The Final Ascent | Critical Role: VOX MACHINA | Episode 113
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
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Vox Machina, having made their final preparations, make their way to the top of the tower of Entropis. With special guest Joe Manganiello
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Thanks to @CRTranscript and all the critters for closed captions!
Vex is the exact kind of "strange woman" you read about in history. Like, imagine people in present day visiting Whitestone and being told about Lady Vex'ahlia, who was famous for being an excellent archer and insisting her pet bear live inside the castle with her. Truly an icon.
Omg, you're so right. I've been learning a ton about Norway in the 18th century this past summer, and it is full of these kinds of quirky rich individuals. Including a couple who had a bear living with them in a castle!
This comment makes me absurdly happy for some reason. Quirky royals ftw!
@@MsCunningLinguistic Norwegian here. Can confirm. We had bears all over the country well into the 19th century. Not much left nowadays, though.
TorSverre lol, fellow Norwegian here, so I know. But I appreciate the sentiment.
Lady Vex'ahlia, Grand Mistress of the Grey Hunt, Baroness to the 3rd House of Whitestone, Slayer of White Dragons, Champion of the Dawnfather, Mother of Trinket the Wonder Bear, Queen of Haggling, and Rider of the Lord of Whitestone. XD
Arkhon: *arrives*
Grog: “INCREDIBLE POWER, RESPECTABLE MUSCLES “
Armstrong??!!
Deeperest Meme this is an under rated comment
Never doubt the muscle wizard bros
A man after my own heart I thought the exact same scene from FMA lol
These muscles have been passed down the armstrong family for generations!
Cassandra killed Delilah
Percy killed Delilah
Vex killed Delilah
It was always a de Rolo
Vex does it twice :)
@@zachs5243 double the de Rolo
@@zachs5243 Laura does it 3 times
Delilah got De Rolled
That's just how de rolo yaknow
“You already used your reaction”
“ONE of us did”
May be my favorite exchange out of character
*death knight arrives*
VM: losing their shit
Arkhan: "Hippity Hoppity your soul is now my property."
this comment is utterly flawless
I can almost see Joe now saying this
The Briarwoods are such a dark mirror of Percy and Vex. Their rapport is so weirdly adorable and they clearly love each other so much.
I never actually thought about it like that. That's actually kinda cool
Kinda makes me think of the addams family but through a mirror even more darkly
Right?!
they're like a sick and twisted Morticia and Gomez Adams
Laura said that vex can definitely turn into a delilah if she were in the same position
I believe it was on talks machina e112
Joe: I would like to...
Travis: *huge grin*
the bromance is real.
Time Stamp?
@@jacobvargas1138 dude I made this a year ago... I can try and look but it's not gonna be much faster. Sorry I didn't put a stamp when I first made the post.
@@jacobvargas1138 2:02:46
hes actually so close to them mat invited him to his wedding and his wife was confused because people kept asking him about that hand of vecna
@@SPACEHARICE I love his recounting of that--people approaching him like he's the Godfather, and his wife both puzzled and--guaranteed--turned on by her husband Joe, King of the Nerds.
Matt saying "consider now, if you have any buff spells for the coming fray...now is the time to use them" is the D&D equivalent of a video game point of no return warning right before the final battle. I'm so ready for this!
He's literally telling them to boss fountain it up before then end.
It's like huffing a ton of chems and buffs before taking on Lanius in New Vegas.
and they still question the DM's massive hint/advice..... 🤦
@@ElijahKRichmond
It's Vox Machina, their goal is always to have things go flying off the rails.
"VM, it may be difficult to leave this area. Consider saving in a new file."
And they talk over him, not sure who even heard him.
Ah well, time to fight Kefka.
the party REALLY wanted to save spell slots despite the fact that the fight wasnt going to last 20 rounds you can only use so many spells use the extra slots up
The fact that Matt Mercer can invoke the same emotions for NPC’s that dozens of tv writers do for main characters is a testament to his amazing skills as a storyteller.
Completely agree, the talent is sheer genius and I love it 🖤
to be fair, its also amazing to have players, who wouldn't "save" revivify for later but prioritize RP over tactics
It's the art of storytelling, done the way it should. The fact that tv makes it badly does not make Matt a genius or anything. Though he is.
Matt is amazing, but it's also a testament to how insular and up it's own backside the TV writing industry is. I mean Matt is amazing like I said, but if a room full of well paid writers can't top a guy who does this in his free time and improvs half the time, they are pretty much just trash. It's a major reason why I don't watch TV anymore; trash writing is trash writing regardless of the acting or sfx. With no sfx other than his own voice Matt outdoes the entire industry in a weekly basis.
I wish Hollywood still had good writers but elas, they all suck now, the only reason LoVM is so good is because Mat and the gang are heavily involved in the writing process.
"Goodnight, brother."
"Goodnight, brother."
this is so bad for my heart, these boys have come so far....
1 year later and I am feeling this right now!
That soft little exchange brought instant tears.
47:01 so beautiful my gods
THIS MADE ME SO SAD
;-;
4:39:00
LAURA: "OMG I rolled four 6s :D"
*every body cheering and smiling*
*Matt smiling for a whole different reason*
His fricken expression there too! Oh man
Oh my god that dirty dirty smile :D
Mat is evil om fucking g lol
This is the most evil thing he's ever done o my god matt
This is the most fucked up thing I've seen Matt do
46:50 Fucking hurt meeeeee.
