The Chain of Acheron: Ep. 22 - The Daughter of Time | Matt Colville's D&D Campaign

[@helloMCDM]

The Chain of Acheron is Back!

[@Wrathful2000]

And I, for one, am very grateful!!

[@deltawavestudios318]

Yes! It's back!

[@auail5594]

Is Matt okay? He looked like he just wasn't really into DMing this time, at least not for the first half

[@Zonalar]

Excited to see the Chain back :) Yall are awesome

[@Illnorean]

The Old Ones have made it so!!!

[@ayyohwinning]

This episode had the single most bombshell moment in all of Matt's games so far I think: The art on the door depicted the cycle of civilization - rise and fall, and worshipping the dead spirit of the past age. "The cycle must break - The cycle cannot be broken" THAT'S what Ajax is trying to do: break the cycle, and live as the living deity of Man, breaking both the cycle of rise and fall, and also dispelling the worship of the "dead" past. That's why he's outlawed religion. That was a super "Holy Sh*t!" moment for me watching this live - Matt's world is getting richer by the session! Amazing stuff

[@Providence83]

That's interesting, I had a different interpretation of the story. As the next civilization is established, so is a human god whose rule threatens the world such that a new force has to stop it. When Nails was turning into a god and Judge tried to sap his life, Matt described it as "having no life to pull from" which could be symbolized by the dead things being worshipped or that the new gods bring death like Nails did because he went insane. "The cycle must break" I took as humans shouldn't create new gods less one of them cannot be stopped and actually does end the world as Ajax seems to be on the path to doing and "the cycle _cannot_ be broken" meaning similarly that the new gods have to be stopped by a new force or the world will end by their doing. I didn't get the "spirit of the past age" feel but I'm also not as familiar with the history of Matt's world. I don't _feel_ how Higarans are different than Vaslorians, are different than any other peoples. The world building for Capitol references the contrast with Vasloria a lot but I only watched half of the previous campaign's diaries and probably only remember a third of what Vasloria was like from that.

[@winterdrake107]

Yeah, the dead being worshipped has a clear parallel in the way the relationships between humans, saints, and gods works. It's super intriguing

[@nevernerevarine8071]

Maybe the answer to the question "Why do humans have so many Gods?" is that those who rise in those ancient histories *become* the Gods worshiped (worship the dead, etc.) and when Nails asked "I wonder if Ajax knows?" he was wondering if Ajax knew he was going to end up the same despite trying to break the cycle? Anyways, I love this shit! So fun!

[@patrickbuckley7259]

I am thinking that something about humanity compels them to diefy the honored dead. Not that these gods are necessarily from previous civilizations but rather from their own. Methinks their is some as of yet unnamed god of death involved perhaps the equal of Ord and Val, an ancient god associated with humanity, fire, darkness, and death. But maybe I am just overthinking this.

[@4204799]

lol dune moment

[@andythedestro12]

I feel like the "waving your monster in my face" is a critical blimey

[@Lishtenbird]

When your neutral character says "Can't we just kill her?", and the evil one asks "Why?"

[@trentwilis2582]

Judge is more Lawful than evil second it seems.

[@patrickbuckley7259]

@@trentwilis2582 Could just be that he has a higher wisdom. Even a Chaotic Evil can be strategic in their cruelty, greed, and sadism. It's all a matter of cunning. I say this as your local Lawful Stupid Paladin who typically plays under the assumption that "For the Greater Good" justifications are the realm of the evil and the stupid. I am the guy who stopped you from stabbing that goblin baby that grew up to rob and pillage hate me and despair! I mean I am not the full on pacifist that never wants to get in a fight or anything, but yeah I am a handful, and am glad my group tolerates my shenanigans. Once I killed an Orc for killing the Orc Chieftain we where hired to retrieve a weapon from, because the Chieftain was still injured from our honor Duel earlier that day and the orc had killed the Chief in a dishonorable manner. (It provided the rest of the party the perfect opportunity to escape in the commotion while the Mage turned himself into a Griffin, I then proceeded to ride out of the Orc Encampment astride, holding aloft the treacherous orcs head) I also blocked the Bard from installing the leader of a Thieves guild as the local duke (They had a legitimate claim to the throne) because putting someone who robs other's for a living into a political office just because it's convenient is asking for trouble. (We lucked out and the king arrived not long after to look for a more suitable candidate) The party was also forced to use mind control on me, because I refused to leave a town when they thought it was going to explode... (Hint it did not and the Mage got a gauntlet to the sternum, out of character he and I had agreed that it was fair beforehand of course) I mean I am usually right and 9/10 times my stubborn sense of honor and moral fortitude saves the day, but this is more coincidence and dumb luck than any actual wisdom on my Paladins part. I guess what I am saying is, Wisdom is often far more important than Alignment when it comes to making common sense decisions.

