SPOILERS for Critical Role Episode 80 (obviously). Go check out the full episode at GeekandSundry.com!
My recap of Episode 79 can be found here.
Vox Machina fights Raishan, The Diseased Deceiver.
Previously on Critical Role
Vox Machina and friends engaged in a battle with Thordak, the Cinder King. Vex shattered the gem in his chest, shrinking him back to his normal size. Vax, while Thordak was retreating to his lair, managed to slay the dragon. Raishan, who kept her promise to not betray Vox Machina during the battle, followed as well. She cast a mysterious spell that looked similar to speak with dead and then retreated further into the lair. Keyleth, Vax, and Vex followed, only for Keyleth and Vex to get caught in a meteor shower, taking damage from the spell.
Now
Raishan pulls herself up into a tunnel of volcanic exhaust. Percy, Scanlan, Pike, and Gilmore rush down the tunnel towards the twins and Keyleth. Grog, Kima, and Jarrett (who refuses to go into the tunnels) stay above ground to fight the remaining enemies.
Percy rushes towards the room where Raishan is executing her meteor attack. He uses spider climb to run on the walls to avoid any obstacles.
Thordak’s lair, despite Thordak’s death, continues to impose dangers upon the party. Lava sprays from the ground, hitting Vex and Keyleth but avoiding Vax. Raishan curls up into one of the exhaust tunnels and mutters an incantation. Her form vanishes.
Keyleth, not knowing where Raishan may have moved to after turning invisible, turns herself into a fire elemental and casts call lightning.
Vex hops on her broom and takes a healing potions. She heads towards the entrance, hovering 10 feet off the ground. She looks around for Raishan, but doesn’t see any trace of the dragon. She does notice, however, that one of the dragon eggs has been destroyed. She suddenly feels a warm breeze pass through her.
Vax, while running past his sister, passes her another healing potion. He also stabs another dragon egg. A dark liquid begins to ooze of out the egg. Using Whisper, he stabs it again. The egg cracks and more liquid spills out. Vax has punctured an amniotic sack, but no creature yet. He flys up and away.
Grog and Kima, finished with their fight, run into the tunnel. Grog, carrying Pike, quickly passes Kima due to his giant form.
Vax also feels the warm wind as he flies through the lair.
Percy enters into the cave with the twins and Keyleth. He sees a giant storm cloud, a fire elemental (he recognizes it as Keyleth), and the rivers of lava.
A fissure opens up and lets out a plume of poisonous gas. Vex is caught in the cloud.
Percy also feels the warm wind.
They hear movement above them, but cannot see it through the storm clouds and ash.
Keyleth moves over to the egg that Vax stabbed, and attempts to finish destroying the creature within it. She punches in once and hit something dense. After pulling back, she punches again and pulls out the snout of a baby dragon bearing a striking resemblance to Thordak. However, this creature is made from primordial fire and rock. It’s not a type of dragon that they’ve ever seen before. The fetal dragon is limp in her grasp.
Gilmore rushes into the room. Grog runs in after him and smacks him on the butt, nearly dislocating his hip.
Grog: “COME ON, SHAUN!”
Gilmore: “I’ll charge you later.”
Vex, still caught in the gas cloud, has a coughing fit. She isn’t harmed by the gas, but she is unable to take any actions due to the immense coughing fit.
Grog feels the warm wind.
Pike jumps off of Grog’s back, and casts beacon of hope. However, a burst of blue arcane energy surround her, and the spell fizzles out.
Scanlan runs into the room.
Scanlan: “Where’s Raishan?!”
Grog: “I just got here, so I don’t know.”
In response, Vex coughs hysterically and Keyleth makes noises in her elemental form. They both gesture vaguely towards the ceiling. This gets the message across to Scanlan, who heals himself in preparation for the coming battle.
Percy, still using spider climb, shoots a nearby dragon egg.
The room suddenly begins to shake, and pieces of rock fall from the ceiling. Everyone who isn’t flying (Vex, Vax, and Keyleth), suddenly find themselves having to avoid the falling debris. Pike and Grog tumble backwards after loosing their footing from the tremors.
A transparent dragon’s form breaks through the storm clouds above. Raishan mutters another spell. Grog, Pike, and Vex are all hit by the spell. Everything goes grey and their breath is drawn from their lungs as they feel their life force being drawn out of them. Vex falls unconscious. Pike almost meets the same fate, but her armor saves her from being knocked out.
