It’s gotta be said. Delilah is a necromancer, Silas is a neck-romancer

The reason you don't burn corpses is because ghosts are much worse than zombies

Yeah, only Sylas is a vampire, Delilah is a necromancer wizard. Also fun fact, during the campaign, Taliesin (Percy's player and VA) would introduce himself with his full entire name to anyone they met. (and right after, the rest of the group would add "but you can call him Percy")

While Pike does seem pretty OP here, do remember that the temple that she is astral projecting from is a conduit of extremely potent magical power. So she's getting a huge boost from that and the fact that her magic is already super good against the undead just makes her seem that much more OP.

The big gun Percy uses is rightly named "Bad News" which is friggin awesome.

Historically, Grog's player/VA, Travis Willingham, is a huge "push the red button" kinda person. Each character he has played, in-game, has impulse control issues lol

Episode 10 is when Percy's voice actor really started showing off what he can do. Taliesin Jaffee POPS OFF from here.

So if you pay attention to Cassanda's eyes before she declares herself a Briarwood, you'll see they flash yellow for a bit, showing that she's being mind controlled by Sylas

The way they revealed Cassandra's name appering on the barrel of Percy's gun was super cool.Both great episodes

I'm sure you guys have talked it over, but Delilah is not a vampire. They actually had a "blink and you miss it" moment in episode 3 showing the same thing you saw with this episode with a mirror in a hallway in the palace. Lots of cool little details like that in this series!

Yes, Sylas is a vampire, but not Delilah. She’s a human sorceress that specializes in necromancy.

They were released 3 episodes per week. Episodes 3,6,9,(12?) are generally cliffhangers.

"It feels like they could go at any moment." *Looks at a certain quest for a certain armor piece*

That whole "you know I'm in love with you, right?" moment was such a big deal in the campaign. It also happened differently. He ended up kissing her in the momemt. So Liam (Vax) didn't tell Marisha(Keyleth) that he was going to do that, but had a private conversation with Matt (Marisha's husband) to make sure it was OK. When I tell you she turned red, man, she turned RED😂😂

A little background on the Briarwood origin scene: From the Critical Role livestream, we learned that Lord and Lady Briarwood came from another continent, called Wildemount, and were elites in the Dwendalian Empire. Delilah specifically was a powerful wizard, and held the office of Archmage of Antiquity for the powerful mage guild of the empire, The Cerberus Assembly. As Archmage of Antiquity, Delilah’s job was to seek out ancient ruins and libraries and look for old magic tomes and relics and acquire them. So that’s perhaps how she came into contact with the location where the Evil Book was… In the authoritarian Dwendalian Empire, all magic and religion is regulated by the government. Necromancy is absolutely prohibited magic. When Silas fell into a death spiral though, Delilah turned to Necromancy to save him. As a result, the Lord and Larry Briarwood became fugitives from The Empire. Delilah gave up everything to save her husband.

Percy named his rifle Bad News, 'cuz nothing travels faster.

I totally understand what you mean about how Archie's death felt so "real", like, you just don't get time to mourn you gotta keep moving

One thing to keep in mind with Pike, her body was back at a Temple that was designed to channel the power of her Goddess, who she just had a face-to-face visit with... so she was extra juiced up for her grand arrival and rescue. Also, these are D&D characters, and in Matt's world death can happen, but he will give players a chance to save their PC if they aren't ready to let them go... if the conditions of the death allow for it, or the group can earn it. Chance being the key word, there is still a possibility the dice are just not in their favor. Also, it is established that even resurrection has limits, every resurrection lowers the chance that the next one will work, until that just stop's being an option. The crew like having real stakes, and from that genuine fear in game, (along with them being amazing friends, with a lot of shared trust, and improv acting talent) some truly epic stories have been told. You don't have to have a fav, what really makes this world magic is the whole group of friends that created it and how they play with, and off of, each other.

Lol, i mean this as a joke, but the fact that men can look at a woman raise an army of undead and create wreath and undead dog and they still are able to go : she’s probably just his wife. 😂

Clerics do so much extra damage against zombies, what they were showing was an ability called Destroy undead where she can just merc zombies with her aura and the glowing weapons was an amped up Holy weapon spell, a big one-time blessing from the Everlight, XD and its funny because in stream the reason Pike was remoted in was her player Ashley Johnson was constantly in and out through campaign one so they had to find a way to make it work

They release 3 episodes per week. And yes, they are the masters of the cliffhanger.

