The legend of Vox Machina - Season 1 Eps 5 Reaction 

Those “craziest thing you ever killed” experiences are from the actual campaign. So Kiki really did “Shhh, shhh, go to sleep” a duerugar in lava.

So glad Adam also lost it at the rope sounds in the credits. That was some psyop level horror.

I adore Adam just getting Percy possessed as he's watching.

GUYS!!!!! The guy who plays Grog on the show just tweeted he loved there Reaction to episode 5!!!!!! They are watching you!!

Fun fact: the animation team did NOT want to animate horses because of how weird they walk, so they made them CG and then animated them that way. Even then you won’t see a ton of full body shots of the horses

They just witnessed the moment CR came into it's own: The Sun Tree.

The final line of "It's us." was an absolute gut-punch. It really moved the Briarwoods from, "Oh these guys suck," to "Oh, I hope the party destroy them in the most painful ways possible."

To make “that Keyleth” moment even worse that was in the game where she pushed him in lava and the air push was to push the into the lava but it actually cooled the lava surrounding them in rock SO IT GETS EVEN DARKER

Yeah... that Sun Tree moment was the point in the campaign where I was like "oh, this is DARK dark, we're doing *this*?"

Me when that poor little girl walked into Whitestone palace: "Oh fuck, they made the Sun Tree _worse_ ..." My hands were clasped over my mouth for the next two minutes and I just started crying silently knowing what was coming. That scene was absolutely the scene in the original campaign, as others have mentioned, where the true horror of this entire arc just sinks in... Matt describing it and the little boy in purple and then the bear and you realise just what it is the characters are looking at. I hated the Briarwoods before that, but that's the moment that really cements you against them completely into going along with Percy's 'kill them all' attitude. I'm grateful that autoplay cut it short for me because... yeah, I was traumatised enough the first time round. Thanks Mercer.

I truly love how rabid of a Percy stan Adam has become

Man, Adam just GOT Percy. Yes, of course he's reciting the names! Also Mimi sounds adorable

Don’t know if you’re familiar with the concept of the critter hug, but you’re kind of getting one. We love people who love critical role and reaction channels everywhere are blowing up. That being said, I’ve been with y’all since movie trailers and wish you the best.

4:27 "Didn't know she could do that without horns on her head" The rabbit only had horns because it wasn't just a regular rabbit form, but a jackalope.

Congratulations on getting shouted out by Travis Willingham/Grog.

vex is still at the "we need to be ready to split at any moment" point in her arc. give her some time haha

Blowing luck points to befriend a mimic who then goes along with you is just... *chef's kiss

The best part about watching new critters watching ONLY the animated series, is their priceless reactions to "The Sun Tree moment"

A gargantuan mimic with a Headband of Intellect that teams up with an Elder oblex, it pretends to be a roadhouse while the oblex impersonates the people. Playing softly in the background is an acoustic version of 'Hotel California'.

9:01 Adam: "What did, that, what, how did she just do?" I think that was 'Charm Monster', a 4th tier enchantment spell that's part of the Druid's spell list.

I can’t believe we get to see this moment animated… Damn.

That kills they were flashbacking to happened previously in the campaign and the Keyleth one was extremely hilarious

so, according to critrolestats, the creatures they fought in the last episode (ep27 in the campaign) were invisible stalkers, even though they were flavored as undead

Keyleth's horrified realization "It's us..." ALWAYS gives me chills

Im so glad we got the shot of the names on Percy's gun and Fun Fact for those unaware, his gun is called "The List."

Jay: Is Jester your favorite yet? Flashes back to the cupcake with the dusk of deliciousness. Me: She will be. She, will be.

That first time entering Whitestone and feeling like a Curse of Strahd vibe was so cool

And now Travis Willingham has admitted to enjoy your reactions. nice!

“This episode had everything” Liam

in the crew watch party, it was mentioned that the horses were gonna die but the suggestion to have the speared on the spikes was given by the animation director (i forget his like actual title) cause the person who was animating them was having a hard time and it would be a little bit of revenge for that. also the reason they took an airship in the first episode was cause the animators hated horses. it was also part of the reason trinket was left behind (also cause he would die really quickly....cause hes just a bear) this entire show is Animators vs Four Legged Creatures but really the sun tree moment was the moment that told everyone in the party "this is where this gets Real." it was amazing to watch them realize it live. i nearly screamed when i saw Delilah put that necklace on that little girl in the show...held it in but just barely and im sure my neighbors thank me

Travis Willingham just tweeted a shot from your episode.

even batman is telling Percy to chill

Can we all agree that Matt Mercer's brain can be a wonderfully dark and demented place?

