Vecna the Ascended - Critical Role Tribute (Ep. 114) 

Johnyrocket33 I love what you did here. Amazing that every time scanlan does that 9th level counter spell, I start to tear up.

Everyone, everyone who loves critical role needs to know about this and watch it. I knew about the I'm sorry but I never knew he was saving a wish for Vax I truly loved this series more than anything and when it ended my heart shattered... I am glad I have a DnD group and season two...

Jick Dealdus me too..... our dnd group also had a fight against a vecna buuuuuuut...... we got DESTROYED ( we had like 2/3 spell casters and vecna did a anti magic field cause pir dm is a dick)

Ø

It’s attributed to Don Gable. “6 walked in a room willing to fight a god. One walked in willing to fight two.”

I think that was Matt Colville?

SporeDemigod it was sam

It's one of the top comments on episode 114. You can go read it now if you like.

NOOOOOOOO I'm still sad about it

Here is the original, I believe: Don Gable Six people walked into that room willing to fight a god. One walked in willing to fight two.

@David Campbell Arkhan was taking it to Hell, he's on a war path to set Tiamat free from her imprisonment - he actually showed up in a official DND book set in the first layer of hell not long after the end of campaign 1 (Sorry if you knew that and this is condescending)

David Campbell he’s trying to get Tiamat free of hell. He’s in Descent into Avernus as an npc you can interact with and fight. I don’t think he knew Arkhan would be in an official campaign at the time, but the character’s intention was the same.

@@Aplesedjr they had only started on avernus at the time this campaign was played and the writers wrote Arkhan into the story and listened to how he imagined it to be

That was joe looking at Travis. Travis was PISSED

You can see Travis realise what he's going to do as Arkhan says he's going to destroy the hand. He probably wanted to stop him, but naturally Grog wouldn't be able to infer this so he didn't make any moves.

Oh god why! I just read this in Sam's voice. ;___;

I almost cried :-(

@@lovesmuffins123 Well, i fuckin did!

I felt every bit of that

Guess who just started the waterworks again.

The saddest and the most powerful one

Ironically, as a Bard like Scanlan would actually understand this, in stories that's what it takes: an ultimate sacrifice to destroy or stop an ultimate evil. Save Vax yet let Vecna get away to return stronger, more prepared, or stop him at the cost of a friend staying dead. Ultimate sacrifice. Even Vax had to understand this...

Always felt alil bummed he didnt roll the dice and save the wish. DC 18 on 1d20+1d12+6. Id have taken those odds

Can't wait to see it animated. A conflicted Scanlan just screaming, "Oh no you don't, taint smear!" Before canceling the Teleportation.

Literally the worst

Johnyrocket33 Or literally the best? Eh?

The way Sam's voice breaks when he asks "Would I have a reaction?"...

In this instance it was more Sam who wanted to save his best friend Liam actually. Still makes me cry

Matt’s look of absolute horror was perfect tho

I wasn't able to follow what you typed in this comment.

BigBy=one of the great mages(whom created the BigBi's hand spell), Vecna killed him. Now his hand holds the gnome of his demise

That was worded so so so so much better. And thanks for editing the original comment as well.

Except that Scanlan failed the ritual and it was Keyleth who took over the book and went through words she couldn't even understand to finally perform the rites of banishment.

Poetic justice

YES! I thought the same way! I even almost put that in there, I was live too and i loved when he said that!

Actually one of the worst douche-bag moves possible considering how little time he spent with the group.

@@TheRealCrimdor true to his character, so it’s a good move.

Interesting how Joe does about 6 actions in one sentence and no one says "Hold the F on!!! OH HELL NO!" 1. Says a prayer to Tiamat? 2. Chops his hand off 3. Chops the hand of Venca off 4. Puts the hand of vecna on his stump 5. Heals 6. Teleports away. Never would have happened in any group I have ever played with. Any one of the other characters could have and would have stopped that nonsense from happening.

@@tylerdurden639 they respected the acting. He had to sell it

@@tylerdurden639 if you really want to get into the semantics of it then he could've used his bonus action for a frenzy attack to chop off the hand, interact with object to graft the hand of vecna(which was already chopped off), and then standard action to teleport away. the prayer isn't an action at all, and he didn't need to use healing

You almost? You're souless... I cry every gorram time I see this episode 😂

@@mateocano8326 Same here

You can see how utterly shocked he is to see Sam use his 9th level spell as well. I like to think that as a fan of the story, Matt himself was sad to see that happen. It was one of the few chances that Sam had to save Vax and Matt knew it.

Narratively speaking, Vax's death is far more profound than Scanlan saving him would have been. But Scanlan's sacrifice of his Wish spell makes it even more so; surrendering what was likely his only chance to actually save Vax in order to ensure Vecna's defeat is the most you could ever ask of a hero.

Drew Townsend Matt never said the wish spell could save vax. In talk machina after the session he said sam before hand for a few weeks had been asking him the limits of the wish and had eventually asked what it could do against a gods will. “One wish is like the power of a billion whereas a gods will and abilities are like the power of multiple wishes” Sam was going to wait right before the raven queen claimed vaxs soul to probally wish for vaxs original death to be undone. That wouldve been his best bet but also probally wouldve fucked up the timeline. Would have been interesting to see how matt as a dm would run with it.