15:06 These were released in groups of 3 weekly, so when it got to Ep 9, we had to wait a whole week to find out what happened

- Pike Trickfoot is played in the campaign & voiced by Ashley Johnson who also voices Ellie (The Last of Us), Gwen & others (Ben 10 Alien Force - Omniverse), Tulips, Lake, Steward, & others (Infinity Train), Gretchen (Recess), Terra (Teen Titans), Jinmay (SRMTHFG), Gwen / Spider-Woman (Marvel Heroes), Renet (TMNT -2012), Shiseru (Naruto), Emily (King of the Hill), Peter (Jumanji the animated series), Mina (What A Cartoon), & many more - Cassandra De Rolo is voiced by Esme Creed-Miles who has played Hanna (Hanna), Shirley Temple (Mister Lonely), & a few more - Anna Ripley is voiced by Kelly Hu who also voices Karai (TMNT -2012), Cheshire / Jade, Huntress / Paula, Laira, Shiva, Katana, Lian, & others (DC animated media), Stacy (Phineas & Ferb), Okiku (Afro Samurai), Shan (The Spectacular Spider-Man), Miyumi & Miss Mirimoto (Scooby-Doo & the Samurai Sword), Adira (Tangled: the Series), & many more

Idk if anyone's been pointing out differences between the show and CR but some big things for these last couple of episodes is 1) Vox didn't meet up with Cassandra til after they made it into Castle Whitestone. The fight with Anders also didn't happen until they got to the castle. The house where Vox fought Anders in the show was another vampire who was Desmond's former master before Sylas killed him for abusing his station. 2) When the party met with Ripley, she had used magic to disguise herself as an elderly woman that the Briarwoods had forgotten about in the dungeons. Vex saw through the illusion and they found out who she was but she was able to convince Vox to let her free in order to show Vox what the Briarwoods were up to. The fight with Anders started because Vox and Ripley were on the way to Ripley's workshop to get her things (mostly for Percy) and she escaped from Trinket during the battle so she wasn't present for the acid trap. Also Vax set off the acid trap off on accident thinking it would release Vox from the room but instead started the acid before getting charmed by Sylas. 3) Archie and Keeper Yennen are alot different in CR than in the show. Archie is an elderly human man and more a leader of the rebellion from like a political stance than an actual man of action stance due to age. Yennen is also an older man and iirc they changed his god from Erathis the Lawbearer to the Dawnfather for the show.

Clerics in DND are the most powerful class for fighting undead, and from what I've heard, they're still in the top 3 vs nearly anything.

Idk if you guys are aware yet, but Grog is also Roy Mustang and Vex is Lust from Full Metal Alchemist. Vex and Lust are fairly similar in personality and vocal tone, but I love how wildly different Grog is from Mustang and a lot of Travis's other roles. I can't wait for you guys to get to season 2!

the way i’ve seen both seasons a good 20 times and STILL notice things i hadn’t before

Since its already revealed Delia is a necromancer so death isnt the end its just an inconvenience. So killing Cassandra isnt a big deal cause they could just bring her back

Who knows pike trickfoot ,Gwen tennyson from ben 10 alien force and Ellie from last of us was voiced by our lovely Ashley Johnson. What an amazing and talented artist❤❤

Clerics are undead natural predators man, and especially a level up domain of war cleric, futhermore she is astroprojecting from the temple so shes pretty much getting supercharge with holyness at this moment, funfact the reason for this and Pike going away is because Ashley Johnson her player (and the voice of both Elie in TLOU and Gwen in Ben 10: Alien Force) was away working on the tv show Blindspot, so the IRL version of astroprojection is actually just a skype call

