SPOILERS for Critical Role Episode 71 (obviously). Go check out the full episode at GeekandSundry.com!
My recap of Episode 70 can be found here.
Vox Machina executes a plan.
Previously on Critical Role
Raishan, previously disguised as Seeker Asum, asks the party for their help in defeating the Cinder King. They agree to a temporary alliance until they defeat the white dragon Vorugal, who is also a part of the Chroma Conclave. The party prepares to teleport to Draconia using the gate spell scroll.
Now
Vex wakes Scanlan in the night. She asks him if he really thinks its wise that they immediately teleport themselves to Draconia and suggests that they wait another day. She elaborates, saying that they should attempt to spy on Vorugal. She also adds that Percy could use another day to recover.
The party, sans Percy, who is asleep, discusses this. They wonder if Tooma and the Ravinites would also benefit from waiting and being briefed another day. Ultimately, they decide to wait.
Vex, Scanlan, and Vax, polymorphed into an albino crow, leave to consult with Tooma. They leave all of their vestiges with Keyleth, seeing as Scanlan and Vax were not permitted to bring them in to see Tooma previously. The group flies out on the broom under the cover of invisibility. The snow is falling thickly, but they manage to find the cavern entrance.
Scanlan warns Vex that Tooma will likely be very upset with them. They drop invisibility and head over to the guards. The guards are unhappy with the now second request to see Tooma in the same night. They tell them to make it quick. The guards wake Tooma.
Vex apologizes for waking Tooma and explains that Vax gave her wrong information and the attack is in two days, not the next day. She grumpily tells the guards to inform the others to wait a day. She asks Vex what is to be done. Vex explains that they will be releasing a beast to bait the dragon, and that Tooma’s role is to tell Vorugal about the “hunt”. She goes on to say that hopefully Vorugal will kill the goristro, but be significantly weakened. That, she explains, is when they will attack and kill the white dragon.
Tooma tells them that one of her soldiers will inform Vorugal of the goristro. She also warns that if non-Ravinites are seen by Vorugal, they will likely be attacked. They thank Tooma for her understanding and leave.
They make their way back to Scanlan’s mansion. Vax’s polymoph expires and he pops back into his normal shape and faceplants in the snow. The trio enter the mansion to find Keyelth playing with the vestiges that were left with her.
Vex angrily takes Fenthras off of her.
They debate on how to fetch Pike, and decide to have Keyleth use the gatestone to teleport back to Whitestone. She appears in her bedroom while Pike is praying.
Keyleth: “I’m glad you weren’t on the toilet!”
Pike: “Me too!”
Keyleth and Pike make their way to the Suntree. On the way, Keyleth explains their plan. They transport via plants back to the mansion. They exit one of the trees about 150 feet away from the mansion. They attempt to sneak quietly to the door. However, on their way there, Pike triggers an avalanche and blankets of snow and rock begin falling away from the cliff beneath their feet.
Pike begins to slide off of the edge of the ravine, but Keyleth quickly casts grasping vines. Part of the mountain crashes onto the ground below. The hear the grumble of Vorugal beginning to wake up in the distance. Pike and Keyleth sprint back to the mansion.
They get inside and tell the party what happened. Grog throws the dust of tracelessness out of the door to cover their footprints and quickly shuts the door. He hears Vorugal roar again.
Eventually, Percy wakes up. Though he isn’t fully recovered, he is doing better than he was. The party decides that they want to scout out the ravine without Vorugal seeing them. Keyleth suggests they use animal shapes. This will temporarily turn them all into the animals of her choosing. Grog points out there there have been very few animals in the ravine. Scanlan suggests they use wind walk instead.
While they are arguing, Vax pulls out the dagger Whisper and throws it at a wall. Using the power of the dagger, he immediately teleports to its location.
Vex: “That was really cool.”
Scanlan asks if he teleports with it every time. Vax throws the dagger at the wall next to Scanlan’s head. It sticks in the wall for a second and then teleports back on Vax’s blinkback belt like his other daggers.
Keyleth brings their attention back to the plan. She still wants to turn everyone into animals, but is convinced to use wind walk instead. They head out into the ravine disguised as mist. Kima declines to join them, opting to stay behind and raid the kitchen and use the training room.
Kima: “I LOVE CHICKEN!”
They travel to the ravine. Keyleth wants to check out the stone circle, but Scanlan insists they stay in the lower areas of the ravine. Vex and Pike lead the way.
They circle the ravine that Vorugal has made into his lair. Vorugal lays sleeping at the bottom. They follow the winds as they scout so as to not raise suspicion. Vex notices an area where the ravine is caved in, as though many fights have been there. Several rocks form an oval shape at the bottom of the pit. She realizes that this is likely the place Tooma had suggested. She goes down to investigate the area.
What she sees confirms that many fights have happened here. There are dragon claw marks deep in the walls and skeletons litter the ground. Percy goes to the top of the ravine. He searches for any more signs of life. Other than a few hawks and small critters, he finds nothing.
Percy and Scanlan go behind one of the rocks and remove their mist form. Percy tells him that they should dig a hole so Scanlan can hide after he casts gate to summon the goristro. Scanlan counters by suggesting they simply summon another mansion in this location. They agree that they should bring the mansion there that night, but also that there should be several holes and tunnels for them to hide in anyway.
Keyleth comes over to them and also drops her mist form. They explain their plan to her and she casts commune with nature to get a better sense of the ravine. First, she asks about the geological makeup of the ravine. She finds that it is mostly stone with a thin layer of ice on top. She concludes that the avalanche she and Pike started was unusual. Her next question is about the weather forecast. The spell lets her know that there is an incoming sleet storm that will cause low temperatures and low visibility. Finally, she asks if Raishan is nearby. She is, but Keyleth doesn’t know her exact location. As she dwells on the last question, she finds that Raishan is on the south side of the ravine, close to the ruins of Draconia.
