As Pike leaves to regain the favor of the Everlight, Vox Machina begins their long journey to Whitestone. The Briarwood's tome gives them valuable clues as to their goals, but Delilah remains determined to take back her property. Can our heroes survive the journey to Percival's hometown without their healer?
Tropes
- All for Nothing: Vex, Vax and Keyleth end up buying a ton of vampire-slaying supplies from Gilmore, including his last bottle of holy water, at what appears to have been an exorbitant amount, judging by Vex's comments afterwards. Far from being a Chekhov's Gun however, the supplies end up teetering on the edge of a cliff after the undead hounds attack and the party wind up driving their caravan off the edge during the ensuring chase... and then tip over before anybody can grab them.
- Coitus Uninterruptus: Scanlan tells how he still finished inside a woman who tried to kill him and grew a grotesque second head. The rest of the party is disgusted.
- Foreshadowing:
- In the tale of some of their stranger kills, Vax tells a fight about how he killed a Rakshasa who swore vengeance. The end credits confirm this character to be Hotis.
- More directly with Scanlan reading what he can of the Abyssal in Delilah's tome. Aside from repeated mentions of a Ziggurat, he comes across someone called, "The Whispered One", known to viewers and D&D players as Vecna.
- More subtly, when shopping at Gilmore's for vampire-slaying equipment, it is mentioned that sunlight is a weakness for vampires, but one would need a lot of sunlight to finish a vampire off. This is how Sylas ultimately meets his end.
- An Early-Bird Cameo that foreshadowed a completely different story — the young girl that Delilah kills for the Vex corpse has a strong resemblance to Laudna in the third campaign. It was later confirmed on the stream after this episode dropped that they were one and the same.
- Mood Whiplash: As the rest of the party are enjoying telling each other the stories of their strangest kills, Percy reminds them that the worst monsters he ever faced are in Whitestone, and that they'll all be facing them soon.Grog: Buzzkill.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: When Gilmore notices the sparks of attraction between Vax and Keyleth, Vex quickly changes the subject in a foul mood. When more such moments happen, she reminds Vax that they need to stick together, as twins, and not be distracted by "pretty things".
- Mythology Gag:
- All of the “strange kills” (aside from Scanlan’s) are taken from actual kills in the stream.
- Vax kills a Rakshasa (implied, and confirmed by
Word of God to be Hotis from the stream) with a dagger to the head. The moment in the show is far more light-hearted than in the stream, where it was the emotional end of a brutal battle. - Keyleth’s Black Comedy killing of a Duergar likewise comes from the Underdark, though in the stream she actually
pushed the Duergar down into the lava hoping to kill him faster. - Grog’s killing of the bone-armored creature in the desert heavily resembles how he killed the armored Bulette in the Underdark.
- Vax kills a Rakshasa (implied, and confirmed by
- Looking over the merchandise at Gilmore's, Vax mutters "Dagger...dagger...dagger", a reference to his triple dagger attack from Critical Role and the Catchphrase that accompanied it.
- All of the “strange kills” (aside from Scanlan’s) are taken from actual kills in the stream.
- Tongue Trauma: Grog tells how he killed a monster by ripping its tongue out with his own teeth.
- Too Kinky to Torture: When the undead hound shoves its tentacled tail inside Scanlan's mouth, he clearly appears to be enjoying it.
- Undead Abomination: The undead hounds may still look animalistic, but can extend their jaws in very unnatural forms and spew tentacles to attack their opponents.
- Would Hurt a Child: A particularly sadistic example. The Briarwoods have a bunch of travelling peasants killed and dressed up to resemble Vox Machina, with their children made to resemble Scanlan and Pike. It's made clear that whatever the Briarwoods' long-term goals are, which are implied to involve a lot of human sacrifices, this one example was not necessary to that goal, and they were killed simply to mock Vox Machina. The open mouths and swollen tongues of the corpses implied that all of them were killed by hanging, and some of them show evidence that they were tortured beforehand, showing the depths of the couple's sheer sadism.
- Wham Shot: The infamous shot of the Whitestone peasants hung from the Sun Tree dressed as Vox Machina closes the episode.