Sure. All that considered, it still would have been Sam's one chance to save Vax and Matt, being a fan of the story himself, was saddened to see that chance lost in favor of defeating the main villain.

I think part of Matt forgot scanlan still had that spell. I mean it literally was him fighting with an arm tied behind his back and still had it left.

Ohhh shoot, that makes sense

@@fizzybernie also pretty sure it was liam/caleb that suggested it, which only makes it better in my opinion.

In general they say the name just came from the zemnian (aka german) pronounciation of "nine" Caleb did the whole time in the Season 2.

Oh great, it's the person that ruins peoples fun, always nice to see you can't outrun it.

@@damiensmidt6708 Jesus you didn't have to be so sour about it. He was just saying.

Well said my friend well said (I’m crying my eyes out right now😭😭😭😭😭)

The man did not roleplay the sorrow, he was truly feeling it.

Sam asked What's the worst character? What's the worst class? The name came from a generator. And then there was this episode...Whoever would have thought, everyone cried. MVP, and clutch as hell. A 9th level counterspell should be renamed a bard's tears or something

what makes this even better is to know that this campaign was actually one of the first if not the first D&D game for Sam and Liam was the one who introduced him to this world, yet, during the whole first campaign, especially during the fight against Vecna, we see how Sam is not only playing a role, but he's interiorizing the whole character and the world, he was trying to see every possibility, every scenario, making plans several steps ahead of the rest, that's certainly impressive, and we also know Sam is not only the MVP of the game but a complete D&D genius when we learn that as a kind of joke he decided to play as the worst character Liam could think of, and yet, he turned that character into one of the keys if not the key player in the whole campaign and he gave us not only these epic plays but also these emotional moments that affected the story of the campaign they were playing beautifully making it a story that holds so much meaning, the sacrifice that Scanlan/Sam did to save the world, the way he was willing to keep fighting even after defeating Vecna, how he fought the best he could even when he was keeping his level 9 spell hidden, and how he was able to counter practically a god and created the opportunity to seal him... Sam/Scanlan deserves our respects.

Saving the world is not a win ?

@@raryraru woosh

@@ClandestineSnowman leave Brittany asking

sorufa888 From trolling the entire campaign to becoming a clutch god. “You we’re saving a wish for me?..” 😢

@@premejon8300 Yeah by far Sam knows his tactics more than anyone else at the table. From weighing the pros and cons of saving a wish, to counterspelling counterspell, to forgoing disengage to lure an attack of opportunity, and leave his character on very low health just so the rest of his allies can escape.

THIS. THIS IS THE COMMENT THAT I WAS LOOKING FOR. I first saw this comment when I was still on my road to discovering Critical Role. Now that I'm watching Campaign 3 I like to remember these moments and this comment is one that stuck out to me the most. Thank you.

Unknown to him, that day he helped found a god and friend

What a nice thing to say! thank you

Yup,immediately added to my liked videos and it tears me up every single time. I love it. So well done.

What a coincidence

There's an Animated Series in the making

@@koreshura641 made! release is february 2022!

Get ready because it comes out tomorrow.

This aged well ^

It hurts even more with the wedding

4:50

Same. SAME.

I know right, when I saw it on twitter I was amazed

True, he is technically the newest. He has however played Scanlan for almost 6 years at this point. The man knows what he is doing. Sam/Scanlan is quite often MVP

And it all began with this conversation: orig00.deviantart.net/926d/f/2017/280/0/8/counterspell_by_pettyartist-dbpvftm.png

@@perrycarters3113 That art to this song (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JDG2m5hN1vo.html)

I love how quick he was with it. Like the players could barely react to it so the character wouldve been shell shocked. Who is hoping he is a recurring villain and shows up against the mighty 9 somewhere. Perhaps as another ally lmao

So is Arkhan a bad guy in the campaign, never could really decipher whether or not he was supposed to be evil

@@celebitto7869 I think he was an evil character working with VM to further his own needs as well.

Instead, he ended up a canon character in an official DnD Module.

@@KINFIN123 Well, when you're somebody that pulls off something like stealing the hand of a god AND getting away with it, that's a feat enough to put you in the annals of history

@@ferofax He was only able to do so because the rest of the party stood there like knobs. Says a prayer to Tiamat? If he was an oathbreaker paladin, and was evil, why in the nein hells did the party let a character like that into the party. Plus Joe did like 6 actions in that sentence, I would have interrupted his soliloquy and said hold the F on... Roll initiative! Once he chopped his hand off, the jig was up and his head would have been coming off, or he would eat a fireball, or a backstab or any other way to stop him from taking the hand. "Sorry Joe... This is *PERSONAL! You are NOT going to steal the hand that the whole party spent months chasing down."

Its seriously too emotional of an episode

you are very welcome

Aww, Thank you!

Yeah but he had to counterspell the teleport

KEYLETH NO

You are too sweet!

Yep exactly

hah, i try

thats how I've felt all week

Thank you so much!!

Thank you Nekros!

Watch his tribute video...

Thank you!

You are welcome