Matthew Mercer Nearly Wiped Out Entire Critical Role Party Four Years Ago

The Critical Role cast has played Dungeons & Dragons together for decades. It’s easy to assume they can handle any combat scenario Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer throws at them. But as every D&D player eventually learns, no amount of experience or preparation helps when the dice turn against you.

That happened four years ago in Critical Role Campaign 3. The party, Bells Hells, faced something scarier than demons in Hell or an ancient black dragon in the mountains. For the first time in Critical Role history, an encounter nearly led to a total-party kill (TPK).

The threat was a level 20 human fighter named Otohan Thull.

The bloodiest battle in Critical Role history

Bells Hells wanted to learn more about the goings-on in Ruidus. They also had orders from their benefactor, Lord Eshteross, to recover Armand Treshi. To do both, they infiltrated the headquarters of the Paragon’s Call, a mercenary group that had captured Treshi.

The party didn’t know that the Paragon’s Call was working closely with the Ruby Vanguard, including one of its most prominent members, Otohan Thull. During the rescue of Treshi in Campaign 3, episode 33, “Blood and Dust,” Thull revealed herself and stopped their escape from the headquarters.

From the moment she appeared, Bells Hells were in over their heads. In just a few hits, Thull destroyed the sand crawler the party was using to escape. She also downed Ashton Greymoore (Taliesin Jaffe) with a three-hit attack in a single move. Under her cloak she carried an item that let her summon shadowy warriors to fight the party. Thull was a formidable threat alone, and her minions made the odds worse.

As the fight went on, the players were torn. Thull was extremely powerful. If they all focused on her, they might take her down for good and use the whipping dust storm as cover for their escape. Some characters, including Chetney (Travis Willingham) and Orym (Liam O’Brien), fought back, but Thull quickly knocked them unconscious. She also wanted Imogen (Laura Bailey) to give in to her Ruidusborne powers. Between that goal and her merciless attacks, a handful of Bells Hells panicked and fled.

The indecision and fear cost several party members their lives. Thull’s blows killed Orym, Fearne (Ashley Johnson), and Laudna (Marisha Ray). Others, including Chetney and Ashton, also fell but were only unconscious. Otohan left only after Imogen failed a Wisdom saving throw and gave in to her Ruidusborne abilities. Imogen summoned a terrible storm that destroyed multiple buildings in Bassuras.

FCG (Sam Riegel) still had a Revivify spell, and he used it on Fearne. She had spent most of her spell slots in the fight, so she could save only one other member of the party. She chose Orym with a single coin flip, which left Laudna to die for a second time.

How this near TPK changed Campaign 3

The fight left the players shaken, and Mercer also values it as a Dungeon Master. In Founders Favorites, a mini-interview where each cast member talks about the best moments in Critical Role, he names it as one of his favorites.

“Watching the fear in the players’ eyes and the realization that things were happening on a scope and scale beyond their momentary ability to tackle was delicious,” Mercer says in his Founders Favorites interview.

Mercer also admits that Thull was a single figure but so dangerous that he knew from the start the encounter could become a death spiral if the dice didn’t favor Bells Hells. They didn’t.

It isn’t surprising that Mercer enjoyed the fight. As characters level up over a campaign, it gets harder to find new ways to challenge the players. The Thull encounter came early in the campaign, and her part in the fall of so many Bells Hells members stayed with the party long after they met her again in a combat encounter in episode 91, “True Heroism.”

For one thing, the cast became far more careful about preparing for encounters. They often reached out to higher-level allies like Vox Machina instead of rushing into danger alone. Laudna’s death also helped Imogen realize her feelings for Laudna were romantic, though Imogen didn’t act on them until more than 20 episodes later.

Most of all, the near-TPK reminded the cast and the Critters that in Dungeons & Dragons, a single roll of the dice can turn victory into failure, or failure into victory, in an instant. Every choice matters more than you know.

Critical Role Campaign 3: Bells Hells streams on Beacon and YouTube.

Source: Polygon