Race to the Ziggurat

is the thirty-fourth episode of the first campaign of Critical Role. Descending deeper beneath the city of Whitestone, the weary members of Vox Machina are on a collision course with the Briarwoods and their insidious plot. What secrets lie far below and what dangers still await our heroes?

Part I
Vox Machina takes a short rest in the crypt, preparing to advance. Scanlan's Seeming spell is still in effect, making the male party members (including Trinket) look like Percy and the female members like Cassandra, in hopes of confusing any enemies they encounter. Grog takes a vial of holy oil out of his Bag of Holding and keeps it on his person. Healing potions are distributed among the party. They strategize, with Scanlan suggesting that Vex, under the guise of Cassandra, surprises the Briarwoods with one of her special arrows (exploding or doused in holy oil). Percy suggests that Vax'ildan scout ahead, while chiding him about his willingness to rush into danger. Before their rest is over, Grog attunes the Boots of Levitation to himself.

Percy asks his sister Cassandra which of the Briarwoods she would consider more of a threat.

The party begins plotting ways to separate the Briarwoods with Cassandra's information. Having regretted accepting an alliance before, Vax lets Cassandra know, on behalf of Vox Machina, that they are wary of her and her assistance. She understands their caution, and answers the question of what became of her after she was shot down helping Percy make his escape five years ago. She explains that she was taken to the temple of Pelor and recovered there slowly. She helped with Whitestone's first attempt at rebellion against the Briarwoods, which ultimately resulted in failure and her capture by the Briarwoods. While under their control, she made attempts to help the remaining rebels and feed them information. Vex'ahlia's insight into Cassandra reveals the conviction behind her words.

Upon entering the cavern, the crest of Sarenrae sewn into Vax's glove activates, flashing and glowing in the dark. Pike's avatar manifests before them once again, to the collective joy of the party. After their greetings and introducing Pike to Cassandra, they carry on down the tunnel.

The group comes to a fork in the tunnel, at which point Vex'ahlia finds footprints in the ground, most recently leading to the left-hand tunnel. She smells a sharp, chemical odor down that tunnel as well, and determines that the Briarwoods must have their acid pits down that side.

By now, the party has traveled so far from the castle they are nearer the outskirts of Whitestone. Continuing down that tunnel, Vax notices some carefully placed stone platforms on the ground and inspects them, finding magical blast traps set beneath. Instructing the party to go around the trap, the twins carry on to find another trap in the dirt. This one consists of some sort of gas, making it very difficult to disarm, so Vax opts to stand in front of it in order to guide the group around it. While attempting to escort Trinket down that narrow corridor, the bear slips and steps on the trap, exploding and activating a gas cloud, affecting both himself and Grog. Fortunately, the lingering effects of Keyleth's Hero's Feast have remained, imbuing the party, Trinket included, with immunity to poisons.

A bit further down, the tunnel increases in steepness for a while, causing some members of the party to have to steady themselves. Soon, the tunnel stops declining and flattens out. At the end of it, there is a bronze door that, after checking it for traps, Vax manages to open for the rest of the party. Beyond the door, a bronze room with a white stone ceiling is revealed, with evidence that building materials have been carried through this hallway. Vax then turns back to the group, calling first his sister then Keyleth and Pike to look into the room in an attempt to understand its purpose. Suspicious of the nature of this room, Keyleth attempts to figure out what sort of natural attributes this room may have, but only finds that the metal used here is a very good conductor, and is not native to Tal'Dorei, being normally imported from distant lands.

Vax, upon further inspection, notices an unusual button-looking object embedded in the center of the room, and the group agrees to have Vex shoot it from outside the room to find out what it activates. She perfectly shoots the object, but there is no reaction. Percy then tries sliding his sword out onto the floor to attempt to cause a short if the surface is in fact conducting electricity. There is no reaction, but, as he had moved closer to skid his sword, he is now able to ascertain that the object in the floor is some kind of oval gem or stone.