Vax: "Yeah Percy you get your rest. Because your last words to me tomorrow need to be indignant and irritated."
Percy: "I've already planned them out."
Vax: "Goodnight brother."
Percy: "Goodnight brother."
Literally read this as soon as they started saying it. Blew my mind
Vax, who has never had a brother.
Percy, who has outlived all three of his.
@@Zombiewithabowtie see you get it! (Good luck with the next one o7)
only thing that would’ve made it better would’ve been scanlan stating the time
Joe raising his brother's character reminded me of a joke I heard a while ago:
HERO: "I will have revenge for the death of my brother."
ARCHER: "You have my bow."
FIGHTER: "And my axe."
NECROMANCER: "And your brother."
Dear lord that is amazing XD
Up you go
I wish I could like this more than once. Brilliant.
You forgot the end of the joke.
Everybody @ the necromancer: What is wrong with you?!
(Also, there's actually a tiktok of that joke somewhere, I think.)
@@Caitydid561 but the joke works better without that ending, I think.
Dragonborn Paladin of Tiamat...
Percy "he's our kind of evil..."
Cut to a few hours later Grog and Arkhan in cirque de Soleil homoerotic wall climb
That is the best describtion of that scene that could ever exist. Thank you.
Arkhan turning to Grog and saying “oil me up” SENT me lol
One day the “Sword of Kas” will call itself “Grog”, after the one who wielded it last.
Heh. They end this the way they started then. Three half elves, two gnomes, a human, a goliath, and a red Dragonborn...
Calvatron, Lord of Nothing pure poetry
Their party didn’t include pike and Percy to start off but it’s still amazing and this is the best goddamn show
O-Ow.....
Wishing the dragonborn was tibs though
bro, my heart, dont do that
"i rolled a four, so its thirty-seven"
Ethan H. Reliable talent (10) + Dexterity (+5) + Expertise (2xProficiency +12) + Pass Without Trace (+10)
Thank you, I was wondering! :)
"Rogue's man." - Matt Mercer
"I'll use a luck point"
so he can get 53 on a 20.
Is there a rule where if u exceed 50 the player playing the game vanishes?
'' When you revealed to a god how close and dangerous you were last game, there were going to be repercussions''- Matt. The most threatening a DM could ever be. Damn, felt it.
Gave me chills 😳
😅
Yoooo.....😮
Vax saying farewell to Gilmore, and Gilmore interprets it as being just another of his "I'm probably gonna be dead soon" speeches. That really got me.
Vax really does say that a lot.
Oh! That's so sad.😔
That's where I started crying :(
@@eMars96 I was already crying I was still on the fact that they killed them even if they were alive again 😭😭
That made me start sobbing
"I will fight for your lives with the fury of a man who is already dead"
"We have a surprising amount already in common..."
Where is that?
1:11:00 is where he starts the little monologue. It's a funny moment!
"A young woman, with brown hair and a white streak..."
*No Mercy Percy has entered the chat*
*doom starts playing*
Percy ~ and that's when I started blasting
Tal's eyes are terrifying when he realized the trick Matt played. Chilling gaze of murderous intent 😮
Imagine if Kima knew that they were hanging around with a paladin of Tiamat
PURGE HIM IN HOLY DRAGONFIRE
I bet there’d be a whole inner turmoil in belief for Kima, as she can’t hang out with this awesome dragonborn and actually get to do some paladin stuff for once.
Kima would probably be like when Kima found out about Raishan it'd be hilarious and Kima would have a hard time not trying to kill him.
Desperate times and desperate measures
It would be like that time Kima found out about Raishan/Larkin, BUT WORSE
"He builds webs, like dogs" -Grog. Promptly followed by no one acknowledging what was said and congratulating Grog for intelligence.
I need the time stamp for this hahah
It's a long time late but 16:56
@@U_C_G thank you your awesome it is late but I always need more grog quotes in my life
@@Clownprince332 No problems! I saw your comment and then 30 seconds later reached that point of the video
That one flew over my head to be honest. Anyone know what the joke there was, 'cause as far as I know, dogs don't tend to be big with the web-making :D
Props to Joe for being one of the most game savvy guests ever to come to the table. Guy knew his shit and made it work.
He is a lifelong DnD player. Look up the custom game table he had made for himself.
He's even more experienced than the CR team. His character is also canon with DnD.
Everyone was saying (rightfully) that Revivify was a _huge_ spell to spend on two NPCs, but I cannot overstate how much I love that Ashley took in Liam, Laura and Sam's reactions and did it anyways.
1000%!! Story wise there was absolutely no other option to do there. They're literally family they couldn't just let them die. And game wise yeah it's definitely going to bite them in the ass but that's exactly why Matt did this as a tactic to get them to loose a couple very useful spell slots. Playing dirty but playing it well 😳
@@nataliepeters8459 it's exactly the kind of bullshit you would expect a god of secrets to pull
I like to fantasize the idea that Pike would know that if she didn't and refused, Scanlan would've left the fight because his girl is the most precious thing. And Matt knew that Vax and Vex would attack any ''easy targets'' that stands on appendages on sight, like they did the last 10 episodes. That shows very high wisdom character from both the PC and the player.
Feel like they didn’t have to cast revivify, they could have just cured wounds as they had just killed them and there was not enough time for them to have failed saving throws and Matt didn’t even roll any saving throws for them.
