#he COULD HAVE convinced Keyleth and Vox Machina if he had played his cards better

[jibril-thelibraryangel]

My current headcanon is that Essek was supposed to be the poster boy for the vanguard and the anti god movement

Like he was going to be the pretty face that spoke all the rhetoric while others actually ran the show

Because apparently anyone who spends any amount of actual time with Ludinus Da’leth inevitably comes to absolutely LOATH him and plot his murder and there’s just no way Ludinus is unaware of this

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights (Spoilers through E86)

Secret Denise message of the week: “He who sees my face will be cursed for a thousand years.” As you do.

Sam makes his entrance gagged and with his hands tied while the rest of the cast points and yells "shaaame” at him.

Laura thought Scanlan was screwing with them and kept waiting for him to turn around.Travis notes that they can usually talk people out of that kind of choice, and Marisha realized Scanlan was actually leaving when the conversation started going around in circles and there were no easy solutions.

Taryon was not supposed to appear in 85 at all. Midway through the show, Matt called Sam over and told him Taryon was going in tonight. “Why?” Matt: “’Cause... why not?” At that point, Sam had virtually no backstory planned for Taryon and didn’t even have Doty named yet. Matt: “...I can say that was a miscommunication and I thought that was the intent?” Matt told Sam they’d figure out Taryon once the party knew where they were going next, and Sam took that to mean in the next episode, so Matt sort of accidentally threw him in at the deep end.

Sam: “I did not do any of that to hurt you as people or characters, I did not mean any sort of betrayal by it. It just felt like the right thing to do... and the tasty way to do it.” Taliesin notes he’s had e-mails after a break-up that sounded just like that. Matt was tense through the whole thing.

Taliesin: “You’ve proven that we can bring in a new character and it works.” Liam keeps thinking of the pre-stream game and missing Scanlan. Marisha realized she was putting away her d12s because she only ever used them when Scanlan gave her inspiration.

Vex felt like she and Scanlan really understood each other because they both put up fronts, and now she’s starting to doubt that.

Liam notes that Scanlan was the only one who really managed to get through to Vax during his nosedive.

While Scanlan was out, Sam had time to think about how Scanlan would feel when he woke up, and he couldn’t really justify why Scanlan would stick around. He thought it would be really difficult to make it seem believable for Scanlan to stick around when he was that miserable, so a break made sense.

Liam: “With a little space from this, it was brilliant.”

Sam: “Some of the things that Vex said to Scanlan changed his plan. My initial intent was to leave solo, alone, and you guys all convinced me to stay with Kaylie.”

Liam points out that VM doesn’t really keep their guard down anymore, so they’re pretty wary of Taryon, although Grog’s on board now that they’ve beat him up (”I’ve done all the insight checking that’s needed”), and Percy’s on board because he’s excited to have a nerd-buddy and a very useful distraction.

It was Grog’s idea to beat up Tary and Doty, because he was worried about them possibly getting the rest of his friends killed if they weren’t able to hold their own.

Laura points out it was more of an audition than a hazing--they did it to their staff at the Keep. Marisha reminisces that she turned into a giant scorpion for the first time during that scene and scared off a lot of them on the spot. Vex shot an arrow at Jarrett, and he side-stepped and made eye contact, and she knew he’d be sticking around.

Taryon is inspired by the likes of Richard Branson and Tony Stark. The pitch to Matt: “I wanna be a guy with no skill at all who has bought everything he can do, if he has a problem he just throws money at it, and he wants to be a brave, daring adventurer and has no skill to back it up,” and Matt immediately thought of the artificer class. Matt: “In theory, without any of his equipment, he’d be a level 2. The equipment’s what brings him up to level 13.”

Percy stopped feeling threatened by Taryon when he realized he needed magic to build his stuff. “We can do a Bruce Banner-Tony Stark kind of thing.” Sam points out that Taliesin actually knows some of the stuff Percy talks about, whereas the simple machines Taryon talked about so condescendingly were the actual limit of Sam’s technical knowledge.

Marisha leans towards Keyleth mostly just using the elemental spells that she’s completed her Aramente for.

