{"id":51216,"date":"2023-11-25T16:14:32","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T16:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wrongeverytime.com\/?p=38382"},"modified":"2023-11-25T16:14:32","modified_gmt":"2023-11-25T16:14:32","slug":"the-legend-of-vox-machina-s2-episode-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/25\/the-legend-of-vox-machina-s2-episode-12\/","title":{"rendered":"The Legend of Vox Machina S2 \u2013 Episode 12"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I\u2019m eager to dive back into the drama of Vox Machina, having last left the party in a moment of absolute crisis and defeat. Scanlan\u2019s plan to leave an Immovable Rod (well, short sword, but same difference) inside a dragon has quasi-succeeded, while leaving plenty of room for an exciting followup question: how the fuck are he and Vax going to get <\/span>out<\/span><\/i> of this dragon\u2019s stomach? And while they focus on avoiding digestion, their allies are presented with a different yet equally vexing challenge: how do you make a dragon fight you when it\u2019d rather just fly away? Well, presumably it\u2019s just going back to its lair, meaning our heroes will be facing off with both legendary <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> lair actions as they attempt to free their comrades from death by stomach acid.<\/span><\/p>\n

I imagine Scanlan and Vax\u2019s plan was a flourish of stupidity that even Mercer didn\u2019t plan for, but I assume this battle is otherwise going pretty much how he predicted. The push and pull of player agency versus dramatic necessity expresses itself in some unique ways when it comes to major boss fights; you want your players to feel like they can gain a leg up on their opponents via clever strategizing, but also don\u2019t want the fight to feel either formulaic or prematurely solved, necessitating a balance between controllable variables and chaotic in-fight twists. Mercer appears to have navigated this balance through the construction of a two-act fight: first this ambush, which the players largely engineered themselves, followed by a presumed lair fight finale focused more on his own scripted inventions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coincidentally enough, my own campaign is <\/span>also<\/span><\/i> currently transitioning between these moments, with the party\u2019s planning of their allegedly final battle soon to give way to a bombastic scripted escalation. Our melee fighters are largely running on fumes and our sorcerer only has a single spell slot left, so I believe I\u2019ve successfully calibrated the challenge towards a death-defying victory next session, and am eager to see how my players wriggle their way out of this one. I\u2019ll get back to you on how that all plays out, but for now let\u2019s enjoy the climax of Vox Machina\u2019s second season!<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Episode 12<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hope Devourer.\u201d An excellent draconic title. I should really have given my own campaign\u2019s major foes more catchy nicknames like that – I\u2019ve amassed an impressive array of high-ranking knights and devils, and few details stick in a player\u2019s memory like a strong title. Given D&D is largely conveyed through spoken drama, it\u2019s generally only possible to differentiate characters \u201cat a glance\u201d via the voice you take on while performing them and the style of language you employ for them specifically – I\u2019ve tried to leave particularly distinctive voices to certain key characters, but when you\u2019re fifty or so characters into a campaign, it can be hard to keep assigning new voices to everyone<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also had to push back against my own natural instinct to try and avoid obvious reference points for character personalities or voices; I wouldn\u2019t want to define my characters as \u201cbasically like <\/span>insert popular character here<\/span><\/i> but with a bigger nose\u201d for traditional fiction, but exploiting player resonance is basically the only way to make things consistently stick in the more compressed narrative format of D&D. A lesson I learned from Magic: The Gathering lead designer Mark Rosewater: embrace player resonance, don\u2019t try to carve out entirely new conceptual pathways<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We open on what appears to be an idyllic post-battle reflection, as Scanlan recounts how he and his allies defeated the dread scourge Umbrasyl in a cozy cabin<\/span><\/p>\n

Fantasies layered on fantasies here, as Scanlan regales his grandchildren with his exploits, having apparently made amends with Kaylie. Seems she was indeed the turning point – the narrative finally has something to do with Scanlan emotionally, something he cares about and strives for<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t think it\u2019d be an issue to let one of my own players define their personality and character desires via the course of the in-campaign drama, but in retrospect I probably should have pushed harder for some sort of initial grounding or motivation. Their lack of a clear goal or point of emotional connection to the narrative has made it significantly harder to craft character-relevant dramatic payoffs, while my other two players have at this point already gone through full personal arcs related to their origins<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And Vax shakes him awake, returning us to the literal bowels of the beast<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>That<\/span><\/i> was their plan? Go up its ass?\u201d Thank you, Pike<\/span><\/p>\n

Keyleth shifts into a giant eagle to carry the group after Umbrasyl. Keyleth\u2019s druidic transformation seems significantly more versatile than the on-book version, but turning into a giant eagle is a staple – I believe they\u2019re of the highest challenge rating you\u2019re allowed to morph into, and also the biggest thing you can morph into that can also fly, so they come up pretty often. One of my sorcerer\u2019s polymorph go-tos, alongside giant ape and t-rex<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Grog manages to climb his way up the rope and onto Umbrasyl\u2019s back. This is an encounter concept I\u2019ve been working towards as well – a fight <\/span>atop<\/span><\/i> a flying creature, with constant disruptions in terrain and the perpetual threat of being flung into the abyss. My party recently completed a fight aboard a train that proved one of our most memorable encounters, so I believe I\u2019m prepped to up the complexity one more level for a flying encounter<\/span><\/p>\n

