeah.

TALIESIN: That's been fun.

MATT: It's cool that every Thursday is still this sacred space. Even though it's essentially the beating heart of everything that we're building together, it still doesn't feel like work. It's this thing we look forward to every week to recenter everything and just get together and have fun at the table. And the fact that that's still so purely that, to me says we're doing something right.

MARISHA: Yeah, we have a joke about how you have to be careful of what you say in the office, or say out loud, because if we all laugh at it, if all of us-- if enough people go like, "Well, wait a minute..."

TRAVIS: "That's not a bad idea."

MARISHA: It's going to happen.

TALIESIN: There's a little monkey's paw in the corner and every now and then someonew will say something and it just goes (fingers clench).

MARISHA: For better or for worse. And that's incredible because we have the freedom to be like--

TALIESIN: There's a tree in the corner-- there's a cardboard tree in the office.

MARISHA: There is a cardboard tree.

TALIESIN: There's a cardboard tree and you'll say something and a little cardboard leaf will fall, and you're like, "Oh, no. The wish is granted. No, I didn't mean it!"

MARISHA: "What does this one say? Travis Willingham's YeeHaw Game Ranch? Burn it!"

LIAM: Also, it's not the challenge, and some things we can talk about and some things we can't, but just taking these characters that we that we've forged together around a table rolling dice, and getting them ready to go off to school, and seeing them run off and be in a comic book, and seeing the twins bicker in a comic book, or... everything. Toys, or miniatures or... We have a lot of hopes and dreams and it's cool just to see these characters flourish.

MATT: Yeah.

LIAM: We love them.

MATT: And it's been really cool to find opportunities in the things we're doing to also bring work to people in our community. There's things we've been working on, things we are working on, we're being able to reach out to people that we've gotten to see and know in the community and what their talents are, and find ways to help get them work and and see their careers flourish. I don't know. It's really cool to be in a place where we can not only do what we love and do it together but really try and live by the "rising tide raises all ships" mentality. I will defend that to the bitter end.

TALIESIN: I'm gonna do the weird forecast thing now and talk about some sort of Critical Role Land thing, It may not actually be Critical Role Land--

TRAVIS: Don't do it. Didn't you hear Marisha say--

MARISHA: It could happen.

TALIESIN: But it will be some sort of thing.

MATT: Go on, Taliesin, go on. Tell me.

TALIESIN: It may travel, it may be stationary. But maybe one day you will go to Critical Role Land, or maybe one day Critical Role Land will go to you. You don't know.

TRAVIS: Stop!

ASHLEY: We discuss these things.

TRAVIS: You're breaking my business model.

LAURA: This is so fun, though.

TRAVIS: All sorts of--

TALIESIN: Critical Role Land on a train, like the way they used to move Disney attractions.

MARISHA: Wait, do we all have vardos?

ASHLEY: Yes, we all have vardos!

MARISHA: So we can make it like-- oh, no.

ASHLEY: I look for vardos on eBay all the time.

TALIESIN: It'll be like the original Dumbo, but good, without any of the weird stuff and no animal cruelty.

MARISHA: Someone said Molly's Circle, but you can literally make it the-- what was it?

TALIESIN: Fletching and Moondrop?

MATT and MARISHA: Fletching and Moondrop!

MATT: Yes! Oh...

TALIESIN: Sorry. Sorry.

MARISHA: See? You all see what happens!?

ASHLEY: Just imagine like--

TALIESIN: I have a notebook of sketches already but you know that.

ASHLEY: You go, and then all of the structures that are there-- You can go into Gilmore's Glorious Goods. You can go to the Slayer's Cake.

LAURA: It'll be just like a Renaissance Festival.

ASHLEY: Yes!

MARISHA: And we'll do like a traveling shop--

ASHLEY: I want it so bad!

MARISHA: Matt, what would a World's Fair look like in Wildemount or something, or like Tal'Dorei?

