Talks Machina 2: Brawl in the Arches

is the second episode of Talks Machina.

Ashley Johnson, Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, and Sam Riegel discuss with Brian Wayne Foster.

Ashley: How different is Skyping in for the show as opposed to being here in person?
"It sucks." Ashley explains that the nature of Dungeons & Dragons is played with your friends, so you lose that part of the experience when playing over Skype. She can usually only hear Travis, Laura, and Liam because her screen is placed at their table, and she can kind of hear Matt when he's loud. Ashley ends up not hearing a lot of what's said, but she doesn't want to interrupt by constantly asking what's going on in the game. Listening to the stream isn't very helpful due to the delay.

At the end of every game she Skypes into she wishes that she could have contributed more. Whenever she does play in person it takes her some time to warm up her improv skills again. She loves this game so much, so she's always willing to Skype in when she can, no matter how difficult it is.

Matt: No sarcasm, how much did you enjoy ?
Most campaigns don't get to the levels that Vox Machina has reached, so Matt has been so excited to get to use the more powerful creatures. This was the first time he ever got to use a pit fiend. It was even more fun because the party was in the City of Brass and at serious risk of being thrown into slavery if they failed.

Matt enjoyed using creatures that were more intelligent than the party. They were able to use clever tactics and take advantage of the battlefield.

Everyone but Matt: How prepared do you think Matt was for a TPK?
Sam assumes he's always ready for a TPK, but this fight in particular was one that Vox Machina could have easily lost. They could tell Matt was taking it seriously, which always means bad things for them. Brian adds that the red light that was glowing on Matt's face during the fight made him even more terrifying.

Matt says that the first round was what would set the tone for the rest of the fight. Vox Machina's initiative rolls were good compared to the pit fiend and erinyes. Keyleth restraining the erinyes with her Watery Sphere and Grog grappling Ghurrix were clutch moves that essentially disabled their enemies for the whole first round.

The pit fiend was originally planning to fly over the group towards Keyleth because she was the one who initiated the battle. He was going to drop a Wall of Fire behind him to cut her off from the rest of the group and just take her down with a full round of attacks next round. He would then pick of the rest of the party one by one with the spells at his disposal.

Matt says that a pit fiend doesn't have any outrageous defense, it just deals a ton of damage to a single target each round. Ashley remembers that at one point in the fight Pike had been at or near full health but was knocked unconscious by a single turn from the pit fiend.

Discussing Vax's kiss with Keyleth while Seeming was still active
The clip from where Vax'ildan casts Heroism on Keyleth through a kiss is shown.

Brian says that he texted Marisha during the middle of the game reminding her that Seeming was still active, so Keyleth still looked like Vex'ahlia when Vax kissed her. Marisha hadn't realized it until she got the text. She says the blame for that is on Vax/Liam. Matt says that somewhere Garmelie is circling a page in his sketchbook.

Matt has seen several pieces of fanart for the "unintentional magical incest" moment.

Sam asks if disguising Vox Machina to all look like the twins actually accomplished anything. It did not, because pit fiends can see through illusions. Ghurrix was very unimpressed.

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