Aabria Iyengar opened Dimension 20‘s Burrow’s End campaign by evoking earth, cementing her elemental bond with fellow Game Masters Brennan Lee Mulligan and Matthew Mercer.
This meta-joke bled from Critical Role into Dimension 20 thanks to Mulligan’s guest GM stint on Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, a prequel set in Mercer’s eponymous world. Mulligan established an urgent and intense tone by kicking off the emotional ordeal with the word “fire”. Mercer returned the favor while running a prequel campaign in Mulligan’s world of Calorum for Dimension 20’s The Ravening War. The Critical Role GM began his own guest stint on Dimension 20′s A Crown of Candy prequel with the word “water”, provoking a laugh from Mulligan at the table. Iyengar, who has served as GM on both Critical Role and Dimension 20, completed the hat trick in Burrow’s End, with the opening salvo of “Earth”.
Much like Mercer’s pointed callback to Mulligan, the GM responsible for this chain of elemental events sat present as a player at Burrow’s End‘s table. In the Critical Role’s Exandria Unlimited mini-campaigns, Dimension 20 alum Mulligan and Iyengar became the first GMs officially invited into Mercer’s sandbox outside the confines of one-shots. While Critical Role and Dimension 20 have always collaborated and shared their vast talent pools, the GM trio have become intrinsically linked through their close-knit Exandrian collaboration. This inside joke between the friends and GMs has now extended its elemental influence into three distinct universes.
In addition to Critical Role and Dimension 20, Iyengar and Mulligan collaborate on the ongoing TTRPG podcast Worlds Beyond Number alongside Erika Ishii and Lou Wilson. Worlds Beyond Number recently celebrated the conclusion of the first arc of the fantasy epic, The Wizard, the Witch and the Wild One, with a cozy Hayao Miyazaki-inspired trailer. All four Worlds Beyond Number contributors have appeared on both Dimension 20 and Critical Role, with Iyengar and Wilson present for Mulligan’s fiery devastation in Exandria Unlimited: Calamity.
Earth proved an apropos opener for Burrow’s End, Dimension 20’s latest adventure following a party consisting entirely of weasel-like creatures called stoats. Iyengar leads Mulligan, Ishii, and fellow stoats Siobhan Thompson, Isabella Roland, Rashawn Nadine Scott and Jasper William Cartwright on the heartfelt and Watership Down-esque adventure. Iyengar’s clever opening gambit left fans wondering which GM and/or campaign would call upon wind, to complete the saga.
Dimension 20‘s earthy Burrow’s End adventure streams Wednesdays on Dropout.