Vex thought of Scanlan as the dad of the group, the one you went to if you didn’t know what else to do. Sam, whispering: “...I’m so sad right now.”

Brian: “The first person who can open a fucking door should be the leader of Vox Machina forever.”

Liam on Vax: he was a total fuck-up, didn’t have a purpose, and that got flipped on its head. Vax thinks another shoe is gonna drop from the Raven Queen, but he’s not rushing towards that; he wants a little private time. “It’s a weird thing, being Fate-Touched in a game of chance.” He’s currently waiting for instruction, but doesn’t really know where to go. From Matt’s perspective, the Raven Queen’s set him on a path and has outlined the general direction, and until that path needs to be corrected, she’ll leave him to keep walking. But without training, Vax doesn’t really know how that connection works.

Travis thinks Grog would do okay one-on-one against Kevdak now.

A fan points out that Matt was silent for 18 minutes during the party’s confrontation with Scanlan. Matt loved it, because it let him become a member of the audience. “That’s the reward for all the hard work.”

Matt re: Keyleth potentially taking on True Resurrection as a ninth-level spell: “There’s an interesting disconnect between the mechanics of the game and a realistic narrative.” He feels that there needs to be a necessary, very important purpose for that person that didn’t get completed. Marisha mentions that there are some spells that Keyleth wouldn’t be comfortable with (same as Pike not using some spells), and that True Resurrection would be difficult. She’s excited about True Polymorph, though.

Matt had to tell Sam that Scanlan did not hear Grog’s contribution to the resurrection ritual--Grog unfortunately failed his contribution. Sam: “I will say as Sam Riegel listening to Travis Willingham’s song... legit tears.”

Doty is not quite as strong as rules-as-written, but is a little smarter so he can read and write. Liam: “But can he love?”

Matt points out that a lot of the show’s narrative stems from relationships, so it seemed natural that romances would start up in the game. Laura: “[Liam and Marisha] had to deal with all of us acting like asshole fucking schoolchildren.” Travis: “I just want the story to be good. I just want nudity and good story. I don’t care where it’s from.”

Marisha and Liam went out to lunch to talk Vax/Keyleth once it looked like things were heading that way to make sure everyone was on board and comfortable with it.

Sam thinks Scanlan would be very skeptical of Taryon and would think he’s an asshole and would be on board with pretty much everything that’s happened.

Liam hopes for a bit of overlap between Scanlan and Taryon. Sam: “Oh god...”

Sam honestly doesn’t know if we’ve seen the last of Scanlan.

Percy does not want to return to Whitestone in a permanent sense at all, but Taliesin notes that it doesn’t matter, because he has to, and he understands that responsibility’s part of being titled. He doesn’t think Percy will ever take power, but if it comes up, he has ideas of how he could be useful.

Brian: “Is there anything special you want to do for episode 100?” Liam: “Wear some pants, please.” Matt: “No. Never.”

Matt sighs heavily when everyone suggests a bodyswapping episode. Sam: “We’re doing it, Matt. Someday.” Matt: “...so hackneyed.”

Brian: “Oh, I forgot about Alpha! Probably because it hasn’t worked for months.”

After-Dark:

Sam would be down for playing both Scanlan and Taryon.

Everyone was pretty okay with Taryon not knowing their names. Marisha: “That seems like something we’d do.”

Brian asks where the giant mug is right now. Sam points out that it’s literally sitting on a shelf behind Brian, in the same shot as him. Sam’s new mug was a gift from Laura ages ago.

At the time, Vex thought hanging onto the deck was the smart thing to do, but after the conversation with Scanlan, she decided it was better to give it back to Grog. Travis had games and games of guilt-trips planned. Percy was planning to build fake magical cards with a bit of flashpowder.

Matt reveals that Fenthras was already Exalted when Vex got it. Laura, slumping dejectedly and extremely dramatically on the couch: “Fucking hell, I’ve got all this fuckin’ shit I’ve been working on!”

Exalted is the next level after Awakened for Vestiges. More info in the campaign guide.

Liam: “What if Pike was hit with love at first sight for Taryon?” Everyone just goes silent while they ponder that.