Vax decides to skirt around the room, in an attempt to make it to the door on the other side. While he does this, he notices that there are three more opals embedded in the wall at shoulder height. Crouching under them, he makes it to the other side, and checks the door for traps but finds nothing of interest. He notes, however, that there is no handle or obvious way for it to open. The other members of the group notice that there are another three opals on the other side of the room, in the exact same positions as the other ones.

Vax attempts to push open the door, but cannot get purchase and fails. He then calls for Grog to sneak along the wall under the opals and join him, but Grog chooses to ignore this and walk straight through the center of the room to the other side, seemingly without consequence. With a laugh, he reaches Vax and takes out a pickaxe, trying to use it as leverage under the door to pry it open. Instead, the handle of the pickaxe shatters, and Scanlan, fed up with doors besting the team, walks up to the opal on the floor and presses it. It does nothing immediately, but he notices that a small white light is emitted for a moment before going out.

Each member of the group then goes to a different opal, pressing their hands against them, but nothing happens. Scanlan originally believes that it might be because Pike is non-corporeal, but it is shown that her opal is lighting up as well. Vex then checks the rest of the room to see if they are missing an opal, but it is Cassandra who finds a secret button hidden at the foot of the door. When she presses it, there is the sound of stone shifting loudly, and two large walls of green residuum glass slam down, trapping all seven members of Vox Machina within the center of the bronze room. Grog attempts to smash the glass, but leaves only a scratch on the glass. Keyleth uses Thunderwave, but again to no effect, with the essence of the spell being scattered against the glass. Vax pours some poison that he obtained earlier on his Dagger of Life Stealing. Behind Cassandra, the bronze door opens, and out step Lord and Lady Briarwood.

Lord Briarwood greets the group, and as he does, Vax notices a placard on the wall behind the door where the Briarwoods came from. Drawing his Cape of the Mountebank around himself, he uses Dimension Door to jump to it and press it. There is the sound of stone grating once again, but the glass walls do not move. Instead, two large bronze tubes push outwards into the room. Lord Briarwood then says, "Well, I was not expecting you to want to see your friends dissolved so quickly, but certainly". The rest of the group looks up to see a green liquid pour into the room. Instantly Percy draws out his gun, trying to clog the tubes with ice. He manages to block one of the pipes, but while he is reloading, Vax is charmed by Lord Briarwood, who says, "It doesn't hurt to have friends". Percy's second shot fails to block the second pipe, causing the room to slowly fill with acid.

Vex drinks the potion of flying that she took from Dr. Ripley, and Grog hits one of the opals, cracking it from the impact. Cassandra steps up to the green glass, putting her hand up to it and calling out, "Which one is my Percy?". Percy steps forward, giving an okay sign and smiling, saying, "It's alright... I'll see you soon". Cassandra then replies, "Your sister left us the day those arrows found my chest. She did not die from those wounds, but to watch you leave me there in the snow. I have a new family. I am a Briarwood, and I have a destiny with the Whispered One". Despite this, she seemed conflicted about her choice.

Keyleth tries to reach out to Vax through the earring to no avail, as the rest of Vox Machina attempt to shatter the gems they'd touched earlier. Vex fires an exploding arrow and begins to crack one of the glass walls, and seeing the progress made, Grog begins striking at the glass himself. Scanlan shatters another crystal, in addition to the one Grog shattered before Vex's arrow. Vex flies up to one of the pipes after Percy shatters a third crystal, and attempts to bend it upward, assisted by Keyleth's Heat Metal. Scanlan uses Dimension Door to take himself and Pike outside of the trap in an effort to touch the crystal that Cassandra had used earlier, but it seems to have no effect, and Pike attempts to shatter the gem outside the trap.

