In this installment of Critical Hit – A Major Spoilers Podcast: Orem and Sekhar have a long overdue conversation…
This episode of Critical Hit is sponsored by Loot Crate. Go to lootcrate.com/critical and use the code critical to save on your new subscription.
This episode of Critical Hit is sponsored by Harry’s (www.harrys.com). Use the code criticalhit at checkout to save on new subscription.
Visit the Major Spoilers store for Critical Hit and Major Spoilers merchandise!
- Direct Download (Right Click+Save As)
- RSS Feed
- Subscribe via iTunes
- Subscribe to the Major Spoilers Podcast Network Master Feed!
- Major Spoilers Podcast Network Master Feed RSS Feed
- Critical Hit on Stitcher
- Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers Patron at Patreon.com/MajorSpoilers. It will help ensure Critical Hit continues far into the future!
Contact us at podcast@majorspoilers.com A big Thank You goes out to everyone who downloads, subscribes, listens, and supports this show. We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to our ramblings each week. Tell your friends about the podcast, get them to subscribe and, be sure to visit the Major Spoilers site and forums.
Dear Spoilerite,
At Major Spoilers, we strive to create original content that you find interesting and entertaining. Producing, writing, recording, editing, and researching requires significant resources. We pay writers, podcast hosts, and other staff members who work tirelessly to provide you with insights into the comic book, gaming, and pop culture industries. Help us keep MajorSpoilers.com strong. Become a Patron (and our superhero) today.
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
29 Comments
So is Sekhar maybe three-quarters Vampire?
Only if he is seven feet tall…
Hooray! This reveal has been a long time coming.
As a friend of Sam’s, I’m morally obligated to talk her up a bit and note that she figured this out months ago, based on Sekhar’s specific bonuses in certain situations, his Dreamquills prophecy (“A cold shadow from the past lighting the way to a brighter future”), and a few other minor character details. I just went back and found the chatlog where she told me her suspicions and ran through her logic, and it was dated July 12. I am in awe of her D&D detective work, and also her ability to not take her knowledge into character over the past three months.
But I’m really looking forward to Little Sparkle’s reaction, hopefully next week.
Also: Kudos for the episode title.
I’d be soo interested in exactly how Sam picked up on that? I loved the reveal.
I first figured out Sekhar wasn’t human because he mentioned having low-light vision and then the Dreamquill prophecy made me sure he was undead-tainted. After the wise woman scene, I figured the attacks were caused by him having not killed in a long time while we were all on a boat. That made me guess he was either a Revenant or a Dhampir. Then I realized he had a circumstantial bonus to bluff checks. Some mental triangulation and I realized it must be in any cases he was disguised as a human specifically. Revenants don’t get anything like that so I figured I had it to be Dhampir. I went to look it up to confirm that, but discovered I was thinking of Pathfinder and Dhampir doesn’t exist in 4th Ed but figured there had to be some vampire-esque race and found Vyrkola. I only didn’t guess that sooner because they’re from Heroes of Shadow, which came out after I’d basically stopped playing 4th Ed (before Rodrigo roped me back in).
I’ll go on record to say that despite all the clues that were given, I did not figure out Sekhar’s true nature at all. The best part is, the clues go further back than Sekhar’s first appearance. The first was given way back in Episode #238 when we met his mother. The creepy description of her and her entourage takes on a whole new meaning now. Well done, Rodrigo!
Also, with Little Sparkle taking point on most of this mission, I want to petition that the group be officially called “The Sparkletones”. Can I get some backing on this movement? ;)
I’m in, but only because I don’t think I’d get any traction for trying to call them Sparkle Motion. Largely because the party would devolve into Donnie Darko quotes every session, and Rodrigo would kill them all.
But then anytime someone did something stupid or that endangered the party we could doubt their commitment to Sparkle Motion! But I approve of Sparkletones. :)
Yeah, the whole part where she said, “A little bird told me. Well, it’s blood told me.” has a whole new meaning now.
Guys. There is 15 minutes of advertising in front of this episode. If I put this on when I start driving to work I am still listening to adverts when I arrive. I love the show but recently I find myself loosing interest before you’ve even started. I’m missing stuff because I’ve tuned out by the time your done advertising. Can you break it up a bit throughout the show.
I certainly can break it up throughout the show, but then even more people will complain.
Also, there is not 15 minutes of advertising. There is 2 minutes of ads, then a listener mail segment, then another minute or two of ads.
Here’s the real problem Zach. I don’t want advertising on any of our shows. I don’t want advertising on the MajorSpoilers.com website. However, we have costs. Writers, and hosts need to be paid, server costs, and hosting fees need to be accounted for each and every month. Now, we aren’t underwritten by Legendary Pictures, CBS, NBC, DC Comics, Marvel, or Space.com. Major Spoilers is run by one person – me, who does have to scramble to make ends meet each month – even if that means I have to put expenses on my own credit card. So, when an advertiser (or two or three) comes to us to advertise on one of our shows, I try to accommodate them as best I can. I don’t like inserting mid-roll ads, and for the most part, we don’t. Which means we have lost about a dozen advertisers in the last year because too many listeners/fans complain that they don’t want the show broken up in the middle for an advertisement. Ironically, there are fans who don’t mind the ads, those who hate the overly narrative episodes, those that hate the combat episodes and those that love the combat episodes. There is no winning here….
