Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I\u2019m eager to dive back into the rambling adventures of Vox Machina, wherein our heroes have currently divided their forces between fighting a dragon and infiltrating hell itself. Not normally a time when I\u2019d recommend splitting the party, but given their impressive history of dragon-slaying, I\u2019d imagine\u2026 what\u2019s this? They\u2019ve fought this dragon twice already, and it kicked their asses even as a full party? Yeah, they\u2019re fucked.<\/span><\/p>\n Fortunately, seeing how a group of players and their DM can collaborate in getting themselves un-fucked from some seemingly unwinnable scenario is one of DnD\u2019s greatest pleasures. Readers of traditional fiction will generally look poorly upon entirely foreshadowing-free deus ex machina, but it\u2019s not hard to weave some complicating variable into your prior narrative such that a group\u2019s fortunes can change from desperate to triumphant at a moment\u2019s notice. In contrast, DnD prioritizes player agency above all, which means a solution that doesn\u2019t emerge from skillful application of their player abilities is always going to be less satisfying than a victory that feels \u201cmechanically earned.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This issue only becomes all the more prominent as a campaign rises in scale over time, presenting ever-more intractable opposition for its brave heroes. The easiest solution to this riddle comes in the form of providing your enemy an Achilles\u2019 Heel, or, in game parlance, a giant glowing weak point. An enemy\u2019s strength can be utterly overwhelming so long as its weakness is also apparent \u2013 that way, there\u2019s no need to limit your conception of an enemy\u2019s power relative to your party\u2019s available strength. And depending on the style of your campaign, these weaknesses can range from something as tangible as the Vestiges to simple overconfidence, so long as you provide the players opportunities to exploit that confidence. Given we\u2019re pitting Vox Machina\u2019s craftiest members against the Chroma Conclave\u2019s dimmest dragon, I imagine some trickery will be involved in the task ahead, and I\u2019m eager to see how Mercer realizes this chapter\u2019s oversized threats without outright killing the party. Let\u2019s get to it!<\/span><\/p>\n Episode 4<\/b><\/p>\n We open on Pike once again attempting to negotiate with the Everlight, which might again imply her player was absent for some period of time. Pike\u2019s story has involved a whole lot of conversing directly with her god in order to maintain her powers, which in DnD terms is both kinda arbitrary drama and also party-averse, as it\u2019s a style of conflict none of the others can meaningfully engage with. This makes me think it was a concession to her scheduling \u2013 Pike\u2019s player often had to progress her drama purely through one-on-one discussions with Mercer, as she wasn\u2019t available frequently enough for her drama to progress naturally through the group\u2019s collective experiences. An awkward solution, but likely the best of several bad answers, as it\u2019s certainly superior to just leaving her as a static character all season long (particularly when several other characters are already grappling with fear of either change or stagnation)<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRedemption does not exist in the realms of the damned. The Hells of Despath are forbidden.\u201d Interesting words from the Everlight, drawing attention to the sort of fractured conception of the afterlife as presented by DnD\u2019s default fantasy world. Different gods all have their own different eternal rewards, and if you <\/span>aren\u2019t<\/span><\/i> aligned with some deity or other, the assumption is that your soul will basically sort of disintegrate over time. So it\u2019s a combination of pagan polytheism with a variation on the nine hells clearly ripped from Dante, lacking in clear rules regarding how your actions on earth and eternal punishment or reward actually interact<\/span><\/p>\n This means faith in DnD is messy, but it also provides plenty of dramatic opportunities. In order to square this circle of all gods being technically real, but not necessarily possessing the authority you\u2019d assume of a traditional god, I\u2019ve taken to embracing the system of \u201cfaith generates divinity\u201d \u2013 the more a god is actively worshiped, the more power they possess. As a result, gods have clear incentives to expand their power, and stories can naturally incorporate these incentives to drive their mortal drama. As my party\u2019s characters drift through their late teen levels, they\u2019re becoming an increasing concern to the deities, as groups of that power can actually gather faith in their wake<\/span><\/p>\n Regardless, the end result in this case is that the Everlight declares she has no power within the hells. I personally defined this separation more loosely \u2013 the gods couldn\u2019t attack hell directly, but when my players were making