#Since Will has a stronger connection to Vecna then most and can use that to his advantage ??? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

loquaciousquark · 7 years ago

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Critical Role Wrap-Up Tell-All, Summary Post

Missed the first few minutes, but here we go! New campaign starts Jan. 11! No episode next week for Christmas.

First round of questions: Episodes 1-23: The Underdark.

They trusted Clarota more than Kima because the girls were super proud of finding him and they liked the underdog story of befriending the cast-out. Travis brings up writing “I don’t trust Clarota” five weeks running.

Matt designed the entire duergar city around the stronghold (including social encounters) that they missed. They also saw a shimmering portal to the Far Realm that they could have used but bypassed.

Matt had multiple layers for the actual pyramid he’d envisioned as a dungeon crawl, which the players completely bypassed by flying up & dropping a giant on top of it.

Re: Vax’s insight check on Keyleth: the DM said that Keyleth seemed unsure, scared, and cut off from the surface. Liam found that was the first time in the entire campaign he didn’t feel Vax questioning Keyleth’s decisions. This may have been the beginning of the crush. (Sidebar: Marisha is wearing a slate blue dress, gold heels, and stockings, and looks stunning.)

The Earth Ashari visions occurred right after Keyleth killed the kid in terms of plot. She was having a hard time with magic & spells out of fear, and Marisha used it as a catalyst to have her come to terms with the costs of inaction. “You figure it out or you die.”

None of the players felt there was much of a change in their characterizations in transferring from the home games to the show. This is also the point they switched to Vox Machina instead of the SHITS. Taliesin feels they would have done this in universe even without the show; Laura felt it was driven by the knowledge they would be streaming shortly.

Matt: “It would have had to have been a lot of work and roleplaying” to get Clarota to turn on the Elder Brain, but it was not impossible. Laura: “He’s Hugh! From Star Trek. :(”

Percy flashed his name so much in the beginning in an effort to put out feelers for information. Matt points out that what happened to the de Rolos was kept very quiet outside of Whitestone--the Briarwoods circulated a rumor that the de Rolos had gotten ill and died and their close friends had taken over. Percy would have been assumed to be a distant relative if recognized at all. “Who knows the name of the royal family of Nova Scotia?”

Ashley wanted Pike to be stronger after she died so that she could offer more to the fights than just healing. She felt that spending time on The Broken Howl would have improved her strength. (Brian tells us that Ashley lived on a boat for a while as a kid and knows her way around ships, which surprises some of the cast too.)

Percy had to make his bullets (as opposed to Vex having to buy arrows) because bullets don’t exist in this world. Vex also bought a thousand arrows right before the show started and put them in the bag of holding, and Matt was glad not to have to track it.

Liam thinks the real feelings for Keyleth may have started with the whisper, but does remember intending to keep it very very quiet up until Vax almost died in the Briarwoods arc.

Grog has no idea where/who his mother is. In the herd, you love who you love, have a kid, and teach the kid to fight, and he did not care about her existence until he met Pike and learned what a nurturing relationship could be like.

Matt forgot Grog’s last name was Strongjaw because they didn’t use last names much in the home game. That his dad’s name was Stonejaw was a complete coincidence that wasn’t put together until much later.

One of the members of the Arcana Pansophical was the one who put out the contract on the rakshasa. The idea was that they were working on a portal that connected to the Nine Hells and needed parts for the ritual (either not understanding or caring about the cycle of revenge).

Matt already had the Kima/Allura relationship in his mind from the second session ever in the home game. He had envisioned a past possible fling, but the Underdark arc allowed them to rekindle their relationship. He had no idea that they would become so beloved in the fandom.

Marisha had no idea that Keyleth’s antlers would become so iconic. In the home game, she had an undescribed circlet that was the last relic from her mother, and Kit Buss was the one who drew it as antlers. Kit also created Vex’s feathers, and everyone wove them backwards in time to create them. Kit also created Percy’s four-lens glasses.

Matt designed the Thunderbrands to be allies in the journey in the Underdark, including sending a Thunderbrand family mage along with them--there was a lost family member they were supposed to find. (Instead, VM attacked their wards with magic and Scanlan snuck inside while invisible for no reason, so that plot thread died.) They did find the necklace that belonged to this person.

When Ioun was wounded during the Calamity, her followers had to go into hiding (including Osysa, who is apparently quite old). Matt envisions them as equivalents to modern-day truth societies that emerge, disseminate truth, and go into hiding again. The Slayer’s Take is a cover for this society.

Matt declines to divulge the location of the other Horn of Orcus, as it still exists in the world. :O

CR Stats Break! 10,819 total rolls throughout the campaign, 548 total natural 20s, 497 natural 1s. Most natural 20s: Vax with 107, Percy with 104. Most natural 1s: Vex with 76, Vax with 61. Travis gets great delight out of Laura’s dice’s betrayal.

Episodes 24-48: The Briarwood Arc.

Seeker Asum’s dinner plan (before Vax ruined it) was to find proof that the Briarwoods didn’t actually have the political power to build the bridge over the Searing Channel to Wildemount.

Travis, re: the shaving of half of Grog’s beard--”That was a pretty hot moment.” That kicked off months of Grog trying to get Vax back. “A new world order had started.” However, Vax was too slippery and often frustrated Grog. Liam didn’t realize how furious Travis was until much later. “It was magical, I figured it would just come back! I thought it was tit for tat. I was wrong.”

The woman Percy saw with his natural 20 was just a hunter citizen with her wolves, which was intended as an opportunity to either gain information about the state of the city or (if it had gone poorly), a chance for her to report back to the Briarwoods and given them an advantage over VM.

Liam genuinely thought Vax was going to die during the Briarwood attack. He intended it as a monologue to exit the game. (”The stuff with Kiki had started, but Vax’s world was still 98% his sister.”)

Sam knew Percy’s gun had to be destroyed because he “did crazy shit with it and--weren’t you marking stuff off it all the time? That’s weird!” Everyone enjoys the memory of Percy/Taliesin’s real shock and upset. Sam genuinely hadn’t thought he would be upset at all and was surprised at how mad he was. Taliesin is still upset he never managed to build another one because of how priceless it was. “It was priceless! It was--Two magical elements welded into--oh, Lord!” Matt says the only other way to break the curse would have been to go kill Orthax in the Abyss. Taliesin points out that means Orthax is still out there. Matt: “As far as you know.”