[@MykeySprite]

"Like swinging a metal bat into an immovable object-" *Phil, nodding in complete understanding: "Like a mailbox." This moment of player characterization had me crying 'Well Phil not all of us are deviants but now seeing you are the expert on the matter I suppose so yes'

[@DyrgeAfterDark]

Phil is an excellent DM perhaps it is because he is a superior being.

[@LockSteady]

best quote

[@lordmurderkitten6098]

Come let us sing of his exploits

[@natskis]

The thing with Phil's game was that it had a 100% increase in puns... cause Matt is a pun machine and he doesn't do it in his game :)

[@lydiasteinebendiksen4269]

*does it less (in his game)

[@timothyheimbach3260]

For those of you like me who watch live until the break it begins at 1:30:42 and play begins again at 1:45:54

[@BtheDUB]

Timothy Heimbach hero.

[@J0K3R_the_Nerd]

In King’s head, talking to the knight, “COMMON MUTHA@#$&$ DO YOU SPEAK IT!”

[@Knappsalot]

Great show Matt, Dming my first Homebrew campaign next Tuesday. All started with your running the game videos!

[@big53mac]

how did it go?

[@Knappsalot]

@@big53mac Quite well I thought. A few of the players hit me up after saying they had a lot of fun, So i was happy about that. Next session the players will get to the first town I have created.

[@jaredatkinson1071]

you've fallen for one of the two classic blunders! The first being never get involved in a land war in Asia but only slightly lesser known: never walk right in a room with a glif on they floor! Hahaha

[@lordbiscuitthetossable5352]

I laughed pretty hard at this point, given how much shade they threw at "Violet" for walking onto a Glyth. The problem with traps is that they usually aren't triggered before they are seen. XD

[@ob7514]

@@lordbiscuitthetossable5352 I like how you both spelled glyph wrong. :D

[@mjr8888]

each room around the main room that leads deeper has a different material for a wall: metal, stone, marble Wouldn't be surprised if it's a hint

[@tikazombie37]

Boots be like "The Chain of Acheron, the last of the hell troopers, legendary mercenary company, badasses by profession, mercenaries by hobby"

[@dani.meisner]

My favorite part was the 6 minutes of everyone trying to figure out if they rested

[@buraeen5735]

Watched it live, here just to help your statistics. :) Keep up the great work!

[@martixy2]

The text @42:30 Sentence 1: Vaarsuvius was here. Sentence 2: I prepared explosive runes today.

[@sebastiendouilhet5890]

From the depth of Ringwell, the chain shall rise !

[@TheodoreMinick]

1:38:00 I'm with Anna. It's not that difficult to tell Italian from Spanish. A little harder to differentiate Spanish from Portuguese, but even that's not too hard, if you've heard both.

[@CountsDigGraves]

Yeah it wasn't a great example from Colville. His point stands, I think. Maybe he should have gone across more language barriers, more 'exotic' if you will. I don't know Slavic languages well enough to distinguish a single one by ear, for instance.

[@TheodoreMinick]

Can you tell a slavic language from a romance language, or an Asian language? Pretty sure Draconic and, say, abyssal, are different enough to tell apart, even if you don't know either.

[@CountsDigGraves]

@@TheodoreMinick You're right, I would be able to. Good point. That leaves us with the question of what the linguistic landscape of Colville's world is. Maybe there are languages closely related or derived from Draconic that would allow for confusion? I'm trying to buy into his ruling.

[@Alresu]

@@TheodoreMinick Well, this pretty much depends on Matts judgement. It's his world, Draconic and Abyssal might sound nearly the same.

