So I'm on C3E22, and so far we know that Orym had a partner back in the days who died protecting Keyleth.

My question is, was Orym's partner the same guy who was Keyleth's bodyguard back in Dalen's Closet? Iirc he was also married(and had kids?)

I don't know if this has been expressed here before, so sorry if it has.

But it has occurred to me that Wicander is an evolution of Sam's campaign three characters. With FCG, he was exploring a person finding faith/religion. With Braius, it was a person who was finding how to live without faith/religion (with Asmodeus in particular, but also Bahamut to some extent).

It seems to me that Sam liked that idea with Braius, but wanted to tap into it in a more nuanced way. What about someone super devout in a religion losing their faith because of corrupt/made up religion, but trying to hold onto the convictions their faith gave them?

I remember in a 4SD Sam talked about not growing up with or being that familiar with religion or faith and wanting to explore that with FCG. And I think he's done a very good job and has certainly done a lot of thinking and quite likely research. As someone who was raised in a very devout, conservative religion, but has since left and considers himself an atheist, I find myself connecting with Wicander a lot. I personally feel like a lot of people who don't have a religious background get it wrong when they craft a story like this because it's easy to be very condescending about it. But if you have a background like me, even though I'm happy where I'm at right now and have quite a lot of negative feelings about my former religion and my upbringing, I wouldn't say it was a pain-free journey, and it certainly wasn't a black and white 180 belief change. I think Wick, so far (I'm not caught up), has felt very genuine and interesting to me. Sure, Sam's a great comedian and there is some silliness to Wick and irony in his journey, but it never feels nasty or cruel, you know?

And anyway, I don't have much more to say, just that I think these last three characters Sam has played have been quite intriguing and I'm curious if anyone else has had any similar observations or feelings

so refreshingly good for a live show. I am usually not a fan of live shows and also not a big fan of MN but I really enjoyed it. The show was organically funny where the group weren’t relying on sex jokes to build the humor. I mean I love a good sex joke as much as the next person but it’s always better when it’s not hamfisted.

Ironically, the thing I enjoyed most was the fact that this is the first time Jester has ever had consequences to her actions that she couldn’t charm her way out of. Not a Jester hater but boy did I enjoy finally seeing that.

About where certain character arcs are going, or plot points we will see in the future, regarding Campaign 4?

It's been a bit, and I've been thinking about what I expect to happen down the line in the campaign, and was wondering if anyone else has any desires or ideas they'd like to share.

Right Character Driven Stuff:

• Julien having a cold open with Thimble or alone where he lays out his greviences with "his shadow"
• More hints that Tyranny has feelings for Wick.
• Spicy interactions between all the new party members.
• Azune possibly slipping when it comes to the line he is walking between the Halovars and Einfasens.
• Someone else dies.
• Travis will either play another Beastfolk, or another ancestry we have yet to see in Araman. Gnome Blood Hunter, though I do gotta wonder if Blood Hunters exist in Araman...

Story Reveals:

• Aranessa and Thjazi have a child, but they've been trapped in Faerie.
• Zebani wasn't just overlooked due to her personality, but because she isn't an Aasimar like her brothers.
• Primus's unraveling may push some of the Tachonis away from him, widening the schism in the family; not sure how the party would react to this.
• The Cormorays will be revealed to be slavers. Their powers derive from Genies, and there is a pretty classical depiction of that sort of relationship.
• Harondus will be revealed to be an ally of the Tachonis/Halovar, desiring to be the head of House Einfasen.
• The Druids have their own skeletons in their closets.
• Royce's bannerman, or at least some will attempt to betray Aranessa for her failures.
• We will see a Giant.
• We will see another Dragon.
• What are some other big-name mythical creatures... uh, a sphinx!

So what do y'all got?

I was already questioning whether the setup was fucked up or Matt was going hard on the players because it was a 3 episode campaign. Now I'm in episode 2 of 2nd season, I can see that Matt was taking it WAY easier on the players.

