SPOILERS for Critical Role Episode 83 (obviously). Go check out the full episode at GeekandSundry.com!
My recap of Episode 82 can be found here.
Vox Machina fights Raishan, the diseased deceiver (again).
Previously on Critical Role
Vox Machina prepared for their battle with Raishan and then transported themselves to the island where they suspected Raishan was hiding. Once they arrived, they fought their way through traps and enemies. Finally, the arrived to the room with Thordak’s corpse, two dragon eggs, and Raishan.
Now
Everyone attempts to sneak into the room. They head into the room, most of them not sneaking as well as they hoped. Raishan continues to flip the pages of her book.
Raishan: “Well, you certainly proved quicker than I anticipated, but I unfortunately have business here, and I would kindly ask you all to leave. The Chroma Conclave has served its purpose as you have served yours. We have nothing more to discuss.”
She continues to turn the pages of her book, never turning to face them.
Pike moves into the center of everyone and casts beacon of hope. Everyone begins to quietly discuss what action to take next. They wonder if Raishan is really in front of them at all, or if it is an illusion.
Raishan: “Whereabouts is your brass pet?”
Vex: “Whereabouts are you?”
Everyone begins to move into more advantageous positions.
Keyleth asks Raishan is she’s found what she was looking for. Raishan answers that she has. Thordak’s original intent, she explains, was lost when he was driven insane. She adds that what Thordak was seeking will cure her illness. Keyleth asks if Raishan can resist the madness Thordak suffered by using the Soul Gem. Raishan laughs and says that the Soul Gem is both too dangerous and destroyed, therefore being of no use to her.
Scanlan pulls out his dog figurine, and activates the magical dog within to help them in the coming battle.
Raishan tells the party that they are able to leave with no consequences.
Keyleth steps forward. She walks closer to Raishan. Kerrek and Grog also advance on Raishan.
Keyleth: “You know, Raishan, you’ve taught me a lot about myself these past few weeks. Arguably more than I’ve learned about myself my entire years of living.”
Raishan: “Good. I’m glad I could enlighten and inspire you in these final moments.”
Keyleth: “Inspiration is a word I guess you could use. I would say more of a cautionary tale. And, in an odd way, I hope I never become you. All those years of long life some may call a blessing. But I’m sure there are many, many lonely moments, and I hope in my darkest of times, I don’t turn to rage and anger and selfish actions the way you did.”
Raishan grows slightly irritated at this, telling Keyleth that she knows nothing of Raishan. The dragon, still in human form, turns around to face Keyleth. She smiles slightly.
Keyleth, still stalling for time, tells Raishan that they would like to renegotiate their deal. She offers a trial instead of death by combat on the island. The people of Emon, she argues, deserve their revenge.
Raishan: “You act as though the laws of the anthill apply to the foot that crushes it.”
Keyleth: “The strength of the colony is greater than an individual with a diseased foot.”
Raishan continues to refuse Keyleth’s offer. Vex casts hunter’s mark on Raishan.
Raishan: “I shall relish closing the final chapter on your brief, pitiful tales, and beginning a fresh new chapter of mine.”
The hunter’s mark takes no effect. Nothing physical stands in the place of the illusion of Raishan.
Vax begins the battle by attacking the eggs. His daggers destroys the first egg.
Vex warns the others that Raishan is not really with them. As she looks around the room, she sees that the books Raishan was going through are part of the illusion as well.
Percy shoots at the final egg with Bad News. The bullet cracks the shell of the egg. As he loads his second shot, he sees something from inside of egg begin to push out through the weakened point. He shoots again, but the second bullet cannot crack the egg’s casing. He shoots again, missing, but his final shot finds its mark. The top of the egg shatters, and the bullet kills the infantile primordial dragon trying to claw its way out.
The human illusion of Raishan bows and then vanishes.
The dog turns around and begins to bark. They feel wind from the flapping of massive wings.
Scanlan uses his horn of fog.
Grog rages and runs over to Thordak. He smashes into the corpse. Burning body parts and gore fly out from the impact of his hammer. He leaps over to the dead baby dragons and smashes them as well.