[@christophernorthcutt2571]

Thanks for the entertainment, to all of you at the table. I have finally managed to catch up to the latest episode as it came out. Look forward to the game diary, and next episode.

[@JacobL228]

Episode 22: the Chain fights an Inevitable. "Great campaign, everyone! Who wants to DM next?" After Matt's whistling, I'm just like "If you can find them, and you can afford it, you just might be able to hire... The Chain of Acheron!"* *Results may vary

[@insomniceagle]

01:31 "you roll percentile dice and look up on a chart" sounds like the development of *Draw Steel* started a lot earlier than we were all told ծ_Ô

[@Beardiful]

I love when Tom not Tom whispers "desecrate." It made me laugh. Great episode. ^_^

[@MrBiloxifireman]

Break Ends at 1:45:53

[@ourkarate]

E CRIT!!!!! Thank you for the MERP/Rolemaster reference!

[@paulvandenelzen5465]

I just got Strongholds and Followers for my birthday, i was overjoyed.

[@artesque]

I’m 35 minutes in and I’m already upset that I have to wait a week until the next episode.

[@curlyblack5191]

Nice Dune reference Matt @2:38:30

[@NoInfoAvail]

They didn't take a short rest. However I dunno if it matters. Considering the danger has past they probably can take one shortly into the session.

[@andreagrossi7656]

Don't get me wrong, I LOVED Vallenguard with Phil as GM, but it was missing a single thing to make it to perfection: Copper. I just enjoy Tom's little comedic moments a lot!

[@geoffdewitt6845]

Thanks for this, Matt!

[@3nertia]

I'm starting to learn Matt's tells now xD

[@aneroo198]

Aahhhhh! I neeeeed the new Illrigger!!!!

[@diamondjack75]

1:23:06 Quantum Leap theme, did any of the players pick up on that?

[@thrasew]

The Egyptian hieroglyphic script was one of the writing systems used by ancient Egyptians to represent their language. Because of their pictorial elegance, Herodotus and other important Greeks believed that Egyptian hieroglyphs were something sacred, so they referred to them as 'holy writing'

[@thrasew]

So Leech should be able to read them

[@bagamer13]

Matt’s game does not take place in the real world. So he is the final arbiter of what counts as a language in his game.

[@houslessplant7133]

The correct term is 'invorporeal'

[@ChrisMoneymakerDHRG]

Just in case my guess is right, SPOILER ALERT! I am 23 mins in, and I can believe they haven't guessed that "W" might stand for wish. They have had the better part of a month to think about it. It's something that starts with W, and can overcome powerful magic wards.

[@ComradeCrab93]

Well lucky you, if any of them check the comments you've ruined it. Real cool of you.

[@ChrisMoneymakerDHRG]

@@ComradeCrab93 Thats kind of like spoiling the end of a new hope. , but I will add a spoiler alert to the beginning of my comment. although having not seen the end of this episode I don't know if I am right or not, It might not be a spoiler at all. ,

[@craigbainton4173]

Chris Moneymaker SPOILERS! You are right, Matt told us that it was in the campaign diary, but tbh.. I didn’t think about wish until he mentioned it, I know you guys did but tbh it’s not really a massive spoiler as it has no massive effect on the game other than know ping about an item the group has

[@hobertcooke2346]

It's really funny that Tom (not to be confused with Tom) had an intelligence of 20 is playing boots with an intelligence of 9. Tom always figures out things that boots would not.

[@mathewfinch]

I've always thought of Wisdom as "I can figure stuff out," whereas Intelligence is more of "I've read a lot of books."

[@Badatname]

3 minutes in and I already miss Yeastnor

[@ssaylor]

@12:55 HOW LONG has Matt wanted to sprinkle a little Cicero into his setting!?

[@floydwurst9948]

That knight is soooo suspicious! I was wondering for some time if it was the "escaped" wizzard with a disguise self. But that was ruled out when she was in the anti-magic room. However the suggestion spell also did not disperse in the room.

[@TAPgiles]

Anyone know where I can watch the Founders & Legends thing? Sounds great!

[@smilerat8070]

Wind Duke's!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D All hail Mishka the Wolf Spider!!!! Let his prison be sundered in the realm of Pandemonium and reunited with the Queen of Chaos! I totally rewrote Out of the Abyss into a ploy from the Queen of Chaos to free Mishka.

