Dungeons and Dragons but with a lot of swear words and scenes meant exclusively for the adults, Amazon Prime Original “The Legend of Vox Machina” Season 1 is a joyride you’ll love getting on if role-playing games are among your favorite hobbies. The animated version of the web series “Critical Role,” the series deals with a rag-tag crew who are forced to take up a job at Emon, the capital city of Tal’Dorei—vanquishing a great evil. However, this crew, that’s a little lacking in the skills department and unity at the moment, quickly realizes they bit off more than they could chew early on. With Season 2 premiering tomorrow, here’s a quick recap of the story so far and the characters that manage to grow on you through the 12 episodes.
Spoilers Ahead
Meet The Unlikely Heroes
After inciting a bar fight and being thrown out of the tavern in Emon, paladin Vax, archer Vex and her pet bear Trinker, healer Pike, druid Keyleth, bard Scanlan, gunslinger Percy with his pepperbox revolver, and giant Grog find that their pockets are dry and they’re fresh out of options. It’s then that Scanlan, famous for his sexual proclivities, discovers a request for mercenaries. The gang journeys to the palace of the sovereign Uriel and manage to earn the approval of the council, although Vex feels unease looking at the gaunt Fince. On their way, they find a town member living in fear of the evil and ask Pike to bless their family, but the source of her power, Everlight, isn’t responding well. The gang makes their way to the place the villagers had pointed the evil to be have ‘flown’ to, only to find a massive blue dragon emerging. Vox Machina is immensely outmatched and barely survive the attack. Having decided to escape, they find the town they had walked by to have been decimated by the dragon and decide to avenge the deaths. Vax gathers information from shopkeeper Gilmore about dragons’ weaknesses after flirting with him and making Pike uncomfortable. After a garrison of soldiers get wiped out by the dragon, with only General Krieg escaping, the group suspects a councilmember to be working with the dragon, with Fince becoming the obvious suspect. They follow Fince to Krieg’s house only to watch him get stabbed by Krieg, who reveals himself to be the one behind the attacks and escapes to the dragon Brimscythe’s lair. There, Vox find out that the dragon Brimscythe killed General Krieg and took over his body with the aim of destroying the empire. Through a little teamwork and a lot of luck, Vox Machina bring down the dragon and earn honorary spots on the council as well as their own keep.
A New Trouble Looms
That night, dignitaries from all around the kingdom arrive at the royal feast, and Percy, with his fancy revolver, meets Sylas and Delilah Briarwood of Whitestone, and his years of trauma flares up. The Briarwoods murdered Percival de Rolo’s entire family, the rulers of Whitestone, and usurped the throne themselves, with Percy being the sole survivor of the slaughter. As Sylas traps Uriel under his spell, Percy’s rage boils over, and he blurts out against Delilah’s lies about the de Rolo family. However, his friends stay his aggression, while Vax sneaks into the Briarwoods’ room to gather information and finds a strange book that screams evil. However, he’s too late and is hypnotized by Sylas, who sinks his teeth in Vax’s neck. Great, a vampire! Vax manages to escape, but the Briarwoods pin him down when the rest of the group arrives, and fighting ensues. Healer Pike is attacked by Delilah’s evil magic, and her Everlight stops functioning. As the Briarwoods escape, Percy starts being overcome with a black shadow as he turns uncharacteristically violent and murderous. Uriel, under Sylas’ control, wants Vox Machina arrested, but Lady Allura puts them under house arrest instead.
Meanwhile, Delilah realizes that her book is missing, and she sends an army of undead to take it back. The undead snuff out light before draining the life force from every soldier before attacking the helpless gang. At the brink of defeat, Keyleth summons the power of the sun, and the light weakens the undead, who are then decimated by the gang. As they prepare to leave for Whitestone to get revenge, Pike departs to go to a temple to regain her powers. On the way, the remaining members are attacked by undead wolves, and one of them escapes with the book. The Whitestone of de Rolos is now a thing of the past, as darkness and destruction rules over the once-fair city. With every form of rebellion being snuffed out by giants and the Pale Guard army of the Briarwoods, with Captain Kerrion Stonefell as their leader, people fear for their lives every day. To warn the Vox Machina of their near future, Delilah kills an entire family, children included, and hangs them from the branches of the Sun Tree in Vox garb. The Sun Tree is the holiest and purest form of power that now lies barren and dead.
Darker Prospects
Upon arriving at Whitestone, Percy learns from the holy leader Keeper Yennen that his friend Archibald Desnay, the leader of the rebellion, has been captured and is being tortured. The gang storms the prison, rescues several rebels as well as Archibald, and even manages to kill many Briarwood soldiers. However, they also lose multiple rebels at the hands of Stonefell and the soldiers. While on their way out, the group spots Percy, with a black mask on his face, approaching Stonefell. He proceeds to gun down the unarmed captain brutally as his name is wiped off the revolver’s barrel. He also learns a shocking truth from his friend Archibald that his sister Cassandra is alive and has been kept at the de Rolo children’s tutor, Byron Anders’ keep. Percy hasn’t forgotten that it was Anders who threw him and his sister into prison after turning on the de Rolos to side with the Briarwoods. However, it’s not possible to approach Anders head on, and they need a distraction, which is why Scanlan offers to burn Duke Vedmire’s house down, and only then can Anders’ keep be attacked. The bard manages to burn down the massive fort of Vedmire and injure him as well when the others storm the Keep. Percy rushes into Anders’ chambers to find him holding a knife against his sister Cassandra’s throat, and in a sudden turn of events, the former tutor slices his student’s throat. Keyleth immediately takes action and goes to revive Cassandra, who’s bleeding out. Meanwhile, at the temple, Pike struggles to reach Everlight as Delilah’s nefarious magic keeps her from meeting the almighty power. Although exhausted, Pike keeps trying until she meets a burning silhouette of a woman—the Everlight. The deity asks which path Pike wants to walk—the one of the holy sisters, or one of union with her friends, especially Grog, her best friend.
