Awesome / Critical Role Briarwood Arc

The Briarwood story arc is dedicated to following Percival's backstory, and brings the adventurers up against Lord and Lady Briarwood who are ruling in Percy's ancestral home, Whitestone. The powerful couple turns out to be a vampire and a necromancer, and Vox Machina must stop them from completing a ritual that threatens to endanger the entire kingdom.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

Episode 24: The Feast

• We finally get some backstory about Percy!
  • And Taliesin's acting in that scene is just sensational.
• Diplomacy. It's the name of Percy's shock gauntlet, which he builds in preparation for the Briarwoods' arrival.
• Say what you want, that cliffhanger was definitely awesome.
• The entire banquet scene counts, as everyone keeps the tension exceedingly high with the disguised Percy getting off a Stealth Insult and no weapons drawn other than regular words (knives would have broken on that tension).

Episode 25: Crimson Diplomacy

• Vax'ildan jumping out of the window through the glass with a parkour roll to escape the Briarwoods.
• Tiberius makes a hell of an entrance into the Briarwoods' chamber. He sends a fireball at the two guards at the door, killing one outright and successfully intimidating the other into fleeing. Then steps through the hole he just blasted through the doors, emerging from the smoke into the room.
• Vex comes across her brother unconscious at the hands of the Briarwoods. Her first shot is a crit. And so is the second. You don't fuck with the twins. As Orion puts it, "she would like to rage."
• Percy's gone renegade! To elaborate in full, episode 25 is a tour de force for both Percy's combat skills and Taliesin's roleplaying ability.
  • When he's finally able to face the Briarwoods in combat, he screams "SYLAS!" before firing the Bad News at him. The first shot takes a chunk out of his nemesis' arm to the point bone is visible. The second shot gets him in the face.
  • As the Briarwoods attempt to escape via carriage, Percy takes aim and blows out one of its wheels, leading to it toppling.
  • Even though they escape, he proceeds to interrogate the driver rather violently. Said interrogation starts by listing off the names of his family, demanding to know what became of them. The young man's already wounded from Vex's explosive arrow, but Percy shoots off some of his fingers just to make a point. And when the driver protests that the Briarwoods will kill him if he informs on them to Vox Machina, Percy's response? "No. Because I will kill you first."
  • Finally fed up with things by the time the Broker and his thugs attack Lillith, Percy goes off on the Broker, demanding to know why people even bother them since they're just going to get killed anyway. He fires six Pepperbox shots in quick succession, resulting in a baseball-sized smoking hole in the middle of the Broker's chest.
  • Percy's one liner after the killing blow: "YOU FOOL! YOUR SOUL IS FORFEIT! DIE! DIE!"
• People were wondering how Tiberius was going to use his makeshift dagger-wheel thing. He casts telekinesis on it and sends it spinning through the air like a buzzsaw.
  • Subverted when it turned out to be the trigger for an alignment shift to Chaotic Neutral, as the person he had attacked — while part of the group that confronted them — was still an unconscious old woman who was trying to flee at that point in the battle.
• Kit's Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:
  Lillith: You tell my sister I hope her face still festers!
• After the Briarwoods escape, the group is attacked by three thugs who are after Lillith...and they rip them apart in a matter of in-game seconds taking barely any damage in the process. Highlights include Grog hitting all three with a lightning javelin and Percy going Ax-Crazy for his deathblow:

  Percy: YOU FOOL! YOUR SOUL IS FORFEIT! DIE! DIE!

• One for the DM: when Keyleth rolls high to identify an herb used by the priest treating Vax, Matt immediately has its name ready, without even looking.

Episode 26: Consequences and Cows

• Despite the fact that he's actively antagonistic towards Vox Machina for this episode, Sovereign Uriel is a boss:

  Uriel: You are in my court now, Stormwind.

• Jarret, one of Greyskull Keep's guards, is set up outside their prisoner's cell is there to protect him in case Percy tries to kill him - and he's a badass.

  Scanlan: You think you can take Percy?

  Jarret: I think I can talk some sense into him.

  Grog: He's got balls.

• Doubles for Funny Moments but, "Vox Moochina."
• Keyleth has...a pretty rough episode. By the end of it all, she's exhausted, frustrated, and terrified that her friends are slowly becoming more and more violent. So when the group is confronted with a roc that's been killing livestock, and Keyleth reaches the end of her rope, what does she do? Puts her foot down, refusing to let anyone in the group kill the creature or trick its protector, and manages to find an optimal solution with the help of Tiberius, Vex and Scanlan. She even sticks it out when the roc crushes her hand.
  • In addition to this, Vex/Laura should get major brownie points for deducing the best place for the roc to live - outside Vasselheim, where the creature can have lots of food and space without infringing on humanity, and it will be protected by the Slayer's Take, meaning that it will be illegal to hunt the creature without permission.