[@cartercopeland1956]

I didn't get a notification, and I fell asleep halfway through the Stream!

[@patrickbuckley7259]

Interesting that one who claims to serve a Saint would use the term "god-botherer" to describe a Cleric. This is fishy. Also as far as the cycle go, makes me think the one true god of humanity is a an as of yet unnamed god of death, and that humanity has a tendency to deify the dead as a result. BTW, the Barrier is Psionic, a elegant solution for a trap in an Anti-Magic room. It's also skittles flavored like every other instance of Psionic energy used in the setting.

[@imperiousartifact1473]

The familiar sounds like Morag.

[@andythedestro12]

39:33 yeah all bards are evil. It's redundant XD

[@vexus5229]

Matt was talking about playing a game with Matt mercer does anyone know where I can find that

[@helloMCDM]

www.twitch.tv/videos/458953405

[@gump1119]

One does not simply...cross an empty room with a glyph on the floor.

[@dasamont8274]

I bet the Dragonborn isn't from their time, therefore "The Daughter of Time"

[@sillyking1991]

tbf with a +10 to hit. 21 ac is only a 50% miss rate. i mean 21 is objectively high, for 5e. just pointing out that in 5e even 'high' still means ~50% miss chance

[@gjjpabkriner2714]

Where is the new Illrigger abilities? Or how the monster tamers stuff is being reworked?

[@scotthinkley554]

I recognize that whistled tune......just can't quite place it...

[@Atrivion]

Can anyone find the full clip of that Garycon game Matt mentions? I can only find one and it seems like its the second half of a game =/

[@GiantOfTheNorth]

IT'S A GUNDAM

[@Ajmes]

Sometimes the DM should allow a very easy Int Roll to remember things in association that they already know. The glyph/room are anti-magic, the wall is psionic. How would someone remove something psionic without magic? Is this person trapped in here because they ran into a trap that prevents magic use, or was something imprisoned in here, that just wants you to think it's a person. They never even tried to interact with the ring she took off, and threw on the floor(might be an illusion).

[@sillyking1991]

probably because they CAN"T interact with the ring....its inside the wall with her.

[@charliemccollomc9907]

I like matts Bugsy Malone T-shirt

[@Brokensnowball]

critical blimey counter- 3

[@csb8336]

@ MAtt O, I cast Blimey at 4th level! bc , what do we have to loose aside from our haitches;)

[@StevoM08]

Slim will have Buts add that second “t” to her name by the end of her name by the end of the chapter if he has to literally nail it to her. Lol

[@jellytheentity]

The hell was that at 2:35:55? Something jumped across the screan!

[@PyrotechNick77]

Ghost orb.

[@Gilmatic__]

Matt shot a rubberband at him.

[@jellytheentity]

@@Gilmatic__ THANK YOU!

[@sillyking1991]

@@jellytheentity OI! BROOOOOOO

[@jellytheentity]

@@sillyking1991 Oh shit, waddup? :P

[@private2132]

ooph, the players were having a real hard time understanding what was going on this time. Lore dumps on history, they couldn't pick up on, without visual aid. Having a hard time understanding, the rooms they were in. the wizard and the paladin. The players never picked up on the Paladin being time displaced. the rushed behavior and general refusal of either to answer questions seems like a really bad idea. it left the players totally lost. Heck, they seem to have totally forgotten they came there to secure the items in Ringwell. "do we even need to open this door?"

[@stevenclark1662]

A lot of these people spent the last 3 weeks in a different campaign as different people. They needed to re-acclimate. Now they have. I think it's amazing that Matt was patient, and explained the stuff they were missing with every question, because he understood this. They'll be back in their element next week, promise.

[@lililillililillililillilil2116]

Hopefully returns one day

[@geoffdewitt6845]

Anybody got a link to the recap the mods do?

[@rooseveltcooper]

We killed time lol

[@caleboverman4464]

Huzzah!

[@ConradvonKordovan]

Love the Bugsy Malone shirt, Matt! Where can I get one? ;)

[@billhenry7213]

Just google it

[@Iglesiasmanu]

Alright. We're back, shut up

[@ianhanley1213]

Anyone know where to find the Gygax game for playback?