I'm a bit disappointed that Titmouse didn't made the hands of the Rakshasa the wrong way. It looked like a Weretiger.

I would rate this episode 7/7 familiar looking hanged folk.

My party has a wild magic sorcerer who had his boot turn into a mimic and try to eat it’s foot. The rogue started tossing food at it after they got it off and now has a pet, named Boots. It currently disguises itself as his backpack and holds torches for him cause he’s the only party member without dark vision.

"Roll for big turkey check." Yup, that's D&D all right...

8:49 - Never, EVER piss off the Druid.

For anyone curious: The creature Vax killed in his flashback story is called a Rakshasa. They are devious little buggers.

I’m so glad y’all hopped on the Vex and Percy train too! I put up with Keyleth and Vax lol

I knew what was coming and when i saw delilah put the everlight's symbol around the girl's neck i was like 'oh no i thought they were just dinner for sylas but this is way worse'. And yet seeing it realised in animation as the final shot then with the rope sounds over the credits was just perfection. Well played critical role, well played

I had a similar "charm a weird thing to be your friend" in a campaign I was in. My druid ended up pulling off a Nat 20 animal handling check (plus a ridiculous modifier) on an animated table and it ended up becoming our group's surrogate dog for the rest of the time.

The Sun Tree is such a viscerally horrifying moment, even in the stream. Even though it’s probably the moment where the stream *really* sunk its claws into me. There was only one kid in place of Scanlan in the stream, cause they never met Pike at the feast, so they had a freshly hunted bear strung up in place of Trinket, as well as another body for Tiberius (the campaign member who left just as this arc was kicking off) who they painted red as he was a red dragonborn. They also painted “Keyleth’s” hair red in the stream, but there’s something really spinechilling about them *nailing the antlers* into her head and nailing the fur onto “Vex’s” shoulder. The bodies in the tree have absolutely haunted me since that episode and I’m so glad they didn’t pull their punches on it for this.

That's how you make players want to kill villain for real

The anecdote about a mimic reminds me of a Titansgrave campaign I ran a few years ago. It was a fantasy/sci-fi hybrid setting, so the party was traveling through a damaged subway system, and they made a deal with the resident gang to deal with a monster dwelling in the tunnels. Long story short, they ended up in a boss battle with a Subway Train Mimic.

Fun fact: They said "White Castle" instead of "Whitestone" so much in the original show they made a shirt that had "Whitestone" in the logo of White Castle.

The monsters they fought were most likely Shades... Those are vicious, but easy enough to take on at lower levels. Intangible, attacks cause the victim to roll a save or lose Constitution Score and if the victim dies in a certain way, they themselves become a Shade after a certain amount of time.

Showed up at the perfect time, was looking forward to this one.

"Is Jester your favorite yet?" may be my favorite comment so far 😂 #Jester4ever ❤️

Lol I think marisha tries to make those "go to sleep moments".... remember the guard with the acid in campaign 2?

the realisation when Delilah give the pendant to the kid D:

Ok, have to call out the 'thanks seagull, I knew you would agree' since it was a Red-tailed Hawk. Now, back to our originally scheduled content. ;)

Jay: Whatever, you're gonna start digging Percy soon anyways. Me: Well, look at him! Can you blame her?

Travis Willingham aka Grog saw your reaction video, and tweeted about it.

Adam mentions Assassin's Creed, all percy needs is a hood.

I believe the Sun Tree scene led to the infamous question on Talks Machina for Matt Mercer: Matt, what the fuck?!" =D

DM here. I LOVE when players go shopping! They get to meet interesting NPCs and look at standard and special items either in the books or of my own making. Fun to see what people pick!

"The Party goes to White Castle"

The best take I've heard about shipping members of the party is: why limit yourself to just two of them? Polyamorous Vox Machina. It totally fits their characters and makes any ships totally plausible. Love y'alls reaction as always! :)

No one in their right minds could hate you two! Just saying.

Glad they showed the go to sleep moment, but at the table it was even better. She tried to hurry it along by stepping on his head to submerge him and then gust of winding down to cool the lava on top of him. Even Travis was stunned, and he had grog ripping people apart with his bare hands. It was awesome 😎

They should have gone to White Castle. Stocked up on burgers too. 🍔

I can’t wait to see your reactions for the next episode. Hell all of the next episodes. You guys are in for a ride. It just keeps ramping up!

