Gunpowder Plot: Part 2 | Critical Role: VOX MACHINA | Episode 31 

Keyleth: Starts climbing the Sun Tree instead of running away Vax: s t r e s s Vex: follows her Vax: S T R E S S

Legend says, still to this day, that Tiberius Stormwind is shopping in the endless marketplace of the void.

Matt: the citizens are fighting the Giant Party: oooh, look at these ropes Matt: guys, remember, there's a battle right next to you Party: so these ropes were cut? Matt: the giant killed everybody who was fighting him Party: can we figure out if the bodies fell down from these ropes or?... Matt: ... Matt: 100 skeletons come out of nowhere and start running towards you

I hope everyone realises how diffent the rebellion would have turned out if Percy, instead of resting, climbed up to the highest building in town and started sniping giants with bad news as they fought the peasants

What confused me so much this episode was the people blaming keyleth for trying to keep the riot going, THEN getting upset at her for going to the sun tree when literally everyone else in the party wanted to go there. Why did she get blamed for the sun tree when percy was the one who brought up the idea and everyone else backed him

Mercer: The rebellion you guys wanted so badly is happening, these poorly armed villagers are fighting the giants. The Group: Nope. We tired.

I do love that the party completely and constantly ignores Matt's attempts to persuade them to actually help the townsfolk and they don't even notice when he tries to let them know they failed (when the giants wrecked that group of people they basically just let die.)

I really love how Laura and Liam act like actual siblings sometimes. Makes me forget they're not actually, they just happen to have the same birthday.

Matt gave them SOOO many opportunities to help against the giants and they really said "if they die they die"

Ok this episode breaks my heart because Marisha as Keyleth was trying SO HARD to get the group to do the right thing and help the villagers and Matt as DM tried SO HARD to get the group to join in the fight but everyone else just kept saying no.

The episode where Matt and Marisha are like parents asking the kids to help the REBELLION THAT THEY STARTED, but then the easily distracted kids went to the tree lol

Well that was a frustrating episode to watch. Part one, featuring Triceratops Rambo Scanlan, was hilarious and amazing. Part two, ending with the DM practically begging everyone to help the people (that they convinced to fight for them), only to ignore them until they were all dead, was painful to watch.

I think the whole dilemma of resting vs. fighting could have been prevented if they, y'know, actually went to speak to that Trevor guy in the inn. They completely forgot about him. I'm pretty sure Matt had some plans for him to coordinate the rebellion, but they just went all Rambo on their own :P

I am 100% with Keyleth on this one. The heat Marisha got for this was ridiculous. Vex and Vax are both fighters so spells dont mean shit. Grog had a short rest and had plenty of hit dice to expend, so his hp should be fine. Moreover, Grog is a barbarian, which Travis plays with great pleasure and certainty, but all of a sudden Grog isnt the invincible tank, and he wants to run for the hills? And Percy, who is hellbent on ending the Briarwoods' reign, also agrees to head to the woods? Bullshit. These are a band of heroes that ignited a rebellion, Keyleth was totally playing to what her character should be and I am 100% behind Marisha's choice.

Keyleth: "Lets get back out there and take down some giants! What do you guys say?" Scanlan: "I admire this fire in your eyes but... that's so stupid"

Grog burns. Grog remembers. Grog learns.

Keyleth is not my favorite character but I don't understand the hatred for her and Marisha. Keyleth was 100% right, you can't just start the rebellion and then abandon it to sleep, especially with zero communication. Like yes you need to rest but you rallied the townsfolk, you gotta get out there and help with what you started.

The Twitch chat is really starting to bother me. One second they're screaming "metagaming metagaming!!" then the next they're complaining when the players do something that isn't "min / maxing" and goes against what's considered effective or their character doesn't know any better vs going for role play. Disturbs me how much they like to complain just for the sake of complaining.

Though it’s less grim, I’m glad that the TV show captures some of the disastrous results of Percy’s reluctance.