[@helloMCDM]

The stream will be on Saturday July 26, 2019 starting at 12 noon Pacific Time - www.twitch.tv/garycon ... We don't know if it will be on KZbin in the future.

[@tdog4423]

MCDM I could fine y’all.

[@danielfields985]

@@helloMCDM Last year's was. Hoping this year's will as will.

[@trashyjunk2609]

do Githyanki need to breathe?

[@AlexanderMacNabb]

is this an [ Antimagic Field ] trap spell?

[@joebaker1]

The time wheel speaks Latin?! 😳

[@ArcaneCowboy]

Truth?

[@bobbywaclawik3723]

Did I miss something or has no one pointed out that Buts uses a fart spell?

[@billhenry7213]

Matt's T-shirt...

[@kevincullen6627]

Man i cant wait to see what other anti-slim tech he will deploy

[@NeflewitzInc]

Super big lore reveal and an hour plus of no one figuring out how to deal with a puzzle.

[@seraphlord]

they still havent rested lol someone might die next episode XD

[@rebelknightb4638]

There talking to that lady knight like she's a Karen

[@a.morphous66]

“I have been a man, but not in this instance.” Uhhh… trans pride?

[@harrywhiteley89]

takes ring off... in an anti magic field... yep get slim in there to slash with his psionic vorpal blade through one side of the wall vorpal strike the woman then pass though the wall on the other side...

[@lordbiscuitthetossable5352]

Thing is with those rings is that they physically burrow into the flesh and sink deep to the bone. Even when she removed the ring she would have had wounds on her finger that would have been seen. Given she was battered and clearly is in a zone of anti-magic she couldn't have healed the damage to her finger herself thus being a double agent isn't entirely impossible. That also prevents slim teleporting. Also, why did the Knight slam the door right behind the person who opened the door? I get the feeling that the Knight was compelled to do that and eliminate any remaining members outside the door to prevent information leaks. Everyone assumes the Knight is going to be virtuous being, when here we see a being who only wants to murder the problem. Why?

[@harrywhiteley89]

​@@lordbiscuitthetossable5352. The ring being a magic item could be enough of a reason for it to not cause damage on retraction, no one in the group has checked to see whether or not there is any lingering damage to her finger. As a slight example of this in action Matt allowed revivify to restore grievous injury such as crushed heads and near flattened chests which would probably require a higher level spell (but this may be "flavourful fluff" for attack damage and revivify). I feel as if the thing about not teleporting into the prismatic wall was done on the fly as to not trap her in there by herself with slim. Lawful Stupid comes to mind on the murder the problem issue, "order of the falling star" also brings me to think of a very aggressive tendency, I thought the "my progenitor was a ruby" comment was a more interesting comment as it could mean that she was not as she seemed. I also thought Matt was trying to guide the players to a get slim in the room with his crystal, or what he was doing with the woman in the field was to get them to move on/go away. As for the closing the door part, I'm not sure what was going on there. But, if I were to guess, it might have been her deity telling her to close the door in order to trap the people inside, allow her to rest and recover before continuing the battle, stop reinforcements from coming from the other side and overwhelming her. or it was the sapphire sky using psionic emotional messaging to make her wait for the chain to reinforce her. Despite all this, I am not in Matts mind and could be wrong on every aspect on this, which is why I enjoy watching this campaign unfold ;) (saying "the show" would seem as if it was scripted in my twisted logic mind)… sorry for the waffling.

[@lordbiscuitthetossable5352]

In regards to the ring being a magic item: Maybe. But again the ring was taken off and the hand was shown to the PC's. While I could believe the ring would be disabled; I'm not entirely sure that the rings "Not" being magic would simply disable them like that with no exit wound. That wouldn't make a sense without some restorative aid, which she couldn't have used otherwise she wouldn't be injured. Though I think that, trust or not; this black pact member might be the only real clue they have toward getting the Gate open. These people need to find a way of getting information of getting the door open, and I mean at the very worst only one more person is escaping back to the black pact; another already knows they are here. In regard to misty step: Again, it's plausible magic just doesn't work within that zone. The problem here is two fold; the barrier stops passage, and the anti-magic zone seems to be caused by the materials in the room. If anything, I don't feel the players are being critical in regards to the social situation. Yes, the Knight closed the door because her deity told her to, but couldn't that have also been a suggestion spell? Not saying the situation has to be resolved through violence but there is a very clear threat the Knight offers that must be resolved, they have brought time with suggestions and generally toying with the knight to buy time, but it is the ethical dialema (Whether to do the easy thing and simply kill the knight or the hard thing and let her go and face the consequences of Ringwell becoming well known to a much more powerful faction, or the hardest thing to actually convince the knight of the gravity of the situationl.) that is most interesting. They seem determined to avoid making a decision in the regard to the knight which I think could spectacularly backfire on them in a most delicious way. I do love situations like these. And aye fair enough. It's good to have discussions like these. XD