Keyleth, seeing the outline of Raishan’s form in the storm cloud, arcs lightning towards her. Though the lightning clearly does damage to her, she remains invisible. Keyleth moves over to an egg and notices that another egg has been destroyed in the rubble.
Gilmore, seeing Vex go down, casts another spell towards Raishan.
Gilmore: “Not today. Not ever!”
The spell successfully hits. Raishan becomes visible again, suffering the effects of dispel magic.
Grog runs over to Vex and pours a healing potion into her mouth. She is revived.
Vex, awake from the healing potion, lifts herself to her knees and looses arrows towards Raishan. The first one misses, but the second one hits and sticks into the side of her neck.
Vax then flies up towards Raishan with the dragon slayer sword. He aims towards Riashan’s mouth, hoping to sever her tongue. As he flys towards her, she snaps at him, and he uses the opportunity to shove the sword into her mouth. It punctures her gums between her teeth. She retaliates, but he uses uncanny dodge to avoid half of the damage from the attack.
Kima finally arrives into the battle.
Pike casts flame strike on the ceiling where Raishan is retreating into a hole. The spell hits Raishan, but she blocks half of the damage. She then heals herself.
Scanlan moves more into the room. He finally pulls out the flute (which will summon J’mon, a brass dragon) and begins to play. The trilling whistles of the flute sound through the battlefield. The flute turns from a brilliant brass to a tarnished dingy metal. He also heals Pike with healing word.
Thr ground splits beneath Grog’s feet, and more lava comes spurting out, hitting Grog, Pike, Scanlan, and Vex. Pike is resistant to the fire damage, and everyone else manages to avoid some of the lava.
Raishan unleashes a flurry of attacks on Vax. She bites and claws at him and swings at him with her tail. When she bites him, he becomes poisoned, and realizes that, during some point in the battle, she dispelled the effects of hero’s feast. Vax goes limp after getting knocked out by Raishan’s attacks, and goes into a free fall. He lands, narrowly missing the lava. His wings, now broken, curl in to his armor and vanish.
Raishan flys over the lava and faces the rest of the party.
Raishan: “You’re next.”
Scanlan: “Can you be more specific? Who is next? We didn’t see who you were looking at over here.”
Keyleth hits Raishan again with lightning from the storm cloud. Keyleth then, in her fire elemental form, nudges Vax away from the river of lava. She is careful to not damage him further in the process.
Raishan begins to form a colorful geometric sigil in the air. As power begins to shoot out from the sigil, Scanlan attempts to use counterspell to stop the effects. Raishan’s spell fizzles out.
Gilmore runs up to Raishan and casts a spell. Using blight, he spreads the disease further into her body.
Grog attaches his axe to the chain of returning and throws it at Raishan.
Grog: “Catchphrase!”
The axe sticks in near her collarbone. He rips it out, and the axe returns to him. She flys, more quickly than before.
Scanlan feels a warm, tingly sensation throughout his body. The effects he had from hero’s feast are gone.
Vex flies over to her brother and heals him. Vax wakes up. She flies in the opposite direction of Raishan and takes another healing potion.
Kima casts cure wounds on Pike.
A flash of light comes from the tunnel behind them. Brass talons claw their way into the room.
J’mon: “I was wondering when you would call.”
Scanlan: “Glad you came. Happy to see you.”
J’mon releases a breath attack up towards Raishan.
Pike casts mass healing word, and heals herself, Grog, Vex, Vax, Percy, and Scanlan.
Scanlan begins to mutter an incantation and thrusts his hips forward at the climax of his utterings. Energy shoots from his crotch, hitting Raishan.
As the battle continues, another cloud of gas comes up from the ground, throwing Scanlan into coughing fits.
Gilmore, J’mon, Vax, Vex, and Scanlan all find themselves caught in another of Raishan’s attacks. Scanlan, J’mon, and Gilmore manage to cling onto consciousness, but the twins are not so lucky. Vex falls off her broom.
Raishan then flys away, picking up two eggs in the process.
Keyleth moves closer to the twins, dropping her fire elemental form. She pulls out her spire of conflux and casts chain lightning, attempting to hit the two eggs in addition to Raishan. She hits all three, but does not see a visual effect on the eggs. She then casts healing word on Vax.
Raishan, in return, casts cone of cold on Kima, J’mon, Scanlan, Pike, Vax, and Vex. Vax falls unconscious again, along with Pike and Scanlan.