Episode 27: The Path to Whitestone

• Matt's opening description of Percy's dream is both this and a bit of Nightmare Fuel. It is fantastic storytelling; a little glimpse of the pain that Percy feels, and Taliesin plays well to it.
• Percy and Trinket are surprised by invisible stalkers, and pinned in a corner. The List misfires and breaks, Diplomacy is out of charges, and Percy's too close for Bad News to fire without the kickback hurting him, so what does he do? Club the invisible enemy with Bad News as if it were a baseball bat.
• We see Jarret in action for the first time since the stream started. Percy has Trinket assisting him with an Invisible Stalker, but Jarret fights his alone until the rest of the party arrive. He's the reason Desmond still lives.
• Keyleth proves clutch once more by casting Faerie Fire which not only makes the remaining Invisible Stalker visible it grants advantage on attacks. She then bonus actions a Healing Word, keeping Desmond alive after having fallen unconscious before.

Episode 28: The Sun Tree

• Grog rolls a Natural 20 on an Intelligence check to identify a building.
  Travis: I DID SOMETHING SMART!
• Matt's description of the titular Sun Tree. To say much more would spoil the surprise, but suffice to say, if you thought the dream above was Nightmare Fuel? You ain't seen nothing yet.
• Speaking of the Sun Tree, Taliesin proves that he's got mad RP skills by ad-libbing the lore behind the tree itself. Even better, Matt rolls with it and blends his interpretation of the lore with what Taliesin offered!
• Vox Machina's plan to start a revolution. From Percy's quiet statement "we rally the people" to Scanlan's crowner "I'm going to need a beret" - the whole conversation is infectiously awesome, and it continues to play out over the next couple of episodes.

Episode 29: Whispers

• Matt shows off just how prepared a DM he is when he brings out a map for the temple that Percy, Vax and Scanlan have entered and Taliesin thought that he'd just expected them to go to that specific temple. Mercer gives an absolutely epic Badass Boast in response:
  Matt: I built the whole city, 'cause I don't know where you guys were gonna go!
• The image of Scanlan literally bitchslapping a Banshee into oblivion with Bigby's Hand is both this and hilarious.
• In response to the horrifying message that the Briarwoods left for the party in the previous episode, Vax leaves a couple for them. The first is to carve the de Rollo family crest into the altar at Pelor's temple (which, by the way, has been defaced and ransacked) and then "Pelor lives in Whitestone" on the church door.
• The ambush is amazing. Sir Kerrion Stonefell is talking to an advisor in a closed room about how he needs to set up traps and troops in preparation for Vox Machina's arrival...and then Vox Machina kicks the door down.
  • "How do you want to do this?" on Sir Kerrion Stonefell goes to Percy - from a Natural 20, no less. And then Percy starts ''turning into'' the smoky entity from his dreams as he executes Stonefell, with his head brutally exploding.
• The way Vox Machina completely dominate Sir Kerrion Stonefell's advisor, Vouk. To start, Keyleth stops his escape with a quarterstaff clothesline. Then they gag and blind him (first with a blindfold and then with a Blindness spell). Then, they force him to give them intel. Then, as a message, Grog rips out his tongue (rolling a natural 20 to do so), and Percy cauterizes the wound and then brands his face with the barrel of the pepperbox. Then, after throwing him out the window, they set the house on fire.
• Vax gets to launch a triple dagger attack which does 96 damage.

Episode 30: Stoke the Flames

• Critical Role... now with costumes!
  • In particular, Matt's homemade cosplay of Geralt is awesome, from the armor to the hair to the scar. The players keep commenting on how intense he looks.
• Keyleth dusts two vampires simultaneously with a sunbeam. Matt does a magnificent job with the flavor on this one.
• Scanlan kills a vampire by pissing on it. After all, urine is technically running water.
• So far, only Taliesin ever remembered and pronounced Percy's full name correctly (and, in this episode, even he got it wrong once). Then Matthew plays an NPC that knew Percy when he was a child, and says his full name without hesitating or having to read it. Taliesin applauds him.
• Scanlan morphs himself into a fly and lands on the overhang above a door guard while he scouts out the area. The coast is clear.
  "I turn into a Triceratops."