Matt wants the new story to be wholly unique and new. There will be VM choices that will affect the world, but it won’t be a direct continuation.

Taliesin only told Matt that the Briarwoods murdered his family & deliberately kept it as limited as possible. He didn’t know anything about them. (Matt points out it’s good to only write as much as your character knows when creating a backstory.)

Matt: Delilah was a lesser mage working at an academy in the Dwendalian Empire (they were minor nobles), and her husband had gotten sick. She went to find a cure & found one, but by the time she got back, her husband was dead. She was so distraught she began “screaming into the astral sea and one day, a whisper answered back, ‘I can help you,’” which was Vecna. These whispers continued, leading her to one of Vecna’s old laboratories (guarded by an undead creature so old he’d forgotten his own name), where she found the secrets of vampirism in exchange for now owing Vecna her life. However, because of her toying with illegal necromancy, they were pursued, discovered, hunted, arrested, escaped, and hunted again for execution, which is why they fled the empire to the Menagerie Coast, which is where they ran into Ripley who was fleeing her own hunters. They began working together there and had heard about Whitestone, so this is where they began getting them to take their guard down (since Whitestone had gone to such lengths to cut themselves off politically). Taliesin notes that he’d not intended to give them supernatural powers, but during their creation he had thought of a ghost story in New Orleans where survivors of a horrible fire got into a coach and left, even though they shouldn’t have been alive, so he enjoyed the similarities in the tone of their love story.

Vex had feelings for Percy already at this point. “Darling, take the mask off.” She also thinks the darkness attracted her to him more.

Percy didn’t know the voice in his head was real. The smoke in the show was the first time it had ever happened. Liam notes they’d never had any hints of demonic power in the home game. Matt says the demon would never have manifested until Percy confronted someone directly from his revenge list.

Trusting the DM with your stories and mysteries is half the fun, according to Laura. Matt feels it gives him the opportunity to collaborate with the players.

Sam: “The first session [of the new campaign] is just going to be asking Travis why he’s talking like that.”

Keyleth was close to leaving the party at the beginning of this arc. She had issues with some of VM’s moral decisions and felt she had to continue her Aramente.

If Ripley had been left in her cell & was unable to escape, and they had figured out who she was, she would have done everything in her power to convince them she was as used and abused as everyone else (such as Cassandra) until the first opportunity to escape.

The dead de Rolos were left in public in Whitestone after the coup (they were the first to hang from the Sun Tree) in almost the exact same arrangement Matt used for the VM effigies later. VM did not ever fight their skeletons. Percy: “It’s just one more ghost story for that bloody castle. It’s highly appropriate for Whitestone.”

Ashley likes to think Pike’s ability to astral project is because she’s special to Sarenrae, but feels it’s just a reality of her city/film situation.

Matt says Delilah’s ritual actually succeeded, that she just didn’t know what she was looking for. She created the siphon, which was the whole purpose of the ritual. VM might have discovered that it had been successful if they’d spent more time with it. Delilah realized later (after reincarnating into her clone body) that she had fully done her part and Vecna was pleased.

Re: Craven Edge: Travis had no idea what a sentient weapon was and was just entranced with the description of the fancy sword. He was excited when Percy got nervous reading the card and was completely surprised when Matt began talking. “Grog was just enjoying this new friend that helped him shish-kabob people really well.”

Matt intended the acid trap to be broken by strength towards the wall, blocking the acid chutes, or by using another button on the wall Vax didn’t find. No one remembers how they actually got out.

If Scanlan had learned of Kaylie first before she found him, he would have probably run away from the information.

For Taliesin, the final barrel on the List was meant for “Percy’s acknowledgement that the List was not the end,” that this was an unending cycle he was starting. The empty barrel was meant to be the start of a brand new List, that he had started a revenge run that would never end. Percy was glad to kill thousands of people indirectly to kill these five directly--he knew what he was doing the whole time in the creation of these deadly weapons, which is part of why he says so often that Percy is a terrible person. (He clarifies it was never intended for himself.)

Vex got Simon back by flirting with the guards. “There was a lot of winking involved.”

Matt had always intended Cassandra to be the final name on the gun. Matt didn’t know Taliesin had intended the same thing in re: revenge not ending and reveals that if he’d killed those six, another six would have appeared. Tal and Matt are both delighted by this reveal of their minds working in the same direction. (Sam: “I knew that. I knew aaaaaaall that.”)

Marisha hadn’t intended Keyleth’s leadership to begin to emerge here (the roc, the skeleton army), and thinks Keyleth didn’t fully believe it herself until she got the mantle. She does remember the kraken fight as one of the first moments she forced herself to step up and take responsibility. Liam notes her decision to take as many as she could at the end of that fight as a good leadership moment.

Marisha asks Matt what would have happened if she hadn’t rolled a natural 20 on the ziggurat. Matt says the DC was an 18 to resist the impact--if she hadn’t, she’d have gone through, taken a ton of damage, and been thrust into the Shadowfell on the outskirts of Thar Amphala. It would have changed the story if Keyleth had survived the damage to return safely & reveal Vecna’s plot early. However, no one would have even known she’d been gone. Matt realizes belatedly that it would have been horrible to have such an emotional success on this arc only to have a beloved character suddenly disappear without warning (if she’d failed the DC and died in Thar Amphala). When they’d finally gotten to Thar Amphala at the end, there would have been an undead Keyleth to fight.

CR Stats Break! 50,074 damage dealt in total. Most damage taken: 5646, Grog. Most damage dealt: 10,038, Grog.

Episodes 39-83: The Chroma Conclave!

Matt had decided who would die in Emon before the attack. He wanted a central figure (and a powerful ally) to die to emphasize the danger. The most brave, resolute members of the Council were the most likely to throw their lives away.

Liam doesn’t know if Vax would have left VM if the Conclave hadn’t attacked. He would have been conflicted, tap-dancing around why he was there. The prank war with Grog had escalated into head-butting; Vex would have left with Vax if he’d firmly made the decision, even if she didn’t like it.

The attack was just a coincidence with being the same day VM messed with the orbs. It was all long-planned by Raishan. However, the orbs allowed Thordak & Raishan to recognize VM as meddlers & to get information on them earlier than otherwise.