He hears an intake of breath, but cannot figure out the source. Suddenly, two wraith-like monsters in nearby cages appear and begin to attack Grog.
Kerrek begins to attack the creatures. He attacks using divine smite, almost completely destroying one of the creatures.
Pike feels a warm sensation and loses her hero’s feast.
Kima casts aura of vitality on herself. She readies herself for Raishan’s incoming attack.
Pike casts spiritual weapon into the hallway. She also casts light to help their vision.
Keyleth sees that the gusts of wind from Raishan’s wings are coming from the area near Scanlan’s fog cloud. She casts fairy fire over the cloud. However, her spell fizzles away.
Vax begins to attack the wraiths, throwing his daggers at them.
Vex also sees Raishan in the fog. She attacks with brambleshot, and shifts her hunter’s mark over to Raishan. The attack hits, restraining the dragon. She fires another arrow, but misses Raishan’s invisible form.
Percy casts hex on Raishan.
The room begins to shake. The ceiling shifts. Meteor storm begins, hitting Scanlan, Kerrek, Trinket, Kima, Allura, Pike, and Grog. With Keyleth and Vex avoiding half of the damage. Percy takes the all of the damage, but then his cloak, a vestige which becomes exalted during this attack, absorbs some of the damage for him.
Trinket falls unconscious and goes back into Vex’s necklace. Kerrek also falls unconscious, but has no necklace to go into.
Scanlan watches as the dog turns back into an onyx figurine and flies across the room.
A wraith is also destroyed during this attack.
Scanlan gets up and moves over to heal Allura. However, he passes Raishan, who swipes her claws at him. He uses cutting words to avoid the attack. He then casts healing words on Allura.
He uses Bigby’s hand to punch at Raishan, but misses.
Raishan casts disintegrate towards Pike. Allura quickly attempts to counterspell the attack, but fails. The spells hits Pike with its full force. The tips of her fingers begin to disintegrate. Suddenly, her armor uses its magical effect to bring her back from the brink of death. She does not disintegrate.
Scanlan, Vex, Pike, Vax, Grog, Keyleth, and Allura are all caught in Raishan’s cone of cold. Scanlan, Pike, and Allura all fall unconscious.
Kima heals Kerrek, bringing him back to consciousness.
Keyleth steps up and casts firestorm on Raishan.
Raishan: “Why won’t you all just stay down and die with dignity?”
Vex: “We don’t do anything with dignity!”
Scanlan, still unconscious, wets himself.
Keyleth casts healing word on Pike. She wakes back up.
Vex goes to Scanlan and casts lay on hands, bringing him back up.
Vex casts cure wounds on Allura, bringing her up as well.
Percy attacks Raishan. He shoots at her, and though she is still invisible, his shot finds its mark. The attack is a critical hit. His vestige grants him even more damage in the attack. He then heals, bringing himself back up to full health.
Raishan grows tired of everyone waking and falling back unconscious. She unleashes all of her attacks on Scanlan in retaliation. He weakly uses a cutting words on her. Her first attack misses. However, the next two attacks hit. He falls back unconscious.Raishan flies away.
Shortly after her final attack hits, Scanlan succumbs to his injuries, and dies.
Grog looks around, unsure of to where Raishan flew. He throws his hammer somewhere, somehow still managing to hit Raishan. He enlarges himself, and throws his hammer two more times, hitting again on the last throw.
Vax, Kima, Grog, and Vex all get caught in Raishan’s wing attack. Vex and Grog take all of the damage and are knocked to the ground. Vax and Kima, however, manage to evade the attack. Raishan flies further away, and Vax attacks her as she leaves.
Kerrek runs to head off Raishan. He waits for her to pass him so he can attack.
Kima casts aura of vitality on herself again and heals Kerrek.
Allura stands up and casts dispell magic. Raishan is now visible.
Pike runs over to Scanlan. She tries to cast revivify, but the spell isn’t strong enough. Scanlan remains dead. He cannot be brought back for the rest of the battle. The party must use a ritual of return to bring him back to life.
Keyleth casts feeblemind on Raishan. Raishan loses all of her spells and languages. She can also not activate any magical items.