@@henriquematzenbacher9651 well, in DND, there's the rule of extreme damage. Now, keep in mind, this rule isn't used by everyone. But the idea is, if someone is hit by an attack that deals twice their health or more, they die instantly, no saving throws. given that both characters are, at best, very low level, against two super powered sneak attacks, it's entirely possible this rule could have come into play.
Liam's face during the scene with Gilmore is absolutely heartbreaking.
It feels weird liking something that makes me so sad
Omg when he almost starts crying 😣 my baby....
Yeah great scene.
I like how Matt teach him a lesson about cold-blooded assassinations after that nothic NPC in E110.
It's effective but how about talking to people, maybe not everyone are enemies on enemy territory. Yeah if they were enemies than they could've call for help but team already was ready to face Vecna.
Percy, unloading a mag into Sylas *again*: How many times to I have to teach you this lesson, old man?!
Matt knew exactly what he was doing when they were attacking the “figures in armor.” Didn’t even blink. Freaking cold.
When they got assassinated and he said, "They fall back, *_unconscious"..._* I knew something was up, but had no idea what.
Until Vex goes I GOT FOUR SIXES AND A FIVE
I'm sorry but did he really make Vex kill her own goddamn sister-in-law?? 😳💔 Soooo fucked up!
This and the sun tree, Matt knows how to be DARK when he wants to be.
Matt saw Laura and Liam keep Killing npcs without looking first or talking first and said “I can use this”
"You just killed two of our friends Pike!"
Sam Riegel says in jest after Ashley kills off two familiar undead NPCs but doesn't realise the twisted irony his statement will have later on!
??
@@nateperkins9860 did you not watch the whole episode?
That was kinda poetically cruel that Scanlan jokingly gave shit to Pike when she killed the undead friends who can't be saved, and a few minutes later had to ask Pike to revivify his daughter who was killed by his friends.
Liam 1st campaign: "Next campaign we speak with everybody!"
Liam 2nd campaign: throw fire in a well cause he heard a noise and matt rip 3 pages of NPC...
I swear Travis has found his male soulmate in Joe lmao. I think I had just as much fun watching them bro-flirt and giggle and goof off the across the table whole time as much as I did the actual episode and everything going on.
Jaime his bro-ulmate
Travis' simple joy at having a fellow jock at the table for once, and one that can match him for size and beefiness is hilarious to watch
you should watch Jocks Machina /watch?v=-blGAjzL3yI
That's why they had to be on opposite sides, or else they would tip your screen over in their manliness!😅
@@marek011011 Holy shit, that's Big Show.
I swear to god Travis looks like a child getting a new toy every time new story stuff is happening. Also Matt is slowly starting to look more and more like McCree
Well he does have the boots, belt buckle and hat already so why not
JoJo is not an anime It’s two years later, and you called it. Did you see his sweet cosplay photos he tweeted after the Halloween episode?
@@ambiej123 I was wondering why he grew out the pornstash
I think Matt gave them a subtle hint with the fact they kept seeing people they all knew as undead before coming across the three guards.
The thing is, they're so stressed and in a time crunch, they're not even thinking straight. Letting their 2 assassins first to take out as many as possible to get to Vecna as soon as possible.
Matt as DM knew what his players would do, and set them up. If Joe's first roll wasn't a Nat 1, Pike would have had to lose 3 of her high level spells instead of 2 to revivify them all. He knows how to hurt them, and now they (the characters) have to go fight Vecna after going through this mindfuck
"It was an honor knowing you." *weeps into eternity*
I cried a tiny bit tbh
closest i’ve come to crying this campaign
Especially with the response "it will be an honor still knowing you" because Gilmore doesn't know that Vax is already dead
Holy god, I thought Matt was referring to J'mon Sa Ord when he was talking about the Dracolich.
I think it was just an undead dragon, not a dracolich, dracoliches are much more powerful and sentient, and that one died as soon as Delilah died
Same here. I was hella relieved when I found out it wasn't.
J’mon or thordak for me
I was on my bike heading home with my earplugs in and nearly fell off because I thought the same.
Word - signed on to say the exact same thing
I'm so happy they decided to revive them. As players, its a difficult decision to do something like that in a tense moment where resources are necessary for the coming fight, but as characters and people, they did the right thing 100%
Now if only they’d done the right thing and confirmed who the figures were before blasting.
@@brilobox2it would not have been nearly as interesting a story had they done that though
1:47:26 Episode 113, two away from the end, the cast has just now learned that Travis keeps track of their initiative. “Do you always do this or is this new?” “I always do this.”
He has mentioned it multiple times during the campaign, as a DM I love it when players do stuff like this, I have so much to keep track of having players just double check I don’t miss things like initiative order
it's important if you need to know if your ally is going to be flanking an enemy when your turn comes up, among many other reasons
Plus when Travis was distracted by having another jock at the table and wasn’t tracking initiative multiple turns got skipped (during the tower ascent). Just goes to show you, the DM is in the driver seat, but running a game smoothly takes collaboration from everyone.
I just noticed a few episodes ago when I saw him writing it down. I really need to pay more attention.
Big same, Travis, it's actually regularly helpful for my group's DM
I’ve only truly teared up maybe once or twice during this entire campaign. Vaxs “it was an honor knowing you” just hit me so hard. Knowing he’ll never see him again, and wanting to truly say goodbye, but just not having the time to even pause for a moment.