A jet of acid sends him plummeting, and he activates the titan knuckles to become large enough to survive the landing. Not sure that\u2019s how physics works, but I\u2019ll go with it<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m always looking for more ways to craft conflicts that encourage diverse emergent solutions, and \u201cfling the players off a cliff\u201d is a surprisingly versatile one<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Speaking of emergent solutions, I like the clever choice of using Scanlan\u2019s Mage Hand as a sort of acid umbrella while Vax carves through Umbrasyl<\/span><\/p>\n

The boys break free, and are now simply plummeting towards their deaths. I imagine Vax\u2019s frequency of calling on the Matron of Ravens was increased for the show – it\u2019s central to his journey here, but that sort of reliance on literal deus ex machina makes for pretty unsatisfying gameplay<\/span><\/p>\n

And thus Vax earns raven wings. Another detail I assume was altered from the campaign; such upgrades generally arrive as a result of narrative necessity in fiction, but D&D tends to have you earn your upgrades as a reward for <\/span>completing<\/span><\/i> challenges, not as the tool through which they are completed. That, again, tends to feel more like the DM just handing you your victory, rather than you earning it through clever exploitation of your existing resources<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a broom, and you get fucking wings?\u201d I sorta figured Vex would have something to say about this<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGrog\u2019s a mess, Pike\u2019s done, and it\u2019s got Mythcarver!\u201d Scanlan says these as reasons they shouldn\u2019t fight, but all I\u2019m hearing is \u201cexcellent, the party is weakened enough to facilitate an easily engineered photo finish\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ripley suggests Umbrasyl flee, but he instead heals his own injuries and prepares to fight. My campaign also could have used another Ripley or two – continuing antagonists with goals that only partially intertwined with the primary threat. I frankly also could have used more moments of interaction with the primary antagonists; the problem is, I only had so much of the campaign plotted out while playing through its first third, meaning I lacked the information needed to confidently convey the villain\u2019s perspective<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember, the safe word is \u2018chenga.\u2019\u201d I guess they couldn\u2019t get the rights to say \u201cJenga\u201d in the show<\/span><\/p>\n

Vax\u2019s accusations of Scanlan\u2019s cowardice prompts him to reveal his anxieties to Pike. His whole character\u2019s falling into place now that Kaylie\u2019s here<\/span><\/p>\n

Vax just utterly flubs his stealth rolls while attempting to investigate Umbrasyl\u2019s lair, and is embarrassingly snuck up on by a goddamn dragon<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Grog\u2019s still-broken leg is fixed in a splint with Keyleth\u2019s vines. The idea of characters receiving persistent injuries is interesting design space, but such a presumed feel-bad for players that I doubt it\u2019s worth exploring. Another Rosewater lesson: just because some design space hasn\u2019t been used before doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s actually fertile territory for new designs, as \u201cunfun\u201d mechanical design is only compelling to designers, not players<\/span><\/p>\n

Vex uses her half-elf hearing to locate the invisible dragon. A cleaner resolution of this situation than D&D generally provides; frankly, invisibility seems like a shoddily implemented concept according to the official rules, with situations like \u201cwell, I know where he is even if he\u2019s invisible, can\u2019t I just swing\/shoot there\u201d generally having unsatisfying mechanical implementation. My recent playthrough of Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 only affirmed that invisibility is kind of a mechanical mess; I\u2019m still tinkering with my own rules for stealthy enemies that nonetheless have satisfying counterplay options<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Scanlan offers an appropriately Scanlan-style contribution to this fight, by swiftly locating an escape path<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Matron has taught me anything, it\u2019s that fate is real.\u201d I do wonder how much of Vax\u2019s motivation was directly Matron-related in the original. Seems like they\u2019re pushing to sort of make that the guiding thread of this overall show, but I imagine it was less central originally, considering \u201cfate is real, your choices are fake\u201d is a pretty odd theme for a player-driven narrative<\/span><\/p>\n

Damn, some excellent animation for Keyleth\u2019s elemental form as she grapples with Umbrasyl<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For once, the show\u2019s generally dark aesthetic is actually helping, as it smooths the interplay between the CG Umbrasyl and traditionally animated heroes<\/span><\/p>\n

Keyleth is performing all sorts of fun defensive maneuvers with her Entangling Vines, using them to yank players out of attack paths and whatnot. Not really what the spell\u2019s for on paper, but it\u2019s precisely the sort of imaginative implementation that I\u2019d be happy to support<\/span><\/p>\n

And Scanlan of course comes through in the clutch, snagging his vestige and stabbing Umbrasyl right in the eye<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Frankly, giving Scanlan a sword vestige seems like an odd choice; he\u2019s always leaned more into the support end of the bard toolkit, so an enchanted instrument of some kind might have been more appropriate<\/span><\/p>\n