Help Arrives
Percy tries attacking Anders, but he uses his magic to bring metal soldiers to life who seemingly have no weaknesses. Keyleth revives Cassandra but has to help her teammates, and they have a hard time until the soldiers’ weakness is discovered. It’s a matter of moments after that, and then it’s Anders’ turn. Only Anders also has hypnotic powers, and he turns all the Vox Machina against Percy as his cruel ending. The brilliant engineer is able to use his revolver to shoot Anders’ poisonous silver tongue, undoing the charm on his friends. He then assumes the murderous persona and shoots Anders point-blank. Percy then reunites with his sister Cassandra, but it seems she hasn’t been able to forgive him for abandoning her and running away all those years ago. Worried about her husband’s life, whom Delilah had turned into a vampire using black magic, the Lady Briarwood summons an undead army that terrorizes Vox Machina. Percy witnesses Archibald being hacked in half by Vedmire’s sword, and the whole gang is pushed to the edges of Sun Tree by the undead. With Percy at a loss at the death of his friend and the future looking bleak, there’s an explosion of holy light in the dead city. Pike returns in an astral projection form with the blessing of Everlight and decimates the zombies. Percy finds in himself the ability to lead and motivates the people of Whitestone to take up arms against the usurpers, while Pike blesses the townsfolks’ humble weapons with holy powers. United against a common enemy, they surround Vedmire and stab him to death before hanging him from the branches of Sun Tree.
The Final Battle
Vox Machina enters the Castle through the secret passage, and in one of the jail cells, they find a prisoner, whom Percy fires at. As it turns out, the prisoner is Anna Ripley, a woman who had been instrumental in torturing the young Percy and killing his family. However, Vax stops him, and the bullet only grazes her. The gang decides to interrogate Ripley first, who takes them through secret passageways to the Ziggurat, where Delilah and Sylas are heading. Delilah plans to do a diabolic ritual, the instructions of which were provided in the evil-looking book. The gang arrives at a laboratory where the Residuum element is used to create acid and it’s here that treachery reveals itself. To his utmost disbelief, Percy realizes that his sister Cassandra calls the Briarwoods her family, as she shuts the gang inside the laboratory, and unleashes acid on them. Vax manages to slip out, but Sylas’ hypnosis activates, and he turns against his sister, his love, Keyleth, and the rest of his friends. Against immense odds and with the acid filling up in the room, Vex slaps Percy out of his catatonic state and demands of him to help his friends. The group is able to escape certain death thanks to Percy’s intelligence; Grog’s brawn, and Scanlan’s lute-playing skills. They finally make their way to the Ziggurat to claim Percy’s sister and Vex’s brother back, but a fierce battle ensues. Brother against sister and sister against brother fights begin; Pike and Scanlan’s magic falls short against Delilah’s evil, Grog is overpowered by Sylas, and just then, Keyleth asks for help from the Holy Tree and spreads holy light all around. Grog holds Sylas as he gets burnt to a crisp by the burning light, and his death releases Vax and Cassandra from hypnosis. Losing her husband again, Delilah rushes to act on her final plans—bring the evil lord, The Whispered One, to this plane. Vex attacks Delilah, who retaliates, but Keyleth lunges in front of Vex and saves the archer. Pike immediately tries healing her, but just then, her astral projection expires, and she’s sent straight to the temple. Delilah manages to summon The Whispered One, but he doesn’t appear in person but only leaves an insidious, spinning orb at the altar.
Vox Machina escapes to the laboratory that nearly killed them, dragging Delilah with them. Vax tries saving Keyleth with the same ingredients that she used to revive Cassandra, but Percy is completely overcome by the black shadow in him, which is revealed to be a demon named Orthax, who gets stronger with each kill Percy makes with his gun. Vax manages to save Keyleth as Orthax corrupts Percy’s mind and tries to get him to shoot at his friends, and the de Rolo prince gives in, injuring Grog in the process. It is when Orthax emerges in his full form and forces Percy to kill that he comes to his senses and shoots his own hand, trapping the demon inside the pepperbox. He manages to forgive Delilah for all her crimes against Whitestone, but she goes on a rant about how she’ll return with a vengeance until Cassandra pierces Delilah’s throat with a rapier. Before leaving, Scanlan throws Percy’s pepperbox into the acid, burning the demon inside. Vax proposes to Keyleth, but she reminds him of her duties, as she’s supposed to lead her people someday. Elsewhere, when three holy men approach the spinning orb, and one person gets too close, the orb sucks in their skin, bones, and soul.
The Danger Isn’t Over
Back at Emon, Uriel has returned to his senses, and in an appearance in front of all his subjects, he announces his decision to step down and hand the power to the council, creating a truly democratic kingdom. He’s in the middle of praising the Vox Machina for their bravery and achievements when distant screeches are heard. Fearsome dragons are seen flying toward Emon, and they start roaring as the screen cuts to black. “The Legend of Vox Machina” Season 2 releases tomorrow on Amazon Prime, so be sure to tune in to find out what happens to the gang of Critical Role heroes when they face this new threat.