ME TOO
Just wait till the ultimate fight...
Joe Tonner - *FIX HIM!*
"I am richer for having known you."
0:02:49 Travis' face...
0:04:25 Let's dive in!
0:05:59 "The last we left off..." ( GAME BEGINS )
0:12:09 Scanlan The Priest of Ioun
0:13:04 Grog's idea
0:13:43 Who's gonna get cut?
0:19:33 Splitting the trammels
0:20:47 Where are the wings?!
0:25:05 DM dropping a hint #1
0:27:52 Halp us J'mon!
0:29:29 Bear fart
0:39:01 You can never have enough Scanlan! (Scanlan casts Simulacrum)
0:41:18 Scanlan meets Scanlan
0:43:51 A somber moment
0:47:07 Dreams
0:49:47 It is time to go back
0:51:41 Back in Thar Amphala
0:53:47 Enter the dragon(born) aka Guest appears
0:55:11 Brothers in arms! (Jocks Machina T-shirt)
0:57:51 "Don't kill this thing!"
1:00:07 Scanlan talks to himself
1:00:26 Arkhan makes a new pet
1:04:29 A moment of recognition
1:08:47 Introduction
1:09:24 Arkhan's story
1:12:19 Ashley rolls temp HP
1:13:55 Sam really just wanted to touch Joe...
1:14:29 A plan to take out the barriers
1:16:19 Sam's mug
1:23:34 "How are you with doors?"
1:23:57 Arkhan shares jerky with Grog (Barbarian Bromance is Brewing)
1:25:17 Liam fails a dex save for the first time in a long time (Matt is happy)
1:27:29 Grog's One Punch
1:31:34 The wall is down
1:32:01 Getting close to Vasselheim!
1:33:54 Dracolich is coming in their way
1:38:25 Briarwoods riding the Dracolich
1:40:21 Really Scanlan?
1:41:00 MAP
1:46:22 It's time to face the Briarwoods!
2:12:19 Lats to Lats
2:35:30 Vex snipes down Delilah
2:36:16 Gnarly kill and Sylas' reaction
3:09:14 Sylas escapes
3:13:20 BREAK STARTS
3:35:05 BREAK ENDS
4:33:00 The three figures
4:41:56 THE MOST SINISTER MOMENT
4:43:50 Pike does a medicine check...
4:46:57 What happened?
4:50:12 Death Knight crashes the meeting
4:50:52 Gilmore casts haste on Grog!
4:51:14 Farewell...
4:51:47 GAME ENDS
4:54:41 "Next campaign, we don't attack anybody - we talk to everybody"
Bump!
This was so far down I had to blur my vision to avoid spoilers bless you sir/ madam/ other nobility
Bump
Boost
You know, I’ll boost it again
Matt to Liam: "...the bruise that's gonna be there tomorrow."
Me: *sniffling* "But he won't be here tomorrow..."
TT_TT
Love how Matt pulled no punches this time and used the classic jumpiness of the gang against them. Drain of resources, everything. Can't wait till Thursday.
Apples - Such poor choices made at episode end, no thought given to the bigger picture. I hope next week gives them a proper run for their money for once.
Wait till ya see it... it's kinda epic.
Cornbee - To be fair, Matt has never played those kind of mindgames with them before.... and he counted on VM's standard "swing first, talk after" murder-hobo mentality.
At least they learned from it :)
CorwinC73 you mean 115? that really was epic
but where's 114? lol
114 was live last week. 115 is live tonight. Can see 114 on monday or tuesday on G&S's site, i forget the exact day. Or on alpha I guess
You can see Vax's heart break when Gilmor says "It will be an honor knowing you all still."
Liam legitimately crying just breaks my heart.
with Laura's emotional state right next to it, it clearly shows at what kind of level Matt is playing.
It was hard!
I love that Travis seems to be the first one to figure out what's going on... at 4:41:37 into that heavy sigh... But like Grog wouldn't get it so he just stays quiet, I swear you can see it on his face... he has figured it out and can't say anything.
yeah and as Travis is sitting back in utter realization, Marisha is leaning forward with a constipated look of confusion on her face
Classic Keyleth look.
Travis was suspicious as soon as Matt mentioned that some were halfling size.
He is an excellent role player
Travis is good but his reaction was a bit powergamey. He didn't want them to 'waste' spell slots reviving his best friends daughter and other friends sister. It makes no sense from a roleplay perspective. One of those rare moments where he got caught up looking at things from a mechanics/advantage standpoint instead of the RP.
I cannot describe my fear and admiration of Matt Mercer in this episode. *Applauds from a safe distance*
re the end of this episode: im just endlessly fuckin tickled by how good travis is at laser-focus reading matt's expressions before matt pulls some seriously twisted shit on them. and he's rarely ever wrong, too, its impressive
Laura's voice when she says "it's kaylie and Cassandra?" at about 4:45:00 utterly heartbreaking.
I don't know, I think Scanlan saying "Is that my baby girl?" over and over got to me more.
Except Sam is just laughing, not acting.
Rylan Storm laughing in the face of such heartbreak is actually something that happens your brain gets so overwhelmed with pain that it tries to compensate you end up laughing as your world falls apart. It’s shock
@@NerdyAngel1989 I can attest to this. In high stress, I'm 50-50 on whether I cry or laugh.