Pike and Scanlan use mist form to travel back to the mansion to retrieve Kima. They have Kima use the gatestone and mist form back. Vex stays on the lookout for Vorugal. She doesn’t see anything out of place. They all go back into their mist forms. They see Vorugal fly west. Vex tells them that they should dig now since Vorugal is gone.
Keyleth tries to use move earth to make some holes in the walls, but it does not work on stone. She instead uses wall of stone to make snipers perches halfway up the ravine wall for Percy and Vex to shot from. Keyleth, Vex, and Percy all help disguises them so it cannot be seen from the air.
Kima: “Uhhh, are you expecting someone?”
They see a stout dwarf walk over to them. At first they are on guard, but when he comes over, he reveals that his name is Larkin and they hired him to help fight the dragon. Scanlan has no recollection of this, and questions the dwarf. Keyelth kicks him. The party slowly pieces together that this is Raishan’s new guise.
She tells them that she will be providing distance from afar. Scanlan asks about perhaps hobbling the dragon’s lair while it is away. Raishan advises that the party shouldn’t go into the dragon’s lair if they don’t know when it will return.
From a distance, Vex hears Vorugal returning. Scanlan quickly summons the mansion again, and they retreat into it but leave Larkin outside. Kima immediately says that she does not trust Larkin. The rest of the party says she shouldn’t.
Vax: “And we still have no fucking clue were Raishan is!”
Vex: “Larking is Raishan….really!?
Percy: “Oh god, we are going to die!”
The party and Kima spend the rest of the night resting in the mansion. Pike prepares a heroes feast for the party. They feast on something that isn’t chicken for the first time in a while. Keyleth suggests spying on Raishan, but Percy points out that she likely has protection against that.
The next morning they begin preparing for the battle. They decide have Scanlan cast seeming to disguise themselves into Ravinites so as to not attract the attention of Vorugal.
The party argues about when to release the goristro. As they do this, several dragonborn head over to them. Skorc, the leader, tells them that Tooma sent him and asks when to tell Vorugal the hunt is on. They tell him to tell Vorugal immediately and begin to prepare for the attack.
When Scanlan hears wings flapping, he casts gate. This is the spell upon which their entire plan is based. The spell written on the scroll begins to glow blue as Scanlan makes an attempt to cast it. Scanlan, putting all of his concentration into the spell, manages to open the portal to summon Yenk, the goristro, and the scroll ignites and turns into ash at the conclusion of the spell.
Yenk falls out of the portal, disoriented by his sudden appearance on this new plane. Scanlan closes the gate.
Scanlan tries to sneak back into the mansion, but the goristro spots him. Yenk stumbles as Scanlan as Scanlan sings to him and casts dominate monster. The spell is successful. Scanlan instructs the goristro to kill the white dragon. He then goes to hide in the mansion.
Vorugal swoops down and unleashes an ice blast on the goristro. In revenge, Yenk stabs at Vorugal with his horns, but Vorugal manages to evade his attack. Vorugal then knocks Yenk prone. When he gets back up, he is no longer under Scanlan’s control. However, he is still unable to hit the dragon.
Vorugal manages to get in a few more hits before Yenk finally hits him back. Vorugal, however, keeps Yenk at a distance. Vax joins the fray.
Vax throws Whisper at Vorugal in a sneak attack. Vorugal was caught off-guard by this and is pretty injured by Vax’s attack. Vax then attempts to teleport away, but is unable to before Vorugal hits him in retaliation. Yenk begins climbing the ravine wall but notices Percy in his perch and attacks as he passes.
Scanlan says to the party that they must all enter the fight and defeat both Vorugal and Yenk. They file out of the mansion and join the fray. They spot Raishan, disguised as Larkin emerge from across the ravine as well. Everyone begins to fight. Pike, using Divine Intervention, asks her goddess, Sarenrae, to help in the battle. She blasts Vorugal and throws him to the ground.
Keyleth casts fire storm. Both Yenk and Vorugal are caught in it.
Vorugal, still down from Sarenrae’s attack, manages to blast Pike, Scanlan, Keyleth, and Kima. They are all affected, but Pike and Kima take the most damage.
The fight continues. Vox Machina and their companions alternate between healing themselves and damaging Vorugal and Yenk. Vax flies down in an attempt to rescue Pike, but he is knocked unconscious by one of Vorugal’s attacks. Pike falls unconscious shortly after.
After much more fighting, Grog and Vex kill the two foes. After taking several hits and a two-footed kick from Yenk, Grog grabs the goristro’s legs and rips him up the center. Vex loses an arrow at a fleeing Vorugal, and deals the killing blow as the arrow tears through one of his goristro wounds and pierces his heart.
Vorugal plummets, crashing into the ravine wall. Rocks and rubble fall down on top of him, pinning him as his life slips away. Raishan goes down to the white dragon’s corpse, and she rips out his throat.
Raishan: “Tell your master on the other side when you see him, that it was worth it.”
Raishan tells Vox Machina to take their spoils and warns them that war is coming. Pike and Vax, unconscious but alive (Vax barely so), are revived by Grog.
Percy pulls the vestige from Yenk’s insides. It is the Spire of Conflux. He gives it to Keyleth. “Your highness.”
Percy thanks Raishan for her help and tells her to meet them back in Whitestone. Raishan transforms back into Seeker Asum and vanishes, leaving Vox Machina in the ravine.
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.