Episode 31: Gunpowder Plot

• As if the soundtrack of the show wasn't awesome enough, it gets even better from here on with the addition of Elder Scrolls music, not used since the Pathfinder days!
• As of this episode, everyone in Vox Machina (except Pike and Tiberius) reached level 12 and gained new abilities and feats.
  • Grog picks up the Great Weapon Master feat for more damage at the cost of accuracy.
  • Scanlan picks up the Tough feat to dramatically increase his meager HP from 66 to 101.
  • Vax'ildan picks up Sharpshooter to further improve his dagger throwing and damage.
  • Percy reveals some warlock spells via Magic Initiate (Friends, Minor Illusion, and Hex).
  • Vex'ahlia's Wisdom is boosted to 16.
  • Keyleth had taken the Skilled feat which grants her proficiency in three additional skills (Intimidation, Persuasion, and proficiency with Alchemist's Supplies).
• Scanlan storming Vedmeyer's mansion is possibly his biggest on-stream CMOA so far:
  • Fighting as a triceratops!
  • Drinking a potion of fire breath to light the house on fire.
  • Punching the lord (A goliath) with Bigby's Hand so he flies off the roof and across the street.
  • Trust-falling off the roof and letting Bigby's Hand catch him.
  • Running across the yard on his stubby gnome legs, climbing the yard's fence (because he's out of spell slots!) and then getting away clean.
  • And what makes all of this even better? Scanlan insisted he could do this on his own & didn't need anyone's help, only for his plan to go Off the Rails twice when A) he finds out the Briarwood's men were expecting Vox Machina to attack & had prepared accordingly, and B) he realises he doesn't have any fire magic - it's only when he checked his inventory for anything he could use to start a fire that he realised he had the potion of fire breath. Everything Scanlan does after he bursts into the house as a Triceratops was purely Sam/Scanlan ad-libbing in order to escape the house with his life, and he not only does so, but he completes his initial objective to boot!
    Scanlan: I'M GONNA KILL EVERYONE IN THIS MO'FUCKIN' HOUSE!
• Trinket gets a How Do You Want to Do This deathblow and tears Count Tylieri's head off with his teeth.
• Vax's Tranquil Fury towards the guard they are interrogating when he reveals he was part of the team that killed innocent civilians and hanged them on the Sun Tree as a warning—specifically, his calm reference to the child that was put in place of Scanlan. Vax promptly slices the guy's throat. Matt doesn't even bother making him roll for it; he just instantly kills him.

Episode 32: Against the Tide of Bone

• Pike catches up on kudos for being gone:
  • Her return in general is a huge Big Damn Heroes moment since she arrives with The Cavalry to assist Vox Machina with an army of skeleton soldiers.
  • A natural twenty on Athletics to jump off Keyleth's wall is narrated as her momentarily sprouting beautiful ethereal wings for a thirty foot jump.
  • Said jump takes her into the thick of the skeleton horde. Matt says she can't see anything, not even the sky, through all the vicious undead. One use of Destroy Undead wipes out thirty-six skeletons. Singlehandedly, she transforms the battle from Tower Defense-against-endless-horde to clean-up-the-rest.
  • Pike finally gets an onscreen "How Do You Want to Do This?" finishing blow via her Mace of Distruption on a zombie Stone Giant. She's exactly what Vox Machina, and Whitestone needs.
  • Her most awesome accomplishment takes place near the end of the session. When Grog, Trinket and even the "one-and-a-half-elf push" (Vax, Vex and Keyleth) all fail, Pike-the-gnome pushes a statue out of a passageway while astral-projecting.
  • Pike was only there in the first place because Ashley told Matt a whole ten minutes before stream that she was available to play.
• While trying to deal with the armies of skeletons, Pike, Grog and Scanlan run into one of the rebels bleeding out on the ground, begging for help. Pike heals him and Grog tells him to run. The man agrees... then picks up his sword and runs back into the fray.
  Grog: I like him!
• Vex finishes off the other Stone Giant through some great teamwork with her brother (apparently borrowed from a fanfic!).

Episode 33: Reunions

• One of the best roleplay moments by any player so far:
  Percy: You are, at the moment, the luckiest person in Whitestone. Do you know why?
  Ripley: Hm?
  Percy: Because you're at the bottom of my List.
  • His Pre-Mortem One-Liner towards Professor Anders.
  Percy: You're the face I saw when murder entered my heart. This is your doing.
• Percy has always been luckier than most when it comes to dice rolling, but seven Natural 20s in the episode... damn!
• As heartwarming as it was, Vax's sudden confession and kiss towards Keyleth took everyone in the room by surprise, even Matt.
• Scanlan, thank to his scroll, is the one doing most of the damage to the spirits. He even frees Grog with it, which spares Cassandra a potential beating. To top that he gets to deal the killing blow, and with a Vicious Mockery.