Zapporah Mann it’s a well known fact it’s why some doctors and cops don’t put to much into how someone acts when told bad news. People have been known to laugh in the face of a cop who just told them their loved one died. Not because it’s funny but because it’s to much they can’t believe it and their brain reacts in away to try and save itself. I personally tend to go a bit blank and emotionless or smile and chuckle depending one what kind of news it is and why I would be addressed. Also sorry getting back to you late holidays man lol and my kiddo is on Christmas break I have no time.
4:44:53 While others are getting emotional over a Gilmore who is NOT dead, Scanlan very calmly and firmly tells Pike to revivify his daughter.
I lost it at his voice crack 😭😭
I need to stop reading the comments before finishing the episode...
I think Scanlan found the motivation he needed to give the fight against Vecna everything he has... or die trying.
it also bugged me so much about how everyone ignored him saying goodbye to his daughter....
@@oliviahaglund8978 Agreed.
Serious editing issues with this one. Seing 2 Travises.
*Travi
And the second one doesn't even have the beard. Who hired this stunt double?
I wasn't watching when he came on and it took me a minute to realize Travis wasn't at both tables some how.
🤣😂
I see no issue, only perfection
4:47 Keyleth casually dismantles the cliche trope of "no time to explain!" by quickly and efficiently explaining everything
“Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”
(You need a three-part h:mm:ss format for timestamps, btw. For example: 4:47:41 )
The fact that Matt reminds them of what is helpful to them before the fight lets us know how bumpy the ride is going to be.
Yeah, they just passed a save point,
and got the notification in the jrpg:
Are you sure you want to proceed?
😅
"Good night, brother." "Good night brother." IM NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING!
"Iwant your last words to me indignant and irritated.."
I am. I am crying
There's something very beautiful to me about the image of Vox Machina waking up all together in the Fey Wild just curled up together in a field. I can't explain it but Matt really just captures the beautiful finality of that moment, the calm before the storm, the last time all of them will wake up together as a team. It's heartbreaking.
I missed Gilmore...I wanted him back..BUT NOT LIKE THAT MATT!
You see this shit? This is where to get monsters and berserkers
I was going to upvote this but I was just so appreciative of not seeing spoilers in the comments 😭
Wowww. I thought the tree in Whitestone was effed up. But then Matt pulls this thing with the three mysterious armored figures near the top of Entropis. Geez, dude. You have a sick imagination.
I imagine you mean ‘It’s us’, is that right? Or am I forgetting something that the sun tree said in one of its conversations?
@@jonathanpeterson1189 hellfire probably is referring to when the Briarwoods hung several civilians from the Sun Tree, each chosen and dressed to resemble a member of Vox Machina.
Sams passionate plea to not take the short rest made me visualize both Scanlans taking turns to jump in on the argument every other point.
Joe fits in really well with the group.
EchoMarauder no doubt. There are very few guests that I would like to see as a new cast member. He is one of them
For the glory of Tiamat!
Travis calling himself and Joe "the big boys" is giving me life rn.
I really like his class combo too! Red dragonborn Oathbreaker Berserker?! Awesome!!!
BoldCaster Joe is the Red Dragonborn they deserve. ; - ;
57:50 I love that Sam waited for almost an hour before taking a drink from his giant stein so that he could drop that joke until just after Joe arrived. xD
is there any way to know what it was? I can't read it on the video and am dying to know!
@@rellaenthia “I am no longer the handsomest guy at CR.”
Dedication
I like that Matt did reward his players for spending two spells reviving allies by casting haste on Grog. Would be a shame to punish them for caring about NPC's right for the final fight.
Am I the only one who did not pay enough attention when the skeletal dragon appeared and then was completely shook because I thought Matt was referring to J'mon as "the dragon that brought you to the city"?
Thats what you get for not paying full attention to Critical Role! XD
I was expecting it to be Raishan, having made some last ditch deal to avoid permadeath by being a corrupted, imperfect Dracolich or something.
You and me both bud. I got sad for a bit until they cleared it up.
Well, to be fair, Matt was referring to joe's dragon that he had riden on. I think he was being intentionally misleading so that VM would become slightly flustered.
I mean, at this point, Vecna's a god, so who's to say he couldn't have killed and zombified J'mon? Especially when it was probably 3 hours since VM last saw J'mon alive. I was super happy when it wasn't him, though. I like J'mon.
Curse you Twitch chat, as soon as he described the dragon my first idea was "well it can't be J'mon, they are still outside of the dome, Matt *just* described him flying out there all fine..." but then *everyone* began saying "noooo not J'mon damn it Matt!" on the chat until I myself started believing it
I love Pike/Ashley so much more after what she did in the end. I know a lot of people (both as a character and as a player) who wouldn't "waste" a revivify spell on an NPC, but her insisting on doing that is so much her character, especially when she saw how upset Vex/Laura was.
It was beautiful. And I'm glad she did it. Because, honestly, it's the final fight. Whoever goes down, goes down. No time to revivify (the ritual DC save version).
All in. Final fight. One shall stand, one shall fall.
Ok but Pike couldnt actually NOT Do it i mean it was the Sister the daughter and their Best friend and they killed them there is no exuse for her to leave them dead
An important thing to remember as a PC is that you don't actually know what an NPC is. To the characters, everyone else is still a person
Those two NPCs were close relatives to members of the group and dear to them, anyone who would have decided to not revive them in order to not "waste a spell on an NPC" would be not an actual roleplayer, but a boardgamer who accidently stumbled into D&D. There is no way those characters would ever have decided in the story "oopsie, we just accidently murdered family members, too bad, but let's just shove their corpses into a corner and not waste a spell to save them."
