Welcome to the first of my Critical Role recaps! This is a new weekly feature here at EN World that will follow the Dungeons & Dragons campaigns streamed via the Critical Role channels on YouTube, Twitch and the enhanced offerings on Geek & Sundry streaming service, Alpha.
This was a combat-heavy episode, starting where the previous episode left off. The fight against the gnolls in the mine had ended when a cry of "My baby!" was heard from another part of the mine. The party doesn't have time to rest and rushes toward the voice. They find knolls -- both undead (witherlings) and living -- preparing to eat a young boy.
Khary Payton is invited to the table, the first guest player of the campaign. He is probably best-known for playing King Ezekiel on The Walking Dead, but also is a prolific voice actor who has been heard in many animated series and video games.
Payton entered and declared that this initiative roll was the first time he had rolled this d20. He rolls a 1. "One of us!" the others cheer. He is playing Shakäste, a human cleric of the tempest domain. The charcter is a black man with snowy white hair, a pointy white beard, and completely white eyes. Shakäste is blind and carries a reed-like cane. He also has a familiar: a black hummingbird who he introduces as the Grand Duchess Anastasia, or Stacy. He can see through her eyes, and she helpfully has darkvision. (It was never stated how a cleric has a familiar. Did he take the Magic Initiate feat? His level was unclear.)
A fight ensues. The gnolls and hyenas are killed. The child is injured but stabilized by Jester.
The group finds the boy's mother and another survivor, and take them back to the surface. Shakäste has a safe shack nearby where he brought four other survivors after rescuing them. They all were taken during the Alfield raid.
The group returns to the mine and encounters even more knolls. Map #2 is brought out. Another fight ensues against gnolls, witherlings, and a Pack Lord. Once they are defeated, it's time for the break!
Nott picks Shakäste's pocket while he is busy viewing through Anastasia. He feels her take his purse, but chooses not to say anything. Through Anastasia, Shakäste sees one of the Crownsguard from Alfield, now a prisoner, dragged in front of a priestly figure. There's a manticore, with her baby manticore in a nest. The manticore eats the Crownsguard. Two prisoners are left, tied-up civilians taken from Alfield. The monster has been receiving a series of human sacrifices for about an hour at this point. Map #3 comes out.
There's a brief planning huddle. The goal is to rescue the prisoners and either kill all the baddies or trap them underground. Shakäste already had collapsed one tunnel on a bunch of baddies before meeting the party.
The fight begins. Nott unties the prisoners with Mage Hand. The priest casts Hold Person on Fjord. Molly isn't able to do much damage, but repeatedly uses Vicious Mockery to give the baddies disadvantage. Shakäste casts Spiritual Weapon, which takes the form of a giant marble bust of Estelle Getty.
To distract the mama manticore, Nott runs up to the baby and yells, "You want to save this thing?" Nott stabs the baby manticore with her shortsword. She auto-crits since it's a defenseless infant, killing it in one shot. The enraged manticore attacks her, reducing Nott to 1 HP. Beau goes to grab her away, but the manticore bites again and Nott falls unconscious.
The priest knocks Jester out. Shakäste Sacred Flames the priest, who drops his Hold Person on Fjord. Fjord feeds Jester a healing potion, so she wakes up and casts Healing Word on Nott.
Nott casts Tasha's Hideous Laughter on the manticore with a terrible riddle. It fails its save and falls prone. Caleb kills the priest by setting his head aflame with Fire Bolt. However, Caleb fails a Wisdom saving throw and zones out, staring into the fire while flooded with unspecified memories. "Backstory…" most of the table whispers.
Shakäste continues the Critical Role tradition of guest stars getting the "How do you want to do this?" He kills the laughter-incapacitated manticore using Sacred Flame, which explodes dramatically from her chest.
Molly slaps Caleb out of his daze.
Mollymauk: Are you alright?
Caleb: ...yes?
Molly kisses him on the forehead and walks away.
Looting the priest's body, they find night-vision goggles and a gem. Fjord also finds a ring, a fancy-looking stick, and manticore-sized manacles with runes pressed into them.
Shakäste whispers to Nott that he figures she earned the gold she took from him, but she should watch where she puts her fingers.
Fjord and Molly lop the head off the manticore. Beau and Molly each guide a dazed Caleb out of the mine.
They go back to the shack, reunite the survivors, and head back to Alfield. Back in town, Bryce asks what the group calls themselves.
Everyone: "Uhhhhhhhhh…"
Fjord: "The TBDs."
The town throws a celebration for the group of heroes and the survivors' return.
Caleb takes Nott's hand. Nott slips Shakäste's purse into his pocket.
Nott: I got you some book money.
Shakäste slips away, uses the reed to draw a sigil in the dirt, and disappears. End of session.
Play of the Game
Nott oneshots a baby manticore in front of its mother.
Episode Notes
On two occasions during this episode, Matt rolled a natural 20 for a monster to hit a player, then rolled a 1 on the damage die. He expressed his disappointment.
Khary Payton brought a d20 sent by Will Friedle. Wil Wheaton had touched it, so they treated it like it was radioactive. They promised to destroy it like the One Ring in Mount Doom, and post a video of the destruction online.
