The fact that Scanlan convinced the party to let him take on an entire house of bad guys on his own is impressive enough, but the fact that he was right about being able to handle it is just incredible

It was during this episode that Sam realized his joke character was no joke.

For me, the most impressive thing about Scanlan's fight is that only he and Matt were playing, and yet the whole table was invested. They both made the interaction so engaging that no one minded just sitting there and watching. In fact they were all engrossed in the action. And the fight lasted around 40 minutes! That's a while to be on the sidelines.

"You can't get this on television" If he only knew. They even got the triceratops in the show!

I CANNOT WAIT to see Scanlan's epic fight get animated for the Legend of Vox Machina

Matt: "Those two doors are locked" Sam: *is a triceratops *"No they're not"

You know you've been binging too much CR when you look at the time on a youtube video and go "Oh, it's just two hours?"

You know, for all the various reasons people disliked Orion/Tiberius, for me as a fellow DM the one thing that I feel is better is that Matt can finish a room description without somebody shouting "I CAST LIGHT PFFFFFSSSHHHT!" as soon as he mentions that it's a little bit dark.

Vox Machina’s favorite enemy, the elderly. Vox Machina’s hardest, worst, least favorite of all time enemy, doors

Sam is the kind of player every DM wants. Just the right amount of chaos, loves to roleplay, reads his abilities thoroughly and, most important of all, knows and doesn't mind that his actions have consequences, but actively endorses it.

Vax slitting the guard's throat after finding out he's one of those who hung the child is a perfect dramatic finish to that fight, especially when you know Liam's a dad with his own children.

Everyone's talking about Rambo Scanlan, which was very impressive, but right now I'm just super proud of Trinket for getting a HDYWTDT

Me during Scanlan's fight: " this must be how sport fans feel when their team intercepts the ball and scores a touchdown"

Love the random comment in chat: "Remember, remember the Fifth of Gnomevember".

Taken from littlecajunlady's Tumblr. Message at the bottom of the comment from me 10:30 - Start of recap (added by me, mrsmster) 13:40 - Game starts 14:55 - Scanlan the triceratops 18:06 - They all sing the Jurassic Park theme 19:25 - Scanlan vs. another door, the door wins 25:55 - Scanlan sent to set a fire but has no way to do it, they give Sam shit for it (triceratops gone) 29:10 - Dukes of Hazzard table slide, it’s not great 35:45 - Scanlan drinks the fire breath potion and starts setting the roof on fire 42:50 - Scanlan “I’m gonna kill everyone in this motherfucking house” 48:35 - Bigby’s hand catches Scanlan as he falls back off the roof 53:34 - Scambo lives 54:05 - Now it’s time for the rest of the team … 1:05:00 - Tylieri is a vampire 1:16:50 - Matt “You can’t get halfway in there & be like wait this didn’t happen” (who needs context) 1:23:12 - Keyleth thinks Vax’s table slide is awesome 1:32:10 - Trinket gets nat 20 & HDYWTDT on the vamp and bites his head off!! 1:50:58 - Keyleth casts sunbeam finishes off the vamp mist 2:11:05 - Vax slits last guard’s throat over the death of the child hanging from the Sun Tree 2:11:40 - Vex slams Percy against a wall, Percy “I feel cruel” I'm aware these timestamps get posted often in the series' comments section so I just want to say that these are for me so they're at the top, but if I can help someone else out by posting them then I'm not gonna complain!

Its neat to see the old players encounter things that I think influence their next characters. Travis becomes a Half-Orc because of the brawl. Liam becomes a wizard because of Orion's "Utility," Ashley becomes a barbarian because of Grog, and Sam becomes a Rogue because of the Doors.

One of my favorite things about this is that Scanlan always plays up being a comedic fun-lover who doesn't want to exert effort for anything, but when they planned to send someone in alone as a distraction he immediately volunteers. And even though this seems to be more as a means to brew some mischief for his own amusement, he composes himself like a true hero, is incredibly brave in the face of great danger despite being alone, and doesn't flee until he absolutely has to, likely hoping the distraction was enough to help his friends. He's far more valiant than he would have us believe.

scanlan just burned down one of the houses all by himself, while basically winging the whole thing. holy crap.