ASHLEY: Yes, World's Fair!

MARISHA and TALIESIN: (chanting) World's Fair! World's Fair!

MATT: Oh, no...

LIAM: That's totally the de Rolo legacy.

TALIESIN: Oh, yeah!

ASHLEY: I mean, come on!

MATT: Yeah...

ASHLEY: Juicy Fruit came out of the World's Fair of 1893.

MATT: You were there!

ASHLEY: We like Juicy Fruit.

TRAVIS: Is that really true?

TALIESIN: It's a Small World actually folds up and fits on a train because it was a world's fair attraction.

MATT: You've got both ends of the spectrum, the good things and the bad things that come out of this.

TALIESIN: Hey, now!

MARISHA: In like the 1892 World's Fair there was like the zipper, I think.

TALIESIN: The invention of the ferris wheel in Chicago.

MARISHA: The ferris wheel was at the Chicago World's Fair.

TRAVIS: Yeah, let's just have Critical Role in downtown.

TALIESIN: It was to say F.U. to the Eiffel Tower if I recall.

MARISHA: Yes.

MATT: A child Walt Disney was there and took a lot of his inspiration from the Ferris wheel. We've been watching a lot of [unintelligible].

MARISHA: Yeah, we're just ripping off other people's research.

ASHLEY: That reminds me of a very good book called Devil in the White City, which was a very popular book, but you should read it. It's a true story about the serial killer Dr. H. H. Holmes but it also talks about the World's Fair.

MATT: H. H. Holmes is one of the most interesting fucked up historical figures of American--

ASHLEY: I don't know how they haven't done more on that story. Not to be like--

MATT: Well, Sweeney Todd is kind of based on it.

ASHLEY: Yeah, that's true, but I feel like he's even darker.

TRAVIS: This is a real person, right?

MATT: This is a real person. H. H. Holmes. He was-- look him up.

ASHLEY: Anyway!

LIAM: Let's--

MATT: Anyway!

LIAM: Let's end the questions with a very serious one. Mandy Alamode asks, "What's everyone's favorite Christmas song?"

ASHLEY: Okay. Good question. I've got a few.

TALIESIN: I sang some professionally so I've got some feelings.

TRAVIS: I think it's a hard Carol of the Bells.

LAURA: I think O Holy Night is my favorite.

TALIESIN: You can actually find me singing that on Spotify, on a Home Alone soundtrack.

ASHLEY: What?

TRAVIS: Is that like the music that plays in Home Alone when he's setting up all the booby traps and stuff? The montage music?

ASHLEY: You were in Home Alone?

TALIESIN: The audio. We were in the choir that did all singing for the children's choir. We weren't on camera, but we did all the...

ASHLEY: You did all the singing?

TALIESIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MATT: I've got to play you a Christmas song because most of you haven't heard it. It's Red Water, and in parentheses "Christmas Mourning"-- M-O-U-R. By Type O Negative. It is the darkest, goth-est--

TRAVIS: It's pretty intense.

MATT: It's so good! It's called Red Water by Type O Negative.

TRAVIS: You played it on the way to--

MATT: Red Water by Type O Negative. It's my favorite Christmas song of all time.

TRAVIS: Super interesting.

TALIESIN: Chanukah in Santa Monica, does that count? No, never mind.

MATT: Sure.

LIAM: Sure.

MATT: It's holidays, yeah.

MARISHA: Like Weird Al songs. There's some great Weird Al holiday songs.

TALIESIN: The Night Santa Went Crazy.

MARISHA: The Night Santa Went Crazy.

TALIESIN: Christmas at Ground Zero.

MATT: Yup. Christmas at Ground Zero.

TALIESIN: That's a classic.

LIAM: I like Christmas Wrapping by the Waitresses.

MATT: Oh, yeah, good one.

ASHLEY: Yeah, that's a good one.

