Critical Role Season One

Our story begins as Vox Machina, the heroes of Emon, arrive at the cavernous underground city of Kraghammer. After wiping out a grave threat to Emon’s emperor, Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei III, the band of adventurers has been sent on a journey by Arcanist, Allura Vysoren to find Lady Kima of Vord, a Halfling Paladin of Bahamut, who was drawn to Kraghammer upon learning of a great evil resting beneath it. The party get their bearings in the sprawling, dwarven city, meet a few of its more colorful denizens, and learn that the dwarves have been dealing with unnatural creatures spilling out of the mines in recent months. The mine’s overseer, Nostoc Greyspine, barely finishes explaining their troubles, when a pack of goblins and ogres come spilling out of the mine’s entrance, pursued by something far worse.

After Scanlon Shorthalt brought the abomination of a Naga to it’s tortured end, the Vox Machina vowed to Nostoc Greyspine to put an end to the darkness now bubbling up out of the bowls of the earth. The team quickly gears up and makes their way into the mine, and begins a miles long trek down into the veins of Khaloor. After many hours wandering the dark, they reach a subterranean river within a massive, inky cavern where they are are attacked by a pair of umberhulks. The beasts are dispatched without too much difficulty, but in a fit of rage and shortsightedness, Grog charges toward a flickering light further off in the cavern. He stumbles across several Duergar, dark cousins of the dwarves above, as well as a skittering, four legged brain. The wretched thing is killed quickly, but not before lashing out at Grog’s psyche. The goliath’s mind is broken, and he falls to the ground in a heap.

With Grog’s mind now silenced, the twins fall upon the last surviving Duergar. Vex’ahlia presses their dwarven captive for information. The Duergar only laughs at the barbarian's plight, and spits out warnings of the “master” that awaits them below, before Vax’ildan finally puts her out of her misery. After an uneasy night’s rest for the party and hours of meditation for Keylith, the druid is thankfully able to restore Grog’s mind, and the Vox Machina continue down through the great cavern. They pass through a gutted goblin village strewn with corpses, and eventually spy another group of Duergar, dragging along 3 dwarven captives. Scanlan and the twins whip out their flying carpet and tail the Duergar from afar, over a thin, creeking rope bridge. Scanlon disappears from sight, and now invisible, carefully makes his way into a war camp teeming with dark dwarves, ogres, and trolls. There he bears witness to an Illithid controlling all those around him, devouring the mind of one of the three dwarven miners.

After catching his companions up, the group hatches a plan to lure their enemies into an illusion and drop them to their doom, into the cavern below the bridge. It is partially successful, but then, while acting as living bait, Vax’s mind is stunned by the Illithid and he is almost dropped to his death before Tiberius swoops in to save him.

With the plan now in disarray, Vex and Keylith decide to delve into the chasm below the bridge, in spite of their companions’ protests. Their instincts serve them well though, and hidden behind a subterranean waterfall they find a cave. Within it awaits a powerful and unlikely ally.

The Vox Machina form a tentative alliance with an Illithid outcast named Clarota, deep inside the caverns under Kraghammer. They learn of the creature's people and their subjugation to a mysterious being known only as Kvarn, as well as the haggard mind flayer's expulsion from the hive. Now cut off from the Elder Brain, Clarota burns with hatred for this Kvarn, and wishes to free the Illithid race from the usurping entity. In order to do so, the Vox Machina must proceed further into the deep, and reach the center of Clarota’s hive. But in order for the heroes of Emon to reach the Illithid city in the belly of Khaloor, they must get past the first flayer they encountered, as well as its small army of Duergar.

The heroes devise a plan, and fly themselves down to the center of the enemey’s war camp, to chance a risky assassination attempt on a creature that could easily break their will with a glance.