I'm more bothered than I should be by how much Laura and Matt both forgot about Trinket's armor. His AC was 18 when they got back to Emon after escaping from Yug'Voril. When she provided the Bullet hide to the smith, the finished product gave Trinket the original 18 for AC, +2 additional points (which is why she'd written "+2" on Trinket's sheet), totaling an AC of 20. In addition, he gained resistance to non-magical piercing/slashing/bludgeoning damage, which Matt specifically told Laura to remind him of whenever it came up. It grinds my gears and rustles my jimmies. I love that big sweet boi.

I love how Matt's infinite wisdom and forethought when planning for these games, had him previously making maps for basically the entire town not knowing where they were going to go, but this time he was not prepared for Triscanlentops to enter a building and see like 8-10 enemies staring him down and decide "I'm gonna run into the next room" so he had to draw the next room on the fly. It's nice to know he is, in fact, human after all. Or at least, he was back in these early episodes.

This episode goes out to every fool who thought Bards are the worst class in D&D.

"Alright, think like a triceratops. I need... I need shelter." critical role has never been better.

I love how Percy is just slowly becoming more and more of an anime protagonist

Matt setting Sam up to be able to accomplish his task, and create chaos and Sam following through by making the right decisions is D&D at its finest. Matt didn’t have to let that potion set the entire house on fire, or allow Bigby’s hand to catch Scanlan, but he recognized that Sam had played the scenario brilliantly and he rewarded it. Sam/Scanlan got his big moment, and Matt helped him achieve it. By far my favorite fight so far.

"My friends trust that this day is the day where you almost caught Scanlan Shorthalt, Esquire" jumping into bigby's hand middle fingers extended play a inspiring flute tune

Vox Machina after being reprimanded for being incredibly violent continues to be incredibly violent...but far away from the people who told them not to.

Orion takes 10 minute round: boring, agitating and builds a lot of unnecessary party tension. Sam takes 45 minute cutscene: Scanbo. Awesome, high action, and has consequences that the player accepts and doesn’t retcon their own actions or movements. Proves to player that they actually have a good character.

If Keyleth didn't have feelings for Vax before she definitely does after watching his sick ass slide across the table

Scanlan soloing a whole house and then telling everyone "You're on your own" xD

Can I just point out how awesome Taliesin is as a player? He keeps track of the story, the NPCs, his complicated equipment, has his attacks pre-planned and thought out and to top it all of he can RP and improv at an amazing level!

Obvs Scanlan's whole adventure this episode is amazing, but I also really love how everyone else supports and cheers him on. Like there's no whining that he's taking the spotlight or boredom from those not rping.

"You can't get this on television" ...well actually Liam, 2 more weeks and I'm hoping this is exactly what we'll get! 🤣 43:45

Grogs playlist better be titled "I would like to rave"

43:45 "You can't get this on network television, ladies and gentlemen." - Liam O'brien, 2016 One day. Maybe one day, you sexy wizard of Rexentrum.

My only hope is that they animate the ENTIRE Scanlan sequence when the time comes

The reason why Scanlan is so successful is, because he is fucking creative. It's not about just attacking someone but roleplaying with what he's got. Combined with incredible luck on hist and failure on Matt's side.. this battle was amazing.

Grog takes 6 crossbow bolts to the chest. Grog still has 85% of his HP left.

Dagger Dagger Dagger Hunters Mark! I would like to rage... Goin Minxie! Bigby's Hand! These should all be tshirts

I can’t remember, were they still under Seeming during these fights? If so, the house Scanlan took out saw a kid wreaking havoc on them, and it looked like that vampire was killed by a donkey.

There's something really funny to me about Travis saying "know your rules kids" after being corrected on rules by a DM who literally messed up the rules on that same turn. That's D&D baby

"it's like duel of the fates" cut to Scanlan literally force pushing a swordsman off of a roof

Were I Sam in the moment he trust-fell onto Bigby's Hand off the roof, I'd have taken a moment to look back at the guards and go, "Gents, you will always remember this as the day that you almost caught, Burt Reynolds!" and then let myself fall onto the hand and book it (lol XP).