Or is there?
Here’s the thing. Critical Hit, The Major Spoilers Podcast, Top Five and Zach on Film get a lot of downloads – A LOT of downloads. So many in fact that if each and everyone of those listeners contributed just $1.00 per month, I could do away with advertising on all of the show, and the site completely.
YES! FOR JUST ONE DOLLAR A MONTH! PATREON.COM/MAJORSPOILERS
If every one of the Critical Hit listeners pledged $1.00/month we would blow past all of our goals so quickly we’d be scrambling to fulfill our commitments to bring Modern City back, launch the drama podcast, and a lot more – A WHOLE LOT MORE!
Sadly though, not everyone can afford to give one dollar a month, and there are some who would simply rather listen to the content without regard to the time and expense that went in to making the show. Fortunately, we have a few fans who are willing to give more than a dollar a month, and many of them have gone beyond our top pledge amount on Patreon because they really want to see and hear our work continue.
So, we have to rely on advertisers. It’s a fact of life at this point. You should be happy that we have advertisers courting us because we have so many people listening on a weekly and daily basis. But, if we don’t get basic expenses covered soon, we may have to shut down a podcast or two. I would sure hate to shut down Critical Hit.
I bet you and the other 15,000 listeners would feel upset if it went away.
I’m fine with advertising. I just wish the show would start before I’ve arrived at my destination
You know you can just skip it right? It took me like 5 seconds to jump to when the adventure started.
I understand both sides. I listen to the podcast the second they come out, which is very late in the night for me. It can be frustrating when it takes so long to get past the advertising and back to the story. I understand the need for the revenue though, which is why I do donate as much as I do.
I’m not going to lie, when the episode finally “started” I was irritated that it took so long to get to it. Listening again though, I’m not mad at all. Stephen has a lot to balance to make this show happen and it’s not going to keep everyone happy the entire time. I feel like what I get from the show far outweighs what little irritation that happens.
Concur with the above. Given how many adds I have to blow by for a TV show, I’m happy that Stephen puts them all at the beginning; it’s five minutes for what’s usually an hour of entertainment. Still making up my mind about the email segment at the beginning, but if nothing else they’re trying something new to make mailbags happen and I’ll see how it works.
Also, silver member here. Thanks for doing what you do, folks, and I’ll support it as long as you do.
Consider for a second a new listener. If this was my first episode, I would have had to make it through 15 minutes of other stuff before getting to the content. That’s not a great start. Would half at the start and half and the end not help to break that up a little?
My fault, Zach! Actually, I’ll say it’s not my fault–in the same way that Spud taking over the Feywild was not the party’s fault–but it was my feedback that Stephen seemed to enjoy so much and spent so much time excerpting. I presumed it would either be passed around among the team without being read or that it would be handled in a mailbag episode. Next time I send something that should be held for a mailbag episode I will make that request explicit!
Don’t apologize. We’ve been working more mail bag type elements into the front of the show this year. And for those listening to the actual comments being discussed in your email and my responses get it.
Thanks for being a Patreon member!
I don’t mind the advertising, in fact I am going to try Harry’s soon enough..LOL I am trying to let my Wisconsin beard get full first.
I am glad that the cat is out of the bag, I guessed doing something unpleasant when he was on the Mountain, but I was waaaay off about what it was. I was also very happy that the mission failed. One of CH strong points (in my opinion) is that Rodrigo never takes the easy way out with the story line and plot. It would have been very easy to have this be far less challenging and turn into a win for the Party, but the fact that they did not achieve the goal is glorious. It is part of what I love about the show, and the world building just continues to be superb.
Sam is one of the best additions to the show in a long time. I really enjoy the way she can drive the team and is exceptionally rules savvy. It does not surprise me in the least that she had this all figured out already.
I need to up my subscription stuff soon though (new card chip thing coming). Stephen would Patreon be what you want us to shift to so it is one place? Or keep pay pal because there is no overhead?
You can stay with which ever system you prefer.
I won’t be posting character sheets for a few weeks though (hint, hint), and they will appear on both the VIP and Patreon sites.
Thank you for being a supporter of our work!
“I am glad that the cat is out of the bag, I guessed doing something unpleasant when he was on the Mountain, but I was waaaay off about what it was.”
Very curious as to what your guess was!
Funniest moment of the episode:
Stephen: “We smell like a sewer in the springtime.”
Matthew: “It’s a sewer full of flowers.”
Samantha: “It’s Poo-pouri!”
I lol’d in the middle of the supermarket this morning thanks to that!
I’m glad Sam made the joke, because I have a feeling Matthew and I were holding back :)
Oh, yeah. We don’t work blue on Critical Hit. :)
If your poop is blue, you’ve been using WAY too much Feywild hair serum.
We do, but I edit those out because we have young listeners.
Alright, fair enough, being a snake is from being a Warden, not Yuan-Ti (I referenced this back in a comment in like, March). Vampire-snakes are p cool too. It was nice this revelation came about via character-directed dialogue and not a “reveal your true self” DM scene, even if Rodrigo certainly gave ample allusion.