"Did you hear what happened at the Wayside Inn?"
"No -- what happened?"
"While everyone was partying to Liar's Night they got robbed."
"Seriously!? Who robs a party?"
"It was 'A Masked Man', apparently."
"What a jerk. I hope they catch him."

The local Liar's Night festivities at the Wayside Inn were interrupted by a masked thief! They stole magical items and escaped, and now it's up to the Champions to stop them!

Liar's Night 5 introduces Brig Hellclaw, the Rogue/Bard, played by Jason Charles Miller who you can see as Brig on Idle Champions Presents the Trials of Mount Tiamat, airing Mondays at 4PM Pacific on the CNEGames Twitch. You can also catch him on Bardic Inspiration Tuesdays at 1PM Pacific also on the CNEGames Twitch.

This event also brings back the prolific vampire hunter, Ezmerelda d'Avenir, and the the Half-Elf Warlock/Sorcerer trickster, Avren. Players have until Monday, November 1st at 12PM Pacific to complete your Liar's Night 5 unlocks and objectives.

New Champion: Brig Hellclaw

Harbinger of mayhem and music, Brig Hellclaw causes mischief anywhere he goes. As a member of The Sirens of the Realms, he's always on the lookout for the next place to perform. He prefers singing over combat, but when fighting is inevitable, he's all in! Together with his Almiraj pet Spikey, when Brig's on the loose you never know what to expect! His trusty wand of wonder could bring a curse or a boon, but it's all in another day's work for Brig!

A Rogue, a Bard, and a Support Champion, Brig is best right in the thick of it, surrounded by allies fighting enemies. When you want to add him to your formation, you can swap him with Nayeli (Slot 3)

II. Brig’s Stats

Race: Human	Alignment: Chaotic Good
Class: Rogue/Bard	Gender: Male
Age: 38	Affiliation: n/a

STR: 14	DEX: 16	CON: 12
INT: 12	WIS: 13	CHA: 16

Role: Suppport
Eligible for Patrons: Mirt & Zariel
Slot: 3 (Nayeli)

III. Brig's Design

It's been amazing to work with Jason Charles Miller on Bardic Inspiration, who has more than two decades of professional experience in music and voice acting. He has received two Gold Record Awards, one for his Godhead song “Penetrate” featured in Queen of the Damned, and another for “The End Has Come” featured in The Punisher movie. You can hear his brilliant composing skills and dulcet tones on Bardic Inspiration Vol 1, available for free to listen to in the in-game jukebox as well as purchase and download on Steam and Epic! And now to add his character as a Champion in our game has been especially wonderful!

Brig is the perfect addition to any bardic performance, buffing everyone in the formation with his Hype and playing a Rallying Chord to keep the energy high. While he's an amazing back up singer, when he has a chance to Solo you know he'll bring the house down!

For more information on Brig and his abilities, check out his Champion Spotlight!

Year Five Variants

• Variant 1: Dueling Bards — Brig starts in the formation. He can be moved, but not removed. In each area, a duergar bard appears. The bard can only be damaged by other bards. Bard Champions deal 100% additional damage.
  Getting to know Brig Hellclaw: Brig wants to maximize his hype stacks. Keep him surrounded by other Champions that are dealing more damage to maximize his hype stacks from his Inspired Bard ability.
  Complete Area 75.


• Variant 2: Discordant Melodies — A goblin bard joins the formation attempting to try out for the Champions, but they practiced the wrong song! Whenever they play their instrument, each Champion adjacent to them has a 50% chance to be stunned for 2 seconds. Enemies deal 200% additional damage. Gold Find and Champion Damage are reduced by 99%.
  Getting to know Brig Hellclaw: If Brig is one of your higher damage dealers, choose his Cream of the Crop Specialization. If not, choose 'Back'-Up Singer and place him in the rear of your formation to maximize his hype stacks!
  Complete Area 125.


• Variant 3: Musical Accompaniment — An elf bard appears in each area with the Masked Man. Until the elf bard is destroyed, the Masked Man is invulnerable. Every time the elf bard attacks, the damage of the Masked Man is increased by 100%.
  Getting to know Brig Hellclaw:Brig's Critical Moment ability helps turn up the volume when you're at your wall, or in a boss area. Make sure he's ready to play when the Masked Man arrives!
  Complete Area 175.





IV. New DLC

Also launching with Liars' Night 5 is the Ascendant Brig Theme Pack! This pack includes the new Ascendant Brig Hellclaw Skin, the Spiky the Almiraj familiar, Big's Epic Road Gig Feat, which increases Hype by 80%, 1 Epic Potion of the Gold Hunter, and 16 Gold Brig Chests with 2 Guaranteed Shiny Equipment Cards.

For information on previous years' variants, check out the Liar's Night 4 blog. And if you have feedback, let us know in a Community Q&A or Champion feedback post on the Idle Champions Subreddit, on the Steam forums, or on the Official Idle Champions Discord!

Tiamat has escaped from Avernus.

The Cult of the Dragon has succeeded in their efforts to bring the Queen of Evil Dragonkind to the prime material plane, and has consolidated their power to fortify their stronghold at the Well of Dragons.

Champions from across the Forgotten Realms heed the call to band together and face this cataclysmic threat. It is here that the adventure for Idle Champions Presents: The Trial of Mount Tiamat begins...