Can I just take a moment. Marisha and Taleisin (spelling?) their acting chops and friendship are both 15/10. The way they are like 'grab each others hands, we can do this' as people but just last session roleplaying that conflict of spirit and ideals as well as they did, it was so well done.

I feel like if keyleth knows a bit about vampire mist and sees all the melee teammates surrounding it she’d know it was a vampire. Grog might have 6 intelligence but he wouldn’t stay at range to be pelted by crossbow bolts, trinket would be the same, and Vax, who’s known to flank enemies, wouldn’t be standing in the open next to them.

Matt: "No, you went inside. Not gonna retcon it." [Orion cries in the distance]

Matt: what are you doing, Scanlon?! Roll initiative!! Vox Machina: (singing jurassic park theme because Scanlon's a triceratops).

The face on Keyleth when Matt says : you cant retcon that .... that is the look of someone who spent 27 episodes with someone retconning at least once in each of them and then being denied that one time XD.

I love Liam's voice rising two octaves with "Why are you not dimentioning door out of there????"

45:26 I think Matt misunderstood the question. While Polymorph and Dimension Door do not gain additional effects from being cast at higher level they most certainly can be cast by using a slot equal to or higher than that of the spell itself. Players Handbook pg 201.

It took one player to tear an entire building apart, kill all the baddies in it, and set it all ablaze. It took three players to open a door. (Edit: I am mistaken. Scanlan did not manage to kill anybody. He did however survive a group onslaught by himself.)

Scanlan: I can do all kinds of things, I'm going there. And I will be fine, don't make me tell you twice, I can go alone, I'm fine. Also Scanlan: I don't know why I was sent in to this mission!

"I've never been a triceratops before!" This is why D&D is awesome.

42:40 when scanlan said "imma kill everyone in this mother f***ing house" i believed him...

@2:01:00 Vex yells "Your death has been provided by Gilmore's Glorious Goods!"

The second sam started burning the house my neighbours firealarm went off lol. That's what I call immersion. Impressive. Also: How mean is it that they still go off on marisha for meta gaming when they are literally in a CITY FULL OF VAMPIRES after having FOLLOWED A KNOWN VAMPIRE and intentionally prepared to ATTACK VAMPIRES and she just saw this weird ass mist that everyone is super scared off MOVE lmfao. But no, how dare she want to be able to assume that COULD BE ONE lmfao.

I know this is early CR and rules are really in the air, but you can cast any spell with a higher spell slot than its original, even if it doesn't improve the spell itself. Thus Scanlan, on the roof would have been able to Diemsion Door himself out with ease, as he still had his 5th and 6th level spell slots available.

This episode honestly just showcases how smart a player Sam is. He makes literally all the right choices during his whole excursion and it’s so much fun to watch.

Scanlan takes Favored Enemy: Doors.

So many amazing moments in this episode: The peasants rising up to fight a zombie giant. Vax sliding across the table, and then Keyleth imitating him. Percy blowing someone's head off. Trinket mauling a vampire. And, of course: Scanlan turning into a tricerotops and knocking down doors, farting his green mist over a bunch of guards, shoving a goliath off a roof, and burning a mansion to the ground. Amazing.

02:09:50 I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the last guard they killed in the house and interrogated says "The briarwoods mean well" in the same sentence he said he hung a young boy from a tree. These guards are all obviously charmed or controlled in some way and nobody noticed.

Scanlain has totally forgotten he has a crown with a lvl 3 lighting bolt preloaded for bloody ages !

2:00:26 *Grog takes off a guys leg with his war hammer* Scanlan: He's Legolas Lmao that was a good pun but no one in the group laughed.

Absolutely love watching Marisha smiling and nodding across the table at the mention of Percy's hex, and Sam just isn't following, looking like the lost little boy Scanlan pretends to be

8:00 Liam announcing he is playing a character on an prime tv show. It’s so crazy that little did they know 6 years later, they would be playing these characters on their own prime tv show

WE HAVE AN ARMY!! WE HAVE A SCANLAN!! this battle needs to be animated asap

Remember remember, the 5th of Gnomevember

I can't believe how much this improved in the past two episodes. The flow is so much better.