Matt had planned the Conclave attack since Krieg’s original introduction. Coincidentally, if they were still playing at the home game pace of once every six weeks, that would have been this weekend.

Percy was calm in the Grog fight because he knew what was in all the bottles/kilns and because he knew he could give Grog disadvantage on every attack. He would have set him on fire/acid and blinded him as quickly as possible. Liam thinks Grog would have still turned Freddy into paste.

Gilmore was one choice from dying when they found him. If they’d gone for the treasure, he would have been dead by the time they found him. It was meant to be a crux choice in learning what it meant in moments of crisis to choose against your own greed. Liam points out that the last times they had dealt with death at this point were the home game and Vex’s death. They had no idea what the rituals were or really what they entailed; they had no idea what permanence it would have. Every death was rough, but in the beginning it was very unsettling.

Vex found a bunch of love letters from Gilmore and his first boyfriend under Gilmore’s bed. It was good confirmation they were in Gilmore’s actual room. Matt says it was another Marquesian (Markeesian?) boy that he would have had to name on the spot if pressed.

Vesh was “a dangerous entity for the levels you were dealing with at the time.” Vex’s resurrection ritual piqued her interest and would have resulted in her turning her eyes to VM if the Raven Queen had not intervened. Matt: “So much turned on that choice!” Also Matt: “Vesh isn’t necessarily a god, though she likes to say she is and Kashaw believes she is.”

The boon of the Dawn Martyr was a huge part of Pike feeling important in battle/getting the courage to be in the middle, knowing it would be okay if she got knocked out a few times. Grog, tearfully: “It’s not okay!”

Sam asks who the guy she was in love with for the second time. Ashley ignores him. “Oh, I heard him, I’m just not acknowledging it!” Everyone, including me, dies a little inside.

Matt envisions Kevdak getting the Knuckles by chance, by beating the previous owner to a bloody pulp. (Kevdak was not the herd leader at the time.) He had no aspirations beyond taking what he wanted and expanding the herd. Then the Conclave attacked and distracted the guards of Westruun, and he saw this as an opportunity to carve their way into the city. He saw himself bending Umbrasyl to his will later once the herd was stronger.

Ashley interrupts the timeline to ask Matt about what was in Senokir’s box because she can’t stand it anymore. She forgot to tell Matt she wanted to go look for it during the plot break and has been kicking herself the whole time. Matt confirms it was legitimately, 100% his wife’s ashes. “Let this be a lesson to you; not every NPC is out to get you.” Ashley: “I still don’t believe you!”

Liam had planned on multiclassing into Paladin even before the Raven Queen’s tomb. He saw purpose he lacked in Pike, then began to consider it when Taliesin made an offhanded comment about him going cleric. Liam alludes to a rough time in his personal life and talks about an out-of-game meeting where he was very, very upset with how the game had turned that day in the tomb. “It was heavy on top of my heavy, and I was not happy.” He says he wouldn’t change it for anything, now.

Liam asks Matt about Fate-touched. Matt says he knew Liam was going through tough stuff and wanted to give him a little hope in the middle of personal difficulties. He had no idea when it was going to come up--he’d envisioned later in the story when they were dealing with more divinity, that one of the gods then would have commented on it. Liam gets up and briefly bows at Matt’s feet.

Laura asks if there are more cookies and is given permission to get them at the break.

Travis had no idea if he could win solo against Kevdak, but wanted to start the fight that way. He got to face him on his terms, and that was all he wanted. Matt says he could have actually won the fight, but the dice were against him.

Laura doesn’t think she deserved that change in alignment. “All I did was steal a broom! I was gonna give him a whole bunch of dragon scales but he walked away too fast!” Liam is shocked Vex’s alignment changed and Percy’s didn’t; Matt says thoughts don’t necessitate alignment change, but that shooting the kid through the hand put him very, very close. If Laura had stolen the broom for a greater purpose, he wouldn’t have changed her, but it was purely selfish. However, he feels alignment shouldn’t guide roleplay, it should be reactive to the roleplay. “It’s not a big deal.”

Sam reads the letter he wrote to Pike. [Edit: transcribed here.] My fingers wither in anticipation. I can’t keep up. He tells her his age and says he realized his soul would be forever incomplete the moment he met her. It’s a darned good letter and Sam comments on that: “Jesus, this is good.” He compares her gloriously to the sun and asks her to protect Kaylie. “Don’t you see? This whole time, I thought I was chasing a lover, but instead I was chasing a mother for my child. You are the savior for my daughter I could never be. In death, my heart will be beside you in Kaylie.” Sam legitimately tears up reading the end and I do too, a little. Wow. Travis: “Don’t you feel bad for reading that early?” Ashley: “Nope!”

Matt intended certain vestiges for certain players, but didn’t have plans for the Ward, Cabal’s Ruin, or other open-ended vestiges. He didn’t know who would take the Ward. Laura’s still bitter about the wings.

Re: Percy’s death ritual--Taliesin planned to ignore any attempts to call upon a god to help him. He was looking for reasons to come back, but thought it would be a great end to Percy’s character if it panned out that way. Elements of Taliesin’s next character started originally as Percy’s replacement.

Raishan was trying to do an ancient variant of Speak With Dead with Thordak’s corpse. She was concocting an intense version that tortures and forces information that would be true. She wanted the secret to getting rid of her disease and got Opesh’s lair location, then the rest of the information she needed once she arrived at the lair. (Matt confirms the soul curse on Raishan was real, and that she can see truth, which is how she knew Thordak genuinely knew how to cure her.)

Eggs: Thordak was mutating, becoming something new. The Soul Anchor began to change him in the Fire Plane & allowed him to asexually create progeny (”like Jurassic Park!”). They were a new elemental species. “We killed them all!” “As far as you know.” “Oh no!”

CR Stats Break! 86 total Grog rages. 3658 healing from Pike. 474 Vex arrows shot. Percy misfires: 36. DM facepalms: 264. Keyleth beast shapes: 110 (most used: 15 Earth elemental). 136 Scanlan inspirations, and every one of them gold. Vax: 21 one-shot kills. (Tal: “21 friends we never got to make.”)