Lmfao my old DM would have stopped us as we said we wanted to look at the tree and probably said something like "Okay guys, the rebellion you guys have been brewing is happening. Right now. It's literally happening. The peasants are rising up and by the looks of it they will die without professional help. Now are you SURE you want to investigate the tree right NOW?" No hate on Matt or Keyleth, they both tried to get the party to do what they've been trying to start for several episodes but...D&D be like that sometimes

I hope they understand how responsible they are for the death of that entire town, and the rebellion. If those characters are of good alignment, that should haunt them.

This is probably one part where I'm glad that the animated show took heavy liberties on how to tell it. Yes it was still a massive slaughter in the show, but at least Vox Machina wasn't ignoring the rebellion they started and instead fought alongside the peasants and eventually won. Here it just feels like they dropped the roleplay aspect and were entirely thinking about playing to win. Vex, Vax, and Scanlan can all be argued as being neutral characters who at this point are more interested in self preservation, or at least preservation of the group. Percy can be argued as being corrupted by the influence of Orthax, who has no interest in fighting undead, since they have no souls for him to feed on. But that's still an issue, it's being argued for them, but it's not actually being shown in roleplay. None of them looked at Keyleth and said, "We're too taxed to continue fighting, especially against six undead giants. We're sorry but we should have made a better plan cause all we've done is riled up people to run to their deaths." Instead we have 5 people saying "No let's rest, we have no spells, we've taken some damage, etc etc," granted Keyleth is their main spellcaster at this point, and even though Scanlan's out of spells, he's still got a lot more utility as a bard. But that brings us to probably the most confusing character/person. Grog/Travis. Grog, after the short rest, is almost back to his full hp, if I'm not mistaken. He's also always raring for a fight, and has been near frothing at the mouth for this one this whole time they've been in town. Yet suddenly he's wanting to take a full rest. He's not even being Grog, as both Laura and Liam say, "Who are you?" when Travis makes a very non-Grog comment on what they should do. Meanwhile poor Keyleth is almost begging the group that they have to go do something. In all honesty even if just her, Grog, and Vax go out to gather up any survivors and get the rebellion centralized in a safer location, it would have been better than just waiting for the giants to finish off the peasants. Besides that there's also a few things just felt forced in. Sam suddenly asking questions about Tylieris, which then causes the party to completely abandon helping the people and instead go look at a dead tree with some ropes. Also doesn't help that when Matt says that only Kyleth notices the ropes don't have the bodies hanging on them, Laura is the one who pushes for them to investigate further, despite Vex having seemingly not noticed the ropes at that point. The entire scenario just felt forced, and it was saddening to just see Marisha and Matt both slowly checking out as they see the rest of the group has no interest in being helpful. So yeah, I'm very happy that the writers of the Legend of Vox Machina decided, "Eeeeeeh that was a shitty series of scenarios, lets just remake that whole bit." Such as having the team actually interact with Trevor, who was made into a long lost friend of Percy's, etc etc. They kept the utter devastation and heartbreak of the scene with peasants dying left and right, wholly unmatched for something that's even a bit challenging for seasoned adventurers as Vox Machina, but at least Vox Machina were active in there. Huh... maybe that's why it's called "the Legend"

It just DAWNED on me that a cleric would be instrumental in this adventure... I wonder how pike is doing...

After reading the comments, im starting to think I'm the only one who likes Keyleth and Marisha. Keyleth was right about helping the people fight the giants and it seems like she's the only one with morals most of the time. Even Percy, who's from Whitestone, doesn't care about the people living there as long as he gets revenge.

Metagaming is the worst sin possible to be avoided at all costs until you're arguing to take an 8 hour nap in the middle of a revolution you started because you blew all of your resources on a single encounter.

Love everyone in chat clamoring about how skeletons are resistant to bludgeoning damage and immune to cold when they absolutely aren't in 5e. They actually take more bludgeoning damage than normal.

I like how VM was like “ok lets just tell everyone to stop rebelling while we take a long rest. I’m sure the Briarwoods and all the undead will be very cool with that and not just kill everyone instead.” I love this show but the second half of this episode was very something else. Also Matts face when all the villagers die while VM looks at a tree.

Worst rebellion planning EVER

A terrifying thought they don't mention is that there was also a bear hanging from the tree... Vampire bear!