Summary starts at 10:30, game at 13:35. This whole video is uninterrupted game, which spills over to Episode 31, Part II in the next episode, "Gunpowder Plot: Part II", kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gZObZa2hsrnFj58.html. [I've been doing this for every episode. If you find them useful, or think others might, please leave a comment so they stay near the top where they can be found. Thank you.]

1:16:54 Matt: “You can’t get halfway in there and be like ‘wait! This didn’t happen!’” Talisin: -SNORT- Travis: -busts out laughing- Talisin: “Thank you for coming with me on that journey.” I thought it too, boys! I thought it too.

Yep, Scanlan is definitely my favorite out of the group. His witty one-liners, creative use of spells and ability to recognize situations makes him shine amongst the group.

Reposting my timestamps for myself from my tumblr 13:40 - Game starts 14:55 - Scanlan the triceratops 18:06 - They all sing the Jurassic Park theme 19:25 - Scanlan vs. another door, the door wins 25:55 - Scanlan sent to set a fire but has no way to do it, they give Sam shit for it (triceratops gone) 29:10 - Dukes of Hazzard table slide, it’s not great 35:45 - Scanlan drinks the fire breath potion and starts setting the roof on fire 42:50 - Scanlan “I’m gonna kill everyone in this motherfucking house” 48:35 - Bigby’s hand catches Scanlan as he falls back off the roof 53:34 - Scambo lives 54:05 - Now it’s time for the rest of the team . . . 1:05:00 - Tylieri is a vampire 1:16:50 - Matt “You can’t get halfway in there & be like wait this didn’t happen” (who needs context) 1:23:12 - Keyleth thinks Vax’s table slide is awesome 1:32:10 - Trinket gets nat 20 & HDYWTDT on the vamp and bites his head off!! 1:50:58 - Keyleth casts sunbeam finishes off the vamp mist 2:11:05 - Vax slits last guard’s throat over the death of the child hanging from the Sun Tree 2:11:40 - Vex slams Percy against a wall, Percy “I feel cruel”

Ah the Marisha hate has well and truly began. The difference between her treatment and Orions treatment by people watching is shocking. Sure, people didn't like Orion, I'm one of those people, but I never saw people wishing death on him or using vile language when speaking about him (though there were some disgusting things said about his addiction which was awful) but goddamn people are vile toward Marisha

I love how you can see a tiny hint of a smile on Matt's face as Liam says "I slit his throat" just admiring Liam's roleplay. Just perfect. I'd be proud of my player for coming out with something like that, too.

Scanlan's play style is what Bards should aspire to hahah It's so funny the crazy shit he comes up with and he's still really effective. A little more debuffing and stuff would be good but he more than makes up for it.

2024 here and the best thing I received from the initial COVID pandemic is combing through KZfaq to find Critical Role and falling in love with all these wonderful people. This is my fourth rewatch of C1 and listening to these people is a type of therapy you can't find anywhere.

"I look him straight in the eye..." "And kiss him." Of course the bard would make a serious scene into something funny and sexual lol

The image of Scanlan standing on a building, fire spilling a bit from his mouth, the sides a flame, a giant purple translucent master hand like construct floating above and behind connected to his hand by a thin strand of arcane essence, his hand glowing, his other grasping a cone which looks like it was designed to shout through. Rain pouring down lightning streaking across the sky. That made me so happy.

Percy: "I don't know if I can use minor illusion right now." Me: ...Minor illusion? Percy: "Okay, I'm just going to Hex that guy right there." Me: ...HEX?! *finally realizes what the heck is going on*

The mist incident is why I homebrew that characters can actually say short phrases to each other no matter whose turn it is. The way I see it, if my buddy busts in the room and there's a trap in there, I'm not going to wait for my “turn” to tell him.