Gilmore, seeing four of his allies unconscious, casts lightning bolt towards Raishan.
Raishan casts Melf’s acid arrow at Gilmore. The spells knocks him out as well.
Grog runs over to Pike and gives her a healing potion, reviving her.
Vex, laying at the battlefield amidst rubble and the unconscious forms of her friends and brother, succumbs to her wounds and dies.
Kima looks at all of her unconscious allies and Vex’s lifeless body. She throws her sword to the side and casts cure wounds on Gilmore. She picks her sword back up and charges towards Raishan. J’mon follows her lead and rushes Raishan as well, unleashing a fury of attacks. All of the attacks miss.
Pike uses her sprinter’s boots to get up and rush over to Vex. She kisses her on the forehead.
Pike: “Not like this, buddy.”
She casts revivify on Vex’s body. If the spell is successful, Vex will be revived. Pike grabs a dagger out of Vex’s belt and cuts off a lock of her hair. She presses it into Vex’s hand.
Pike: “It’s not time. It’s not time for you.”
The glow from Pike’s armor centralizes into her holy symbol and then flows down her arms towards Vex. The light around Vex darkens before returning to normal. Vex draws in a breath, returning to life.
Percy fires his guns at Raishan. One jams, but with the other, he hits twice. Lava burst from the ground once more. Vex falls unconscious once again.
Raishan turns and casts cone of cold once again. Pike falls unconscious. It hits Scanlan, freezing him in place despite the high temperatures. Unable to resist the spell’s effects, he dies.
Raishan: “Well, I’m afraid I’ll have to get to the rest of my day. Die amongst your friends as you should.”
Raishan quickly flys away. However, as she begins to leave, J’mon bites her, sinking their teeth in. As Raishan pulls away, J’mon takes a chunk out of her neck. Raishan disappears into the darkness and ash.
Keyleth quickly tries to cast wall of stone before Raishan can escape, but Raishan is already too far away. Instead, she tries to leap across the river of lava to everyone else. However, she trips and lands face first into the river.
She pulls herself out of the lava and onto the other side of the river. She reaches over to Vax and does healing word.
Gilmore gets up and looks around. He rushes after Raishan. Suddenly, he hits an invisible forcefield, preventing him from moving forward. In frustration, he slams his fists against it.
Gilmore: “Of course. Of course. Of course.”
Keyleth asks J’mon if she knows what Raishan might be doing. Percy interrupts that she’s probably talking to Thordak, whose corpse she had recently cast an unknown spell on. The party speculated at the time that she had cast speak with dead.
Grog quickly gives Pike another potion. Everyone who can regains consciousness from potions and spells. They beat on the barrier. Kima swings her sword against it. Divine energy clashes against the invisible wall.
J’mon: “This magic holds.”
They push Kima and Gilmore aside before unleashing their breath attack. The flames split against the barrier, to no effect.
Pike rushes over to Scanlan. She puts her hands on either side of his face.
Pike: “Scanlan, your letter to me was wonderful, and I want to do what you’ve asked. But I can’t raise Kaylie alone. I need you to come back.”
She casts revivify on Scanlan. The ice that has formed around him begins to dissipate into mist. Blood begins to flow through his veins once more. Scanlan regains consciousness and opens his eyes to see Pike’s face looking down at him. Tears fall down her face.
Scanlan: “Don’t cry. I’m just a little cold.”
Pike: “Does anyone have a blanket?”
Scanlan: “Just hold me.”
They continue to try to find ways around the barrier. They beat against it and try to magically avoid it.
Grog crushes one of the eggs. He takes a piece of the fetal dragon and throws it at the barrier. It passes through without being impeded.
Vax walks towards the barrier. He is now able to move through it. Keyleth quickly suggests that they not attack Raishan while this weakened, but Percy tells her it’s too late. They must attack now. They run through the tunnel.
The tunnel is empty. Both Raishan and Thordak’s corpse are missing.
To be continued…
Episode 81 – “What Lies Beneath the Surface”
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About the Artist: Nick Uroseva (@Nick_Uroseva)
Nick is a professional graphic artist from Youngstown, Ohio. He has a BA in Multimedia Technology. When he isn’t doodling for one thing or another, he spends is his time writing and Dungeon Mastering several D&D games, enjoying craft beer, shooting zombies with Nerf blasters, and tweeting about #CriticalRole.