Vox Machina finishes destroying all of the gems, but only one of the glass walls rises due to the acid dissolving parts of the ceiling. Keyleth attempts Wall of Stone, but it isn't strong enough to raise the other wall. As they look for options, Pike notices that the whitestone wall the Briarwoods left through has dissolved. Scanlan slips under the new opening and disables the acid trap, opening the whitestone door. The remainder of Vox Machina uses the endless rope to climb over the glass wall, and carry on following the Briarwoods.

Part II
As the group heads down the passage following the Briarwoods, Percy notices a purple light emitting from his pepperbox. He looks down to find the name "Cassandra de Rolo" now etched into the side of the empty barrel. Not knowing what to make of it, he decides to press on and deal with it later. Realizing that the Briarwoods will assume they perished in the distillery, Vex suggests the group move forward with stealth.

They come out into a large underground chamber with piles of dirt, broken pieces of whitestone, iron carts, and residuum dust strewn about. Grog takes two pieces of the whitestone and places them in the bag of holding, and Vex rubs her arrows in the residuum dust hoping it might help later. In the center of the space is a giant monolithic structure, with several flat layers that get smaller towards the top and long staircases running up the middle of each side. They have reached the ziggurat. They can just make out four figures halfway up the stairs and climbing.

While the group discusses what to do, Vex flies up (still under the influence of the potion) and gets a better vantage on the ziggurat. The Briarwoods reach the top and disappear from view, but Vex watches them move towards a smaller structure at the top. The party breaks into smaller groups and begin to climb the stairs after them. As the Briarwoods approach the top structure and begin to open the doors, Percy reaches the top. Pulling on his mask and watching the smoke billow out, he calls out, "Sylas!" and steps onto the top level. As the Briarwoods hear him, they close the doors and turn towards Percy.

Percy casts Hex on Lady Briarwood, takes the homemade smoke bomb from his hip and throws it at them. As smoke begins to billow out, Vex (hovering above the ziggurat) launches a holy oil-dipped arrow at the smoke and uses Conjure Barrage to turn it into a hail of holy oil-infused thorns that rain down on Sylas, Delilah, Cassandra and Vax. Percy then runs behind a pillar and hides. Delilah steps out of the smoke ready to attack, but sees only Trinket (wearing a Percy costume thanks to the Seeming spell), who was following Percy. Slightly confused, she casts a spell on her husband giving him a boon and steps back into the cover of the smoke.

Scanlan rounds the corner of the structure and attempts to cast Blindness on her, but Delilah shrugs it off. A charmed Vax steps forward and shields Delilah from Percy. Grog hides behind a pillar and waits for an opening. Sylas leaps out of the smoke towards Percy's hiding place, pulls out his large two handed onyx blade and hits Percy twice. Each hit robs Percy of strength and grants a boost to Sylas. Grog attaches the Chain of Returning to the holy oil-covered Firebrand War Hammer and hurls it at Lord Briarwood, slamming him in the side. He then reels the hammer back in.

Using her Boots of Sprinting, Pike races forth to cast Greater Restoration on Vax and free his mind from the effects of Sylas's vampiric charms. He looks on the events of the last few minutes with sudden clarity, and backs towards Lady Briarwood, resuming his defensive stance - in hopes of deceiving her into believing he's still charmed. Pike dodges back behind one of the pillars flanking the entrance.

Vex, still hovering above the battlefield, uses her Longbow of the Sky Sentinel to fire three lightning arrows at Lord Briarwood. The first misses but the others strike true. She follows them up with an arrow doused in holy oil, and then disappears back into the darkness of the cavern.

Percy taps his fighting skills to shrug off some of the damage from Sylas's last blow and attempts to shove him off using Diplomacy. The glove, still holding a charge from the lightning attack in the crypt, sends a shock racing through Sylas's dark armor and singes his body. Seizing this advantage, Percy slashes Sylas twice with his sword and then attempts to flee to gun range; however, Sylas's vampiric speed allows him to slash Percy in the back and then intercept him as he rushes to Grog.