I love when I immediately fall in love with a show. This show is sooo good.

I love that Scanlan has been the damsel in distress of this series.

Go watch the actual play of this happening, the realisation as it hits the players..Marisha going "No...no...noo" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HGgpO13Icu8.html

"You scream and everybody comes a-running"

Thank for the perfect post workout activity while I’m eating lunch! I’m so glad you both love the show as much as I do :)

We had a domesticated mimic in our party too! We rescued him from a cult we were attacking, that was purging a mimic infestation they'd gotten when we walked in on them. He had the intelligence of a spaniel. We found him on a shelf, whimpering, as they threw his parents' wooden bodies on a bonfire. So we took him in, my wife played him, we named him Chesty, and based our party name on him: The Fellowship And The Thing.

Saw that Travis shout out on Twitter! LOVE that they watch you guys! :D

the pure joy i feel when seing your videos of vox machina i swear, just seing it uploaded makes me smile

"No one will ever come between us" technically true based on the seating arrangements in the bathtub

Just casually rewatching these for the third time...

I think what Kiki used on the creature was a Dominate Beast spell or something like that, cause it's eyes glowed green right after, like hers, so I suspect there was some charm effect going on. And the Sun Tree moment is SEARED into my brain from watching the campaign. Harrowing stuff.

I am glad you guys are doing this series... your of my favorite reactors.

There's videos out now with the in game part where they find their hanging selves it's really cool to watch it now in the show.

"Who are you?" "I'm vengeance!"

I recommend you to watch this moment, with hanging bodies, on the show. It's so impactful. Here you have pretty short couple of seconds, but there, when Matt was describing each body on the tree, and slow realisation of a team about what exactly they are see on a tree. It's just such a strong moment in this story and sets a tone for the whole arc and what will come next.

I love the mimic story! Best mimic story from my campaigns was one I ran where the party got in good with the emir of a desert kingdom. In the center of the palace courtyard, among the gardens, was a gazebo that the emir used for all his meetings, and it wasn't until the party started back-talking the emir and the whole gazebo shuddered that they started to suspect something was up. When the palace was attacked, their suspicions were confirmed when the entire gazebo came alive to defend the emir. Turned out the emir had rescued it and tamed it in its infancy, and had kept it as a pet and guard dog ever since. It also made a nice homage to the legend of Eric and the Dread Gazebo.

The mimic story, I'm crying laughing, thanks for sharing! Mimi is one of my nicknames 😂

There's a monstah natty 20 moment and a level of carnage that puts jesters temple run to shame coming up before season end.

13:24 the _name_ of that gun was "The List" xD

Headed to White Castle 🤣🤣🤣 thank you Adam

Donjon has the best random generators for all the things DnD. He has so many lists and options!

The sun tree moment continues to hit harder....

When I heard the story of the mimick, my first instinct was "Oh, I hope my group ever does something like that, I'd definitely allow it!" Then I showed my husband that segment of your video and his reaction was "Oh, no, if you ever do something like that in my campaign, I will make sure you'll fall into a deep hole, break your toe and have bad luck for two years as a punishment!" Two types of DMs, I guess xD

One of my favorite stories from a D&D campaign. Two PC Orc characters. One tricked the other out of his half of the loot from a treasure chest. The one who got cheated dumped the treasure on the ground and kept the box. Cue a one hour IC argument between the two about the whether or not the box was part of the treasure. "You see box on ground. You pick up box? NO! Because box not part of treasure... etc."

7:10 no, Adam, that's a red-tailed hawk. Eagles don't screech, that's a lie created by Hollywood.

The last time I was this early, we were still peach fuzz.

The Sun Tree Moment where they found slain civilians dressed like them is from the campaign as well. On a lighter note, so is the battle with the locked door.

The " demony, wraithy things" are called Wraiths 😆

Had to look it up....the name of Percy's gun is The List.

that last little bit with the sun tree has more impact than being narrated at a table huh and the go to sleep part was in the first campaign when they went into the Underdark and fought the duergar but that one happened a little differently.

nice, was waiting for this one!

Percy's pepperbox does have a name but so far hasn't been mentioned in the show. "The List"

You guys get this show! It's a joy to watch!

Congrats on the Travis Willingham shoutout! (And 201 watchalongs!)

Percy and Vex. I can't wait for it

13:22 Our first good look at 'The List'.

Entergagement!!! I understood that reference.