Episode break, featuring guest stars! (No actual break, which means that bottle of water I drank earlier is now only suffering.) Attending tonight are Darin de Paul (Sprigg), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Zahra), Will Friedle (Kashaw), Jason Charles Miller (Garthok), and Noelle Stevenson (Tova).

On the biggest difference between the show & their home games: Mary & Will had never played before, so it was all new to them. Both preferred learning by fire. Darin feels it’s ultimately acting, “yes, and,” and loved it. Noelle points out that people are a lot more invested in her character than other players would be in a home game, and enjoys that feedback. Will agrees, since he never cared about anything like this before playing himself. Darin: “When you play at home, you don’t get fanart.” Mary loves the community & shared world-creating. Jason loves “what happens after” the game and how people can love your character more than you.

Mary was terrified on her first game. Her whole philosophy was, “Don’t kill the team. Don’t kill VM.” However, since she was so comfortable with Laura & Travis, she felt free to make mistakes. Will’s philosophy was to “smile, nod, and shift papers like I know what I’m doing.” At one point, Wil Wheaton told him to “turn undead” & he had no idea clerics could do that. However, when Will and Mary got to go back on the show, they spent time ahead teaming up and figuring out what their bond was, and that’s how their relationship started.

Darin’s first live show on set was the one where Kash kissed Keyleth & he dreamed of being part of that world. Will had no idea what he was doing would matter to people and thought it was tons of fun seeing the huge reaction to the kiss that he hadn’t expected. Zahra decided she would be pregnant right before they came onstage the last time, and Will loved the idea and told her to roll with it.

Jason has the CR theme as his ringtone. He enjoyed the uneasy tension of the truce with VM but expected foul play if the relationship had continued. He was surprised by the instant feedback of Twitch chat (Liam had it open on his phone during his game) being happy he called for an attack of opportunity.

Noelle jokes she wished she’d played a shopkeeper so she could have gotten into her episode earlier, but found it very intense once she arrived. She created Tova as something of a “burner character,” so that she would be okay if she died, but was glad she survived. She didn’t want to step on any big moments for the team and wanted to help them get to their next fight. She was glad she was there for their last scene--it felt important and was cool to see. She laughs about running the bear society from Marisha’s oneshot.

They all comment on the excruciating wait to be introduced in each episode. Will comments on the reality of being a guest star and being okay with dying for that reason, but also being terrified they might take someone from VM with them.

Will, Brian, and Mary had a death pool going for the final fight.

Sprigg’s theme of redemption was intense and unintended. Brian comments on Sprigg existing 37 years ago in the game with Matt’s mom; Darin loves that he intended him to be a Fagan character who steals everything, but ended up having a wonderful exit while arguing with Ioun. Darin loves funny, tragic characters and loves that Sprigg got to have his hero moment.

Mary mentions how surprising emotional moments could be (specifically mentioning Vex’s resurrection) and the complete investing of yourself in your character. Mary points out that she’s not a writer--this is one thing she has created herself, and she’s very proud of it. Darin: “It’s as special for all of us as it is for you.” Jason had someone yell, “We love you, Garthok!” at a concert. Will knew Matt from Thundercats and everyone else a little, and he loved the games, but he treasures the friendships he developed with the game’s players more. Darin deeply treasures the moment he had with Marisha in his game.

Brian remembers Darin taking pictures of the TM set the first time he saw it.

Will: “A good story is a good story.” Noelle: “There’s a universal nature to D&D.” The first time Mary met Noelle, Mary was wearing a d20 necklace and they bonded over both playing tiefling warlocks. Brian loves the idea of mainstream entertainment being about creation, not just observing.

Episodes 84-99: Taryon Darrington!

If Revivify had been successful, would Scanlan still have left? Yes--it was the act of dying, not really the circumstances of waking up, that put him over the edge. “There was a long buildup to him leaving.” He felt unloved & between Kaylie and the drugs, and the terrible streak of loss/dying, he felt nothing was going well. The prank on waking up felt poorly timed, but he admits he probably would have done the same to someone else if the situation had been reversed.

VM could have killed the kraken, but the lodestone sources that maintain the Water Elemental rift & keep Vesrah aloft would have lost power over the next five or so years. They’d have had to find another kraken & lure it back to preserve the city and the rift.

Pike was able to say most of what she wanted to say at Scanlan’s leaving in follow-up games, but Ashley as a player was sad that she was gone when he left and came back to “a new guy. I wanted to play with Scanlan!” Once Pike got up the courage, she was able to say what she wanted, but doesn’t feel she would have changed his mind at the time. Sam: “She absolutely could have stopped me. She was the only one.” Sam notes the rest of VM (esp. Vex) did persuade him to go with Kaylie instead of alone.

If Keyleth had failed her Aramente, she would not have been allowed to try again. She would have been allowed to join a council, and someone else would have gone to the Aramente instead. It’s not blood-determined--someone else worthy could have gone instead.

Tary’s wealth had little effect on tempering Vex’s greed. “Once she got money, then she mellowed.” Sam: “That’s how rich people work. They get money, and then they stop.”

(Funny aside where Brian forgets who Hotis is, confuses the rakshasa with the Pit Fiend, and Matt immediately pulls out the Pit Fiend’s name as Utugash.)

By the next time Hotis would have come back, the campaign would have been over (i.e. Vax would be gone), and his rage would have turned towards Ashley.

Vax’s Invisibility Ring was the only reason Tova survived.

Sam had no exact plan for Scanlan’s return, but only intended Tary to last one or two sessions before dying. However, “Tary was so dashing and charming and everyone fell in love with him instantly” that he lasted a little longer. Scanlan went back to Ank’harel for revenge, but it took some time for the two guys who wronged him to come back to town. He took their antiques counterfeiter away from them, publicly shamed them via the Meat Man, and chased them out of town. He and Matt did a whole series of rolls in which he identified the counterfeiter, chased them out, and created this small power vacuum, and when Matt asked what he wanted to do, he decided to step into the role himself.

The soulstones from Dis weren’t meant for much besides the temporary rush right before battle. (This makes me think of a really creepy 5-hour energy drink.) Vex still has one in her inventory.

Percy never wanted to kill Scanlan after the scrying eye; he wanted to sneak in, cripple him, take all his stuff, and tell him to never come back again. Percy didn’t like that he’d taken a vestige and other stuff from the house and felt he’d not deserved any of it. (Liam: “Neutral good, folks. Neutral good.”)