Cassandra de Rolo lunges from behind the other pillar and stabs Grog in the back with her short sword, but his barbarian rage allows him to partially shrug off the damage. Keyleth races around the corner and casts Sunbeam, aiming it at Sylas and Cassandra (and incidentally hitting Grog, who is caught between them). Cassandra manages an uncanny dodge but Sylas is caught by part of the beam, recoiling in horror as part of his face is burned to ash, exposing his vampiric fangs. Sunlight illuminates the battlefield as Keyleth maintains the spell, preparing for another round of attacks.

Lady Briarwood steps forward and Vax reacts just quickly enough to slash her with his Dagger of Life-Stealing, still poisoned. She takes a few more steps and then coughs in pain as the poison begins to take effect. Angered, she turns back towards Vax and admonishes him, "You, boy, stay still!" An instant later, she stuns him in place with Power Word Stun and moves behind Cassandra for protection.

Witnessing the aftermath, Scanlan steps out and yells, "Hey, you paralyzed my friend - let's see if YOU like it!" He attempts a Hold Person spell but Lady Briarwood's magical defenses deflect the spell effortlessly. Thwarted, Scanlan attempts to inspire Percy and runs towards Vax, who still stands slack-jawed and uncomprehending in front of the door. Sylas again moves with blinding speed, ducking to the other side of the pillar and away from the raging barbarian - who is now left facing Cassandra. He slams her into the pillar with his warhammer, leaving her gasping for breath.

Sylas boldly steps into the sunlight to attack Percy again, landing two more vicious strikes with his black sword. Seeing this, Pike races towards Percy to cast Healing Word, and then unleashes her Sacred Flame, singeing Lord Briarwood.

Trinket races to Vax's side as Vex unleashes two more arrows at Lady Briarwood. Both strike true, momentarily dispelling her cloak's displacement effect. Vex searches for a place to return to hiding but, with lighting conditions less favorable, she is unable to do so; instead she casts Hunter's Mark on Lady Briarwood, who glares at her angrily.

Sylas takes another swipe at Percy, who is beginning to realize that he simply can't move fast enough to put distance between himself and the vampire. Percy strikes back and manages to land a blow on Sylas's collarbone with his rapier. Cassandra looks over at the two, and her eyes find Sylas's; after a moment she drops her sword, torn.

Keyleth, seeing Sylas distracted, runs up to him and bear hugs him in place long enough to strike with another Sunbeam spell. Parts of his flesh are obliterated as he roars and looks to Keyleth with an angry red gaze. He slices her with his sword in return.

Seeing her husband's increasingly injured state, Lady Briarwood calls out to him. "My love, we're not ready, but the timetable's been pushed - we have no choice." She runs to him and wraps her arms around him, attempting to Dimension Door elsewhere, but Scanlan prevents their escape with a quick Counterspell.

As Scanlan whips out his harmonica and plays a quick inspirational ditty, Grog sees Lord Briarwood withdrawing, attempting to get out of the range of Keyleth's sunlight. He briefly considers using his Boots of Levitation to chase after the vampire but chooses to continue his attacks against Lady Briarwood, who is still within range. Despite her cloak he eventually manages to land a blow on her chest.

Scanlan now steps forward again and invokes Bigby's Hand, conjuring the hand directly between Lord and Lady Briarwood. It attempts to punch Lady Briarwood but she dodges out of the way, leaving the fist to crack the stone pillar behind her.

Sylas finishes his escape from the ring of sunlight and looks back at the fray. Seeing Grog's flurry of blows towards his wife he gestures in his direction and intones, "You. Help us." Grog almost succumbs, but the vampire's powers cannot penetrate the heightened rage that already fills his mind.

Meanwhile, Pike also observes Lord Briarwood's withdrawal and charges him, divine energy radiating off of her blazing form. She lands a blow with the Mace of Disruption, aided by her Guided Strike, and its powers strike supernatural fear into Sylas's heart. Vex'ahlia follows this up with another holy arrow. Their attacks leave Sylas grievously wounded, with pieces of his flesh falling from his form and turning to ash.