One thing from Campaign 1 that I wish would have been present more often in C2 is the casts reaction to the music being so frequent. The genuine enjoyment of the theme setting tunes is gold.

Nooooo, they've all forgotten Trinket takes half bludgeoning because of his fancy armor. :c

Just came from the previous episode and was hoping Geralt would be looking at me.

Matt: draws a map of the whole house, makes a triceratops sheet and finds a figurine for it as well. Sam: Immediately morphs back, teleports to the roof and sets the house on fire. Matt: I'm not even mad, this is hilarious.

Glad I'm not the only one who thought Matt's call about Keyleth and the mist was a load of crap.

1:54:30 I love how once Matt know's Vax hit all three daggers he very clearly does not pay any attention to the damage rolls because he know's that guy's dead haha.

1:16:55 "You can't get halfway in there and be like, 'Wait this didn't happen.'" *Grog and Percy have Tiberius 'Nam flashbacks*

I feel that keyleth could definitely have guessed that they were fighting a vamp! Thats so sad that he didn’t let her do that!

That round with Matt getting reckless atack wrong and giving grog advantage on only one atack but taking like 13 attacks on him with advantage was rough

Basically the motto of Vox Machina: "Do I double everything, or just the die?"

I will never not love VM planning here. "Let's have one person attack one house as a distraction for the guards." Proceed to attack both at the same time, which prevents guards having enough time to run to the distraction attack, meaning the entire plan was useless, other than to let Scanlon show off.

40:17 Liam's face going through all 5 stages of grief during Rambo Scanlan scene: 😧😡🤢😭😌 And then he starts unsheathing the knife like, "Matt, if you kill the parody joke character that is my friend, I will kill you." I love everyone's investment.

Very irritated to see Matt incorrectly only give Grog advantage on only one attack for reckless and then crit him three times by giving all the attacks against him advantage.

9:05 - Matt gets VERY excited ;) 10:10 - Further explanation of the title 13:40 - Recap ends 14:55 - Scanlan's Dino Attack (A Legend is Born) 18:07 - Jurassic Park~ 23:27 - Taliesin and Marisha share a moment 24:35 - Upper Camera stops working, starts again at around 26:00 25:13 - Idiot guard is an idiot 25:55 - Scanlan and the others realize that he has no fire spells, Marisha gives him what for 26:53 - Critical Cloud 32:01 - Scanlan regains his sense of self preservation 34:44 - Scanlan find the key to success 35:46 - Scanlan drinks the potion 41:47 - BIGBY'S HAAAAAND shamone 44:02 - Those guards probably regret their life choices 48:33 - Scanlan's epic escape 53:33 - The Legend of Scanlan "Rambo" Shorthalt 54:02 - Meanwhile... 1:16:53 - Taliesin and Travis share a moment 1:32:45 - How Do You Want To Do This? (1:32:00 for full attack/Nat 20) 1:50:50 - Keyleth finishes the Vamp 2:00:29 - Advertising 2:07:14 - Only Keyleth and Scanlan remember the plan 2:11:04 - Percy's not the only one with no mercy 2:12:21 - Percy aka JOHN CENA

Percy and his demon are giving off a very peter parker and the symbiote feel. If he starts snapping his fingers walking down the street kill him.

40:43 “It’s like the Duel of Fates! On a burning rooftop in the rain. Giant Goliath and a Gnome who spits fire!” 🤣 Seriously though, I want this little Scanlan adventure to be animated so badly!!

"oh, we are fighting vampires and we've learned that they turn into mist... oh shit, there is mist in the room and I have no fucking idea what that is"... wtf?

"I got 26. I got distracted." I am Taliesin. Taliesin is me.

Every single episode I still think the same thing: Taliesin is an incredible player and a very handsome man

I'm playing D&D for the first time and I chose bard as my class because I thought it would be fun to sing during the campaign but had resigned myself to being the party's support but Scanlan's epic fight has given me so much inspiration about being a bruiser. 😂

She absolutely would've known, or at the very least, suspected that was a vampire considering less than 24 hours ago they learned that mist can turn into vampires, they're in a town of undead and one of the people they're after is confirmed a vampire.