Idle Champions Presents: The Trials of Mount Tiamat

We are excited to announce the return of Idle Champions Presents, a TRPG live play special event series starting Monday, October 18th. Each episode of Idle Champions Presents will broadcast live from 4PM until 7PM Pacific Time Mondays on the CNEGames Twitch.



Join Dungeon Master B Dave Walters (Black Dice Society, A Darkened Wish, Into the Mother Lands) as he takes two brave parties of Champions through an epic level campaign across seven episodes, leading them into a direct confrontation against an evil goddess with the fate of the Forgotten Realms hanging in the balance.

Party One features Erin M Evans (Brimstone Angels, Dungeon Scrawlers), Mark Meer (Mass Effect, Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition) , Tanya DePass (Rivals of Waterdeep, Into the Mother Lands), and Todd Kenreck (Heroes of the Planes, Beyond Heroes), and Jason Charles Miller (The Gaxx Pack, Sirens of the Realms, Bardic Inspiration).

Check out the synposis and catch up on epsiodes from the first arc of Idle Champions Presents: The Trials of Mount Tiamat here with Episode 1: The Lake of Shadow, Episode 2: Fungus Grove, and Episode 3: Episode 3: The Mountain’s Fury!

Party Two features Hope LaVelle (Heroes of the Planes, Beyond Heroes), Shareef Jackson (Rivals of Waterdeep) , LaTia Jacquise (Rivals of Waterdeep, Into the Mother Lands), and Meagan Kenreck (Heroes of the Planes, Beyond Heroes), and Jim Zub (Heroes of Baldur’s Gate).

The second arc of our adventure begins on November 8th at 4PM Pacific at Twitch.tv/CNEGames with Episode 4: Forest of Dragons!

Vote for the Show You Want to See

Just like with our first Idle Champions Presents, Idle Champions players will be able to influence the characters and events of upcoming Idle Champions Presents episodes through in-game daily votes. Starting on Tuesday, October 12 with the in-game daily reset (12PM PT), each vote will go live for 24 hours, with the final vote for the week ending on Monday at 12PM PT.

Daily votes will have both an In-Game Effect and a Livestream Effect. For example, if players vote for one of two Champions to be granted a boon for the next episode of Idle Champions Presents, that Champion would be granted a corresponding boon in Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms! We don't want to spoil everything that players will be able to vote for, but here's an idea of what a few of the daily votes might look like:

• Dice Roll! — Which Champion gains an guaranteed 'critical' roll?
• Players will get to roll an Idle Champions D6 to collect a number of Electrum Chests and if they roll a 6, they can collect this paragon of honor and justice as a free familiar!
• 

• Lucky Choice — Which Champion should gains a luck die?

• Surprise Find — Which Champion should find some additional gear?

• Wild Card! — Do the Champions meet goblins or kobolds? Who explores the darkness? What fun affliction affects the chosen Champion?

But wait, there's more: there are Weekly Challenges each week that will vary between easy, medium, and difficult challenges to earn additional votes for daily votes. You can save these votes up for as long as you wish, using them all on the final vote in Week 7 if you wish. The choice is up to you!

The first vote begins on Tuesday, October 12 at 12PM PT in-game. You'll want to check in every day if you want the most chances to influence Idle Champions Presents!

Party 1 Champion Rebalance

In order to account for the way the current meta would impact voting, we’ve made some adjustments to certain Champions.

Selise Astorio will receive the following changes:

• Increase to the duration of her Wall Stance damage reduction buff to 10 seconds
• Increase the base effect value of Vow of Vengeance from 100% to 200%
• Update to happen in version 406+ : Last Resort stance also increases the effect of Vow of Vengeance by 200%

Havilar will receive the following changes:

• We've added a new ability - Sister Sister (Havilar)
• Increase the effect of Leadership Summit by 200% when Farideh is in the formation.

Farideh will follow her sister with a matching ability:

• We've added a new ability - Sister Sister (Farideh)
• Increase the effect of Pact Family by 500% when Havilar is in the formation.

November 2nd Update: Party 2 Champion Rebalance

Penelope Half Pint will receive the following changes:

• Minor Eruption's AOE applies the Have You Met My Friends debuff to all affected enemies
• Max Story Time stacks increased to 40, up from 25
• Increase base effect of Have You Met My Friends from 300% to 500%
• Increase Tools For the Job Charm gold bonus to 15% of total buff, up from 10%

Shaka will receive the following changes:

• Increase base effect of A Celestial Puzzle from 100% to 150%

What do I need to know?

Idle Champions Presents: The Trials of Mount Tiamat begins on Monday, October 18th with the first episode broadcasting from 4PM until 7PM Pacific Time on Twitch.tv/CNEGames. Daily votes for the first episode will begin the week before, starting on Tuesday, October 12th at 12PM Pacific.

While Season 2 is a completely separate story arc than the first season, if you want to relive the Idle Champions Presents magic, you can watch Idle Champions Presents: The Unfair Seas and Idle Champions Presents: A Fool’s Errand on YouTube.

We can't wait to see how this all comes together! We hope you'll join us in discussion about Idle Champions Presents on Twitter using the #ICPAscendant hashtag and tagging @IdleChampions.