"Astral projection" was their in-game excuse for when Ashley's free time in New York happened to line up with their weekly game, and she could join them via Skype. And when Skype crapped out, or they had hardware problems? Well, that's just the projection spell fizzling out. 😁 Something that may not be immediately obvious: Dr. Ripley is missing a hand, and her bag contained an exploded, four-barrelled gun, similar to Percy's six-shooter… She was trying to replicate his work, when she hit a little snag. You've probably been told, by now, but these episodes were released in weekly batches of 3 - and the _worst_ cliffhangers somehow always seemed to happen on the third episodes. The reason why there was an entire temple just buried under Whitestone, like it's no big deal, is tied into the world's lore that Matt Mercer created. See, about a thousand years before the time of the show, there was a little bit of an apocalypse that nearly wiped out all mortal life on the world, as all the gods and their respective followers duked it out, with the fate of the world riding on it. At one point, during this 200-year-long war, three living gods battled in this place. This ziggurat used to be the main temple of the goddess Ioun, "The Knowing Mistress", and she fought one of the evil gods (Tharizdun, "The Chained Oblivion") here, thinking she would have home-field advantage. But he managed to wound her gravely, and caused her temple to sink deep into the bowels of the earth. Another god, called Pelor, "The Dawnfather", stepped in, took over the fight, and eventually defeated Tharizdun elsewhere. Afterwards he returned to this place and planted a seed to help heal the ravaged land - which is where the Sun Tree came from. This is why, when the city of Whitestone eventually was founded here (You know, once there were enough living humans again to have cities and a civilisation), the majority of the inhabitants worshipped the Dawnfather. Matt later confirmed that Professor Anders slitting Cassandra's throat was a ruse, and not real - but it wasn't quite as obviously sus as it is here in the show. The Briarwoods have the city completely in their grip, and now they have hypnotised the Sovereign into trusting them and leaving them completely to their own devices. They don't _need_ a puppet de Rolo heir anymore to give them the appearance of legitimacy. On top of that, they were about to blow everything the fuck up, by releasing Vecna, "The Whispered One", onto the world. At this point, it was perfectly believable that they'd sacrifice a mostly-worthless pawn, just to really fuck with Percy's head - that's _exactly_ the kind of over-the-top, dramatic cruelty they specialise in.

In case you want some (spoiler free) background lore about why there's a whole pyramid thing buried under this city: (hidden under the cut in case you don't) So about 1000 year ago there was a huge war (think apocalypse, 2/3 of the mortal population died) between two factions of the gods, what are now known as the Prime Dieties and the Betrayer Gods. In that war there was a battle between The Knowing Mistress (goddess of knowledge) and the Chained Oblivion (diety of chaos and trickery) at her central temple (the Ziggurat). She was badly wounded, which caused her temple to sink. The Dawnfather (god of the sun) then came in, battled and chased the Chained Oblivion away (infusing the rock of the surrounding region with magical properties in the process). He then came back to bless the land (which has been under his protection ever since) with the Sun Tree. Hundereds of years later, a shipwrecked expedition from Wildemount (a continent to the east of Tal'Dorei) found that tree and decided to make their their home there. That expedition was lead by the de Rolo family, and that settlement became Whitestone (named for the magically infused white stone in the area, which people eventually learned to process into residuum). So when the Briarwoods came looking for the Ziggurat for their own purposes, they thought the de Rolos would know where it was (hence all the torturing the kids for information). But they didn't. It was buried centuries before they even got there.

"Intrusive thoughts just won there." That's Grog in a nutshell

Season 2 is more wild, more crazy, more bloody, and more fun. Season 1 is awesome and amazing, but damn Season 2 is on another level. Especially when you get to episode 10, 11 and 12. Many of us just want more , and that cliff hanger in the finale, we have to to wait a year or so for the Legend of Vox Machina to return.

about Pike which was voiced by Ashley Johnson (also who acted as Ellie's Mom in The last of Us), Ashley Johnson was shooting the tv series The Blindspot since she is a regular cast for a total of 6 seasons, when Pike parted ways with the team, that was her last gameplay on the D&D and went back shooting Blindspot, and during her absent days on the series, they came up with her character being on a journey on the temple, and while shooting on New York, i think, she recorded her voice while she was at her apartment in new york, and that scene was when she was Astral Projecting, Matt Mercer talked to her about it and this is the result...

Guys, just to help clarify: Delilah is not a vampire, she's necromancer. Back in episode 3, as they both walked together back to their room where they caught Vax snooping, they passed a mirror and you could only see Delilah's reflection. Sylas has never turned her this whole time. And also, as we've seen from Vax, a bite alone is not enough to turn someone anyway. (Of course, his reflection in the glass alone in episode 4 wasn't really an indication, since it was the silver behind the glass that would make it so a vampire could not be seen, but I'm guessing Vex and Vax simply don't understand that.) Per the rules in play for this vampire lore, you don't get turned unless *completely* drained of blood. Then you would come back as a vampire. However, in Sylas's case, he was dying and made a vampire by The Whispered One as part of a deal, which we see played out in this episode's flashback.