Having successfully slain a dangerous Illithid and its dwarven general, the Vox Machina find themselves surrounded by a small army of Duergar. They once again take to the air, hoping to clear the war camp and travel deeper into the territory of the Mind Flayers. Not quite fast enough, they are attacked mid flight and brought crashing to the ground, within a stone’s throw of the tunnel that will hopefully lead them to Lady Kima. With some quick spell work from Tiberius and Keylith, the group is able to flee further into the bowels of Khaloor and find shelter long enough to heal their wounds. Pressing forward, they quickly realize their path is growing more dangerous with every step into the darkness. Running into a pair of ogres hauling some rather exotic cargo, the Vox Machina quickly find things moving from bad to worse.

he party continues to wind its way ever downward, far below Kraghammer. Covering more ground in the endless night of the Underdark, Vox Machina eventually reaches a massive cavern, spires of jagged obsidian stretching out for miles before them. The group quietly passes through the fields of stone, making their way toward the Duergar Fortress, Emberhold, looming in the dim light of the caverns many magma flows. With a little dash of gnomic daring do, the group is able to sneak in through a secret entrance, and at long last find the one they have traveled so far to find: Lady Kima of Vord.​

With an uneasy agreement struck between Kima and Clarota, Vox Machina quietly begin a search of Emberhold. Lady Kima means to strike a blow against their unseen enemy by cutting off the head of K’Varn’s military forces. The party battles their way through the fortress, and with the help of some quick thinking from Tiberius, they manage to gain the upper hand against the Duergar King, Murghol, and Ulara, his queen. The dwarven King is defeated, but victory comes at a price…​

Vox Machina struggles to survive after their battle with the Duergar King and Queen, our heroes broken and battered. Tiberius and Lady Kima turned to stone, and Vax’ildan and Scanlon badly wounded, the party flees the Duergar keep, not knowing where the Sorceress Queen Ulara has stolen off to with their Goliath companion. Realizing how far they’ve pushed themselves, they seek respite in the shadows and thankfully cure their stony friends with the blessings of the goddess, Sarenrae (tenuous though they may be). Relying on Vex’ahlia’s knowledge of the underdark and her knack for tracking her prey, the weary travelers press on into the deep. They come across yet another abomination in the dark, and battle the queer creature in a sea of bone and glass, Percy felling it with a thunderous crash from Bad News. Finally leaving the wretch behind them, they spy a fire twinkling in the distance...

The team overtakes the Duergar Queen, before Ulara is able to make a thrall of Grog. After slaying her underlings, and momentarily banishing her to another dimension, Vox Machina presses her for information about K’Varn. It is in that instant that K’varn speaks to them, through the lips of the Duergar queen.
His evil palpably radiating from the queen, K’varn urges Vox Machina to find him, in the city of Yug’voril. His message delivered, the Duergar falls still, her life departed.

To the surprise of the weary group, Keylith again voices her growing doubts about the path they all walk, but after some assuaging words from Vax’ildan, the group makes camp in order to rest their tired bones.

Later, they proceed on, finding a vast island in yet another massive underground cavern. Clarota informs them that this is where the city of Yug’voril stands. The party finds a ruined boat beneath the surface of the subterranean lake, and after Tiberius raises it and Percy patches it up, they take to the water. Pausing at a craggy beach as they make their way on to K’Varn, the party perhaps goes looking for trouble and does indeed find it.​

The team jumps right into a fight with some undead. Vax’ildan ends up surrounded and takes a few hits getting paralyzed before the team can jump to his aid, but the fight is over almost before it begins once Tiberius gets involved. What Tiberius didn’t kill Vex’ahlia does.

While the team tries to recover from the battle they are engaged by a Cloaker. After enveloping Tiberius and being telekinetically thrown from him the group chooses to retreat to the boat. The Cloaker gives chase and the party must battle over water. Scanlan proves his ingenuity once again and uses a new spell to help fight the Cloaker and once it is defeated Percy chooses to skin the monster.

They make their way to another beach in the massive cavern and end up encountering a group of Grick. Tiberius makes short work of them by tossing a bomb crafted by Percy into the room and throwing a fireball on top of it. Once dealt with they look into the cavern room and discover the veil between planes that K’varn stepped through to gain entrance to Yag’voril. Keyleth chooses to scry Yag’voril and sees a collection of horrors being wrought by K’varn. With Keyleth’s scrying we learn that the dreaded K’varn is a massive Beholder. K’varn traps Keyleth within her scry and Vax’ildan saves her by slapping her face. They make their way closer to Yag’voril and they see a city made in a way that defies their understanding. As they travel closer to the end of their current goal they encounter a towering humanoid and as they try to react it rushes them.