This will be interesting when they animate it. All of them standing around looking at a tree, while people are being slaughtered in the background.

I am so disappointed, for a while VM was all like " we need friends, allies, let's build a militia!" And then as soon as they get their allies, they leave them all to die.... just... come on...

Matt gave them so many chances to save those villagers at the sun tree fighting the undead giant and they got completely ignored, poor bastards.

Keyleth: Let's help the citizens Everyone else: no Keyleth: We need to help the citizens Everyone else: no Keyleth: We really should help them Everyone else: We're going to rest Keyleth: Now that we're rested lets go help the citizens Everyone else: Let's go to the tree Chat: Keyleth is so stupid why does she want to go to the tree instead of the citizens

00:00:16 - Scanlan being dumb 00:01:23 - Tylieri's family jewels 00:03:06 - Grog the Explorer 00:04:15 - Check for boobies 00:05:23 - Matt being coy 00:09:54 - Keyleth the firestarter 00:11:18 - End of part 1 00:12:27 - Fan art 00:25:30 - 5 minutes later... Start of part 2 00:28:59 - Jordana Whisk, and a resting dilemma 00:39:02 - Grog learns 00:40:10 - Percy gives his forgotten Headband of Initiative to Vex 00:42:25 - Scanlan sings a song of resting (Help, by The Beatles) 00:44:50 - Scanlan realizes a plot twist 00:46:56 - "Let's go giant-hunting" 00:50:12 - Army of the Dead 00:53:40 - "Stop looking up her skirt, brother" 01:00:32 - The death of a giant Watch the Critmas episode here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hWDvXAyud6A.html

There’s really no rage like the rage I feel having to watch the live chat box lol

Kinda surprises me that Percy never makes the connection that all these peasants dying in the streets are HIS people. They swore oaths of fealty to his family, once upon a time, and every time one of them dies, that's because he failed to protect them. He uses the Noble background often enough, that should come with some responsibility.

I approve of Scanlan "Rambo" Shorthalt.

Keyleth: LETS'S FIGHT!! Party: I need a nap.

@51:00 The consequences I expected finally bear fruit. They came out of hiding to "help fight Giants to protect civilians" and yet when they come across a live giant battle they stare at ropes in a tree until every last civilian is killed. Matt tried reminding them of the battle repeatedly, and they kept frantically turning their attention to a tree that could wait and theorizing about enemies that were not present from a scenario of "spawning" that may not exist. *sigh* 51:00 broke my heart to hear the last civilian crushed under the giant's fist... But worse was that it got no response from the players. They didn't even care. 😟

Current mood: Keyleth and Vex putting their heads in their hands at the end when Matt tells them about the skeleton army going to kill the entire town they're supposed to be saving.

Did anyone else notice the guard that said that they had informants who told them the rebellion was going to go on... So they killed him instead of asking who it was?!

33:58 meanwhile I'm just thinking "how about you go around finishing the zombie giants and guard, the town will protect you for the long rest and help finish the final storm on the castle"

Late to this as I binge to catch up, but this episode really made clear that Keyleth is arguably the only one of VM who isn't a murderhobo. Vax I might make a case in defense of against the title, but how easily they shrug off mass death of others blew me off guard. That is their character right, but it shocks me is all. She's very refreshing to my outcry of morality, even if they all just ignored the people dying to that one giant ._. player mistakes though, they were struck by dread of the idea of being at a spawning point of vampires so I can forgive that.. Keyleth was far from my favorite early in the series but she's one of the beacons for me as she so very much treats the people in this world as very real people and not just 'npcs'

I get the feeling that, while they may kill the Briarwoods and lift the curse from the land there won't be much of a populace left. It'll feel less like a victory and more like surviving. Not a whole lot of sweet and a fair amount of bitter.

"Let's get out there and help the common folk in their uprising against zombie death giants!" "Oh hey a tree".

In fairness to the group, they were working under the assumption that the tree wasn't just dead, but corrupted, and had been serving as the engine to this macabre theme park. That was an assumption that, barring direct intervention by the dm, could only be proven false in hindsight. As such, while investigating the tree was most definitely the wrong thing to do in the circumstance, it wasn't necessarily an evil thing to do, which is why their alignments didn't shift afterwards. It was still painful to watch, but thinking of it this way allows me to watch the second half without spoiling my enjoyment of the episode as a whole too badly.