None of Grog’s lady friends were “the one that got away.” Liam, then Sam and Tal shortly after: “Nymph! Nymph! Nymph! Nymph!” and Travis reveals they didn’t sleep together. Grog was very meek and intimidated; Matt was mostly trying to make Travis uncomfortable in his own kitchen. Travis: “He just wanted to let you wonder for five years.” “Who, Grog or Matt?” “Yes.”

Laura reveals Vex & Percy briefly broke up during the break, then married each other quietly in front of the Sun Tree with Trinket.

Feywild theater: if you’re found listening to the theater without being a member, they converge on you to make you a member (e.g. pull out your soul and force you into it). However, there are members that have sought it out by choice.

Vex & Percy were out on a loch, talking about marriage and not wanting to be Vax & Keyleth, and decided to just go for it. The priest from one of the temples performed the ceremony. Tary knew first because he was in the same house. Liam: “Probably one of the biggest heartbreaks of the entire campaign. If there had been any other circumstances, [Vax] would not have known what to do with himself.”

Scanlan never heard Pike talking into the earring. :( However, he did do a fair amount of praying to Sarenrae “on his Aramente.”

No one found Scanlan during the break. Ashley and Grog were the only ones who seriously searched for him (everyone else decided to give him his space), but they didn’t look far enough, only staying in Emon & the surrounding area.

Scanlan never shot the gun except for that one time at the end.

Laura doesn’t even remember telling Vax not to get married without her. Va wouldn’t have been bitter or angry, just would have asked “why.” Liam says it would have been different if Vex had not specifically said not to get married without her. Laura’s genuine agony gets even worse for not remembering it. “I’m a terrible person!”

Marisha points out it’s another facet of Keyleth’s struggle to not waste time on inaction. “If you love someone, go marry them RIGHT NOW.”

Keyleth feels the Spire best serves the world by being in her hands right now, but has considered donating it to Melora’s followers after death.

Ashley would have enjoyed playing an evil Pike if the Trickfoot curse had been real. “That would have been fun!”

Matt: if Tary had not rolled well on his final roll, it would have been the end of the Darrington family unit: “an unfixable divide between him and his father. His mother would have had to choose; it would have sundered the whole family.” Matt had actually forgotten about the fate die. “You can’t call it a fate die more than that fucking moment!”

Laura sidelines to ask about Vax’s favor to the hag. Matt had had plans for it, but by the time it came time for him to try to use it, Vax already belonged to the Raven Queen and she wouldn’t try to interfere with that. “It’s a lost investment.”

Grog was not angry at Scanlan at all until he came back, disguised, with a new barbarian at his side. “An idiot, a barbarian, a half-ass imitation of Grog. I was ready to pick Scanlan up and smash his brain into jelly.”

CR Stats Break! Most-cast spell per character. Keyleth: 43, Transport Via Plants. Scanlan: 47, Healing Word. Percy: 27, Hex. Vex: 80, Hunter’s Mark. Vax: 25, Lay on Hands. Pike: 40, Guiding Bolt Up the Butt? No, Cure Wounds. (Aw.) Grog: 18, Enlarge.

Episodes 100-115: Vecna!

They could have acquired boons from each deity they tried to talk to, but others they didn’t have a strong connection to would have required research, searching, and time Vecna would have used against them. If they’d gone for a fourth deity, Vasselheim would have been destroyed and Vecna would have begun to understand his powers after achieving his miracle. If they’d gone for a fourth trammel, his power would have spread beyond the oceans. Matt thinks they struck the perfect balance.

Scanlan stayed so long in Ank’harel because he had to wait for the two guys to return, and while he waited he got a taste for “crime power!” and decided to stay. “Tastes like pleather.”

A lot of Pike’s feelings started with the letter, but she and Scanlan did flirt slightly in the home game. She didn’t take it seriously because she didn’t think he was serious until the letter. “That letter is very intense.” When he left, she realized how much she cared for him and missed him, and when he came back she thought he was more mature and maybe the time had passed. It was a slow climb after the letter.

Matt declines to say where Vecna keeps his phylactery. “That’s not campaign information, that’s world LORE information!”

Vex took the name “de Rolo” after her marriage.

When the Knuckles were resonating, it was because they were close to the surface from which they were carved (the earth titan), and because they had a structural extra bonus to sieging the titan from the inside. They could have slowed down the titan by attacking its legs, but that would have alerted Thar Amphala and they’d have had an uphill fight the rest of the way. They had lots of options to stop the titan.

Percy was not troubled by Silas’s escape. He’d transferred that angst to other people and felt at that point they could handle him if he attacked again. “It was never about Silas.”

The Death Knight was the nameless servant that had been keeping Vecna’s laboratory for countless centuries, rewarded for his service.

If he could have, Vax would have said goodbye to (at least) his father, Korrin, Gilmore, and Velora.

Marisha feels Keyleth was at last ready to lead her people by the end of the campaign. She had made her peace and was ready to be done. Brian: “Heavy is the head that wears the antlers.”

Matt guessed what Sam wanted to do with his level 9 Wish spell in the final battle. Sam had asked him about its limitations ahead of the game, and he tried to answer in general terms in case he was wrong. He didn’t realize the exact implications until the moment Sam used it as Counterspell. It’s one of Matt’s favorite moments of the game. Sam: “Great. Awful.”

Scanlan can’t reconcile his immense power with being unable to save his friend. He feels he ultimately failed, but suspects that in his older age he will realize it’s okay to fail & you don’t have to succeed at everything to make a difference in people’s lives. He’ll try to be a hero for his wife & his kid, and he still might use Wish every once in a while to see if he can get a message to or from old Vax. Liam: “Vax would never have seen that as a failure.”

Matt: “I imagine there are a lot of stories told about Vax’ildan and what he did.” Sam: “It’s okay not to be the best at everything. It’s okay to do what you do.”

The opposite side of Entropis had ancient holy relics that had been destroyed (the site of the seed that ascended Vecna).

Percy wanted to save Vax by selling his soul, get the punishment he deserved, and use the contract to get something out of his certainty he was going somewhere awful anyway. Then the moment of uncertainty crept in and he wondered why he kept making all these awful deals. Matt says that was one of his favorite Percy moments of the whole show & that he loved how he could see him break.