This time around, Vox Machina finds themselves in dire straits. We pick up where we last left off, with the adventurers about to take on a giant of some sort they stumbled upon while scouting. After Vax’ildan is overpowered by it’s dreadful stench, a fight ensues, in which the giant is revealed to be a Fomorian and is quickly subdued. Keyleth places a geas upon their foe, forcing him to fight for them in the battle against K’varn. Everybody then rests, to prepare for their next big test: the assault on K’varn’s temple. Who will survive this grueling battle?​

This week’s adventure was a side one shot story featuring yours truly. I was hired by some weirdo warlock tiefling named Snugglelord, and he hired some sailor Dwarf named Salty Pete. I like calling him Sam, though. Sam is a name I can get behind! Anyway, Snugglelord promised me riches unbound if I followed him in search of some mystical land called “chat room” so, I did it. For the money. Salty Pete kept harping about a ship he had from his sailing days, I’ll probably have to steal it and sell it later. The boat flipping market is HUGE! We get to this barren village that Snugglelord promised us would be bustling town. We find some people, but they ran away. Probably knew to step away from a boss fighter like me! We find out they were standing in front of a well, but we quickly found out that there wasn’t water in there, it was like some kinda evil juice! We find a house and burn it down. (Don’t be a snitch, though!) The person in the house led us to the leader of the town who tasked us to fix their evil juice problem. Salty falls down a pit for not letting the hero (me) investigate. I try to save him and am sucked in as well. Snugglelord follows. We see our lord and savior Bahamut and almost die. After falling through the other side, we see a gem. Snugglelord does something useful for once and finds out that the place is booby trapped. I use an ancient Dwarven rope technique to activate the trap and we fight this big ole golem. Oh yea, we accidentally cut off Salty Pete’s fingers, but he’s being totally cool about it. ​

With K’Varn killed, and the dread god Orcus’ machinations put to an end, the party struggles with what to do next. The horn of Orcus hovers in the air, held aloft by Tiberius’ sorcery, and Vox Machina debates whether to stay or flee the heart of Yug’voril. Before a decision can be reached, several Illithid glide into the chamber of the Elder Brain, and the situation quickly turns on its head even further. The immediate threat is eventually dealt with, but the real danger is still coming. Before they are entirely overwhelmed, the party flees the pyramid as a sea of Illithid surge up its sloping walls. Catching up with Tiberius, the rest of Vox Machina scramble as quickly as they can toward the portal the Dragonborn has opened on the far shore they once entered by…

After allowing themselves a single night’s rest back in the city of Emon, Vox Machina sets out for their meeting with the Sovereign Uriel and the Council of Tal’Dorei. Once the Council learns of the Horn of Orcus, the gathering quickly descends into squabbling over the fate of the dark artifact. A course of action is eventually decided upon and the party then heads out into the city to gear up for the mission at hand. Everyone knows the best goods in town can always be found at Gilmore’s…

The party finishes their necessary purchases within the city of Emon in preparation for their journey. With the arrival of the Envoys of Bahamut, and the holy container in which to transport the evil Horn of Orcus, Vox Machina is given permission to embark on a Skyship to cross the Ozmit Sea toward he distant city of Vasselheim.

As they traverse the expansive ocean, the ship is suddenly under siege by a band of wyvern and griffin-riding bandits, tossing the deckhands over board to their deaths. The party enters the fray, defending the Skyship, and even taking a prisoner in the process.

With the battle over, and the artifact still safe, the party prepares for their arrival in a strange, foreign land...

As Vox Machina completes their journey across the Ozmit Sea, Tiberius and Scanlan engage in a strange math workshop until Kima arrives and prepares the group for the culture shock awaiting them in Othanzia's capital city of Vasselheim. The airship touches down, and a representative from the Platinum Sanctuary escorts them, and the payload, through the chilled streets to the head of their order... High Bearer Vord himself.