Vax casts Vow of Enmity on Raishan in addition to attacking her with his daggers.
Vex looses two arrows towards Raishan, both missing. She also casts grasping vines and pulls the dragon to the ground.
Raishan, still able to do some attacks despite feeblemind, flies over to Percy and attacks. However, Kerrek is able to attack once she flies past. He misses both attacks.
The first attack on Percy knocks him unconscious. Percy is unable to survive Raishan ripping into him with her claws. He dies. Kerrek and Kima watch helplessly.
Grog gets up and runs over to Raishan, leaping the final distance between him and the dragon. He attacks her mercilessly with his hammer.
Kerrek runs up to Raishan. He stands over Percy’s body and swings his hammer at Raishan. The attack hits. Divine energy blasts out. Raishan’s face explodes and light blinds everyone for a moment. When the light fades, the head of Kerrek’s hammer has blasted off in the vicious attack, and Raishan slumps over, dead.
In the aftermath of the battle, Kima walks over to Kerrek and squeezes his shoulder.
Kima: “You did what had to be done. Thank you.”
She rushes over to Allura. Kerrek attempts to do what he can for Percy.
Vox Machina tries to collect themselves and eventually realize that two of their number did not survive the fight. Keyleth and Vex rush over to Percy. Vax picks up Scanlan and carries him over to Grog.
Pike quickly tries to cast revivify on Percy. His wounds begin to close. He draws in a breath, and opens his eyes. Vex, still crying, starts to furiously kiss his face.
Percy: “Well, that’s nice.”
Vax calls out for Grog, who rushes over. He sees Scanlan’s corpse in Vax’s arms. Grog begins to demand that someone fix Scanlan like they did Percy.
Keyleth tells Grog that they have to take Scanlan home before they can try to bring him back.
Allura gathers everyone for her teleport spell. Before they leave, Percy drops his gatestone into the room.
Percy: “I’m coming back here to dissect that monster once we’re done.”
Arcane energy briefly swirls around them before fading. They are in the same spot they were before the spell was cast.
They begin to look for a way out. Keyleth sees a door on the other side of the room and runs towards it. The door seems to somehow be locked. She calls Vax over, who starts to look for traps. He doesn’t see any traps, but the door appears to be locked from the other side. Grog, frustrated with everything, punches through the door.
The hallway on the other side has caved in. Keyleth tries to stoneshape through, but meets only more rock.
Pike looks at a magical book in the room. It has a sinister aura. Pike covers it with her scarf and gives it to Grog to put it in the bag of holding. Percy loads other things around the room into it as well.
Keyleth stabs Raishan with her staff. The staff rights itself into a standing position. The disease suddenly spreads throughout the corpse. It attacks the body until it just a husk. The staff falls over.
Keyleth: “That was for Scanlan, from the Ashari, you bitch.”
Pain shoots through Kerrek’s body. He yells out. Vex quickly lassos him with her rope of entanglement and pulls him off of whatever glyph he came across. Allura quickly dispells the magic that caused him pain.
They decide against returning and instead resolve to destroy this place.Vex picks up the Gatestone Percy left as they leave and Keyleth, Percy (with Scanlan’s wand), and Allura all cast fireball to destroy everything else in the laboratory.
They go back upstairs without incident. On their way out, however, they hear laughter. The flaming skulls are back.
They fight the skulls, quickly destroying them all. After Keyleth crushes the final skull, they walk out of the cave. No other monsters follow them out.
They exit the cave. Vex grabs their unmoveable rods, sealing the cave behind them. Allura says they can go back to Greyskull Keep with her teleportation circle. She draws the circle and steps into it. She vanishes instantly. Kima is about to get onto the circle as well and hesitates.
Kima: “It doesn’t look like that usually.”
Everyone asks her what she means, but she quickly moves into the circle as well, vanishing.
The remaining party members do not know arcana well enough to decipher Kima’s final words. Percy, however, notices that there is a strange flicker to the circle. Something about the mountain has an impact on the transportation spell.