Percy, sensing Sylas's weakness, pulls out the pepperbox. With his first attack he shoots Sylas's onyx blade out of his hand; his second shot strikes Sylas's chest and disperses him into his mist form. Seeing this, he turns his gun on Lady Briarwood, shooting off her ear, injuring her face, damaging her cloak and striking her legs and torso. He notes, however, that his shots aren't as effective as he would expect given their force.

Cassandra, seeing all this, runs to Lady Briarwood and administers the Potion of Greater Healing that Scanlan had given her earlier. Lady Briarwood thanks her, and then calls out again to her husband. "Sylas! To the ritual!" Keyleth, however, is prepared. She shouts, "What's the matter, Sylas? Afraid of a little gnome and a druid?" and prepares her Sunbeam. Pike raises her shield and the Sunbeam reflects off of its radiance, spraying rays of holy sunlight through the vampire's mist form. Lady Briarwood turns, in time to see his final death but not in time to stop it, and watches helplessly as the love of her life is disintegrated before her. Tears stream down her face as she screams out, "You can't! I broke the world for us! ...no..."

Delilah, tears streaming down her face, looks around and says, "It's too soon...". She steps behind a pillar to avoid another Counterspell from the annoying gnome. As she moves past, Keyleth takes an attack of opportunity to crack Lady Briarwood in the back of the head with a critical hit. Reeling, but safely behind a pillar, Delilah casts Dimension Door and disappears.

With the battle over for the moment, Vax recovers from the enchantment and is no longer paralyzed. Cassandra, left behind, looks around and appears defeated. Grog grabs her by the neck and carries her to the edge. Percy stops him. Vax punches her in the jaw and she is knocked unconscious. Grog pulls out a set of manacles from the bag of holding and hogties her so that she cannot move. He also picks up Sylas's sword from the ashes and gives it to Percy, whose strength is still diminished from the hits he took from the sword earlier.

Vex, still flying, sees Lady Briarwood inside the room, on top of a platform in the center. She drops some rope down the edge so that the group can climb the walls since the doors are locked. She sees a flash of green light from the platform and sees Delilah reading from a scroll. All of the ice on the inside of the wall shatters and the walls appear to be writhing. Vex nocks an arrow and attempts to hit Lady Briarwood and stop her, but misses. A second shot, however, hits. Meanwhile, Vax and Percy climb up the rope and reach the top. Delilah takes something out of her pocket and launches a Fireball at the three on top of the wall, hitting Percy and the twins.

Percy takes aim at the scroll and tries to hit with a fire-enhanced shot but misfires and fails to fix the pepperbox, making it unusable. He pulls Bad News out. The scroll vanishes and Lady Delilah cuts her wrist and provides a blood component to the spell, splattering it on a black orb in the center of the platform. The writhing wall appears to be a mass of bodies in various states of decay that are just moving and moaning. Vax throws his Dagger of Life-Stealing and hits Lady Delilah, while Vex shoots her special exploding arrow at the orb, but misses and the explosion does no real damage. She pulls out a set of fancy robes and flies towards the orb to wrap it up, while Keyleth casts Control Water in an attempt to suck the blood off of the orb and interrupt the spell. The spell fails to remove the blood.

Scanlan makes it to the top of the wall and casts Suggestion on Lady Briarwood to stop her, but it too fails. Percy takes a shot with Bad News, but it misfires. He is able to repair it and takes a second shot, hitting Delilah in the side and almost knocking her off the platform. She looks scared. She sees Vex racing towards her and the orb, raises her finger and casts Finger of Death at Vex. This brings Vex almost to death's door, leaving her with one lonely hit point. Seeing that the spell failed to take out one of her foes, Delilah looks at the orb and says, "Come on... Come on!"