I was waiting for Scanlan to shout "if we're not doing this to save our loved ones, what are we doing this for?" if she refused. SO GLAD she insisted, even though it's only 2 level 3 spells, it's not as big a deal as the cast made it out to be.
you know things are gonna go crazy when the Queen of Dragons sends one of her boys to help the good guys
Yeah that’s when you know the real shit is going downnnnnnn
Imagine if Arkhan showed up during the chroma conclave arch first.
Especially considering VM is probably on rough terms with Tiamat, given their numerous recent crimes against chromatic dragonkind.
To be fair, none of the gods are probably thrilled about Vecna aiming to supplant them. At the end of the day, both Primes and Betrayers are just vying for power and working towards their own visions of what Exandria should be. If Vecna succeeded, their power and influence would be greatly diminished; some of them might eventually even fade from existence.
It's great to see Travis so pumped to have another big guy nerd at the table with him. This is brilliant. Joe seems to know his stuff.
He's the second guest they've had like that tbh
It was adorable at how excited Travis was 🖤
The Jocks Machina shirt reveal is going to be living in my brain rent free forever
Joe has been playing for longer than everyone at that table except for maybe Matt.
Keyleth: "Me and Percy had an idea for Grog..." Grog: "Thank god cos' I don't have any more."
You can feel the pain Liam and Laura felt knowing they were the ones who did it at 4:45:33.
Say one thing about the Briarwoods but they have a strong romance.
they put the power in power couple
had
Reminds me of Travis and Laura dressing up as the two
#relationshipgoals not even joking. if i had a girl that would turn me into a vampire and raise herself from the dead for us to be together, i'd be down
@ no kidding. That line actually made me take a moment to feel really bad for Delilah.
After the last few episodes, it was only a matter of time before their "attack on sight" approach bit them in the butt.
I can't think of a single time it didn't
that was rough
@@CrypteGardien The one time with Vax and the creepy old one eyed thing. But that's the only time I can remember.
To be fair, this was the one time where attack on sight was the most appropriate and reasonable, given that they were literally in Vecna's lair. Which is exactly why this maneuver by Vecna!Matt was so deliciously dark and evil.
@@SocialistSadako They did the right thing by checking if these were undead.
Matt even said "They're in armor, you don't know if they're undead"
When they realized they were NOT undead, they should've done a LITTLE more. Just a LITTLE bit more. Vecna wouldn't have his immediate bodyguards be NORMAL DUDES in some armor. He'd have a fucking death knight at his back if anything. An undead rock golem. ALL the heavy hitters sans Delilah have been undead, everyone IMPORTANT is undead.
This was a genius plan, but it wasn't IMPOSSIBLE by any means to realize something was not right there. I mean the fact they didn't detect any of them on the way up alone. Just a LITTLE more curiosity, a distracting PEBBLE thrown across the room that they don't react to, and they'd have had it. It was a puzzle they didn't solve until after the fact, with a VERY lucky natural 1.
The whole ending was wild but Liam broke me at the end. Absolutely sobbing
When the gm says "cast your buffs NOW"
Nothing stopped my heart more than hearing the DM give this warning, game saving level shit in D&D
And then the next trap was a 1-hour long Forcecage immune to Dispel Magic. If anyone else had gotten stuck there, they'd be screwed.
I'm not the only one that knows disintegrate kills a force shield right
Golgometh Layceon None of them have Disintegrate though, right?
Golgometh Layceon Considering that only works on wall of force not force cage you probably are the only one who knows that, yes.
44:00 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Like...seriously. This "goodnight" scene...was goddamn beautiful. They got meta. Vax saying "the best 3-4years of my life," made me start to tear up. That Liam speaking about his friends. And they all got that. And they all look emotional. And Matt looks on with tearful eyes...like a proud dad..
To have the scene accompanied by "Peace of Akatosh," just....like seriously it hit me where I live.
These people are amazing.
*Looks back to the Liam DM games...*
Travis's happiness over Joe raging is like that moment in FMA Brotherhood when Armstrong meets that other strong guy and they clasp hands
4:46:43 is what I love about D&D. The emotion you can feel about fictional people that only live in the commune imagination of you and your friends is the most amazing thing I can think of. They're so relieved. They burned through spells for something that has tactically no advantage for the game, but they felt they had to. Because they love the NPCs and that's so great.
Beautifully put. I so agree. And watching their faces the final 15 minutes was just gut-wrenching (Laura and Liam especially) because it wasn't about danger to them (yet), it was their realization that they had lost people they loved.
First time thru here, and I wonder if scanlan is gonna hate the twins for killing kaylie.
@@paramitch It was their realization that they killed them with their own hands.
3:01 "It's the last month of September." Well done, Matt
And shout out to everyone here in 2020 quarantine!
Ah! Another of my brethren on the catch up train while CR filming is stopped! Fair thee well sir!
Home stretch folks!! #quarantinecritter
it took me three months to get this far.
Finally having an excuse to finish campaign one after almost one year.