So, EP1-2 are from their original off-screen campaign. Pike played a Life Cleric, with a heavy focus on healing and support. She wears light armor and wields a shield in those episodes. From EP3 on is the on-screen campaign and Pike had switched to being a War Cleric. So now she is in heavy armor and wielding a mace. She's still the healer but it was cool to see them incorporate this change into the art of the show.

Pike's Astral projection was a plot device in the original D&D campaign because Ashley Johnson, her player, was in New York filming Blind Spot and had to attend the games through Skype. The connection would often cut so they would explain her disappearance by saying her astral projection got disrupted.

Favorite thing about your reactions is oh man this is gonna happen. And when it happens you are still so mind blown.

They already did the mirror thing back in episode 3, when Silas and Delilah are walking back to their room from the dinner, they walk past a mirror and you can only see her reflection.

11.03 - I got teary-eyed the first time Pike returned - all her scenes in this episode were epic. She is still my fave character from this capaign

I'm freaking hooked on this show. Never have I laughed so much and the talent geesh... truly a gift to geeks like me

Also, this series has THE BEST cliffhangers. They piss everyone off because you don't want it to stop.

In the campaign, Cassandra's throat wasn't actually cut, it was an illusion to make VM think she was in danger when she wasn't. I think in LoVM they just decided that Anders was both on a power trip and sick of being told what to do by his employers, so he just acted on his own.

These were all released in 3-episode batches. That’s why episodes 3, 6, and 9 all have the biggest cliffhangers

Ashley Johnson (Pike) was filming in New York in campaign 1 so she missed a lot of sessions, but for important moments like fighting the briarwoods she'd skype in, and Matt worked it into the story as her being able to do astral projection. And before they started streaming Pike was a life cleric but she wanted to be more of a fighter so she switched to being a war cleric and this is how they adapted that for the animation! So now she has much heavier armour and a mace.

Have to mention, Delilah's not a vampire. She's visible in the mirror in Episode 3 where Sylas isn't. She just happens to be a good necromancer lol

The best DnD follows a couple rules, the most important one in my opinion is “give the players what they expect, in a way that they don’t expect.” 60% of the time, it works all the time

It was implied in the show but this is just fyi. Around now in the campaign is where you learn the past of the Briarwoods; that Delilah was a very powerful Sorceress, similar to Allura, but to save(bring back) Silas she ventured into what used to be a known destroyed necromancers den and found their Necronomicon(basically). Making a deal to The Whispered One(scary ceiling face) to return Silas to her for a lifetime of servitude.

Delilah is not a vampire. She's a necromancer and she turned him into a vampire.

Best tirck I was taught to remember who Vex and Vax are: Vax has an A for Adam ( cause male ) and Vex has an E for Eve ( cause girl ).

I've been playing D&D for a long time. That's such a good take on why they don't just burn the corpses if they know about necromancy (which they do). I would use this in a future campaign that some order of Paladins might enforce. Strict enforcers against necromantic forces.

Love how much y’all are enjoying it!

Season 1 and 2 were 2 episode launches, with the rest of the season being single episode week to week, if I am remembering correctly.

15:09 It was week-to-week, but they also released three episodes each week.

So I. Regards to Cassandra getting her throat slit, if you go back and watch, it looks like she actually moves the Professor's hand into doing it.

It was released 3 episodes at a time and damn are the cliffhangers amazing.

3:35 I believe that many old religions had the belief that if you burned someone's body they would have no way to enter the afterlife.

Because in this Kingdom Necromancy has been banned for a long time. The Briarwoods came from a different Kingdom where she was banished for delving into Necromancy

Definitely the highlight of the week atm

I know you guys are big One Piece fans. I’m fairly new to this channel so I’m not sure if you watch the English dub of One Piece at all but three of the Vox Machina voice actors (and character creators for Vox Machina) are 3 bigger characters in One Piece. Travis Willingham (Grog) is the English voice of Ace, Taleisin Jaffe (Percy) is the English voice of Basil Hawkins, and Matt Mercer (Silas, and original game GM) is the English voice of Law. Just thought you might get a kick out of that.

11:08 *"I AM THE RIGHTEOUS HAND OF GOD"*

Even the main cast doesn’t have plot armor. Remember, it’s a game. In the game, anyone could die anytime, and they survived so many dangers in this arc

You remember how the vampire charmed the king and Vax?

