Brawl in the Arches

is the twentieth episode of the fifth chapter of Critical Role.

Previously on Critical Role
"Vox Machina, in their trek to take down the Chroma Conclave, have been acquiring the Vestiges of the Divergence, ancient artifacts from a long ago historical battle. They've gathered most each and every one, with one final one remaining. They kind of pushed the timeline for their encounter with the Chroma Conclave forward at a rapid pace, and [are] in the process of getting ready for this final encounter with Thordak the Cinder King, the great swollen powerful ancient red dragon who lords over Emon and Tal'Dorei.

"[They] took a trip to the Fire Elemental Plane to retrieve the final Vestige, known as the Plate of the Dawnmartyr, for [their] fantastic gnome cleric, Pike. Upon making [their] way there to the City of Brass—a very tyrannical society in a large ancient city run by efreet—[they] encountered some interesting characters in Cenokier and Uten, a fire genasi and a tiefling, two partner jewelers that brought [them] into their establishment, decided to help [them] out, threw [them] in chains to give the image of [them] being slaves to his business, brought [Vox Machina] to speak to a number of the currently-free fire giants in the city, as apparently the armor belonged to, or was won by a fire giant.

"[They] managed to, upon asking one named Whaska, got the information and sent [them] to Jurael, a gambler and very well-off fire giant, one of the few responsible for selling the rest of their people into slavery here within the City of Brass, in which a card game was... not won! However, [they] were given the option—as opposed to now having sold [themselves] into slavery to the giant—to instead do this grand favor for them. Apparently, the past lover of this giant was destroyed, was killed in the streets by a pit fiend named Ghurrix, who occasionally wanders the slave district called The Arches here in the City of Brass. [They] agreed to go find and kill this pit fiend out of vengeance for the giant, and as such [they] would be freed from [their] current onus and be given the armor that is in the possession of Jurael, this giant, as well.

"[They] applied a Seeming enchantment across the party, allowing most of [them] to look kind of like just copies of Vex and Vax—the "Sexy Sextuplets", as [they] put it—the kind of things you'd want to purchase. [They] made [their] way to the slave market called the Arches, with Scanlan Shorthalt disguised as a flame-wreathed azer, a Fire Plane dwarf. [He] proceeded to try and sell this party to the pit fiend Ghurrix as he walked through the area, after acquiring and purchasing two celestial-blooded boys who were on the slavery block. It got the attention of the pit fiend, [and it] wandered to where [they] had set the entryway to [Scanlan's] Mansion, and upon some conversation, seemingly [they] were unable to convince the pit fiend to suddenly step into this unsafe spectral doorway that [they] had attempted to coax him into.

"As many of [Vox Machina] emerged into the street, with Pike and Percy still hiding within the mansion itself, the rest of [them] kind of set the stage here at the mouth of this alleyway, the nearby bubbling of a lava stream just off to the right side of [them]. Keyleth, who had hidden in the back of the alleyway, decided that—while this moment was still tense—to use the element of surprise [and] attempted to Feeblemind the pit fiend. Unfortunately, it was resisted by the creature, who then—as an instinctive reaction—summoned a friend, as an erinyes tore its way from the Nine Hells to join Ghurrix at his side."

Featured Characters
{{div columns|line=true |col1=

Vox Machina

 * Keyleth
 * Percival de Rolo
 * Scanlan Shorthalt
 * Grog Strongjaw
 * Pike Trickfoot
 * Trinket
 * Vax'ildan
 * Vex'ahlia

New

 * Multiple efreet guards of The Illuminated

|col2=

Appeared

 * The two aasimar slave boys
 * Cenokier
 * Ghurrix
 * Ghurrix's erinyes ally
 * Jurael
 * Jurael's two fire giant slaves
 * Uten

Mentioned Only
}}
 * Thordak