Looking at the state of the world...checks out. He was just a few years early
2:37:13
DM: That is the *end* of Delilah Briarwood
Narrator: It was not
Big spoon Scanlan and little spoon Scanlan should have sang each other to sleep for inspiration. "When I think about you I touch myself."
"It was an honor knowing you" - Vax's last words to Gilmore D:
FUCKING *OW!*
Oh crap. That is legitimately the last time he sees Gilmore. :(
spoiler dude
Add to that that Gilmore and no-one else outside of Vox Machina knows that Vax'ildan is fated to die
@@will-1am i mean, not really. Vax kinda promised the Raven Queen he would die once Vecna is killed.
Omg, when Liam started crying my heart broke. The ending of this episode is just... 😭
I'm relatively new to CritRole, still catching up, but... omg Matt's face when Joe raised Delilah from the dead!
3:09:52
That last part was absolutely brutal. Mercer, you....god. Literally, in-game, i suppose. Heh. But seriously. Mercer's the best. And the whole crew is amazing, just so amazing. God, i can't wait for the next episode.
Matt massively underestimating how much hate VM has for Delilah if he thought she had any chance of not getting killed in this fight.
"is there a cricket in the studio or is that part of the soundtrack?" *mutes sound* *actually has a cricket outside my window*
I was driving and listening and actually thought it was a sound my car was making until they said something!
50:16- Oh my god guys, you realize what this is? This is the part in every video game rpg where you have a little healing station and a place to recover your mana and there is an NPC right next to the door to the final dungeon asking "Have you done everything you wanted to do? Because once you leave you won't be coming back." And you will be in a part of the game where you can't save or anything.
So, to make sure, we've done all the side quests, leveled everyone up, made sure we can get a 100% completion bonus and the perfect ending?
On Arkhan, first off, is it weird that we started with a team with a dragonborn and now we end it with a dragonborn. Second...My god Arkhan is such a badass!!!
Arkhan also has one of the coolest ways of going out. Fighitng a death knight, alone, surrounded by zombies. And I thought Grog was the biggest one of them all.
Lucky he has Lady Briarwood *shudders* and his "Brother" to help him
The part where Matt is describing the wyvern riders ans devosa colliding with the gloom stalkers. Im imaging its like the battle of Antarctica in Stargate SG1
It reminded me of the Assault of the Silver Dragons at the end of FFIX.
I can't believe the gods 3d printed another scanlan
4:45:31 Liam O Brian blows a gasket in fury from the emotional trauma Matt’s putting him through.
overreaction, distracting
@@SortOfEggish perfect reaction role-playing a man who realized they killed 2 of their friends and nearly killed the third, you're just a party pooper
Remembering how much personal stuff Liam has tied up in this game, especially from the chroma arc. It was real impact and emotion. You can watch him forcibly compose himself after a minute and go to a more measured level of upset before Laura leans on him
4:54:40 “Next campaign, we don’t attack anybody.”
*cut to the Mighty Nein as they approach a docked ship at night*
Or just a montage of them approaching the ship at night, Caleb chugging fire into a hole and Matt ripping up whole pages of NPC notes, or Caleb casting wall of fire in the middle of a ship, or Beauregard going pop-pop on people.
I know it's a joke but it doesn't work. The criminals shot first after a failed acrobatics and deception check from Fjord and Tracy. After that, it was self defense.
The people on that ship shouldn’t have shot crossbow bolts at them.
3:39:37 Its amazing how matt explains this in a way thats its true to the worlds history and its vestiges. He’s the best
I so want to see everyone put on a Matt mask when he is looking down. His reaction would be priceless when he looked up.
Best would be, when he does his intro. They try to get him to mess up during the intro for ages (only manged a few times so far). A stunt like that would be perfect, I'm sure XD
Only if it’s the crazy matt face
Or the face he makes as the troll in C2
@@alannar6189 carousel Mercer
Very well played, especially Matt, draining resources and turning their tactics against them in a very emotional and entertaining way, very well played, Ser.
Synopsis at 6:18; game begins at 9:49. Break from 3:12:30 to 3:35:40. Game ends at 4:51:52.
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I love how when Laura gets anxious, her Mississippi starts showing
As a Mississippian, it’s so funny to see it happen
I love how keyleth is like "queen of the air elements" but only ever becomes an earth elemental
She originated from an air tribe, but Marisha roleplayed her character’s ability loadout after every step of the Aramente. After completing fire, she started using more fire spells, etc. She’s talked about this before, though maybe not in-game.
She does use a lot of air spells, though. Especially that gust cantrip that’s granted to all Air Ashari according to the campaign guide. It’s just that of all the elementals, earth is the most useful.
Earth elemental is super tanky and has the highest Con mod, giving you the biggest buff to concentration checks. It's a good use of a moon druid's shapeshifting.
@AmishRiot Plus the few times she has gone Air Elemental, Matt has had the enemies completely ignore her and she hasn't done much damage. Keyleths experience is that the Earth Elemental is far more useful than the Air one.
@AmishRiot i guess you should try using more of your brain and figure it out then, like everyone else here
“These last 3-4 years have been the best of my life”, hits different when you know this is Liam speaking IRL.
When Matt said the dracolich was the one that brought them there my heart skipped a beat because I thought it was j’mon.
Meeee tooooooo!
I got so scared that it was J’mon
Same. "The dragon you rode in on" made my blood run cold. I wasn't watching the video when it happened, so I couldn't tell until later that Matt was talking to Joe.