Regarding Deliliah's vampirehood, she's not. Back in episode 3 they walked by a mirror on the way back up to thier room where the caught Vax. She had a reflection but he didn't. That's how you know without having to ask us nerds that watched the D&D game. Just the TV nerds... 🙂

12:15 . In game she was Skype calling so ya this make sense astroprojecting

This season is a DeRoloCoaster of emotions.

So for fun yall should check out the voice cast for the show. Some of the voice actors may surprise you

Many Western Female names end with A, and the Girl doesnt have the A in her short form. So Vex'ahlia & Vax'ildan, Vex being the Female. This is how I always remembered it ^^ Vax'ildan for me is easy to remember, since Liam, his... creator, designer and voice actor, is also, amongst a SHIT ton of things, Illidan from WoW... You are NOT Prepared !

Can't wait for the finale and season 2. Vox Machina just keeps getting better

The cliche subversions in this show are top notch (a perk of the randomness in the campaign). Archie’s gonna die, obviously- oh wait they’re already dead. Cassandra is a hostage what is Percy gonna do? Oh he actually cut her throat

Fun fact the whispered one is Vecna

And the Cleric is back in clutch, kinda, Astral Projection is used to bring Pike here while Ashley was still away. But yeah as Ruff said, survive until she cleaned up house. To be clear, only Sylas is a vampire, as part of the pact Delilah made to keep him alive. Delilah is a Necromancer, a powerful one of that even when she didn't have the grimoire of obvious evils. Magic comes in various shapes and sizes but they also come to people in different ways, Wizards and Sorcerers are different classes because of this; Wizards study and learn magic while Sorcerers gains it inherently from their bloodline, Warlocks also exist by making pacts with extraplanar entities, gods are also willing to offer powers to any class, Paladins and Clerics (like Pike with the Everlight) particularly since those classes often require devotion, and then there are Druids like Keyleth who draw magic from nature, so magic gets around. For Delilah, despite being in the servitude of 'The Whispered One' for saving her husband, she is a Wizard class in the school of Necromancy. Zombies are easier to defeat than ghosts...just leave it that that On top of all the other adventurers is the potential for romance, which we see with Vax and Keyleth. The dynamic is a bit more complicated, it didn't happen this way on the table he actually kissed her after the whole Professor Anders fight - which happened after encountering Anna Ripley - but it still caught Keyleth (and Marisha) by surprise.

An easy way to remember the twins is vAx like Adam, vEx like Eve :D

Oh...this VERY MUCH was a weekly show... so yeah all of those cliff hangers were REAL lol

There were 2 episodes each week that released at the same time

I HAVE TO WAIT TO SEE YOUR FINALE REACT?!

Am I the only one who gets Infinity War vibes from Pikes’ entrance?! I feel like I can’t be!

Shows I would recommend watching are Kid Cosmic,Kipo and the age of wonder beasts, and hilda

i feel like the reason it feels like they dont have plot armour is because they dont in the og content, in dnd ur character and or party can die at any moment

They release them 3 episodes at a time, so when they found Ripley at the end of Ep.9, we had to wait a week to see if her shot her.

Another thing is that you cannot have a better character to fight the undead, clerics aka Pike, they literally have a skill to Turn undead and destroy undead in mass AOE damage if they are low level enough, not to mention she's using the conduit from the temple.

They come out in episodes of 3, every week. so 4 weeks for all 12 episodes

They released 3 episodes per week, so yeah, ep 9 cliffhanger was savage.

Okay so the reason they don’t burn corpses is because you DO NOT wanna fuck with ghosts also you never know when you need to dig one up and ask some questions

They released three episodes a week, so we had to wait a week for episode ten.

Look at Cass’ eyes again

The episodes came in 3s, so the ep 9 with percy almost killing ripley ended on a one week cliffhanger.

Cassandra's actions were the result of Stockholm Syndrome amplified by Sylas's Charms.

29:44 😂haha, welcome to the Critical Role experience. It's impossible to pick a favourite.

23:11, Cass' eyes glowed like she's brainwashed btw so...

The Hound killed a Hobbit!

I don’t know why I keep watching the vox machina reactions while eating food….

If you watch the scene where class's throat is slit, her hand is on his, it was her deception. Which is why Kiki's spell didn't work. She wasn't actually knocked out, there was nothing to heal. She just acted like it did

weekly sets of three

Not a vamp. She shows up in a mirror earlier in the season when Silas does not.

God pike is great love that the actor is also Ellie from the last of us games 😫

Are you guys going to finish ducktales?

Wooo!!

Hey Eric who is your favourite female characters in this show. Do tell