The task is laid before them: Enter the Hall of the Exalt, an ancient vault below the Sanctuary, exterminate the invading vermin, seal away the Reliquary containing the dreaded Horn of Orcus, and return safely. Easier said than done, as some of the Hall's defenses are active, and the party is forced to traverse a number of deadly traps in hopes of being rid of the evil artifact once and for all!

Destiny finds a member of Vox Machina, and they must say goodbye to one of their own for a time.

Parting ways with their beloved cleric, Vox Machina is now adrift in a strange and unfamiliar city. With heavy hearts, they wander Vasselheim in the Braving Grounds District, home to the worshippers of Kord, the deity of battle and strength.
Fittingly, Grog soon finds himself in a fighting pit, duking it out with as tough an opponent as he could ever wish for.

Later, the party spots an attacking beast high on the city walls, and true to form, Vox Machina rushes to help. Following the fleeing creature off into the dense forests outside the city, they find their prey and a whole lot more.

With the party now split, Scanlan, Percy, Vex, and Grog find themselves teaming up with an unlikely duo. Putting differences aside, the forced fellowship heads out into the frost-harried north of the Vesper Timberland…

Our unlikely collection of travelers press forward into to the frozen, hoary wilds of the Vesper Timberland, closing the last few miles between themselves and their prey. Rimefang, the dread white dragon awaits them, high above, within a blizzard-harried mountaintop. An intimidating pair of towering frost giants find them in the wood below, threatening to bring their quest to a end. Yet despite their mounting challenges, the party eventually finds itself standing before the great and terrible wyrm...

Like their companions before them, Keyleth, Vax, and Tiberius make their way to The Slayer's Take. Arriving shortly after their friends' departure for the Vesper Timberlands, the trio are introduced to the rest of their own hunting party. Along with Brother Kashaw, a driven and mysterious young cleric, and a hardened dwarf by the name of Thorbir, the group receives its mission. There within the very walls of Vasselheim itself, they are to track down and kill an elusive Rakshasa that has been preying on wealthy travelers. With a little poking about in the city streets, they conclude that their only thread of information leads to the Velvet Cabaret, an exotic establishment in the Quadroads District.

The three members of Vox Machina and their Slayer’s Take companions make their way down into the tunnels beneath the Velvet Cabaret, pursuing their mercurial prey. The path is far from easy, but after a handful of harrowing obstacles are surmounted, the dwarven warrior, Thorbir, leads the hunting party into the the hidden lair of the elusive Rakshasa.

The three members of Vox Machina and their Slayer’s Take companions make their way down into the tunnels beneath the Velvet Cabaret, pursuing their mercurial prey. The path is far from easy, but after a handful of harrowing obstacles are surmounted, the dwarven warrior, Thorbir, leads the hunting party into the the hidden lair of the elusive Rakshasa.

As Vox Machina prepares for their return to Emon, Grog demands a rematch against Kern to regain his honor. Keylith and Tiberius get into trouble with the law, as Burt “Scanlan” Reynolds mounts a legal defense. Percy has a series of unusual encounters while shopping, as Vax contemplates a tattoo. Upon returning home, the group has an awkward encounter with a fan, but there’s no time to rest with bad news on the horizon…

Percy reveals the full tale of his blood feud with the Briarwoods, leaving Vox Machina just one week to prepare. While half the team returns to Kraghammer to settle old debts, Vax acquires some new weapons, Percy forges a special surprise, and makeovers are applied to Trinket and Grog. Finally, the group makes their way to a fateful dinner with the sinister and mysterious Lord and Lady Briarwood…

Vax finds himself alone in the clutches of the villainous Briarwoods! While the team rushes in to save him, they are joined by a mysterious tiefling named Lilith, a powerful wizard who is on the run from vicious bounty hunters. Can Vox Machina save both Vax and Lilith from their violent fates? With special guest player Kit Buss!