their final assault on hell, the gods were able to provide blessings and brief appearances by key allies. Precisely the sort of \u201cI\u2019m not technically touching you\u201d godly nonsense that makes Greek mythology so entertaining<\/span><\/p>\n We swiftly run through a series of deft athletic maneuvers that were presumably an actual challenge during tabletop play. Running through physical obstacle courses is a DnD staple that doesn\u2019t translate particularly gracefully to TV drama<\/span><\/p>\n And then everyone gets a hellish makeover from Scanlan. Another DnD staple, and for good reason \u2013 playing dress-up with your invented characters is like half the fun of inventing them. I\u2019m having a lot of fun with that in our currently ongoing campaign, as I accumulate a stable of outfits for my goblin Tilly<\/span><\/p>\n Keyleth deftly passes an intimidation check by noisily eating some passing hell-creature. A natural method of limiting the game\u2019s reliance on arbitrary dice rolls over player actions is to emphasize that performance and quick thinking will always sweeten the pot \u2013 it\u2019s easier to succeed in a persuasion check if you do something that actually seems persuasive, and so on<\/span><\/p>\n Ooh, love these full tableaus of hellish filth and violence. A very texture-rich interpretation of the underworld<\/span><\/p>\n Really appreciating Keyleth\u2019s enthusiastic hell-voice performance. Lots of saliva, very convincing<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Vex is blasting our other party free of their ice tomb. She and Percy can\u2019t help but riff as Allura rushes out seeking Kima \u2013 a contrast in tone that seems almost unavoidable in DnD. The DM will always be playing something of the straight man relative to the party members, offering alternately stoic or passionate NPCs who must naturally be somewhat accommodating of a jocular adventuring party\u2019s sense of humor. The world exists for the players, and joking means they\u2019re having a good time \u2013 accommodating that sense of camaraderie necessitates ignoring (or at least downplaying) whatever offense such a tone might prompt among the NPCs of their world<\/span><\/p>\n The evil of hell is like a physical weight upon Pike. According to the standard DnD rules, good and evil are tangible, elemental things you can actually sense via magic \u2013 however, such a static, mechanical conception of morality feels like plain bad writing to me, and so I generally steer away from invoking such devices<\/span><\/p>\n Pike attempts to help a damned soul, which only gets it screaming so loud it disrupts Scanlan\u2019s concentration on their disguises. Time for another chase sequence!<\/span><\/p>\n Chase sequences are tricky in DnD for several reasons. For one, combat or any other active actions are turn-based \u2013 how much you can move in a given round is a direct result of your characters\u2019 written movement speed, meaning you have to break the symmetry of that system in some way simply to convey the idea of characters moving faster or more creatively across a given stretch of terrain. For another, these turn-based sequences are generally conceived as taking place within a set arena \u2013 in order to create the terrain necessary for an ongoing chase, you have to stretch the game\u2019s natural conception of active conflict, constructing a larger and more complex map for the characters to traverse. These issues aren\u2019t unresolvable, but they do make chase sequences particularly labor-intensive on the DM\u2019s side, necessitating a lot of additional prep work<\/span><\/p>\n They are ultimately saved by the devil Zerxus himself, who leads them to his sanctuary<\/span><\/p>\n He offers them the vestige if they can best him in a game of chance. Classic devil stuff, and DnD provides a number of dice-based simulated card games. I\u2019m partial to actually just running a round of five card draw myself; as long as your players know the basic rules of poker, it\u2019s hard to beat the familiar drama and tactile sensation of cards in your hands. Every prop you can include as DM helps bolster the substance of your world, whether it\u2019s a set of cards, a slideshow of scenery on a monitor, a unique monster figure, or simply appropriate scene-setting music<\/span><\/p>\n Pike wagers her life against the vestige, sealed with a contract. Devilish contracts feel like one of the few genuine successes of DnD\u2019s alignment system \u2013 we have culturally accepted that devils love contracts, and thus DnD devils are designed as the epitome of \u201clawful evil,\u201d evil bound by every bureaucratic flourish you could imagine<\/span><\/p>\n The game they\u2019re playing is \u201cFive Skulls,\u201d which seems to be a mixture of Guess Who? and Battleship \u2013 players must discover their opponent\u2019s black skull out of five total face-down cards, asking questions to guide their search<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, the game is actually a psychological gambit to weaken Pike\u2019s will, as he\u2019s fully aware