Episode 34: Race to the Ziggurat

• Sylas manages to charm Grog, only for Travis to remember just in time that he's immune to charm because he's raging, to much rejoicing of the rest of the players.
• Percy finally gets to use Diplomacy in combat, ten episodes after creating it - and he uses it to grab Sylas Briarwood by the face.
  • Unlike Tiberius, the test subject, Sylas doesn't fly away stunned. He just seizes up for a moment and then looks really mad.
• Sylas' defeat is done via Keyleth and Pike pulling a move that could have been straight out of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
• Scanlan's lvl 4 Counterspell against a lvl 5 Dimension Door. It was due to this spell that Lady Briarwood couldn't run away from battle, and this was the reason why Keyleth even had the chance of killing Lord Briarwood.
• For the second time, Vex barely survives Delilah's Finger of Death.
• The HDYWTDT to Delilah is via Percy, who decides on a Restrained Revenge by blowing off one of her arms.
• When attempting to destroy the anti-magic sphere with a shard of residuum and it threatens to suck her in upon failing, Keyleth manages to resist the pull thanks to a clutch Natural 20 Strength save. That lucky roll may have saved her life (literally) in that instance.
• Saving Vex is a team effort - the group engineers a rope-pulley system to get her out of the anti-magic zone. Then she recovers consciousness on her own as soon as they do so.
  • Extra points to Percy, who flings himself off a wall in order to use his own body as a counterweight and haul Vex up the other side.
  • From an acting perspective, Liam knocks Vax's worry at Vex's near-death out of the ballpark.

Episode 35: Denouement

• When Delilah tries to regain control of the situation by poking at Percy's struggle with Orthax, Percy responds by casting Minor Illusion on himself to make his face look like Sylas's, melting and screaming in agony as he dies. Cruel, yes, but very satisfying.
• Percy rolls a Natural 20 when he's in danger of being taken over by Orthax, essentially exorcising Orthax from himself through sheer force of will, which allows Vox Machina to finally confront the demonic contractor and give him what for.
  • Pike criticals with the spell Guiding Bolt, and deals 42 radiant damage, which is the single biggest hit in the battle.
  • Grog and Trinket team up for the HDYWTDT on Orthax's physical form. The goliath sets him up and the bear spikes. Laura describes it as turning the shadow demon into a chew toy and ripping him apart.
• As a half-elf and a rogue, Vax is really perceptive but throwing a dagger into the fleeing, invisible form of Lady Briarwood is really something.
• Scanlan's simple but effective way to Take a Third Option—tossing Percy's broken Pepperbox into the acid. This fully breaks Orthax's hold on Percy.
• Scanlan FINALLY gets his beret. And never was a piece of headgear more deserved.
• When executing Jazna, Travis rolls a Natural 20 for Athletics, so her head is cut clean off in a casual strength-of-the-goliath swing.
• Keeper Yennen honors Vox Machina before the rebel army and the people at large, praising their virtues and abilities and crediting them for freeing Whitestone.

Episode 36: Winter's Crest in Whitestone

• Out of universe — Christopher Perkins, who works at Wizards of the Coast and of Acquisitions Incorporated fame, was at the studio!
• The arm-wrestling contest. In particular, Grog ends up being bested in the finals by a female town guard named Trisha.
• In human form, Trinket manages to tie for first place in the pie-eating contest!

Episode 37: A Musician's Nostalgia

• Doubling as a Crowning Moment of Funny, Grog tops his Natural 20 Intelligence roll by doing it again. Specifically, an ARCANA check!
• Scanlan has a chance to show off his musical abilities in an actual performance when he has a surprise reunion with his mentor's traveling troupe.
  • In particular, he has a flute duel with another gnome in the troupe. Simultaneously they try an Incredibly Long Note and because Sam rolled a 33, he holds it for three seconds longer and finishes with a flourish.
• Pike heals up Desmond's hand and gives him the ability to use it kind of like a claw with a Natural 20.
• While trying to take down Riskel, the party are having a hard time of it due to his fighting skills and the need to take him alive restricting their option. This results in Keyleth being beaten nearly to death after a particularly nasty series of attacks. At this point Percy, who had been staying back to watch for any ambushers, strides into the room to see one of his team mates down, and in a single round blows Rixel's polearm out of his hands and cripples him with two carefully placed shots to the collarbone, instantly ending the fight like a parent coming in to break up children squabbling.

Episode 38: Echoes of the Past

• Riskel Daxio, a Vecna-worshipper, keeps making My Death Is Just the Beginning taunts to the party in the face of his execution. So Vex comes up with the idea to have Pike bless him, to stop him coming back as anything undead. Riskel is visible horrified at the notion thanks to a successful Intimidate check.
• Scanlan narrowly avoids a showdown with Kaylie, before she reveals that she is his daughter, and then they (kind of) reconcile!
• Pike manages to pick open a lock despite having no proficiency with Thieves' Tools.