Matt says both Percy and Scanlan could have gotten the Wish off in a way that could have possibly circumvented the RQ’s will, but Liam had no idea how that would have played out, because in his mind the only way he could live was if the RQ gave him her blessing.

Re: reading--Grog just wanted to get smarter.

Syldor was grieved at Vax’s death & regrets the treatment of his children--he’s been spending a lot of his life trying to reconcile the choices he made in how he raised them with the pride at what his children have accomplished. “He’s learned a lot of lessons” and is doing the best he can do improve acceptance of outsiders in Syngorn society.

Vex feels she made peace with Syldor after having five kids with Percy and beginning to understand what having children means--it became important in a different way to reach out to Syldor.

Matt feels Vax is able to reconnect with his mother occasionally, but also prevents loneliness for the small mortal sliver left in the RQ & doing her will. He declines to explain the ethereal further.

The titan could only really be damaged from the inside.

Keyleth tries Speaks with Animals on the large raven that visits after a long, long time, without expecting the results she hopes for. “Almost better to keep the illusion that it’s Vax, rather than have the confirmation that he was never there at all.”

The Bag of Holding contained at the end: “silverware, candles, caltrops, handcuffs, stones, dried poo, some armor, the big black sapphire, bottles of wine. It was like a busted-up Home Depot.”

Liam declines to answer how Vax felt after his death, but in the moment itself he felt very heavy and very full. He knew his sister was taken care of.

FINALLY. Pike’s other love interest was....drumroll... “For a very long time, it was Percy.” She felt that through her faith and the light she had from Sarenrae that he was a marked man, and she did so much thinking and praying for his soul that everything became very confusing for her. She feels now, though, that it never would have worked out between them, and that somehow in the end, “...it was always Scanlan.” Tal: “He was oblivious, man.” Sam: “Even Tary was in love with that guy! He’s the worst!”

Favorite moments. Travis: "Dropping on Kevdak.” Liam: “Saying goodbye.” Marisha: “Cherry blossoms, and the tree.” Sam: “Cows.” Laura: “Talking to Trinket for the first time.” Sam: “Trying to kill Trinket for the first time.” Liam: “Gilmore stabbing me.” Marisha: “The hanging tree.” Taliesin: "Letting go when Ripley shot me. Realizing that Percy was in love with Vex. I’d never had a PC turn on me like that before that moment.”

Sam realized at the end that while he’d always imagined Scanlan spending his days telling their stories grandly, his favorite moments in the end were just healing his friends, impressing his friends and making them laugh. Marisha thinks about the cannonball contest, and Liam loved that Sam played the whole last fight against the gods with one hand held behind his back. Matt thanks Sam for playing bards to their full power. Ashley thinks about her first game, and how personal it was. How it changed her life.

Matt finds it strange that he’s a 35-year-old man who has spent his whole life trying to make something, and who genuinely believes the greatest thing he has ever accomplished is this story he’s told with his friends.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #matt mercer #talks machina #kind of #very very very VERY long post #cr spoilers #vox machina #epilogue of sorts

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agnesgoesadventuring-blog · 7 years ago

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Faith (Vaxleth canon divergent/AU fix it fic)

Last week on Talks Machina there was a question about whether Vax was starting to rethink which woman he’d placed his faith in (Keyleth and the Raven Queen) when he died after the trammel that was made from what the RQ gave him broke and Keyleth was the one to seal Vecna away. I don’t necessarily think that’s a fair or even accurate question, but it did make me think about how things would be different if he hadn’t accepted the Raven Queen’s offer, if he had waited for Keyleth to bring him back.

And then this idea got into my head and it just wouldn’t go away. I’m still writing Restoration, but this was taking up so much space in my head that I couldn’t write anything else until I got this written down. It’s not the best written thing and it’s probably pretty messy, but like I said, I needed to get it out so I could continue writing what I was already working on. Maybe once I finish Restoration I’ll come back to this and polish it up.

Vax'ildan considers the deal his queen has offered him, to return to his family with gifts to help him defeat Vecna, and to then come back to her once the task is finished. It's a difficult decision to make, having received an offer that would guarantee at least a bit more time with his family. Even knowing he would have to leave them soon, having that guarantee is very attractive.

He wants so badly to be back with his family, to defeat Vecna, and a part of him desperately wants to say yes, to grasp on to whatever chance he has to return to Keyleth, to his sister, to the rest of Vox Machina. There's something in him that screaming at him to take the deal, to accept whatever he can get.

But he can't get over the fact that once Vecna is finished he'll have to leave again, this time forever. He can't bear the thought of leaving his sister like that, and he'd made a promise to Keyleth that he'd return to Zephra with her. It was a promise he intended to keep.

And he knows the spells that Keyleth has learned over the past year. He knows what she is capable of, that she has the ability to bring him back even if his body was turned to dust. She's the most powerful person he knows, and he's sure that she can do this, that she will do it. He has more faith in her than anyone.

"I'm sorry, my queen. I can't," he says, his voice quiet and shaking, a tremor of fear running through him at the thought of what her reaction him be.

She stands before him in silence for several long moments. Vax dips his head down, looking at the floor, unable to look into her face. Her presence looms around him, the darkness of her form almost surrounding him, her eyes, hidden behind the pale mask of her face, studying him.

"You're turning down my offer?" she asks, her voice stoic and calm as always.

"Yes."

"Do you understand what you're doing? What you're refusing?" Her tone is becoming a bit more heated now, her voice growing tense even as it remains quiet.

"I do," he replies. "I just... I can't accept anything that would take me away from my family so soon. Not when I know there's another way to return to them."

"Another way? You think that someone can give you a better offer than the one I have given you?"

"I know what Keyleth can do. I know how powerful she is. I know that she has a spell to bring me back. I know she can do it. I have faith in her." His words are stronger now as he speaks with conviction. One thing he's never doubted is Keyleth's strength and power, and even now, standing in front of a god, being offered another brief chance at life, Vax feels how true his words are, how much he believes them.

The Raven Queen goes silent again as she stares at him, but now Vax watches her back, no longer scared after reminding himself of how strong Keyleth is and what she can do.

"Very well," his queen eventually says. "But understand, if your faith is misplaced, if your Keyleth is unable or unwilling to complete this task, there will be no second chance. You will remain here with me. Forever."