I LOL'ed SO hard when Marisha/ Keyleth said "We are the most capable people in this town right now..." And I just remembered all the plans that never quite work out and thought "...You're the luckiest people in this town right now" lol ;)

34:00 "They don't like running water" If grog would have panicked and said something like, "Percy they must be after your powder that grants immunity to water's burning effects!"- that would have been perfect.

to those that dont have a handy PHB on hand, the Alert feat is this " Always on the lookout for danger, you gain the following benefits : *You gain a +5 bonus to initiative. * You cant be surprised while you are conscious. * Other creatures dont gain advantage on attack rolls against you as a result of being hidden from you. " the alert feat is just op as hell

Someone in the chat: "How long does a game like this last." Me: "YEARS"

*Facepalm.* You had a chance to save those innocent people Vox Machina!

*flicks through comments for 20 seconds* Oh, this is gonna be a fun one...

Rewatching early episodes is tough seeing how toxic the chat normally was and how much they picked on keyleth/Marisha. She wanted to help the villagers, everyone else wanted to go to the tree. Chat blames her for going to the tree. Then when she tries to help and fight the skeletons they complain that she’s fighting and not running. Early episodes I just try to avoid the comments as much as I can cos it’s the same shit haha

How the second visit to the Alcove *should* have gone down. Jordana: You mean to tell me, that you fueled the kindling for this peasant revolt, and *my friends* are out there dying for you, but you're hiding in *here??* " VM: ...Yeees? Jordana: " *GET OUT!* And don't come back until you've finished what you *fucking* started!" Tbh, a short rest for Grog to expend some HD and the others to get back at least *some* of their feature uses is the absolute most I could see myself doing, and the most I could see any DM I run with permitting without penalty, given the circumstances.

Wow. The division in the comments on this one are crazy. For what it's worth, I feel for the players a little here. From a narrative standpoint, Keyleth is entirely right. They are committed. Sure they're worn down but that's where their poor planning left them. The rebellion's started and every minute they take to rest people are dying, weakening their side of the conflict. But from a mechanical, GAMEPLAY standpoint... Travis is right. They are too personally resource-poor to take on the Briarwoods. They cannot "win" the "boss fight" without resting and they have no way of knowing when they will be forced into that fight or if they will have a better opportunity to rest than now. It's one of the problems with the recovery system for d&d--it forces narratively vexing rests on players to recover resources, which can grind the momentum to a halt. Honestly, I think I might have just leveled with the players and TOLD them what should have been obvious to their characters (considering that starting a rebellion was their plan). Right now, they are personally weak but have a large army and the enemy has had only limited time to organize resistance against you. The longer you wait, you will regain more of your personal resources for the grid-based tactical combat but will have far fewer narrative resources (element of surprise, the army, etc). You started this. You know your alignments. Are these townspeople resources to sacrifice to help you kill the Briarwoods or is saving them the OBJECTIVE and killing the Briarwoods the means to an end?

Oof, Matt gave them a power fantasy of leading a rebellion from a vampire overlord and from the very start they were way more concerned with a fancy hanging tree than the rebellion they let loose and forgot. Not quite the best they can be on this one.

Marisha honestly had a good idea with the ice storm, I got second hand embarrassment from the chat trying to backseat game.

"We want to start a rebellion to help us!" "The rebellion has begun! ... Let's not get involved." "Shall we take advantage of the opportunity? Nah, let's just chill."

With the choices they made. They would have a pyrric/hollow victory. With so many of the populous dead from this rebellion, would there be a town left to save? But none the less a victory is still a victory.

I can't stand the hate going on here... it looks like the Critters really need a fallguy in this episode. Keyleth goes and wants to help the people that they incited into revolution, rather than sitting around regaining HP's and spells. This is what makes the game epic. Fighting the hard battles. Helping the innocent. There's more to D&D than strategy.