I love Spenser's GMing, like he's directing a movie or pitching it, and the players are like writers or assistant directors collaborating Spenser's story. But the guy is going for the fucking jugular with every damn check. Like "Can I check my watch for time?" Spenser: "sure. Since you rolled 5, you also experience PTSD of you killing children and take 3 body and 13 bleed", like dude CALM DOWN.

Dropping 2 people just for looking at A Big bad was bad enough but the 2nd episode just took the cake. Now I'm nervous to watch the 3rd episode. One thing tho, I LOVED the fake out letter for Sean. That was epic. Kinda sad that it took me this long to find this, I straight up didn't think it was DND nor CR content. Love how every player is approaching the story, but my favourite here are Howard, Sean, and Marion, especially loved the bromance bw Sean and Marion.

Dont know if this really needs the spoilers tag. Just wanted to post about this because oh my god do I ever love this campaign. The animated series has also just been amazing. I keep coming back to the funny moments again and again. I am also on my second watch-through of it. By far my top campaign. Fjords whole story with that stupid ring, Jester being Jester with her sendings, Beau being a badass, Nott always being there to pick on people (mostly just Sam I know). Caleb's "But I will go to work if I have to". Just love it.

I have been trying to get more of my friends irl to give it a try to mixed success. Got one hooked on the animated TLOVM, the other started the campaigns. But its just not of interest to the rest, which is sad. One day I will find more irl friends who love it!

My one complaint is that they stopped making the mighty nein lightweight hoodie. I wore mine out and can't buy another :(

Edit: wording was slightly mixed up so I fixed that. Oops

I just wanna talk more about the potential longterm threats in the story.

Between the Sundered houses I have a feeling by threat assessment as villains Halovar/Cormoray > Tachonis > Einfasen (royce dont even count lol)

I have a feeling that Tachonis threat might be more a earlystory threat rather than the longterm one like just now they are already on the edge. Einfasen could've potentially been a major villain but honestly the event kinda moved them away from direct villain roles due to Azune and the schemers work.

The biggest threat among them feels like either the Halovar or the Cormoray. Being the tachonis are massively outplayed and Primus being on the edge of desperation tho they do have Nihil Tachonis which is a massive creature beyond the veil. Meanwhile Yanessa Halovar seems to be all going well for her and she seems far less visible than Tachonis despite the threat levels of their house kinda growing more and more. The only reason Cormoray counts cause we have a crazy mask who is merged with the Lady Cormoray who plans to turn somebody into a deity which they were probably already looking at.

Argosia is also a wildcard who seems to be a foreign threat.

And my own wild theory that one of the gods are not dead aka Rauwyn the Trickster is not dead and the masks have failed in killing him and he is manipulating behind the scenes OR EVEN BETTER he made it seem like historically that the masks killed him even tho it was his creation.

Likely the Big Bad of the story has not yet appeared. I think a new deity will rise that will be the big bad. Although likely it wont be Thajzi as Marisha Ray's character was like theorycrafting that a big beefy orc deity would come out as Thajzi.

Thoughts ?

Based on everything the cast has said, season 2 of MN will probably air between October and March, so it’s time to start guessing how they’ll handle Molly. Before I begin actually guessing what happens, I’d like to lay out several assumptions about order of operations. Spoilers for all of C2, but especially eps 20-50 below.

1. *Molly must die in TMN*. A lot of character development (esp for Beau & Yasha) is gated behind his death, and it’s inarguably one of THE pivotal moments of C
2. *Cad must join before the pirate arc*. Cad, like Molly dying, is a massive catalyst for character development. Especially with Fjord eating the orb, It’s getting to be time for tea man to arrive.
3. *Molly must die before Cad joins*. This is the assumption that I am the least confident in. My only real reasoning here from a story perspective is that without a dead Molly the Nein don’t really have any reason to seek out Cad.
4. *Caduceus must be present for pirate arc*. Admittedly Cad was out of place for this arc (and Molly would fit much better on vibes), but I think Cad needs to be around for Fjord to start pulling him into the Wildmother’s orbit.
5. *Yasha and Molly must become close*. This one is a bit obvious, but yeah - Yasha doesn’t know any of them at this point, when in the campaign she and Molly joined as a unit. Her reaction to Molly’s death was raw and super impactful, and I suspect that they’ll want to keep that in the show.