Before they can debate further, the spell closes. They walk to the beach to use travel via plants. Keyleth hops on the carpet to concentrate in order to scry on Kima and Allura. Pike heals the party members as they walk.
Keyleth lays back on the carpet as she casts the spell. Her vision shifts and she finds herself in open water. Kima is treading water and calling out for Allura. Allura swims over to her. Night falls. They hold onto each other.
Allura: “It’s all right. We’re alive. I don’t know where we are, but we’ll figure this out.”
Keyleth’s vision shifts back to her. She tells the party that Kima and Allura are somewhere out in the ocean. She begins to panic, realizing that they can’t help them in their current state. The party reassures her that Gilmore will help get them back.
When they reach the beach, they scan the ocean to see if they can spot Kima and Allura. Amazingly, Keyleth is able to spot them out in the ocean. Vex flies on her broom out into the ocean in the direction Keyleth is pointing. Vex manages to find them.
Allura uses all of her strength to hold herself and Kima onto the broom. She begins to lose her grip, exhausted from being out in the ocean for so long. Percy rushes towards them on the carpet. Seeing this, Allura quickly uses dimension door to drop them both off on the carpet as soon as he gets into range.
Through everyone’s amazing feats, they manage to get Kima and Allura back safely onto the beach. Allura points out that this is likely the reason why many who came to investigate the island never came back.
Keyleth casts transport via plants. They peer through the tree. It appears to be Whitestone.
The group quickly runs through the tree. They rush towards the castle to get to the temple of the Raven Queen. Keyleth scrys on Scanlan’s daughter. She sees her in a tavern in Kymal, heckling a group of performers. Keyleth screams through the spell, trying to reach Kaylie, but it has no effect.
Vex runs to find Gilmore. She begs him to send them to Kymal, but he does not know of a sigil there. Vex tells them that Scanlan has died. Despite the sad news, he still cannot transport them. He goes off to search for resources.
Pike begins to prepare a resurrection ritual.
Vax lays Scanlan down in the center of the temple. He cleans up his body. Grog waits outside the temple, unsure if he is able to go in.
Vax speaks to the Raven Queen.
Vax: “If it is his time, then I can accept that it is his time. But he just did an awful lot for you. That dragon was tampering with your ways, and without him, we would not have gotten as far as we have. He has done a lot for you. This isn’t even bargaining anymore. I’m yours. I’m not bargaining. But this little man has more heart in his chest than any man I’ve met. And if there is anyone who deserves a second chance…”
Vax trails off. He accepts within himself the possibility that this will not be the Raven Queen’s will.
Outside of the temple, Keyleth places a hand on each one of Grog’s massive shoulders. She reminds Grog that he was closer to Scanlan than anyone else. She tells him that if he goes into the temple and talks to Scanlan, they may still be able to reach him.
Grog heads into the temple.
Gilmore argues with guards about not letting him into the ziggurat to speak with Eskil. Percy orders them to let him into any room that he needs. They go off. Eskil is in the room. Vex asks if he can send her to Kymal. He says that he can, but questions why. Gilmore vouches for her. He says they’ll be back the next day and casts the spell.
They appear on a cobblestone street. They ask around for the worst performers in the city. They walk into the tavern and immediately spot Kaylie, ready to pass out onto the table. Eskil gets them two rooms, insisting Vex pay for them.
Vex slaps Kaylie awake. She tells her that she needs to speak with her about her father. Kaylie continues to fight her off, but Vex holds her up to eye level.
Vex: “Your father… he died. But there’s a chance we can bring him back with your help.”
Kaylie: “That sounds like my father.”
Kaylie says that she is still not sure how she is supposed to help. Vex puts her on the table so they are still eye level with each other. Vex says that she understands what it is like to have an absent father. She tells Kaylie that all of Scanlan’s heart was with her, and it was not worth harboring hate towards her father.
Vex: “If you can find it in yourself to forgive him, you’ll live a much happier life.”
Kaylie: “I really don’t know what you think I can do, but I’d like to see his body before you put it in dirt.”
Vex hands her the gate stone and tells her to concentrate on Scanlan. She takes the stone and vanishes.
To be continued…
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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.