Near the end, when Travis keeps telling everyone they need to rest and they can't go out and help the townspeople, I really wish someone had just looked at him and said, "Grog, when that Vampire changed to mist, did it take your spine with it?"

While I do appreciate you guys finally getting this episode uploaded, there was a bit of footage cut off between the end of part 1 and the start of part 2. If I recall, it was when Keyleth tried one more time to contact Scanlan and finally got through, and THEN she use her sky writing spell. Oh well, at least the episode's up.

This episode shows that Vox Machina aren’t heroes, they (generally) don’t care about innocent lives

I love how the chat is mercilessly shitting on Marisha and everyone is screaming about how they have nothing left seconds after they killed a Giant in 1 round taking only 16 damage, all of them at full health and literally only 2 spellcasters, one of which is perfectly fine on spells and the other one being a Bard who has a ton of extra shit he can still use and multiple casts of Lightning Bolt.

Hah someone in the chat said, “just wait next campaign everyone will be magic users”

Taken from littlecajunlady's Tumblr (message from me at the bottom) 3:22 - Grog finds a hatch 4:15 - Grog asks Vex or Vax to check the hatch for boobies 9:35 - They burn down the house 11:05 - Break starts 25:30 - Break ends 42:22 - Scanlan sings a song of rest ♪ (They take a short rest then go to the Sun Tree once they hear fights break out. At about 50:30 is when the skeleton horde shows up and they stay and fight, mostly because of Keyleth. They kill a giant, run away, and CLIFFHANGER.) 1:01:55 - Game ends I'm aware these get posted a lot, these are for me so it's at the top but other people can use them cause I like to help people

i still think Percy's sister is on the side of the Brierwoods. the last 2 attempts failed but she "helped" with them and didnt get caught? no shes telling the people when and where to attack so the vamps can wipe out dissenters.

thanks scanlan. a vampire controlled town patrolled by zombie giants is already kinda scary. the horde of skeletons marching through the thunder and rain is a bit scarier. but you just had to make them appear out of the fog, didn't you.

Amazing that only Keyleth tried to do something for the townspeople in this part.

I'm happy Keyleth is at least somewhat concerned about morality and not just winning.

I literally can't believe that Keyleth is the one who pushes everyone to carry on with the rebellion they just started......... I know it's a game and your abilities aren't recharged, but your actions have consequences.... there won't be much help of the people that die and will be reanimated as zombies by the necromancers in the castle..... Especially seeing that even depleted, they took out the one zombie giant very easily. They refuse to risk, which is ok, they could die, but they also refuse to go against anything when they're not at their strongest and there are times when you have to push through.... Oh this one hurt real bad.

40:38 "That is why you didn't take the Alertness feat. Then things would have gotten stupid." As a Ranger with Alertness, I can confirm this. Nothing like rolling a 2, but still going before almost your entire party when you have +10 to your initiative. I can't remember the last time someone other than a Rogue went before me.

Oh! How did I just realize? Zombie giants...they passed a stone giant fortress in the mountains that was eerily empty. Coincidence?

this episode really kinda pissed me off the way the group acted towards marisha. they where trying to start a rebellion, actually started one, and then was like, nope. expect for marisha, she was the only one that was like wtf do you all mean nope? we have to help the civilians, this is our fault, we started this we have to go out there. but no, they decide to sleep. and they want to call themselves the hero's?

Keyleth was the MVP this time! Only character that shows ANY sense of actual empathy for the villagers they are supposed to be saving! ❤️❤️

If you're character wants to save these people during their rebellion, and the rest of the party says no, you fucking go save those people. The party will follow. I remember one campaign we were running where something similar happened. Some nameless NPC was was going to die because he was trapped in a building. The party said they weren't going to save him because it was too dangerous. I sucked down a couple healing potions and hauled ass in. Saved the NPC but went unconscious. That's when the rest of the party came it, to save me. But that NPC saw that I was willing to sacrifice myself for him and spent the next few years training. Eventually he showed up and prevented a TPK.