LIAM: ♪ "I think I'll miss this one this year." ♪

TRAVIS: I love Bing Crosby. I'm a big Bing Crosby fan.

LAURA: Yeah, I like the classics.

ASHLEY: I like the classics, too.

TALIESIN: I like anything that we can harmonize. I love harmonizing anytime you can.

MARISHA: I recognize it's a bit problematic, but I really like--

LAURA: I know, me too!

MARISHA: Baby, It's Cold Outside.

MATT: That makes me uncomfortable.

LAURA: I didn't want to say it! I love the tune of it and--

TALIESIN: You can always also flip it to the Red Skelton version where it was the other way round.

MARISHA: The consent version?

TALIESIN: Well, no, but it was "boy getting away from--" Oh, that song's got so many problems.

LAURA: Yeah, it's all terrible.

TALIESIN: It's got such a good melody, though.

ASHLEY: What the heck is it called? ♪ Chestnuts roasting on an open fire ♪

ALL: ♪ ...an open fire ♪

ASHLEY: I like it!

TRAVIS: ♪ Jack Frost nipping at your door. ♪

ASHLEY: Is it like, White Christmas

LAURA: That's the song when I'm like hanging ornaments and shit.

ASHLEY: Yes! I like Blue Christmas--

LIAM: My go-to's at hole are the Nat King Cole album-- my mom played that non-stop and it just takes me back. And I love the Peanuts album, the Christmas jazz just low-key in the background.

ASHLEY: Here's my thing with the Peanuts jazz Christmas stuff, or the song-- what's the main song, the New Year song? The-- what's the Peanuts song?

LAURA: What's the piano song?

TALIESIN: (sings the Charlie Brown piano Christmas song) That one?

ASHLEY: No, there's like a main song.

LAURA: That's the Peanuts song.

ASHLEY: The Peanuts-- it's really depressing.

LIAM: We are through the looking glass right now.

MARISHA and TALIESIN: (singing the sad Charlie Brown Christmas song)

ASHLEY: I hate that song. It's so sad, and I love sad music. There's zero Christmas joy in that song.

TRAVIS: I'm with you. Is that from Peanuts?

LIAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: My roommate used to have Christmas music all in a minor key, so it was all like creepy Haunted Mansion Christmas music.

ASHLEY: (to Liam) I'm sorry.

LIAM: Don't be sorry. [unintelligible]

TALIESIN: It was amazing.

LIAM: We're good. Fuck you, Charlie Brown, you little bitch!

TALIESIN: All the Nightmare Before Christmas music.

TRAVIS: I was wondering what that was from. I've hated that for years. Charlie Brown, go fuck yourself. I hope somebody pulls the football out from in front of you and makes you eat shit.

TALIESIN: Oh, I have a video for you, later.

ASHLEY: I also like the one that I feel is in every movie by the Drifters, the (sings). Sorry.

LIAM: The whole show, right here!

MATT: Go on on that one. How's that go again?

TRAVIS: Hold on, hold on, hold on. You gotta get it back, cause that was nothin'. That was a whole bunch of nothing.

LIAM: (sings)

ASHLEY: (sings) No, it's not that either.

MATT: What is happening!?

ASHLEY: Which is a very weird reference.

LAURA: Maybe the chat room knows.

TRAVIS: Was it this one? (sings)

LIAM: Is it theramin music?

ASHLEY: Hold on. I'm going to look this up.

MATT: (sings)

ASHLEY: It might be White Christmas.

ALL: (sing)

ASHLEY: I think it's White Christmas but it's just the Drifters version.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LAURA: Okay, are we going to play...?

LIAM: Play games.

MATT: We should probably do that.

ASHLEY: It's White Christmas, it's White Christmas.

TALIESIN: It's White Christmas.

LAURA: It's just White Christmas?

ASHLEY: It's White Christmas.

TALIESIN: ♪ I'm dreaming of a white Christmas ♪

MATT: All right, let's jump into some games!

[game play not transcribed]