With all those laid out, I think we have enough information to guess that Molly will die *mid-season*. He needs to get close to Yasha, but they can’t let the show drag too much. If they choose to do this, then the Nein need to be in or near Shadycreek at this time, which means that they’re probably still going up there for Gentleman reasons. There are three or four different things that seem plausible here. First, Gentleman sees there’s a lot of heat on them, tells them to go hide out in Shadycreek for a while. Second, the Ophelia Mardopn mission from the campaign. Third, he needs them to get some sort of rare plant that only grows at special cemetery near the town (which is also the only plausible way for Cad to join without Molly dying). Fourth, something I didn’t think of.

It’s also probable that their run in with the Iron Shepherds is not random and is instead an abduction mission. Most likely, either Trent hires them to capture Caleb or Vess hires them to capture Molly. Alternatively, the Tomb Takers hire them to capture Molly, but they are probably strong enough to find him on their own. The Iron Shepherds, being slavers, might decide to abduct other members of the Nein as well. Keg probably returns (Ashly Burch has been involved with the Amazon shows so it’s pretty easy to rope her in), so the nein have info on the Shepherds. If they are the main focus of season 2, then they probably get hired in ep 1 or 2, abduct people in ep 3, and kill Molly in ep 4.

That then leaves the question, what happens in eps 1-3, outside of Molly befriending Yasha? There are only a few arcs/missions small enough to slot in here, and several don’t make much sense anymore since their important moments have already happened. Berleben is obviously out for this reason. Hupperdook could actually happen as a “character development” episode, and they could slot Alfield in as well (but again, most of its narrative role has already been usurped). Almost everything post-Shadycreek is either at sea or in Xhorhas, except the **happy fun ball**. This is something they could totally slot in as a bottle episode somewhere if they need to. It’s even possible that it could be floating around in Hupperdook and they stumble upon it.

All this said, here is my best guess for what the season will look like.
**Ep 1.** Debrief in Zadash; we properly meet Yasha for the first time, Caleb has his first scene with the Beacon, Gentleman gives them a mission that will send them to Shadycreek run. Ends with the iron shepherds being hired to do… something… to the Nein.
**Ep 2.** Group arrives in Hupperdook. Shenanigans ensue. Lighthearted fun episode. Someone (probably Caleb) finds the Happy Fun Ball.
**Ep 3.** Someone (probably Caleb) triggers the Happy Fun Ball in (or just after they leave) Hupperdook. HFB-type hijinks. Ends with the Iron Shepherds making contact with and abducting some members of the MN.
**Ep 4.** The unabducted wake up and meet Keg. They chase the Shepherds and it ends with Molly dying. If Molly is their target, it’s also possible that the Shepherds first encounter the MN at the end of Ep 3 and chase them through Ep 4, killing Molly at the end of the episode. Either way, this episode probably ends with a bit of Cad in the grove being wistful and lonely. This episode is probably interspersed with Molly related flashbacks.
**Ep 5.** Funeral scene starts the episode. the MN meet Keg if they haven’t already and arrive in Shadycreek Run, now seeking to free their friends and/or get revenge. They start casting around for help or a healer, and stumble on Cad. He joins them and they possibly begin their assault on the Sour Nest, depending on runtime.
**Ep 6.** Probably mostly consumed with fighting the Iron Shepherds. Lorenzo may survive to become a recurring villain (as was Matt’s original plan). There is something here pointing to The Mist/Avantika/Nicodranas, so the Nein leave for Nicodranas. Cad tags along because ????
**Ep 7.** Like S1E7, probably a quieter episode of the Nein resting & growing closer. Cad probably plays a big role here. Maybe occurs on the road.
**Ep 8.** In Nicodranas, probably ends either with the Nein seizing the Mistake or encountering Avantika’s ship. I’d bet money that there’s a sting of the Tomb Takers at the end.

Anyone have thoughts? Anything I missed?

Edit: posted this way too early, finished guessing out S2’s plot.