"I understand," he responds. "But I have faith in her. I know she can do this. I know she will do this."

"Then I suppose that, for now, the only thing you can do is wait," she says, and then she fades away, leaving him alone in the dark, waiting for Keyleth to do what he knows she can.

His eyes drift open slowly, vision blurred. The light is low, shadows floating above him as his eyes adjust. As his vision clears, he takes in the trees that are surrounding him. He recognizes these trees. He's in the forest outside of Whitestone.

The crunching sound of leaves draws his attention, and he turns his head toward the sound. Out of the trees and shadows come Galdric, walking toward him.

"Hey, old friend," Vax says, reaching out. The animal bumps his head into the offered hand, an acknowledgement of their connection. "You wouldn't happen to know how long I was gone, would you?"

Galdric just stares at him, moving back to sit down. Vax pushes himself up off the ground, groaning at his stiff muscles. "Yeah, didn't think so." His eyes sweep over the dog, noting how much stronger and healthier he looks than when they had originally sent him out on his task. "You do a good job protecting Whitestone, don't you?"

The dog responds by nudging at Vax's arm with his snout. "Thank you," Vax says as he scratches Galdric behind the ears. "Thank you so much." He sits there for a few more moments, before standing. "I have to go now."

At his words, Galdric stalks off back into the forest. Vax takes a deep breath, relishing the air in his lungs and his heart beating in his chest. Looking down, he sees that he's completely naked. "Well, this happens more often than I'd really like it to." And he sets off to find his way out of the woods, toward Whitestone.

He's not sure how long it takes him to reach the edge of the forest, but when he does he can make out several figures, far away. As he comes closer he sees his friend sitting in a spot a bit away from the castle. Vex'ahlia is leaning into Percy, her hands clenched together tightly, and Keyleth is pacing, back and forth, over and over, biting her thumbnail as she does.

She's the first one to spot him, and he can hear the joyful sob that escapes her as she runs toward him, throwing her arms around his neck when she reaches him, holding on tight. "It worked," she whispers. "It worked."

Vax responds by tightening his arms around her, holding her close and sliding his hand up to tangle in her hair. After a moment he pulls back to look into Keyleth's eyes. They're tired and swollen, filled with tears. But there's joy there, and the tears that streak down her cheeks are happy tears.

"You're amazing," he says to her, his voice low and intimate. "I knew you could do it. I never stopped believing in you."

She smiles at him as more tears escape her eyes. "I can't believe it worked," she whispers again. Vax doesn't know how to respond. He can only pull her into a kiss, putting all of the love and gratitude he feels into it.

They separate as Vex bounds toward them, her arms encircling him. "Thank the gods," she says quietly.

"Not the gods," Vax responds. "This was all Kiki."

"I know," she says, pulling back and turning toward the druid. "Keyleth, you're incredible." She wraps the other woman up in a hug. "Thank you so much."

Keyleth returns the hug, her eyes meeting Vax's over his sister's shoulder. She smiles, a warm, loving, happy smile that makes his heart flutter. He loves her so much, and he knew he was right to place his faith in her. He will never stop believing in her and what she can do.

Keyleth steps back, away from the crowd, her speech to the residents of Vasselheim finished. Vax takes her face in his hands and gives her a light kiss. "I am so proud of you."

"It was just a speech," she said, rolling her eyes in her embarrassment.

"It was a great speech," he replies.

"That really was an amazing speech, Keyleth," Vex says, patting her on the shoulder.

They all stand in silence for awhile, unsure of what to do next. Vax pulls Keyleth into his arms, letting her curl into him. He can't imagine letting this go, and he reminds himself of how right he was to put his faith and trust in Keyleth. He hasn't told his family about the deal the Raven Queen offered him, but he's spent so much of the time he's had since he was brought back trying to express how much he loves and appreciates all of them, silent thanks for what they did for him, bringing him back, giving him a chance to have the future he dreamed of.

"What now?" Pike eventually asks.

"I really don't know," Percy says, looking around, seeming to be a bit lost without some kind of task to complete.

"We have to go back to Zephra soon," Keyleth says to the group, but mostly to Vax. "We were only supposed to be away for a short vacation."

Scanlan lets out a laugh, "Like there would ever be such a thing as a 'short vacation' with us."

Vax presses a kiss to Keyleth's forehead. "Maybe there will be now."

They go to a tavern and drink for awhile before leaving to return home to Whitestone, with the promise to come back to Vasselheim soon to help rebuild.

When they step out of the Sun Tree and into Dawnfather Square, Percy immediately heads toward the castle to check on his sister, Vex at his side. Scanlan follows closely behind, eager to see his daughter and make sure she's okay. Grog and Pike trail behind him, chatting drunkenly.

"What do you want to do now?" Vax asks Keyleth, taking her hand in his.

"Can we just go to bed?" she asks. "All I want to do is climb into bed and have you hold me while we sleep."

A smile stretches across his face as his heart flutters once again. "That sounds perfect. There's nothing I'd rather do."

When they get to their room and close the door behind them, Vax notices how slow Keyleth is moving, how tired she looks. The fight was hard on all of them, but the magic she uses in battle so often leaves her drained and exhausted. He helps her remove her armor and then he pulls back the blankets for her, watching as she slides into the bed before he starts to take off his own armor.

"I can't believe we won," Keyleth says, her voice quiet and tired. "We won and none of us died." She's silent for a moment, a sort of heavy silence, before saying, "Well... nobody died... in this battle."

Vax knows that even though she succeeded in bringing him back that Keyleth will never forget what it felt like to see his body turned to dust. It still haunts her, and Vax worries that it always will.

"For once we planned very well," he says as he removes the last of his armor and gets into bed. She moves into his arms, placing her head in the curve where his neck and shoulder meet, her arm stretching across his chest so that her palm can rest over his heartbeat, strong and even. "You were amazing, Keyleth," he whispers into her hair. "You defeated a god."

"We all defeated a god."

"But you're the one who sealed him away."

She doesn't respond for a moment, as though she's turning the words over in her head. "Scanlan was the one who cast the spell to bring out the text and make it readable. All I did was recite it."

He doesn't press it, knowing how difficult Keyleth finds it to take credit for things she's done. Instead, he drops a kiss on her forehead, lingering there as he absorbs the moment, the simplicity of it all, and how happy he is.