her physical tells will reveal her card\u2019s location. Designing gambits like this demand failsafes \u2013 it\u2019s excellent that Pike can actually fail here, but you can\u2019t just leave your players with no exit strategy<\/span><\/p>\n Here, the failure serves only to ratchet up the tension, as it is now all of her friends\u2019 lives that are on the line<\/span><\/p>\n Granted, the significance of failure is relative in DnD, depending largely on your player group\u2019s stomach for it. For on-book adventures like Curse of Strahd, DnD can appear much like a GTA rampage in a fantasy sandbox, and players who like it that way are also likely not to take offense at being asked to roll a new character. But if you\u2019re trying to collectively craft a long-form fantasy epic, character death is generally something to be handled carefully<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHave you ever wondered if the Everlight needs you more than you need her?\u201d A delicious question to ask a faith-driven character, and one I\u2019ve been actively toying with while crafting post-campaign quests for my own party. The villain of my campaign exploited the tangible power of faith within DnD in order to create a sort of factory, where acolytes were sacrificed to create magical energy. Faith isn\u2019t good or evil, it is simply power \u2013 and now, with the party essentially serving as champions of the gods, the question of whether they are more threat than benefit to their patrons is coming into focus<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDo you ever wonder if your life would be better without the Everlight?\u201d The true game here is not divining the correct card, it is asking questions your opponent cannot truthfully answer, thus forcing them to take penalties. A delicious and extremely devilish game design \u2013 I\u2019ll be happy to poach this one if an appropriate situation presents itself<\/span><\/p>\n And in response, Pike also takes her focus off the cards in front of her, asking Zerxus who he used to be, and why he chose her. A very appropriate choice \u2013 the core of goodness is not righteous self-assurance, but simple empathy<\/span><\/p>\n Zerxus explains he was actually among the adventuring party that prompted the Calamity, as his faith in his friends blinded him to the danger they posed<\/span><\/p>\n Nice visual flourishes for this sequence, presenting Zerxus\u2019 history in stained glass windows<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere is no difference between the gods above or below. They all lie.\u201d This Zerxus is making some good points<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDo you wish your family was here?\u201d Pike\u2019s final question challenges the basis of his current philosophy, whether there was honor in his choice, or simply self-interest. A graceful tethering of his knightly and devilish identities<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWell played. That was more devious than I expected.\u201d That\u2019s the fun thing about devils \u2013 the best of them respect good game, even if they\u2019re on the losing end. It makes them well-suited for roles as former adversaries who now possess some degree of respect for the players<\/span><\/p>\n Honestly, there are plenty of ways Pike\u2019s question could have failed to provoke a useful response, but that\u2019s the work of the DM \u2013 if the player puts in good work, their effort should be rewarded. You\u2019re not trying to \u201cdefeat\u201d the players, you\u2019re trying to build something that is greater for all of your collective contributions<\/span><\/p>\n Zerxus graciously offers them his talisman as well, allowing passage through Despath. He might be a devil, but he\u2019s not a monster<\/span><\/p>\n Aaand then he sics his bodyguard on them. Well then<\/span><\/p>\n And Done<\/b><\/p>\n Excellent work, brave heroes! And a rare spotlight episode for Pike Trickfoot, whose variable availability has often left her somewhat underserved relative to her teammates. Pike did excellent work in this episode, rising to a challenge between good and evil that demanded keen emotional investment in the tale of her devilish opponent. I\u2019m quite intrigued by Mercer seemingly drawing the inconstancy of the gods into his active drama, clearly pointing to a threat that lies beyond the Chroma Conclave. Great, expansive fantasy stories tend not to take their conceptual origins for granted; the Calamity is clearly the largest defining event for this world, and Mercer seemingly has designs in mind for allowing Vox Machina to serve as a bookend for that event, resolving whatever wound is still left upon the earth. I\u2019m eager to see how he manages it, and also pretty sure I\u2019m gonna steal that Five Skulls game. Our productive foraging continues!<\/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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/October18105143.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
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<\/p>\nLike this:<\/h3>\n