The Mighty Nein Reunion Changed Matthew Mercer’s Plans for a Critical Role Villain

On the latest episode of Critical Role‘s talk show 4-Sided Dive, Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer revealed that player’s actions during The Mighty Nein Reunion: Echoes of the Solstice thwarted his plans to reintroduce Trent Ikithon into the pantheon of active Exandrian villains.

London’s sold-out Wembley Arena live show The Mighty Nein Reunion: Echoes of the Solstice saw the eponymous level 20 heroes reconvene after the arcane disruptions of the Apogee Solstice shook loose their old foe, Master Trent Ikithon.

On 4-Sided Dive Mercer divulged that Trent’s ensuing escape from the Cobalt Soul would have been a more full-scale affair had the Mighty Nein not outwitted him. The party’s precise strikes and clever spellcasting unknowingly protected Critical Role‘s current adventuring party Bells Hells from Trent Ikithon, as Mercer suggested a reality where the freed wizard sought to reunite with his former Cerberus Assembly colleague, Ludinus Da’leth.

Trent’s original plan after the Apogee Solstice involved offering the Mighty Nein a straightforward decision: save the village of Blumenthal or pursue him and enact their vengeance. “He was going to take that ancient seal egg and jettison it into the middle of the village and basically offer everyone a Sophie’s Choice,” Mercer reported on Trent’s original strategy.

However, Laura Bailey’s Jester Lavorre forced Trent to adapt after she cast Antimagic Field and Beau and Yasha doubled down on the spell’s confining impact by flanking him. Clarifying that the parameters of Antimagic Field didn’t effect artifacts, Mercer realized that Trent’s only way out was to absorb the abyssal relic he carried and transform into Omentis.

The climatic kaiju battle that closed out The Mighty Nein Reunion: Echoes of the Solstice was thus largely unplanned and improvised by Mercer on the fly. On 4-Sided Dive, the Dungeon Master confessed that during combat he was still spinning narrative threads of what Trent’s escape would mean in his new form as Omentis. However, the Mighty Nein thoroughly dismantled any continued threat from Trent or Omentis in the one-shot’s Godzilla-esque final battle.

Mercer’s Mighty Nein retrospective provided further context on Trent’s actions in the one-shot, particularly the verbal threat he levelled against beloved non-player character Essek Thelyss. If Trent had been able to escape, threats of this nature would’ve added another layer to Mercer’s Sophie’s Choice. Choosing between saving the civilians of Blumenthal or eliminating Trent Ikithon would prove more emotionally challenging if the party feared that Essek’s life might be factored into the cost of letting Trent flee.