Keyleth tilts her head up, bringing her lips to his. It's a slow, deep kiss, and Vax savors ever second of it, aware of how close he came to not having this.

Their eyes meet as they separate, and as tired as they both are, their expressions are filled with happiness, affection, and contentment. "I love you so much," he whispers, bringing his hand up to stroke his thumb over her cheekbone.

Her breath catches in her chest and the emotion overtakes her face. "I love you," she echoes. "I... I don't know what I would have done... if I lost you... if I hadn't been able to bring you back."

"You never have to worry about that," he says. "You did bring me back. You're so powerful and strong and I knew you could do it. I never doubted my faith in you."

She smiles at him, and they continue to gaze into each other's eyes as Vax strokes his hand through her hair and Keyleth keeps her palm firmly over his beating heart. Eventually, her eyes start to droop, and she returns her head to his shoulder, nuzzling her face into his neck. "I love you," she says again, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"I love you, too," he says as they both drift off to sleep.

They've been back in Zephra for a few months, continuing to build the future they were making for themselves before they had to fight Vecna. They settle back into the home they share, creating a warm, lived in place where they can be together, just the two of them.

Every day Vax breathes in the air of the village, closing his eyes as he feels the light breeze on his skin and hears the voices of the people in Zephra, the people who have slowly become their neighbors and friends. He remembers how close he came to losing it, and each day he reminds himself how right he was to trust in Keyleth and her power, to always have faith in her. He holds her close every morning, kissing her with everything he has in him, an expression of his love and all the gratitude he feels for her, for bringing him back.

Zephra is home now, and Vax spends every second of his life he cherishes the fact that he's here with Keyleth, that they're actually getting to have that future he had dreamed of.

He walks through the village, searching for Keyleth. She's been anxious, nervous about what she has to do. A few of the children in Zephra have come down with what's developed into a very serious illness. The healers have used all the spells they have to cure them, but nothing has worked, so they've now asked the Voice of the Tempest to try.

The request had made her nervous and scared, and she'd taken off to think hours ago, and now Vax was getting worried.

He finds her sitting beneath a tree, several feet away from the edge of a cliff, gazing out into the distance.

"Hey," he says, his voice quiet as he carefully sits beside Keyleth, not wanting to startle her.

"Hey," she responds weakly.

"What's going on, Kiki?" he asks bluntly. They had always been so good at being honest with each other about how they felt, at talking to each other openly instead of pushing anything down they needed to say, so he doesn't try to skirt around the question, instead clearly asking what he needs to know.

She takes a deep, shakey breath. "I don't know if I can do this."

"Of course you can," Vax says, taking her hand and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. "You're the Voice of the Tempest. You're so strong and powerful."

"That the problem," she says, finally turning to look at him, and he says the fear in her glassy eyes. "I'm supposed to be this powerful leader. Everyone expects me to be able to do this incredible things. But what if I can't? It's not like spells I've cast haven't failed before. What will they think of me if I let them down? I'm supposed to be their leader, but what happens if I can't do this? If I fail?"

He watches her as she talks, his heart breaking at how much she struggles with having faith in herself. She's done so many amazing things, so many powerful things, but she can't bring herself to believe in herself as much as he believes in her.

"I've never told you," he starts as he moves closer to Keyleth, pressing his forehead to hers and stroking over her cheek with his fingertips. "What happened when I died. After that first fight with Vecna.

She freezes, and he can feel the sharp breath she takes in as she's hit with the pain of the memory of his death. "What do you mean?"

"Before you brought me back... the Raven Queen came to me. She offered me a deal. She would send me back to you, to our friends, with gifts to help us defeat Vecna, but once Vecna was defeated I would die again. For good. I would have had to return to her."

Keyleth's brow furrows as she listens to him. "I don't understand. What... what are you saying?"

"She offered me this deal," he continues. "It would have guaranteed that I would return to you, that I'd get more time with you. I almost took it. But I couldn't accept something that would make our time together so short. Not when I knew that you could bring me back."

"Vax..." she says, bringing her hand up to his chest, her fingers clenching in his shirt.

"I knew that you could do. I knew that you would do it. Because you are so strong, and so powerful. I had so much faith in you, and I never doubted that faith. l have so much faith in you. I turned down a guarantee from a god because I believed in you and... I just knew."

Tears fall down her cheeks as Vax finishes, and he presses kisses all over her face, following the trails of her tears. She moves forward, burying her face in his neck as he wraps his arms around her, holding her close. "We have a future because of you. What we have right now is all thanks to you. You're incredible." He feels her breathing slow, the silent sobs evening out into more steady breaths.

He runs his finger soothingly through her hair for several minutes before pulling back to look at her, looking into her eyes and saying, "And if you ever doubt yourself, if you ever have trouble having faith in yourself, remember that. Remember what you did for me. For us. Remember how much faith I have in you. I have more than enough for the both of us."

Keyleth looks into her eyes, her face softening with affection. "You're right." She nods. "I can do this."

"I know you can."

She watches him for a few more minutes. "Thank you. For having faith in me. For believing I could bring you back. If you had taken that deal, if I'd had to say goodbye to you after we sealed Vecna away... I don't know what..." Her fingers clench tighter as she takes in a deep, calming breath. "Thank you so much for not taking it, for having faith that I could bring you home to me. For believing in me instead of taking something that was guaranteed. I can't tell you what it means to me."

Vax presses her lips to hers, a promise that he'll always believe in her, that he'll always have faith in her. She hold onto him, accepting his promise, his love, and his faith in her.

She stands up, brushing of her skirts, pulling her mantle around her shoulders and grabbing her staff. "I can do this," she says to herself before turning to look at Vax. "I love you so much."

His heart beats hard against his ribs, as it always does when she looks at him with so much open affection and love. "And I love you," he replies. "I'm the luckiest man in the world."

"And I'm the luckiest woman." They smile at each other for a long moment before she turns to walk away toward the quarantined tents, her head held high and her hair blowing in the breeze. She looks every inch like the force of nature she is, and Vax's breath catches in his chest at how beautiful she is, and how lucky he is that she loves him, that she chose him, and that she brought him back. He will love her until the day he dies, and beyond. And because of her, that day is a long way off.

#critical role #critfic #my fic #vaxleth

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