Critical News
Issue #5 of the Vox Machina Origins comic book will be released digitally on Wednesday, March 7. A limited run of 1,000 print copies of Issue #1 will be for sale at the Dark Horse Comics booth at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle next week.
contributed by Annie Bulloch
This was a combat-heavy episode, starting where the previous episode left off. The fight against the gnolls in the mine had ended when a cry of "My baby!" was heard from another part of the mine. The party doesn't have time to rest and rushes toward the voice. They find knolls -- both undead (witherlings) and living -- preparing to eat a young boy.
Khary Payton is invited to the table, the first guest player of the campaign. He is probably best-known for playing King Ezekiel on The Walking Dead, but also is a prolific voice actor who has been heard in many animated series and video games.
Payton entered and declared that this initiative roll was the first time he had rolled this d20. He rolls a 1. "One of us!" the others cheer. He is playing Shakäste, a human cleric of the tempest domain. The charcter is a black man with snowy white hair, a pointy white beard, and completely white eyes. Shakäste is blind and carries a reed-like cane. He also has a familiar: a black hummingbird who he introduces as the Grand Duchess Anastasia, or Stacy. He can see through her eyes, and she helpfully has darkvision. (It was never stated how a cleric has a familiar. Did he take the Magic Initiate feat? His level was unclear.)
A fight ensues. The gnolls and hyenas are killed. The child is injured but stabilized by Jester.
The group finds the boy's mother and another survivor, and take them back to the surface. Shakäste has a safe shack nearby where he brought four other survivors after rescuing them. They all were taken during the Alfield raid.
The group returns to the mine and encounters even more knolls. Map #2 is brought out. Another fight ensues against gnolls, witherlings, and a Pack Lord. Once they are defeated, it's time for the break!
Nott picks Shakäste's pocket while he is busy viewing through Anastasia. He feels her take his purse, but chooses not to say anything. Through Anastasia, Shakäste sees one of the Crownsguard from Alfield, now a prisoner, dragged in front of a priestly figure. There's a manticore, with her baby manticore in a nest. The manticore eats the Crownsguard. Two prisoners are left, tied-up civilians taken from Alfield. The monster has been receiving a series of human sacrifices for about an hour at this point. Map #3 comes out.
There's a brief planning huddle. The goal is to rescue the prisoners and either kill all the baddies or trap them underground. Shakäste already had collapsed one tunnel on a bunch of baddies before meeting the party.
The fight begins. Nott unties the prisoners with Mage Hand. The priest casts Hold Person on Fjord. Molly isn't able to do much damage, but repeatedly uses Vicious Mockery to give the baddies disadvantage. Shakäste casts Spiritual Weapon, which takes the form of a giant marble bust of Estelle Getty.
To distract the mama manticore, Nott runs up to the baby and yells, "You want to save this thing?" Nott stabs the baby manticore with her shortsword. She auto-crits since it's a defenseless infant, killing it in one shot. The enraged manticore attacks her, reducing Nott to 1 HP. Beau goes to grab her away, but the manticore bites again and Nott falls unconscious.
The priest knocks Jester out. Shakäste Sacred Flames the priest, who drops his Hold Person on Fjord. Fjord feeds Jester a healing potion, so she wakes up and casts Healing Word on Nott.
Nott casts Tasha's Hideous Laughter on the manticore with a terrible riddle. It fails its save and falls prone. Caleb kills the priest by setting his head aflame with Fire Bolt. However, Caleb fails a Wisdom saving throw and zones out, staring into the fire while flooded with unspecified memories. "Backstory…" most of the table whispers.
Shakäste continues the Critical Role tradition of guest stars getting the "How do you want to do this?" He kills the laughter-incapacitated manticore using Sacred Flame, which explodes dramatically from her chest.
Molly slaps Caleb out of his daze.
Mollymauk: Are you alright?
Caleb: ...yes?
Molly kisses him on the forehead and walks away.
Looting the priest's body, they find night-vision goggles and a gem. Fjord also finds a ring, a fancy-looking stick, and manticore-sized manacles with runes pressed into them.
Shakäste whispers to Nott that he figures she earned the gold she took from him, but she should watch where she puts her fingers.
Fjord and Molly lop the head off the manticore. Beau and Molly each guide a dazed Caleb out of the mine.
They go back to the shack, reunite the survivors, and head back to Alfield. Back in town, Bryce asks what the group calls themselves.
Everyone: "Uhhhhhhhhh…"
Fjord: "The TBDs."
The town throws a celebration for the group of heroes and the survivors' return.
Caleb takes Nott's hand. Nott slips Shakäste's purse into his pocket.
Nott: I got you some book money.
Shakäste slips away, uses the reed to draw a sigil in the dirt, and disappears. End of session.
Play of the Game
Nott oneshots a baby manticore in front of its mother.
Episode Notes
On two occasions during this episode, Matt rolled a natural 20 for a monster to hit a player, then rolled a 1 on the damage die. He expressed his disappointment.
Khary Payton brought a d20 sent by Will Friedle. Wil Wheaton had touched it, so they treated it like it was radioactive. They promised to destroy it like the One Ring in Mount Doom, and post a video of the destruction online.
Critical News
Issue #5 of the Vox Machina Origins comic book will be released digitally on Wednesday, March 7. A limited run of 1,000 print copies of Issue #1 will be for sale at the Dark Horse Comics booth at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle next week.
contributed by Annie Bulloch
