Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to dive back into Vox Machina, wherein Vax just received a grim premonition regarding some world-ending calamity. With the continent already beset by a horde of dragons, adding some additional apocalyptic threat just seems like poor sportsmanship, but I’m sure Mercer’s got a plan here. Either way, last episode also provided plenty of useful lessons regarding both hiding the inevitability of a conflict that’s largely on rails, as well as splitting the party between two simultaneous conflicts, so I still had plenty to munch on.

As for my own campaign, I am happy to report that we’ve had two outstanding sessions since last I checked in, as my party journeyed west to gather allies for their own calamitous conflict. The first session was a uniquely tricky one, as it involved the party stopping by the family estate of one of my player characters, thus necessitating a fair amount of side prep with that player. I was worried introducing a whole family at once would be too busy and that some characters would get lost in the shuffle, but the event turned out to be a total hit, and we actually ended up running long just because people wanted to see the ending. I think I’m generally getting a better handle on the exact degree of prep writing necessary to smoothly direct a quest, and am thus able to channel all my energy into crafting atmosphere within the moment, making my prepped work land with that much more impact. But I’ve rambled enough about my own efforts – Vox Machina have a quest to finish, and I’m eager to see them through it. Let’s hunt some dragons!

Episode 5

Ooh, beautiful new scenery guiding us into this episode, as we see an ornately wrought terrace and bridge suspended across high mountains, with pink blossoms blooming from the rock faces. Given the architecture and nature focus, I assume this is Keyleth’s home?

Yep, this is a flashback to the moment when Keyleth’s mother left on her own journey, just after explaining Keyleth’s air bender-ass powers. Nothing wrong with stealing from sources that resonate with your players so long as you put your own coat of paint on it!

I imagine this sequence simply didn’t happen in the tabletop sessions – it feels more like exposition designed to inform this show’s audience of things that Keyleth would have revealed in a piecemeal fashion, which here will also presumably resonate with this episode’s upcoming challenges

That’s the thing about DnD writing – not only do you lack a traditional storyteller’s full control of their tale, you also can’t really revise retroactively once the players have already experienced something (or at least not without significantly damaging their faith in the world you’ve created). I imagine many of the changes from Critical Role to Vox Machina are focused on reordering narrative events and information reveals in order to make a more traditionally smooth narrative experience, with a greater sense of narrative inevitability

Keyleth’s an interesting one in this story – rather than possessing the full DnD confidence of the twins, or being content to occupy a specific niche like Grog, her player’s approach seems to be “unsteady but eager to learn,” a process of investing more and more in the fiction that can occasionally result in narrative fumbles like the first season’s aborted romance

Back in the present day, the wind informs Keyleth that we’re close to Pyrah, the home of the Fire Ashari. Yep, Ashari are just benders

It was apparently one of the last places her mother was seen alive

Meanwhile, Grog’s off pooping while talking to his sword. The Craven Edge seems like a well-fitted side plot for Grog – a fairly straightforward conflict, but one that allows the player to indulge Grog’s oblivious and foolhardy nature. “This conflict demands the player do more of exactly what they want to do” is generally a solid bet

Vax is beset by more spooky-wooky visions of dragons and zombies and fire and whatnot. This new raven connection is pretty handy for giving the party vision-based expository updates

More lovely backgrounds as the party journey between snow-capped mountains. This show has really become a visual treat this season!

Between Vex’s perception and Scanlan’s arcana, the two collectively realize that the broom they took from Emon is actually a flying broomstick. Hiding this thing’s identity between two opposing checks seems like a neat trick for promoting unity between players

With his new vantage point, Scanlan can now see that the land of the Fire Ashari is now kinda sorta on fire

Ooh, some lovely action cuts as Keyleth takes matters into her own hands and beats the crap out of some magma monsters

We meet Keyleth’s father, a reunion which is saved from feeling abrupt by the flashback that opened this episode. You aren’t really expected to seed narrative developments in DnD with the same rigor as in traditional fiction, so flashbacks like that do indeed seem necessary for the transition to a show like this

We learn that the rift to the fire plane was torn open by a dragon. Nice enough way to make this conflict seem like a component of Vox Machina’s main quest arc, and not just a random side adventure

Dad keeps accidentally guilt-tripping Keyleth about how much she must have learned on her Aramente so far. Her quest seemed vaguely defined by design in the first season, but I imagine she’s now confident enough in her destination to plot out big arc development beats with Mercer

Keyleth bumps into a couple of Emon’s surviving council members, also attempting to close the rift. Another subtle way to keep this quest in line with Vox Machina’s overall objectives, and also just to keep important side characters fresh in their minds. I also try to find ways for my party to naturally touch base with allies they haven’t seen in a while, which also frequently provides an opportunity to demonstrate new sides of these allies in new environments

Lots of nice expressive faces as the rest of the party reacts to the council members’ arrival

We learn that Thordak actually came through from the fire plane, after the previous generation of heroes’ binding ritual failed. Damn binding rituals, always promising a brief age of peace before necessitating a new generation of heroes rise to the challenge

Keyleth’s father serves as an excellent Mercer avatar, guiding Keyleth’s journey through this arc both emotionally and mechanically. Also seems smart to have Keyleth’s call to action involve more mechanical action than Percy’s, which was all about character acting and thus demanded a high level of player confidence

Grog’s sword continues to demand blood, to the point of even directing itself towards Pike. A tidy little arc here, with the pursuit of power eventually leading Grog to hurt that which he loves most

Keyleth’s dad takes a hit, prompting her to reveal that she hasn’t actually taken her trials. His presence has served as a perfect catalyst to nudge her emotional journey forward

With one more push from her mother’s voice, Keyleth actually walks through the portal, entering the fire plane and becoming a fire elemental herself. This must have been a fun combat encounter, with Keyleth doing all this crazy elemental lore stuff while the party fights off endless enemies. Might actually steal that concept – I’ve had combat encounters where the party must fight until some event threshold is reached, but not one where it’s actually one of the party members separately working to achieve that threshold. Though I suppose that’s easier with Vox Machina’s large player party and ensuing role redundancy, allowing single players to simply not participate in the background battle

This city’s architecture seems a little… optimistic? I don’t know about you, but dormant or not, I would not build my house into the inner wall of a volcano

And thus Keyleth completes the Trial of Fire Bending. See Keyleth, your Aramente is going great!

These trials do seem like an incredibly clean way to design a character journey. Set up a reasonable set of tests, scatter them across the lands you’ll be traveling for the main quest anyway, and voila: a largely mechanics-driven character arc that the player can embellish however much they wish

But what’s this? Anna Ripley has the orb, and she’s now conspiring with the Chroma Conclave!? Heavens no!

And Done

Whoof, quite the action-packed episode, eh? That definitely seemed appropriate for this Keyleth-focused diversion, playing off the inherently mechanical nature of the Aramente journey, while also limiting the need for too much active roleplaying. Designing your challenges to bring out the best in your players is one of the unique thrills of DnD; the manifold challenges the game presents can be intimidating to any newcomer, and it is a uniquely rewarding feeling to see a player come out of their shell, guided towards greater self-expression by quests that celebrate their voice. This episode demonstrated an easy mastery of that process, and I’ll be sure to put Mercer’s insights to work!

This article was made possible by reader support. Thank you all for all that you do.