[@billz1987]

Hmmm why do I get Ads ???

[@helloMCDM]

Ads are turned on for the MCDM channel. The Matt Colville channel remains ad free.

[@6pointsROCKS]

We need Critical Role and MCDM to do crossover episodes!!!! Please!!!!!!

[@benbowmen6650]

I'm 21 minutes in and they're talking about splitting the party. I've yet to see what happens after they do but I'm just going to go ahead and make a guess nothing good. Isn't it one of the Cardinal rules that you never split the party. Especially when it's coming from the DM and even more so when your DM is Matt. I'm going to hope I'm wrong.

[@benbowmen6650]

I knew it they split the party in a giant robot shows up. LOL

[@lordbiscuitthetossable5352]

In all fairness, they completely devastated the monster as a party of 4. So yeah, the myth is debunked. Would they have had an easier time with six? Sure, but it wasn't devastating like most people seem to think it is. Spilting the party up was the sensible thing to do as it allowed them to keep up with the Dragonborn Knight, who is arguably a gigantic threat to their mission if her faction gets involved in the quest for Ringwell.

[@CountsDigGraves]

Colville actually has a video on splitting the party. He does not agree with the adage. Splitting the party is fun, because it can create tension in all kinds of ways! If you're playing to 'win' or 'survive' rather than for drama, splitting up is baaad.

[@benbowmen6650]

Keep hearing from people that it's not a smart idea to split the party in the middle of a dungeon yes they got out this time but I've always felt like keep your most quiet and stealthy characters of front and behind them the weaker Armor glasses and go room to room checking for traps that way the party has an advantage when it comes into an accountant. Yes in this case it worked but I've always heard when you're in a dungeon try to keep your party together. Just my respectful opinion.

[@sillyking1991]

@@benbowmen6650 there are two primary reasons not to split the party. 1. meta: it tends to be easier on the DM and the group as a whole to not have to go back and forth like that. this can be alleviated with more experienced parties and certain types of players. 2. in character: its a risk. its possible for you to gain more information and there ARE posibble benefits to splitting. however, should combat occur you're in a weakened/more vulnerable state

[@projectperfectmmo3745]

So I have to give some honest criticism here. This was your worst episode by far. The players were stuck in what was basically a single room for around 2 hours trying to solve a puzzle. For a viewer, this is not an enjoyable watch. We didn't get to see the world or the story expand at all, the character stuck in the trap didn't help this much, and it overall just felt painful to watch them struggle as nothing else happened. I love this show, and so I really want to help by providing an honest critique so that it can be better for viewing in the future and thus make the show even more popular.

[@harrywhiteley89]

Hey, Just wondering but how would you suggest fixing this issue? I have run into it a few times before whilst DMing, I railroaded the party once and they hated it, and another time I tried to give less and less subtle hints at how to fix the problem and the party thought I was being patronising. Do you know if there is a better way of getting the players to move on.

[@projectperfectmmo3745]

@@harrywhiteley89 the best way ive found is to tell a player to make a check, if they pass, give them a clue. Though in general I avoid puzzles as they arent that engaging for a group of people due to the fact that there are far more interesting plot devices and I generally feel can be used, such as political intrigue.

[@markgregory3213]

This is the nature of game play. Don't feel pressured to move forward unless the players are not having a good time.

[@harrywhiteley89]

@@dziooooo Sounds like good advice to me I'll try it out next time the problem comes up :) Thanks for your Help

[@sillyking1991]

pretty sure that they weren't intended figure the puzzle out this episode....