"So we stoked these poor, unarmed villagers into rebellion against undead murder-giants. Now we could either help them, or take a nap. Nap time it is!" -Heroes of Exandria

"this is really going to be a short 5 minute break because we want to get through as much story as possible before Christmas" *20 minutes later* "alright, were back"

Half of the comments: why did keyleth just stand and watch while people died around them. It’s so obvious that Matt was trying to get them to fight in the rebellion The other half of the comments: why did keyleth risk climbing the tree to take out a chunk of the hoard?

41:56 "I think we should call the chat room Critical Haters tonight" Spot on lol.

Couldn't they have had the spellcasters rest and the guys who don't use spells take control of the rebellion in preparation for the night assault? Would have got everything they needed to done.

The fact that they can spontaneously jump into to harmony parts to create a pretty darn on pitch chord for "Help!" is crazy impressive. I feel like their musical talents don't get enough opportunity to shine.

I love when vax calls her Kiki

Remember remember The fifth of November The gunpowder, treason, and plot I see no reason Why the gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot.

4:16 - Boob Check 6:38 - Typical Percy 9:34 - Vox Machina: Pyromaniacs 11:17 - Break Begins 25:30 - Break Ends 42:23 - Scanlan's Song of Rest

"Grog learns" quote of the day

Calling it right now, Gilmore is totally a silver dragon.

It is *very* rough coming back to C1 after C2, they're just so much better at playing their characters and the game in C2. 90% of the party is constantly excessively toeing that line of morality while still being praised as saviors and heroes. They also definitely pay attention to the world around them a *lot* more in C2 and it pays off a lot. I've heard this is probably VM's lowest moral point and most murder-hobo era so hopefully these thoughts on the campaign fade away later on since it is still pretty early in the campaign in comparison to the total episodes. Want to make it clear that I'm not hating, I love the series, just some of my thoughts and takeaway from what I've seen so far in C1. I'm still enjoying it so far, just some things are kind of frustrating to see, but obviously a lot goes into this game, so I trust that they understood what they were doing and had purpose for what they decided to do with their characters. *UPDATE (Spoilers for next episode):* Literally the next episode, Pike comes in and saves their morality lmaooo hopefully that doesn't revert after next episode.

Does anyone make multiple pauses during the fan art montage to enjoy each piece? Can't possibly be - those are so interesting, each so unique!

39:13 *Grog learns* ... * Thinker Pose *

Thank you scanlin for reminding us the party can be split and still be effective

Sometimes I wonder about these alignments with their actions hahaha. It was still a pretty good episode though! That chat though.. I'm reminded why I tend to always have it closed at all times.

Oh man, Matt is so much more generous than I would be in this situation. I mean, i wouldn't flat out kill them for ignoring the obvious allusions to the villagers fighting and dying. But this probably would not have even ended up as the pyrrhic victory that it did. I probably would have had them come back from their 30-60 minute rest only to find that most of the villagers were dead, captured, or scattered into the surrounding wilderness. Even, or more like especially, in DnD battles, that is like an eternity. That's 300 rounds of combat where poorly equipped villagers are fighting on their own. If they actually gave into the urge to take a long rest, then I probably would have to put them in a really bad situation. High likelihood of losing one or more party members, with a moderate risk of TPK for deciding to take a nap in the middle of a rebellion they started.

I love Travis at 41:05 he says "put it on your little head" when percy says he can were two things on his head

damn you matthew mercer I'm eating a hot pocket as your describing the undead giant taking damage

Anybody else find that random perfect four part harmony they hit during the song of rest super damn impressive?

Using the villagers as meatshields, they probably could have killed the giant with cantrips, thrown weapons and regular arrows - saving lives and resources. But no - first they let the giant finish the villagers off and then they blast the giant before it even reaches them, spending spell slots.

25:30 - Beak Ends 42:23 - Scanlan Healing Song

lol @ the team saying they're going out to rescue people then stand and look at ropes while people get killed.

After watching this Episode I'd like to start a petition to have the chat taken away from the screen permanently. It's so much vinegar and vitriol towards the players that I'm starting to wonder if those are actually fans!? Anyways, I'd enjoy my Critical Role much more if you replaced the chat on screen with something like a fanart-slideshow. Now that'd be my jam!