2:34:04 well when you kill someone for the 3rd time you kinda assume they're undead
Not enough experience with dedicated arcane spellcasters. I guess still fair since she's a necromancer in service to an undeath god... but yea.. clone
There was also Hotis who wasnt undead
They've been resurrected how many times?
@ they killed Silas in whitestone too so 3 times for him, so 3 deaths each for them at this point, then there’s dalens closet
On the talks machina for this episode, when Matt said if they went through with killing the people that Vecna left tortured and left behind, as they were leaving, the people with the highest passive perception would notice a familiar face, I started tearing up while driving. So much angst right there.
Literally can not handle the amount of amazing awesomeness in this episode. Joe is a great dnd player and his bro flirting with Travis is just icing on the cake.
Thank you for the great response last week, sadly I wasn't able to complete the timestamps in time so here you have the partially done list (this episode brought many feels + obvious SPOILER ALERT):
2:49 Travis' face...
4:25 Let's dive in!
5:59 "The last we left off..." ( *GAME BEGINS* )
12:09 Scanlan The Priest of Ioun
13:04 Grog's idea
13:43 Who's gonna get cut?
19:33 Splitting the trammels
20:47 Where are the wings?!
25:05 DM dropping a hint #1
27:52 Halp us J'mon!
29:29 Bear fart
39:01 You can never have enough Scanlan! (Scanlan casts Simulacrum)
41:18 Scanlan meets Scanlan
43:51 A somber moment
47:07 Dreams
49:47 It is time to go back
51:41 Back in Thar Amphala
53:47 Enter the dragon(born) aka Guest appears
55:11 Brothers in arms! (Jocks Machina T-shirt)
57:51 "Don't kill this thing!"
1:00:07 Scanlan talks to himself
1:00:26 Arkhan makes a new pet
1:04:29 A moment of recognition
1:08:47 Introduction
1:09:24 Arkhan's story
1:12:19 Ashley rolls temp HP
1:13:55 Sam really just wanted to touch Joe...
1:14:29 A plan to take out the barriers
1:16:19 Sam's mug
1:23:34 "How are you with doors?"
1:23:57 Arkhan shares jerky with Grog (Barbarian Bromance is Brewing)
1:25:17 Liam fails a dex save for the first time in a long time (Matt is happy)
1:27:29 Grog's One Punch
1:31:34 The wall is down
1:32:01 Getting close to Vasselheim!
1:33:54 Dracolich is coming in their way
1:38:25 Briarwoods riding the Dracolich
1:40:21 Really Scanlan?
1:41:00 MAP
1:46:22 It's time to face the Briarwoods!
2:35:30 Vex snipes down Delilah
2:36:16 Gnarly kill and Sylas' reaction
3:09:14 Sylas escapes
3:13:20 *BREAK STARTS*
3:35:05 *BREAK ENDS*
4:33:00 The three figures
4:41:56 THE MOST SINISTER MOMENT
4:43:50 Pike does a medicine check...
4:46:57 What happened?
4:50:12 Death Knight crashes the meeting
4:50:52 Gilmore casts haste on Grog!
4:51:14 Farewell...
4:52:52 *GAME ENDS*
4:54:41 "Next campaign, we don't attack anybody - we talk to everybody"
Jack of Black Phoenix thanks for the time stamps
For a moment I thought orion would return
You're the real hero.
Massively appreciated
would like to add 3:09:40 for Arkhan's totally wicked move on Delilah
Matt: This is it. If you want to burn preparation spells, do it now.
VM arguing for 5 min: Is this it guys, should we burn our prep spells????
Holy crap, Mercer's genius is reaching critical mass. And I'm so glad he let them cast _revivify_ without any resurrection rituals. I would've just died inside if Kaylie had been killed. I'm just speechless otherwise. This episode was incredible and I can't wait for the finale.
You know that with Matt's rules Revivify is the absolute worst resurrection spell, right? It might *seem* better because they don't do the ritual, but did you see Matt rolling dice at that moment? Anything below a 10, Kaylie or Cassandra would be *dead*.
The ritual might seem risky and painful, but it helps lower the DC of the resurrection. With revivify it's just a d20 roll against 10 + how many times target's been dead before.
Oof, I didn't notice that. You're right. Although the rules for _revivify_ have been different in every instance. When Grog died against K'varn, Pike just had to make a Wisdom check. When Kashaw used it on Vex, they had to do a full-blown ritual. I'm not sure whether he added some points for Pike's Wisdom modifier or not.
The need for a resurrection ritual isn't based on spell so much as it's based on conditions. Revivify is the only revival spell that can be used in battle (as per casting times), and resurrections in battle forego resurrection rituals. Anything outside of combat requires a ritual regardless of the spell used, unless there is a time constraint or narrative need for urgency.
This explains why there was no ritual in the K'varn fight (during battle), why there was one with Kash on Vex (out of combat with no sense of urgency), and why there was no ritual for this session (time constraints and a narrative need for urgency)
By Matt's rules, Revivify needs no ritual. *IF* it fails, a ritual ressurection can still be attempted, usually with a better chance of success (due to the others aiding), even though, as a second attempt, the DC goes up 1
You shouldn't be surprised, Mercer is a DM God
VAXILDAN, you don't have to turn on the red light.
You don't have to throw your daggers before the fight.
Most underrated comment.
“But sneak attack doe” - Liam’s brain