The orb is shimmering with blood slowly spilling over the surface and begins to spin and spin. As it speeds up, it suddenly shrinks to the size of a dime and continues to spin faster in the air. Delilah cries out, "No, no, no. It can't be too soon! Please! Please... please..." She falls to her knees and the walls stop writhing.

Suddenly, Vex, who has been flying in the air under the influence of the Potion of Flying, plummets down towards the ziggurat in the center of the room. Although she tries to land gracefully, she is in a weakened state, and hits the ground hard, falling unconscious. Everyone is up on the wall and cannot reach the fallen Vex, so Vax leaps off of the 30-foot tall wall and rushes towards his sister with a potion. Pike casts Healing Word but the divine energy is pulled from her hand and has no effect. Percy takes a shot at Lady Briarwood and blows her right arm off her shoulder. She falls backwards off the platform out of sight. Not knowing if she is just unconscious or dead, Grog leaps down and heads towards Vex. Scanlan and Keyleth also jump into the room. Keyleth heads for the top of the platform.

Vax reaches his sister and pours the healing potion into her mouth, but nothing happens. Frantically, he takes the endless rope and tosses one end up to Percy on the wall and ties the other end to his sister. Percy grabs the rope and leaps off the wall outside of the room and yanks Vex up to the top of the wall where Pike grabs her. Pike lays her hand on Vex and casts Cure Wounds, but again the divine energy is pulled away. Everyone begins scrambling to find some way out of the room, or to stop the sphere, or to heal Vex.

Pike reaches deep and begs Sarenrae for Divine Intervention but fails to get the attention of her deity. Grog, having climbed the wall, lowers Vex using the rope down to Percy. Vax climbs the now still bodies on the inside of the wall, grabs Pike under his arm and leaps off the wall towards his sister. With all magical and divine attempts to revive Vex failing, her body rejects death and she gasps back to consciousness. Her eyes open to find that Grog is carrying her. Pike tries Cure Wounds again, but the spell fails.

Still in the room, Keyleth tries to study the orb to better understand it and Scanlan goes to find Lady Briarwood's body. Percy attempts to open a door from the outside but fails to muster enough strength. Grog hands Vex over to Vax and also tries to the open the doors. The doors slam open and he goes to help Scanlan with an unconscious Lady Briarwood. Keyleth pokes the orb with a piece of the green glass they found before. As the glass hits the sphere it shatters and is sucked into the sphere. Her hand is also pulled towards the orb and she suffers damage pulling her hand away.

Grog grabs Delilah and heads towards the door. Everyone, except Keyleth, leaves the room and heads down the ziggurat. Vax carries Vex and Percy grabs his sister and run down the stairs. Seeing that Keyleth has stayed behind, Vax asks Grog to carry his sister and begins running back up the stairs to join Keyleth. Alone on the platform, Keyleth attempts to shift into an Earth Elemental so that she can tear down the ziggurat and bury the orb, but the shape shift fails. Realizing that nothing is working, she and Vax head down the stairs and join the rest of Vox Machina in fleeing the ziggurat.

Vox Machina

 * Keyleth
 * Percival de Rolo
 * Scanlan Shorthalt
 * Tiberius Stormwind (absent)
 * Grog Strongjaw
 * Pike Trickfoot
 * Trinket
 * Vax'ildan
 * Vex'ahlia

Returning

 * Delilah Briarwood
 * Sylas Briarwood
 * Cassandra de Rolo

Quotations
Lord Briarwood: And apparently, you and your friends are obnoxious enough to not stay dead. Percy: They were kind enough to make sure that I made my way here to face you. [...] The darkness demands your soul, Sylas.
 * Cassandra: (to Percy) Your sister left us the day those arrows found my chest. She did not die from those wounds, but to watch you leave me there in the snow. I have a new family. I am a Briarwood, and I have a destiny with the Whispered One.
 * Percy: We have debts to settle, Sylas.
 * Delilah Briarwood: (as Keyleth lands the killing blow on Sylas) No! Sylas! You can’t! I broke the world for us! No!