And with Umbrasyl defeated, the party at last earn a goddamn horde of treasure<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven if I don\u2019t believe in that Matron stuff, you do. And I believe in you.\u201d Plus a tidy conclusion for Vax and Scanlan\u2019s mini-arc<\/span><\/p>\n

But what\u2019s this? A member of the Chroma Conclave seeks allegiance with Vox Machina!?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And Done<\/b><\/p>\n

Yep, gotta leave us hanging with even <\/span>more<\/span><\/i> dragon shenanigans in store. Nonetheless, this serves as an excellent act marker for the overall campaign, as the party secures their first meaningful victory against the forces of dragonkind. And that grand threshold was also furnished with a variety of key character turns: Grog reclaiming his honor with the Storm Herd, Vax coming to terms with the inevitability of the Matron, and most crucially, Scanlan at last accepting responsibility for his destiny. Our heroes have been skillfully herded through a variety of mechanical hurdles, all of which were infused with key points of connection to their past and future selves. Managing player versus narrative demands still seems like a close to impossible challenge, but I suppose that\u2019s part of the fun of it – and either way, I\u2019ve certainly enjoyed exploring this strange intersection of mediums with you all. Onward to the next season!<\/span><\/p>\n

This\u00a0article\u00a0was\u00a0mad<\/a><\/em>e possible by reader support<\/a>. Thank you all for\u00a0all that you do.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I\u2019m eager to dive back into the drama of Vox Machina, having last left the party in a moment of absolute crisis and defeat. Scanlan\u2019s plan to leave an Immovable \u2026 Continue reading \u2192<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[61,122,127,129,124,128,125,132,131,133,126,130,123,66,94,88,97,56,64,65,60,112,40,75,95,104,33,120,105,101,98,115,30,29,41,86,70,69,68,72,71,26,118,108,87,46,55,48,52,54,51,50,83,62,58,57,109,35,59,63,85,79,82,96,80,27,81,114,44,42,43,45,38,39,110,117,100,111,116,73,89,90,92,91,93,84,78,37,102,34,36,77,67,74,99,113,119,28,121,32,47,49,53,103,31,76],"class_list":["post-51216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anime","tag-airpods","tag-anime","tag-anime-characters","tag-anime-cosplay","tag-anime-edits","tag-anime-merchandise","tag-anime-movies","tag-anime-news","tag-anime-recommendations","tag-anime-reviews","tag-anime-series","tag-anime-streaming","tag-animes","tag-app-store","tag-app-store-samsung","tag-appgallery","tag-appgallery-oneplus","tag-apple","tag-apple-music","tag-apple-tv","tag-apple-watch","tag-bbc-sport","tag-best-mobile-games","tag-bixby","tag-bixby-xiaomi","tag-champions-league","tag-cyberpunk","tag-cyberpunk-2077","tag-fantasy-football","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-formula-1","tag-fortnite","tag-free-fire","tag-free-mobile-games","tag-freebuds-pro","tag-galaxy-a52","tag-galaxy-note-20","tag-galaxy-s21","tag-galaxy-watch-4","tag-galaxy-z-fold-3","tag-game","tag-games","tag-golf","tag-harmonyos","tag-how-to-backup-iphone","tag-how-to-factory-reset-iphone","tag-how-to-reset-iphone","tag-how-to-restore-iphone","tag-how-to-unlock-iphone","tag-how-to-unlock-iphone-5","tag-how-to-unlock-iphone-6","tag-huawei","tag-ios","tag-ipad","tag-iphone","tag-live-soccer","tag-lol","tag-macbook","tag-macos","tag-mate-40-pro","tag-mi-11-lite","tag-mi-home-security-camera-basic-1080p","tag-mi-home-security-camera-basic-1080p-huawei","tag-mi-smart-band-6","tag-minecraft","tag-miui","tag-mlb-scores","tag-mobile-game-design","tag-mobile-game-development","tag-mobile-game-marketing","tag-mobile-game-monetization","tag-mobile-games","tag-mobile-gaming","tag-nba-scores","tag-nba-standings","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-scores","tag-nhl-scores","tag-one-ui","tag-oneplus","tag-oneplus-9-pro","tag-oneplus-buds-pro","tag-oneplus-nord-ce-5g","tag-oxygenos","tag-p40-pro-plus","tag-poco-x3-pro","tag-pokemon","tag-premier-league","tag-pubg","tag-pubg-mobile","tag-redmi-note-10-pro","tag-samsung","tag-samsung-pay","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-steam","tag-steeam","tag-top-10-anime","tag-valorant","tag-when-do-the-iphone-7-come-out","tag-when-does-the-iphone-7-come-out","tag-when-is-the-iphone-7-coming-out","tag-world-cup","tag-xbox-series-x","tag-xiaomi"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51216"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52558,"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51216\/revisions\/52558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}