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For a season that began with a goofy recap from a dim-witted giant, Critical Role's The Legend of Vox Machina season 4 got real heavy, real fast. In particular, we're thinking about the character arc of one Keyleth, played by Marisha Ray. While we're going to do our best to avoid spoilers here, we'll tell you that the half-elf druid went through the greatest challenge to her character yet this season. And for Ray, that meant revisiting one of the hardest days of actual play she's ever been a part of.

Ray said as much in an interview with the AV Club recently coinciding with the latest chapter of Prime Video's animated adaptation of Critical Role Campaign 1. Again, we're going to do our best to avoid spoilers here, but we will say this season had a lot of emotional moments regarding Keyleth's Aramenté, a magical trial in which much of her character is wrapped up. And not only was that a trial for her character, but according to Ray, it was a trial for herself as an actor.

"I walked out of the sound stage and immediately burst into tears," Ray said of the first time her character went through these events in Campaign 1. Revisiting them to record Legend of Vox Machina season 4, then, meant "Going back and revisiting that and encapsulating just how stressful the whole challenge was, it’s raw."

Adding pressure to Ray's original encounter with the events of Campaign 1 is the fact that this "really bad day," of TTRPG gameplay, as she puts it, happened during a live Critical Role event, in which the cast faced an audience full of fans. It's the kind of emotional turmoil actors will talk about putting themselves through for the sake of a great story, and if there is a cosmic GM out there, we have no doubt that Ray's XP went up those days, both on stage and in the sound booth. 

With two animated series on Prime Video, Campaign 4 in full swing, and so much more Exandrian lore to come, Critical Role is showing no signs of slowing down. That's why the adventuring party at Popverse are here to bring you everything we can from those nerdy-ass voice actors & Bo., including:

• Critical Role release schedule
• Critical Role's Campaign 4 characters ranked
• How to watch Critical Role in order
• Ways for you to relive the Critical Role panel from ECCC '26
• Taliesin Jaffe on playing Mollymauk Tealeaf for Campaign 2 vs. playing him for Prime Video
• Matt Mercer's homebrew warrior class (created originally for Vin Diesel)

...and much, much more. Roll initiative, player. Magic awaits.